Abstract
Social rank can influence lifetime reproductive success and therefore fitness. We examined the effects of morphology, age, previous social experience and aggressiveness on social rank in all-female flocks of red junglefowl. None of the morphological characters measured (mass, tarsus length, comb height or comb length) appeared to play a role in determining rank. Older females were not more likely to be dominant, while previous social experience and aggression levels were both important in dominance determination. Flock-experienced hens were more likely to be dominant as were more aggressive individuals. Red junglefowl females most likely use a combination of characters to establish social order in a newly formed flock. (C) 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 239-244 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Animal Behaviour |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2000 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to Torgeir S. Johnsen, Jackie Lucas, Anh Thu Nguyen, Sam Pracchia, Ter Vang and Jason Wong for help in care of the junglefowl colony. Sam Pracchia and Jason Wong helped with morphological measurements. Torgeir S. Johnsen provided useful advice and helpful comments on the manuscript. Lien T. Luong, Kristine Preston and two anonymous referees also provided comments to improve the manuscript. The research reported here is supported by NSF grants IBN 95-14055 and DEB 92-57749 to M.Z. The research presented here was described in Animal Research Protocol No. A-S9412003-1, approved on 25 January 1991 by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of California, Riverside.