Cogprints

The role of recent experience and weight on hen's agonistic behaviour during dyadic conflict resolution.

Martin, François and Beaugrand, Jacques P. and Lague, Paul C. (1997) The role of recent experience and weight on hen's agonistic behaviour during dyadic conflict resolution. [Journal (Paginated)]

Full text available as:

[img] PDF
49Kb

Abstract

Recent victory or defeat experiences and 2-hour familiarity with the meeting place were combined with size differences in order to better understand their effects on the behaviour leading to the establishment of dyadic dominance relationships between hens not previously acquainted with each other. Three kinds of encounters were videotaped: (i) a previous winner unfamiliar with the meeting place met a previous loser familiar for 2 hours with the meeting place (n = 12 dyads); (ii) as in (i) but both were unfamiliar with the meeting place (n=12); (iii) as in (i) but the previous winner was familiar with the meeting place while the previous loser was unfamiliar (n=13). The weight asymmetry was combined with these three types of encounters by selecting hens of various weight differences: in 29 dyads the recent loser was heavier than the recent winner and in 8 dyads it was the reverse. Recent experience had a major influence upon both agonistic behaviour and dominance outcome. Hens that were familiar with the meeting site initiated attacks more frequently than their unfamiliar opponent but did not win significantly more often. Recent experience and site familiarity could be used to identify 80% of future initiators. Once the first aggressive behaviour had been initiated, it led to victory of its initiator in 92% of cases. Weight was not found to influence agonistic behaviour nor dominance outcome. However, hens with superior comb and wattles areas won significantly more initial meetings than opponents with smaller ones. In the final encounters, victory also went more frequently to the bird showing larger comb and wattles, which happened also to be the previous dominant in a majority of cases. The use of higher-order partial correlations as an ex post facto control for comb and wattles indicates that they were not influential upon agonistic behaviour nor on dominance outcome, but were simply co-selected with the selection of victorious and defeated birds in the first phase of the experiment designed to let hens acquire recent victory/defeat experience.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Keywords:Dominance; Agonistic conflict; Weight; Size of comb and wattles; Recent experience of victory and defeat; Site familiarity; Individual differences; Hen; Gallus domesticus
Subjects:Biology > Animal Behavior
Biology > Ethology
ID Code:1938
Deposited By: Beaugrand, Jacques
Deposited On:01 Dec 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Allee, W.C. and Collias, N.E., 1938. Influence of injected male hormone on the social hierarchy in small flocks of hens. Anat. Record, 72: 119.

Allee, W.C., Collias, N.E. and Lutherman, C.Z., 1939. Modification of the social order in flocks of hens by the injection of testosterone propionate. Physiol. Zool., 12: 412-441.

Banks, E.M., Wood-Gush, D.G.M., Hugues, B.O. and Mankovich, N.J., 1979. Social rank and priority of access to resources in domestic fowl. Behav. Proc., 4, 197-209.

Beaugrand, J.P., Goulet, C. and Payette, D., 1991. Outcome of dyadic conflict in male green swordtail fish, Xiphophorus helleri: effects of body size and prior dominance. Anim. Behav., 41: 417-424.

Beaugrand, J.P., Payette, D. and Goulet, C., 1996. Conflict outcome in male green swordtail fish dyads (Xiphophorus helleri): interaction of body size, prior dominance/subordination experience, and prior residency. Behaviour, 133: 1-17.

Beaugrand, J.P. and Zayan, R., 1985. An experimental model of aggressive dominance in green swordtail male fish (Xiphophorus helleri, Pisces: Poeciliidae). Behav. Proc., 10: 1-52.

Bégin, J., Beaugrand, J.P. and Zayan, R., 1996. Selecting dominants and subordinates at conflict outcome can confound the effects of prior dominance or subordination experience. Behav. Proc., 36: 219-226.

Bradshaw, R.H., 1992. Individual attributes as predictors of social status in small groups of laying hens. App. Anim. Behav. Sc., 34: 359-363.

Bronstein, P.M. and Brain, P.F., 1991. Successful prediction of dominance in convict cichlids, Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum. Bull. Psychon. Soc., 29: 455-456.

Chase, I.D., 1982. Behavioural sequences during dominance hierarchy formation in chickens. Science, 216: 439-440.

Cloutier, S., Beaugrand, J.P. and Laguë, P.C., 1995. The effect of prior victory or defeat in the same site as subsequent encounters on dominance in domestic hens. Behav. Proc., 34: 293-298.

Cloutier, S., Beaugrand, J.P. and Laguë, P.C., 1996. The role of individual differences and of patterns of resolution in the formation of dominance orders in triads of domestic hens. Behav. Proc., (in press).

Collias, N.E., 1943. Statistical analysis of factors which make for success in initial encounters between hens. Am. Nat., 77: 519-538.

