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Author Peake, T.M.; Terry, A.M.R.; McGregor, P.K.; Dabelsteen, T. doi  openurl
  Title Do great tits assess rivals by combining direct experience with information gathered by eavesdropping? Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 269 Issue 1503 Pages 1925-1929  
  Keywords Aggression; *Animal Communication; Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; Territoriality; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract (up) Animals frequently use signals that travel further than the spacing between individuals. For every intended recipient of a given signal there are likely to be many other individuals that receive information. Eavesdropping on signalling interactions between other individuals provides a relatively cost-free method of assessing future opponents or mates. Male great tits (Parus major) extract relative information from such interactions between individuals unknown to them. Here, we show that male great tits can take information gathering a stage further and obtain more information about a previously unencountered intruder, by the hitherto unknown capability of combining information gathered by eavesdropping with that derived from their own direct interaction with an individual. Prior experience with an intruder (A) was achieved by subjecting a focal male to different levels of intrusion simulated using interactive playback. This intruder (A) then took part in a simulated interaction with an unknown male (B) outside the territorial boundary of the focal males. In response to subsequent intrusion by the second male (B), focal males showed low song output in response to males that had lost to a male that the subject was able to beat. Males of known high quality, or those about which information was ambiguous, elicited a high level of song output by focal males. We discuss the implications of this finding for the evolution of communication and social behaviour.  
  Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University, Tagensvej 16, DK 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. tmpeake@zi.ku.uk  
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  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12350255 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 501  
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Author Nakagawa, S.; Waas, J.R. url  doi
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  Title 'O sibling, where art thou?' – A review of avian sibling recognition with respect to the mammalian literature Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 79 Issue 1 Pages 101-119  
  Keywords Birds; Direct familiarisation; Indirect familiarisation; Individual recognition; Kin discrimination; Kin recognition; Mammals; Sibling recognition  
  Abstract (up) Avian literature on sibling recognition is rare compared to that developed by mammalian researchers. We compare avian and mammalian research on sibling recognition to identify why avian work is rare, how approaches differ and what avian and mammalian researchers can learn from each other. Three factors: (1) biological differences between birds and mammals, (2) conceptual biases and (3) practical constraints, appear to influence our current understanding. Avian research focuses on colonial species because sibling recognition is considered adaptive where 'mixing potential' of dependent young is high; research on a wider range of species, breeding systems and ecological conditions is now needed. Studies of acoustic recognition cues dominate avian literature; other types of cues (e.g. visual, olfactory) deserve further attention. The effect of gender on avian sibling recognition has yet to be investigated; mammalian work shows that gender can have important influences. Most importantly, many researchers assume that birds recognise siblings through 'direct familiarisation' (commonly known as associative learning or familiarity); future experiments should also incorporate tests for 'indirect familiarisation' (commonly known as phenotype matching). If direct familiarisation proves crucial, avian research should investigate how periods of separation influence sibling discrimination. Mammalian researchers typically interpret sibling recognition in broad functional terms (nepotism, optimal outbreeding); some avian researchers more successfully identify specific and testable adaptive explanations, with greater relevance to natural contexts. We end by reporting exciting discoveries from recent studies of avian sibling recognition that inspire further interest in this topic.  
  Address Department of Biological Sciences, University Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand  
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  Notes Cited By (since 1996): 9; Export Date: 23 October 2008; Source: Scopus Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4567  
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Author Drent, P.J.; van Oers, K.; van Noordwijk, A.J. doi  openurl
  Title Realized heritability of personalities in the great tit (Parus major) Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 270 Issue 1510 Pages 45-51  
  Keywords Aggression; Animals; Animals, Domestic; Animals, Wild; *Behavior, Animal; Breeding; Exploratory Behavior; Female; *Heredity; Male; Selection (Genetics); Songbirds/*genetics/*physiology; Variation (Genetics)  
  Abstract (up) Behaviour under conditions of mild stress shows consistent patterns in all vertebrates: exploratory behaviour, boldness, aggressiveness covary in the same way. The existence of highly consistent individual variation in these behavioural strategies, also referred to as personalities or coping styles, allows us to measure the behaviour under standardized conditions on birds bred in captivity, link the standardized measurements to the behaviour under natural conditions and measure natural selection in the field. We have bred the great tit (Parus major), a classical model species for the study of behaviour under natural conditions, in captivity. Here, we report a realized heritability of 54 +/- 5% for early exploratory behaviour, based on four generations of bi-directional artificial selection. In addition to this, we measured hand-reared juveniles and their wild-caught parents in the laboratory. The heritability found in the mid-offspring-mid-parent regression was significantly different from zero. We have thus established the presence of considerable amounts of genetic variation for personality types in a wild bird.  
