Simple Summary Habitat complexity is important for the maintenance of high levels of
welfare for captive animals, especially at zoos. Generally, individuals who experience …

Research on sociality in marine fishes is a vibrant field that is providing new insights into
social evolution more generally. Here, we review the past two decades of research …

Mammal social groups vary considerably in size from single individuals to very large herds.
In some taxa, these groups are extremely stable, with at least some individuals being …

Animals may respond to ecological heterogeneity by genetic differentiation or phenotypic
plasticity. Responses of organisms to their ecology can include adaptation at various levels …

Cognitive abilities vary within and among species, and several hypotheses have been
proposed to explain this variation. Two of the most prominent hypotheses regarding the …

Highlights•Conflicts over resources differ between cichlids with different social systems.•
Cooperatively breeding cichlids show more de-escalation behaviours during conflicts.• …

The link between the evolution of advanced sociality and cognition has been an important
concept across fields and taxonomic boundaries. However, in many study systems …

Transitive inference (TI) describes the ability to infer relationships between stimuli that have
never been seen together before. Social cichlids can use TI in a social setting where …

Highlights•Helpers of cooperatively breeding cichlids increase reproductive success of
breeders.•Experimental increase in workload fosters division of labour among group …

Highlights•Pay-to-stay negotiations in Neolamprologus pulcher involve commodity-specific
punishment.•Cooperative territory defence is mutualistic or enforced depending on intruder …