Figure 1.

Social groups harbour distinct gut microbiota despite close proximity. (a) Relative abundances of the nine most abundant gut bacterial phyla in 47 Verreaux's sifaka from seven social groups (I–VI: research site trail system; ‘camp': research station camp area). The ‘other' category represents low abundance (less than 2%) phyla. (b) Principal coordinates plot of Bray–Curtis dissimilarities showing ecological distances among 47 sifaka samples. Social group membership explains a significant proportion of variation in gut microbial composition, and groups do not cluster according to habitat overlap. (c) Faecal sample collection sites at Ankoatsifaka Research Station in Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar. Sample collection sites represent group home ranges throughout the behavioural data collection period (electronic supplementary material, figure S16).