  Address Netherlands Institute of Ecology, PO Box 40, 6666 ZG Heteren, The Netherlands. drent@cto.nioo.knaw.nl  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12590770 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 591  
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Author Krebs, J.R.; Clayton, N.S.; Hampton, R.R.; Shettleworth, S.J. openurl 
  Title Effects of photoperiod on food-storing and the hippocampus in birds Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Neuroreport Abbreviated Journal Neuroreport  
  Volume 6 Issue 12 Pages 1701-1704  
  Keywords Animals; Birds; Eating/*physiology; Female; Hippocampus/*physiology; Light; Male; *Photoperiod; Seasons; Telencephalon/physiology; Time Factors  
  Abstract (up) Birds that store food have a relatively large hippocampus compared to non-storing species. The hippocampus shows seasonal differences in neurogenesis and volume in black-capped chikadees (Parus atricapillus) taken from the wild at different times of year. We compared hippocampal volumes in black-capped chickadees captured at the same time but differing in food-storing behaviour because of manipulations of photoperiod in the laboratory. Differences in food-storing behaviour were not accompanied by differences in the volume of the hippocampus. Hippocampal volumes also did not differ between two groups of a non-food-storing control species, house sparrows (Passer domesticus), exposed to the same conditions as the chickadees.  
  Address Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, Oxford, UK  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0959-4965 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8527745 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 378  
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Author Macphail, E.M.; Boldhuis, J.J doi  openurl
  Title The evolution of intelligence: adaptive specializations versusgeneral process Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Biological Reviews Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 76 Issue 3 Pages 341-364  
  Keywords biological constraints, corvids, ecology, food-storing birds, hippocampal size, parids, spatial learning, spatial memory, spatial module.  
  Abstract (up) Darwin argued that between-species differences in intelligence were differences of degree, not of kind. The contemporary ecological approach to animal cognition argues that animals have evolved species-specific and problem-specific processes to solve problems associated with their particular ecological niches: thus different species use different processes, and within a species, different processes are used to tackle problems involving different inputs. This approach contrasts both with Darwin's view and with the general process view, according to which the same central processes of learning and memory are used across an extensive range of problems involving very different inputs. We review evidence relevant to the claim that the learning and memory performance of non-human animals varies according to the nature of the stimuli involved. We first discuss the resource distribution hypothesis, olfactory learning-set formation, and the 'biological constraints' literature, but find no convincing support from these topics for the ecological account of cognition. We then discuss the claim that the performance of birds in spatial tasks of learning and memory is superior in species that depend heavily upon stored food compared to species that either show less dependence upon stored food or do not store food. If it could be shown that storing species enjoy a superiority specifically in spatial (and not non-spatial) tasks, this would argue that spatial tasks are indeed solved using different processes from those used in non-spatial tasks. Our review of this literature does not find a consistent superiority of storing over non-storing birds in spatial tasks, and, in particular, no evidence of enhanced superiority of storing species when the task demands are increased, by, for example, increasing the number of items to be recalled or the duration of the retention period. We discuss also the observation that the hippocampus of storing birds is larger than that of non-storing birds, and find evidence contrary to the view that hippocampal enlargement is associated with enhanced spatial memory; we are, however, unable to suggest a convincing alternative explanation for hippocampal enlargement. The failure to find solid support for the ecological view supports the view that there are no qualitative differences in cognition between animal species in the processes of learning and memory. We also argue that our review supports our contention that speculation about the phylogenetic development and function of behavioural processes does not provide a solid basis for gaining insight into the nature of those processes. We end by confessing to a belief in one major qualitative difference in cognition in animals: we believe that humans alone are capable of acquiring language, and that it is this capacity that divides our intelligence so sharply from non-human intelligence.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4797  
