scholarly journals The Social Rank of Zoo-Housed Japanese Macaques is a Predictor of Visitor-Directed Aggression

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyn M. Woods ◽  
Stephen R. Ross ◽  
Katherine A. Cronin

The effect that visitors have on the behavior and welfare of animals is a widely-studied topic in zoo animal welfare. Typically, these studies focus on how the presence or activity levels of visitors affect animals. However, for many species, and particularly primates, social factors, such as social rank, can also have a large impact on behavior. Here, we considered the influence of both the role of visitors (crowd size and activity levels) and rank on the occurrence of visitor-directed aggression by zoo-housed Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata, N = 12). We conducted 52 weeks of observation (443.8 h) of macaques living in a large outdoor habitat and recorded 1574 events of visitor-directed behavior, 94.2% of which was characterized as aggressive. We calculated rank using the Elo-rating method. GLMM comparisons indicate that rank was a significant predictor of visitor-directed aggression, with lower-ranked individuals displaying more frequent aggression towards visitors. Additionally, visitor-directed aggression differed by crowd activity levels, but not crowd size. These results support our prediction that rank is associated with differences in visitor-directed aggression, and we interpret this pattern as lower-ranking macaques redirecting aggression toward zoo visitors as safe targets. This work emphasizes how factors emanating from the zoo environment can combine with social dynamics to influence primate response to human presence in the zoo setting.

Behaviour ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Chapais ◽  
Patrick Belisle

AbstractWe analyzed co-feeding in relation to degree of kinship in Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata), testing experimentally five categories of matrilineal kin dyads: mother-daughter, grandmother-granddaughter, sisters, aunt-niece and nonkin. In each test, two adult females with a clear dominance relationship had access to a box containing a limited quantity of highly prized food. The dominant female could easily prevent the subordinate from eating so that food was easily monopolizable, hence the use of the expression tolerated co-feeding. Rates of tolerated co-feeding increased steeply with degree of kinship. The aggression levels of dominant females towards subordinate females decreased with increasing degree of kinship and this effect was most apparent between mothers and daughters. The confidence level of subordinate females increased with degree of kinship and this effect became apparent above the aunt-niece kin class. Prior access to food by the subordinate female was a significant means of access to food, mostly beyond the grandmother-granddaughter kin category. The results point to a relatedness threshold for the preferential treatment of kin at r = 0.25 (grandmother-granddaughter and sister dyads), beyond which (r = 0.125: aunt-niece dyads), levels of tolerated co-feeding were comparable to those of nonkin females. The identity of this threshold with that found in previous studies on the same group for two different types of interactions suggests the existence of a generalized relatedness threshold for kin favoritism in Japanese macaques. Assuming that the costs of food defense by the dominant females were negligible and that tolerated co-feeding was altruistic, our results support the role of kin selection in the evolution of altruism in primates beyond the mother-offspring bond.


Africa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Padrão Temudo

This article aims at contributing to our understanding of violence and warfare in contemporary West Africa by adopting a bi-focal analysis that looks both at power struggles within the urban elite and at the grassroots multi-ethnic setting in southern Guinea-Bissau. I pay close attention to the social dynamics of rural peoples' perspectives, coping strategies and inter-ethnic conflicts. Local conflicts are elucidated as an ongoing process that traverses times of war and peace. Although they are subject to manipulation by urban actors, local conflicts are also a matter of continuous negotiation and partial consensus at the grassroots. In stark contrast to this, the struggles in the ruling group are characterized by an escalating spiral of factionalism, diminishing compromises and elimination of rivals. By analysing the relationship between urban and rural actors and the role of cosmology, the article also aims to shed new light on the multiple shapes patron–client relations can assume in Africa.


