Norscia Ivan, Hecker Martin, Caselli Marta, Collarini Edoardo, Gallego Aldama Beatriz, Borragán Santos Santiago, Cordoni Giada
Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Italy.
Cantur, S.A. Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabárceno 39690 Obregón, Cantabria, Spain.
Curr Zool. 2024 Mar 11;70(6):765-779. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoae009. eCollection 2024 Dec.
In social groups, competition for individual advantage is balanced with cooperation, for the collective benefit. Selection against aggression has favored cooperation and non-aggressive competitive strategies. Because social play is a behavioral system that fluctuates between cooperation and competition, selection against aggression might have especially influenced this behavior. African savannah elephants () are a low aggressive species, therefore suitable to investigate this aspect. We collected all occurrences observational audio-video data on social play, aggression/threats, and affiliation on an African elephant colony housed in a 25-ha open space at Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabarceno (Cantabria, Spain) and composed of 4 family groups (3 immature males, 3 immature females, and 7 adult females) and 2 adult males. Anticipating the influence of reduced aggression, we found that social play decreased with age, persisting in adults, and that it was highest in males. Social play was associated with affiliation (informing cooperation). Indeed, individuals that were central in the social play network were also central in the affiliation network. For immature subjects, we found a correlation between social play and affiliation sociomatrices. However, such correlation was absent in adults and social play mostly occurred between families. Despite the limitations related to dealing with a small captive group, this study largely supports the idea that the features of social play in African savannah elephants may be related to low aggression. This investigation hints toward a non-purely cooperative use of play, possibly as a non-aggressive interaction that accommodates different levels of cooperation and competition.
在社会群体中，为了集体利益，对个体优势的竞争与合作相平衡。对攻击性的选择有利于合作和非攻击性竞争策略。由于社会游戏是一种在合作和竞争之间波动的行为系统，对攻击性的选择可能对这种行为产生了特别的影响。非洲草原象是攻击性较低的物种，因此适合研究这一方面。我们收集了位于西班牙坎塔布里亚卡瓦塞诺自然公园（Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabarceno）一个25公顷开放空间中的非洲象群的所有社会游戏、攻击/威胁和亲密行为的观察音频视频数据，该象群由4个家庭群体（3头未成年雄性、3头未成年雌性和7头成年雌性）和2头成年雄性组成。预期到攻击性降低的影响，我们发现社会游戏随年龄增长而减少，在成年个体中持续存在，且在雄性中最高。社会游戏与亲密行为相关（表明合作）。事实上，在社会游戏网络中处于中心位置的个体在亲密行为网络中也处于中心位置。对于未成年个体，我们发现社会游戏和亲密行为社会矩阵之间存在相关性。然而，在成年个体中不存在这种相关性，且社会游戏大多发生在家庭之间。尽管处理一个小型圈养群体存在局限性，但这项研究在很大程度上支持了这样一种观点，即非洲草原象社会游戏的特征可能与低攻击性有关。这项调查暗示了游戏并非纯粹用于合作，可能是一种容纳不同程度合作和竞争的非攻击性互动。
