Jump to content

Dear enemy recognition

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 150.101.206.3 (talk) at 11:01, 10 April 2008 (Added references to studies, and the observation that this isn't universal behaviour.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In ethology, dear enemy recognition is a hypothesis that a territorial animal will responds more strongly to strangers than to its neighbors from adjacent territories. This phenomenon may be generally advantageous to an animal because it minimizes time and energy spent on territorial defense, and reduces the risk of injury during territorial encounters.[1]


However, many studies have shown that this response is not universal.

Examples include:

  • A study of New Zealand Bellbirds [2] have found that the exact opposite of the Dear Enemy recognition occurred.
  • A study of Tree Lizards in New Mexico found no significant differences in the aggressive behaviors performed toward neighbors or toward strangers [3]
  • A study of treefrogs [4] found no differences in aggressive behaviours when comparing calls of neighbouring frogs or unknown frogs.

References

  1. ^ Plough, F. H. et al. (2002) Vertebrate Life, 6th Ed. Prentice Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. ISBN 0130412481
  2. ^ http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/arn027v1
  3. ^ http://apt.allenpress.com/perlserv/?SESSID=68abdb5a2d1bc1ff57a67415b85766c6&request=get-abstract&doi=10.1670%2F0022-1511(1998)032%5B0162%3ARTIATD%5D2.3.CO%3B2
  4. ^ http://www.springerlink.com/content/b38makgygba0lhwm/

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dear_enemy_recognition&oldid=204666774"