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57 results for “Social dominance”
Code and data from: Familiarity, dominance, sex and season shape common waxbill social networks.
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Data set for: Behavioral traits that define social dominance are the same that reduce social influence in a consensus task
<p>Dominant individuals are often most influential in their social groups, affecting movement, opinion, and performance across species and contexts. Yet behavioral traits like aggression, intimidation, and coercion, which are associated with and in many cases define dominance, can be socially aversive. The traits that make dominant individuals influential in one context may therefore reduce their influence in other contexts. Here we examine this association between dominance and influence using the cichlid fish <i>Astatotilapia burtoni</i>, comparing the influence of dominant and subordinate males during normal social interactions and in a more complex group-consensus association task. We find that phenotypically dominant males are aggressive, socially central, and that these males have a strong influence over normal group movement, whereas subordinate males are passive, socially peripheral, and have little influence over normal movement. However, subordinate males have the greatest influence in generating group-consensus during the association task. Dominant males are spatially distant and have lower signal-to-noise ratios of informative behavior in the association task, potentially interfering with their ability to generate group-consensus. In contrast, subordinate males are physically close to other group members, have a high signal-to-noise ratio of informative behavior, and equivalent visual connectedness to their group as dominant males. The behavioral traits that define effective social influence are thus highly context-specific and can be dissociated with social dominance. Thus, processes of hierarchical ascension in which the most aggressive, competitive, or coercive individuals rise to positions of dominance may be counter-productive in contexts where group-performance is prioritized.</p>
Male-male behavioral interactions drive social-dominance mediated differences in ejaculate traits
<p>Higher social status is expected to result in fitness benefits as it secures access to potential mates. In promiscuous species, male reproductive success is also determined by an individual's ability to compete for fertilization after mating by producing high quality ejaculates. However, the complex relationship between a male's investment in social status and ejaculates remains unclear. Here we examine how male social status influences ejaculate quality under a range of social contexts in the pygmy halfbeak <i>Dermogenys </i>cf.<i> collettei</i>, a small, group-living, internally fertilizing freshwater fish. We show that male social status influences ejaculate traits, both in the presence and absence of females. Dominant males produced faster swimming and more viable sperm, two key determinants of ejaculate quality, but only under conditions with frequent male-male behavioral interactions. When male-male interactions were experimentally reduced through the addition of a refuge, differences in ejaculate traits of dominant and subordinate males disappeared. Furthermore, dominant males were in better condition, growing faster and possessing larger livers, highlighting a possible condition-dependence of competitive traits. Contrary to expectations, female presence or absence did not affect sperm swimming speed or testes mass. Together, these results suggest a positive relationship between social status and ejaculate quality in halfbeaks,<i> </i>and highlight that the strength of behavioral interactions between males is a key driver of social-status dependent differences in ejaculate traits.</p>
Data from: Dominance rank and boldness predict social attraction in great tits
Social relationships can have important fitness consequences, and how well an individual is socially connected often correlates with other behavioral traits. Whether such correlations are caused by underlying individual differences in social attraction usually remains unclear, because to identify effects of individual traits on social attraction, it is essential to experimentally exclude the influence of the social partner. Using standardized high-definition video playback on captive great tits (Parus major), we effectively demonstrate the influence of individual traits on the motivation to be near a conspecific. We show that social attraction varied contrastingly with boldness and stimulus novelty. Shyer birds tended to show stronger social attraction when they were confronted with the stimulus bird for the first time. Lower ranked birds showed the overall strongest social attraction. This rank effect remained after experimentally changing dominance ranks by altering group compositions. Moreover, preference for social association tended to increase with a decrease in dominance rank, suggesting that birds plastically change their social preference in relation to their within-group dominance status. Our results provide insight into how social relations can form and change, processes that are key for understanding the long-term consequences of the social environment, and the role individuals might play in influencing this environment themselves.
