Editorial: Microbial Drivers of Sociality – From Multicellularity to Animal Societies

Costs associated with extra-territorial movement are believed to have favoured the evolution of delayed dispersal and sociality across a range of social vertebrates, but remain surprisingly poorly understood. Here we reveal a novel mechanism that may contribute substantially to the costs of extra-territorial movement: physiological stress. We show that subordinate male meerkats, Suricata suricatta , exhibit markedly elevated faecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels (a non-invasive measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity) while conducting extra-territorial prospecting forays. While brief increases in glucocorticoid levels are unlikely to be costly, chronic elevations, arising from prolonged and/or frequent forays, are expected to compromise fitness through their diverse negative effects on health. Our findings strongly suggest that prolonged extra-territorial movements do result in chronic stress, as the high glucocorticoid levels of prospectors do not diminish on longer forays and are no lower among males with greater prospecting experience. A generalized ‘stress’ of extra-territorial movement may therefore have strengthened selection for delayed dispersal and sociality in this and other species, and favoured the conduct of brief forays over extended periods of floating. Our findings have implications too for understanding the rank-related distribution of physiological stress in animal societies, as extra-territorial movements are often conducted solely by subordinates.

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Violence and Cruelty

Shadow Sophia ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198843467.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 84-109

Author(s):

Celia E. Deane-Drummond

Keyword(s):

Aggressive Behaviour ◽

Animal Sacrifice ◽

Organized Violence ◽

The Common ◽

Biblical Texts ◽

Close Relatives ◽

Animal Societies ◽

Common Perception ◽

As If

Our close relatives, chimpanzees, are known at times to be violent and aggressive. This chapter acknowledges the presence of violence, but challenges the common perception that killing is somehow ‘natural’ to our species. The chapter discusses the capacity for violence and aggression in chimpanzees as it relates to specific types of human violence. How far and to what extent did the first humans begin to show an inordinate capacity for organized violence and cruelty? How should biblical accounts of violence, animal sacrifice, and cruelty be interpreted in the light of this evidence? Treating humans as if they were animals is a way of degrading them and denying their humanity in biblical texts. Humans have the capacity to identify with their species and use misappropriated language towards other, often domesticated, species in a way that is deliberately cruel. The chapter will argue that the capacity for warfare and cruelty in humans does not simply build on aggressive behaviour found in other animal societies or towards other animals, but involves instead a deliberative and cooperative capacity that is highly distinctive for our lineage. Such insights need to be qualified in the light of capacities for reconciliation and, with the onset of warfare, strategic peacefare.

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ATTACK AND DEFENSE IN ANIMAL SOCIETIES

Aggression and Defense, Neural Mechanisms and Social Patterns ◽

10.1525/9780520340190-002 ◽

1967 ◽

pp. 35-94

Author(s):

S. A. Barmett

Keyword(s):

Attack And Defense ◽

Animal Societies

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Kropotkin, Pëtr Alekseevich (1842–1921)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-e021-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Caroline Cahm

Keyword(s):

Continuous Process ◽

Modern Science ◽

Mutual Aid ◽

State Authority ◽

Animal Societies

A founder of anarchist communism and guiding spirit of the international anarchist movement after the death of Bakunin, Kropotkin was also a distinguished geographer, a scientist and a positivist. He saw the development of anarchism as one aspect of the whole movement of modern science towards an integrated philosophy. He believed that the dominant phenomenon in nature was harmony, arrived at by a continuous process of adjustment between contending forces. In human, as in animal societies, the dominant phenomenon was mutual aid: thus once metaphysics, law and state authority had been shaken off, harmony could be realized.

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Ecological and social constraints combine to promote evolution of non-breeding strategies in clownfish

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-020-01380-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca Branconi ◽

Tina A. Barbasch ◽

Robin K. Francis ◽

Maya Srinivasan ◽

Geoffrey P. Jones ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cooperative Breeding ◽

Wild Population ◽

Social Constraints ◽

Bargaining Theory ◽

Breeding Strategies ◽

Ecological Constraints ◽

Amphiprion Percula ◽

Outside Options ◽

Risk Of Mortality ◽

Animal Societies

Abstract Individuals that forgo their own reproduction in animal societies represent an evolutionary paradox because it is not immediately apparent how natural selection can preserve the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. Cooperative breeding theory provides a solution to the paradox: non-breeders benefit by helping relatives and/or inheriting breeding positions; non-breeders do not disperse to breed elsewhere because of ecological constraints. However, the question of why non-breeders do not contest to breed within their group has rarely been addressed. Here, we use a wild population of clownfish (Amphiprion percula), where non-breeders wait peacefully for years to inherit breeding positions, to show non-breeders will disperse when ecological constraints (risk of mortality during dispersal) are experimentally weakened. In addition, we show non-breeders will contest when social constraints (risk of eviction during contest) are experimentally relaxed. Our results show it is the combination of ecological and social constraints that promote the evolution of non-breeding strategies. The findings highlight parallels between, and potential for fruitful exchange between, cooperative breeding theory and economic bargaining theory: individuals will forgo their own reproduction and wait peacefully to inherit breeding positions (engage in cooperative options) when there are harsh ecological constraints (poor outside options) and harsh social constraints (poor inside options).

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