EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-27DOI: 10.1111/eth.13522
Laura Analía Rial, Camila Cavalli, Marina Victoria Dzik, Mariana Bentosela
{"title":"Third-Party Affiliation in Domestic Dogs During and After a Human Conflict","authors":"Laura Analía Rial, Camila Cavalli, Marina Victoria Dzik, Mariana Bentosela","doi":"10.1111/eth.13522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13522","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Several behaviors occur in the aftermath of within-group conflicts. These include spontaneous affiliation toward the victim from an uninvolved third party. When third-party affiliations reduce the stress of the victim, this behavior has been defined as consolation. Given the absence of previous reports, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the presence of third-party post-conflict affiliation when dogs (<i>Canis lupus familiaris</i>) observe their owners arguing. We carried out two studies varying the intensity and the duration of the dispute. Affiliative behaviors toward each of the owners were registered, as well as stress-related behaviors. Our findings support the existence of third-party affiliation from dogs toward their owners during and after a conflict between them, evidenced as higher rates of victim-directed affiliative behaviors in the experimental condition versus the control, in both studies. Moreover, dogs exhibited more stress-related behaviors in the experimental condition compared to the control, but only in the second study, which suggests these stimuli were experienced as aversive, even though they were not aimed at the dogs. In addition, in the second study dogs displayed aggressor-directed behaviors that could be interpreted as appeasement. Finally, there was no evidence that the level of the bond between the dog and each owner acts as a modulator of affiliative behavior. Further studies are required to expand our understanding of these abilities of dogs and its effects on the emotional state of the victim.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142862158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-27DOI: 10.1111/eth.13524
Taito Sano, Tanvi Gurjar, Martijn Egas, Yukie Sato
{"title":"Females Guarded by Sneaker Males Experience Higher Predation in the Two-Spotted Spider Mite","authors":"Taito Sano, Tanvi Gurjar, Martijn Egas, Yukie Sato","doi":"10.1111/eth.13524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13524","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Males often employ different reproductive tactics to gain access to females based on their condition and the surrounding environment. Predation risk is expected to have a significant influence on the frequencies of alternative reproductive tactics because these tactics typically differ in activity, which may result in differences in predation rate. In theory, such predation effects can explain the evolution as well as the maintenance of alternative reproductive tactics. Yet, there is little experimental work testing how predation risk affects alternative reproductive tactics. To assess such effects of predation, here we report on experiments with the two-spotted spider mite <i>Tetranychus urticae</i>. The two-spotted spider mite is a small arthropod herbivore species, in which males exhibit precopulatory mate guarding by mounting preadult moulting (and hence immobile) females. Two reproductive tactics are observed during mate guarding: The fighting tactic involves attacking other males to drive them away, while the sneaking tactic involves mounting the females and remaining motionless, even when contacted by other males. In this study, we exposed pairs of male and female spider mites to a predatory mite (<i>Phytoseiulus persimilis</i>) and observed their survival and male response to a predator when females were guarded by either fighter or sneaker males. We found that predation risk was not significantly different between fighter and sneaker males. However, the immobile females were more often preyed upon when guarded by sneakers than when guarded by fighters. We attribute this indirect effect of predation risk to the sneakers continuing to mount females even when a predator is nearby.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13524","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142862159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-27DOI: 10.1111/eth.13523
Zaharia A. Selman, Todd M. Freeberg
{"title":"Complexity in Chick-a-Dee Calls of Mountain Chickadees (Poecile gambeli): Call Variation Associated With Flock Size and Flight","authors":"Zaharia A. Selman, Todd M. Freeberg","doi":"10.1111/eth.13523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13523","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The <i>chick-a-dee</i> call of chickadees, tits, and titmice is a vocal system used in a wide range of social contexts by both sexes throughout the year and is one of the more structurally complicated vocal systems outside of human language. Relatively little is known about the <i>chick-a-dee</i> calls of mountain chickadees, <i>Poecile gambeli</i>, however. This is an important species for increasing our comparative understanding of variation in <i>chick-a-dee</i> calls as they are one of the chickadee species with the largest naturally occurring flock sizes. Flock size relates to the social complexity of flocks, and the social complexity hypothesis for communication predicts that individuals in more complex social groups should communicate with greater complexity than individuals in simpler social groups. Correlational and experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis has been found in the calls of a wide range of species, including Carolina chickadees, <i>P. carolinensis</i>. Here, we provide the first description of the variation