ArticleNature ecology & evolution2022
Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Ageing effects of social environments in 'non-social' insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Trade-offs across life history stages and social association types shape winter communal roosting in a long-lived raptor.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer.Heredity · 2025Article
- Quantitative and systematic behavioral profiling reveals social complexity in eusocial naked mole-rats.Science advances · 2025Article
- Article
- Local and global density have distinct and parasite-dependent effects on infection in wild sheep.Parasitology · 2025Article
- Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer.Parasitology · 2025Article
- Associations between social behaviour and proinflammatory immune activation are modulated by age in a free-ranging primate population.Animal behaviour · 2025Article
- A Natural Disaster Exacerbates and Redistributes Disease Risk Among Free-Ranging Macaques by Altering Social Structure.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Age-dependent shaping of the social environment in a long-lived seabird: a quantitative genetic approach.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Understanding age and society using natural populations.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Not so social in old age: demography as one driver of decreasing sociality.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The ecology of ageing in wild societies: linking age structure and social behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- More social species live longer, have longer generation times and longer reproductive windows.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Linking energy availability, movement and sociality in a wild primate (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Divergent age-related changes in parasite infection occur independently of behaviour and demography in a wild ungulate.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Population age structure shapes selection on social behaviour in a long-lived insect.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- A wrap-around movement path randomization method to distinguish social and spatial drivers of animal interactions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
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Abstract
Social relationships are important to many aspects of animals' lives, and an individual's connections may change over the course of their lifespan. Currently, it is unclear whether social connectedness declines within individuals as they age, and what the underlying mechanisms might be, so the role of age in structuring animal social systems remains unresolved, particularly in non-primates. Here we describe senescent declines in social connectedness using 46 years of data in a wild, individually monitored population of a long-lived mammal (European red deer, Cervus elaphus). Applying a series of spatial and social network analyses, we demonstrate that these declines occur because of within-individual changes in social behaviour, with correlated changes in spatial behaviour (smaller home ranges and movements to lower-density, lower-quality areas). These findings demonstrate that within-individual socio-spatial behavioural changes can lead older animals in fission-fusion societies to become less socially connected, shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring wild animal populations.
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