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Author Richards, M.P.M.
Title Maternal behaviour in virgin female golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus waterhouse): the role of the age of the test pup Type Journal Article
Year 1966 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 14 Issue 2-3 Pages 303-309
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Abstract Summary One hundred and forty-four naive virgin female golden hamsters were each given a single 15 min test with three pups aged from day 1 (<24 hr) to day 18. A group of eight females was tested with each age of pup. Pups aged from day 1 to day 6 were generally attacked like prey, killed and eaten. Pups of intermediate age (day 6 to day 10) were usually initially attacked but this was often followed by maternal responses. The females', behaviour with the oldest pups suggested that they were being treated as strnge adult intruders. This result differs from that of a similar experiment with mice in which the youngest pups were found to be the most effective for eliciting materal responses. An explanation for this difference in terms of the evolutionary history of the golden hamster species is proposed.
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Call Number Serial 2155
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Author Richards, S.A.; de Roos, A.M.
Title When is habitat assessment an advantage when foraging? Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 61 Issue 6 Pages 1101-1112
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Abstract Foragers can often show a broad range of strategies when searching for resources. The simplest foraging strategy is to search randomly within a habitat; however, foragers can often assess habitat quality over various spatial scales and use this information to keep themselves in, or direct themselves to, regions of high resource abundance or low predation risk. We investigated models that describe a population of consumers competing for a renewable resource that is distributed among discrete patches. Our aim was to identify what foraging strategy or strategies are expected to persist within a population, where strategies differ in the degree of habitat assessment (i.e. none, local, or global). We were interested in how the optimal strategies are dependent on the cost of assessment and habitat structure (i.e. the variation in renewal rates and predation risks among patches). The models showed that the simple random foraging strategy (i.e. make no habitat assessments) often persisted even when the cost of habitat assessment was low. Persistence could occur when habitat assessment and population dynamics generated an ideal free distribution because it could be exploited by the random foragers. Habitat assessment was more advantageous when consumers could not achieve ideal free distributions, which was more likely as patches became less productive. When productivity was low we sometimes observed the situation where different foraging strategies generated resource heterogeneities that promoted their coexistence, and this could occur even when all patches were intrinsically identical.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2153
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Author Laland, K.N.; Reader, S.M.
Title Foraging innovation in the guppy Type Journal Article
Year 1999 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 57 Issue 2 Pages 331-340
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Abstract When novel behaviour patterns spread through animal populations, typically one animal will initiate the diffusion. It is not known whether such 'innovators' are particularly creative individuals, individuals exposed to the appropriate environmental contingencies, or individuals in a particular motivational state. We describe three experiments that investigated the factors influencing foraging innovation in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. We exposed small laboratory populations of fish to novel foraging tasks, which involved exploration and problem solving to locate a novel food source. Experiments 1 and 2 found that (1) females were more likely to innovate than males, (2) food-deprived fish were more likely to innovate than nonfood-deprived subjects, and (3) smaller fish were more likely to innovate than larger fish. We suggest that the sex difference may reflect parental investment asymmetries in males and females. Experiment 3 found that past innovators were more likely to innovate than past noninnovators. Collectively, the results suggest that differences in foraging innovation in guppies are best accounted for by differences in motivational state, but, in addition, guppies may vary in their predisposition to innovate. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Address Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:10049472 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2151
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Author Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N.
Title Diffusion of foraging innovations in the guppy Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 175-180
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Abstract The way in which novel learned behaviour patterns spread through animal populations remains poorly understood, despite extensive field research and the recognition that such processes play an important role in the behavioural development, social interactions and evolution of many animal species. We conducted a series of controlled diffusions of foraging information in replicate experimental populations of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. We presented novel foraging tasks over 15 trials to mixed-sex groups, made up of food-deprived and nonfood-deprived adults (experiment 1) or small, young fish and old, large adults (experiment 2). In these diffusions, knowledge of a route to a feeder could spread through the group by subjects learning from others, discovering the route for themselves, or, most likely, by some combination of these social and asocial learning processes. We found a striking sex difference, with novel foraging information spreading at a significantly faster rate through subgroups of females than of males. Females both discovered the goal and learned the route more quickly than males. Food-deprived individuals were faster at completing the tasks over the 15 trials than nonfood-deprived guppies, and there was a significant interaction between sex and size, with a sex difference in adults but not young individuals. There was also an interaction between sex and hunger level, with food deprivation having a stronger effect on male than female performance. We suggest that information may diffuse in a similar nonrandom or 'directed' manner through many natural populations of animals. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Address Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:10973718 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2150
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Author Wolff, P.R.; Powell, A.J.
Title Urine patterns in mice: An analysis of male/female counter-marking Type Journal Article
Year 1984 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 1185-1191
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Abstract Counter-marking in mice, Mus musculus was investigated by analysing urine deposition on filter paper marked asymmetrically with urine of the opposite sex. Intact males deposited large numbers of urine spots with a marked angular bias towards previously marked quadrants. More spots were deposited on proestrous and ovariectomized donor urine patterns, their distribution being more centrifugal on oestrous urine and more centripetal in quadrants containing a large female urine spot in a central position. In contrast, castrated male mice deposited very few spots with no angular bias. Female urine patterns showed angular bias in response to intact, but not castrated male donor urine, a larger number of spots being produced by oestrous females. Thus the pattern of deposition offers scope for two-way communication of information about reproductive potential.
