Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123 Torino, Italy.
Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123 Torino, Italy.
Behav Processes. 2022 Nov;203:104778. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104778. Epub 2022 Nov 12.
When animals engage in 'non-serious' fighting (play-fighting) they 'borrow' motor patterns especially from the aggressive context. It may be difficult to distinguish play- and real-fighting. This is particularly true for piglets (Sus scrofa), which can use play-fighting as a substitute for aggression. To check for the structural differences between play- and real-fighting in piglets, we: i) video recorded 496 interactions from three litters (at Parva-Domus extensive ethical farm; Turin, Italy); ii) extracted (by video analyses) duration, patterns, and data on involved individuals; iii) calculated session structural/ecological indices; and iv) compared the indices (play- vs real-fighting). Compared to real-fighting - play-fighting was longer (informing its rewarding nature), more symmetrical (lower asymmetry index) and variable (higher Shannon index). Moreover, play-fighting showed less pattern repetition (lower Repetition Index) and was not more polyadic and evenly distributed (comparable polyadic and Pielou indices). By being longer, and more variable and symmetrical than real-fighting, play-fighting could serve some of its functions such as motor training, social assessment and training for the unexpected. However, play-fighting in piglets did not comply with all the expected play features, possibly because play is a fluid behavioural system that under certain circumstances may escalate into or replace aggression.
当动物进行“非严肃”的战斗（玩耍）时，它们会“借用”来自攻击情境的运动模式。区分玩耍和真实战斗可能很困难。对于小猪（Sus scrofa）来说尤其如此，它们可以用玩耍来代替攻击。为了检查小猪玩耍和真实战斗之间的结构差异，我们：i）从三个窝（Parva-Domus 农场；都灵，意大利）中视频记录了 496 次互动；ii）通过视频分析提取了持续时间、模式和涉及个体的数据；iii）计算了会话结构/生态指数；iv）比较了指数（玩耍与真实战斗）。与真实战斗相比，玩耍时间更长（表明其具有奖励性质）、更对称（不对称指数较低）且更具可变性（香农指数较高）。此外，玩耍的模式重复较少（重复指数较低），并且不更具多元性和均匀分布（可比多元性和皮埃罗指数）。通过比真实战斗更长、更具可变性和对称性，玩耍可以发挥其一些功能，例如运动训练、社交评估和对意外情况的训练。然而，小猪的玩耍并没有符合所有预期的玩耍特征，可能是因为玩耍是一个灵活的行为系统，在某些情况下可能会升级为或取代攻击。
