Female Dominance Relationships and Food Competition in the Sympatric Thomas Langur and Long-Tailed Macaque

Behaviour ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 749-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romy Steenbeek ◽  
Elisabeth H.M. Sterck
Keyword(s):  
Food Competition ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Dominance Relationships

FEMALE DOMINANCE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CAPTIVE WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLAS: COMPARISONS WITH THE WILD

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 1283-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Lockard ◽  
Jennifer Scott
Keyword(s):  
Natural Habitat ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Gorilla Gorilla ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Mountain Gorillas ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
Western Lowland Gorillas ◽  
Lowland Gorillas

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.

Social interactions and dominance relationships between female and male Columbian ground squirrels

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1414-1420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan O. Murie ◽  
Margaret A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Core Area ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Lactation Period ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Relative Dominance ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
Columbian Ground Squirrels

The nature of social interactions between adult male and adult female Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus) was studied over 5 years in southwestern Alberta to assess relative dominance and factors affecting dominance relationships between the sexes. Most amicable interactions occurred before females bred; thereafter, most interactions were agonistic. Males chased females more often than they were chased by them before females bred, but thereafter the opposite was true, until about the time juveniles first emerged from natal burrows. This relative dominance by females after breeding was more pronounced in interactions with subordinate males versus dominant, territorial males, with neighboring males versus resident males, and within a female's core area of activity and close to her nest burrow versus outside the core area and more distant from her nest burrow. Females that were lactating showed greater dominance than those not lactating, especially late in the lactation period. The general pattern of female dominance towards males is common in other species of ground-dwelling sciurids but appears to be not strongly related to level of sociality.

Do Female Chacma Baboons Compete for a Safe Spatial Position in a Southern Woodland Habitat?

Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 475-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Ron ◽  
S. Peter Henzi ◽  
Uzi Motro
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Food Competition ◽  
Spatial Position ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Papio Cynocephalus ◽  
Troop Fission ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Lower Ranking ◽  
Chacma Baboons ◽  
Feeding Bout

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.

AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE CONSISTENCY OF COMPETITIVE ABILITY AND AGONISTIC DOMINANCE IN DIFFERENT SOCIAL CONTEXTS IN CAPTIVE BONOBOS

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Van Elsacker ◽  
Hilde Vervaecke ◽  
Han De Vries
Keyword(s):  
Rank Order ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Group Context ◽  
Captive Group ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Right ◽  
Free Ranging

AbstractBonobos have been described as a relatively egalitarian and female dominant species. The exact nature and quality of their dominance relationships and the existence of female dominance are current topics of dispute. We investigated the consistency across social contexts, the stability in time, and the degree of expression of the competitive feeding ability and agonistic dominance in a captive group of bonobos. First, we examined whether the competitive feeding ranks and agonistic ranks differed in different dyadic contexts, triadic contexts and the whole group context. For some pairs of animals the dominance relationships with respect to competitive feeding altered with different group compositions. The agonistic dominance relationships changed accordingly. The competitive feeding ranks and agonistic ranks in the experiments correlated strongly with each other. The alpha position was occupied by a female, but not all females outranked all males. We suggest that females can profit from each others presence to gain inter-sexual dominance. Second, although the agonistic rank order in the whole group remained the same over at least five years, some dyadic competitive feeding ranks changed over time, resulting in a stronger female intersexual dominance. Third, the degree of expression of the behaviors used to quantify dyadic competitive and agonistic dominance was not high, in line with the popular 'egalitarian' epithet. Notwithstanding its low consistency across contexts, the dominance hierarchy in the whole group has a strong predictive value for other social relationships such as grooming. Given this strong effect of rank on other behaviours and given the strong dependency of rank on social context, the choice of the right party members may be a crucial factor in the fission-fusion processes of free-ranging bonobos.

scholarly journals Male Badge Size Predicts Dominance Against Females in House Sparrows

The Condor ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Liker ◽  
Zoltán Barta
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Dominance Status ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Status Signal ◽  
Winter Flocks ◽  
Badge Size

Abstract We investigated dominance relationships and the use of male badge size as a status signal in a mixed-sex flock of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus). Specifically, we tested whether females differ from males in their fighting behavior or dominance status, and whether badge size predicts dominance and fighting success of males in male-female fights. We found that both sexes were involved frequently in aggressive encounters, and the mean dominance rank of males did not differ from the mean rank of females. Badge size was the only significant predictor of the dominance rank of males, and was a good predictor of their aggressiveness measured as the proportion of fights initiated. On the other hand, female dominance rank was correlated with body weight. In male-female fights, both the proportion of female-initiated aggressive interactions and the proportion of fights won by females decreased with increasing size of the opponent's badge. Large-badged males dominated more females in dyadic interactions than smaller-badged males. These correlational results suggest that male badge size may be used as a signal of dominance status between male and female House Sparrows in winter flocks.

