Important role of dominance in allogrooming behaviour in beef cattle
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00027014%3A_____%2F16%3AN0000072" target="_blank" >RIV/00027014:_____/16:N0000072 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://www.vuzv.cz/sites/File/_privat/16071.pdf" target="_blank" >http://www.vuzv.cz/sites/File/_privat/16071.pdf</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2016.05.017" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.applanim.2016.05.017</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Important role of dominance in allogrooming behaviour in beef cattle
Original language description
In domestic cattle, the relationship between dominance and allogrooming behaviour has been investigated in several studies. However, the results do not show a consistent pattern. The aim of this study was to investigate this relationship in a stable female beef cattle herd using social network analysis as a novel methodological approach. We tested two adaptive allogrooming hypotheses. The 'Grooming-for-Commodity' hypothesis posits that allogrooming is directed from low ranking animals towards higher ranking cows in exchange of tolerance and other favours. The 'Grooming-for-Stability' hypothesis predicts that allogrooming is performed by high ranking animals down the hierarchy in order to perpetuate the stability of the social structure. We recorded a herd of 15 Gasconne cows on pasture for 3 weeks (180. h) and recorded 681 agonistic interactions and 288 allogrooming events. To evaluate the relationship between dominance and allogrooming behaviour we calculated correlations between dominance index, individual behavioural effort (OUT-direction), and individual attractiveness (IN-direction). We found that more dominant animals provided much higher amount of allogrooming acts (p. <. 0.001) and groomed more herdmates (p. <. 0.001). As a consequence, allogrooming behaviour was mostly oriented down the hierarchy (p. <. 0.001). At the same time, more dominant animals also received higher total number of allogrooming (p. <. 0.05). This seeming paradox was due to the fact that the very active high ranking allogroomers exchanged a lot of the licking with each other. Further, the dominance index of the cow was or tended to be positively related to the social network analysis measures of IN-Dyad-Reciprocity (p = 0.065), IN-Betweenness (p. <. 0.05) and OUT-Dyad-Reciprocity (p. <. 0.001).
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>x</sub> - Unclassified - Peer-reviewed scientific article (Jimp, Jsc and Jost)
CEP classification
GG - Zootechnics
OECD FORD branch
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Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2016
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Applied Animal Behaviour Science
ISSN
0168-1591
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
18
Issue of the periodical within the volume
August
Country of publishing house
NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS
Number of pages
8
Pages from-to
41-48
UT code for WoS article
000381171300006
EID of the result in the Scopus database
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