AVLEEN S. BIJRAL

Many social mammals form discrete social communities within larger populations. For nonterritorial, polygynous, size-dimorphic species, sex- and age-class differences in life-history requirements might mediate differences in social connectedness and transitions among communities. We conducted social network analysis and community detection with an extensive data set of 1081 individually identified wild giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis, over 5 years to test predictions that adult males and young of both sexes show greater social connectedness (degree, closeness and betweenness centrality) and transition more often among social communities than adult females, which form stronger and more stable relationships. We also expected that young animals would be more socially connected than adults. Using both static and dynamic network clustering techniques, we detected four distinct mixed-sex social communities, which we termed ‘super-communities' to differentiate this apex level of social..