scholarly journals Concede or clash? Solitary sharks competing for food assess rivals to decide

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1875) ◽  
pp. 20180006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo F. Brena ◽  
Johann Mourier ◽  
Serge Planes ◽  
Eric E. Clua
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Agonistic Interactions ◽  
Morphological Attributes ◽  
Marine Predator ◽  
Dominance Interactions ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Solitary Species

To adapt to their environment, organisms can either directly interact with their surroundings or use social information (i.e. information provided by neighbouring individuals). Social information relates to the external features of surrounding peers, and little is known about its use by solitary species. Here, we investigated the use of social cues in a solitary marine predator by creating artificial aggregations of free-ranging sicklefin lemon sharks ( Negaprion acutidens ). Using a novel monitoring protocol, we analysed both dominance interactions and tolerance associations between sharks competing for food in relation with the number, the morphology and the behaviour of rivals. Sharks produced more agonistic displays and spent more time around the bait as competitors were more abundant. Moreover, the morphological attributes of competitors had very limited influence on the structure of shark social interactions. Instead, sharks appeared to establish tolerance relationships with competitors according to their individual behaviour. Furthermore, the more two sharks were observed together at a given study site, the fewer agonistic interactions they exchanged. We discuss these findings as evidence of the use of social cues in a non-gregarious predatory species and suggest directions for future research.

The Use of Urine Marking in the Scavenging Behavior of the Red Fox (Vulpes v uLpes)

Behaviour ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 82-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. David Henry
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Red Fox ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Red Foxes ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Urine Marking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Solitary Species

AbstractThe eleven different functions for which mammals use urine marking are reviewed in this paper, and the urine marking behavior of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is described in detail. A new hypothesis is advanced that urine marking may serve as a "book keeping system" in the red fox's scavenging behavior. Foxes consistently investigate and urine mark inedible food remnants (e.g., bones, bird wings, and dried out pieces of hide). When a fox re-investigates a marked remnant, the urine mark signals "no food present," and the fox investigates this object for only a brief period of time. This use of urine marking may increase the efficiency of its scavenging behavior, i.e. more food-items found per hour of scavenging. This efficiency may be particularly important during periods of food shortage. The hypothesis is tested in three different experiments, using free-ranging red foxes as subjects. Experiment I establishes that fox do urine mark food remnants. Experiment II shows that foxes investigate for a significantly shorter period of time (P<0.001) food remnants exhibiting both the odor of food and the odor of urine as compared to remnants exhibiting just the odor of food. Experiment III suggests that there a hierarchy of stimuli which determines different responses in the fox's scavenging behavior. The experiments also suggest that there is a degree of social behavior in the scavenging activities of red foxes. Foxes appear to use each other's urine marks to increase the efficiency of their scavenging behavior. Thus this study definitely support LEYHAUSEN'S (1965) statement that the social life of solitary animals is frequently more complex than we realize. Solitary species probably show many ingeniously adapted mechanisms for occupying niches where highly social species could not be maintained. The social evolution and ecological advantages of solitary species deserve to be the focus of future research.

scholarly journals Social interactions in striped hyena inferred from camera trap data: is it more social than previously thought?

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tichon ◽  
Jason S Gilchrist ◽  
Guy Rotem ◽  
Paul Ward ◽  
Orr Spiegel
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Space Use ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Camera Traps ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Striped Hyena ◽  
Hyaena Hyaena ◽  
Solitary Species

Abstract Understanding the drivers promoting sociality over solitariness in animal species is imperative for predicting future population trends and informing conservation and management. In this study we investigate the social structure of a desert dwelling population of striped hyena Hyaena hyaena. This species is historically regarded as strictly solitary albeit being the least studied of the extant Hyaenids. Accumulating evidence regarding the frequency of social interactions suggests a revision of striped hyena social structure is required. We hypothesized that striped hyena has a social structure that is more complex than expected for a strictly solitary species. For that end, we deployed an array of camera-traps in a remote desert region in Israel, and compared observed frequencies of striped hyena co-occurrence against null models to test whether hyena co-occurred more than expected by chance. Seven adults were (re)captured by our camera-traps in 49 different instances over 83 tracking days. Of these, 6 exhibited shared space-use around a scarce, isolated perennial water source. Five of them, co-occurred with other hyena (in 3 instances) significantly more frequent than expected by chance (and that timing suggests reproduction is unlikely to be the driving factor). Our findings substantiate evidence of complex social structure in striped hyena, highlight the importance of a scarce resource in space-use and sociality, and provide a baseline for future research of striped hyena social structure. We suggest that similar methods be employed to evaluate social structure in other “solitary species” to better understand their social dynamics.

