DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s6r
title: Data from: Stability in foraging associations is linked to stability in communal use of burrows in degus

description: Sociality involves inter-individual interactions mostly (but not
 exclusively) within groups, establishing associations in different
 contexts, such as foraging and refuge use. Social foragers may experience
 flexible changes in individual composition of short-term foraging groups,
 yet experience longer-term stability in other contexts, implying that
 dynamics in one context influence those in other contexts. We addressed
 whether individual identity- or kinship based foraging associations
 influence the intensity of current and long-term burrow use associations
 in Octodon degus, a communally rearing rodent. We further examined whether
 stability across social foraging and communal burrow use contexts result
 in reproductive benefits. We used live-trapping, telemetry, genetic tools,
 and behavioral observations based on individual focal follows to quantify
 social associations during foraging and burrow use. We found that foraging
 associations during mating positively linked to associations in burrow use
 during mating and offspring rearing, and that kinship within foraging
 associations during mating had an influence primarily on females.
 Critically, there was a positive effect of stability in foraging based
 associations on burrow use associations during mating (i.e., the extent to
 which individuals foraged with familiar vs. unfamiliar burrow-mates during
 mating) on stability in burrow use associations from mating to offspring
 rearing. These findings were generally consistent with the hypothesis that
 short-term associations during social foraging represent a social context
 in which individuals can maintain associations that extended to other
 context, such as burrow sharing and communal care of offspring. The data
 for the MRQAP analyses consist of symmetric matrices containing
 identifiers and association values per dyad. The data for the GLM analyses
 comprise focal individual-level information, including the social
 stability index, kinship, the number of offspring produced, and derived
 metrics used in the study.
description: # Data from: Stability in foraging associations is linked to stability in
 communal use of burrows in degus ## GENERAL INFORMATION 1\. Paper Citation
 Riquelme JD, Košćina T, León C, Morales CB, Hayes LD, Ebensperger LA
 (2025). Stability in foraging associations is linked to stability in
 communal use of burrows in degus. Behavioral Ecology. 2\. Brief abstract
 Consumers experience permanent and temporary changes in their associations
 with peers during foraging and when using refuge. We addressed whether
 individual associations during foraging contribute to long-term stability
 of associations when using refuges in group-living degus. We found that
 foraging associations during mating matched burrow use associations during
 mating and during offspring rearing. Most relevant, degus keeping stable
 associations when foraging also kept relatively more stable associations
 based on refuge use during offspring rearing. 3\. Originators Juan D.
 Riquelme de la Fuente 4\. Contact information Juan Riquelme, address:
 Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340. Edificio 210 piso 2
 Santiago, email: [jnriquelme@uc.cl](mailto:jnriquelme@uc.cl) 5\. Date of
 data collection Years: 2018-2019. 6\. Geographic location(s) of data
 collection Estación Experimental Germán Greve Silva (EEGGS; 33°23′S,
 70°31′W; altitude 495 m), a field station of Universidad de Chile (central
 Chile). Rinconada, Maipú, Chile. 7\. Information about funding sources
 that supported the collection and curation of the data This research was
 supported by National Fund for Science and Technology (FONDECYT) grants
 1170409 and 1210219 and the National Research and Development Agency
 (ANID, No. 21161585), and by National Science Foundation OISE grant no.
