AGGRESSION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Social structure is that of groups of females with one or several resident males,
separate male from female group, group of females and solitary male and a group of
females that are flexible from solitary matrilineal. Domination is dependent on age,
weight as well as the sex of a certain animal. However, environment and the
management practices can focally decrease aggression in newly mixed animals.
Aggression works a wide array of functions in animal’s life. It is being used by each rival
competing in order to gain food and even for the establishment of dominance in the
hierarchy. But after dominance hierarchy is made, the competition within the group is
somehow reduced. Since aggression in animals is normal, animal practitioners are
needed to identify what kind of aggression he/she is dealing with to be able for them to
be controlled well. For instance, castration in cat would affect its hunting behavior. There
are numerous types of aggression which is naturally-occurring in specific animals —
social, territorial, pain-induced, fear-induced, maternal and predatory.
• Social aggression is also known as dominance-related aggression that occurs
to create dominant-submissive relationships. This type of relationship contains alpha
animal which is the dominant followed by the beta animal or second-ranked animal that
mostly challenged by the alpha animal and so on. A direct stare usually serves to deter
the beta animal form further confrontation with the absence of physical battle is the so-
called ritualized aggression.
• Territorial aggression is a type of aggression where a particular geographic
area is involved like defending a territory against strange ones.
• Out of induced-pain or fear of pain, pain-induced aggression develops which is
basically used to lessen the pain by eradicating the source. The defense response of
many species is to attack the root of pain through biting or kicking. Veterinarians must
anticipate the retaliation of animals especially when they’re get hurt.
• Fear-induced aggression is relative to pain-induced. But it is driven by
neophobia or fear of the unknown. However, it is usually determined by the
physiological and visceral signs such as crouching, spitting, ears back in a dog and the
like.
• Maternal aggression takes place when protecting its young. It makes the
ferocity of both sexes in mutual state.
• Predatory Aggression occurs when finding a source of energy with
inconspicuous and typically doesn’t vocalize. It is not entirely motivated by hunger but to
just satisfy with.
Aggression can be analyzed according to the same species. With this, there are
factors that really influenced the aggression itself — Environmental and hormonal
control and even testicular hormones. Hunger and crowding are the primary
environmental factors. For instance, if the area of captivity is reduced in size, then
basically the rate of aggression will increase, this manner is accurate with dairy cattle,
beef cattle and pigs and same with the unpredictability of feeding time. It’s inevitable to
discount the fact that males are more likely aggressive than females. Males produced
hormones called testosterone which stimulates aggression while females produced
progesterone that inhibits aggressive behavior prior to display sex behavior to male
suitors. Moreover, testicular hormones with the presence of androgen affect the
potential for aggression in males, but in females, oppose the condition.
Sexual aggression in sheep can actually interfere with breeding. Among rams,
the dominant ram will usually breed more ewes than his subordinates unless he is so
aggressive that his battles distract him from the ewes' estrus

FREE-RANGING ANIMALS
 Cattle
More aggression occurs between cows and bulls that came from different
environment. Since, bulls are lived with groups, they displayed aggression to assert
dominance among the cows.
 Sheep
Indeed, sheep lived with flocks. Having a “camp” at night is beneficial as it
exchanged information without spending much energy. But in a large pasture, sheep
divide into numerous flocks in which newly introduced sheep are relegated to less
productive parts of the pasture prior to self-wandering
 Goats
As with sheep, goats tend to spend each night in a particular area, a night camp.
Home ranges of male goats are larger than those of females and diverge with the
season. each group comprises three to four animals and occupies its own range.
Dominance took place on with allotted years until five to six of age
 Horses
Horses live in small groups called bands, which are composed of a stallion,
several mares, and their offspring. s. An older or larger mare is apt to be the highest-
ranking female, and she leads the herd in flight and in daily journeys to rest or to a new
grazing area. The stallion drives the herd from behind, going to the front only to confront
another stallion. The most aggressive horse was the dominant one who displaced other
horses from food. Horses under 3 years of age are never dominant over adult horses
and, in fact, display little aggression toward one another
 Pigs
They form groups of approximately eight, consisting most commonly of three 99
sows and their offspring. The males are solitary for much of the year but may form all-
male groups in the late winter.
 Dogs
 Perhaps we have selected dogs to be less social, or pack living, than their lupine
ancestors. Another explanation is that dogs perceive their owners as part of their pack
because the majority of the dogs in these studies were free-ranging pets, not strays.
Dogs in packs are more dangerous to humans than solitary dogs. This kind of
aggression is usually predatory; the pack, usually underfed, chases a person who is on
foot or on a two-wheeled vehicle. Territorial aggression is the most frequently observed
type of aggression as they bark at one another encroaching their territory. In addition,
fear-induced aggression is the most often type of aggression prior to consulting
veterinarians.
 Cats
Feline social organization is very variable. Group size varies from fewer than 10
on most farms to more than 30 in some urban areas where an abundant food source is
located in a confined area.

