Dwarf Mongooses Shun Bullies to Manage Conflict: Study

Archive April 2022, Issue 1Notebook

These social animals keep tabs on aggressive members of the group and groom them less after fights to punish them.

Mary Bates
Apr 4, 2022



ABOVE:
Dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula) pay attention to conflicts among other members of their groups, a study suggests.
SHANNON WILD

A growl from the aggressor, followed by a hip-slam. High-pitched squeals of surrender as the loser retreats. This is what a disagreement between two dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula) looks and sounds like. It’s usually instigated by a dominant mongoose that wants to steal prey from a subordinate, and it’s not uncommon, even in this highly cooperative species.

Researchers from the University of Bristol have been studying this and other social behaviors in dwarf mongooses for years as part of the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project, a long-term investigation of free-living animals on Sorabi Rock Lodge Reserve in South Africa. The project was initiated in 2011 by Julie Kern, then a master’s student at the university, and has led to a number of findings about how mongooses manage within-group relationships, most recently as they relate to food-based disagreements. In addition to shedding light on how friendships and disputes are handled within mongoose society, results from the project could have implications for scientists’ understanding of social animals more broadly, say researchers.

Africa’s smallest carnivore—about the size of a 500 ml bottle when standing upright—dwarf mongooses live in groups (sometimes called “businesses”) of between 5 and 30 individuals, a mix of various relatives and unrelated immigrants. Though not as well-known as some of Africa’s iconic wildlife, dwarf mongooses have proved amenable to up-close observation, says behavioral ecologist Andrew Radford, Kern’s graduate advisor at Bristol. Indeed, the animals in the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project—now comprising eight groups—are habituated to the presence of researchers. Kern and her colleagues have used elongated paintbrushes to individually mark the study animals with harmless blonde hair dye, Radford notes. They’ve even trained some of the mongooses to climb onto balance scales to weigh themselves in exchange for a piece of hard-boiled egg.

While they’re habituated to humans, these animals are still in the wild and going about their natural behaviors, says Radford, now the principal investigator of the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project. He says the duration of the project has allowed Kern, himself, and their colleagues to run field experiments that might otherwise be impossible. “The dwarf mongooses are this wonderful, tractable study system for big questions about cooperation and conflict and how those get mediated by vocalizations,” he says, adding that they are also “amazingly cute and charismatic.”



GROUP MEMBERS: Study coauthor Amy Morris-Drake with a dwarf mongoose in South Africa
MARTIN AVELING

More:
https://www.the-scientist.com/notebook/dwarf-mongooses-shun-bullies-to-manage-conflict-study-69844