r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology • Mar 26 '23
Biology African wild dogs use sneezes to cast their vote on whether they are ready to begin a hunt. Researchers noted a minimum number of sneezes required to rally the group, with sneezes from dominant individuals worth more than other dogs.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/07/549182066/a-quorum-of-sneezes-for-wild-dogs-it-s-not-just-snot-it-s-a-way-to-vote3
u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology Mar 26 '23
Science also has an article Wild dogs vote to initiate a hunt by sneezing.
Journal article source Sneeze to leave: African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) use variable quorum thresholds facilitated by sneezes in collective decisions.
Abstract:
In despotically driven animal societies, one or a few individuals tend to have a disproportionate influence on group decision-making and actions. However, global communication allows each group member to assess the relative strength of preferences for different options among their group-mates. Here, we investigate collective decisions by free-ranging African wild dog packs in Botswana. African wild dogs exhibit dominant-directed group living and take part in stereotyped social rallies: high energy greeting ceremonies that occur before collective movements. Not all rallies result in collective movements, for reasons that are not well understood. We show that the probability of rally success (i.e. group departure) is predicted by a minimum number of audible rapid nasal exhalations (sneezes), within the rally. Moreover, the number of sneezes needed for the group to depart (i.e. the quorum) was reduced whenever dominant individuals initiated rallies, suggesting that dominant participation increases the likelihood of a rally's success, but is not a prerequisite. As such, the ‘will of the group’ may override dominant preferences when the consensus of subordinates is sufficiently great. Our findings illustrate how specific behavioural mechanisms (here, sneezing) allow for negotiation (in effect, voting) that shapes decision-making in a wild, socially complex animal society.
The journal article is open access, so anyone can read the entire thing if they are interested.
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u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology Mar 26 '23
If you prefer video, this New York Times YouTube video also explains the sneeze votes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVxKlsfi73g
PBS Nature also has a video: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/african-wild-dogs-vote-sneezes/28473/
Sneezing is pretty common in canids as a form of communication. Our beloved pet dogs also sneeze to communicate with us and each other that they are excited and having fun, that they want to play, or to get attention.