Social games that belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) play
Play is an important indicator of physical strength, cognitive functioning, and overall welfare for animals. Performed independently or cooperatively, play provides animals, including humans, opportunities to test and practice various physical abilities, social interactions, and object investigations. One area that is often overlooked in animal play is the presence and nature of games. Sometimes considered […]
Cognitive enrichment device provides evidence for intersexual differences in collaborative actions in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)
Social living, long lifespan and advanced cognitive skills provided favourable conditions for the development of pro-social behaviours and cooperative activities in cetacean. Dolphins have been observed to collaborate for various purposes, finding food, finding mates or raising and teaching younger individuals. This study investigated the potential impact of demographic factors (sex and age), social factors […]
Social Structure and Helping Behavior in Captive Elephants
Selective pressures on individual behavior serve to mold social structure and subsequent levels of cooperation in social species, including elephants. Adult Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants have complex social societies that differ markedly between the sexes. Elephant social structure and cooperative behavior may have evolved in part to prepare young elephants to […]
The effects of unequal reward distributions on cooperative problem solving by cottontop tamarins, Saguinus oedipus
Cooperation among nonhuman animals has been the topic of much theoretical and empirical research, but few studies have examined systematically the effects of various reward payoffs on cooperative behaviour. Here, we presented heterosexual pairs of cooperatively breeding cottontop tamarins with a cooperative problem-solving task. In a series of four experiments, we examined how the tamarins’ […]
Engineering cooperation in chimpanzees: tolerance constraints on cooperation
The cooperative abilities of captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, in experiments do not match the sophistication that might be predicted based on their naturally occurring cooperative behaviours. This discrepancy might partly be because in previous experiments potential chimpanzee cooperators were partnered without regard to their social relationship. We investigated the ability of chimpanzee dyads to solve […]
Chimpanzees are more skilful in competitive than in cooperative cognitive tasks
In a series of four experiments, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, were given two cognitive tasks, an object choice task and a discrimination task (based on location), each in the context of either cooperation or competition. In both tasks chimpanzees performed more skilfully when competing than when cooperating, with some evidence that competition with conspecifics was especially […]
Chimpanzee helping in collaborative and noncollaborative contexts
Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, help others in a variety of contexts. Some researchers have claimed that this only occurs when food is not involved and the recipient actively solicits help. In the current study, however, we found that chimpanzees often helped conspecifics obtain food in a pulling task with no solicitation whatsoever, in a situation in […]
Social bonds predict future cooperation in male Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus
Social bonds have been construed as mental representations mediating social interactions among individuals. It is problematic, however, to differentiate this mechanism from others that assume more direct exchanges and interchanges of behaviour such as reciprocity, market effects or mutualism. We used naturally occurring shifts in rates and patterns of social interactions among male Barbary macaques […]
Understanding of human communicative motives in domestic dogs
Chimpanzees find it easier to locate food when a human prohibits them from going to a certain location than when she indicates that location helpfully. Human children, in contrast, use the cooperative gesture more readily. The question here was whether domestic dogs are more like chimpanzees, in this regard, or more like human children. In […]
United States Department of Agriculture: building bridges through innovative animal well-being initiatives
Animal well-being issues are addressed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through a variety of agencies and in various formats. Most farmers are good stewards of their animals and will raise them according to societal demands as supported by market choices. Management standards that are perceived to improve upon current practices are being […]