Journal of Animal Ecology

MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large‐scale collaboration

Delphine De Moor 1
, 
Macaela Skelton 1
, 
Federica Amici 2, 3
, 
Małgorzata E Arlet 4
, 
Krishna N Balasubramaniam 5, 6
, 
S. Ballesta 7, 8
, 
Andreas Berghänel 9
, 
Carol M Berman 10
, 
Sofia K. Bernstein 11
, 
Debottam Bhattacharjee 12
, 
Eliza Bliss-Moreau 13
, 
M.C Huynen 14
, 
M. L. Butovskaya 15
, 
Liz A. D. Campbell 16
, 
Monica Carosi 17
, 
Mayukh Chatterjee 18, 19
, 
Matthew A. Cooper 20
, 
Veronica B Cowl 21
, 
Claudio De La O Rodríguez 22, 23, 24
, 
Arianna De Marco 25
, 
Amanda M. Dettmer 26
, 
Ashni Kumar Dhawale 27
, 
Joseph J. Erinjery 28
, 
Cara L Evans 29
, 
Julia Fischer 30, 31, 32
, 
Ivan Garcia-Nisa 33
, 
Gwennan Giraud 14
, 
Roy Hammer 34
, 
Malene Hansen 35, 36, 37, 38
, 
Anna Holzner 39, 40, 41
, 
Stefano S. K. Kaburu 42
, 
Martina Konečná 43
, 
Honnavalli N Kumara 44
, 
Marine Larrivaz 45
, 
Jean-Baptiste Leca 46
, 
Mathieu Legrand 8
, 
Julia Lehmann 47
, 
Jin‐Hua Li 48, 49
, 
Anne‐Sophie Lezé 50
, 
Andrew J. J. MacIntosh 51
, 
Bonaventura Majolo 52
, 
Laëtitia Maréchal 52
, 
Pascal Marty 53
, 
Jorg J. M. Massen 12, 54
, 
Risma Illa Maulany 55
, 
Brenda McCowan 6
, 
Richard D. McFarland 56, 57
, 
Pierre Merieau 50
, 
Hélène Meunier 7, 8
, 
Jérôme Micheletta 58
, 
Partha Sarathi Mishra 44, 59
, 
Shahrul A. M. Sah 41
, 
Sandra Molesti 60
, 
Kristen S Morrow 61
, 
Nadine Müller Klein 62
, 
Putu Oka Ngakan 55
, 
Elisabetta Palagi 63
, 
Odile Petit 64
, 
Lena S Pflüger 34, 54
, 
Eugenia Polizzi Di Sorrentino 65
, 
Roopali Raghaven 19
, 
Gaël Raimbault 8
, 
Sunita Ram 19, 66
, 
U H Reichard 67
, 
Erin Riley 68
, 
Alan V Rincon 58
, 
Nadine Ruppert 41
, 
Baptiste Sadoughi 7, 69, 70, 71
, 
K Santhosh 44
, 
Gabriele Schino 65
, 
Lori K. Sheeran 72
, 
J. Silk 73
, 
Mewa Singh 74
, 
A. Sinha 19
, 
Sebastian Sosa 40
, 
Mathieu S Stribos 12
, 
Cédric Sueur 75
, 
Barbara Tiddi 76
, 
Patrick Tkaczynski 77
, 
Florian Trébouet 78
, 
Anja Widdig 39, 40, 79
, 
Jamie Whitehouse 56
, 
Lauren J. Wooddell 80
, 
Dongpo Xia 48, 81
, 
Lorenzo von Fersen 82
, 
Christopher Young 56
, 
Oliver Schülke 32, 70, 71
, 
Julia Ostner 32, 70, 71
, 
Christof Neumann 30, 32
, 
Julie Duboscq 71, 83
, 
Lauren J. N. Brent 1
Show full list: 91 authors
1
 
School of Psychology, Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour University of Exeter Exeter UK
2
 
Research Group for Human Biology and Primate Cognition, Biology Institute University of Leipzig Leipzig Germany
3
 
4
 
Faculty of Biology, Institute of Human Biology and Evolution Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan Poland
5
 
Faculty of Science & Engineering, School of Life Sciences Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge UK
6
 
Department of Population Health & Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine University of California at Davis Davis California USA
7
 
Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives Strasbourg France
8
 
Centre de Primatologie de l'Université de Strasbourg Niederhausbergen France
9
 
Domestication Lab, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Vienna Austria
10
 
Program in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, Department of Anthropology University at Buffalo Buffalo New York USA
11
 
Division of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics, Department of Biology University of St. Thomas Houston Texas USA
12
 
Animal Behavior & Cognition, Department of Biology Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
13
 
Department of Psychology and the California National Primate Research Center University of California at Davis Davis California USA
14
 
Primatology Research Group, Research Unit SPHERES The University of Liège Liège Belgium
15
 
16
 
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) University of Oxford Oxford UK
17
 
18
 
Conservation Science and Outreach North of England Zoological Society Cheshire UK
19
 
Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bengaluru India
20
 
Department of Psychology University of Tennessee Knoxville Knoxville Tennessee USA
21
 
Science Department North of England Zoological Society Chester UK
22
 
FES Zaragoza National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico City Mexico
23
 
24
 
School of Psychology Mexico City Mexico
25
 
Fondazione Ethoikos Convento dell'Osservanza Radicondoli Italy
26
 
27
 
Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme National Institute of Advanced Studies Bengaluru India | 
28
 
29
 
Department of Anthropology, Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre Durham University Durham UK
30
 
Cognitive Ethology Lab German Primate Center Göttingen Germany
31
 
32
 
Primate Cognition Göttingen Germany
33
 
34
 
35
 
36
 
The Long‐Tailed Macaque Project Sorø Denmark
37
 
Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Biology Univeristy of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
38
 
Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Trade Group Oxford Brookes University Oxford UK
39
 
Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology University of Leipzig Leipzig Germany
40
 
41
 
42
 
43
 
44
 
Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History Coimbatore India
45
 
Départment d'Anthropologie, Faculté des Arts et des Sciences Udem Montréal Quebec Canada
46
 
47
 
Whitelands College Roehampton University London UK
48
 
International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering Anhui University Hefei China
49
 
50
 
ZooParc de Beauval et Beauval Nature Saint‐Aignan France
51
 
52
 
School of Psychology University of Lincoln Lincoln UK | 
53
 
Wildlife Park Goldau Goldau Switzerland
54
 
55
 
Forest Conservation Department Hasanuddin University Makassar Indonesia
56
 
57
 
58
 
59
 
Srishti Manipal Institute of Arts Design and Technology Bengaluru India
60
 
CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS Toulouse France
61
 
62
 
63
 
64
 
Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Université Clermont‐Auvergne Clermont‐Ferrand France
65
 
66
 
Foundation for Ecological Research Advocacy and Learning Morattandi Villupuram India
67
 
Anthropology Program, School of Anthropology, Political Science and Sociology Southern Illinois University Carbondale Carbondale USA
68
 
69
 
Department of Life Sciences University of Roehampton London UK | 
70
 
71
 
Behavioral Ecology Department University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany
72
 
Anthropology Central Washington University Ellensburg Washington USA
73
 
School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins Arizona State University Tempe Arizona USA
74
 
75
 
Institut pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (UMR 7178), Centre national de la recherche scientifique Université de Strasbourg Strasbourg France
76
 
77
 
Research Centre for Evolutionary Anthropology & Palaeoecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool UK
78
 
79
 
Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution Max‐Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig Germany
80
 
81
 
82
 
Nuremberg Zoo Nürnberg Germany
83
 
UMR7206 Eco‐Anthropology CNRS‐MNHN‐Université Paris Cité Paris France
Publication type: Journal Article
Publication date: 2025-02-11
scimago Q1
SJR: 1.801
CiteScore: 9.1
Impact factor: 3.5
ISSN: 00218790, 13652656
Abstract

  • There is a vast and ever‐accumulating amount of behavioural data on individually recognised animals, an incredible resource to shed light on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of variation in animal behaviour. Yet, the full potential of such data lies in comparative research across taxa with distinct life histories and ecologies. Substantial challenges impede systematic comparisons, one of which is the lack of persistent, accessible and standardised databases.

  • Big‐team approaches to building standardised databases offer a solution to facilitating reliable cross‐species comparisons. By sharing both data and expertise among researchers, these approaches ensure that valuable data, which might otherwise go unused, become easier to discover, repurpose and synthesise. Additionally, such large‐scale collaborations promote a culture of sharing within the research community, incentivising researchers to contribute their data by ensuring their interests are considered through clear sharing guidelines. Active communication with the data contributors during the standardisation process also helps avoid misinterpretation of the data, ultimately improving the reliability of comparative databases.

  • Here, we introduce MacaqueNet, a global collaboration of over 100 researchers (https://macaquenet.github.io/) aimed at unlocking the wealth of cross‐species data for research on macaque social behaviour. The MacaqueNet database encompasses data from 1981 to the present on 61 populations across 14 species and is the first publicly searchable and standardised database on affiliative and agonistic animal social behaviour. We describe the establishment of MacaqueNet, from the steps we took to start a large‐scale collective, to the creation of a cross‐species collaborative database and the implementation of data entry and retrieval protocols.

  • We share MacaqueNet's component resources: an R package for data standardisation, website code, the relational database structure, a glossary and data sharing terms of use. With all these components openly accessible, MacaqueNet can act as a fully replicable template for future endeavours establishing large‐scale collaborative comparative databases.

Found 

Are you a researcher?

Create a profile to get free access to personal recommendations for colleagues and new articles.
Share
Cite this
GOST | RIS | BibTex
Found error?