Social behavior in animals

We use Principal Component Analyses (PCA) to describe components of social relationship quality in bonobos. We find a three component structure, with the first two components, labelled Value and Compatibility, closely matching the theoretical constructs as well as components reported for chimpanzees and other primates. The third component differed but was abandoned based on Parallel Analysis. Among bonobos, female–female dyads have higher Value and Compatibility. Relationships between males are characterised by low Value and Compatibility. Dyads that had been housed together for a longer time and maternally related ones also have more valuable relationships, while individuals close in rank have low compatibility. The results confirm the strong bonds among female bonobos, but for the first time can describe how they differ qualitatively from close bonds reported for captive chimpanzee females. We suggest future studies should also include Parallel Analysis to more accurately describe...

In mammals, adult behaviour patterns are often expressed by juveniles throughout ontogeny. In bats, many social behaviours develop before pups are weaned, but the ontogeny of social
behaviours in juvenile bats is largely unexplored. We studied bat pups’ social behaviour, specifically the solicitations for maternal care in the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata. Solicitation periods were prolonged (up to 25 min) and consisted of conspicuous behavioural interactions between pups and their mothers. Since solicitation periods could be initiated by pups or mothers, their duration is probably not caused by a conflict over nursing alone. Solicitation periods were the second most prevalent use of activity time in pups. Some pup behaviours resembled the courtship behaviours of adult males and these incipient courtship behaviours occurred most often within solicitation periods. Both length and complexity of solicitation periods increased significantly during ontogeny but there was no significant difference between male and female pups. Also, the activity outside of solicitation periods was not significantly different between pups of both sexes, even though their activity differs remarkably as adults. Prolonged solicitation periods of S. bilineata pups might be comparable to mammalian play and potentially function as practice for adult courtship behaviours.

""Largely based on pre-theory that ties high testosterone (T) to masculinity, and low T to femininity, high T is mainly studied in relation to aggression, mating, sexuality, and challenge, and low T with parenting. Evidence, however, fails to support this, and the social variability in T is better accounted for by a competition–
nurturance trade-off as per the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (van Anders et al., 2011). Four key domains are discussed: adult–infant interactions, sexual desire, sexual behavior, and partnering. Empirical engagements with gender/sex are shown to lead to important insights over assumptions about masculinity–femininity. Humans are discussed within a comparative framework that attends to cross species principles informed by human insights alongside human-specific particularities like social constructions, which are critical to evolutionary understandings of the social role of T. This paper thus integrates seemingly orthogonal perspectives to allow for transformative approaches to an empirically supported social phenomenology of T.""

“Conosciamo meglio i nostri animali da compagnia dei nostri vicini di casa. Quasi sicuramente li amiamo di più, come ha ricordato papa Francesco.”
Da quando gli animali domestici sono diventati membri ufficiali delle nostre famiglie, abbiamo dovuto decidere se essere padroni, proprietari, amici o genitori. Mentre prendevamo la nostra decisione, i pets l’hanno presa per noi.
Quando in casa arriva un pet – cane, gatto, coniglio o furetto (gli ultimi due non insieme) – la vita cambia per sempre. Abitudini, ritmi e ruoli vengono rivoluzionati e giorno dopo giorno si costruisce un rapporto profondo, perché sotto lo stesso tetto si passano insieme decenni, si condividono momenti importanti e, soprattutto, ci si vuole bene. Ma la vita è piena di complicazioni, poiché esistono fidanzati gelosi, amiche allergiche, parenti zoofobi e vicini di pianerottolo amanti del silenzio assoluto.
In questo saggio ironico, esilarante e irriverente, ma estremamente preciso, Guerzoni racconta l’umanizzazione e la parentizzazione dei pets, fenomeni che riguardano buona parte delle famiglie occidentali e le arricchiscono di nuovi adorabili membri. Perché i pets nel mondo sono più di un miliardo e settecentomila ma in futuro potranno solo aumentare: superata la barriera dell’empatia, non possiamo più farne a meno.

The Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) is now a familiar sight to many people living in Singapore. This familiarity presents people in Singapore with the unique opportunity to observe their fascinating social behaviour. This potential is enhanced by the hornbill's increasing habituation to people. Here communal dust bathing of the Oriental Pied Hornbill is documented at a children's sandpit in a popular playground.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book summary in downloadable .doc]      Our instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection— evolved for life on the savannah 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons—that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.

