Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 290, Issue 2000, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0206
Keywords
aggression strategies; audience effects; dominance hierarchies; Estrilda astrild; social dominance pattern; social networks
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Bullying is a phenomenon where individuals attack those lowest in the social dominance hierarchy, and its purpose is not yet fully understood because the victims do not pose a challenge to the aggressors. However, it appears that bullying may serve as a means of displaying dominance to others. This can help manage dominance hierarchies and avoid direct confrontations with potentially dangerous opponents.
Bullying consists of preferentially attacking individuals lowest in the dominance hierarchy, and its functions are unclear because the most subordinate individuals do not pose social challenges to the aggressor. Instead, conflict is expected mostly between individuals of similar dominance rank or socially distant (i.e. weakly associated), among whom dominance relationships may not be well established. A possible function of bullying is that it may be used as a low-risk strategy of showing-off dominance to relevant third parties. To study this hypothesis, we monitored aggressions during feeding, the composition of audiences, dominance hierarchy and social network of common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) in an open-air mesocosm, and tested (i) whether their aggressions show a pattern of bullying, and (ii) whether audience effects influence aggressiveness. Waxbills showed bullying, most often attacking the lowest ranking individuals rather than socially distant individuals or those of similar dominance rank, and aggressions increased when the audience included socially distant individuals, indicating a signalling function of bullying. Showing-off dominance in the presence of socially distant individuals may be a strategy to manage dominance hierarchies, avoiding direct fights with potentially dangerous opponents in the audience. We suggest that bullying is a safe manner of managing dominance hierarchies, by signalling dominance status to potential opponents.
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