Abstract Understanding the drivers promoting sociality over solitariness in animal species is imperative for predicting future population trends and informing conservation and management. In this study we investigate the social structure of a desert dwelling population of striped hyena Hyaena hyaena. This species is historically regarded as strictly solitary albeit being the least studied of the extant Hyaenids. Accumulating evidence regarding the frequency of social interactions suggests a revision of striped hyena social structure is required. We hypothesized that striped hyena has a social structure that is more complex than expected for a strictly solitary species. For that end, we deployed an array of camera-traps in a remote desert region in Israel, and compared observed frequencies of striped hyena co-occurrence against null models to test whether hyena co-occurred more than expected by chance. Seven adults were (re)captured by our camera-traps in 49 different instances over 83 tracking days. Of these, 6 exhibited shared space-use around a scarce, isolated perennial water source. Five of them, co-occurred with other hyena (in 3 instances) significantly more frequent than expected by chance (and that timing suggests reproduction is unlikely to be the driving factor). Our findings substantiate evidence of complex social structure in striped hyena, highlight the importance of a scarce resource in space-use and sociality, and provide a baseline for future research of striped hyena social structure. We suggest that similar methods be employed to evaluate social structure in other “solitary species” to better understand their social dynamics.

中文翻译：

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从相机陷阱数据推断的条纹鬣狗的社交互动：它是否比以前想象的更社交？

摘要 了解在动物物种中促进社会性而非孤独性的驱动因素对于预测未来的种群趋势以及为保护和管理提供信息至关重要。在这项研究中，我们调查了居住在沙漠中的条纹鬣狗 Hyaena hyaena 种群的社会结构。该物种在历史上被认为是严格独居的，尽管它是现存鬣狗中研究最少的。越来越多的关于社会交往频率的证据表明，需要对条纹鬣狗的社会结构进行修正。我们假设条纹鬣狗的社会结构比严格独居物种的预期更为复杂。为此，我们在以色列的一个偏远沙漠地区部署了一系列相机陷阱，并将观察到的条纹鬣狗共现频率与空模型进行比较，以测试鬣狗共现是否超过预期。在 83 个跟踪日内，我们的相机陷阱在 49 个不同的实例中（重新）捕获了 7 个成年人。其中，有 6 个展示了围绕稀缺、孤立的多年生水源的共享空间使用。其中五个与其他鬣狗（在 3 个实例中）同时发生的频率明显高于偶然的预期（并且该时间表明繁殖不太可能是驱动因素）。我们的研究结果证实了条纹鬣狗复杂社会结构的证据，强调了稀缺资源在空间利用和社会性方面的重要性，并为未来条纹鬣狗社会结构的研究提供了基线。