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The argument that animals experience emotions is sometimes rejected due to a lack of higher quality evidence, and those who do not believe in the idea of animal intelligence often argue that anthropomorphism plays a role in individuals' perspectives. Those who reject that animals have the capacity to experience emotion do so mainly by referring ...
Olive baboons grooming. In biology, altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing their own. [1] Altruism in this sense is different from the philosophical concept of altruism, in which an action would only be called "altruistic" if it was done with the conscious intention of helping another.
Sexual coercion among animals is the use of violence, threats, harassment, and other tactics to help them forcefully copulate. [1] Such behavior has been compared to sexual assault, including rape, among humans. [2] In nature, males and females usually differ in reproductive fitness optima. [3]
This mutual promiscuity is the approach most commonly used by spawning animals, and is perhaps the "original fish mating system." [4]: 161 Common examples are forage fish, such as herrings, which form huge mating shoals in shallow water. The water becomes milky with sperm and the bottom is draped with millions of fertilised eggs. [4]: 161
Obsessive-compulsive behavior in animals, often called "stereotypy" or "stereotypical behavior" can be defined as a specific, unnecessary action (or series of actions) repeated more often than would normally be expected. It is unknown whether animals are able to 'obsess' in the same way as humans, and because the motivation for compulsive acts ...
In the zoological field of ethology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking individual is sometimes called an alpha, and a submissive lower-ranking individual is called a ...
A courtship display is a set of display behaviors in which an animal, usually a male, attempts to attract a mate; the mate exercises choice, so sexual selection acts on the display. These behaviors often include ritualized movement (" dances "), vocalizations , mechanical sound production, or displays of beauty, strength, or agonistic ability .
Animal signals, however, do not exhibit this dual structure. In general, animal utterances are responses to external stimuli, and do not refer to matters removed in time and space. Matters of relevance at a distance, such as distant food sources, tend to be indicated to other individuals by body language instead, for example wolf activity ...