“This shows that dwarf mongooses keep tabs on conflicts occurring between their groupmates,” said Dr Amy Morris-Drake, the lead author of the study. Grooming is a crucial activity among these social creatures, as it helps maintain their hygiene, reduces anxiety and underpins social relationships. Thereafter, the researchers tested the impact of this simulation by observing the group members’ grooming behaviour back at their sleeping burrow in the evening. This led the group to believe it was hearing repeated squabbles involving the two members. The vocalizations of both group members-the aggressor and the victim-were then played-back repeatedly to the rest of the group. To begin with, the researchers recorded sounds of two mongooses fighting for food during the day. The mongooses involved in the study were habituated to the researchers’ close presence, which allowed the team to collect detailed observations and test experimental ideas in natural conditions. Africa's smallest carnivores, these animals live cooperatively in breeding groups of 5-30 individuals. According to a new study, these intelligent social creatures are capable of identifying bullying behaviour, remembering those bullies, and then giving them the ‘cold shoulder’.Ī team of researchers at the University of Bristol conducted this study by working with a wild group of dwarf mongooses. Mongooses, however, have been found to be better than humans in this regard. In some cases, bullies are shunned and avoided for the unlikeable people that they are in others, they are supported due to peer pressure or one’s own fear of getting bullied. But when it comes to human beings, our response to bullies tends to vary.
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