TY - JOUR

T1 - Social laterality in wild beluga whale infants: comparisons between locations, escort conditions, and ages

AU - Karenina, K.

AU - Giljov, A.

AU - Glazov, D.

AU - Malashichev, Y.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - One of the important aspects of the animal social behavior is the laterality in perception of conspecifics. Spatial laterality in adult–infant interactions is usually revealed in primates as a cradling/holding bias in adults or nipple preference in infants. The origin and function of such biases, however, remain unclear. Here, we investigated spatial laterality in adult–infant pairs in beluga whales from two geographically distinct locations using aerial photography analysis. In addition, behavioral observations on individually identified mother–infant pairs at a belugas’ breeding aggregation were conducted to assess the infants’ age influence on the lateralization in pairs. A general preference of the calves to position themselves to the right of the accompanied adult was found. We failed to reveal any influence of geographical location, presence or relative position of other individuals escorting the adult–infant pair, and position of the calf along the body of the escorting adult. A significant right-sided

AB - One of the important aspects of the animal social behavior is the laterality in perception of conspecifics. Spatial laterality in adult–infant interactions is usually revealed in primates as a cradling/holding bias in adults or nipple preference in infants. The origin and function of such biases, however, remain unclear. Here, we investigated spatial laterality in adult–infant pairs in beluga whales from two geographically distinct locations using aerial photography analysis. In addition, behavioral observations on individually identified mother–infant pairs at a belugas’ breeding aggregation were conducted to assess the infants’ age influence on the lateralization in pairs. A general preference of the calves to position themselves to the right of the accompanied adult was found. We failed to reveal any influence of geographical location, presence or relative position of other individuals escorting the adult–infant pair, and position of the calf along the body of the escorting adult. A significant right-sided

U2 - 10.1007/s00265-013-1545-2

DO - 10.1007/s00265-013-1545-2

M3 - Article

VL - 67

SP - 1195

EP - 1204

JO - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

JF - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

SN - 0340-5443

IS - 7

ER -