Data from: Canine length in wild male baboons: maturation, aging and social dominance rank
Canines represent an essential component of the dentition for any heterodont mammal. In primates, like many other mammals, canines are frequently used as weapons. Hence, tooth size and wear may have significant implications for fighting ability, and consequently for social dominance rank, reproductive success, and fitness. We evaluated sources of variance in canine growth and length in a well-studied wild primate population because of the potential importance of canines for male reproductive success in many primates. Specifically, we measured maxillary canine length in 80 wild male baboons (aged 5.04–20.45 years) from the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya, and examined its relationship with maturation, age, and social dominance rank. In our analysis of maturation, we compared food-enhanced baboons (those that fed part time at a refuse pit associated with a tourist lodge) with wild-feeding males, and found that food-enhanced males achieved long canines earlier than wild-feeding males. Among adult males, canine length decreased with age because of tooth wear. We found some evidence that, after controlling for age, longer canines were associated with higher adult dominance rank (accounting for 9% of the variance in rank), but only among relatively high-ranking males. This result supports the idea that social rank, and thus reproductive success and fitness, may depend in part on fighting ability mediated by canine size.
Data from: Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant
<p>Social hierarchies exist throughout the animal kingdom, including among humans. Our daily interactions inevitably reflect social dominance relationships between individuals. How do we mentally represent such concepts? Studies show that social dominance is represented as vertical space (i.e., high=<span class="il">dominant</span>) by adults and preschool children, suggesting a space-dominance representational link in social cognition. However, little is known about its early development. Here, we present experimental evidence that 12- to 16-month-old <span class="il">infants</span> <span class="il">expect</span> <span class="il">agents</span> presented in a <span class="il">higher</span> spatial <span class="il">position</span> to be more <span class="il">socially</span> <span class="il">dominant</span> than <span class="il">agents</span> in a lower spatial <span class="il">position</span>. After <span class="il">infants</span> repeatedly watched the <span class="il">higher</span> and lower <span class="il">agents</span> being presented simultaneously, they looked longer at the screen when the lower agent subsequently outcompeted the <span class="il">higher</span> agent in securing a reward object, suggesting that this outcome violated their <span class="il">higher</span>-is-<span class="il">dominant</span> expectation. We first manipulated <span class="il">agents</span>' positions by presenting them on a podium (Experiment 1). Then we presented the <span class="il">agents</span> on a double-decker stand to make their spatial positions directly above or below each other (Experiment 2), and we replicated the results (Experiment 3). This research demonstrates that <span class="il">infants</span> <span class="il">expect</span> spatially <span class="il">higher</span>-positioned <span class="il">agents</span> to be <span class="il">socially</span> <span class="il">dominant</span>, suggesting deep roots of the space-dominance link in ontogeny.</p>
Data from: Oxidative status and social dominance in a wild cooperative breeder
1. Oxidative stress has been proposed as a key mediator of life-history trade-offs, yet the social factors that affect patterns of oxidative states amongst individuals in animal societies remain virtually unexplored. 2. This is important, as rank-related differences in reproductive effort in many social species have the potential to generate, or indeed arise from, differences in oxidative state across dominance classes. 3. Here, we examine rank-related variation in oxidative states before and after a lengthy breeding season in a wild cooperatively breeding bird with high reproductive skew in the semi-arid zone of Southern Africa; the white-browed sparrow weaver (Plocepasser mahali). 4. Our findings reveal that prior to breeding, neither sex showed rank-related differences in markers of oxidative damage or antioxidant protection, suggesting that dominants' reproductive monopolies do not arise from superior pre-breeding oxidative states. 5. After breeding, however, females (who provision young at higher rates than males) suffered elevated oxidative damage, and dominant females (the only birds to lay and incubate eggs, and the primary nestling provisioners) experienced differential declines in antioxidant protection. 6. While males also showed reduced antioxidant capacity after breeding, this decline was rank-independent and not associated with elevated oxidative damage. 7. Our findings suggest that divisions of labour in animal societies can leave the hardest-working classes differentially exposed to oxidative stress, raising the possibility of hitherto unexplored impacts on health and ageing in social species.
