SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS AS AN INDICATOR OF SUCCESSFUL PACK FORMATION IN FREE-RANGING AFRICAN WILD DOGS

Behaviour ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
pp. 579-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kim McCreery
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Spatial Relationships ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
African Wild Dogs ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Pack Formation

AbstractPack formation in the African wild dog is a social process that usually involves more than two individuals. Typically, same-sex relatives emigrate and join opposite-sex groups. Same-sex relatives have a shared social history and, consequently, established social bonds. In contrast, opposite-sex groups are unfamiliar with one another. Patterns of association (approaches and resting partners) were recorded during the daily resting period for three newly formed packs. Two packs annulled (Gijima and Amazoro) and one pack (Sinajima) became a stable reproductive unit (i.e. an established pack). An analysis of resting patterns suggests that spatial relationships mirror the relative strength of social bonds and thus the degree of social integration between females and males. Former members of the annulled Gijima pack rested with the same sex more often, and actively maintained this pattern, while opposite-sex associations were observed and maintained more often in the Sinajima pack. The Amazoro pack appeared more integrated than the Gijima pack, but less integrated than the Sinajima pack. Mate choice (i.e. group compatibility) may have influenced the outcome of attempted pack formation. The two cases of pack annulment were not the result of takeovers (i.e. the forceful expulsion of same-sex individuals), and same-sex associations were more common in these packs suggesting that opposite-sex group members were incompatible. The extremely social nature of this canid is reflected in the maintenance of physical contact or relatively short inter-individual distances while resting.

scholarly journals Mixture models as a method for comparative sociality: social networks and demographic change in resident killer whales

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ellis ◽  
Daniel W. Franks ◽  
Michael N. Weiss ◽  
Michael A. Cant ◽  
Paolo Domenici ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixture Models ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Binomial Mixture ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Social Associations ◽  
Social Association

Abstract In studies of social behaviour, social bonds are usually inferred from rates of interaction or association. This approach has revealed many important insights into the proximate formation and ultimate function of animal social structures. However, it remains challenging to compare social structure between systems or time-points because extrinsic factors, such as sampling methodology, can also influence the observed rate of association. As a consequence of these methodological challenges, it is difficult to analyse how patterns of social association change with demographic processes, such as the death of key social partners. Here we develop and illustrate the use of binomial mixture models to quantitatively compare patterns of social association between networks. We then use this method to investigate how patterns of social preferences in killer whales respond to demographic change. Resident killer whales are bisexually philopatric, and both sexes stay in close association with their mother in adulthood. We show that mothers and daughters show reduced social association after the birth of the daughter’s first offspring, but not after the birth of an offspring to the mother. We also show that whales whose mother is dead associate more with their opposite sex siblings and with their grandmother than whales whose mother is alive. Our work demonstrates the utility of using mixture models to compare social preferences between networks and between species. We also highlight other potential uses of this method such as to identify strong social bonds in animal populations. Significance statement Comparing patters of social associations between systems, or between the same systems at different times, is challenging due to the confounding effects of sampling and methodological differences. Here we present a method to allow social associations to be robustly classified and then compared between networks using binomial mixture models. We illustrate this method by showing how killer whales change their patterns of social association in response to the birth of calves and the death of their mother. We show that after the birth of her calf, females associate less with their mother. We also show that whales’ whose mother is dead associate more with their opposite sex siblings and grandmothers than whales’ whose mother is alive. This clearly demonstrates how this method can be used to examine fine scale temporal processes in animal social systems.

scholarly journals Risk of Sex-Specific Cancers in Opposite-Sex and Same-Sex Twins in Denmark and Sweden

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 1622-1628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda J. Ahrenfeldt ◽  
Axel Skytthe ◽  
Sören Möller ◽  
Kamila Czene ◽  
Hans-Olov Adami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Same Sex ◽  
Opposite Sex

Adults' Perceptions of Children's Independence and other Sex-Role Characteristics as a Function of Child's Gender Label

1978 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy J. Bell ◽  
Kay Hibbs ◽  
Thomas Milholland
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Female College Students ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female College ◽  
Opposite Sex

Male and female college students were presented with a photograph labeled as a 5-yr.-old boy or girl and heard statements attributed to the child. They then rated the child on sex-role traits and responded to open-ended questions about the child. The primary findings involved sex of child by sex of adult interactions on ratings of independence and leadership: in both cases, same-sex children were rated higher than opposite-sex children. There was also some evidence that women having high contact with children rated the child more extremely on opposite-sex traits than did those with little contact.

