Meeting Abstract
Social organization (size and composition of groups) influences how animals interact and is an important determinant of reproductive success. Recent comparative analyses of mammalian social organization have informed theory on the evolution of social traits. While an important first step to understanding the evolutionary drivers of mammalian social organization, these analyses were based on datasets derived largely from secondary sources and lacked information on intraspecific variation in social organization. Our aims were to (1) re-evaluate the social organization of ungulates (Orders: Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla), comparing trends gleaned from the primary literature to trends in recently published databases on mammalian social organization and (2) determine the extent of intraspecific variation in social organization across ungulates. Using Web of Science, we searched the primary literature on ungulates for information on social organization (solitary, group-living), including intraspecific variation within and between populations. We found information on social organization for 105 artiodactyls (56%) and 12 perrisodactyls (75%). Of these species, 91% were found to be social compared to 56% in a recently published database on mammalian social organization. Intraspecific variation in social organization was observed within populations (22/117 species), between populations (2/117), and for both within and between populations (71/117). Our results highlight the importance of using primary sources of data and considering intraspecific variation in social traits when preparing datasets for comparative analyses.
