To preen or not to preen: social predictors of allopreening in a wild parrot

Abstract

Allogrooming is fundamental to social relationships in many group-living mammals. In primates, allogrooming has been the subject of decades of research, and has been shown to play an essential role in maintaining social affiliations, and often interchanged for social tolerance and support. Yet, while the equivalent behaviour of allopreening occurs in many avian species, most description has been limited to its role in pair formation and maintenance, with little known about non-pair contexts. Here we investigated the decision-making associated with allopreening in wild sulphur-crested cockatoos, conducting detailed observations of 182 allopreening events between 126 individuals while concurrently recording rank, aggressive interactions, and social networks. We found no influence of sex as predicted if allopreening was primarily about pair bonding, but instead a positive correlation between allopreening and aggression (given and received). Within interactions, individuals were influenced by social association strength and rank, with individuals preening for longer and with more turn-taking when interacting with stronger social associates, and individuals investing more in interactions initiated by higher-ranked individuals. Our results are highly suggestive that allopreening may serve a convergent function in wild parrots to primates, both in maintaining social bonds and in negotiating social tolerance.