Territorial behavior is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, with responses to
conspecific intruders differing depending on various ecological, life history, and social …

Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language
despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language …

1University of Maryland* Corresponding author (Email: gcarter@ umd. edu) Citation–Carter,
G.(2014). The reciprocity controversy. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 1 (3), 368-386. doi …

In various animal species individuals differ consistently in their behaviour, often referred to
as personality. In several species these personality differences also correlate with …

There is increasing evidence that competent handling of social interactions among
conspecifics has positive effects on individual fitness. While individual variation in social …

The most language-like aspect of the song of songbirds is its development: as with human
speech, birdsong develops through vocal production learning, in which individuals modify …

Social interactions are central in the lives of many animals. Social partners can lower
individual stress levels (Rault, 2012), a process known in humans and primates as social …

Seasonal patterns in territorial behaviour are common in many species, and are often
attributed to the adaptive benefits of increased defence or the provision of information to …

Highlights•Western song sparrows preferentially learn songs that their neighbours
share.•Shared songs are critical in neighbour territory negotiations.•Survival studies suggest …

Highlights•Learning of social calls is more common among birds and mammals than song
learning.•Unlike song learning, call learning is not well explained by sexual selection.•We …