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Author Slobodchikoff, C.; Paseka, A.; Verdolin, J. doi  openurl
  Title Prairie dog alarm calls encode labels about predator colors Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 12 Issue 3 Pages 435-439  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) Some animals have the cognitive capacity to differentiate between different species of predators and generate different alarm calls in response. However, the presence of any addition information that might be encoded into alarm calls has been largely unexplored. In the present study, three similar-sized human females walked through a Gunnison’s prairie dog ( Cynomys gunnisoni ) colony wearing each of three different-colored shirts: blue, green, and yellow. We recorded the alarm calls and used discriminant function analysis to assess whether the calls for the different-colored shirts were significantly different. The results showed that the alarm calls for the blue and the yellow shirts were significantly different, but the green shirt calls were not significantly different from the calls for the yellow shirt. The colors that were detected, with corresponding encoding into alarm calls, reflect the visual perceptual abilities of the prairie dogs. This study suggests that prairie dogs are able to incorporate labels about the individual characteristics of predators into their alarm calls, and that the complexity of information contained in animal alarm calls may be greater than has been previously believed.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5467  
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Author Meyer, S.; Nürnberg, G.; Puppe, B.; Langbein, J. doi  openurl
  Title The cognitive capabilities of farm animals: categorisation learning in dwarf goats (Capra hircus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2012 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 15 Issue 4 Pages 567-576  
  Keywords Biomedizin & Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) The ability to establish categories enables organisms to classify stimuli, objects and events by assessing perceptual, associative or rational similarities and provides the basis for higher cognitive processing. The cognitive capabilities of farm animals are receiving increasing attention in applied ethology, a development driven primarily by scientifically based efforts to improve animal welfare. The present study investigated the learning of perceptual categories in Nigerian dwarf goats ( Capra hircus ) by using an automated learning device installed in the animals’ pen. Thirteen group-housed goats were trained in a closed-economy approach to discriminate artificial two-dimensional symbols presented in a four-choice design. The symbols belonged to two categories: category I, black symbols with an open centre (rewarded) and category II, the same symbols but filled black (unrewarded). One symbol from category I and three different symbols from category II were used to define a discrimination problem. After the training of eight problems, the animals were presented with a transfer series containing the training problems interspersed with completely new problems made from new symbols belonging to the same categories. The results clearly demonstrate that dwarf goats are able to form categories based on similarities in the visual appearance of artificial symbols and to generalise across new symbols. However, the goats had difficulties in discriminating specific symbols. It is probable that perceptual problems caused these difficulties. Nevertheless, the present study suggests that goats housed under farming conditions have well-developed cognitive abilities, including learning of open-ended categories. This result could prove beneficial by facilitating animals’ adaptation to housing environments that favour their cognitive capabilities.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5615  
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Author Truppa, V.; Garofoli, D.; Castorina, G.; Piano Mortari, E.; Natale, F.; Visalberghi, E. doi  openurl
  Title Identity concept learning in matching-to-sample tasks by tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) Type Journal Article
  Year 2010 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 13 Issue 6 Pages 835-848-848  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) The abstract concept of equivalence is considered one of the bases of higher-order cognition, and it has been the subject of considerable research in comparative cognition. This study examined the conditions under which tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) are able to acquire an identity concept. Six capuchin monkeys were trained to solve a visual matching-to-sample (MTS) task on the basis of perceptual identity. The acquisition of the identity rule was inferred from the subject’s ability to solve transfer tests with novel stimuli. We evaluated the ability of the capuchin monkeys to match the shape of novel stimuli after training with both several small stimulus sets (Experiment 1) and a large stimulus set (Experiment 2). Moreover, we examined the ability of capuchins to transfer the concept to novel visual dimensions, such as colour and size and to transfer to novel spatial arrangements of the stimuli (Experiment 2). We demonstrated that the ability of capuchins to match novel stimuli was improved by increasing the number of stimuli used during training (Experiments 1 and 2) and that after a widely applicable identity concept based on the stimulus shape was acquired, the capuchins were able to match stimuli according to an identity rule based on both the colour and size of the stimuli and when the spatial arrangement of the stimuli was varied (Experiment 2). This study is the first to demonstrate that the size of the training set affects the acquisition of an abstract identity concept in an MTS task in non-human primates.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5274  
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Author McGrew, W.; Marchant, L. doi  openurl
  Title Laterality of hand use pays off in foraging success for wild chimpanzees Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Primates Abbreviated Journal Primates  
  Volume 40 Issue 3 Pages 509-513  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) The aim of this study was to see if behavioral lateralization in hand use benefits a lateralized organism in nature. We recorded wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Gombe, Tanzania, fishing for termites (Macrotermes spp.), an extractive foraging task using elementary technology. We compared individual apes who were completely lateralized, using only one hand or the other for the task, versus those who were incompletely lateralized, using either hand. Exclusively lateralized individuals were more efficient, that is, gathered more prey per unit effort, but were no different in success or error rate from incompletely lateralized apes. This is the first demonstration of a payoff to laterality of behavioral function in primates in conditions of ecological validity.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Japan Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0032-8332 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5368  
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Author Noë, R.; Hammerstein, P. doi  openurl
  Title Biological markets: supply and demand determine the effect of partner choice in cooperation, mutualism and mating Type Journal Article
  Year 1994 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.  
