Social network analysis (Sciuridae)

Knowledge graph centered on Social network analysis (Sciuridae) with 75 nodes and 172 connections. Top connected: Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Social network analysis of animal behaviour: a pro, Gothic, Marmota, Yellow-bellied Marmot.

Method synopsis

Direct observation of social interactions using binoculars and spotting scopes during peak activity periods. Interactions are classified as affiliative or agonistic and used to construct weighted directed social networks.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 48 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Multilevel selection on individual and group social behaviour in the wild (2025), Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The protocol was originally introduced by Does sociality drive the evolution of communicative complexity? A comparative test with ground-dwelling sciurid alarm calls (1997), American Naturalist. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Systematically quantify social behaviour
   Social behaviour was systematically quantified during behavioral observation sessions. The initiator, recipient, location, time and type of each interaction were recorded, with most interactions (79%) occurring between identified individuals. Remaining 21% of interactions could not be identified because of the interacting individuals' posture or visual obstructions. These interactions were excluded from analysis.
   Quantities: 172 social groups comprising 723 unique individuals across 19 years, 42,369 social interactions between 1294 individuals (338 observed across multiple years)Duration: Systematic observations throughout active seasonConditions: During periods when marmots are active and visible for behavioral observation
   Equipment: observation equipment for behavioral recording
2. Define social groups based on space-use overlap
   Social groups were defined based on space-use overlap per year using simple-ratio pairwise association indices based on colony space-use overlap. Two individuals observed using the same burrow or seen/trapped at the same location within 1 day intervals were considered part of the same social group.
   Quantities: 180 social groups with group sizes ranging from 2 to 35 individuals, mean of 7.6±5.2 (mean±s.d.) individuals, with average of 262±207 social interactions per year, ranging from 1 to 694Duration: Annual grouping assessment

Typical Equipment

• binoculars
• spotting scopes
• R software
• igraph package

Output Measurements

• social interaction frequencies
• network measures
• degree
• closeness
• strength
• betweenness
• eigenvector centrality
• embeddedness
• density

Papers Using This Protocol (48)

Species Studied With This Protocol

Places Where Used