Abstract: The oft-repeated concern for the lack of behavioral comparability of domestic rats with wild forms of Rattus norvegicus is unfounded. Laboratory rats appear to show the potential for all wild-type behaviors, including the most dramatic social postures. Moreover, domestics are capable of assuming a feral existence without difficulty, one where they readily behave in a fashion indistinguishable from wild rats. The one behavioral difference that is clearly established concerns performance in laboratory learning paradigms. The superiority of domestics in these laboratory tasks speaks more to quieting the concerns of degeneracy theorists than to problems of using domestic Norway rats as subjects representative of their species.

Abstract: Lemur societies have been described as convergent with those of anthropoids, including Papio-like female-bonded multi-male groups. Recent research, however, shows at least 5 pair-bonded species among the Lemuridae and Indriidae. Three more, Eulemur mongoz, Eulemur fulvus and Varecia variegata, have societies combining aspects of pairing with aspects of troop life. The best-known female-bonded societies, those of Lemur catta, Propithecus diadema edwardsi and Propithecus verreauxi, may be assemblages of mother-daughter dyads, capable of high aggression towards other females, but derived from more solitary female ancestors, perhaps also living as pairs. The internal structure of such lemur groups differs from the more extensive kin groups of catarrhines. This in turn may relate to the lemurs' level of social intelligence and to lemur female dominance over males.