An Argument for the Continued Validity of Woman-to-Woman Marriages in Post-2010 Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-328
Author(s):  
Monicah Kareithi ◽  
Frans Viljoen
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
The Right

AbstractWoman-to-woman marriage is a form of customary marriage between two women, predominantly found in Africa. These customary marriages have been and to some extent still are conducted by various communities across Africa, including in Kenya. Communities such as the Kamba, Kisii, Nandi, Kikuyu and Kuria practise woman-to-woman marriages for a variety of reasons. The legal status of woman-to-woman marriages in Kenya is uncertain due to the provisions of article 45(2) of Kenya's Constitution of 2010 and section 3(1) of the Marriage Act of 2014, which stipulate that adults only have the right to marry persons of the opposite sex. However, a holistic and purposive reading of the constitution, taking into consideration its recognition of culture and the protection of children as important values in Kenyan society, and considering the historical context within which the provisions concerning same-sex marriages were included, leads to the conclusion that these provisions were not intended to proscribe the cultural practice of woman-to-woman marriage in Kenya. The constitutional validity of woman-to-woman marriage opens the door to a more expansive and fluid understanding of “family” in Kenya.

scholarly journals Social affiliation matters: both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships predict survival in wild female baboons

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1793) ◽  
pp. 20141261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Archie ◽  
Jenny Tung ◽  
Michael Clark ◽  
Jeanne Altmann ◽  
Susan C. Alberts
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
Adult Survival ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Wild Female ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Socially Isolated

Social integration and support can have profound effects on human survival. The extent of this phenomenon in non-human animals is largely unknown, but such knowledge is important to understanding the evolution of both lifespan and sociality. Here, we report evidence that levels of affiliative social behaviour (i.e. ‘social connectedness’) with both same-sex and opposite-sex conspecifics predict adult survival in wild female baboons. In the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, adult female baboons that were socially connected to either adult males or adult females lived longer than females who were socially isolated from both sexes—females with strong connectedness to individuals of both sexes lived the longest. Female social connectedness to males was predicted by high dominance rank, indicating that males are a limited resource for females, and females compete for access to male social partners. To date, only a handful of animal studies have found that social relationships may affect survival. This study extends those findings by examining relationships to both sexes in by far the largest dataset yet examined for any animal. Our results support the idea that social effects on survival are evolutionarily conserved in social mammals.

scholarly journals Sneeze to leave: African wild dogs ( Lycaon pictus ) use variable quorum thresholds facilitated by sneezes in collective decisions

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1862) ◽  
pp. 20170347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reena H. Walker ◽  
Andrew J. King ◽  
J. Weldon McNutt ◽  
Neil R. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Living ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Directed Group ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
African Wild Dogs ◽  
Minimum Number ◽  
Collective Movements ◽  
Wild Dogs

In despotically driven animal societies, one or a few individuals tend to have a disproportionate influence on group decision-making and actions. However, global communication allows each group member to assess the relative strength of preferences for different options among their group-mates. Here, we investigate collective decisions by free-ranging African wild dog packs in Botswana. African wild dogs exhibit dominant-directed group living and take part in stereotyped social rallies: high energy greeting ceremonies that occur before collective movements. Not all rallies result in collective movements, for reasons that are not well understood. We show that the probability of rally success (i.e. group departure) is predicted by a minimum number of audible rapid nasal exhalations (sneezes), within the rally. Moreover, the number of sneezes needed for the group to depart (i.e. the quorum) was reduced whenever dominant individuals initiated rallies, suggesting that dominant participation increases the likelihood of a rally's success, but is not a prerequisite. As such, the ‘will of the group’ may override dominant preferences when the consensus of subordinates is sufficiently great. Our findings illustrate how specific behavioural mechanisms (here, sneezing) allow for negotiation (in effect, voting) that shapes decision-making in a wild, socially complex animal society.

Being Opposite: Is There Advantage for Social Competence and Friendships in Being an Opposite-Sex Twin?

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sioban Laffey-Ardley ◽  
Karen Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Competency ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Social Competencies ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Adolescent Twins ◽  
Main Effects

AbstractArecent large-scale study of Finnish adolescent twins (Pulkkinen et al., 2003) reported that individuals from opposite-sex twin pairs were more socially adaptive than individuals from same-sex pairs or singletons. This finding raised questions about the social learning effects of being an opposite-sex twin. The current article predicted on the basis of this finding, and evidence from singleton populations, that having an opposite-sex twin would yield social advantage. It sought to examine the social competencies of opposite-sex twins and compare them with same-sex twins and singletons. The study focused on the preschool years (age 3 to 6), a period in which the majority of children encounter their first large group, nonfamilial social experiences. The study obtained reports from parents and teachers of children aged 3 to 6 years: 72 children (36 pairs) who were dizygotic opposite-sex twins (DZOS), 50 children (25 pairs) who were dizygotic same-sex twins (DZSS), and 85 singletons of the same age and sex as the twins, who had at least one sibling. Reports were made using standardized measures of social competencies, behavior problems, language development and friendships. The main effects found were of differences in social competency between twins and singletons. Twins had lower social competency scores. No differences between same-sex and opposite-sex twins were found. The findings did not support the hypothesis of social advantage for opposite-sex twins in early childhood.

scholarly journals Why are there more same-sex than opposite-sex dizygotic twins?

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 930-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa ◽  
Nancy L Segal ◽  
David de Meza
Keyword(s):  
Same Sex ◽  
Dizygotic Twins ◽  
Opposite Sex
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