The Evolution of Social Organisation in Lorisiformes

Social organisation is made up of three aspects: an animal’s social system, spacing system and mating system (Sterling, 1993). Social systems are the patterns of intragroup relationships; mating systems describe reproductive interactions; and spacing systems describe their spatiotemporal distribution (Müller, 1999) (1978, Charles-Dominique already tried to allay the misconception of labelling nocturnal strepsirrhines as ‘solitary’ since they maintain social networks through vocal and olfactory communication and regularly meet at night, even though they do not forage in groups. Müller (1999) suggested several terms (gregarious, dispersed, spatial or promiscuous) to describe animals living within cohesive groups or solitary animals with social networks. The levels of home range overlap, social interactions and sleeping associations were used to determine the social organisation of these species.