Overall dynamic body acceleration as an indicator of dominance in Homing Pigeons (Columba livia)

Abstract

The benefits of dominance are well known and numerous, including first access to resources such as food, mates and nesting sites. Less well studied are the potential costs associated with being dominant. Here, the movement of two flocks of domestic Homing Pigeons Columba livia – measured via accelerometry loggers – was recorded over a period of 2 weeks, during which the birds were confined to their lofts. Movement was then used to calculate each individual's daily overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA, G), which can be used as a proxy for energy expenditure. The dominance hierarchy of the two flocks was determined via group‐level antagonistic interactions, and had a significantly linear structure. The most dominant bird within each flock was found to move significantly more than conspecifics – on average, c. 39% more than the individual with the next highest degree of movement – indicating a possible cost to possessing the top rank within a hierarchy. Despite the dominance hierarchy being highly linear, this was not the case for ODBA, suggesting that energy expenditure may be more reflective of a despotic hierarchy. These results show the potential for the future use of accelerometry as a tool to study the fusion of energetics and behaviour.

Flock Stasis Drives Flying Speed in Pigeons, While Artificial Mass Additions Do Not

“…This is a question, which we provide some foundational principles toward, but which will require a collective effort by empiricists (both wild and captive behaviourists) and theoreticians to address. This work also further adds to the body of work demonstrating the opportunities that homing pigeons offer in terms of researching flocking dynamics, personality, energetics and collective behaviour [98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110].…”

Metabolic rate does not explain performance on a short-term memory task or personality traits in juvenile chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus )

“…The antagonistic interactions between individuals were recorded, covering the whole area, for 20 min. The interactions recorded were: shoving, pecking and wing flapping (following [50,53]). Shoving is defined as one individual using the whole body to push another, in which the receiver moves out of royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Soc.…”