 1854177. ## ACCESS INFORMATION 1\. Licenses/restrictions placed on the
 data The dataset is released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) waiver,
 placing it in the public domain. The data may be freely reused without
 restriction. Citation of the original source is appreciated. 2\. Data
 derived from other sources None. All data were collected by the authors
 for this study. ## DATA FILES AND VARIABLES * WBA = Winter Burrow
 Associations (mating period) * SBA = Spring Burrow Associations (offspring
 rearing period) * WFA = Winter Foraging Associations (mating period) * CF
 = Confusion effect (number of observations), relative to the sampling
 effort during burrow use. * kin = Genetic relatedness matrices. **Files 1
 to 32:** Symmetric matrices containing IDs and values per dyad. Values
 represent either association indices (burrow use or foraging
 associations), genetic relatedness, or number of observed days (confusion
 effect), as appropriate for each matrix. 1 • 1F_WBA18_matrix.csv: Burrow
 use associations during mating, females 2018. 2 • 1F_WBA18CF.csv: Number
 of observed days per dyad. 3 • 1F_WFA18_matrix.csv: Foraging associations
 during mating, females 2018 (matched with burrow use associations during
 mating for comparison). 4 • 1kinF_WBA18.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix,
 females 2018 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for
 comparison). 5 • 1kinM_WBA18.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, males 2018
 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for comparison). 6 •
 1M_WBA18_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during mating, males 2018. 7
 • 1M_WBA18CF.csv: Number of observed days per dyad. 8 •
 1M_WFA18_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during mating, males 2018
 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for comparison). 9 •
 2F_SBA18_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during offspring rearing,
 females 2018. 10 • 2F_SBA18CF.csv: Number of observed days per dyad. 11 •
 2F_WFA18_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during mating, females 2018
 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 12 • 2kinF_SBA18.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, females
 2018 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 13 • 2kinM_SBA18.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, males 2018
 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 14 • 2M_SBA18_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during
 offspring rearing, males 2018. 15 • 2M_SBA18CF.csv: Number of observed
 days per dyad. 16 • 2M_WFA18_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during
 mating, males 2018 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring
 rearing for comparison). 17 • 3F_WBA19_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations
 during mating, females 2019. 18 • 3F_WBA19CF.csv: Number of observed days
 per dyad. 19 • 3F_WFA19_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during mating,
 females 2019 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for
 comparison). 20 • 3kinF_WBA19.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, females
 2019 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for comparison).
 21 • 3kinM_WBA19.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, males 2019 (matched with
 burrow use associations during mating for comparison). 22 •
 3M_WBA19_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during mating, males 2019. 23
 • 3M_WBA19CF.csv: Number of observed days per dyad. 24 •
 3M_WFA19_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during mating, males 2019
 (matched with burrow use associations during mating for comparison). 25 •
 4F_SBA19_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during offspring rearing,
 females 2019. 26 • 4F_SBA19CF.csv: Number of observed days per dyad. 27 •
 4F_WFA19_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during mating, females 2019
 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 28 • 4kinF_SBA19.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, females
 2019 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 29 • 4kinM_SBA19.csv: Genetic relatedness matrix, males 2019
 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring rearing for
 comparison). 30 • 4M_SBA19_matrix.csv: Burrow use associations during
 offspring rearing, males 2019. 31 • 4M_SBA19CF.csv: Number of observed
 days per dyad. 32 • 4M_WFA19_matrix.csv: Foraging associations during
 mating, males 2019 (matched with burrow use associations during offspring
 rearing for comparison). GBI files (asnipe format): Group-by-Individual
 matrices, where rows represent observation groups and columns represent
 individuals (1 = present, 0 = absent). 33 • gbi_1F_WBA18.csv: Burrow use
 associations for females during mating 2018. 34 • gbi_1M_WBA18.csv: Burrow
 use associations for males during mating 2018. 35 • gbi_2F_SBA18.csv:
 Burrow use associations for females during offspring rearing 2018. 36 •
 gbi_2M_SBA18.csv: Burrow use associations for males during offspring
 rearing 2018. 37 • gbi_3F_WBA19.csv: Burrow use associations for females
 during mating 2019. 38 • gbi_3M_WBA19.csv: Burrow use associations for
 males during mating 2019. 39 • gbi_4F_SBA19.csv: Burrow use associations
 for females during offspring rearing 2019. 40 • gbi_4M_SBA19.csv: Burrow
 use associations for males during offspring rearing 2019. 41 •
 DF_social_stability.csv Information per focal individual, including social
 stability index, kinship, reproductive output, and derived metrics used in
 analyses. Variables: • JIS_BURROW: Stability in burrow use from mating
 through offspring rearing (JIS). • ID: Unique identifier of each
 individual. • SEX: Sex of the individuals (male or female). • Mean_SFF:
 Average stability in foraging groups during mating (SFF). • Mean_kinship:
 Mean kinship within foraging groups during mating. • Strength: Intensity
 of foraging associations during mating. • YEAR: For this analysis, this
 variable corresponds to the year 2019. • N_pups: number of offspring
 produced by the individual. • Delta_z_score: relative measure of social
 stability for each focal degu, comparing stability in burrow use (from the
 mating to offspring rearing, based on the JIS index), with the stability
 in foraging groups during mating (based on the SFF index). Z-scores were
 first calculated for each stability index (JIS and SFF), and the
 difference between them was used as the Delta z-score. Additional files:
 co-occurrence data used in association analyses (files 42–57) and data
 used for calculating the Mean SFF, Mean kinship, and Delta z-score (files
 58–59). **Files 42-57** (co-occurrence data): • Column 1: Date. Stored in
 Excel serial date number format (as used in Windows Excel). Each value
 corresponds to the calendar date of the observation. • Column 2: Location.