Author(s):  
Ellie R. Schainker

Chapter 3 explores the social dynamics of religious toleration and the confessional state from below by examining the spaces of Jewish conversion. The chapter presents a range of conversion narratives which locate interfaith encounters at the local tavern as the springboard for migrating to a different confessional community. It analyzes daily social interactions among Jewish and neighboring Polish, Lithuanian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian communities, and how these encounters nurtured intimate knowledge of other confessional lifestyles, facilitated interfaith relationships, and provided access to the personnel and institutions of other faiths. By taking a geographical approach, the chapter presents the western provincial towns and villages of imperial Russia as interreligious zones wherein conversion was predicated on interconfessional networks, sociability, and a personal familiarity with Christianity via its adherents. In exploring forms of encounter, the chapter highlights the role of the local godparent—often local elites or civil/military personnel—in facilitating confessional transfers.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Zuñiga-Garcia ◽  
Cesar A. Meza-Herrera ◽  
Adela Mendoza-Cortina ◽  
Julio Otal-Salaverri ◽  
Carlos Perez-Marin ◽  
...  

We evaluated the possible role of the social rank [R] (i.e., low—LSR, middle—MSR, or high—HSR) in anestrus goats exposed to a P4 + eCG [D] (i.e., 100 or 350 IU) estrus induction protocol (EIP). Adult, multiparous (two to three lactations), multiracial, dairy-type goats (Alpine–Saanen–Nubian x Criollo goats (n = 70; 25°51′ North) managed under stall-fed conditions were all ultrasound evaluated to confirm anestrus status while the R was determined 30 d prior to the EIP. The variables of estrus induction (EI, %), estrus latency (LAT, h), estrus duration (DUR, h), ovulation (OVU, %), ovulation rate (OR, n), corpus luteum size (CLS, cm), pregnancy (PREG, %), kidding (KIDD, %), and litter size (LS, n) as affected by R, D, and the R × D interaction, were evaluated. While OVU and CLS favored (p < 0.05) HSR (96% and + 1.04 ± 0.07 cm), an increased (p < 0.05) LS occurred in D350 vs. D100 (2.06 ± 0.2 vs. 1.36 ± 0.2); neither R nor D affected (p > 0.05; 38.5%) KIDD. However, EI, LAT, DUR, OR, and PREG were affected by the R × D interaction. The HSR group had the largest (p < 0.05) EI % and DUR h, irrespective of D. The shortest (p < 0.05) LAT occurred in D350, irrespective of R. While the largest (p < 0.05) OR occurred in HSR and MSR within D350, the HSR + D350 group had the largest PREG (p < 0.05). These research outcomes are central to defining out-of-season reproductive strategies designed to attenuate seasonal reproduction in goats.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward D. Sturman ◽  
Myriam Mongrain

This study sought to test the role of personality within the social rank theory of depression. Specifically, self‐criticism was hypothesised to be a risk factor for mechanisms underlying involuntary subordination, while self‐efficacy was hypothesised to have a protective function. Involuntary subordination has been implicated as an underlying cause of depression and it was therefore important to determine the personality variables and other intrapsychic mechanisms that lead to this condition. The sample consisted of 115 participants (average age of 20.2 years) who were involved in athletic competition. Participants were evaluated at baseline for personality and social rank variables and for mood immediately before and after a competitive match. Two models were tested: the first model showed that self‐criticism and neuroticism predicted a heightened perception of defeat following a loss. Self‐criticism also predicted an inability to accept defeat which was associated with a latent variable interpreted as involuntary subordination. The second model demonstrated that self‐efficacy was associated with a more adaptive response to defeat, being negatively related to the perception of defeat. Both models proved to be viable and suggest that different personality styles confer specific vulnerabilities to involuntary subordination in the context of defeating events. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 184797901772161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Peter Ferdinand ◽  
Uli Meyer

In this article, we develop a programmatic notion of innovation ecosystems, which emphasizes the analysis of different forms of distributed innovation without reducing the perspective to the role of a focal organization. It highlights relationships between communities and corporate firms as nexus for distributed innovation and elaborates how different facets of openness shape the dynamic of the ecosystem. Thus, our model allows for the analysis and comparison of a broad scope of constellations, their particular coordinating mechanisms as well as related advantages and disadvantages. We apply this framework to two specific cases of distributed innovation, the RepRap 3D printer and the ARA modular smartphone, in order to delineate how differences in the forms of openness affect the prevalent relationships between communities and firms as well as the constituting functions of their particular innovation ecosystem.


