Social Reward Behaviour in Two Groups of European Grey Wolves (Canis lupus lupus)-A Case Study

Simple Summary Prosocial behaviour is shown by a variety of mammals. Prosocial behaviours can also be part of social feedback mechanisms. For group-living mammals, group coordination and group cohesion are crucial factors for survival. Therefore, group-living mammals display a broad variety of social behaviours towards their group members. Canidae are known to be socially organised mammals. Wolves are one of the most cooperative and social canine species. In this case study, we investigated social feedback mechanisms in two European grey wolf groups. The social feedback was observed after novel object interaction, bold behaviour, and the individual behaviours of single individuals. The purpose of this paper is to focus on prosocial behaviour that might serve as social reward. We assume that there is social reward behaviour as a category that falls within social feedback in grey wolves. Prosociality occurs in many species and is likely to be a crucial factor for the survival of group-living animals. Social feedback is an important mechanism for the coordination of group decisions. Since group-living animals with specific personality axes, i.e., boldness, are known to provide certain benefits for their group, bold actions might receive more prosocial feedback than other actions. Our case study aims to determine whether bold behaviour, i.e., novel object interaction (Nobj), might be answered more frequently with prosocial behaviours. We investigated the differences in the frequency of occurrence in prosocial behaviours after three different individual actions in two groups of grey wolves. We aim to outline the development of a social reward behavioural category as part of social feedback mechanisms. We used Markov chain models for probability analyses, and a non-parametric ANOVA to test for differences between the influences of individual behaviours on the probability of a prosocial behaviour chain. We additionally tested for the potential influences of age, sex and personality on the frequency of Nobj. Our results suggest that bold interactions are more often responded to with prosocial behaviour. Bold behaviour might be more often socially rewarded because of its benefits for group-living animals. More research is needed to investigate whether bold behaviour is more frequently responded to prosocially, and to investigate the social reward phenomenon.

Automated summary

Prosocial behavior is common among group-living mammals, and Canidae are known for their social organization. This case study focused on social feedback mechanisms in two groups of grey wolves, and found that bold behavior is more likely to receive prosocial responses.