414 research outputs found
Social play in bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Implications for natural social systems and inter-individual relationships.
No full textThis study compares adult play behavior
in the two Pan species in order to test the effects of phylogenetic
closeness and the nature of social systems on
play distribution. The social play (both with fertile and
immature subjects) performed by adults did not differ
between the two species. In contrast, in bonobos, play
levels among fertile subjects were higher than in chimpanzees.
Findings regarding levels of undecided conflicts
(more frequent in bonobos) and formal submission displays
(lacking in bonobos) confirm, in the two colonies
under study, that bonobos exhibit ‘‘egalitarianism’’ more
than chimpanzees. Some authors emphasized the importance
of play-fighting for social assessment when relationships
among individuals are not codified and structured
according to rank-rules. Indeed, adult bonobos
played more roughly than chimpanzees. Moreover, adult
bonobos displayed the full play-face at a high frequency
especially during rough play sessions, whereas in chimpanzees,
the frequency of play signals was not affected
by roughness of play. The frequency of social play among
bonobo females was higher than in any other sex combinations,
whereas no difference was found for chimpanzees.
As a matter of fact, social play can be viewed as a
balance between cooperation and competition. Among
bonobo females, characterized by social competence and
affiliation, social play might enhance their behavioral
flexibility and increase their socially symmetrical relationships
which, after all, are the basis for their egalitarian
society
When play is a strategy game : an overview in adult primates
No full textA strategic game can be defined as a game in which players’ autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Although the definition is clearly designed for humans, it can also apply to some kinds of animal play, at least under some peculiar circumstances. Different from immature play, which has its main role in developing physical, cognitive and social skills, adult play is strategically employed to reach different goals depending on the social and environmental conditions in which the player acts. Playing with unrelated infants represents a social bridge which adults can use to broaden and strengthen their social networks. Cross-species comparison of the genus Macaca, characterized by different degree of tolerance, shows that the bridge strategy is particularly effective in tolerant species in which the social canalization of infants by the mothers is less severe and infants are allowed to interact playfully with other adults. Play involving only adults opens further scenarios regarding the potential roles of this versatile behaviour. Adult-adult play in primates is far more pervasive than previously thought and it seems to be a response to an immediate or delayed necessity which lies outside the play session itself. Adult play in lemurs and bonobos can serve as an ice-breaker during intergroup social encounters or as a means for overtaking unexpected situations. In apes, play can act as a form of social currency that can rapidly shape social relationships as it occurs around feeding time. The more the play, the more the cofeeding. A strategic game, worthy of its name, must rely on a complex communication based both on intentional and emotional components. In the same way, play in primates is a fertile field to explore how signals are integrated into complex and multimodal systems. In this view, play provides a window into the study of social cognition, emotional regulation and the evolution of communicative complexity
Sharing the motivation to play: the use of signals in adult bonobos
No full textGestures and facial displays are involved in regulating many aspects of mammal social life such as aggression,
dominanceesubordinate relationships, appeasement and play. Playful activity is an interesting behaviour
for examining the role of signals as intentional communication systems. When animals play
they perform patterns that are used in other serious contexts. To avoid miscommunication, many species
have evolved signals to maintain a playful mood. Bonobos, Pan paniscus, with their flexible social relationships
and playful propensity, may represent a good model species to test some hypotheses on adult play
signalling. I analysed the potential roles of facial play expressions and solitary play in soliciting and regulating
social play and found that adult bonobos used the play face (relaxed open-mouth display) in a selective
manner. Play faces were more frequent during social than solitary play and, within social play,
polyadic sessions (even though less frequent than dyadic sessions) were characterized by a higher frequency
of signals. Following the rule of play intensity matching, play faces were more frequent when
the two players matched in age and size (sessions among adults). Moreover, among dyads there was a positive
correlation between the frequency of aggressive interactions performed and the frequency of play signals
used, thus suggesting that signals are crucial in play negotiations among individuals showing high
baseline levels of aggression. Finally, solitary play, especially when it involved pirouettes and somersaults,
had an important role in triggering social play
Adult play fighting and potential role of tail signals in ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta).
