Group-living animals engage in a wide range of social interactions that can influence their gut microbiomes, the communities of microorganisms essential for nutrition, immunity, and overall health. Previous research suggests that social connectivity could create opportunities to “reseed” the gut microbiome after disturbance, thereby maintaining stability and resilience. However, real-world evidence from wild animals has been limited. In this study of wild Grant’s gazelles, CEID members Kate A. Sabey and Vanessa O. Ezenwa were part of a team testing whether individuals with more social connections recover their microbiome richness more rapidly following an antibiotic-induced perturbation, and whether these recolonized microbiomes become more similar to or diverge from the untreated population.
The researchers captured and tagged female Grant’s gazelles in Kenya and randomly assigned them to either an antibiotic treatment group or a control group. They monitored individuals over three months, recording social groups (based on daily associations) and collecting fecal samples to characterize their gut microbiomes via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Social connectivity was quantified using network metrics derived from repeated observations of group membership. Statistical models were then used to examine whether social connectivity influenced the rate of microbiome richness recovery and changes in composition, comparing treated and untreated animals.
The results showed that more socially connected gazelles recovered their microbiome richness faster than less-connected individuals after the antibiotic disturbance, initially supporting the hypothesis that social contact buffers against microbiome disruption. Unexpectedly, as these highly connected individuals regained microbial diversity, their gut microbiomes grew more distinct, rather than more similar, to those of control individuals. This suggests that while social networks do facilitate rapid microbial recolonization, the resulting microbiome might follow an altered trajectory rather than simply returning to a pre-perturbation “normal.” Understanding this dynamic can help us better anticipate how social behavior shapes microbiome resilience in wild animals facing increasing anthropogenic disturbances, informing conservation, management, and health-related interventions.
For more, please find the paper here.