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Author Zucca, P.; Antonelli, F.; Vallortigara, G. doi  openurl
  Title Detour behaviour in three species of birds: quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria) Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 122-128  
  Keywords Animals; *Avoidance Learning; *Birds; Canaries; Charadriiformes; Coturnix; *Discrimination Learning; Orientation; *Space Perception; *Spatial Behavior; Species Specificity  
  Abstract (up) Detour behaviour is the ability of an animal to reach a goal stimulus by moving round any interposed obstacle. It has been widely studied and has been proposed as a test of insight learning in several species of mammals, but few data are available in birds. A comparative study in three species of birds, belonging to different eco-ethological niches, allows a better understanding of the cognitive mechanism of such detour behaviour. Young quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria), 1 month old, 10-25 days old and 4-6 months old, respectively, were tested in a detour situation requiring them to abandon a clear view of a biologically interesting object (their own reflection in a mirror) in order to approach that object. Birds were placed in a closed corridor, at one end of which was a barrier through which the object was visible. Four different types of barrier were used: vertical bar, horizontal bar, grid and transparent. Two symmetrical apertures placed midline in the corridor allowed the birds to adopt routes passing around the barrier. After entering the apertures, birds could turn either right or left to re-establish social contact with the object in the absence of any local sensory cues emanating from it. Quails appeared able to solve the task, though their performance depended on the type of barrier used, which appeared to modulate their relative interest in approaching the object or in exploring the surroundings. Young herring gulls also showed excellent abilities to locate spatially the out-of-view object, except when the transparent barrier was used. Canaries, on the other hand, appeared completely unable to solve the detour task, whatever barrier was in use. It is suggested that these species differences can be accounted for in terms of adaptation to a terrestrial or aerial environment.  
  Address Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy. zucca@units.it  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15449104 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2506  
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Author Cynx, J.; Hulse, S.H.; Polyzois, S. openurl 
  Title A psychophysical measure of pitch discrimination loss resulting from a frequency range constraint in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) Type Journal Article
  Year 1986 Publication Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 12 Issue 4 Pages 394-402  
  Keywords Animals; *Birds; Cognition; Female; *Generalization, Stimulus; Male; *Pitch Discrimination; Psychoacoustics; Transfer (Psychology)  
  Abstract (up) Earlier research (Hulse & Cynx, 1985) revealed that a number of species of songbirds acquired a pitch discrimination between rising and falling sequences in an arbitrarily defined training range of frequencies, but then failed to generalize the discrimination to new frequency ranges--a frequency range constraint. The two experiments here provide a psychophysical estimate of how pitch discrimination deteriorated in one species as sequences were stepped out from the training range. The gradient showing loss of discrimination was much sharper than would have been anticipated by stimulus generalization or the training procedures, and appeared unaffected by the removal of rising and falling frequency information. The frequency range constraint and its psychophysical properties have implications both for the analysis of birdsong and the study of animal cognition.  
