scholarly journals Social niche construction in captive Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae) Flocks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M Kohn ◽  
M. Ryan Nugent ◽  
Xzavier Dail ◽  
Taylor R Orlandi
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Sibling Interactions ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unexplored Area ◽  
Gouldian Finch ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Social Niche

The organization of animal groups is both a cause of, and consequence of, patterns of interactions among individuals. The stability of animal social organization reflects how individuals construct and maintain resilient patterns of interactions across changes in group size and membership. In this study we describe patterns of social interactions in captive flocks of Gouldian Finches (Erythrura gouldiae) that were exposed to changing social conditions. A flock of adult Gouldian Finches was exposed to two changing conditions, an introduction condition where juveniles were introduced to the flock, and a fission-fusion condition where the flock was split into two smaller flocks and a new group of juveniles introduced to each. We show that the social organization of captive Gouldian finch flocks is characterized by stable homophilic communities of adult females and juveniles. Females showed higher rates of approaches to other adult females, while juveniles maintined higher rates of approaches towards other juveniles. These findings highlight how the stable interactive decisions made by individuals contribute to higher-order patterns of organization in bird flocks. Furthermore, this study is one of the few to demonstrate self-assortment of juveniles in passerine flocks and suggests that peer and sibling interactions are an unexplored area in avian social development.

Social ethology of the wolverine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Copeland ◽  
Arild Landa ◽  
Kimberly Heinemeyer ◽  
Keith B. Aubry ◽  
Jiska van Dijk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Social System ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Ecological Framework ◽  
The Social ◽  
Living Species

Social behaviour in solitary carnivores has long been an active area of investigation but for many species remains largely founded in conjecture compared to our understanding of sociality in group-living species. The social organization of the wolverine has, until now, received little attention beyond its portrayal as a typical mustelid social system. In this chapter the authors compile observations of social interactions from multiple wolverine field studies, which are integrated into an ecological framework. An ethological model for the wolverine is proposed that reveals an intricate social organization, which is driven by variable resource availability within extremely large territories and supports social behaviour that underpins offspring development.

Education Spillovers in Farm Productivity: Revisiting the Evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-331
Author(s):  
Véronique Gille
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Farm Productivity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education Spillovers

Abstract This paper exploits the social organization of India to revisit the question of education spillovers in farm productivity. The fact that social interactions mainly occur within castes in rural India provides tools to show that the observed correlation between farm productivity and neighbors’ education is likely to be a spillover effect. In particular, there are no cross-caste and no cross-occupation effects, which underlines that, under specific assumptions, which are stated and explored in the paper, the education of neighbors does not capture the effect of group unobservables. This evidence is complemented by separate estimations by crops, which show results that are consistent with education spillovers. The strategy used in this paper helps understand and interpret previous findings from the literature.

Moving between frames: The basis of the stable and dialogical self

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Moore ◽  
Carol Jasper ◽  
Alex Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Dialogical Self ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Stability And Instability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clear Link ◽  
The Stability

Research on the dialogical self has tended to emphasize instability over stability. Grossen and Salazar Orvig (2011) show how norms, values, material objects, and institutions feed into the stability of the self. We expand upon this contribution by introducing Goffman’s (1974) concept of “frames” to theorize both stability and instability. Social interactions do not begin with individuals but with socially given and pre-existing cultural-historical frames which people are called upon to inhabit. Frames comprise historical, institutional, material, and cultural aspects. The key point is that action within a frame tends to stabilize the self, while being caught between frames tends to destabilize the self. The concept of frames can thus provide a clear link between the structure of the social world and the structure of the dialogical self. We use the concept of frames to distinguish the stability produced by one set of expectations, within one frame, from the peculiar instability and dialogical tensions which result from being embedded in discrepant or contradictory frames.

Becoming a Being of Pure Consciousness

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-59
Author(s):  
Susannah Crockford
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
New Age ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unexplored Area ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
New Age Spirituality

Fasting is an unexplored area of New Age spirituality. Using material that is primarily ethnographic, based on long-term participant observation fieldwork in Sedona, Arizona, a small town renowned for its New Age associations, this article examines some forms of fasting that are commonly recommended and attempted in New Age spirituality. The ethnographic data are supplemented with material drawn from two New Age spiritual leaders who are connected to Sedona, both of whom recommend fasting. Fasting is analyzed as a form of managing and organizing interspecies relationality, following the work of Graham Harvey. The consequences are framed in terms of the effects fasting has on the social organization of relatedness, or kinship, and on accusations of being dangerous or exhibiting “cult-like” behavior.

*The Study of Social Organizations

Behaviour ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 96-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Mcbride
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Animal Societies

AbstractThis paper presents a theoretical model of and a practical approach to the study of social systems. It was prepared after discussions at the XI and XII International Ethological Conferences, and each draft was presented to many ethologists for comment, and many responded. The paper looks at the social organization within animal species, and at the way animals build, maintain, and change it by their behaviour. The questions asked move always from the individual behaviours, through the social interactions, to the social reiationships and groups which are stable features of societies. The main societal subsystems discussed are: I. Social phases, or social structures which are maintained for periods of time; 2. Organic specialization by castes; 3. Social specialization in groups ; 4. The pattern of dispersal of individuals or groups; 5. The social organization of sexual and parent-offspring behaviour; 6. The organization of behaviour in relation to the environment; 7. The dynamic aspects of animal societies, particularly with changes in density. In each section, questions aim to draw out the pattern of behavioural organization, emphasising the structural features of the theoretical model presented.