This study reviews ethological literature and the views of working riders on the manners in which horses communicate nonverbally; explores social-scientific paradigms of human nonverbal communication as presented in the academic discipline of Communication Studies; and outlines crucial ways in which horse-horse, horse-human, and human-horse communication can be viewed using paradigms for human-human nonverbal communication. With this in place, I explore and present photographs of what I have termed horses’ ability for “corporeal synchronicity”—the ability to move in exact, foot-for-foot synchrony with one another—and the meaning this may hold for both human and horse.

This study investigated the effect of a novel enrichment device (a metal tray containing bark chip mulch) on the behaviour, territories and social organization of a group of 47 African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) in a naturalistic aviary at a parrot sanctuary. The aims of the study were to: (1) Describe behaviours performed by the parrots at ground-level; (2) Ascertain whether they have ground-level territories; (3) Analyse the effect of the provision of an enrichment device on individual parrots and on the group as a whole; and (4) Assess whether enrichment provision results in disruption to social structure and parrot territories. Baseline observations of parrot locations and behaviours were used to create a map of territories. The enrichment device was then placed on the ground in different territories and behaviours and locations of parrots were recorded. It was found that: (1) Nearly half of the parrots housed in the aviary performed digging, locomotory, mulch-chewing, foraging and social behaviours at ground-level; (2) one individual, George, performed more inactive behaviour (sleeping, standing and autogrooming) during baseline than when enrichment was present, P=0.046, two-tailed test, and more active behaviour during the enrichment (77%) than the baseline (23%) phase, P= 0.049, two-tailed randomization test; (3) The enrichment device appeared to increase foraging behaviour of three individuals but not of the overall group; and (4) The social network and territories were generally stable over time, but enrichment device provision had a local effect on the size of two territories in a single aviary floor quadrant. Social dynamics and territoriality limit the welfare benefits of a single enrichment item, so providing identical enrichment items within each territory is recommended to prevent social distress and increase resource access.

Multispecies ethnographic projects are venturing "beyond the human," but how far can they go and remain anthropological? The answer depends on whether such projects align with the surge of ethological research on animal cultures. Based on my fieldwork on wild horses in Galicia, Spain, I make a case for an ethologically informed ethnography that extends cultural analysis to other social species. In this project, I used ethological techniques of direct observation but analyzed the results using Erving Goffman's concepts of face, footing, and civil inattention. My analysis inverts Clifford Geertz's classic study of the Balinese cockfight by making horse sociality the center of analysis, rather than regarding these animals as representations of human status concerns.

We investigated features of vertebrates signalization systems evolution. There are two groups of such features for different levels of communicative system progress - motivational signals and referential signals. Demonstrations for motivational signals (releasers) play a role of motivation level and following animal behavior indicators. Demonstrations for referential signals have an external referent and reflect alternative categories of problem situations, which are generated in interaction. These categories are "names" of different situations and programs to solve them.
Motivational signals force something to react as it necessary for next process stage. Referential signals let something to choose its reaction freely. They are arbitrary signs in its structure and function.
Ritualisation is an evolutionary process, which turn the individual expressions, provoke with arousal in situation “conflict the interests”, in species-specific signals; their meaning promote the solution all this situations or support more effective actions in solution this conflict in own interests.
Contrary opinion classical ethologists it is showed that ritualization process consists in two distinct stages. The first stage is the ritualization in true sense – the transformation individuals expressions, intention movements, and other “demonstration precursor” in complete system of species-specific ritualized demonstrations used in threat, combat, courtship, danger warning and other contexts. The demonstrations are organized in rows and placed along the specific motivational gradients so the different demonstrations this row convey the different level of aggression, alarm, fear, risk, sexuality and other motivational conditions which connect with interactional situations. So appear some systems of motivational signals. The demonstration at this stage in their communicative function are similar with pantomime, not signs – there are signals of motivation lever and intentions the animals, their forms is not stady and vary connecctly with dynamic of motivation conditions a.o.
The second stage of ritualization process we can name “signification” because during this on the base of former demonstration row develop the sign system, every demonstration develop into sign, support the information change in interaction this context, old motivational signals develop in referential signals with keeping homologues in signal forms but increasing the stereotypy and differentiation between signals.
During the second stage of ritualization faintly differentiated forms of former motivational signals in ancestor species this clade evolved into discrete forms of referential signals in derived species, which are well-differentiate and contrasts with one to another as the logical oppositions. As this process will complete, all demonstrations next stage get true signs, are independent from motivation underground and mark different essential situations, which can appear in interaction the animal with their outer world. On this stage different elements in row of referential signals “name” the different essential elements of animals’ outside in this specific communication process such as counteracting demonstrations of other animal in the threat, combat, territory defence, courtship etc., or different classes of raptors, or different kinds of food.
The referential signals as signs of essential communicative situations in animal’s outward are comparable with sign systems in men communication for example the gestures in sign languages. They inform all interaction’s participants about some possibilities in solution the conflict of interests and/or motivation conflict through change the behavior model which will be effective against this opponent but not manipulate its behaviour. In contrary the motivational signals are specific stimulus which manipulate the opponent’s and reduce to react so as in needed on the next stage of behavioral process.
Further we investigate the question: what are the role of demonstrations in social interaction of birds before developing their signal functions, on the first stage of ritualization process? We prove that this period the courtship or agonistic demonstrations were used as an specifical barrier prevented immediate rapprochement the participants. Due to ritualized demonstration change they remain from directed aggressive or sexual actions one to each other. The demonstration freeze the rapprochement on the period required from doing the signal and releaser effects of demonstration forms and participants “remove” the motivation conflict create during partner’s act on next stage of process.
Without solution the motivational conflict in the “dance” of ritualized demonstration change both participants will be scarred and copulation or other interaction result will fail. For example, in successfully agonistic interaction threat demonstration must inhibit the direct attacking and escaping from participants so that the will be similar the increasing rate of restrain effect by further winner demonstrations and the decreasing rate of resistance possibility by further loser.
The role of demonstrations as barrier lightening the motivational conflict in all participant in animal communication is similar of role the ritualized dances in sum men cultures, as was described by Konrad Lorenz still 1950’s.

