Rats are highly social animals that show complex social skills, which has not been acknowledged enough when controlling them in the wild and conducting research in the laboratory.
Individual social behavior results from the interaction between the individuals own oxytocin receptor genotype and the oxytocin receptor genotypes of other individuals present in its social environment.
Pierrick Bourrat, Guilhem Doulcier ... Katrin Hammerschmidt
A new model describes evolutionary transitions in individuality in terms of tradeoff and tradeoff-breaking events as opposed to changes in the nature of fitness.
Social clustering behaviors in Drosophila are closely tied to compensatory mechanisms for developmental traits and adaptive behavior plasticity, requiring early-life social experiences and the memory-encoding neuropeptide signaling pathway.
Outgroup conflict can negatively impact general reproductive behaviour, egg investment, and parental care, resulting in decreased reproductive output even in the absence of physical confrontations.
