Meat transfers follow social ties in the multi-level society of Guinea baboons but are not related to male reproductive success

Abstract

In human foraging societies, hunting skill is a male quality signal closely tied to reproductive success, because it serves to provision the family, connected households, and the wider community. However, the relationship between catching or sharing prey and male reproductive success remains largely unexplored in other primate taxa. Using the multi-level society of Guinea baboons as a parallel for human foraging societies, we combined records of 109 meat-eating events with nine years of behavioural data to test whether males who acquire and share meat more frequently have more females in their social units and for longer than other males. We further tested the hypothesis that the type of meat transfer varies with social ties. We found no evidence that females preferred to join or remain longer in the units of males who acquired or shared meat more frequently. Thus, hunting skills do not appear to signal male quality. However, meat transfers were more likely to occur along stronger social relationships, as in human foraging societies. Tolerant forms of transfer were most common at society's base, decreasing in tolerance at upper social levels. Our results demonstrate the cross-taxa influence of social organisation on the movement of sharable resources.