Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 Feb 28;377(1845):20200450. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0450. Epub 2022 Jan 10.
Animal groups are often organized hierarchically, with dominant individuals gaining priority access to resources and reproduction over subordinate individuals. Initial dominance hierarchy formation may be influenced by multiple interacting factors, including an animal's individual attributes, conventions and self-organizing social dynamics. After establishment, hierarchies are typically maintained over the long-term because individuals save time, energy and reduce the risk of injury by recognizing and abiding by established dominance relationships. A separate set of behaviours are used to maintain dominance relationships within groups, including behaviours that stabilize ranks (punishment, threats, behavioural asymmetry), as well as signals that provide information about dominance rank (individual identity signals, signals of dominance). In this review, we describe the behaviours used to establish and maintain dominance hierarchies across different taxa and types of societies. We also review opportunities for future research including: testing how self-organizing behavioural dynamics interact with other factors to mediate dominance hierarchy formation, measuring the long-term stability of social hierarchies and the factors that disrupt hierarchy stability, incorporating phenotypic plasticity into our understanding of the behavioural dynamics of hierarchies and considering how cognition coevolves with the behaviours used to establish and maintain hierarchies. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'.
动物群体通常是按等级组织的，优势个体相对于从属个体优先获得资源和繁殖机会。初始的统治等级形成可能受到多种相互作用的因素的影响，包括动物的个体属性、习俗和自组织的社会动态。建立后，等级通常会长期维持，因为个体通过识别和遵守既定的统治关系，可以节省时间、精力并降低受伤的风险。另一组行为被用来维持群体内部的统治关系，包括稳定等级的行为（惩罚、威胁、行为不对称），以及提供统治等级信息的信号（个体身份信号、统治信号）。在这篇综述中，我们描述了在不同分类群和社会类型中建立和维持统治等级的行为。我们还回顾了未来研究的机会，包括：测试自我组织的行为动态如何与其他因素相互作用来调节统治等级的形成，衡量社会等级的长期稳定性以及破坏等级稳定性的因素，将表型可塑性纳入我们对等级行为动态的理解，并考虑认知如何与建立和维持等级的行为共同进化。这篇文章是主题为“啄序百年：统治等级研究的现状和未来前景”的一部分。
