ArticleScience advances2017
Mandrills use olfaction to socially avoid parasitized conspecifics.
Article in Science advances, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 228 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transforming gastrointestinal helminth parasite identification in vertebrate hosts with metabarcoding: a systematic review.Parasites & vectors · 2024Pooled it
- Microhabitat Selection Drives Tick Avoidance in Giant Pandas During Semi-Wild Adaptation Training: Implications for Conservation Management.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Dissecting disgust and fear in chimpanzees: From facilitation to disruption of cognitive processes.iScience · 2026Article
- The Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Prosocial Behavior toward Others in Negative State.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Host avoidance and resistance vary independently and are specific to parasite genotype.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Juvenile agile frogs spatially avoid ranavirus-infected conspecifics.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cannibalism facilitated by parasite infection induces dispersal in a semi-aquatic insect.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Partial role of volatile organic compounds in behavioural responses of mice to bedding from cancer-affected congeners.Biology open · 2024Article
- Associating with kin selects for disease resistance and against tolerance.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Social network shrinking is explained by active and passive effects but not increasing selectivity with age in wild macaques.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Stillbirth of a mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) in the wild: perinatal behaviors and delivery sequences.Primates; journal of primatology · 2024Article
- The role of social attraction and social avoidance in shaping modular networks.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- How behavioural ageing affects infectious disease.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Characterization of the microbiome and volatile compounds in anal gland secretions from domestic cats (Felis catus) using metagenomics and metabolomics.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Let's stick together: Infection enhances preferences for social grouping in a songbird species.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Characterization of the microbiome and volatile compounds in anal gland secretions from domestic cats (Felis catus) using metagenomics and metabolomics.Research square · 2023Article
- The Mandrillus Face Database: A portrait image database for individual and sex recognition, and age prediction in a non-human primate.Data in brief · 2023Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolutionary transition from a solitary to a social lifestyle entails an elevated parasite cost because the social proximity associated with group living favors parasite transmission. Despite this cost, sociality is widespread in a large range of taxonomic groups. In this context, hosts would be expected to have evolved behavioral mechanisms to reduce the risk of parasite infection. Few empirical studies have focused on the influence of pathogen-mediated selection on the evolution of antiparasitic behavior in wild vertebrates. We report an adaptive functional relationship between parasitism and social behavior in mandrills, associated with evidence that they are able to gauge parasite status of their group members. Using long-term observations, controlled experiments, and chemical analyses, we show that (i) wild mandrills avoid grooming conspecifics infected with orofecally transmitted parasites; (ii) mandrills receive significantly more grooming after treatment that targets these parasites; (iii) parasitism influences the host's fecal odors; and (iv) mandrills selectively avoid fecal material from parasitized conspecifics. These behavioral adaptations reveal that selecting safe social partners may help primates to cope with parasite-mediated costs of sociality and that "behavioral immunity" plays a crucial role in the coevolutionary dynamics between hosts and their parasites.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.