Social relationships can have important fitness consequences. Although there is increasing evidence that social relationships carry over across contexts, few studies have investigated whether relationships formed early in life are carried over to adulthood. For example, juveniles of monogamous species go through a major life history stage transition, pair formation, during which the pair bond becomes a central unit of the social organization. At present, it remains unclear whether pair members retain their early life relationships after pair formation. We investigated whether same-sex associations formed early in life carry over into adulthood and whether carryover was dependent on season, in a monogamous species. We also investigated the role of familiarity, genetic relatedness and aggression on the perseverance of social associations. We studied the social structure before and after pair formation in captive barnacle geese, Branta leucopsis, a highly social, long-lived, monogamous species. We constructed association networks of groups of geese before pair formation, during the subsequent breeding season and in the following wintering season. Next, we studied how these associations carried over during seasonal changes. We found that early life associations in females were lost during the breeding season but resurfaced during the subsequent wintering season. In males, the early life associations persisted across both seasons. Association persistence was not mediated by genetic relatedness or familiarity. The high level of aggressiveness of males, but not females, in the breeding season suggests that males may have played a key role in shaping both their own social environment and that of their partners. We show that early life social relationships can be maintained well into later life. Such relationships can be sustained even if they are temporarily disrupted, for example due to reproductive behaviour. Our findings therefore highlight that the early life social environment can have lifelong consequences for individuals’ social environment.

中文翻译：

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一夫一妻制鸟类早期生命关联的季节特定结转

社会关系可能会产生重要的健康后果。尽管越来越多的证据表明社会关系会在不同背景下延续，但很少有研究调查在生命早期形成的关系是否会延续到成年。例如，一夫一妻制物种的幼鱼经历了一个主要的生活史阶段转变，配对形成，在此期间配对纽带成为社会组织的中心单位。目前，尚不清楚配对成员在配对形成后是否保留其早期的生活关系。我们调查了在一夫一妻制的物种中，在生命早期形成的同性关联是否会延续到成年期，以及延续是否取决于季节。我们还调查了熟悉度、遗传相关性和攻击性对社会交往坚持性的作用。我们研究了圈养藤壶鹅（Branta leucopsis）配对形成前后的社会结构，这是一种高度社会化、寿命长、一夫一妻制的物种。我们在配对形成之前、随后的繁殖季节和接下来的越冬季节构建了鹅群的关联网络。接下来，我们研究了这些关联如何在季节性变化期间延续。我们发现雌性的早期生活关联在繁殖季节丢失，但在随后的越冬季节重新出现。在男性中，早年的关联在两个季节都持续存在。关联持久性不是由遗传相关性或熟悉度介导的。雄性的高攻击性，而不是雌性，在繁殖季节表明雄性可能在塑造自己和伴侣的社会环境方面发挥了关键作用。我们表明，早年的社会关系可以很好地维持到晚年。即使这种关系暂时中断，例如由于生殖行为，它们也可以维持下去。因此，我们的研究结果强调，生命早期的社会环境会对个人的社会环境产生终生的影响。