That is, do aggressive interactions between groupmates influence later social decisions of bystanders in the group? Less is known about whether social animals can recall past disputes and if they can use conflict management strategies some time after a quarrel has occurred. In the immediate aftermath of a conflict, this usually involves changes in the interactions between those involved in the disagreement, or between bystander groupmates and either the victim or aggressor. So, much like humans, many social animals, including primates, birds and dogs, have evolved conflict management strategies to prevent and resolve in-group disagreements.

Even fleeting in-group disputes can be costly, disrupting relationships, wasting time and energy, or causing injury if aggression escalates. Social animals that live in groups often have disagreements over access to mates and food. Our study provides experimental evidence that dwarf mongooses acoustically obtain information about within-group contests (including protagonist identity), retain that information, and use it to inform conflict-management decisions with a temporal delay. Subordinate bystanders groomed with the simulated aggressor significantly less, and groomed more with one another, on conflict compared to control evenings. Overall, fewer individuals groomed on evenings following an afternoon of simulated conflict, but those that did groomed more than on control evenings.

We then used another playback experiment to assess delayed effects of within-group conflict on grooming interactions: we examined affiliative behaviour at the evening sleeping burrow, 30–60 min after the most recent simulated foraging displacement. First, we used natural and playback-simulated foraging displacements to demonstrate that bystanders take notice of the vocalisations produced during such within-group conflict events but that they do not engage in any immediate post-conflict affiliative behaviour with the protagonists or other bystanders. Here, we experimentally test that possibility using a wild but habituated population of dwarf mongooses ( Helogale parvula). In many species, within-group conflict leads to immediate avoidance of potential aggressors or increases in affiliation, but no studies have investigated delayed post-conflict management behaviour.

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