Greeting behavior in some sciuridae, from an ontogenetic, evolutionary and socio-behavioral perspective [Le comportement de salutation chez certains sciuridae, d'un point de vue ontogénétique, évolutionniste et éco-éthologique].

Résumé

Les animaux dominants initient plus de comportements d'accueil que les subordonnés. The more dominant individuals appear to initiate greetings more often than subordinates individuals. Between members of different social groups, greetings are rare and when they do occur they are usually performed hesitantly and are likely to lead to agonistic behaviours. The frequency of nose to mouth greetings appears to be related to degree of sociality; greetings are much more common in social/gregarious species than in less social sciurids. The primary function of nos-to-mouth greetings could be the identification of individuals or social groups.