Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.

Cooperation is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom as it aims to maximize benefits through joint action. Selection, however, may also favor competitive behaviors that could violate cooperation. How animals mitigate competition is hotly debated, with particular interest in primates and little attention...

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Autores principales:	Li-Li Li, Joshua M Plotnik, Shang-Wen Xia, Estelle Meaux, Rui-Chang Quan
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e2db0c4956ab4a96a6c71527bd3a62ac
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e2db0c4956ab4a96a6c71527bd3a62ac2021-12-02T19:54:34ZCooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.1544-91731545-788510.1371/journal.pbio.3001391https://doaj.org/article/e2db0c4956ab4a96a6c71527bd3a62ac2021-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001391https://doaj.org/toc/1544-9173https://doaj.org/toc/1545-7885Cooperation is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom as it aims to maximize benefits through joint action. Selection, however, may also favor competitive behaviors that could violate cooperation. How animals mitigate competition is hotly debated, with particular interest in primates and little attention paid thus far to nonprimates. Using a loose-string pulling apparatus, we explored cooperative and competitive behavior, as well as mitigation of the latter, in semi-wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Our results showed that elephants first maintained a very high cooperation rate (average = 80.8% across 45 sessions). Elephants applied "block," "fight back," "leave," "move side," and "submission" as mitigation strategies and adjusted these strategies according to their affiliation and rank difference with competition initiators. They usually applied a "fight back" mitigation strategy as a sanction when competition initiators were low ranking or when they had a close affiliation, but were submissive if the initiators were high ranking or when they were not closely affiliated. However, when the food reward was limited, the costly competitive behaviors ("monopoly" and "fight") increased significantly, leading to a rapid breakdown in cooperation. The instability of elephant cooperation as a result of benefit reduction mirrors that of human society, suggesting that similar fundamental principles may underlie the evolution of cooperation across species.Li-Li LiJoshua M PlotnikShang-Wen XiaEstelle MeauxRui-Chang QuanPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Biology, Vol 19, Iss 9, p e3001391 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Li-Li Li Joshua M Plotnik Shang-Wen Xia Estelle Meaux Rui-Chang Quan Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
description	Cooperation is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom as it aims to maximize benefits through joint action. Selection, however, may also favor competitive behaviors that could violate cooperation. How animals mitigate competition is hotly debated, with particular interest in primates and little attention paid thus far to nonprimates. Using a loose-string pulling apparatus, we explored cooperative and competitive behavior, as well as mitigation of the latter, in semi-wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Our results showed that elephants first maintained a very high cooperation rate (average = 80.8% across 45 sessions). Elephants applied "block," "fight back," "leave," "move side," and "submission" as mitigation strategies and adjusted these strategies according to their affiliation and rank difference with competition initiators. They usually applied a "fight back" mitigation strategy as a sanction when competition initiators were low ranking or when they had a close affiliation, but were submissive if the initiators were high ranking or when they were not closely affiliated. However, when the food reward was limited, the costly competitive behaviors ("monopoly" and "fight") increased significantly, leading to a rapid breakdown in cooperation. The instability of elephant cooperation as a result of benefit reduction mirrors that of human society, suggesting that similar fundamental principles may underlie the evolution of cooperation across species.
format	article
author	Li-Li Li Joshua M Plotnik Shang-Wen Xia Estelle Meaux Rui-Chang Quan
author_facet	Li-Li Li Joshua M Plotnik Shang-Wen Xia Estelle Meaux Rui-Chang Quan
author_sort	Li-Li Li
title	Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
title_short	Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
title_full	Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
title_fullStr	Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
title_full_unstemmed	Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
title_sort	cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e2db0c4956ab4a96a6c71527bd3a62ac
work_keys_str_mv	AT lilili cooperatingelephantsmitigatecompetitionuntilthestakesgettoohigh AT joshuamplotnik cooperatingelephantsmitigatecompetitionuntilthestakesgettoohigh AT shangwenxia cooperatingelephantsmitigatecompetitionuntilthestakesgettoohigh AT estellemeaux cooperatingelephantsmitigatecompetitionuntilthestakesgettoohigh AT ruichangquan cooperatingelephantsmitigatecompetitionuntilthestakesgettoohigh
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Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high.

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