Elevated Crouch

Mouse Ethogram > Active Behaviors > General Activity > Agonistic Interactions > Defensive Behaviors > Crouch > Elevated Crouch

Overview and Meaning

Elevated crouch is a form of defensive behavior that is performed to protect the animal from threat or aggression.

Description

Elevated crouch is defined in a similar way as crouch, however the animal is standing on two or all four legs. The animal will remain in its place, but a tendency to retreat can be accompanied with this behavior. Elevated crouch is a posture intermediate between submissive upright and crouch.

Elevated crouching is a posture that is seen in other situations like sexual behaviors. When distinguishing these postures, one must pay close attention to the actor's behavior and posture in order to identify the context of the recipient's posture.

Classification

Variant of Crouch, in Defensive Behaviors, part of Agonistic Interactions

Contexts

Agonistic interactions can occur in the context of territorial behavior and/or dominance behavior. Territorial behavior and dominance behavior differ in the context that they occur, the resources under competition, and the threat behavior that initiates the interaction.

Elevated Crouch is a variant of Crouch.

Crouch is a defensive behavior. Defensive behaviors are part of

Agonistic Interactions

The full behavior chain consists of:

Agonistic interactions occur to assert territory or dominance. This can proceed as either mediated aggression or escalated aggression, differentiated by the absence or presence of aggressive behaviors.