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Animal Behavior > Aggression > Flashcards

Aggression Flashcards

1
Q

Aggression (Wilson)

A

a physical act or threat of action by one individual that reduces the freedom/genetic fitness of another

if both individuals live –> how to measure genetic fitness?

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2
Q

Agonistic

A

refers to any activity related to fighting, whether aggression, concilation, submission, or retreat

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3
Q

Self-restraint in aggressive behavior

A
  • widely held to be trait that evolved for the good of the species
  • ex. snakes X biting, just slamming head to ground per “rules of the game”
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4
Q

What regulates aggression?

A
  • if goal of aggressive interaction is to win w. maximum fitness gain, best way to win is for winner to minimize costs to itself and NOT to maximize costs to loser
  • continuing attack when not necessary to gain inventive adds risk
  • Why not cheat? –> retaliation (nature of display makes cheating difficult)
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5
Q

Costs of aggressive behavior

A
  • potential injury
  • time & energy
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6
Q

Benefits of aggressive behavior

A
  • contextually dependent
  • increase individual fitness through access to resources/mates
  • improved reproductive outcomes
  • reduction of competitor’s fitness
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7
Q

Aggressive behavior types

A
  • interspecific competition over resources
  • territorial aggression
  • dominance behavior
  • sexual aggression (intra- & intersexual)
  • infanticide
  • parental aggression
  • sibling aggression
  • predatory/anti-predator aggression
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8
Q

interspecific competition over resources

A

hyenas vs. lions over food & beyond

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9
Q

Questions concerning territorial aggression

A
  • why?
  • benefits?
  • how big territory?
  • year-round vs. seasonal
  • time/energy?
  • qualities to determine contest winner?
  • which sex defends?
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10
Q

Yarrow’s spiny lizard

A
  • increased T in lizard
  • increased survival rate (due to aggression & defending), but increased further if food isn’t contested for (X need to divide time between foraging and defending)
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11
Q

Black-winged damselfly (Marden & Waage)

A
  • winner determination not weight-related, but % fat (more energy reserves)
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12
Q

Speckled wood butterfly - who wins? (Davies)

A
  • “arbitrary rules” in settling contests?
  • resident butterfly always wins territory (arbitrary bc unrelated to fitness)
  • alternative explanation that contests are settled due to resource-correlated asymmetries in thoracic temperature (not arbitrary)
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13
Q

Schjelderup-Ebbe (~1935)

A
  • studied chicken aggressive interactions
  • “pecking order” reflects dominance hierarchy found in chicken groups
  • unfamiliar hens + fighting over food = usual winner - dominant; usual lose - subordinate
  • A > B > C > D etc
  • need <10 chickens to remember past interactions
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14
Q

Dominance hierarchies

A
  • naturally, established dominance hierarchies are usually “linear” & stable over periods of time
  • rare and temporary intransitive hierarchies less common in nature
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15
Q

Dominance hierachies in primates controversies

A
  • dominance emphasized in early studies
  • does dominance really exist in primates? more complex than chickens & closely related to humans –> more research performed on primates
  • is it the key to understanding primate societies?
  • how to measure? correlation vs. values?
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16
Q

The baby & the bathwater (Bernstein)

A
  • bathwater so dirty, you may lose the last bathed baby in it
17
Q

Assessing dominance in monkeys?

A
  • “grin” (bared teeth expression, typically by adult males but also seen in others)?
  • yawning?
  • grooming?
  • first access to food/water?
  • access to mates?
  • displacement
18
Q

Intersexual aggression: gulls

A
  • male attack female –> mistaken identity?
  • theory: to prove female’s lack of fitness & female X trying to get free meal (from male courting) –> prove female attraction to male
19
Q

Intersexual aggression: praying mantis

A
  • sexual cannibalism due to survival strains (food) –> rare
  • also seen in male Montpellier snakes eating females
20
Q

Intersexual aggression: ring doves

A
  • female requires male courtship to come into reproductive condition
  • if female already courted by other male, ovulation occurs later (sperm stays in reproductive tract for a minute) –> increases likelihood of parenthood of later male
  • male very involved in raising young (costly)
  • female may leave to mate with 2nd male –> how to ensure young is yours & limit energy waste?
21
Q

Infanticide

A
  • seen in lions, langurs (& other primates), Belding’s ground squirrel (& other rodents)
22
Q

