Exam 3: Sociality

Question 1

Dominant behavior

Answer 1

One animal exerts itself over another animal by using various kinds of agonist is behaviors in order to gain access to a resource
The dominant animal usually wins these interactions
Behavior that helps gain access to certain resources

Question 2

Submissive behavior

Answer 2

Action exhibited by individuals to avoid agonist from higher ranking individuals and which maintain relative ranks in the social groups

Question 3

Dominance hierarchy

Answer 3

• First developed by Schjelderup-Ebbes’ classic study of pecking order in domestic chickens (1992)
• Alpha would peck everyone else but not the rest
• Eventually the aggression would stop
• The individual who consistently wins the most agonist is confrontations in a variety of situations is viewed as higher ranking and dominant
• These types of relationships aren’t set in stone
• Social primates do have dominance hierarchy
• Once the dominance hierarchy is established there is actually little agonist within a group

Question 4

Direction of submissive and dominant behaviors

Answer 4

• Approach-Retreat interactions

- Interactions are most common in species with well-established dominance hierarchies

Question 5

Approach-Retreat interactions

Answer 5

Approach = dominant behavior
Retreat = submissive behavior

Question 6

Physical aggression

Answer 6

• In addition to the dominance hierarchy primates also use displays to mediate conflict
• Displays: conspicuous ritualized signals exchanged between two or more animals of the same species that provides specific information
• Facial expression can also be a form of display
• Can use genitals to show aggression as well

Question 7

Dominant animals

Answer 7

• Aren’t necessarily the most agonistic members of their group
• How dominance is maintained varies from group to group, species to species
• Big social groups is when things start to become difficult
• Dominance hierarchies can and do change over time

Question 8

Life within a social primate group…

Answer 8

has to be balanced between competition and cooperation

• One way is via dominance relationships
• Another involves special relationships between individuals i.e. friendships
• Kinship and relatedness between individuals has important effects on primate relationships
• Friendly vs non friendly behavior
• Grooming patterns, can tell a lot about relationshipsp

Question 9

Advantages of kin-based relationship

Answer 9

• Support of kin during agonistic bouts with others along “Matrilines”
• Allows offspring to acquire parenting skills
• Being in a matriline then the daughter can help out
• Reduces energy costs on mother
• Transfer of cultural knowledge

Question 10

Balancing Primate Social Groups

Answer 10

Life in a social primate group has to be balanced between competition and cooperation through Agonism and Dominance Hierarchies

Question 11

Agonism

Answer 11

Conflict behavior which can be either assertive or defensive. It can involve simply supplanting another individual from feeding patch, threat gestures, as well as direct physical attack

Question 12

Aggression

Answer 12

A specific form of conflict behavior characterized by physical and/or verbal (for humans) attack