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  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:3772303 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2786  
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Author Parejo, D.; Aviles, J.M. doi  openurl
  Title Do avian brood parasites eavesdrop on heterospecific sexual signals revealing host quality? A review of the evidence Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 10 Issue 2 Pages 81-88  
  Keywords Animals; Birds/*parasitology/*physiology; *Host-Parasite Relations; *Nesting Behavior  
  Abstract (up) Eavesdropping can be defined as the extraction of information from the interactions between other individuals. It provides a relatively cheap way of gathering relevant information for fitness enhancement. Here, we propose that obligate avian brood parasites, which always lay their eggs in foreign nests of individuals of other species, may eavesdrop on their host sexual signals to locate nests of high quality individuals in which to lay their parasitic eggs. Sexual signal variation can honestly signal parental quality. Thus, by eavesdropping on sexual signals, parasites may select high quality foster parents for their own offspring. Such a use of sexual signals within host populations by brood parasites differs from signal exploitation theory that proposes that parasite only use signals to locate potential host independently from signaller quality. Here, we review the avian literature concerning host choice within a host species by obligate avian brood parasites and find evidence for host selection within individuals of a host species on the basis of cues potentially functioning as sexually selected traits, or at least revealing parental abilities. We have also found support for the existence of benefits linked to host selection by avian brood parasites. Finally, one study reported on the attenuation of a sexual ornament in host populations under strong pressure by brood parasites. Most of these findings have been interpreted as evidence for host selection by avian brood parasites based on the conspicuousness of sexual signals. We suggest, however, that these findings may in fact reveal eavesdropping on host signalling performance by brood parasites which would use the information extracted to choose the better individuals among conspecifics of a given host. This provides a new perspective for the study of host selection in obligate brood parasites, and raises interesting questions for the study of animal cognition that would deserve experimental studies.  
  Address Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas, C.S.I.C. C/General Segura 1, 04001, Almeria, Spain. parejo@eeza.csic.es  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:17180699 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2426  
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Author Kida, H. openurl 
  Title [Ecology of influenza viruses in animals and the mechanism of emergence of new pandemic strains] Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Nippon Rinsho. Japanese Journal of Clinical Medicine Abbreviated Journal Nippon Rinsho  
  Volume 55 Issue 10 Pages 2521-2526  
  Keywords Animals; Bird Diseases/transmission; Birds; Horse Diseases/transmission; Horses; Humans; Influenza, Human/transmission/*veterinary; Swine; Swine Diseases/transmission; Zoonoses  
  Abstract (up) Ecological studies on influenza viruses revealed that the hemagglutinin genes are introduced into new pandemic strains from viruses circulating in migratory ducks through domestic ducks and pigs in southern China. Experimental infection of pigs with 38 avian influenza virus strains with H1-H13 hemagglutinins showed that at least one strain of each HA subtype replicated in the upper respiratory tract of pigs. Co-infection of pigs with a swine virus and with an avian virus generated reassortant viruses. The results indicate that avian viruses of any subtype can contribute genes in the generation of reassortants. Virological surveillance revealed that influenza viruses in waterfowl reservoir are perpetuated year-by-year in the frozen lake water while ducks are absent.  
  Address Department of Disease Control, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine  
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  Language Japanese Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0047-1852 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:9360367 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2654  
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Author Mettke-Hofmann, C.; Gwinner, E. doi  openurl
  Title Long-term memory for a life on the move Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 100 Issue 10 Pages 5863-5866  
  Keywords Animals; Germany; Israel; Memory/*physiology; Models, Biological; Periodicity; Songbirds/*physiology  
  Abstract (up) Evidence is accumulating that cognitive abilities are shaped by the specific ecological conditions to which animals are exposed. Long-distance migratory birds may provide a striking example of this. Field observations have shown that, at least in some species, a substantial proportion of individuals return to the same breeding, wintering, and stopover sites in successive years. This observation suggests that migrants have evolved special cognitive abilities that enable them to accomplish these feats. Here we show that memory of a particular feeding site persisted for at least 12 months in a long-distance migrant, whereas a closely related nonmigrant could remember such a site for only 2 weeks. Thus, it seems that the migratory lifestyle has influenced the learning and memorizing capacities of migratory birds. These results build a bridge between field observations suggesting special memorization feats of migratory birds and previous neuroanatomical results from the same two species indicating an increase in relative hippocampal size from the first to the second year of life in the migrant but not in the nonmigrant.  
  Address Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology, Department of Biological Rhythms and Behaviour, Von-der-Tann-Strasse 7, 82346 Andechs, Germany. mettke-hofmann@erl.ornithol.mpg.de  
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  ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12719527 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 511  
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