Parasite defense mechanisms in bees: behavior, immunity, antimicrobials, and symbionts

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison E. Fowler ◽  
Rebecca E. Irwin ◽  
Lynn S. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Immune Priming ◽  
Social Bees ◽  
Bee Health ◽  
Landscape Scales ◽  
And Function ◽  
Solitary Species

Parasites are linked to the decline of some bee populations; thus, understanding defense mechanisms has important implications for bee health. Recent advances have improved our understanding of factors mediating bee health ranging from molecular to landscape scales, but often as disparate literatures. Here, we bring together these fields and summarize our current understanding of bee defense mechanisms including immunity, immunization, and transgenerational immune priming in social and solitary species. Additionally, the characterization of microbial diversity and function in some bee taxa has shed light on the importance of microbes for bee health, but we lack information that links microbial communities to parasite infection in most bee species. Studies are beginning to identify how bee defense mechanisms are affected by stressors such as poor-quality diets and pesticides, but further research on this topic is needed. We discuss how integrating research on host traits, microbial partners, and nutrition, as well as improving our knowledge base on wild and semi-social bees, will help inform future research, conservation efforts, and management.

Hostility and Perceptions of Support in Ambiguous Social Interactions

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Vranceanu ◽  
Linda C. Gallo ◽  
Laura M. Bogart
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Processing Bias ◽  
Information Processing Bias

The present study investigated whether a social information processing bias contributes to the inverse association between trait hostility and perceived social support. A sample of 104 undergraduates (50 men) completed a measure of hostility and rated videotaped interactions in which a speaker disclosed a problem while a listener reacted ambiguously. Results showed that hostile persons rated listeners as less friendly and socially supportive across six conversations, although the nature of the hostility effect varied by sex, target rated, and manner in which support was assessed. Hostility and target interactively impacted ratings of support and affiliation only for men. At least in part, a social information processing bias could contribute to hostile persons' perceptions of their social networks.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Standing out from the crowd: Both cue numerosity and social information affect attention in multi-agent contexts

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110130
Author(s):  
Francesca Capozzi ◽  
Andrew Paul Bayliss ◽  
Jelena Ristic
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Test Phase ◽  
Learning Phase ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Attentional Allocation ◽  
Social Cue ◽  
Gaze Cuing ◽  
Multi Agent

Groups of people offer abundant opportunities for social interactions. We used a two-phase task to investigate how social cue numerosity and social information about an individual affected attentional allocation in such multi-agent settings. The learning phase was a standard gaze-cuing procedure in which a stimulus face could be either uninformative or informative about the upcoming target. The test phase was a group-cuing procedure in which the stimulus faces from the learning phase were presented in groups of three. The target could either be cued by the group minority (i.e., one face) or majority (i.e., two faces) or by uninformative or informative stimulus faces. Results showed an effect of cue numerosity, whereby responses were faster to targets cued by the group majority than the group minority. However, responses to targets cued by informative identities included in the group minority were as fast as responses to targets cued by the group majority. Thus, previously learned social information about an individual was able to offset the general enhancement of cue numerosity, revealing a complex interplay between cue numerosity and social information in guiding attention in multi-agent settings.

scholarly journals Music Connects Us: Development of a Music-Based Group Activity Intervention to Engage People Living with Dementia and Address Loneliness

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 570
Author(s):  
Hannah M. O’Rourke ◽  
Tammy Hopper ◽  
Lee Bartel ◽  
Mandy Archibald ◽  
Matthias Hoben ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Intervention Mapping ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Care Staff ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Severe Dementia

There is a need for intervention research to understand how music-based group activities foster engagement in social interactions and relationship-building among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe the design of ‘Music Connects Us’, a music-based group activity intervention. Music Connects Us primarily aims to promote social connectedness and quality of life among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia through engagement in music-making, supporting positive social interactions to develop intimate connections with others. To develop Music Connects Us, we adapted the ‘Music for Life’ program offered by Wigmore Hall in the United Kingdom, applying an intervention mapping framework and principles of engaged scholarship. This paper describes in detail the Music Connects Us program, our adaptation approach, and key adaptations made, which included: framing the project to focus on the engagement of the person living with dementia to ameliorate loneliness; inclusion of student and other community-based musicians; reduced requirements for care staff participation; and the development of a detailed musician training approach to prepare musicians to deliver the program in Canada. Description of the development, features, and rationale for Music Connects Us will support its replication in future research aimed to tests its effects and its use in clinical practice.

