Presentation Details
| Investigating the Function of Play Bows in African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) Michael Spiotta1, Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere1, Julia Espinosa2. 1Hunter College, CUNY, New York, New York, USA.2York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Abstract
The play bow is a recognizable communicative signal observed in many carnivores, most notably, members of the genus Canis. Various hypotheses have been set forth to describe the function of play bows within canid social behavior. Previous research suggests that wolves (Canis lupus), domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), and dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) use play bows to initiate and resume play. To date, studies exploring play bows have not been carried out with members of the family Canidae outside of the genus Canis. To address this, we analyzed 21 hours of African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) behavior at the Bronx Zoo replicating methods described in Byosiere et al. (2016a). We found that African wild dogs, like other members of the family Canidae, use play bows as visual signals to escape play partners and reinitiate play. Unlike other members of the family Canidae, they do not appear to utilize play bows to clarify misinterpreted behavior or to attack their play partner. The findings from this research suggest that despite a distant divergence from common ancestors, members of the family Canidae share not only similar morphological characteristics but communicative signaling as well.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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