 Unique identifier of the burrow (den site) where individuals were
 recorded. • Column 3: Behaviour. Numeric code indicating the behavioral
 category recorded during the observation. In the foraging datasets, 1
 indicates that the individual was foraging; in the burrow-use datasets, 1
 indicates that the individual was present in the burrow. • Column 4:
 Group. Identifier of a co-occurrence event. All individuals sharing the
 same Group value were observed together at the same location and time and
 are considered to belong to the same group for that observation event. 42
 • gbi_1F_WBA18.xlsx: capture data for females during mating burrow use,
 2018 43 • gbi_1F_WFA18.xlsx: co-occurrence data for females during mating
 foraging, 2018 44 • gbi_1M_WBA18.xlsx: capture data for males during
 mating burrow use, 2018 45 • gbi_1M_WFA18.xlsx: co-occurrence data for
 males during mating foraging, 2018 46 • gbi_2F_SBA18.xlsx: capture data
 for females during offspring rearing burrow use, 2018 47 •
 gbi_2F_WFA18.xlsx: co-occurrence data for females during mating foraging
 matched with offspring rearing burrow use, 2018. 48 • gbi_2M_SBA18.xlsx:
 capture data for males during offspring rearing burrow use, 2018 49 •
 gbi_2M_WFA18.xlsx: co-occurrence data for males during mating foraging
 matched with offspring rearing burrow use, 2018. 50 • gbi_3F_WBA19.xlsx:
 capture data for females during mating burrow use, 2019 51 •
 gbi_3F_WFA19.xlsx: co-occurrence data for females during mating foraging,
 2019 52 • gbi_3M_WBA19.xlsx: capture data for males during mating burrow
 use, 2019 53 • gbi_3M_WFA19.xlsx: co-occurrence data for males during
 mating foraging, 2019 54 • gbi_4F_SBA19.xlsx: capture data for females
 during offspring rearing burrow use, 2019 55 • gbi_4F_WFA19.xlsx:
 co-occurrence data for females during mating foraging matched with
 offspring rearing burrow use, 2019. 56 • gbi_4M_SBA19.xlsx: capture data
 for males during offspring rearing burrow use, 2019 57 •
 gbi_4M_WFA19.xlsx: co-occurrence data for males during mating foraging
 matched with offspring rearing burrow use, 2019. Files 58-59 (data for SFF
 and Delta z-score indices): 58 • Mean_SFF_and_Mean_kinship19.xlsx * Column
 1: Focal individual ID * Column 2: Sex * Column 3: Date * Column 4: Video
 ID * Column 5: Burrow use group ID * Columns 6–11: Same foraging and
 burrow-use group (labeled in column as SAME FB). Each column represents a
 known individual from the focal individual's burrow-use group. Values
 indicate the total number of 30-second intervals the individual was
 present with the focal forager. Counts are summed across all observations,
 ranging from 0 (no co-occurrence) to positive integers (total
 co-occurrence intervals). * Columns 12–17: Novel forager (labeled in
 column as NOVEL F). Each column represents an unknown individual from the
 focal individual's burrow-use group. Values indicate the total number
 of 30-second intervals the individual was present with the focal forager.
