Impact of genetic relatedness and food competition on female dominance hierarchies in a cichlid fish

2022 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Iris Madge Pimentel ◽  
Simon Vitt ◽  
Timo Thünken
Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 1283-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Lockard ◽  
Jennifer Scott

AbstractFemale dominance relationships were studied among three family groups of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) housed in large enclosures at Howletts Wild Animal Park, in Kent, England. In common with gorillas in their natural habitat, the Howletts gorillas forage throughout the day on low nutrient foods. However, the latter differ, at least from mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei), in that they also have relatively frequent access to high nutrient, high energy novel food items which are patchily distributed in time and space, and defendable. It was predicted that, despite these differences, the Howletts females would resemble mountain gorillas in forming adult female dominance hierarchies (determined from supplant interactions) in which older females that have lived in the group the longest are dominant to younger females, more recent to the group. The comparison was made with mountain gorillas as they are the only gorilla subspecies for which such data exist for wild-living populations. As predicted, an age/tenure-based dominance hierarchy was found to be the case for those groups at Howletts where there was considerable variation between the females' ages and length of group tenure. As gorillas and chimpanzees resemble more closely each other in forming age/tenure-based dominance hierarchies than they do other female-transfer primate species, it is proposed that the gorilla-chimpanzee pattern may have common phylogenetic origins. In addition, the order of progression of gorillas into their indoor living quarters appears to be a good indicator of supplant-dominance relationships among adult group members. It was also found that, despite being removed from their natural habitat, dominant males in captivity still lead their groups during group travel in the same manner that do males in the wild: either at the head, or bringing up the rear. Though primate social behaviour may be flexible depending on immediate context and life history variables, this flexibility may well remain within evolutionarily defined parameters, leading to species-typical patterns in general social interactions.


Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 475-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Ron ◽  
S. Peter Henzi ◽  
Uzi Motro

AbstractIn this study troop of chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) at Mkuzi Game Reserve, Zululand, South-Africa, it is suggested that risk of predation and competition over safe spatial position had more importance and effect on female behaviour than did competition for food. Only 6.4% of all agonistic events were over food patches and no significant correlation was found between a female's dominance rank and proportion of time spent feeding, feeding bout length or diet composition. Parameters of reproductive success, such as inter-birth intervals and infant mortality were not correlated with female dominance rank. Female mortality, however, was related to dominance rank and all of the five females who disappeared during the study were low-ranking. Four of the five females disappeared after troop fission. There is circumstantial evidence supporting the suggestion that predation by leopards is the main cause of mortality of females at Mkuzi. High levels of female aggression were recorded, with almost no occurrences of support coalitions. Most of the aggression took place among similar ranking females, or was directed by the top ranking toward the lowest ranking females. Most of the female-to-female agonistic encounters were in a social context, and more than half were over a spatial position next to other adult troop members. Aggression among females increased after troop fission. It is suggested that the higher-ranking females may be better protected from predation, through access to more central spatial positions in the troop. Indeed, a positive correlation was found between a female's dominance rank and the time spent next to other adult troop members. It may be that avoiding food competition by keeping larger distances from others, while foraging, was translated in lower ranking females to a cost of higher predation risk.


2021 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Taylor J. Piefke ◽  
Tyler R. Bonnell ◽  
Gabriela M. DeOliveira ◽  
Shana E. Border ◽  
Peter D. Dijkstra

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 295-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Sicotte ◽  
Eva C. Wikberg ◽  
Iulia Bădescu ◽  
Julie A. Teichroeb

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (5) ◽  
pp. 485-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Lu ◽  
Carola Borries ◽  
Anna Caselli ◽  
Andreas Koenig

Female dominance hierarchies form as a result of individual differences in resource holding potential, social processes such as winner-loser effects or coalitions, and ecological conditions that favor contest competition. Contest competition is assumed to result in despotic, nepotistic, and stable hierarchies. However, female Hanuman langurs are exceptions to this pattern, with data from provisioned populations indicating despotic, yet individualistic (age-inversed) and unstable hierarchies despite strong within-group contest. We present data on hierarchical linearity, stability, and the determinants of female rank and rank change in a population of unprovisioned, wild Hanuman langurs (Ramnagar, Nepal). Based on 12 490 dyadic displacement interactions collected over 5 years from a medium-sized group (P group, mean = 6.9 adult females) and a large group (O group, mean = 13.6 adult females), stable periods (P group, ; O group, ) were identified and dominance hierarchies constructed with the program MatMan. In both groups, dominance hierarchies were linear (), with high directional consistency within dyads. Rank was negatively related with age, while the presence of maternal kin had no effect. Reproductive state affected dominance rank in the larger group, with females ascending the hierarchy prior to conception, and dropping in rank after birth. Ranks were unstable, with group size and the number of juvenile females driving the effect (GLMM, ). These results match earlier findings for provisioned populations. In female Hanuman langurs, competition seems most intense around conception and during gestation, creating rank instability, which is further exacerbated by the number of adult as well as maturing females.


2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 612-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Alonso ◽  
Renato Massaaki Honji ◽  
Renata Guimarães Moreira ◽  
Matías Pandolfi

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (8) ◽  
pp. 895-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey S.Y. Lee-Jenkins ◽  
Jean-Guy J. Godin

The cues associated with social familiarity and genetic relatedness and how they interact to influence the formation of social associations among individuals, and thus group composition and dynamics, is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the concurrent effects of social familiarity and kinship on social affiliations in free-swimming convict cichlid fish young or ‘fry’ (Amatitlania siquia) by pitting the cues of social familiarity and kinship against each other in a four-way choice apparatus. Individual focal fish were given a simultaneous choice to associate (‘shoal’) with conspecifics that were either socially familiar and kin (full sibs), socially unfamiliar and kin, socially familiar and not kin, or socially unfamiliar and not kin. Stimulus shoal preference differed depending on the body length of the focal fish; smaller fry exhibited no preference, whereas larger (more mobile) fry significantly preferred to associate with familiar kin. In the convict cichlid system, where brood mixing occurs in the wild, a preference to associate with familiar kin may confer fitness benefits to individuals, especially when fry become more mobile as they grow and encounter predators more often. Our results contribute to further our understanding of the roles of familiarity and kinship in the formation of social associations in the convict cichlid in particular and in animals in general.


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