in note composition and note-ordering rules in calls from mountain chickadee flocks in California and Colorado. California flocks were found to be significantly larger than Colorado flocks. Analysis of note-type usage and transition probabilities between note types found that calls of California birds were more complex than calls of Colorado birds, supporting a key prediction of the social complexity hypothesis for communication. We also found relatively high rates of reversals of note-ordering rules in mountain chickadee calls, which might help explain the complexity of the <i>chick-a-dee</i> calls of this species. Additionally, birds in flight produced calls with different note compositions when compared to perched birds. Generally, the note-type ordering and transition probabilities of calls of mountain chickadees seem comparable to other better-studied chickadee species, although their frequent note-type order rule reversals suggest potential syntax-like properties in this call system.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143120234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-25DOI: 10.1111/eth.13513
Javier Sierro, Diego Gil, Pedro Sáez-Gómez, Paula Hidalgo-Rodríguez, Julio Rabadán-González, Carlos Camacho
{"title":"Call for Your Life: Acoustic Structure and Age-Sex Differences in Distress Calls of Red-Necked Nightjars","authors":"Javier Sierro, Diego Gil, Pedro Sáez-Gómez, Paula Hidalgo-Rodríguez, Julio Rabadán-González, Carlos Camacho","doi":"10.1111/eth.13513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13513","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Predatory interactions result in strong selection pressures acting on multiple aspects of animal behaviour. Anti-predator strategies are therefore common in most animals, typically signalling at various stages of a predation event. Many species of caprimulgids perform conspicuous anti-predator displays, including stereotyped behaviours and vocal signals. Here, we described distress calls of red-necked nightjars (<i>Caprimulgus ruficollis</i>), produced when birds are trapped and unable to escape during a predatory interaction. Distress calls are harsh, low-frequency guttural vocalisations with irregular amplitude modulations. The age and sex of birds partially explained the acoustic variation observed, whereas size-related morphological features were poor predictors of the acoustic structure. Age-sex differences in distress calls may respond to physiological constraints associated with sexual dimorphism and/or developmental variation. Alternatively, directional selection associated with differential predation risk on each age-sex class may have resulted in the observed differences in distress calls. The extremely deep voice and the harsh quality of distress calls fit the structure of aggressive signals and may resemble those produced by a larger animal. We propose that these calls serve as a last resort strategy to reduce post-encounter risk of predation, either as a startling effect to facilitate escape or to attract other predators that could intimidate the captor.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"130 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13513","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142642365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-25DOI: 10.1111/eth.13518
Riko Weidman, Kelsey Persons, Matthew Persons
{"title":"The Wolf Spider Tigrosa helluo Uses Visual Associative and Beacon Landmarks During Water Maze Navigation Tasks","authors":"Riko Weidman, Kelsey Persons, Matthew Persons","doi":"10.1111/eth.13518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13518","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Wolf spiders can learn simple spatial navigation tasks. Previous studies have shown that the wolf spider <i>Tigrosa helluo</i> can use environmental edge features (reference frame landmarks) to learn the location of a dry target in flooded T-mazes; however, the relative importance of different types or numbers of landmark cues to spatial learning remains unknown. We used a modified open arena water maze and recorded the ability of adult female <i>T. helluo</i> to find a target reward (a dark and dry cup) among cups that were identical to the target but flooded. We measured variation in spatial learning by measuring time to target with no landmark (control), with a beacon (a landmark that is part of the target), with an associative cue (a landmark associated with a specific navigational action), and with both a beacon and an associative cue (<i>N</i> = 92 subjects, <i>n</i> = 23 per landmark cue treatment). For each treatment, we tested females for five trials each on four consecutive days, with the last trial on the fourth day having an altered target location, totaling 19 training trials and one reversal trial (1840 trials). We found that spiders took significantly less time to find the target over subsequent trials within a day and learned more quickly when landmark cues were present, but we found no difference in the type or number of landmark features in the meantime to target entrance. After learning a target location, moving the landmark significantly increased the mean time to target entrance in the combined beacon and associative cue treatment relative to other treatments. Our results indicate that wolf spiders use visual beacons and associative cue landmarks alone or in combination and that performance improves across trials when landmarks are present and deteriorates more when multiple landmarks are moved.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142862088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-24DOI: 10.1111/eth.13517
Aline Vieira-Silva, Gabriel B. Evora, André V. L. Freitas, Paulo S. Oliveira
