English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT
Add to Basket
  Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released
Journal Article

Variation in the social organization of gorillas: Life history and socioecological perspectives

MPS-Authors
/persons/resource/persons72936

Robbins,  Martha M.       
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons72935

Robbins,  Andrew M.
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Robbins, M. M., & Robbins, A. M. (2018). Variation in the social organization of gorillas: Life history and socioecological perspectives. Evolutionary Anthropology, 27(5), 218-233. doi:10.1002/evan.21721.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0002-724F-6
Abstract
A focus of socioecological research is to understand how ecological, social, and life history factors influence the variability of social organization within and between species. The genus Gorilla exhibits variability in social organization with western gorilla groups being almost exclusively one‐male, yet approximately 40% of mountain gorilla groups are multimale. We review five ultimate causes for the variability in social organization within and among gorilla populations: human disturbance, ecological constraints on group size, risk of infanticide, life history patterns, and population density. We find the most evidence for the ecological constraints and life history hypotheses, but an over‐riding explanation remains elusive. The variability may hinge on variation in female dispersal patterns, as females seek a group of optimal size and with a good protector male. Our review illustrates the challenges of understanding why the social organization of closely related species may deviate from predictions based on socioecological and life history theory.