Journal
BEHAVIOUR
Volume 156, Issue 1, Pages 59-+Publisher
BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1163/1568539X-00003530
Keywords
Antarctic; contagious behaviours; elephant seal; marine mammals; Mirounga leonina; social behaviours
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Funding
- Polish National Science Centre [2015/19/B/NZ8/01981]
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Behavioural contagion is a curious phenomenon of human social life which is believed to facilitate group living. It has also been demonstrated in animals that some behaviours may be contagious: how widespread this phenomenon is remains unclear, as only a few species have been tested. In this context, we examined whether three behaviours commonly exhibited by moulting southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina): sneezing, scratching and yawning could be contagious. Using the randomization approach, we found this to be the case in general for all the behaviours, although the pattern was not that obvious or present at all for all the social groups. This indicates there is a potential for social contagion but the issue is complex. Despite limitations associated with observational study on small-size social groups, this is the first report of contagious behaviours in marine mammals and is to encourage further investigation.
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