The origins of the Germanic “Straw-bears” have been subject to speculation for years. In this study the Straw-bears will be contextualized along with their European relatives so that their meaning can be better appreciated within a larger framework of European ritual belief and social practice. The cosmogony in question is grounded in the belief that humans descended from bears, a belief that continued into the 20th century among Basque-speakers. The transformative aspects of the Straw-bear performances will be examined in relation to “Good-Luck Visits”, a type of performance aimed at bringing good health and prosperity to the houses visited and in which Straw-bears and their relatives have played a major role.

The explication of altruistic behavior in primates remains complex. Gregarious, socially complex primates are characterized by a diverse array of social behavior patterns with seemingly altruistic behavior being relatively commonplace. Human societies are a form of primate society but with much higher levels of social complexity and extremely high levels of cooperative and apparently altruistic behavior. It is likely that there are elements of primate (at least anthropoid) sociality that act as baseline for subsequent expansion and elaboration during human evolution. Can understanding patterns and contexts of primate social complexity and cooperation help us understand human altruism? In this chapter we have two primary objectives: to examine three non-human primate genera to show how social cooperation, social bonding, and niche construction can affect our understandings of altruism, and to illustrate where we think that such non-human primate information is a good model for humans, and where it is not.

Some 2200 years ago, people belonging to the Pazyryk archaeological culture gathered together to bury their dead in mounds on high plateaus in the remote Altai Mountains in the center of Asia. Entire horses—and often groups of horses—were sacrificed at these funerals and interred with the men and women, presumed leaders and commoners alike. By employing an human-animal studies approach to these burials, in this chapter I digress from the archaeological position which views nonhuman animals as calories or constructs to one which includes animal others as impactful upon human social realities.

After grounding this approach in multidisciplinary theory, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human-horse relationships, through both ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy which uses my position within the context of those I shall term working riders: riders who live with and care for horses and possess the ability and knowledge to school them to be ridden. I touch on aspects of human-horse intersubjectivities and situate particular elements of the Pazyryk horse burials. I then attempt to phenomenologically recreate the actual killing of the Pazyryk horse from the perspective of the humans—and the horses—and suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviors of both at the burial ceremony. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human-animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

According to Aubrey’s Lives Hobbes praised Aristotle’s discourse on animals. This essay identifies some fundamentals of this discourse—the centrality of sensation, the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, and the ultimate drive for self-preservation—as stimulating the new directions of Hobbes’ ideas on man and politics and reveals a different, and so far ignored, facet of Aristotelian legacy. Particular attention is given to how Hobbes used Aristotle’s “social animals” to undermine the naturalness of the political.

The use of elephants for military purposes was, for centuries, one of the most important military arms of the armies in the Antiquity. Although, these could get to suppose so many advantages as drawbacks and, for this reason, they were since then denominated by the classic authors as “the common enemy”.