Infant handling enhances social bonds in free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 875-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica S. Dunayer ◽  
Carol M. Berman
Keyword(s):  
Macaca Mulatta ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Fitness Effects ◽  
Early Handling ◽  
Infant Handling ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
The Relationship

Throughout the primate order, individuals are highly motivated to handle infants that are not their own. Given the differing and often conflicting interests of the various participants in handling interactions (handler, infant, and mother), most functional hypotheses are specific to particular handling roles. Here we explore one hypothesis that may apply to all participants, but that has received relatively little attention: that handling may facilitate the formation and maintenance of social bonds. Using free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago, we examine the relationship between infant handling in the early weeks and the strength and diversity of infant social bonds months later, when infant relationships were more independent from those of their mothers. Our results largely confirm the influence of several social characteristics (kinship, rank, sex, and age) in governing handling interactions. They also provide the first evidence that early handling is associated with later social bonds that are stronger than expected based on these social characteristics. However, the enhancement of bonds is largely confined to related handlers; frequent unrelated handlers did not generally go on to form strong bonds with infants. This suggests that kinship may be a sort of prerequisite to the enhancement of social bonds via handling. Given the adaptive benefits of strong social bonds among adult primates, future research should investigate whether early infant handling may have longer term fitness effects.

Shared Gaze Visualizations in Collaborative Interactions: Past, Present and Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah D’Angelo ◽  
Bertrand Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Remote Collaboration ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collaborative Interactions ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Shared Gaze ◽  
Tracking Technology

Abstract The past decade has witnessed a growing interest for using dual eye tracking to understand and support remote collaboration, especially with studies that have established the benefits of displaying gaze information for small groups. While this line of work is promising, we lack a consistent framework that researchers can use to organize and categorize studies on the effect of shared gaze on social interactions. There exists a wide variety of terminology and methods for describing attentional alignment; researchers have used diverse techniques for designing gaze visualizations. The settings studied range from real-time peer collaboration to asynchronous viewing of eye-tracking video of an expert providing explanations. There has not been a conscious effort to synthesize and understand how these different approaches, techniques and applications impact the effectiveness of shared gaze visualizations (SGVs). In this paper, we summarize the related literature and the benefits of SGVs for collaboration, describe important terminology as well as appropriate measures for the dual eye-tracking space and discuss promising directions for future research. As eye-tracking technology becomes more ubiquitous, there is pressing need to develop a consistent approach to evaluation and design of SGVs. The present paper makes a first and significant step in this direction.

Facework on Social Media in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Tian ◽  
Qian Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Interpersonal Interactions ◽  
The World ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
The Face ◽  
Different Parts

With more social interactions shifting to online venues, the different attributes of major social media sites in China influence how interpersonal interactions are carried out. Despite the lack of physical co-presence online, face culture is extended to online spaces. On social media, Chinese users tend to protect their own face, give face to others, and avoid discrediting the face of others, especially when their online and offline networks overlap. This chapter also discusses the different methods used to study facework online and offline and how facework is studied in different parts of the world. It concludes with a brief discussion of how sociological research has contributed to the study of social media in China and directions for future research.

Conspecific attraction for conservation and management of terrestrial breeding birds: Current knowledge and future research directions

The Condor ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon J Valente ◽  
Christa L LeGrande-Rolls ◽  
James W Rivers ◽  
Anna M Tucker ◽  
Richard A Fischer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Site Occupancy ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conspecific Attraction ◽  
Conservation Concern ◽  
And Control

Abstract Conspecific presence can indicate the location or quality of resources, and animals settling near conspecifics often gain fitness benefits. This can result in adaptive conspecific attraction during breeding habitat selection as demonstrated in numerous terrestrial, territorial birds. There is growing interest in using simulated conspecific social cues (e.g., decoys, broadcasted vocalizations) to manage bird distributions, yet it remains unclear when this approach is likely to succeed. We reviewed published studies to evaluate whether the strength of conspecific attraction in terrestrial birds is mediated by characteristics of species (life history traits), simulated cues (e.g., timing and duration), sites (e.g., quality), and how conspecific attraction was measured. We identified 31 experiments that simulated social cues and compared conspecific settlement between treatment and control sites. We then used phylogenetically controlled meta-regression to assess the impacts of 19 moderators on settlement. Nearly all species included in these experiments were migratory passerines, and social cues generally had a strong, positive influence on their settlement decisions, as the odds of site occupancy were 3.12× (95% CI: 0.81–11.69) greater in treatment sites relative to control sites. Within this group, conspecific attraction was evolutionarily conserved with ≥25.5% (95% CI: 5.1%–65.4%) of the variance in treatment effects explained by phylogenetic relatedness. However, we found no evidence that any covariates influenced the response to social cues, and we posit this stems from limited research specifically designed to identify the mechanisms mediating conspecific attraction. We therefore developed a research agenda that provides a framework for testing mechanistic hypotheses regarding how cue characteristics, species traits, and spatial contexts may mediate attraction to conspecifics. Evaluating these hypotheses will greatly advance the field by helping managers understand when, where, and why simulating social cues can be used to enhance populations of species that are of conservation concern.

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