Reports

Program No.17-022

The international symposium "Delphinid and Primate Social Ecology"

Louise Barrett (University of Liverpool, UK)
Richard Connor (UMASS-Dartmouth, USA)

YAMAGIWA JUICHI

29th July,2005 - 1st August,2005

The international symposium entitled "Delphinid and Primate Social Ecology", was held in Kyoto on 29-30 July 2005. It was financed by HOPE and Kyoto University 21 COE Program "Formation of a Strategic base for the Multidisciplinary Study of Biodiversity". During the HOPE session in the symposium, Louise Barrett (University of Liverpool, UK) gave a lecture on primate social cognition and Richard Connor (UMASS-Dartmouth, USA) gave a talk on delphinid alliances in aquatic fission-fusion societies. They participated in another symposium entitled "Delphinid and Primate Social Ecology: a Comparative Overview as commentators. Recent studies indicate the importance of ecological and demographic factors in shaping delphinid and primate social systems. With a substantial amount of data accumulated over the past years, a framework is now in place for examining in a broader comparative perspective how ecology shapes the dynamics and structure of delphinid and primate social lives. Based on such perspectives and a number of longitudinal studies, we compared the social ecology of delphinids and primates to elucidate the social evolution of these highly intellectual mammals in both water and forest environments. We discussed topics covering mating strategies, social behavior and social networks, foraging strategies, communication, social learning, economics of behavior and behavioral plasticity, social evolution, and culture. These global and precise comparisons between primate and dolphin societies provided useful insights into the ecological pressures influencing sociality, and contributed a valuable step toward an understanding of the selective pressures that shape mammalian social systems. The selected papers will be published as a book by the University of Chicago Press.

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