Abstract
In many species, within-group conflict leads to immediate avoidance of potential aggressors or increases in affiliation, but no studies have investigated delayed post-conflict management behaviour. Here, we experimentally test that possibility using a wild but habituated population of dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula). First, we used natural and playback-simulated foraging displacements to demonstrate that bystanders take notice of the vocalisations produced during such within-group conflict events but that they do not engage in any immediate post-conflict affiliative behaviour with the protagonists or other bystanders. We then used another playback experiment to assess delayed effects of within-group conflict on grooming interactions: we examined affiliative behaviour at the evening sleeping burrow, 30-60 min after the most recent simulated foraging displacement. Overall, fewer individuals groomed on evenings following an afternoon of simulated conflict, but those that did groomed more than on control evenings. Subordinate bystanders groomed with the simulated aggressor significantly less, and groomed more with one another, on conflict compared to control evenings. Our study provides experimental evidence that dwarf mongooses acoustically obtain information about within-group contests (including protagonist identity), retain that information, and use it to inform conflict-management decisions with a temporal delay.
Highlights
Conflicts of interest are common in social species, with disagreements between group members arising over access to mates or food, synchronisation of group activities, and the direction of travel (Aureli et al, 2002; Conradt and Roper, 2009; Hardy and Briffa, 2013)
Dwarf mongoose bystanders did not engage in any obvious post-conflict affiliation in the immediate aftermath of natural or simulated foraging displacements involving a dominant and subordinate group member, but did adjust their later grooming behaviour at the evening sleeping refuge following a simulated increase in within-group conflict during the afternoon
The increase in the average duration of later subordinate–subordinate grooming is in line with the increase in bystander–bystander grooming seen in some species in the immediate aftermath of a contest (Judge and Mullen, 2005)
Summary
Conflicts of interest are common in social species, with disagreements between group members arising over access to mates or food, synchronisation of group activities, and the direction of travel (Aureli et al, 2002; Conradt and Roper, 2009; Hardy and Briffa, 2013). Within-g roup conflict, especially if it escalates to aggression, can be costly in terms of injury and mortality, time and energy expenditure, increased stress, and disrupted social relationships (Aureli, 1997; Aureli et al, 2002; de Waal, 2000). Conflict-m anagement strategies that minimise these costs, either by reducing the likelihood of aggressive escalation in the first place or by mitigating the consequences of such physical contests when they do arise, have evolved in many species (Aureli et al, 2002; Aureli and de Waal, 2000). Considering bystanders highlights the potentially groupwide effects of dyadic within-g roup conflicts and a wider range of post-c onflict management strategies than would be apparent from a focus on just the protagonists (De Marco et al, 2010; Schino and Sciarretta, 2015), providing additional insights into the dynamics of social relationships between
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