When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Author:Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson [Masson, Moussaieff Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-57420-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1995-06-16T16:00:00+00:00

Aggression over Resources

Aggression is employed by many animals to obtain access to resources like food. A principal delight of researchers on the African savannas is keeping track of which hyenas killed a wildebeest, which lions stole the carcass from them (or vice versa), and which jackals and vultures managed to snatch a bite before being driven off. Such conflict makes a dramatic spectacle. Most animals do not usually clash in this way. The wildebeest being struggled over did not, in life, stage bloody battles with other wildebeest over which of them was going to graze a patch of grass.

Competition uses a lot of energy, and many species seem to minimize such strife. In many animals there are postures of surrender that inhibit the attacker of the same species. The wolf rolls on its back, or the monkey looks away, and the attacker stops. What does an aggressor feel whose attack is checked in this way?

For many animals the creature likely to be its closest competitor, to want the same foods or the same nest sites, is another of its species, in some cases its own mate. Research suggests that size variation within some species confers survival advantage. For example, a female osprey is larger than her mate; they catch fish of different sizes, which reduces competition between them, increasing their joint supply of food.

Tame parrots often take a strong dislike to individual humans or to classes of humans, often to a whole gender. Veterinarians can grow weary of hearing clients say, “He hates all men. He must have been abused by a man in the past.” Parrots have been known to conceive hatreds of all redheads, all brunettes, or all adults. While all wild-caught parrots have been abused, due to the cruelty involved in their capture and transport, this is less likely for parrots reared in captivity. But it remains unknown whether these kinds of eccentric dislikes are found in the wild.

Perhaps these parrots simply enjoy having enemies. This may promote flock solidarity, prevent interbreeding between species, strengthen the pair bond, or have some other valuable function.

Another possibility is that the irritability of parrots is related to dominance struggles in the flock. Ever since it was announced in the 1920s that chickens have “pecking orders,” ethologists have been seeking and finding pecking orders—now called dominance hierarchies—everywhere. In a pecking order a chicken is dominant to some other chickens, and can peck them and push them away from food—unless it is the lowest-ranking chicken of all. And, unless it is the top bird, other chickens will in turn be dominant to it, and the chicken will allow these birds to peck it and oust it from food. The idea of dominant and submissive animals has found wide public popularity. So has the idea that aggression is valuable because it helps an animal dominate.

In recent years the idea of the dominance hierarchy has become more controversial, with some scientists asking if such hierarchies are real or a product of human expectation. It

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