'Nasty neighbours' rather than 'dear enemies' in a social carnivore.

ABSTRACT: Territorial animals typically respond less aggressively to neighbours than to strangers. This 'dear enemy effect' has been explained by differing familiarity or by different threat levels posed by neighbours and strangers. In most species, both the familiarity and the threat-level hypotheses predict a stronger response to strangers than to neighbours. In contrast, the threat-level hypothesis predicts a stronger response to neighbours than to strangers in species with intense competition between neighbours and with residents outnumbering strangers, as commonly found in social mammals such as the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo). The familiarity hypothesis predicts reduced aggression towards neighbours also in these species. We exposed free-living banded mongoose groups to translocated scent m

SUBMITTER: Muller CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2141673 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature