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Disease transmission in territorial populations: the small-world network of Serengeti lions
Authors:Meggan E Craft  Erik Volz  Craig Packer  Lauren Ancel Meyers
Affiliation:1Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK;2Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;3Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA;4Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA;5Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Abstract:Territoriality in animal populations creates spatial structure that is thought to naturally buffer disease invasion. Often, however, territorial populations also include highly mobile, non-residential individuals that potentially serve as disease superspreaders. Using long-term data from the Serengeti Lion Project, we characterize the contact network structure of a territorial wildlife population and address the epidemiological impact of nomadic individuals. As expected, pride contacts are dominated by interactions with neighbouring prides and interspersed by encounters with nomads as they wander throughout the ecosystem. Yet the pride–pride network also includes occasional long-range contacts between prides, making it surprisingly small world and vulnerable to epidemics, even without nomads. While nomads increase both the local and global connectivity of the network, their epidemiological impact is marginal, particularly for diseases with short infectious periods like canine distemper virus. Thus, territoriality in Serengeti lions may be less protective and non-residents less important for disease transmission than previously considered.
Keywords:African lion  contact rates  epidemiological modelling  network model  territoriality  wildlife disease
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