ArticleBiology letters2020
Artificial mass loading disrupts stable social order in pigeon dominance hierarchies.
Article in Biology letters, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changing Flight and Flocking Dynamics of Homing Pigeons (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Breeding-Related Changes in Social Interactions Among Female Vulturine Guineafowl.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Metabolic rate does not explain performance on a short-term memory task or personality traits in juvenile chickens (Royal Society open science · 2023Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Dominance hierarchies confer benefits to group members by decreasing the incidences of physical conflict, but may result in certain lower ranked individuals consistently missing out on access to resources. Here, we report a linear dominance hierarchy remaining stable over time in a closed population of birds. We show that this stability can be disrupted, however, by the artificial mass loading of birds that typically comprise the bottom 50% of the hierarchy. Mass loading causes these low-ranked birds to immediately become more aggressive and rise-up the dominance hierarchy; however, this effect was only evident in males and was absent in females. Removal of the artificial mass causes the hierarchy to return to its previous structure. This interruption of a stable hierarchy implies a strong direct link between body mass and social behaviour and suggests that an individual's personality can be altered by the artificial manipulation of body mass.
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