Barbara König - Evolutionary significance of social interactions | Collect. Behaviour Seminar Series

Barbara König, University of Zurich, presents the Collective Behaviour Seminar Series on "The evolutionary significance of social interactions – a case study in house mice"

Social interactions are central to many organisms and influence behaviour and ultimately fitness. The social environment is considered to be the most complex and fluctuating component of an individual’s environment because of its high degree of flexibility and intrinsic unpredictability. We study the significance of social interactions in a population of free-living house mice (Mus musculus domesticus), using an integrative approach. In my talk, I will first discuss the fitness consequences of social cooperation. Group-living female house mice both compete over reproduction and cooperate during communal nursing of litters. Social interactions proved to be critically important for reproductive success, and social partner choice allows females to minimise costs during a social dilemma. Other costs imposed by social interactions is exposure to contagious agents. The immune system can play a critical role in modulating social behaviour when animals are sick, as has been demonstrated in the context of “sickness behaviours”. As a second example, I will present preliminary data on our understanding of how the immune system plays a critical role in modulating social behaviour.

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The Centre for the advanced studies of Collective Behaviuor is a Cluster of Excellence funded by the DFG (https://www.dfg.de/en/) and located in the University of Konstanz (https://uni.kn).
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Видео Barbara König - Evolutionary significance of social interactions | Collect. Behaviour Seminar Series канала Collective Behaviour