Experimental increase in female mass during the fertile phase leads to enhanced extra-pair paternity in pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireia Plaza ◽  
Alejandro Cantarero ◽  
Juan Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Ficedula Hypoleuca ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Female Dominance ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Wing Loading ◽  
Potential Fecundity ◽  
Fertile Phase ◽  
Extra Pair Paternity

Female mass in most altricial birds reaches its maximum during breeding at egg-laying, which coincides temporally with the fertile phase when extra-pair paternity (EPP) is determined. Higher mass at laying may have two different effects on EPP intensity. On the one hand, it would lead to increased wing loading (body mass/wing area), which may impair flight efficiency and thereby reduce female’s capacity to resist unwanted extra-pair male approaches (sexual conflict hypothesis). On the other hand, it would enhance female condition, favouring her capacity to evade mate-guarding and to search for extra-pair mates (female choice hypothesis). In both cases, higher female mass at laying may lead to enhanced EPP. To test this prediction, we reduced nest building effort by adding a completely constructed nest in an experimental group of female pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). Our treatment caused an increase in mass and thereby wing loading and this was translated into a significantly higher EPP in the manipulated group compared with the control group as expected. There was also a significant negative relationship between EPP and laying date and the extent of the white wing patch, an index of female dominance. More body reserves at laying mean not only a higher potential fecundity but a higher level of EPP as well. This interaction had not previously received due attention but should be considered in future studies of avian breeding strategies.

scholarly journals Social calls influence the foraging behavior in wild big-footed myotis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongge Guo ◽  
Jianan Ding ◽  
Heng Liu ◽  
Lin Zhou ◽  
Jiang Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Food Competition ◽  
Insectivorous Bats ◽  
Insect Abundance ◽  
Social Calls ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Free Ranging

Abstract Background Why a variety of social animals emit foraging-associated calls during group foraging remains an open question. These vocalizations may be used to recruit conspecifics to food patches (i.e. food advertisement hypothesis) or defend food resources against competitors (food defence hypothesis), presumably depending on food availability. Insectivorous bats rely heavily on vocalizations for navigation, foraging, and social interactions. In this study, we used free-ranging big-footed myotis (Myotis macrodactylus Temminck, 1840) to test whether social calls produced in a foraging context serve to advertise food patches or to ward off food competitors. Using a combination of acoustic recordings, playback experiments with adult females and dietary monitoring (light trapping and DNA metabarcoding techniques), we investigated the relationship between insect availability and social vocalizations in foraging bats. Results The big-footed myotis uttered low-frequency social calls composed of 7 syllable types during foraging interactions. Although the dietary composition of bats varied across different sampling periods, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Trichoptera were the most common prey consumed. The number of social vocalizations was primarily predicted by insect abundance, insect species composition, and echolocation vocalizations from conspecifics. The number of conspecific echolocation pulses tended to decrease following the emission of most social calls. Feeding bats consistently decreased foraging attempts and food consumption during playbacks of social calls with distinctive structures compared to control trials. The duration of flight decreased 1.29–1.96 fold in the presence of social calls versus controls. Conclusions These results support the food defence hypothesis, suggesting that foraging bats employ social calls to engage in intraspecific food competition. This study provides correlative evidence for the role of insect abundance and diversity in influencing the emission of social calls in insectivorous bats. Our findings add to the current knowledge of the function of social calls in echolocating bats.

scholarly journals Dominance relationships and coalitionary aggression against conspecifics in female carrion crows

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt Holtmann ◽  
Julia Buskas ◽  
Matthew Steele ◽  
Kristaps Solokovskis ◽  
Jochen B. W. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The Third ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
Dominant Individual ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Cooperation is a prevailing feature of many animal systems. Coalitionary aggression, where a group of individuals engages in coordinated behaviour to the detriment of conspecific targets, is a form of cooperation involving complex social interactions. To date, evidence has been dominated by studies in humans and other primates with a clear bias towards studies of male-male coalitions. We here characterize coalitionary aggression behaviour in a group of female carrion crows consisting of recruitment, coordinated chase, and attack. The individual of highest social rank liaised with the second most dominant individual to engage in coordinated chase and attack of a lower ranked crow on several occasions. Despite active intervention by the third most highly ranked individual opposing the offenders, the attack finally resulted in the death of the victim. All individuals were unrelated, of the same sex, and naïve to the behaviour excluding kinship, reproduction, and social learning as possible drivers. Instead, the coalition may reflect a strategy of the dominant individual to secure long-term social benefits. Overall, the study provides evidence that members of the crow family engage in coordinated alliances directed against conspecifics as a possible means to manipulate their social environment.

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