Social capital and physiological stress levels in free-ranging adult female rhesus macaques

Social animals with greater access to social support, i.e. higher levels of social capital, may be able to cope better with the challenges they face in their day-to-day lives, and this may be reflected in lower physiological stress levels. Here, we examine the relationship between social capital and fecal glucocorticoid (GC) levels in pregnant free-ranging adult female rhesus macaques. In addition to social capital measures based on direct connections between social partners, which have been examined previously, we use social network analysis to generate measures of social capital based on indirect connections (i.e. connections between pairs of individuals which result from their mutual direct connection to a third party). We consider social capital based on three different types of affiliative association: grooming, the exchange of affiliative vocalizations and proximity. After controlling for variables known to affect GC output in primates (e.g. month of pregnancy), GC levels of females were significantly predicted by a social network measure of indirect connectedness in the proximity network, proximity reach, in interaction with dominance rank. High ranking females had significantly lower GC levels in months in which they had low levels of proximity reach (i.e. in months in which their proximity networks were smaller and therefore more focused). The results of our study add to a growing body of evidence which suggests that social capital may be an important means by which gregarious animals cope with day-to-day challenges. Our study also joins a small body of recent research which has demonstrated that indirect connections may be important factors in the lives of social animals. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.