{"title":"The Relevance of Flash Coloration Against Avian Predation in a Morpho Butterfly: A Field Experiment in a Tropical Rainforest","authors":"Aline Vieira-Silva, Gabriel B. Evora, André V. L. Freitas, Paulo S. Oliveira","doi":"10.1111/eth.13517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13517","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The flash coloration hypothesis postulates that otherwise cryptically colored animals suddenly displaying conspicuous colors during movement confuse predators, reducing capture. <i>Morpho helenor</i> butterflies have contrasting colors on dorsal (iridescent blue) and ventral (brown) wing surfaces, resulting in sequential blue “flashes” during flight. We tested whether this flashing pattern reduces avian predation on <i>M</i>. <i>helenor</i> in Atlantic rainforest by changing the flashing effect in three experiments. In Experiment 1, we added a blue band to the ventral wing. In Experiment 2, we covered the dorsal wing's blue band with a brown band. Control groups in each experiment were painted such that wing color patterns remained unaltered. Survivorship was evaluated through mark-recapture censuses and beak marks on the wings. Results show that survivorship of treated butterflies in Experiment 1 decrease markedly compared to unaltered control individuals, while survivorship of treated butterflies in Experiment 2 did not differ compared to control individuals. In Experiment 3, we detected scant predation on treated (blue band added to ventral wing) and control butterflies (brown band added to ventral wing) on the forest floor (wings closed), corroborating that flash coloration is an important protective mechanism during flight. Our field experiments provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that flash coloration in bright blue <i>Morpho</i> butterflies is an effective defense mechanism against avian predators in a tropical rainforest.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"130 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142642426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-22DOI: 10.1111/eth.13519
Michael E. Vickers, Marianne W. Robertson, Travis E. Wilcoxen
{"title":"Condition-Dependent Female Aggression and Its Effects on Mating Success and Sexual Cannibalism in Jumping Spiders","authors":"Michael E. Vickers, Marianne W. Robertson, Travis E. Wilcoxen","doi":"10.1111/eth.13519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13519","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism is an extreme form of aggression toward potential mates. In this study, we examined condition-dependent female aggression and its effects on mating success and frequency of pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism in the jumping spider <i>Phidippus audax</i> Hentz 1845. We examined two of the leading hypotheses of why sexual cannibalism may occur, (1) female mate choice and (2) adaptive female foraging. We separated 137 adult virgin female <i>P. audax</i> into three feeding treatments: (1) well-fed spiders, (2) 14-day food deprived, and (3) 28-day food deprived. We recorded weight loss (14- and 28-day treatments) and survival rates. We conducted mating trials to measure the proportion of non-aggressive and aggressive male and female behaviors, male mating success, and pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism. Females deprived of food had higher weight loss and lower survival rates than well-fed females. In addition, food deprived female spiders exhibited higher proportions of aggressive behaviors and pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism, and lower mating success compared to well-fed spiders. We found that as male size increased females were less likely to cannibalize males, but we found no effect of male body condition on whether a male mated with or was cannibalized by a female. Our results are consistent with the adaptive foraging hypothesis and corroborates prior research on pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13519","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142861997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-21DOI: 10.1111/eth.13515
Miriam Kuspiel, Sjouke A. Kingma, Heleen Vermeulen, Marc Naguib
{"title":"Pair-Coordinated Calling: Eurasian Magpies Respond Differently to Simulated Intruder Pairs That Overlap or Alternate Their Calls","authors":"Miriam Kuspiel, Sjouke A. Kingma, Heleen Vermeulen, Marc Naguib","doi":"10.1111/eth.13515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13515","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Animal vocalisations are widely used to signal strength or motivation of a caller in competitive interactions, such as in territorial defence. Substantial understanding of signalling functions in territorial conflicts is based on singing by male songbirds. Yet, in many species, both pair members call during territorial conflicts, as well as in predator-induced situations, leading to complex signalling interactions in which calls overlap or alternate. This raises the question as to whether or not variation in how individuals in pairs time their calls is perceived as meaningful by receivers. Here, we tested with playback experiments whether Eurasian magpies (<i>Pica pica</i>), a species producing alarm calls (so-called chatter calls) in territorial defence, respond stronger to simulated pair-intruders who overlap their calls with each other than to those who alternate them. Magpies emitted a significantly longer first chatter calls in response to playback with overlapping calls but chattered significantly sooner and approached the loudspeakers significantly more closely in response to playbacks of alternating (and therefore longer) call sequences. These findings exemplify that the timing of calls by pair members matters, but in more complex ways than we predicted. The overlapping playback appeared to trigger a longer yet later initial chatter response and a weaker approach response, suggesting that the different ways in which magpies respond reflect different levels of arousal or defence strategies. The results may also reflect uncertainty by receivers due to a potential mismatch between signalled and perceived information: While overlapping calls may signal high arousal by both callers, a longer alternating sequence could be perceived as a more aroused longer signal. These findings expand on classical experiments on call function, suggesting that pairs can vary the message by coordinating their alarm calls in different ways, similar to how duetting pairs time their song contributions in advertisement signalling.