In many group-living animals, survival and reproductive success depend on the formation of long-term social bonds, yet it remains largely unclear why particular pairs of groupmates form social bonds and not others. Can social bond formation be reliably predicted from each individual's immediately observable traits and behaviors at first encounter? Or is social bond formation hard to predict due to the impacts of shifting social preferences on social network dynamics? To begin to address these questions, we asked how well long-term cooperative relationships among vampire bats were predicted by how they interacted during their first encounter as introduced strangers. In Study 1, we found that the first 6 h of observed interactions among unfamiliar bats co-housed in small cages did not clearly predict the formation of allogrooming or food-sharing relationships over the next 10 months. In Study 2, we found that biologger-tracked first contacts during the first 4–24 h together in a flight cage did not strongly predict allogrooming rates over the next 4 months. These results corroborate past evidence that social bonding in vampire bats is not reducible to the individual traits or behaviors observed at first encounter. Put simply, first impressions are overshadowed by future social interactions.

中文翻译：

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吸血蝙蝠之间的长期合作关系并不能通过它们的初始互动来强烈预测


在许多群居动物中，生存和繁殖的成功取决于长期社会纽带的形成，但目前尚不清楚为什么特定的群体伙伴会形成社会纽带，而不是其他群体。能否从每个人第一次接触时立即观察到的特征和行为可靠地预测社会纽带的形成？或者，由于不断变化的社会偏好对社交网络动态的影响，社会纽带的形成是否难以预测？为了开始回答这些问题，我们询问了吸血蝙蝠在第一次遇到陌生人时的互动方式如何预测吸血蝙蝠之间的长期合作关系。在研究 1 中，我们发现在小笼子里共同安置的不熟悉的蝙蝠之间观察到的前 6 小时互动并不能清楚地预测未来 10 个月内同种异体修饰或食物共享关系的形成。在研究 2 中，我们发现在飞行笼中的前 4-24 小时内生物记录器跟踪的首次接触并不能强烈预测接下来 4 个月的同种异体整理率。这些结果证实了过去的证据，即吸血蝙蝠的社会纽带不能简化为第一次接触时观察到的个体特征或行为。简而言之，第一印象会被未来的社交互动所掩盖。