Dogs have been proven to show several human-analogue social behaviors, and recent research raises the possibility that the oxytocin system is related to these. However, despite dogs' general tendency to excel in the domain of social cognition, there is increasing evidence that dogs' ability to utilize human signals may vary with breed. Moreover, breeds may show differences not only in their 'inborn' communicative abilities, but also in their learning skills related to these. The aim of the present study was to explore breed differences and breed-specific effects of oxytocin administration on different aspects of social responsiveness. Dogs from two markedly different breeds, Border Collies (cooperative workers) and Siberian Huskies (independent workers) were tested. After having received intranasal administration of oxytocin or placebo, subjects participated in three behavioral tests measuring social responsiveness. Our results show that there are several behavioral differences between the two breeds and also that there are differential effects of the oxytocin treatment. Border Collies were in general more susceptible to the 'social' effects of oxytocin compared to Siberian Huskies: after oxytocin administration they (1) looked more at the experimenter in the 'Unreachable food' situation, (2) looked more at the owner and shifted their gaze more between the sound source and the owner in a potentially dangerous situation, and (3) looked longer at the experimenter's eyes in the 'Tolerance of prolonged eye contact' test. These findings suggest that selection for enhanced cooperative abilities, possibly complemented by the effect of different social environments the two breeds experience, affects dogs' performance in several behavioral tests and that the neurohormonal background differently modulates social behavior in different working breeds.

The basic misunderstandings of sexuality in western culture derive from culturally constructed stigma of interpreting Sexuality as sin, violence and perversion. The basic and still living mistake was initialized by churchfather St. Augustine about 1600 years ago by staining sexuality by a non-scientific belief and construct of original sin.

Naturally and scientifically Sexuality includes none of these abovementioned demonizations. That is why it is finally the time to change the paradigm of sexuality and reveal its true core as a non-harming phenomenon.

The successful life of insect societies has evolved from the division of labor among more or less specialized individuals, who carry out all necessary tasks for the maintenance and growth of the colony. The extreme division of labor has produced workers specialized in the removal of dead members of the colony, an evident and highly stereotyped behavior called undertaking which consists of the ability to recognize and dispose of the dead members of the colony using specific chemical cues. Although living in enclosed nests has contributed to the ecological success of social insects due to environmental control, it also poses disadvantages. Nests of social insects, containing dense groups of genetically close individuals with frequent physical contact, present ideal conditions for the incidence and dispersion of infectious diseases. To maintain strict microbiological control inside the nest, these insects have evolved hygienic behavioral strategies to avoid and control the proliferation of pathogens. Undertaking behavior is one of the fundamental strategies to exert microbiological control inside the nest by means of suitable management and removal of dead members of the colony, to prevent the emergence of epidemics that may lead the insect society to extinction. Therefore, undertaking behavior has been fundamental to the evolution of social insects. This stereotyped behavior constitutes an excellent model for the understanding of both social evolution and the neurobiological basis of social behavior. In this paper, we review the present knowledge on undertaking behavior, and outline some perspectives of the study of such far-reaching behavior of social organization.

Results of investigation of how social context affects responses to, and consumption of the novel food in climbing perch, Anabas testudineus, are presented. The fish living in group fed better from the first day of the experiment. The quantity of consumed pellets always exceeded that in solitary specimens. Their rate of habituation to the novel food was always significantly higher.

In recent years, humanists and social scientists have shown increasing interest in human-animal relations – to the point where many now speak of an ‘animal turn’ in the humanities and social sciences. Across history, psychology, anthropology, literature, sociology, philosophy, and law, an interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies has been forming. Certain common themes run through this diverse field, not least the reproduction of human-animal difference, and the conditions and the implications thereof.

Despite the long history of language use as a marker of such difference, the academic quest to investigate the boundary between human and nonhuman has, somewhat surprisingly, not taken root within rhetorical studies – at least not until now. For this edited volume, we therefore call for chapters that investigate the place of nonhuman animals in the purview of rhetorical theory; what it would mean to communicate beyond the human community; how rhetoric reveals our ‘brute roots.’ In other words, this book invites contributions which enlighten us about likely or possible implications of the animal turn within rhetorical studies. Would such a turn imply, for instance, that rhetoric needs a nonanthropocentric reconfiguration? The question, perhaps, is this: What difference would it make to the discipline if we assumed that nonhuman forms of communication were as interesting as human ones?

Pursuing Animal History as Body History, this paper focuses neither on animals nor on humans, but rather on bodies and the different societal demands made on them. It rejects the simple attribution of a history and an actor- or even subject-status to humans and animals per se. Instead, the paper suggests a historical problematization of the processes that produce humans or animals as having a history and as being actors or even subjects. Against this background, I try to demonstrate the usefulness of distinguishing between a praxeological approach in a broad sense on the one hand and a genealogical perspective in a narrow sense on the other. I thus understand Animal History less as an expanded form of Cultural History, but much more as a special form of Social History, placing at the center of interest neither the nature/culture dichotomy nor the concept of life, but rather the concept of the social.

Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in zoos are housed in family or bachelor groups to maximize social opportunities. While wild bachelor groups are transient, all male groups in zoos maybe maintained for many years. Captive bachelor groups need  to be carefully monitored, particularly during periods of demographic transition, due to  the possibility for escalating aggression. We examined behavioral changes in a bachelor group at the Saint Louis Zoo following two significant alterations in group composition: (1) the introduction of two immature related males in 2011 and (2) the death of the dominant silverback in 2015. Behavioral data were collected on group members using 15min focal observations with 30-s instantaneous scans, totaling 185.25hr for the first transition and 115.25hr for the second transition (with equal effort in baseline and transition periods). We found that the addition of the two subadult males resulted in a significant increase in affiliation in the group often initiated by these new younger individuals, while the rate of abnormal and aggressive behavior did not change significantly. The rate of abnormal,aggressive, or affiliative behavior in the group also did not change significantly following the death of the dominant silverback. Overall,we conclude that this bachelor group and potentially others can endure possibly destabilizing social transitions and remain cohesive social units. Behavioral changes will result from transitions, but the effect on individuals or impact on the group will vary. Therefore, longitudinal monitoring of bachelor groups will be essential for effective management during any major changes.

Pour répondre aux défis des recherches éthologiques contemporaines, D. Lestel propose d'élaborer une ethnographie des mondes animaux. Selon l'A., si la thèse des cultures et de la subjectivité de l'animal est nécessaire pour démontrer la faisabilité de ce projet, elle peut être repoussée comme une échelle devenue inutile et incertaine une fois franchie l'illusion anthropocentrique. La focalisation ethnographique ne requiert aucun des descripteurs qui ethnologise l'objet d'investigation. S'il semble hasardeux de transposer des concepts anthropologiques, il paraît au contraire fécond de tenir systématiquement l'attitude de l'ethnologue sur son terrain au sein d'une communauté animale dont la difficulté principale est l'habituation ou l'acceptabilité négociée de l'ethnologue-éthologue sur les lieux de son enquête. C'est de ce travail de description et de négociation que pourront être dégagés des concepts bien fondés.

Ten researchers collaborated in a long-term study of social conventions in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys, involving examination of a 19,000-hour combined data set collected on 13 social groups at four study sites in Costa Rica over a 13-year period. Five behavior patterns qualified as social traditions, according to the study’s criteria: handsniffing, sucking of body parts, and three types of “games.” Some conventions were independently invented in virtually identical form at multiple sites. The extinction of several conventions was observed during the course of the study; it appears that they rarely last longer than ten years. It is hypothesized that the monkeys are using these group- or clique-specific social conventions to test the quality of their social relationships.

Many studies highlight the correlation between social ties and fitness, yet often cannot reveal how ties influence fitness. This review is aimed to facilitate the formulation and testing of hypotheses in this area on non-human primates. I outline fitness-relevant measures of social ties and 6 potential pathways from ties to fitness. Pathways include communal care; group level cooperation for resources ; monopolizing resources within groups; attaining social status; reducing risk and allostatic load; and developing behavioural competence. Hypotheses for further evaluation include (1) fitness increases sociality, not vice versa; (2) early life experience influences both ties and fitness, (3) ties are actually costly; (4) short term costs of ties are outweighed by long term benefits. With the advance of theoretical and methodological approaches to evaluate the costs and benefits of social ties, and monitor them at multi-generational field sites, primate behavioural ecologists are poised to test several of these hypotheses.

Ideas about nonhuman primates have long been used to talk about human gender and aggression.  Due to phylogenetic relatedness and popular conceptions of similarities, behavioral studies of nonhuman primates have a much greater impact on ideas about human behavior than studies of other groups of organisms.  Because of our biological basis for shared traits resulting from a common evolutionary heritage, nonhuman primate behavior is often put forward as evidence of an underlying natural condition or of normative roles in human behavior. In recent years, the evidence for the diversity and complexity of nonhuman primate behavior has complicated the process of generalizing from primate to human behavior.  Yet, at the same time, certain reductionist accounts--stemming primarily from sociobiology and evolutionary psychology--have have found their way into popularized narratives that rely on analogies between primate and human behavior that have little basis in the evidence of primatology.  This chapter focuses on the tension between these two trends in the uses of primatology, particularly as they relate to discussions of male aggression and male dominance.