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"130 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13515","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142642395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-18DOI: 10.1111/eth.13514
J. I. Sanguinetti-Scheck, D. Gálvez
{"title":"The Agoutis: A Future Model for Ecologically Relevant Neuroscience and Physiology In Natura","authors":"J. I. Sanguinetti-Scheck, D. Gálvez","doi":"10.1111/eth.13514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13514","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The overarching goal of neurobiology is to understand how complex behaviors are generated by the nervous system. The behavior of each species, and the brain that controls it, is shaped by the historical and current state of the environment that they inhabit. This fact is juxtaposed with the reductionist approach of neuroscience that isolates animals from their natural environment. Understanding how brains evolved to orchestrate the myriads of natural behaviors an animal performs in response to its environment requires an integrative approach to neuroscience that considers ecology, ethology, and evolution. Current technological developments are leading us to an inflection point at which studying brain functions in the wild is now possible. Ecological studies on how the environment affects behavior of animals (i.e., hibernation, foraging, food hoarding, and nest building) have framed a plurality of questions to be answered mechanistically, and yet, only few studies have addressed the relationship between the environment and the brain's anatomy and physiology. Neuroscience needs new animal models that allow us to tackle such questions in the wild. Here, we propose a new animal model for wild neuroscience, the agouti (<i>Dasyprocta</i> spp.), a large wild rodent playing a critical seasonal role in the maintenance of the central and south American rainforest ecosystems. We focus on how a rodent model, like the agouti, will allow for the investigation of large-scale brain dynamics during seasonal behaviors of ecological importance: scatter-hoarding and retrieval. We describe agouti evolution, ecology, and physiology as well as neuro-anatomical and neurophysiological studies, which have set the foundation for future neuroscience in natura. We suggest agoutis have the potential to be a groundbreaking model for wild neuroscience.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"130 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13514","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142642151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthologyPub Date : 2024-10-16DOI: 10.1111/eth.13512
Sacha C. Engelhardt, Claudia Fichtel, Peter M. Kappeler
{"title":"Cooperative and Solitary Mobbing to Defend Offspring in Wild Gray Mouse Lemurs, Microcebus murinus","authors":"Sacha C. Engelhardt, Claudia Fichtel, Peter M. Kappeler","doi":"10.1111/eth.13512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13512","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Gray mouse lemur, <i>Microcebus murinus</i>, mothers either cooperatively breed plurally with kin or breed solitarily. We describe the first observations of cooperative and solitary mobbing to defend offspring by wild cooperative breeding gray mouse lemur mothers in Kirindy Forest, Western Madagascar. We observed four groups of cooperatively breeding mothers and their offspring daily between 18:00 and 04:00 from January 1 to 15, 2023. Cooperative mobbing was observed twice, and solitary mobbing by a single cooperative breeding mother was observed once. There was one Malagasy tree boa, <i>Sanzinia madagascariensis</i>, per mobbing event. Mothers solitarily mobbed by directly approaching within 1 m of the boa, walking and changing distance while within 1 m of the boa. In addition to the solitary mobbing behaviors, cooperatively mobbing mothers approached the boa together from the same or different directions or alternated, and they gathered around the boa. Mothers collaborated in the context of offspring defense from predators and performed different complementary tasks: mobbing while another provided alloparental care by guarding the offspring of the association, that is, babysitting. Mothers performed similar mobbing behaviors and occasionally synchronized in time or coordinate in time and in space to approach from different directions and gather around the boa. Mothers did not come in contact with the boas during mobbing but kept a distance of at least 20 cm. On two mobbing events, the boa rose up with its head facing the mobbing mothers and climbed down the tree after the mobbing. Cooperative mobbing to defend offspring likely evolved by kin selection but reciprocity and an interaction between kin selection and reciprocity cannot be ruled out, since gray mouse lemur mothers cooperatively breed with kin and basically allonurse reciprocally.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13512","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142861587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}