In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Biology
in the
School of Biological Sciences
Shreyas Arashanapalli
Will defend their thesis
“Drivers of dominance in captive flamingos”
21 November, 2025
10:00 AM
Kendeda Classroom 210
https://gatech.zoom.us/j/94641315645?pwd=boaEgG4Mx4UIcLQ3p5ThedLLVh11ES.1
Thesis Advisor:
Dr. Ben Freeman
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee Members:
Dr. Joe Mendelson
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Rachel Santymire
Department of Biology
Georgia State University
Abstract: Social animals are often organized into dominance hierarchies to effectively partition resources and improve group stability. Body size or mass, age, and sex have been demonstrated to strongly predict an individual’s relative hierarchal position across animal taxa, but the traits that drive dominance ultimately varies between species. Thus, the question of what traits appear to be most important for dominance remains of much interest in the ecology and evolution of social hierarchies. Captive populations are widely utilized to study social structures, with flamingos in particular being a popular system due to their gregarious nature and high abundance across zoos. I recorded the winners and losers of agonistic encounters in the Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) flock at Zoo Atlanta over a 30-week period to construct a dominance hierarchy and test drivers of dominance in captive flamingos. The hierarchy of flamingos residing at Zoo Atlanta was moderately transitive, with older, larger, and mated birds generally dominant to younger, smaller, and unmated individuals. I found no evidence that sex, relative nest position, mate choice, or length of pair bond was related to dominance. Additionally, aggressive rate increased with time, especially during the breeding season, but corticosterone in the flock remained relatively constant. In all, my findings fit with broader patterns that body size and age are largely important in the structuring of dominance hierarchies in social animals.