Is reduced affiliative rather than increased agonistic behaviour associated with dispersal in red foxes?

Publication Type:Journal Article
Year of Publication:1992
Authors:Harris, S, White, PCL
Journal:Animal Behaviour
Volume:44
Pagination:1085-1089
Date Published:1992
Keywords:Vulpes vulpes
Abstract:

The extent of chewing on plastic ear tags was used as an indirect measure of the cumulative affiliative experiential history of Vulpes vulpes living in Bristol, UK. Tags were chewed by other foxes during social grooming, and the teeth marks left by the animals with milk or permanent teeth were scored separately. Fewer adult dog foxes than females had tags chewed by cubs, but of those that did, the level of chewing was not different between males and females. The level of tag chewing by adults foxes on non-dispersing adult females was greater than for non-dispersing males, indicating that the females are more closely bonded to the social group. The lower level of adult chewing on the tags of dispersing adults suggests that decreased levels of grooming by adult foxes are associated with adult dispersal. For cubs, there was a strong negative relationhip between affiliative behaviour with littermates during the first 13 wk of life and future dispersal behaviour of male foxes, although there was no such relationship for females, suggesting that the social factors acting on dispersing females occur later in life.

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith