Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/55719
Title: Experimental evidence for delayed post-conflict management behaviour in wild dwarf mongooses
Contributor(s): Morris-Drake, Amy (author); Kern, Julie M  (author)orcid ; Radford, Andrew N (author)
Publication Date: 2021-11-02
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.69196
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/55719
Abstract: 

In many species, within-group conflict leads to immediate avoidance of potential aggressors or increases in affiliation, but no studies have investigated delayed post-conflict management behaviour. Here, we experimentally test that possibility using a wild but habituated population of dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula). First, we used natural and playback-simulated foraging displacements to demonstrate that bystanders take notice of the vocalisations produced during such within-group conflict events but that they do not engage in any immediate post-conflict affiliative behaviour with the protagonists or other bystanders. We then used another playback experiment to assess delayed effects of within-group conflict on grooming interactions: we examined affiliative behaviour at the evening sleeping burrow, 30-60 min after the most recent simulated foraging displacement. Overall, fewer individuals groomed on evenings following an afternoon of simulated conflict, but those that did groomed more than on control evenings. Subordinate bystanders groomed with the simulated aggressor significantly less, and groomed more with one another, on conflict compared to control evenings. Our study provides experimental evidence that dwarf mongooses acoustically obtain information about within-group contests (including protagonist identity), retain that information, and use it to inform conflict-management decisions with a temporal delay.

Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: eLife, v.10, p. 1-19
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd.
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 2050-084X
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 060801 Animal Behaviour
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 310901 Animal behaviour
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Environmental and Rural Science

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