No full textAdult strepsirrhines have been completely neglected in the study of animal play. I focused on adult play
fighting and the role of tail-play as a signal in ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Tail-play is performed
during play fighting, when lemurs anoint or, more rarely, wave their tails toward the playmate. During
the prereproductive period, male and female lemurs engaged in play fighting with comparable frequencies,
as was expected to occur in monomorphic species such as L. catta. The dyads showing low
aggression rates engaged most frequently in play fighting, and polyadic play was frequently performed.
Signals seem to be important in avoiding escalation to real aggression, especially when the playfulness
of performers can be misunderstood by recipients. Tail-play was most frequent (a) in the dyads with low
grooming rates (low familiarity degree) and (b) during the most risky play sessions (polyadic ones). Thus,
tail-play can be considered as a useful tool for play communication in ringtailed lemurs
Play at work: revisiting data focussing on chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
No full textIn this article I combine old and new data to provide an up to date contribution on social
play in primates and, particularly, in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Play behaviour is an ontogenetic
trait in many mammalian species and is widely believed to have an important role in the assembly of adult
behaviour. However, play may be at work also during some peculiar situations favouring cohesion and social
manipulation. Here, I investigate some topics on social play. Firstly, I investigate the social mechanisms
which are at the basis of the play-partner choice by exploring the “play intensity matching” hypothesis.
Original data are used to examine how young chimpanzees modulate play sessions by using play signals
(meta-communication). Secondly, I present data on the distribution of social play and grooming in the
periods around feeding time and in a control condition, showing that play frequencies between adults and
unrelated subjects are signifi cantly higher during pre-feeding. I discuss the possibility that play behaviour
can be used to prevent confl ict escalation and to increase a peaceful co-feeding (pre-confl ict management).
Finally, in a comparative approach, I contrast data collected on the two Pan species in order to evaluate
whether, despite their phylogenetic closeness and similar social structure (fi ssion-fusion society), chimpanzees
and bonobos (Pan paniscus) show diff erences in adult play behavior
Not just for fun! social play as a springboard for adult social competence in human and non-human primates
No full textPlay is one of the most difficult behaviors to quantify and for this reason, its study has had a very rocky history. Social play is ephemeral, difficult to distinguish from the other so-called serious behaviors, not so frequent (especially in sexually mature subjects), fast, and complex to describe. Due to its multifaceted nature, it has often been considered as a wastebasket category that has included all kinds of the behaviors not showing any immediate, obvious goal. Yet, play is widespread across the whole primate order and can have a strong impact on the development of cognitive, psychological, and social skills of many species, including humans. Unlike functional behaviors that are specifically and economically performed to reduce uncertainty and to increase the opportunity to gain resources, play seems to introduce and increase uncertainty, creating new challenges for the animals. For this reason, social play has been hypothesized to be the engine of behavioral innovation in ontogeny. From the first mild and gentle interactions with the mother to the most sophisticated play fighting sessions and acrobatic action sequences with peers, play represents for juveniles (and not only for them!) a window onto the social and physical environment. In this review, I focus on social play and its relation to adult social competence. By playing, juveniles acquire competence to manage interactions with conspecifics, enlarge their social networks, and test their physical power and motor skills (i.e., long-term benefits). At the same time, I propose the view that play—due to its plastic and versatile nature—can be used in an opportunistic way, as a joker behavior, throughout life to strategically obtain short-term or immediate benefits. I put forward the hypothesis that, during ontogeny, the joker function of play can be modulated according to the differing inter-individual relationships present in the diverse societies, characterizing the primate order
Aggressività e mediazione nel genere Pan: dalla concezione individualista a quella sociale
No full textPlaying at every age: modalities and potential functions in non-human primates
No full textPlay is ephemeral and versatile. Probably for this reason it is so diffi cult to study systematically. Results
from the last two decades of research suggest that play is a multifunctional phenomenon that varies
according to different factors such as the species, age, sex, relationship quality of the players, etc.
Accordingly, animal play needs to be studied in a comparative framework in order to rigorously assess
the relative weight of various functions and contexts. Play is mainly an immature matter; however, in
many mammalian species social play continues through adulthood. Therefore, a complete
understanding of play can be reached by taking into account its occurrence during each phase of life.
Here, I present some recent studies on primates to show that play is a response to an immediate
necessity. But if so, why should it be surprising to see two adults playing together
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