Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior; The Ohio State University · Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Princeton University; University of Tennessee at Knoxville · Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior; The Ohio State University · Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; The Ohio State University; University of Tennessee at Knoxville
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Abstract
Abstract Social integration can affect an individual’s susceptibility to infectious disease. Conversely, infectious disease can reduce an individual’s social activity. Yet, it remains unclear to what extent short-term infections can inhibit social integration and the formation of new relationships. During a previous study on relationship formation, we captured 21 female common vampire bats ( Desmodus rotundus ) from different wild populations and housed them together in captivity. Upon introduction, we observed an unplanned outbreak of bacterial infections that caused cutaneous lesions. After treating infected bats with an antibiotic, five bats recovered, but four others suffered lasting injuries. Given that observations of how natural infections alter relationship formation are rare, we analyzed how allogrooming rates changed over time among familiar and new dyads consisting of the nine infected and 12 asymptomatic bats. We found that (1) infected bats demonstrated reduced activity and social behavior, (2) more severely infected bats gave and received less allogrooming than asymptomatic bats, (3) the effect of infection was larger for new dyads relative to familiar dyads, and (4) this effect decreased as infected bats recovered and new dyads became more familiar. These opportunistic observations were consistent with the hypothesis that short-term infections can impact the formation of new relationships.
Editor’s summary (commentary by The Gufo, not part of the original work)
Researchers studying relationship formation among vampire bats in captivity unexpectedly observed an outbreak of bacterial infections causing skin lesions in some animals. This gave them a rare natural opportunity to examine how sickness affects social bonding. Comparing nine infected bats to twelve healthy ones, they found infected bats were less active and groomed others less. The effect was strongest in newly formed pairs of bats that hadn't met before, compared to pairs that already knew each other. As infected bats recovered and as new pairs spent more time together, the gap in grooming behavior shrank. The findings suggest that short-term illness can specifically hinder the formation of new social relationships more than it disrupts existing ones, offering insight into how disease and social behavior interact in group-living animals.
Why it matters: It provides rare real-world evidence that illness disproportionately disrupts the formation of new social bonds rather than established ones, informing disease-behavior dynamics in social species.
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