 Counts are summed across all observations, ranging from 0 (no
 co-occurrence) to positive integers (total co-occurrence intervals). *
 Column 18: Total Same foraging-burrow (labeled in column as TOTAL FB).
 Total number of 30-second intervals in which, in a given video, the focal
 individual was with one or more known foragers from the burrow use group.
 * Column 19: Total novel foragers (labeled in column as TOTAL NF). Total
 number of 30-second intervals in which, in a given video, the focal
 individual was with one or more novel (unknown) foragers from the burrow
 use group. * Column 20: Sum of 30-second intervals in which known and
 unknown individuals from the burrow use group foraged together. * Column
 21: Social Foraging Familiarity index (SFF) for each video. * Column 22:
 Overall within-group mean kinship, for each video. * Column 23: Overall
 mean SFF experienced by the focal individual during the mating period,
 based on foraging and burrow-use data. * Column 24: Overall mean kinship
 experienced by the focal individual during the mating period, based on
 foraging data only. * Column 25: Focal individual ID. 59 •
 Delta_z_score_data19.xlsx * Column 1: Focal individual ID * Column 2:
 Social instability in burrow use (JIS) * Column 3: JIS z-score * Column 4:
 Mean social stability in foraging during mating (SFF) * Column 5: SFF
 z-score * Column 6: Delta z-score, relative to JIS and SFF ## CODE SCRIPTS
 AND WORKFLOW code 1: Script name: MRQAP_analysis.R MRQAP Analysis Script
 for Behavioral Ecology This script allows loading association coefficient
 matrices and creating an MRQAP model, as well as evaluating the inclusion
 of confounding effects (number of observations per dyad for the response
 variable) and a null model. The script randomized matrices from the GBI
 table for each response variable, with 100,000 permutations, to evaluate
 whether the results differ from chance. Finally, the script performs a
 confirmatory Mantel test with 99,999 simulations. The main packages used
 are asnipe and vegan, with the functions mrqap.dsp, mrqap.custom.null, and
 mantel.test. code 2: Script name: GLM_analysis.R Stability in foraging
 associations linked to stability in communal use of burrows in degus This
 script allows fitting GLMs, evaluating term retention via Likelihood Ratio
 Tests, and checking model fit through residual analyses. These steps were
 carried out to: Fit a model explaining JIS (social instability in burrow
 use). Fit a model exploring whether the number of offspring produced is
 associated with the variation in JIS relative to SFF, using a Delta
 z-score. Workflow 1\. Run MRQAP_analysis.R - tests at the dyad level: \-
 Whether foraging associations predict burrow use associations during
 mating \- Whether foraging associations during mating predict burrow use
 associations during offspring rearing 2\. Run GLM_analysis.R - tests at
 the focal individual level: \- Whether social stability during foraging
 predicts social stability in burrow use. \- Whether social stability in
 burrow use relative to social foraging stability during mating predicts
 the number of offspring produced. SOFTWARE VERSIONS R version 4.5.0
 (2025-04-11) loaded packages: asnipe: version ‘1.1.17’, vegan: version
 ‘2.7.1’, ggplot2: version ‘3.5.2’, broom: version ‘1.0.8’, lme4: version
 ‘1.1.37’, glmmTMB: version ‘1.1.11’, ggeffects: version ‘1.4.28’, cowplot:
 version ‘1.2.0’, DHARMa: version ‘0.4.7’, qqplotr: version ‘0.0.6’, MuMIn:
 version ‘1.48.11’, ggrepel: version ‘0.9.6’, readr: version ‘2.1.5’,
 lmtest: version ‘0.9.40’, MASS: version ‘7.3.65’, grid: version ‘4.5.0’
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