For hyenas, there's no 'I' in clan

March 11, 2019 by Layne Cameron, Michigan State University

When it comes to advancing social status, it's not what you know, it's who you know—for humans and spotted hyenas alike.

In a new study published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michigan State University scientists show that hyenas that form strong coalitions can gain social status, which can have lasting benefits over many generations.

"The high-ranked animals clearly benefit from this system," said Eli Strauss, MSU integrative biologist and the study's lead author. "But low-ranked animals have a strong incentive to challenge the established pecking order and attempt to improve their position in society. This work represents a first step in reconciling the advantages of high status with the appearance of 'arbitrary' conventions that structure inequality in animal and human societies."

Moving up the proverbial ladder can result in substantive differences in health, survival and reproductive success. So, with some animals, social rank is determined by individual fighting ability or physical attributes. Typically, low-ranked individuals are unable to defeat their larger or stronger, higher-ranked contemporaries. However, in other species, such as spotted hyenas, social rank is determined through a convention known as "maternal rank inheritance."

This structure can be compared to royal families. The queen sits at the top, and her offspring are the heirs to the throne. This explains what's been observed in hyena clans since Kay Holekamp, MSU University Distinguished Professor of integrative biology and co-author, started her study in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve 27 years—and five generations of spotted hyenas—ago.

Spotted hyenas live in large, mixed-sex groups, or clans. They have highly stable hierarchies, in which being a "queen" reaps many benefits. Sometimes, however, the crown is challenged, and "lesser" hyenas move up the ladder.

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Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets 'under the skin'

Status-health connection depends, in part, on what it takes to get ahead

Date:  December 17, 2018

Source:  Duke University

A growing body of evidence shows that those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder are more likely to die prematurely than those at the top. The pattern isn't unique to humans: Across many social animals, the lower an individual's social status, the worse its health.

That's probably proof that these gaps aren't fully explained by risk factors commonly attributed to humans, such as smoking, drinking or access to medical care, says Jenny Tung, associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University.

What's trickier to determine is what causes what: Does the stress of low status make you sick? Or is it the other way around: does being sickly make it harder to get ahead and stay there?

New research by Tung, Princeton University's Amanda Lea and colleagues suggests the answer depends, in part, on how the pecking order comes to be. The findings come from a study of 61 wild baboons in Kenya, where females 'inherit' their status, but males must fight their way to the top.

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Social status has impact on overall health of mammals

Date:

March 12, 2015

Source:

Michigan State University

Summary:

High social status has its privileges -- when it comes to aging -- even in wild animals. In a first-of-its-kind study involving a wild species, researchers have shown that social and ecological factors affect animal health. The results focused on spotted hyenas in Kenya.

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Clownfish Talk Their Way Out of Conflict

Clownfish, the orange-, black- and white-striped fish made famous in the movie "Finding Nemo," are a gossipy bunch, popping and clicking amid their anemone homes to defend and reinforce their social status, according to new research.

Unlike the 360 other species of territorial marine fish in the Pomacentridae family,clownfish don't make a peep when mating. Researchers wondering why clownfish would bother to make noise in other circumstances discovered that their chatter helps maintain the rank and file among group members.

"Sound could be an interesting strategy for preventing conflict between group members," lead study author Orphal Colleye, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Liège, Belgium, told LiveScience. "In terms of cost energy, you don't have to interact with another individual to determine which is the dominant and which is the subordinate, you just need to make a sound."

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/24611-clownfish-talk-social-status.html