scholarly journals Persistent social interactions beget more pronounced personalities in a desert-dwelling social spider

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 20140419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas P. Modlmeier ◽  
Kate L. Laskowski ◽  
Alex E. DeMarco ◽  
Anna Coleman ◽  
Katherine Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
Niche Specialization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Social Niche

The social niche specialization hypothesis predicts that repeated social interactions will generate social niches within groups, thereby promoting consistent individual differences in behaviour. Current support for this hypothesis is mixed, probably because the importance of social niches is dependent upon the ecology of the species. We test whether repeated interactions among group mates generate consistent individual differences in boldness in the social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola. In support of the social niche specialization hypothesis, we found that consistent individual differences in boldness increased with longer group tenure. Interestingly, these differences took longer to appear than in previous work suggesting this species needs more persistent social interactions to shape its behaviour. Recently disturbed colonies were shyer than older colonies, possibly reflecting differences in predation risk. Our study emphasizes the importance of the social environment in generating animal personalities, but also suggests that the pattern of personality development can depend on subtle differences in species' ecologies.

scholarly journals Evidence of social niche construction: persistent and repeated social interactions generate stronger personalities in a social spider

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1783) ◽  
pp. 20133166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate L. Laskowski ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
Niche Specialization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Niche

While there are now a number of theoretical models predicting how consistent individual differences in behaviour may be generated and maintained, so far, there are few empirical tests. The social niche specialization hypothesis predicts that repeated social interactions among individuals may generate among-individual differences and reinforce within-individual consistency through positive feedback mechanisms. Here, we test this hypothesis using groups of the social spider Stegodyphus mimosarum that differ in their level of familiarity. In support of the social niche specialization hypothesis, individuals in groups of spiders that were more familiar with each other showed greater repeatable among-individual variation in behaviour. Additionally, individuals that were more familiar with each other exhibited lower within-individual variation in behaviour, providing one of the first examples of how the social environment can influence behavioural consistency. Our study demonstrates the potential for the social environment to generate and reinforce consistent individual differences in behaviour and provides a potentially general mechanism to explain this type of behavioural variation in animals with stable social groups.

On the Nature of Mother-Infant Interactions in the Guinea-Pig (Cavia Porcellus)

Behaviour ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 145-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Porter ◽  
Julia C. Berryman ◽  
Clare Fullerton
Keyword(s):  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Guinea Pigs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Biological Mother ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lactating Females

AbstractTwo studies concerning the specificity of social interactions between mother and infant guinea-pigs were reported. The first study consisted of a series of time-sampling observations of the social behaviour of 2 litters of young guinea-pigs and their mothers housed in a single cage. In a second series of observations, 2 cohabitant litters were separated from their mothers for a few hours each day and their social interactions noted when they were subsequently individually reintroduced to the 2 lactating females. Although the infants suckled significantly more often from their biological mother in each study, and were more often observed to be near or in contact with their mother as opposed to the other female, there were frequent social interactions between infants and the other female (including suckling). When reintroduced to the 2 adult females, the offspring were indiscriminate in their initial approaches towards the latter and likewise showed no preference for mother vs other female in their following responses. The adult females approached their own offspring more often than the other infants when they were initially placed into the cage. No significant differences were found between subsequent approaches towards, or avoidance of, own vs other offspring, however. It was concluded that a reciprocal loose bond of attachment exists between infant and mother guinea-pig - with the mother being able to recognize her offspring at a distance, while the infant apparently requires proximal cues for identification of its mother. An attempt was made to relate the nature of this bond to the highly precocial state in which guinea-pigs are born and their relative independence of maternal care-taking.

Variation in the stability of cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus) pair relationships: the roles of males, females, and mate compatibility

Behaviour ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (10) ◽  
pp. 1211-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Millam ◽  
Tracey Spoon ◽  
Donald Owings
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nymphicus Hollandicus ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Stability

AbstractPair relationships and their emergent properties represent potentially significant sources of proximate and ultimate influence on mating systems, but the study of such relational factors has been rare compared to the volume of literature dedicated to individual-level measures of mate quality. This study assessed variation in the stability of pair relationships in cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) and sought sources for that variation in both the behavior of mated individuals and their compatibility. Pair relationships represent an especially salient aspect of the social system of cockatiels, a socially monogamous species with long-term pairing.In a semi-natural, captive setting, this study compared (1) the social interactions between cockatiel mates to those individuals' interactions with opposite-sex non-mates, (2) the roles of males and females in pair relationships, and (3) the various pairs in their displays of intrapair and extrapair interactions. We also assessed the behavioral features underlying pair relationships by examining the interrelationships among social behaviors within pairs and the degree to which emergent properties structure pair relationships. Interactions between mates, as compared to opposite-sex non-mates, were characterized by closer proximity, greater behavioral synchrony, less aggression, more allopreening, and greater sexual behavior. Males and females displayed little dimorphism in many intrapair and extrapair behaviors; however, males approached and courted their mates more than females did, and males but not females exhibited more intersexual aggression to non-mates than to their mates. Social interactions between mates varied significantly among pairs in ways that reflected variation in the degree of behavioral compatibility between mates. In other words, suites of highly correlated behaviors characterized the interactions between mates such that pairs exhibiting greater affiliative or accordant behaviors exhibited less aggressive or discordant behaviors and vice versa. Emergent properties appeared to play an especially important role in compatibility. By examining significant within-species variation in pair relationships, this study complements the increasing knowledge of mating relationships gained from comparative studies and illustrates the importance of emergent, pair-level behavior in the maintenance of long-term monogamous pair-bonds.

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