scholarly journals Social contagion of affiliation in female macaques

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 201538
Author(s):  
Julia Ostner ◽  
Jana Wilken ◽  
Oliver Schülke
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Social Contagion ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Species Relationship ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grooming Behaviour ◽  
Interactive Behaviour

Social contagion of non-interactive behaviour is widespread among animals including humans. It is thought to facilitate behavioural synchronization and consequently group cohesion, coordination and opportunities for social learning. Contagion of interactive behaviour—particularly affiliation—has received much less attention. Here, we investigated in female rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) the effect of observing group members groom on a subject's subsequent grooming behaviour and the potential modulation of contagion by relationship quality and social status. We recorded behaviour after subjects witnessed a grooming event and compared it to behaviour in a control condition with the same individuals in proximity but in the absence of a stimulus grooming event. Compared to the control condition, after observing others groom, females engaged in a grooming interaction sooner, and were more likely to be the initiator and to take on the active groomer role. Dominance rank of the focal individual and more weakly also of the stimulus individuals affected the latency to the next grooming interaction of the focal subject. Latency to the next grooming interaction decreased with increasing rank of the subject potentially reflecting lower social constraints faced by high ranking individuals in this highly despotic species. Relationship quality between the subject and the stimulus individuals had no effect on latency to grooming. Collectively, our findings provide evidence for visual contagion of affiliation in rhesus macaques. Future studies should explore the systematic variation in contagion of interactive behaviour in relation to a gradient of social tolerance.

scholarly journals Grooming interventions in female rhesus macaques as social niche construction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mielke ◽  
Carina Bruchmann ◽  
Oliver Schülke ◽  
Julia Ostner
Keyword(s):  
Macaca Mulatta ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Female Rhesus ◽  
Group Members ◽  
High Dominance ◽  
Female Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Social Niche

AbstractSocial animals invest time and resources into building and adapting their social environment, which emerges not only from their own but also from the decisions of other group members. Thus, individuals have to monitor interactions between others and potentially decide when and how to interfere to prevent damage to their own investment. These interventions can be subtle, as in the case of affiliative interactions such as grooming, but they can inform us about how animals structure their world and influence other group members. Here, we used interventions into grooming bouts in 29 female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to determine who intervened into which grooming bouts, why, and what determined intervention outcomes, based on kinship, dominance rank, and affiliative relationships between groomers and (potential) interveners. Using 1132 grooming bouts and 521 interventions, we show that high dominance rank of groomers reduced the risk of intervention. Bystanders, particularly when high-ranking, intervened in grooming of their kin, close affiliates, and close-ranked competitors. Interveners gained access to their close affiliates for subsequent grooming. Affiliative relationship and rank determined intervention outcomes, with reduced aggression risk facilitating grooming involving three individuals. Thus, interventions in this species involved the monitoring of grooming interactions, decision-making based on several individual and dyadic characteristics, and potentially allowed individuals to broaden their access to grooming partners, protect their own relationships, and influence their social niche.

scholarly journals The analysis of individual Visegrad group members’ agrarian export sensitivity in relation to selected macroeconomic aggregations

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-342
Author(s):  
Miroslav Svatoš ◽  
Luboš Smutka
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Grocery Industry ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Visegrad Group

This paper analyzes the development of agricultural trade of the countries of the Visegrad Group with emphasis on development of the value of agricultural exports of the individual countries. The subject matter of the analysis is the sensitivity of the commodity structure of agricultural exports of individual countries and the identification of aggregations that are the least and the most sensitive to changes to the external and internal economic environment. From the conducted research, agricultural trade in the V4 countries was found to have developed very dynamically from 1993 to 2008, while the commodity structure of exports has constantly narrowed as the degree of specialization of the individual countries has increased (this applies especially to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary). From the results of analysis of sensitivity to changes of selected variables relating to the development of the value of agricultural exports of the individual V4 countries, it appears that the aggregations that react most sensitively to changes are those that are the subject of re-exports, followed by the aggregations that are characterized by a high degree of added value. In general it can be said that products of agricultural primary production exhibit less sensitivity in comparison with grocery industry products. This is confirmed by the general trend arising from the very nature of consumer behaviour.

Cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank, but not baseline cortisol level, are repeatable traits in adult female guinea pigs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Lynne Rystrom ◽  
Romy C. Prawitt ◽  
S. Helene Richter ◽  
Norbert Sachser ◽  
Sylvia Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Adult Female ◽  
Guinea Pigs ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Baseline Cortisol ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Endocrine Mechanism ◽  
Males And Females

Social interactions among group members often lead to the formation of stable dominance hierarchies. Glucocorticoids (i.e. cortisol) have been proposed as an endocrine mechanism underlying social behavior, and previous studies have linked baseline as well as challenge glucocorticoid concentrations to dominance rank. Since the importance of rank on fitness differs between males and females, selection pressures acting on the underlying endocrine mechanisms may differ between the sexes. In male guinea pigs, for example, it is known that cortisol responsiveness mediates social behavior and that dominance rank and cortisol responsiveness are stable within individuals over time. It is unclear whether this is also the case for female guinea pigs. Thus the aim of this study was to investigate whether cortisol concentrations are repeatable in female guinea pigs and whether female rank is correlated to baseline cortisol concentrations or cortisol responsiveness. We show that cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank were significantly repeatable but not correlated in female guinea pigs. Furthermore, baseline cortisol was not repeatable and also did not correlate to dominance rank. Our results demonstrate that baseline cortisol and cortisol responsiveness represent different biological processes; cortisol responsiveness reflects a stable trait while baseline cortisol likely fluctuates with current state. Furthermore, cortisol responsiveness as a mediator of aggressive behavior and dominance acquisition might not be important for maintaining dominance hierarchies in stable groups of females displaying minimal aggression. Overall, this study reveals the remarkable stability of cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank in an adult female rodent and lays the groundwork for future investigations into the causes and consequences of this individual variation.

Behavioural consistency and group conformity in humbug damselfish

Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (13-15) ◽  
pp. 1343-1359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia L.J. Burns ◽  
Timothy M. Schaerf ◽  
Ashley J.W. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Absolute Size ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Behavioural Type ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Dascyllus Aruanus

Abstract Humbug damselfish, Dascyllus aruanus, are a common coral reef fish that form stable social groups with size-based social hierarchies. Here we caught whole wild groups of damselfish and tested whether social groups tended to be comprised of animals that are more similar to one another in terms of their behavioural type, than expected by chance. First we found that individuals were repeatable in their level of activity and exploration, and that this was independent of both absolute size and within-group dominance rank, indicating that animals were behaviourally consistent. Secondly, despite the fact that individuals were tested independently, the behaviour of members of the same groups was significantly more similar than expected under a null model, suggesting that individual behaviour develops and is shaped by conformity to the behaviour of other group members. This is one of the first studies to demonstrate this group-level behavioural conformity in wild-caught groups.

Experimental evidence that acorn woodpeckers recognize relationships among third parties no longer living together

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 1257-1265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A Pardo ◽  
Eric L Walters ◽  
Walter D Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Melanerpes Formicivorus ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Acorn Woodpeckers ◽  
Group Relationships

Abstract Triadic awareness, or knowledge of the relationships between others, is essential to navigating many complex social interactions. While some animals maintain relationships with former group members post-dispersal, recognizing cross-group relationships between others may be more cognitively challenging than simply recognizing relationships between members of a single group because there is typically much less opportunity to observe interactions between individuals that do not live together. We presented acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a highly social species, with playback stimuli consisting of a simulated chorus between two different individuals, a behavior that only occurs naturally between social affiliates. Subjects were expected to respond less rapidly if they perceived the callers as having an affiliative relationship. Females responded more rapidly to a pair of callers that never co-occurred in the same social group, and responded less rapidly to callers that were members of the same social group at the time of the experiment and to callers that last lived in the same group before the subject had hatched. This suggests that female acorn woodpeckers can infer the existence of relationships between conspecifics that live in separate groups by observing them interact after the conspecifics in question no longer live in the same group as each other. This study provides experimental evidence that nonhuman animals may recognize relationships between third parties that no longer live together and emphasizes the potential importance of social knowledge about distant social affiliates.

