Ritual Behavior in Animals

Courtship duet among the grebes:

and among sandhill cranes:

Social grooming among primates (HT: Warg Franklin)

Ritualized aggression (HT: Warg Franklin)

Submission behaviors, e.g. chimp "greetings."

Ritual greetings:

• Penguin parents and children greeting each other after a long absence.

What is ritual in non-human animals?

• Symbolic. A behavior that "stands in for" something else.
• Formal. Takes the same form every time?
• Changes social reality in the minds of participants.
• Non-transactional? Rules out bower-building among bowerbirds?

Maybe?

• Elephant death rituals? (HT: Samuel Hammond)
• Territorial scent-marking (HT: Chris Van Houten). Seems very much like ritualized aggression.
• Humpback whale collective singing?