4. Social & territorial behaviours Flashcards
What are social behaviours?
Interactions between at least two individuals of the same species (conspecifics)
What are agonistic interactions?
- Threats
- Displacements
- Chases
- Bites
- Submission
- Avoidance
Function: conflicts
What are the four different kinds of social conflicts?
Parent-offspring
Sexual
Territorial
Dominance
What do agonistic interactions function to do?
They lead to a separation of the interacting individuals
What are affiliative interactions?
- Proximity
- Contact
- Grooming
- Allogrooming
- Playing
What do affiliative interactions function to do?
- Group cohesion
- Cooperation
- Prosocial behaviours
(Close contact without agonistic behaviour)
What is the difference between territory and home range?
Territory is a defended space
Home range is the area used by an animal
Which types of territories exist?
- Display
- Nesting
- All purpose
What is a display territory?
Small, no resources
For pairing and mating
Examples: Fallow deer leks, bower bird displays
What is a nesting territory?
Small
For pairing, mating and nesting
What is an all purpose territory?
Large
Pairing, mating nesting and foraging
What are the benefits of territory
defence?
- Secure resources
- Protect paternity
- Mating success
What are the costs of territory
defence?
- Energy
- Predation
- Fighting
- Signalling
- Injury
How can animals reduce costs of territory defence?
The dear-enemy effect
What is the dear-enemy effect?
You know your neighbour (dear enemy) better than a stranger
A reduction of costs associated with territorial defence
Flexible according to conditions (threats)
—> variation within species
—> variation between species
What makes the skylark (Alauda arvensis) an interesting case?
Songbird
Territorial
- Strong site-tenacity
- Well developed territorial behaviour
- Flight song (long >35 min, big repertoire >300 syllables)
What did Briefer et al (2008) show about the dear-enemy effect?
Higher levels of aggression towards strangers compared to neighbors when:
- it is mid-season (boundaries not in flux)
- it is a shared border
Do banded mongooses show dear-enemy effect?
No, they have the opposite phenomena of “nasty neighbours”
What are dominance hierarchies?
Dominance is repeated agonistic interactions between individuals with a consistent outcome (winner and loser)
Hierarchy is the network of dominance among all dyads in the group
Which types of hierarchies exist?
- Linear (A dominates B dominates C, etc)
- Triangular (A dominates B dominates C dominates A)
- Despotic (A dominates B/C/D)
- Coalition (A dominates B/C BUT B+C dominates A)
How are dominance hierarchies determined?
- Physical characteristics
- Personality
- Genetics
- Hormonal levels
- Experience
How do dominance hierarchies vary?
Males and females can form separate ones
Variation within species/group over time (type of resource)
How do stallions establish hierarchies?
- Agonistic interactions decrease within 3-4 days
- Stable hierarchy after 3 months
What are the benefits of dominance hierarchies?
- Save time on accessing resources
- Decreased number of fights
- High reproductive success (dominants)
- Improved vigilance, foraging, satefy (subordinates)