Data from: Dominance rank and boldness predict social attraction in great tits
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Data from: Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant
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Male-male behavioral interactions drive social-dominance mediated differences in ejaculate traits
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Data from: Canine length in wild male baboons: maturation, aging and social dominance rank
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Data set for: Behavioral traits that define social dominance are the same that reduce social influence in a consensus task
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Data from: Oxidative status and social dominance in a wild cooperative breeder
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Radical change: Temporal patterns of oxidative stress during social ascent in a dominance hierarchy
<p>Dominant individuals have priority access to mates and resources. However, high rank can be costly too, especially when it is maintained by intense agonistic behavior. Oxidative stress has been proposed as a potential cost of social dominance. However, social dominance hierarchies can be dynamic, and few studies have examined the cost of social dominance when males are changing status. We studied temporal changes in markers of oxidative stress during social ascent in the East African cichlid fish <i>Astatotilapia burtoni</i>. After removing the dominant male, males ascended from subordinate to dominant status. On the first day of social ascent, immediately after the dominant male removal, the newly dominant male showed lower levels of plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC). However, we found that liver TAC and liver superoxide dismutase, an enzymatic antioxidant, were significantly upregulated on day 1 and 2 of social ascent, respectively. By day 14, all markers of oxidative stress were similar to those observed in stable dominant males, which has higher levels of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) compared to subordinate males. We conclude that markers of oxidative stress vary dramatically during social ascent in a time- and tissue-sensitive manner. Our study provides a more nuanced look at the oxidative cost of social dominance and highlights the importance of considering temporal changes in markers of oxidative stress during important life-history events.</p>
Data from: Personality predicts social dominance in male domestic fowl
Individuals in social species commonly form dominance relationships, where dominant individuals enjoy greater access to resources compared to subordinates. A range of factors such as sex, age, body size and prior experiences has to varying degrees been observed to affect the social status an individual obtains. Recent work on animal personality (i.e. consistent variation in behavioural responses of individuals) demonstrates that personality can co-vary with social status, suggesting that also behavioural variation can play an important role in establishment of status. We investigated whether personality could predict the outcome of duels between pairs of morphologically matched male domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus), a species where individuals readily form social hierarchies. We found that males that more quickly explored a novel arena, or remained vigilant for a longer period following the playback of a warning call were more likely to obtain a dominant position. These traits were uncorrelated to each other and were also uncorrelated to aggression during the initial part of the dominance-determining duel. Our results indicate that several behavioural traits independently play a role in the establishment of social status, which in turn can have implications for the reproductive success of different personality types.
Data from: Dominance and the initiation of group feeding events: the modifying effect of sociality
Individuals can differ in how much they benefit from being in a group depending on characteristics such as their dominance rank or their behaviour. Understanding which categories of individuals influence the decisions of a group could help understand which individuals are benefiting the most. We examine these ideas in wild flocks of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), which feature stable group membership and linear dominance hierarchies. We attempt to infer which individuals are influencing group movement by examining how individuals initiate and join foraging events in relation to their dominance rank, exploratory personality type and position within a social network. We find that the influence of dominance on these behaviours heavily depends on the social connections an individual has, and that the effect of exploratory personality was small. Dominant individuals with a high eigenvector centrality were more likely to initiate a foraging event, while among individuals with a low eigenvector centrality this relationship was reversed, with subordinates being slightly more likely to initiate a foraging event. Analysis also suggested that individuals with a large number of strong social connections would be less affected by dominance than less social individuals. This suggests a system where individuals might adopt different foraging strategies depending on their position within a social network, and highlights the importance of individuals' social phenotype when studying group decision making.
Data from: Individual dispersal decisions in a cooperative breeder: ecological constraints, the benefits of philopatry, and the social queue for dominance
1. Delayed dispersal is a key step in the evolution of familial animal societies and cooperative breeding. However, no consensus has been reached on the ecological and social circumstances driving delayed dispersal. 2. Here we test predictions from the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses as well as the recently-proposed dual benefits hypothesis to better understand the evolution of group-living and cooperative breeding. Furthermore, we consider how individual social circumstances within groups affect dispersal decisions. 3. We examine 11 years of life-history information on a wild population of cooperatively breeding southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). We investigate the effects of ecological conditions, natal-group membership and individual social context on male and female dispersal delays, disperser survival and acquisition of dominance. 4. Female dispersal decisions are generally unconstrained by ecological or social circumstances. In contrast, males disperse in response to relaxed ecological constraints, decreases in nepotistic tolerance, or when low social rank in the queue for dominance decreases their likelihood of gaining a dominant breeding position. Early dispersal by end-of-queue males often leads to a head-of-queue subordinate position in a non-natal group, thereby increasing access to dominant breeding positions. However, males and females remaining in natal groups gain benefits of philopatry via increased survival and, for head-of-queue males, very high likelihood of acquisition of a breeding position. 5. Overall, predictions from the dual benefits hypothesis best describe these results, while some predictions from each of the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses were supported. The benefits of living and working together (collective action benefits) in large stable groups are of central importance in shaping dispersal delays in southern pied babbler societies. In addition, position in the subordinate social queue for dominance is key in determining access to reproduction, particularly for males. This research highlights the importance of considering the costs and benefits of individual social circumstances in dispersal decisions and illustrates how the dual benefits hypothesis offers new perspectives in understanding delayed dispersal.
