Consistency of dominance rank order: A comparison of David’s scores with I&SI and Bayesian methods in macaques

In nonhuman primate social groups, dominance ranks are usually assigned to individuals based on outcomes of dyadic agonistic encounters. Multiple approaches have been used, but currently there is no consensus. One approach, David’s Scores (DS), offers dual advantages of yielding cardinal scores that may in turn be used to compute hierarchical steepness. Here we correlate […]

Changes in the dominance hierarchy of captive female Japanese macaques as a consequence of merging two previously established groups

Dominance hierarchies play an important role in reducing competition and aggression in social animals. In zoos, changes in group composition are often required due to management protocols, but these changes may have long lasting effects on dominance hierarchies, and, consequently, the wellbeing of the animals. We studied the changes in the female dominance hierarchy that […]