CONFINED ANIMALS
 Cattle
In a confined area, cattle unable to choose their own group but only to which they
associated. However, it is necessary for them since they are less stressed in a fear-
provoking situation. And since they are in an enclosed perimeter, hierarchy of
dominance still inscribed to it through physical combat as well as when being fed which
triggered by the so-called aggression. Though when stage of lactation and adaptation
happen, hierarchy of dominance is obliterated. Dairy bulls are generally more
aggressive, as well as larger, than beef-breed bulls. But aggression can be diminished
when the bull kept in the group with which they were raised.
 Sheep
Dominance also occurs in sheep, but it is not based on age, weight and such but
in accordance of limiting feeding space. Dominant sheep push out subordinates. Sexual
aggression in sheep can actually interfere with breeding. Among rams, the dominant
ram will usually breed more ewes than his subordinates unless he is so aggressive that
his battles distract him from the ewes' estrus.
 Goat
Goats are much more aggressive and exploratory than sheep. Horns, size, and
age is the dominance-determinant. The goats that act as leaders have been born in the
area and have more kin in the flock than the non-leaders. Restricting feeding space
increases aggression, but the effect depends on the type of forage; there is more
aggression over hay than over silage
 Pigs
Pigs have the most intriguing of hierarchies because the ranks are formed soon
after birth by weight and first-born pigs, not by uncoordinated pushing for a nipple as
exhibited by puppies, but by vicious blows with the appropriately named needle teeth
possessed by piglets at birth. Like the other confined animals, pigs also exhibits
aggressive behavior most especially in relation to food. If trough space is limited, the
subordinate pigs are forced to eat at night, and they gain less weight.
 Cats
Aggression among cats in the same household is the most common feline
aggressive problem, involving 10–50% of cats. Male cats are more likely to initiate
aggression than females. Cats become aggressive either because of territorial factor or
predatory factor. Territorial aggression can be stimulated by introducing a new cat.
Males are more likely to exhibit this behavior through which the aggressor seeks out the
other cat rather than fight only when there is a scarce resource. Predatory aggression is
innate but has some learned aspects. They can be influenced by their mother or they
can learn through experience and observation.

GROOMING
 Cattle
Normally, grooming in cattle is through licking to their kin, age mates and cows. It
typically happens at feeding hours. If the feeding space per cow is reduced, grooming
decreases but agonistic encounters increase. Age, milk production and milk order
should be considered in giving the amount of groom needed.
 Goat
Through scratching its head and neck with a hind hoof and by oral grooming of
the rest of the body surface is the way of the goat to groom itself. More self-grooming
occurs following aggressive interactions, possibly indicating anxiety
 Horses
Horses mutually groom one another. Licking of the foal is seen only in the short
period after the foal's birth, but horses will stand shoulder to shoulder and nibble at each
other's withers and back. Horses tend to groom animals close to their own rank in the
dominance hierarchy, which are also the horses nearest to them. This behavior is most
commonly seen during spring when the heavy winter coats are being shed
 Pigs
Subordinate pigs groom dominant ones. The dominant pig lies on its side while
the subordinates nibble at its belly.
 Cats
Licking is a very important part of maternal behavior in cats, and self-grooming
occupies a great deal of their time as adults. One of the simplest types of grooming is
licking the nose and lips. These are two distinct motions that rarely overlap. Licking the
nose occurs after gaping, for example, and the tongue goes dorsally on the midline and
then is pulled immediately vertically and into the mouth. A common licking problem is an
exaggeration of this behavior in which the nose is chronically irritated by the abrasive
tongue

CLINICAL CASES OF AGGRESSION

 Giving a treatment in cattle is exciting yet challenging since it might exhibit
aggression immediately towards clinicians. Veterinarian can be the victims of
bovine anger especially working on the other side, which is unfamiliar, when
curing them.

 In other cases, spacing feed buckets widely apart is the easiest way to prevent
aggression between horses by reducing competition over resources. Aggression
in horses can be treated through a variety of ways. The method chosen should
be determined by the type and severity of the aggression, as well as the
circumstances under which it occurs

 Studies concur that males are more likely to be presented for aggression than
are females, and that certain breeds such as spaniels predominate in the
dominance aggression category. Preventing the development of aggression is
much easier than curing it. Puppies rather than adult dogs should be obtained as
pets. The owner can then establish the correct relationship with the dog when it
is easy to do so.

 Meningiomas, feline ischemic syndrome, and toxoplasmosis have all been

associated with aggression.