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Call Number Serial 2144
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Author Powell, R.A.
Title The dog: Its domestication and behavior : By . New York: Garland STPM Press (1978). 296 pp. $24.50 Type Journal Article
Year 1979 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 27 Issue Part 1 Pages 318-1211
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Call Number Serial 2146
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Author Powell, G.V.N.
Title Experimental analysis of the social value of flocking by starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in relation to predation and foraging Type Journal Article
Year 1974 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 22 Issue 2 Pages 501-505
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Abstract In groups of ten, indidual starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, spent significantly less time in surveillance than did individuals in smaller groups and responded more quickly than single birds to a flying model hawk. Captive starlings in flocks reduce their individual surveillance efforts, but their combined efforts still enable them to be more effective than single birds in the detection of predators. Foraging behaviour of flocks was observed by placing single starlings with groups of tricoloured blackbirds, Agelaius tricolor; the starlings reduced the time they devoted to surveillance at the same rate as if they were with other starlings.
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Call Number Serial 2147
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Author Powell, F.; Banks, P.B.
Title Do house mice modify their foraging behaviour in response to predator odours and habitat? Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 753-759
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Abstract Predator odours and habitat structure are thought to influence the behaviour of small mammalian prey, which use them as cues to reduce risks of predation. We tested this general hypothesis for house mice, Mus domesticus, by manipulating fox odour density via addition of fox scats and habitat via patchy mowing of vegetation, for populations in 15 x 15-m field enclosures. Using giving-up densities (GUDs), the density of food remaining when an animal quits harvesting a patch, we measured foraging behaviours in response to these treatments. Mice consistently avoided open areas, leaving GUDs two to four times greater in these areas than in densely vegetated patches. However, mouse GUDs did not change in response to the addition of fox scats, even immediately after fresh scats were added. There was no interaction between fox odour and habitat use. We then tested whether habituation to fox odours had occurred, by comparing the individual responses to scats of eight mice born into enclosures with fox scats to those of eight mice born into scat-free enclosures and five wild mice. In smaller enclosures, GUDs of trays with scats did not differ from GUDs of trays without scats for any treatment. We conclude that exposure to high levels of fox odours did not alter the foraging behaviour of mice, but that mice did reduce foraging in areas where habitat was removed, perceiving predation risk to be greater in these areas than controls. We suggest further that studies using the `scat-at-trap' technique, which have shown avoidance of predator odours by mice and other small mammals, may overestimate the general avoidance of predator odours by free-living prey, which must forage with a constant background of predator odours.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2142
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Author Powell, A.J.; Wolff, P.R.
Title Sex differences in mouse urination patterns Type Journal Article
Year 1982 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 30 Issue 4 Pages 1207-1211
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Abstract When tested in circular open fields male and female mice (Mus musculus) produced strongly centrifugal urination patterns, which showed a clear `edge-dependency' in all the field sizes used. However, striking sex differences in the pattern of deposition were shown in terms of both the number and distribution of the urine spots. Male mice produce large numbers of spots which are regularly dispersed, while females produce relatively fewer spots with a more clumped distribution. It is suggested that a hitherto unsuspected level of intersexual communication may explain these differences.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2145
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Author Mottley, K.; Giraldeau, L.A.
Title Experimental evidence that group foragers can converge on predicted producer-scrounger equilibria Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 341-350
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Abstract When foraging together, animals are often observed to feed from food discoveries of others. The producer-scrounger (PS) game predicts how frequently this phenomenon of food parasitism should occur. The game assumes: (1) at any moment all individuals can unambiguously be categorized as either playing producer (searching for undiscovered food resources) or scrounger (searching for exploitation opportunities), and (2) the payoffs received from the scrounger tactic are negatively frequency dependent; a scrounger does better than a producer when the scrounger tactic is rare, but worse when it is common. No study to date has shown that the payoffs of producer and scrounger conform to the game's assumptions or that groups of foragers reach the predicted stable equilibrium frequency (SEF) of scrounger, whereby both tactics obtain the same payoff. The current study of three captive flocks of spice finches, Lonchura punctulata, provides the first test of the PS game using an apparatus in which both assumptions of the PS game are met. The payoffs to the scrounger, measured as feeding rate (seeds/s), were highly negatively frequency dependent on the frequency of scrounger. The feeding rate for scrounger declined linearly while the rate for producer either declined only slightly or not at all with increasing scrounger frequency. When given the opportunity to alternate between tactics, the birds changed their use of each, such that the group converged on the predicted SEF of scrounger after 5-8 days of testing. Individuals in this study, therefore, demonstrated sufficient plasticity in tactic use such that the flock foraged at the SEF of scrounger. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Address Department of Biology, Concordia University
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11007643 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2136
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