Playful pigs: Evidence of consistency and change in play depending on litter and developmental stage

Brown, Sarah M.; Peters, Rebecca; Nevison, I. M.; Lawrence, Alistair B.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2017.09.018

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In the remaining two pens there was evidence that piglets preferentially assorted with littermates over non-littermates. Large litter differences in piglet play fighting have been described 43 and the differences in assortment between pens in the present study may partially reflect such variation. In the population as a whole, a statistically significant preference to choose littermate play fighting partners on 80% of occasions does suggest that piglets were conservative in their willingness to play with non-littermates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

“…All piglets in the pen were observed rather than focusing on focal individuals. A new bout of play fighting was recorded if a dyad ceased playing for greater than 3 s. Rapid face-to-face pushing at a recipient was deemed to constitute play fight initiation and play fighting behaviour included elements of pushing with occasional head knocking and biting as also observed by Newberry et al (1988) 41 and Brown et al (2018) 43 . As outlined by Newberry et al (1988) 41 and Pellis and Pellis (2017) 6 , pigs use similar targets and tactics in both play fighting and real fighting.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Sampling at hourly intervals in all pens controlled for the diurnal variation in activity reported in pigs 42 and follows the sampling strategy from previous work 26 , 43 , 44 . The duration of play fighting was short and, for this reason, only frequency was recorded in line with previous work on pigs 26 , 43 , 44 . Marking on the backs of piglets enabled the identification of individuals and the amount of time that piglets were in view was similar for all animals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The continuous observations occurred at hourly intervals for all piglets in the pen from 10:00 am to 15:00 pm on days 14,16,19,21,24, and 26 after birth which is within the pre-weaning window of time when play is performed most frequently 41 . Sampling at hourly intervals in all pens controlled for the diurnal variation in activity reported in pigs 42 and follows the sampling strategy from previous work 26,43,44 . The duration of play fighting was short and, for this reason, only frequency was recorded in line with previous work on pigs 26,43,44 .…”

Section: Play Fighting Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Play fighting social networks do not predict injuries from later aggression

Turner

Weller

Camerlink

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Early play fighting mimics later aggression in many species, and may, therefore, be expected to reduce costs from later aggressive interactions. Using social network analysis (SNA) the effect of a central play fighting network position on later skin lesions from aggression was assessed in domestic pigs. Piglets (n = 263) were kept in litter groups or socialised pre-weaning with another litter to enhance play fighting experience. Play fighting was recorded for 1.5 h per day over 6 days pre-weaning. Play fighting network centrality was quantified using measures of individual network position and entire network structure (degree, eigenvector, betweenness, clustering coefficient). Skin lesions from aggression were counted after a dyadic contest and at 24 h and 3 weeks following group mixing. Pigs with play fighting interactions with many partners experienced fewer lesions from the dyadic contest (in-degree, p = 0.01) and tended to received fewer lesions 3 weeks after group mixing (degree, p = 0.088) but no other play fighting centrality measures affected the number of lesions at any point. The benefits of play fighting were therefore limited to specific aggressive social contexts. The tendency of socialised piglets to play fight with non-littermates did not affect subsequent lesions. We advocate the use of SNA over approaches that only consider dyadic interactions to further our understanding of the influence of early social group interactions on later life experience.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Play Fighting Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Play fighting social networks do not predict injuries from later aggression

Turner

Weller

Camerlink

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This outcome emphasizes the strong influence of the social environment on play behaviour. Likewise, in pigs a strong group effect on play behaviour has been observed with the litter affecting changes in locomotor play before and after weaning 46 . Here, contagion was rendered secondary to other factors as Brown, et al 46 reason that contagion can only explain litter differences when it accounts for reduced play through negative contagion, a possible explanation that we suggest for our findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Negative play contagion in calves

Größbacher

Lawrence

Winckler

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Play is a strong outwardly directed, emotional behaviour and can contagiously spread between individuals. It has been suggested that high-playing animals could ‘seed’ play in others, spreading positive affective states. Despite the current interest in play contagion there has been no previous attempt to measure the strength of the play contagion effect. The calf (Bos taurus) is ideal for testing the strength of play contagion as play in calves is strongly related to energy intake from milk. We manipulated play in calves through their milk allowances and housed the calves in uniform groups all on the same milk allowance (high = UHigh or low = ULow) or in mixed groups with calves in the same group receiving either a high (= MHigh) or low (= MLow) milk allowance. We measured locomotor play using accelerometers on two consecutive days when calves were four and eight weeks old, in order to study play contagion over a protracted developmental window. We anticipated that differences in the level of play contagion between treatment groups would result in difference in the play levels observed in the MLow and ULow individuals. Contrary to our expectations we found that spontaneous play was suppressed in the high-milk calves housed in mixed groups (MHigh), in comparison to calves housed with group mates all receiving high-milk (UHigh). These results are the first to quantify a negative play contagion effect, particularly in a situation of long-term contact, and may suggest that negative contagion has a stronger effect on play behaviour than positive contagion.

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A systematic review of sex differences in rough and tumble play across non-human mammals

Marley

Pollard

Barton

et al. 2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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It is widely believed that juvenile male mammals typically engage in higher rates of rough and tumble play (RTP) than do females, in preparation for adult roles involving intense physical competition between males. The consistency of this sex difference across diverse mammalian species has, however, not yet been systematically investigated, limiting our current understanding of its possible adaptive function. This review uses narrative synthesis to (i) evaluate the ubiquity of male-biased RTP across non-human mammals, (ii) identify patterns of variation within and between taxonomic groups, and (iii) propose possible predictors of variation in these differences, including methodological and socio-ecological factors, for investigation by future studies. We find that most species studied do exhibit higher rates or RTP in males than females, while female-biased RTP is rare. Sex differences are smaller and less consistent than expected, with many studies finding similar rates of RTP in males and females. We identify multiple potential socio-ecological predictors of variation in sex differences in RTP, such as intrasexual competition and dietary niche. However, variation is not strongly phylogenetically patterned, suggesting that methodological and environmental factors, such as sample size and play partner availability, are important to consider in future comparative analyses. Significance statement Rough and tumble play (RTP) is thought to be vital for developing physical skills necessary for aggressive competition in adulthood, explaining an apparently widespread sex difference in RTP in mammals whereby immature males are more likely to engage in this behaviour than females. However, no prior study has systematically investigated the extent to which a male bias in RTP is consistent across diverse mammalian species. We find that although RTP is commonly male biased, findings were highly variable both within- and between-species, and equal participation in RTP by males and females is more common than widely assumed. Our review suggests several potential predictors of variation in sex differences in RTP, particularly levels of intrasexual competition in both males and females. However, our findings also suggest the importance of considering methodological in addition to socio-ecological factors for future research.

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Playful pigs: Evidence of consistency and change in play depending on litter and developmental stage

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Play fighting social networks do not predict injuries from later aggression

Play fighting social networks do not predict injuries from later aggression

Negative play contagion in calves

A systematic review of sex differences in rough and tumble play across non-human mammals

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