Overview
I am a behavioural ecologist studying the evolution of social relationships. Animals in a wide variety of species form a few close bonds, akin to friendships, with some of their group members. With my research, I aim to understand how forming social bonds impacts individual survival and reproduction, and what drives partner choice in the formation of these bonds.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher with Lauren Brent at the Center for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB) of the University of Exeter (UK). I am part of FriendOrigins, an ERC Consolidator funded project (864461), aimed at understanding the evolutionary origins of friendship. I take a cross-species comparative approach to test how socio-ecological factors shape social relationships. Together with Julie Duboscq, Christof Neumann, Julia Ostner and Oliver Schülke, we are building a collaborative dataset with decades of data on over ten species of macaques. Studying social relationships in these species, with varying social systems and ecological pressures and known phylogenetic relationships, we can explicitly address the question of which types of social connectedness are adaptive, and why.
Qualifications
2016-2020: PhD in Behavioral Ecology, University of Göttingen
2014-2015: Master of Sciene, Biology, Ghent University & Utrecht University
2010-2013: Bachelor of Science, Biology, Ghent University
Links
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Social bonds, or friendships, allow individuals to live healthier, longer lives, yet the reason why these relationships are beneficial remains unclear. To better understand the evolutionary origin of social relationships, and to uncover the mechanisms linking sociality to fitness benefits, I take a cross-species comparative approach across all well-studied macaque species. Macaques show the same basic patterns of social organisation, but display broad interspecific variation in their social style. By studying these differences in sociality using social network analysis, and linking them to socio-ecological factors such as intra-group relatedness and competition, we can test which type(s) of social connectedness are adaptive, and why.
This project is part of the FriendOrigins project (ERC funded, 864461), and uses the collaborative dataset MacaqueNet, built and maintained by me, Lauren Brent, Julie Duboscq, Christof Neumann, Julia Ostner and Oliver Schülke.
Research projects
Social bonds, or friendships, allow individuals to live healthier, longer lives, yet the reason why these relationships are beneficial remains unclear. To better understand the evolutionary origin of social relationships, and to uncover the mechanisms linking sociality to fitness benefits, I take a cross-species comparative approach across all well-studied macaque species. Macaques show the same basic patterns of social organisation, but display broad interspecific variation in their social style. By studying these differences in sociality using social network analysis, and linking them to socio-ecological factors such as intra-group relatedness and competition, we can test which type(s) of social connectedness are adaptive, and why.
This project is part of the FriendOrigins project (ERC funded, 864461), and uses the collaborative dataset MacaqueNet, built and maintained by me, Lauren Brent, Julie Duboscq, Christof Neumann, Julia Ostner and Oliver Schülke.
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
De Moor D, Roos C, Ostner J, Schülke O (2020). Bonds of bros and brothers: Kinship and social bonding in postdispersal male macaques. Molecular Ecology, 29(17), 3346-3360.
De Moor D, Roos C, Ostner J, Schülke O (2020). Female Assamese macaques bias their affiliation to paternal and maternal kin.
Behavioral Ecology,
31(2), 493-507.
Abstract:
Female Assamese macaques bias their affiliation to paternal and maternal kin
Abstract
. Forming strong social bonds can lead to higher reproductive success, increased longevity, and/or increased infant survival in several mammal species. Given these adaptive benefits, understanding what determines partner preferences in social bonding is important. Maternal relatedness strongly predicts partner preference across many mammalian taxa. The role of paternal relatedness, however, has received relatively little attention, even though paternal and maternal kin share the same number of genes, and theoretically similar preferences would therefore be expected for paternal kin. Here, we investigate the role of maternal and paternal relatedness in female affiliation in Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), a species characterized by a relatively low male reproductive skew. We studied a wild population under natural conditions using extensive behavioral data and relatedness analyses based on pedigree reconstruction. We found stronger affiliative relationships and more time spent grooming between maternal kin and paternal half-sisters compared with nonkin, with no preference of maternal over paternal kin. Paternally related and nonrelated dyads did not form stronger relationships when they had less close maternal kin available, but we would need a bigger sample size to confirm this. As expected given the low reproductive skew, affiliative relationships between paternal half-sisters closer in age were not stronger than between paternal half-sisters with larger age differences, suggesting that the kin bias toward paternal kin was not mediated by age similarity. An alternative way through which paternal kin could get familiarized is mother- and/or father-mediated familiarity.
Abstract.
Publications by year
2020
De Moor D, Roos C, Ostner J, Schülke O (2020). Bonds of bros and brothers: Kinship and social bonding in postdispersal male macaques. Molecular Ecology, 29(17), 3346-3360.
De Moor D, Roos C, Ostner J, Schülke O (2020). Female Assamese macaques bias their affiliation to paternal and maternal kin.
Behavioral Ecology,
31(2), 493-507.
Abstract:
Female Assamese macaques bias their affiliation to paternal and maternal kin
Abstract
. Forming strong social bonds can lead to higher reproductive success, increased longevity, and/or increased infant survival in several mammal species. Given these adaptive benefits, understanding what determines partner preferences in social bonding is important. Maternal relatedness strongly predicts partner preference across many mammalian taxa. The role of paternal relatedness, however, has received relatively little attention, even though paternal and maternal kin share the same number of genes, and theoretically similar preferences would therefore be expected for paternal kin. Here, we investigate the role of maternal and paternal relatedness in female affiliation in Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), a species characterized by a relatively low male reproductive skew. We studied a wild population under natural conditions using extensive behavioral data and relatedness analyses based on pedigree reconstruction. We found stronger affiliative relationships and more time spent grooming between maternal kin and paternal half-sisters compared with nonkin, with no preference of maternal over paternal kin. Paternally related and nonrelated dyads did not form stronger relationships when they had less close maternal kin available, but we would need a bigger sample size to confirm this. As expected given the low reproductive skew, affiliative relationships between paternal half-sisters closer in age were not stronger than between paternal half-sisters with larger age differences, suggesting that the kin bias toward paternal kin was not mediated by age similarity. An alternative way through which paternal kin could get familiarized is mother- and/or father-mediated familiarity.
Abstract.
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