Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests
Specialized signals emitted by competing males often convey honest information about fighting ability. It is generally believed that receivers use these signals to directly assess their opponents. Here, we demonstrate an alternative communication strategy used by males in a breeding system where the...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.150228 2024-09-15T18:04:43+00:00 Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests Casey, Caroline Charrier, Isabelle Mathevon, Nicolas Reichmuth, Colleen 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150228 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.150228 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.150228 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 2, issue 8, page 150228 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2015 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150228 2024-07-22T04:27:25Z Specialized signals emitted by competing males often convey honest information about fighting ability. It is generally believed that receivers use these signals to directly assess their opponents. Here, we demonstrate an alternative communication strategy used by males in a breeding system where the costs of conflict are extreme. We evaluated the acoustic displays of breeding male northern elephant seals ( Mirounga angustirostris ), and found that social knowledge gained through prior experience with signallers was sufficient to maintain structured dominance relationships. Using sound analysis and playback experiments with both natural and modified signals, we determined that males do not rely on encoded information about size or dominance status, but rather learn to recognize individual acoustic signatures produced by their rivals. Further, we show that behavioural responses to competitors' calls are modulated by relative position in the hierarchy: the highest ranking (alpha) males defend their harems from all opponents, whereas mid-ranking (beta) males respond differentially to familiar challengers based on the outcome of previous competitive interactions. Our findings demonstrate that social knowledge of rivals alone can regulate dominance relationships among competing males within large, spatially dynamic social groups, and illustrate the importance of combining descriptive and experimental methods when deciphering the biological relevance of animal signals. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seals The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 2 8 150228 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Specialized signals emitted by competing males often convey honest information about fighting ability. It is generally believed that receivers use these signals to directly assess their opponents. Here, we demonstrate an alternative communication strategy used by males in a breeding system where the costs of conflict are extreme. We evaluated the acoustic displays of breeding male northern elephant seals ( Mirounga angustirostris ), and found that social knowledge gained through prior experience with signallers was sufficient to maintain structured dominance relationships. Using sound analysis and playback experiments with both natural and modified signals, we determined that males do not rely on encoded information about size or dominance status, but rather learn to recognize individual acoustic signatures produced by their rivals. Further, we show that behavioural responses to competitors' calls are modulated by relative position in the hierarchy: the highest ranking (alpha) males defend their harems from all opponents, whereas mid-ranking (beta) males respond differentially to familiar challengers based on the outcome of previous competitive interactions. Our findings demonstrate that social knowledge of rivals alone can regulate dominance relationships among competing males within large, spatially dynamic social groups, and illustrate the importance of combining descriptive and experimental methods when deciphering the biological relevance of animal signals. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Casey, Caroline Charrier, Isabelle Mathevon, Nicolas Reichmuth, Colleen |
spellingShingle |
Casey, Caroline Charrier, Isabelle Mathevon, Nicolas Reichmuth, Colleen Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
author_facet |
Casey, Caroline Charrier, Isabelle Mathevon, Nicolas Reichmuth, Colleen |
author_sort |
Casey, Caroline |
title |
Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
title_short |
Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
title_full |
Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
title_fullStr |
Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
title_sort |
rival assessment among northern elephant seals: evidence of associative learning during male–male contests |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150228 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.150228 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.150228 |
genre |
Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 2, issue 8, page 150228 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150228 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
150228 |
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1810442324543537152 |