Evidence that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in ring-tailed lemurs

Behavioural Processes
Victoria Buckley, Stuart Semple

Abstract

Displacement activities are behavioural patterns defined by their apparent irrelevance to an animal's ongoing actions. Despite being identified in diverse taxa, their function remains poorly understood. One hypothesis posits that displacement activities facilitate transitions between different behaviours by mediating changes in animals' motivational state. Under this hypothesis, it is predicted that displacement activities will occur more frequently around changes in behaviour than at other times, and also that rates of displacement activities will be higher before than after such behavioural transitions. We tested these two predictions in wild ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). During focal observations, animals' behavioural state was continuously recorded, as were all occurrences of self-scratching, a common displacement activity in this species. Self-scratching rates were found to be significantly elevated both before and after behavioural transitions. Furthermore, self-scratching rates were significantly higher before behavioural transitions occurred than after. These results, therefore, provide support for the hypothesis that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in L. catta.

Citations

Nov 5, 2015·American Journal of Primatology·Sarah J Neal, Nancy G Caine
Sep 1, 2015·American Journal of Primatology·Alessandra ZannellaElisabetta Palagi
Sep 24, 2013·Behavioural Processes·Marialba VentricelliElsa Addessi
Jun 8, 2014·Journal of Experimental Child Psychology·Giulia PecoraFrancesca Bellagamba
Sep 1, 2013·Behavioral Sciences·Hila KerenDavid Eilam
Sep 13, 2017·Scientific Reports·Jamie WhitehouseBridget M Waller

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