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Author Grosenick, L.; Clement, T.S.; Fernald, R.D.
Title Fish can infer social rank by observation alone Type Journal Article
Year (up) 2007 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature
Volume 445 Issue 7126 Pages 429-432
Keywords Aggression/physiology; Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Female; Fishes/*physiology; Learning/*physiology; Male; Models, Biological; *Social Dominance; Territoriality
Abstract Transitive inference (TI) involves using known relationships to deduce unknown ones (for example, using A > B and B > C to infer A > C), and is thus essential to logical reasoning. First described as a developmental milestone in children, TI has since been reported in nonhuman primates, rats and birds. Still, how animals acquire and represent transitive relationships and why such abilities might have evolved remain open problems. Here we show that male fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) can successfully make inferences on a hierarchy implied by pairwise fights between rival males. These fish learned the implied hierarchy vicariously (as 'bystanders'), by watching fights between rivals arranged around them in separate tank units. Our findings show that fish use TI when trained on socially relevant stimuli, and that they can make such inferences by using indirect information alone. Further, these bystanders seem to have both spatial and featural representations related to rival abilities, which they can use to make correct inferences depending on what kind of information is available to them. Beyond extending TI to fish and experimentally demonstrating indirect TI learning in animals, these results indicate that a universal mechanism underlying TI is unlikely. Rather, animals probably use multiple domain-specific representations adapted to different social and ecological pressures that they encounter during the course of their natural lives.
Address Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA. logang@stanford.edu
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ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:17251980 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 600
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Author Schmidt, R.; Amrhein, V.; Kunc, H.P.; Naguib, M.
Title The day after: effects of vocal interactions on territory defence in nightingales Type Journal Article
Year (up) 2007 Publication The Journal of Animal Ecology Abbreviated Journal T. J. Anim. Ecol.
Volume 76 Issue 1 Pages 168-173
Keywords Aggression; Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; *Territoriality; Time Factors; Vocalization, Animal/*physiology
Abstract 1. Models on territory acquisition and tenure predict that territorial animals benefit by adjusting territorial defence behaviour to previous challenges they had experienced within the socially complex environment of communication networks. 2. Here, we addressed such issues of social cognition by investigating persisting effects of vocal contests on territory defence behaviour in nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos (Brehm). 3. Using interactive playback during nocturnal song of subjects, a rival was simulated to countersing either aggressively (by song overlapping) or moderately (by song alternating) from outside the subjects' territory. Thereby, the time-specific singing strategy provided an experimentally controlled source of information on the motivation of an unfamiliar rival. 4. Expecting that nightingales integrate information with time, the same rival was simulated to return as a moderately singing intruder on the following morning. 5. The results show that the vigour with which male nightingales responded to the simulated intrusion of an opponent during the day depended on the nature of the nocturnal vocal interaction experienced several hours before. 6. Males that had received the song overlapping playback the preceding night approached the simulated intruder more quickly and closer and sang more songs near the loudspeaker than did males that had received a song alternating playback. 7. This adjustment of territory defence strategies depending on information from prior signalling experience suggests that integrating information with time plays an important part in territory defence by affecting a male's decision making in a communication network.
Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld University, PO Box 100 131, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany. rouven.schmidt@uni-bielefeld.de
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0021-8790 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:17184365 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2749
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Author Detto, T.; Jennions, M. D.; Backwell, P. R. Y.
Title When and Why Do Territorial Coalitions Occur? Experimental Evidence from a Fiddler Crab Type Journal Article
Year (up) 2010 Publication The American Naturalist Abbreviated Journal Am Nat
Volume 175 Issue 5 Pages E119-E125
Keywords coalitions, cooperation, dear enemy, fiddler crabs, fighting, territoriality.
Abstract Neighboring territory owners are often less aggressive toward each other than to strangers (“dear enemy” effect). There is, however, little evidence for territorial defense coalitions whereby a neighbor will temporarily leave his/her own territory, enter that of a neighbor, and cooperate in repelling a conspecific intruder. This is surprising, as theoreticians have long posited the existence of such coalitions and the circumstances under which they should evolve. Here we document territorial defense coalitions in the African fiddler crab Uca annulipes, which lives in large colonies wherein each male defends a burrow and its surrounding area against neighbors and “floaters” (burrowless males). Fights between a resident and a floater sometimes involve another male who has left his territory to fight the floater challenging his neighbor. Using simple experiments, we provide the first evidence of the rules determining when territorial coalitions form. Our results support recent models that suggest that these coalitions arise from by‐product mutualism.
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Notes doi: 10.1086/651588 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5112
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