2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Kunio Watanabe

Abstract Typically, Japanese macaques are thought to avoid encountering other groups wherever possible. Intergroup relations between macaques on Shodoshima Island, however, appear exceptional. We show that neighboring groups of Shodoshima monkeys spent 32.8% of their active time in proximity to (&lt;100 m) and even foraged simultaneously at the same provisioning site with another group. The average duration and rate of intergroup encounters at Shodoshima (59.8 min, 0.33 times/hour, n=269) were approximately ten times longer and 16.5 times more frequent than those at Jigokudani (6.1 min, 0.02 times/hour, n=14). Since both populations have similar provisioning and ecological conditions, such variation cannot be explained by the socioecology model alone. Compared with other populations of Japanese macaques, intergroup relations of Shodoshima monkeys are also characterized by more frequent neutral encounters, less frequent agonistic encounters, more frequent unsuccessful displacement, a lower intensity of aggression, and more frequent counter-aggression between groups. These characteristics suggest that intergroup relationships on Shodoshima Island are more tolerant than those in other Japanese macaque populations. This study reveals considerable differences in intergroup encounters within local populations of Japanese macaques living in similar environments, and emphasizes the role of social factors in such intra-specific variation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Saghar Sadeghian

This article is about the struggles of a persecuted confessional minority in Qajar Iran. It shows that the massacre of the Bahāʾis in Isfahan in 1903 was representative of the ongoing power struggles in the city. Previous scholarship that has briefly explored these events has relied primarily on a handful of British diplomatic sources. Drawing on unexplored documents in British and Iranian archives, this article provides crucial details about the social dynamics on the ground and stresses the role of key actors involved in this episode in Iranian history. In the process, the article puts together the socio-economic contexts of the events in Isfahan, explains why the Bahāʾis sought foreign protection, and analyzes the attitudes of powerful local actors such as Zell al-Soltān and Āqā Najafi.


1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Stoller

AbstractThis article locates the first regime of Alfonso López Pumarejo (the Revolutión en marcha, 1934–8) within the social dynamics of Colombia's polarised party system, rather than the developmentalist and class dynamics that are frequently invoked. López's economic and political thought is shown to be far closer to the partisan and antistatist traditions of Colombian liberalism than is often assumed, and his rise to power is depicted as a victory of political strategy rather than class alliances. After surveying the role of the Acción Liberal group of intellectuals in the radicalisation of Liberal discourse, culminating in the constitutional reform of 1936, the article offers hypotheses about the transitory nature of López-era Liberal radicalism.


Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (11) ◽  
pp. 1225-1254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noëlle Gunst ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Leca ◽  
Paul L. Vasey

The emergence of conceptive and non-conceptive sexual behaviours in mature individuals can be traced back to immature socio-sexual behavioural patterns. We tested the ‘needing-to-learn hypothesis’ in the development of sexual behaviours in the immature male Japanese macaques of Arashiyama, Japan. This hypothesis holds that juvenility serves to provide young individuals with a period in which to practice adult male-like sexual and socio-sexual behaviours and partner choice. Our cross-sectional focal data on mounting behaviour and partner choice in juvenile males (1–3 years) supported most of our predictions: (1) as they became older and learnt more effective patterns of sexual solicitations, juvenile males performed more demonstrative solicitations and less non-demonstrative solicitations, (2) the frequency of mounts performed by juvenile males increased with age and converged on a frequency of mounts typical of adult males, (3) the frequency of mounts reflecting underachievement (i.e., improperly oriented mounts and single/no foot-clasp mounts) decreased as juvenile males became older, (4) the double foot-clasp mounting posture became gradually more common in juvenile males over time, while other mounting postures became less common and (5) from two to three years old, the frequency of males’ sexual mounts directed to adult females increased. Such timelines of gradual increase in the frequency of effective adult-like behavioural patterns and gradual decrease in the frequency of less effective immature behavioural patterns are consistent with the ‘needing-to-learn hypothesis’ emphasizing the role of age and practice in the progressive acquisition of adult-like sexual behaviour, mounting skills, and partner age choice during male juvenility.


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