The role of previous social encounters and body mass in determining social rank: an experiment with white-tailed deer
Author(s):
JOËLLE TAILLON & STEEVE D. CÔTÉ
NSERC-Produits forestiers Anticosti Industrial Research Chair, Département de biologie and Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval, Québec, QC Canada
The social organization of many animals is based on dominance behaviours. Initial encounters between any two individuals can be crucial in determining the dominance relationship that will prevail between them throughout their lifetime. Achieving a high dominance status can be critical when competition for limited resources is intense. The mechanisms that prevail for the establishment and stability of dominance relationships between individuals are, however, poorly understood. Our study aims to identify factors influencing the establishment of dominance relationships between young individuals, using white-tailed deer fawns as a model species, and to evaluate the possibility of long-term individual recognition after temporal separation. We found that social rank is established during the first encounters between individuals based on differences in body mass and maintained afterwards even when the differences in mass between individuals are reversed. Dyadic dominance relationships seem to be established early in life and may then endure into adulthood.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier, will open in another window)::
doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.03.016
