Comparison of lateralization in social and non-social bees tests the hypothesis that population-level, directional asymmetry has evolved as an adjunct to social behaviour. Previous research has supported this hypothesis: directional bias of antennal use in responding to odours and learning to associate odours with a food reward is absent in species that feed individually, such as mason bees, wh...

Social life offers animals increased fitness opportunities. However, the advantages are not evenly distributed and some individuals benefit more than others. The ultimate advantage of reaching the highest rank in a dominance hierarchy is the achievement of reproduction monopoly. In social insects, dominant individuals and queens keep their reproductive control through differential oophagy of un...

The study aimed to evaluate the behaviour of beef cattle reared in intensive systems in northern Italy under different climatic conditions. In particular, it considered 3 levels of THI (Temperature-Humidity-Index) in order to evaluate the coping response to heat stress conditions regarding changes of beef cattle nutritional and social behaviours, drinking frequency and resting time. Behavioural...

Groups of human soldiers increase their affiliative behaviour when moving into combat zones. Despite numerous other species also competing as groups, little is known about how potential intergroup conflict might influence current intragroup affiliative behaviour in non-human animals. Here, I show that allopreening (when one individual preens another) increases in groups of cooperatively breedin...

Morphological and behavioural traits which improve agonistic power are subject to intrasexual selection and, at the proximate level, are influenced by circulating androgens. Because intrasexual selection in mammals is more intense among males, they typically dominate females. Female social dominance is therefore unexpected and, indeed, rare. Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) are sexually monomor...

The importance of the centre of percussion (CP) of some hand-held sporting equipment (such as tennis rackets and baseball bats) for athletic performance is well known. In order to avoid injuries it is important that powerful blows are located close to the CP. Several species of glyptodont (giant armoured mammals) had tail clubs that can be modelled as rigid beams (like baseball bats) and it is ...

We measured the metabolic rates as a direct estimate of energy expenditure of individual Neolamprologus pulcher, a cooperatively breeding cichlid ®sh, when resting and when performing agonistic, submissive or digging behaviours in a respirometer. Standard and routine metabolic rates increased linearly with body mass (range 0.9±8.4 g) when plotted on a doubly logarithmic scale (linear regression...

Group-living is widespread among animals and comes with numerous costs and benefits. To date, research examining group-living has focused on trade-offs surrounding foraging, while other forms of resource acquisition have been largely overlooked. Air-breathing has evolved in many fish lineages, allowing animals to obtain oxygen in hypoxic aquatic environments. Breathing air increases the threat ...

Abstract Natural selection for territoriality is theorised to occur under conditions favouring intra-sexual phenotypic variation in physiology, morphology, and behaviour. In this context, certain suites of behavioural traits associated with are expected consistently covary among individuals (sometimes referred as ‘behavioural syndromes’) within sexes. Agonism (conflict-associated behaviours tha...