'Nasty neighbours' rather than 'dear enemies' in a social carnivore - PubMed (original) (raw)

Comparative Study

'Nasty neighbours' rather than 'dear enemies' in a social carnivore

Corsin A Müller et al. Proc Biol Sci. 2007.

Abstract

Territorial animals typically respond less aggressively to neighbours than to strangers. This 'dear enemy effect' has been explained by differing familiarity or by different threat levels posed by neighbours and strangers. In most species, both the familiarity and the threat-level hypotheses predict a stronger response to strangers than to neighbours. In contrast, the threat-level hypothesis predicts a stronger response to neighbours than to strangers in species with intense competition between neighbours and with residents outnumbering strangers, as commonly found in social mammals such as the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo). The familiarity hypothesis predicts reduced aggression towards neighbours also in these species. We exposed free-living banded mongoose groups to translocated scent marks of neighbouring groups and strangers. Groups vocalized more and inspected more samples in response to olfactory cues of the neighbours than to the strangers. Our results support the threat-level hypothesis and contradict the familiarity hypothesis. We suggest that increased aggression towards neighbours is more common in social species with intense competition between neighbours, as opposed to reduced aggression towards neighbours typical for most solitary species.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Responses of seven banded mongoose groups to excreta of neighbouring groups and strangers. Mean±s.e. are shown. Open bars, at the border of the experimental group's home range. Filled bars, in the centre of the experimental group's home range. Responses to scent marks of the group itself are shown on the far right in each panel. (a) Number of adults emitting worry calls. (b) Number of adults counter-marking. (c) Duration of single inspection bouts.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Responses of banded mongoose groups to excreta of neighbouring groups at the shared and opposite borders of the experimental group's home range. Mean±s.e. are shown. Reactions to excreta of strangers at the border of the home range are given for reference. Numbers in brackets give sample sizes. (a) Number of individuals emitting worry calls. (b) Duration of single inspection bouts.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Reactions of six banded mongoose groups to repeated exposure to excreta of strangers. Mean±s.e. are shown. (a) Number of worry calls. (b) Number of counter-marks. (c) Duration of interest measured as amount of time for which at least one individual was inspecting the presented excreta.

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