Dominance hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:31, 15 April 2025

Revision as of 10:37, 15 April 2025

Line 163:

Dominance and its organisation can be highly variable depending on the context or individuals involved. In [[European badgers]], dominance relationships may vary with time as individuals age, gain or lose social status, or change their reproductive condition.<ref name="Hewitt Macdonald 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Hewitt |first1=Stacey E. |last2=Macdonald |first2=David W. |last3=Dugdale |first3=Hannah L. |title=Context-dependent linear dominance hierarchies in social groups of European badgers, ''Meles meles'' |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=77 |issue=1 |year=2009 |pages=161–169 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.09.022 |s2cid=53205113 }}</ref> Dominance may also vary across space in [[territory (animal)|territorial]] animals as territory owners are often dominant over all others in their own territory but submissive elsewhere, or dependent on the resource. Even with these factors held constant, perfect dominance hierarchies are rarely found in groups of any great size, at least in the wild.<ref name="Rowell 1974"/> Dominance hierarchies in small herds of domestic horses are generally linear hierarchies whereas in large herds the relationships are triangular.<ref name="Houpt et al., (1978)">{{cite journal |last1=Houpt |first1=K. A. |last2=Law |first2=K. |last3=Martinisi |first3=V. |title=Dominance hierarchies in domestic horses |journal=Applied Animal Ethology |date=1978 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=273–283 |doi=10.1016/0304-3762(78)90117-7}}</ref> Dominance hierarchies can be formed at a very early age. [[Domestic pig]]lets are highly [[Precociality and altriciality#Precociality|precocious]] and, within minutes of being born, or sometimes seconds, will attempt to suckle. The piglets are born with sharp teeth and fight to develop a [[Domestic pig#Teat order|teat order]] as the [[anterior]] teats produce a greater quantity of milk. Once established, this teat order remains stable with each piglet tending to feed from a particular [[teat]] or group of teats.<ref name="CluttonBrock, (1987)">{{cite book |last=Clutton-Brock |first=J. |year=1987 |title=A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=73–74}}</ref> Dominance–subordination relationships can vary markedly between breeds of the same species. Studies on [[Merino]]s and [[Border Leicester sheep|Border Leicesters]] sheep revealed an almost linear hierarchy in the Merinos but a less rigid structure in the Border Leicesters when a competitive feeding situation was created.<ref name="Squires and Daws, (1975)"/>

=== Species with egalitarian/ or non-linear hierarchies ===

Although many group-living animal species have a hierarchy of some form, some species have more fluid and flexible social groupings, where rank does not need to be rigidly enforced, and low-ranking group members may enjoy a wider degree of social flexibility. Some animal societies are "democratic", with low-ranking group members being able to influence which group member is leader and which one is not. Sometimes dominant animals must maintain alliances with subordinates and grant them favours to receive their support in order to retain their dominant rank. In chimpanzees, the alpha male may need to tolerate lower-ranking group members hovering near fertile females<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=2689943 | year=2009 | last1=Wroblewski | first1=E. E. | last2=Murray | first2=C. M. | last3=Keele | first3=B. F. | last4=Schumacher-Stankey | first4=J. C. | last5=Hahn | first5=B. H. | last6=Pusey | first6=A. E. | title=Male dominance rank and reproductive success in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii | journal=Animal Behaviour | volume=77 | issue=4 | pages=873–885 | doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.12.014 | pmid=19498952 }}</ref> or taking portions of his meals.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313091349 |title=Meat-sharing as a coalition strategy by an alpha male chimpanzee |date=January 1992 |author=T. Nishida |display-authors=etal |website=[[ResearchGate]]}}</ref> Other examples can include Muriqui monkeys. Within their groups, there is abundant food and females will mate promiscuously. Because of this, males gain very little in fighting over females, who are, in turn, too large and strong for males to monopolize or control, so males do not appear to form especially prominent ranks between them, with several males mating with the same female in view of each other.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/humans-would-be-better-off-if-they-monkeyed-around-like-the-muriquis-833014/ | title=Humans Would be Better off if They Monkeyed Around Like the Muriquis }}</ref> This type of mating style is also present in manatees, removing their need to engage in serious fighting.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_stucap/11/#:~:text=During%20the%20breeding%20season%2C%20this,that%20manatees%20are%20sperm%20competitors | title=Sperm Competition in the Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) | journal=Hcnso Student Capstones | date=November 2008 | last1=Champagne | first1=Melissa }}</ref> Among female elephants, leadership roles are not acquired by sheer brute force, but instead through seniority, and other females can collectively show preferences for where the herd can travel.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-sense-a-sociality-4/elephants-are-socially-complex.html | title=Elephants are socially complex }}</ref> In hamadryas baboons, several high-ranking males will share a similar rank, with no single male being an absolute leader.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26731865 |doi=10.1002/ajp.20736 |via=[[ResearchGate]]|title=The fourth level of social structure in a multi-level society: Ecological and social functions of clans in hamadryas baboons |year=2009 |last1=Schreier |first1=Amy L. |last2=Swedell |first2=Larissa |journal=American Journal of Primatology |volume=71 |issue=11 |pages=948–955 |pmid=19670312 |s2cid=205329272 }}</ref> Female bats also have a somewhat fluid social structure, in which rank is not strongly enforced.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1098/rsos.210266 | title=Social dominance and cooperation in female vampire bats | year=2021 | last1=Crisp | first1=Rachel J. | last2=Brent | first2=Lauren J. N. | last3=Carter | first3=Gerald G. | journal=Royal Society Open Science | volume=8 | issue=7 | page=210266 | pmid=34295524 | pmc=8261227 | bibcode=2021RSOS....810266C }}</ref> Bonobos are matriarchal, yet their social groups are also generally quite flexible, and serious aggression is quite rare between them.<ref>{{cite journal | pmid=22038769 | year=2011 | last1=Furuichi | first1=T. | title=Female contributions to the peaceful nature of bonobo society | journal=Evolutionary Anthropology | volume=20 | issue=4 | pages=131–142 | doi=10.1002/evan.20308 | s2cid=17830996 }}</ref> In olive baboons, certain animals are dominant in certain contexts, but not in others. Prime age male olive baboons claim feeding priority, yet baboons of any age or sex can initiate and govern the group's collective movements.