Craig, J.V., Bismas, D.K. and Guhl, A.M., 1969. Agonistic behaviour influenced by strangeness, crowding and heredity in female domestic fowl (Gallus gallus). Anim. Behav., 17: 498-506.

Darlington, R.B., 1990. Regression and linear models. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Francis, R.C., 1983. Experiential effects on agonistic behaviour in the paradise fish, Macropodus opercularis. Behaviour, 85: 292-313.

Frey, D.F. and Miller, R.J., 1972. The establishment of dominance relationships in the blue gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus (Pallas). Behaviour, 42: 8-62.

Graves, H.B., Hable, C.P. and Jenkins, T.H., 1985. Sexual selection in Gallus: Effects of morphology and dominance on female spatial behaviour. Behav. Proc., 11: 189-197.

Guhl, A.M., 1961. The effects of acquaintance between the sexes on sexual behaviour in White Leghorns. Poultry Science, 40, 10-21.

Guhl, A.M. and Allee, W.C., 1944. Some measurable effects of social organization in flocks of hens. Physiol. Zool., 27: 320-347.

Guhl, A.M. and Ortman, L.L., 1953. Visual patterns in the recognition of individuals among chickens. Condor, 55: 287-298.

Hogue, M.E., Beaugrand, J.P. and Laguë, P.C., (1997). Behavioural indices of social recognition in the hen. (In preparation).

Huntington Potter, J., 1949. Dominance relations between different breeds of domestic hens. Physiol. Zool., 22: 261-280.

Kruijt, J.P., 1964. Ontogeny of social behaviour in Burmese Red Jungle fowl (Gallus gallus spadiceous). Behaviour suppl., 12: 1-201.

Ligon, J.D., Thornill, R., Zuk, M. and Johnson, K., 1990. Male-male competition, ornamentation and the role of testosterone in sexual selection in red jungle fowl. Anim. Behav., 40: 367-373.

McBride, G., Parer, I.P. and Foenander, F., 1969. The social organization and behaviour of the feral domestic fowl. Anim. Behav. Monogr. 2: 127-181.

Martin, F., Beaugrand, J.P. and Laguë, P.C., 1997. The roles of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome . Behav. Proc. (in press).

Murchison, C., 1935. The experimental measurement of a social hierarchy in Gallus domesticus: IV. Loss of body weight under condition of mild starvation as a function of social dominance. J. Gen. Psychol., 12: 296-312.

Rajecki, D.W., Nerenz, D.R., Hoff, S.J., Newman, E.R. and Volbrecht, V.J., 1981. Early development of aggression in chickens: the relative importance of pecking and leaping. Behav. Proc., 6, 239-248.

Ratner, S., 1961. Effect of learning to be submissive on status in the peck order of domestic fowl. Anim. Behav., 9: 34-37.

Ribowski, A. and Franck, D., 1993. Demonstration of strength and concealment of weakness in escalating fights of male swordtails (Xiphophorus helleri). Ethology, 93: 265-274.

Rowell , T.E., 1974. The concept of social dominance. Behav. Biol.,

11: 131-154.

Rushen, J., 1984. How peck orders of chickens are measured: a critical review. App. Anim. Ethol., 11: 255-264.

Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J., 1995. Biometry. Freeman, New York.

Siegel, S. and Castellan, jr. N.J., 1988. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. 2nd edition, (Book), McGraw-Hill, Montreal.

Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J., 1995. Biometry. W.H. Freeman , New York.

Thinès, G. and Heuts, B.A., 1968. The effects of submissive experiences on dominance and aggressive behaviour of Xiphophorus (Pisces, Poeciliidae). Z. Tierpsychol., 25: 139-154.

Turner, G.F. and Huntingford, F.A., 1986. A problem for game theory analysis: assessment and intention in male mouthbrooder contests. Anim. Behav., 34: 961-970.

Wood-Gush, D.G.M., 1957. Aggression and sexual activity in the Brown Leghorn cock. Br. J. Anim. Behav., 5: 1-6.

Zayan, R., 1975. Modification des effets liés à la priorité de résidence chez Xiphophorus (Pisces, Poeciliidae): le rôle de l'expérience immédiate de dominance et de soumission. Rev. Comp. Anim., 8: 296-311.

Zayan, R., 1987. Analysis of dominance and subordination experiences in sequences of paired encounters between hens. In: R. Zayan and I.J.H. Duncan (Editors), Cognitive aspect of social behaviour in the domestic fowl. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 182-320.

Zayan, R., Doyen, J. and Duncan, I.J.H., 1983. Social and space requirements for hens in battery cages. In: S.H. Baxter, M.R. Baxter and G.A.C. Mac Cormack (Editors), Farm animal housing and welfare. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Pub., pp. 67-90.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.