“I’m Not Really 100% a Woman If I Can’t Have a Kid”: Infertility and the Intersection of Gender, Identity, and the Body

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann V. Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

Despite establishing the gendered construction of infertility, most research on the subject has not examined how individuals with such reproductive difficulty negotiate their own sense of gender. I explore this gap through 58 interviews with women who are medically infertile and involuntarily childless. In studying how women achieve their gender, I reveal the importance of the body to such construction. For the participants, there is not just a motherhood mandate in the United States, but a fertility mandate—women are not just supposed to mother, they are supposed to procreate. Given this understanding, participants maintain their gender by denying their infertile status. They do so through reliance on essentialist notions, using their bodies as a means of constructing a gendered sense of self. Using the tenets of transgender theory, this study not only informs our understanding of infertility, but also our broader understanding of the relationship between gender, identity, and the body, exposing how individuals negotiate their gender through physical as well as institutional and social constraints.

Function and Meaning of Wild Gorilla 'Close' Calls

Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 827-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.H. Harcourt ◽  
K.J. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Future Activity ◽  
Close Call ◽  
Contact Calls ◽  
Group Members

We investigate the social significance of the within group ('close') calls of gorillas by examining correlates of calling with dominance rank and with relatedness of adults, and by examining whether the outcomes of interactions between adults differ depending on the calls given during the interactions. In two wild gorilla groups, the majority of adults give most of their calls when near another adult and fully in sight of them. Thus gorillas' use 'close' calls as more than mere contact calls. An adult gorilla's use of 'close' calls correlates with its own and with its partner's dominance rank, with effects being most obvious for the most dominant animals, the fully adult males. Thus the proportion of 'double grunts', the most common 'close' call, in an individual's repertoire correlated consistently with dominance rank; all non-silverback adults gave a higher percent of double grunts in the presence of subordinates than they did near dominant animals; individuals were most likely to give 'non-syllabled' grunts in the adult male's presence; and they consistently exchanged calls at a higher rate with the adult males than with other group members. An adult's type of calls did not obviously differ depending on whether their neighbour was kin or non-kin, but kin were overall more likely to give calls in the presence of kin, and to exchange calls with kin than with non-kin, although the association was not consistent throughout the two years of the study. With regard to the consequences of calling, subordinates were less likely to be feeding one minute after an approach by a fully adult male during which calls were exchanged than during silent approaches. In contrast to findings from studies of some other species, calling did not correlate with duration of grooming. We suggest that, among other functions, gorillas' 'close' calls mediate social interactions. One form of calls, 'non-syllabled' calls, are interpretable as appeasement signals. The broadest interpretation of the 'double grunt' is that it is an exaggerated announcement of presence, whose function is to attract attention to the caller, and to signal conditional future activity.

Male Dominance and Reproductive Success in a Captive Group of Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta)

Behaviour ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 129 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Glenn Smith
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Macaca Mulatta ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Captive Group ◽  
Lower Ranking

AbstractPaternity exclusion analysis was employed to estimate the reproductive success (RS) of 32 males who experienced at least one breeding season over the age of four years between 1977 and 1991 in a captive group of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Although three different males held alpha rank during the period, the male dominance hierarchy remained relatively stable even when the number of males was high. Average dominance rank and overall RS of males while in the group were strongly correlated. However, during most years the correlation between male dominance rank and RS was not statistically significant because males who achieved high rank 1)were those who experienced relatively high RS as lower ranking subadults and 2) maintained high dominance rank after experiencing a sustained decline in RS. Correlations between male dominance rank and RS were highest when the number of subadult males entering the dominance hierarchy was increasing and one or a very few males were least effective in monopolizing females. These results are not consistent with expectations based solely on the priority of access model of intrasexual selection. Female choice, as exemplified by the preference of females for mating with young males that are rising in rank, might also influence the evolution of social dominance in rhesus macaques.

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