Heritabilities of agonistic behavioural traits in pigs and their relationships within and between different age groups

Stukenborg, Andreas; Traulsen, Imke; Stamer, E.; Puppe, Birger; Presuhn, U.; Krieter, Joachim

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2012.06.020

Cited by 18 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Differences between the age groups might be caused through different fighting motivations and the resulting variations in the number of scratches. Previous results have indicated moderate correlation between the behaviour of growing pigs and gilts but only small relationships between the older age groups and weaned piglets (Stukenborg et al 2012). It is therefore assumed that the behaviour of weaned piglets is especially influenced by playful manners whereas the older age groups fight in order to establish a new dominance hierarchy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The use of a lesion score as an indicator for agonistic behaviour in pigs

Stukenborg

Traulsen

Stamer³

et al. 2012

Arch. Anim. Breed.

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The aim of the present study was to analyse whether a lesion score approach could be used as an indicator for agonistic behaviour in pigs. Behavioural patterns were observed directly after weaning (PIG-28, n=827), 40 days later (growing pigs, PIG-68, n=292) and immediately after mixing gilts (GILTS, n=344), over a 48 h period. For the front, middle and rear part of the body the extent of skin injuries was assessed with a lesion score (LS). The LS ranked from 0 (no wounds) to 4 (many, deep wounds) and was determined at the beginning (LSstart) and at the end (LSend) of the observation period. In all groups, the front body third was mostly stressed by fighting interactions. The highest correlations were found between the front LS and the overall fight time, with r=0.50 (PIG-28), r=0.52 (PIG-68) and r=0.48 (GILTS). The LS for the front area did not increase for 26 % (PIG-28), 39 % (PIG-68) and 40 % (GILTS) of the animals. According to this, the applied LS approach only reflected the agonistic behaviour of pigs to a certain extent.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The use of a lesion score as an indicator for agonistic behaviour in pigs

Stukenborg

Traulsen

Stamer³

et al. 2012

Arch. Anim. Breed.

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show abstract

“…; pigs, Sus domesticus ; Stukenborg et al. ). Therefore, we predicted that older males would initiate courtship displays more frequently than young males; however, we did not find any significant differences in initiation behaviour between older and younger males for either hopping or butterfly displays, with or without the inclusion of definitive males.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Stukenborg et al. ). We considered initiation for either of the two main components of the courtship display (hopping and butterfly) to have occurred when one male performed the first hop or the first element of the butterfly display.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This behaviour is usually followed by the initiation of the butterfly display. Initiation of displays (both courtship and aggressive displays) by a particular male may also be an important indicator of status (Robbins 1983;Verbeek et al 1996;Zucker & Murray 1996;Sih et al 2009;Stukenborg et al 2012). We considered initiation for either of the two main components of the courtship display (hopping and butterfly) to have occurred when one male performed the first hop or the first element of the butterfly display.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Young Manakin Knows His Place: Evidence for an Age‐Graded Dominance Hierarchy Among Long‐Tailed Manakins

Lukianchuk

Doucet

2014

Ethology

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In lek‐breeding systems where many males gather at display sites, males benefit from the establishment of dominance hierarchies to reduce intrasexual aggression and the associated risk of injuries. Long‐tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia linearis) exhibit an exploded lek‐breeding system wherein the two top‐ranking males at each display site team up to perform elaborate coordinated courtship displays for females. Young males undergo delayed plumage maturation whereby they acquire distinct pre‐definitive plumage patterns each year until they attain definitive plumage in their fifth year. This unique characteristic is thought to have evolved as a status‐signalling mechanism to aid in the establishment of an age‐graded dominance hierarchy in which older males are dominant to younger males. Previous research has shown evidence for such a dominance hierarchy among alpha and beta males; however, the presence of this hierarchy among males of other age classes has never been quantified. In this study, we investigated the presence of an age‐graded dominance hierarchy by determining whether older males direct more aggressive behaviours towards younger males. We also investigated whether status signalling is less clear within age classes than between age classes, by determining whether males within the same age class exhibit more aggression towards each other. We found that older males performed aggressive behaviours towards younger males much more frequently than younger males performed aggressive behaviours towards older males. We also found that some aggressive interactions occurred between males within the same age class more frequently than between males from different age classes. Our study provides some evidence for an age‐graded dominance hierarchy among male long‐tailed manakins of all age classes and also provides some support for the status‐signalling hypothesis. However, further research is needed to conclusively establish the presence of a linear dominance hierarchy among younger male manakins. This research may help us better understand the evolution of complex hierarchical systems in animals.

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“…Here, animals with enhanced aggressive behaviour can influence the health, welfare as well as the weight gain of especially low-ranking pigs (Tan et al, 1991;Tuchscherer and Manteuffel, 2000). Former investigations had estimated moderate heritabilities of aggressive and submissive traits (Løvendahl et al, 2005;Turner et al, 2008Turner et al, ,2009Stukenborg et al, 2012). Therefore, knowledge regarding the behaviour of pigs in agonistic interactions gives the opportunity for breeding of calm and less aggressive animals (Kanis et al, 2005;D'Eath et al, 2009) techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%