Hanuman langurs

A
  • 1 male & many females
  • male challenged –> will lose to stronger & younger male
  • young males often killed by head male
  • Sarah Hrdy: males evolved this strategy to protect genetic spread –> only attack nursing young –> received negative reception due to “for the group” popular belief
23
Q

Lions

A
  • females X develop fight back bc X all male cubs will be killed, esp past nursing
24
Q

Evidence supporting the hypothesis that infanticide is adaptive

A
  • most compelling in species (i.e. lion, langurs) in which small groups comprised of many females and 1 breeding male
  • male tenure limited - and thus so are mating opportunities
  • males X kill own infants
  • young nursing infants are killed soon after male takeover
  • females resumes cycling & becomes receptive sooner
25
Q

Controversy surrounding the hypothesis that infanticide by males is adaptive

A
  • how widespread?
  • some claim infanticide in species where social system X fit lions/langurs’ pattern
26
Q

Daly & Wilson (1988)

A
  • “children living w/ a stepparent & a genetic parent are 40x more likely to be physically abused”
  • controversial & extrapolates
27
Q

Belding’s ground squirrel

A
  • infanticide committed mostly by adult females that X reside in same area as victim
  • females X kill relatives & will help kin protect their young from infanticide
28
Q

Storks

A
  • parental killing of young intentionally
  • eggs hatch asynchronously –> different development stages –> older tend to survive for parents to conserve energy
  • storks’ young may also abuse younger siblings (advantage by already being fed & large) –> parent X feed offspring when pushed out of nest
29
Q

American coots asynchronous hatching

A
  • punish begging-food young by pecking –> concentrate punishment –> chosen 1 stops begging & starves to death
  • cycle continues so long as there is a surplus of food
30
Q

Siblicide

A
  • seen in numerous birds
  • to make eggs hatch asychronously
31
Q

Crimson Rosella Parrots

A
  • no fixed rule regarding asynchronously hatching
  • parents feed evenly & every nestling receives adequate ration
  • sometimes eldest will share w/ youngest & weakest
  • after ~3 weeks, strength & weakness differences have evened out –> nestlings about the same size
32
Q

Burrower bug siblicide

A
  • mom stnads over her egg mass & vibrates –> initiate sync
  • lab setting: eggs hatch asynch w/o vibe –> young cannibalize older siblings just after first molt before exoskeleton hardens
33
Q

Bowl & doily spiders (Austad)

A
  • outcome of aggressive contests depends on female reproductive value & opponent’s fight ability
  • 1st male priority in sperm competition (95% fertilized by 1st male & can fertilize while fighting)
  • Sequence: investigation (courtship & pseudocopulation) followed by mating
  • avg # eggs fertilized for all females enoucountered by male = avg value of femlae when first encountered = 10
  • virgin 4x more valuable
  • male fighting ability varies w/ body size
  • experiment: introduce 2nd male and assess fighting behavior of 1st male at diff points of mating sequence
  • when female reprod. value (V) = for both males –> fights settled by male body size
  • when males = size, fights settled by differences in V
  • when residents smaller than intruders –> persist more in fights w/ strong V
  • –> give up after 7 min copulation
  • most serious fights when V/k (k=cost of fight) identical
34
Q

Evolutionarily Stable State (ESS)

A
  • models of behavior that take into account that the benefits (& costs) of a behavior can depend upon what other animals in the population are doing
  • also recognize that, under certain conditions, different behaviors can be of equal value
35
Q

Hawk-Dove Model of Aggression

A
  • “aggressive” vs. “shy” strategies
  • HvH: 0.5 injury + 0.5 W = -0.25
  • HvD = H W
  • DvH = D L
  • DvD = display –> attacker wins 0.5 encounters
  • Avg payoff: H = 7/12; D = 5/12
36
Q

Is ESS optimal?

A
  • no - avg pay-off is 6.25/contest
  • if “all individuals “agreed” to fight as “doves”, avg pay-off would be 15
  • but, pop composed only of Ds would be vulnerable to invasion by selfish mutant (H)
37
Q

Female digger wasp nesting strategies

A
  • “diggers” & “enterers”
  • 100 minutes to dig burrows
  • females X seem to distinguish empty vs. occupied burrows –> fights
  • measured success of two strategies based on # of eggs laid/unit time
  • to be evolutionarily adaptive –> need both strategies to pay off equally
  • individuals females used both strategies –> facultative use
  • is it really adaptive? –> just need more time to see

Animal Behavior (9 decks)

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