Journal: Animal Behaviour

Abbreviation

Anim Behav

Publisher

Elsevier

Journal Volumes

ISSN

0003-3472
1095-8282

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Publications 1 - 10 of 17
  • Evidence of stable preferential affiliative relationships in the domestic pig
    Item type: Journal Article
    Clouard, Caroline; Foreau, Auriane; Goumon, Sébastien; et al. (2024)
    Animal Behaviour
    Affiliative relationships are well documented in a wide range of wild animals. However, there is limited evidence of their existence in social farm animals, despite potential significant animal welfare implications. We aimed to determine whether pigs have preferential partners for affiliative interactions and associations and whether these preferences remain stable over time or are influenced by sex, dominance rank or litter of origin (i.e. kinship or familiarity). Two pens of 12 domestic pigs, Sus scrofa, two males and two females from three litters, were weaned at 28 days of age and observed from 42 to 57 days (postweaning phase) and from 70 to 85 days (finishing phase) following a change of housing at 62 days. Sociopositive behaviours, including nose-to-nose and nose-to-body contacts, allogrooming and associations while lying were scored on video observations over 6 days per phase. Using social network analysis methods, we found nonrandom social preferences for allogrooming in both pens of pigs, which remained stable between the postweaning and finishing phases. We also observed nonrandom associations for proximities while lying, although these patterns were not found in both pens of pigs and did not systematically persist between phases. In contrast, nose-to-nose interactions were expressed randomly in both pens and phases. Depending on the housing conditions, social preferences for grooming interactions or proximity while lying were only weakly influenced by sex, dominance rank or litter of origin. We did not find any correlation between social networks for grooming interactions and associations while lying. In summary, our study highlights the existence of durable affiliative relationships based on grooming interactions and proximity while lying within stable pig groups. These relationships appear to be minimally affected by sex, dominance, kinship or familiarity. Taking these relationships into account, particularly from a young age, could be pivotal in improving the welfare of pigs on farms.
  • Shoaling behaviour of fish under parasitism and predation risk
    Item type: Journal Article
    Seppälä, Otto; Karvonen, Anssi; Valtonen, E. Tellervo (2008)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Female mountain log skinks are more likely to mate with males that court more, not males that are dominant
    Item type: Journal Article
    Stapley, Jessica (2008)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus
    Item type: Journal Article
    Padilla de la Torre, Monica; Briefer, Elodie F.; Ochocki, Brad M.; et al. (2016)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Autonomic nervous system reactivity in a free-ranging mammal: effects of dominance rank and personality
    Item type: Journal Article
    Briefer, Elodie F.; Oxley, James A.; McElligott, Alan G. (2015)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Strategies for choosing between alternatives with different attributes
    Item type: Journal Article
    Franks, Nigel R.; Mallon, Eamonn B.; Bray, Helen E.; et al. (2003)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Females leave home for sex
    Item type: Journal Article
    Ruf, Daniel; Dorn, Silvia; Mazzi, Dominique (2011)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Flock flying improves pigeons' homing
    Item type: Journal Article
    Dell'Ariccia, Gaia; Dell'Omo, Giacomo; Wolfer, David Paul; et al. (2008)
    Animal Behaviour
  • Emotions in goats
    Item type: Journal Article
    Briefer, Elodie F.; Tettamanti, Federico; McElligott, Alan G. (2015)
    Animal Behaviour
  • The behaviour of infected guppies depends on social context, parasite tolerance and host sex
    Item type: Journal Article
    Jog, Maya G.; Sackett, Maura E.; Kisty, Stephen D.; et al. (2022)
    Animal Behaviour
    How infected hosts behave critically affects both their fitness and the transmission, and thus fitness, of their parasites. Understanding host–parasite coevolution therefore requires understanding the factors affecting infected host behaviour. This can usefully be decomposed into the current behavioural expression level and any infection-induced changes in that expression: each of these may have different implications for host and parasite fitness. For example, from the perspective of socially transmitted parasites, the more contacts infected hosts make with susceptible conspecifics, the better, regardless of their pre-infection contact behaviour. For social hosts, however, minimizing infection-induced changes to fitness-enhancing behaviours (‘behavioural tolerance’) may reduce the risk of social exclusion and its associated costs. Here, we tested how the presence of conspecifics (‘social context’) affects the behaviour and behavioural tolerance of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, infected with the socially transmitted ectoparasite Gyrodactylus turnbulli. In the absence of a stimulus shoal of three females, males that lost the most mass over the course of infection (i.e. had lowest tissue-specific tolerance) were significantly less active, whereas in the presence of the shoal, male activity levels were high and not correlated with tissue-specific tolerance. Females were consistently active, regardless of their tissue-specific tolerance or social context. Behavioural tolerance, quantified as the per-parasite change in activity level, also differed between the sexes in the absence of the shoal: among females, behavioural tolerance was negatively correlated with tissue-specific tolerance, whereas in males the correlation was strikingly positive. In the presence of the shoal, however, tolerance components were not correlated in either sex. Overall, these sex differences in behaviour and behavioural tolerance indicate that females are highly competent at transmitting this parasite, and that males can conceal their disease when in the presence of females. Our results contribute to the growing literature on factors affecting variation between infected hosts, which fundamentally affects epidemiological predictions.
Publications 1 - 10 of 17