title: Do male northern elephant seals recognize individuals or merely relative dominance rank?
abstract: Vocal recognition was tested in a socially dynamic context where many individuals interact: the female defense polygyny practiced by male northern elephant seals. The goal was to tease apart whether animals recognize other individuals or instead use a simple rule-based category (i.e., relative dominance rank). A total of 67 playback experiments conducted with 18 males at Año Nuevo State Reserve, California, tested three aspects of recognition: (1) recognition of relative rank; (2) whether such recognition was continuous or categorical; and (3) recognition of familiarity. Results indicate that males recognize familiar individuals although responses are primarily based on relative dominance rank.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Victoria, PO Box 3020, Station CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 3N5, Canada. sinsley@uvic.ca
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Insley
authors.forename: Marla M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Holt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D046048:Seals, Earless / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012930:Social Dominance; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*