Data from: Indirect genetic effects and the genetic bases of social dominance: evidence from cattle
Genetic studies of social behaviour have currently received new impetus from models including indirect genetic effects (IGEs) of social partners. This study aimed at investigating the contribution of conspecifics in social dominance, considered as response of dyadic interaction that is, winning (dominant individual) or losing (subordinate). A genetic correlation of −1 is expected between the attitude to win and the attitude to loose, and because a population always accounts for half winners and half losers, the heritability of the dominant status should be close to zero. Specifically, social dominance was studied in Aosta Chestnut and Aosta Black Pied (Bos taurus) breeds, alpine rustic cattle famous for traditional tournaments where pairs of cows assess dominant status in bloodless fights. The outcomes of 25 590 dyadic interactions performed by 8159 individuals in 11 years were analysed by applying a classical quantitative model and models including indirect effects. Data were analysed via Bayesian approach on a threshold trait. The assessment of variances revealed a genetic correlation of −0.976 between direct and indirect genetic components. The heritability measured on a liability scale was 0.122 for direct phenotype, but decreased to 0.014 when the total heritable variance (TBV) was considered. The trend of estimated breeding values showed that the total TBV was constant over the years, even though its direct component increased and the indirect part decreased. This result confirms the relevance of IGEs on social behaviour and the assumption that the mean individual social dominance cannot evolve within a population, due to the evolutionary constraints imposed by the 'social environment'.
Data from: The making of winners (and losers): how early dominance interactions determine adult social structure in a clonal fish
Across a wide range of animal taxa, winners of previous fights are more likely to keep winning future contests, just as losers are more likely to keep losing. At present, such winner and loser effects are considered to be fairly transient. However, repeated experiences with winning and/or losing might increase the persistence of these effects generating long-lasting consequences for social structure. To test this, we exposed genetically identical individuals of a clonal fish, the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa), to repeated winning and/or losing dominance interactions during the first two months of their life. We subsequently investigated whether these experiences affected the fish's ability to achieve dominance in a hierarchy five months later during adulthood. Individuals that had only winning interactions early in life consistently ranked at the top of the hierarchy. Interestingly, individuals with only losing experience tended to achieve the middle dominance rank, whereas individuals with both winning and losing experiences generally ended up at the bottom of the hierarchy. In addition to demonstrating that early social interactions can have dramatic and long-lasting consequences for adult social behaviour and social structure, our work also shows that higher cumulative winning experience early in life can counter-intuitively give rise to lower social rank later in life.
Landscape cover type, not social dominance, is associated with the winter movement patterns of snowy owls in temperate areas
<p>Migrating animals occur along a continuum from species that spend the nonbreeding season at a fixed location to species that are nomadic during the nonbreeding season, essentially continuously moving. Such variation is likely driven by the economics of territoriality or heterogeneity in the environment. The Snowy Owl (<i>Bubo scandiacus</i>) is known for its complex seasonal movements, and thus an excellent model to test these ideas, as many individuals travel unpredictably along irregular routes during both the breeding and nonbreeding seasons. Two possible explanations for this large variation in the propensity to move are: (1) dominance hierarchies in which dominant individuals (adult females in this case) monopolize some key, consistent resources, and move less than subdominants and (2) habitat heterogeneity in which individuals foraging in rich and less heterogenic environments are less mobile. We analyzed fine-scale telemetry data (GPS/GSM) from 50 Snowy Owls tagged in eastern and central North America from 2013–2019, comparing space use during the winter period according to sex and age, and to land cover attributes. We used variograms to classify individuals as nomadic (58%) or range-resident (42%), and found that nomadic owls had ten times larger wintering areas than range-resident owls. The frequency of nomadism was similar in socially-dominant adult females, immatures and males. However, nomadism increased from west to east, and north to south, and was positively associated with use of water and negatively associated with croplands. We conclude that many individual Snowy Owls in Eastern North America are nomadic during the nonbreeding season and that movement patterns during this time are driven primarily by extrinsic factors, specifically heterogeneity in habitat and prey availability, as opposed to intrinsic factors associated with spacing behavior, such as age and sex.</p>
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