High-resolution tracking of social interactions highlights nocturnal
drivers of animal sociality
Abstract
Network structure is a key driver of animal survival, reproductive
success, pathogen transmission, and information spread in animal
societies. Yet our knowledge of animal social structure is mostly
limited to species’ main activity periods. Here, we investigated the
role of nocturnal sociality in a wild herbivore population, the rock
hyrax (Procavia capensis). Using proximity loggers, we recorded nearly
15,000 encounters over 27 days. We show that hyraxes are choosier
regarding their social partners at night. At multiple temporal scales,
they maintain their overall network topology while reallocating the
weights of social relationships. Our results show that nighttime
underground sociality can be an optimal baseline shaping hyrax diurnal
interactions above ground. The results also suggest that complex social
dynamics are not reserved to species characterized by high cognitive
abilities and shed light on the function of nocturnal social
interactions in diurnal social species.