Social dominance and food sharing in vulturine guineafowl Acryllium vulturinum
Dehnen, T
Date: 28 May 2024
Thesis or dissertation
Publisher
University of Exeter
Degree Title
PhD in Biological Sciences
Abstract
Living in groups allows animals reduce the risk of being predated, but also increases the potential for both conflict and cooperation. Groups of many social species are characterised by dominance hierarchies, or pecking orders, with individuals’ positions therein having a considerable bearing on their lives. However, many questions ...
Living in groups allows animals reduce the risk of being predated, but also increases the potential for both conflict and cooperation. Groups of many social species are characterised by dominance hierarchies, or pecking orders, with individuals’ positions therein having a considerable bearing on their lives. However, many questions regarding how and when individuals engage in dominance and other associated interactions, as well as what mechanisms generate dominance dynamics or stability, remain unanswered. In this thesis, I answer some of these questions using data from a population of vulturine guineafowl Acryllium vulturinum. In Chapter two, I review social dominance as being part of a larger, interconnected system with feed-back and feed-forward mechanisms that may maintain the status quo within both a generation of individuals as well as lineages over time. In Chapter three, I study the strategic expression of aggressive and submissive interactions among male vulturine guineafowl in relation to individuals’ relative hierarchy positions. In Chapter four, I investigate the downstream consequences of breeding for intrasexual and intersexual dominance interactions of female vulturine guineafowl. Finally, in Chapter five, I study food-sharing interactions among adult vulturine guineafowl, highlighting that food sharing is related to reproduction, sex-specific sharing roles emerge across development, and both males and females make decisions in terms of whom to share food with. Together, my results shed light on the nuanced decision-making of vulturine guineafowl when engaging in social interactions. Male vulturine guineafowl expressed agonistic interactions strategically yet exhibited surprisingly little choice when sharing food with adult females. Females on the other hand experienced a social transition as a consequence of reproducing and exerted considerable choice when sharing food with males. My findings demonstrate that vulturine guineafowl make fine-scale decisions when engaging in both agonistic and affiliative interactions. Additionally, while my review in Chapter 2 shows that feedback mechanisms generally stabilise dominance relationships, Chapter 4 suggests that an almost ubiquitous event in animals’ lives—reproduction—can drive dominance dynamics.
Doctoral Theses
Doctoral College
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