Social context influences the vocalizations of a home-raised African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus erithacus)
Home-raised African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus) exhibit strong social bonding with their human companions. We examined how 1 parrot’s vocal production (speech and nonword sounds) changed with social context with respect to descriptive measures of the vocalizations and their thematic content. We videotaped the parrot in 4 social conditions: subject home alone, subject and […]
Behavioural type, status and social context affect behaviour and resource allocation in cooperatively breeding cichlids
Individuals often show consistent differences in behavioural traits that may belong to a behavioural syndrome. Aggressive propensity is usually an important component of consistent behavioural types, potentially generating benefits in resource competition with conspecifics that may be traded off against costs in other contexts (e.g. acquisition of mates or coexistence with group members). Such trade-offs […]
Decision making across social contexts: competition increases preferences for risk in chimpanzees and bonobos
Context can have a powerful influence on decision-making strategies in humans. In particular, people sometimes shift their economic preferences depending on the broader social context, such as the presence of potential competitors or mating partners. Despite the important role of competition in primate conspecific interactions, as well as evidence that competitive social contexts impact primates’ […]
Social context decouples the relationship between a sexual ornament and testosterone levels in a male wild bird
In order to maximise fitness individuals should adjust their level of signalling according to their surrounding social environment. However, field experiments showing such adjustment of current signalling associated to changes in social context are lacking. Here, we manipulated levels of male aggressive- and dominance-related displays in a wild bird in our treated area by increasing […]
Competitor size, male mating success and mate choice in eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki
Males usually compete for mates but, by choosing a favourable social environment (e.g. avoiding stronger competitors), males might increase their reproductive success. We first tested whether the mate choice of male eastern mosquitofish depended on the size of potential competitors. In two-choice trials, focal males preferred to associate with a group of large males over […]
Gesture Use by Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Differences Between Sexes in Inter- and Intra-Sexual Interactions
Communication and social relationships are two of the most important aspects of primate life, but few studies have focused on linking these aspects in apes. There are some shared social pressures between the two sexes (e.g., kin selection, alliance formation, and protection against attack), but there are also differences (e.g., mate selection, dispersal, and social […]