  Volume 35 Issue 1 Pages 1-11  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) The formation of collaborating pairs by individuals belonging to two different classes occurs in the contexts of reproduction and intea-specific cooperation as well as of inter-specific mutualism. There is potential for partner choice and for competition for access to preferred partners in all three contexts. These selective forces have long been recognised as important in sexual selection, but their impact is not yet appreciated in cooperative and mutualistic systems. The formation of partnerships between members of different classes has much in common with the conclusion of trade agreements in human markets with two classes of traders, like producers and consumers, or employers and employees. Similar game-theoretical models can be used to predict the behaviour of rational traders in human markets and the evolutionarily stable strategies used in biological markets. We present a formal model in which the influence of the market mechanism on selection is made explicit. We restrict ourselves to biological markets in which: (1) Individuals do not compete over access to partners in an agonistic manner, but rather by outcompeting each other in those aspects that are preferred by the choosing party. (2) The commodity the partner has to offer cannot be obtained by the use of force, but requires the consent of the partner. These two restrictions ensure a dominant role for partner choice in the formation of partnerships. In a biological market model the decision to cooperate is based on the comparison between the offers of several potential partners, rather than on the behaviour of a single potential partner, as is implicitly assumed in currently accepted models of cooperation. In our example the members of one class A offer a commodity of fixed value in exchange for a commodity of variable value supplied by the other class, B. We show that when the B-class outnumbers the A-class sufficiently and the cost for the A-class to sample the offers of the B-class are low, the choosiness of the A-class will lead to selection for the supply of high value commodities by the B-class (Fig. 3a). Under the same market conditions, but with a high sampling cost this may still be the evolutionariy stable outcome, but another pair of strategies proves to be stable too: relaxed choosiness of class A coupled with low value commodities supplied by class B (Fig. 3b). We give a number of examples of mating, cooperative and mutualistic markets that resemble the low sampling cost situation depicted in Fig. 3a.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0340-5443 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5404  
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Author Henzi, S.; Lusseau, D.; Weingrill, T.; van Schaik, C.; Barrett, L. doi  openurl
  Title Cyclicity in the structure of female baboon social networks Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.  
  Volume 63 Issue 7 Pages 1015-1021-1021  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) There is an established and very influential view that primate societies have identifiable, persistent social organizations. It assumes that association patterns reflect long-term strategic interests that are not qualitatively perturbed by short-term environmental variability. We used data from two baboon troops in markedly different habitats over three consecutive seasons to test this assumption. Our results demonstrate pronounced cyclicity in the extent to which females maintained differentiated relationships. When food was plentiful, the companionships identified by social network analysis in the food-scarce season disappeared and were replaced by casual acquaintanceships more representative of mere gregariousness. Data from the fourth, food-scarce, season at one site indicated that few companions were re-united. It is likely that this reflected stochastic variation in individual circumstances. These results suggest that attention could profitably be paid to the effects of short-term local contingencies on social dynamics, and has implications for current theories of primate cognitive evolution.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0340-5443 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5203  
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Author Mirabet, V.; Fréon, P.; Lett, C. doi  openurl
  Title Factors affecting information transfer from knowledgeable to naive individuals in groups Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.  
  Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 159-171-171  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) There is evidence that individuals in animal groups benefit from the presence of knowledgeable group members in different ways. Experiments and computer simulations have shown that a few individuals within a group can lead others, for a precise task and at a specific moment. As a group travels, different individuals possessing a particular knowledge may act as temporary leaders, so that the group will, as a whole, follow their behaviour. In this paper, we use a model to study different factors influencing group response to temporary leadership. The model is based on four individual behaviours. Three of those, attraction, repulsion, and alignment, are shared by all individuals. The last one, attraction toward the source of a stimulus, concerns only a fraction of the group members. We explore the influence of group size, proportion of stimulated individuals, number of influential neighbours, and intensity of the attraction to the source of the stimulus, on the proportion of the group reaching this source. Special attention is given to the simulation of large group size, close to those observed in nature. Groups of 100, 400 and 900 individuals are currently simulated, and up to 8,000 in one experiment. We show that more stimulated individuals and a larger group size both induce the arrival of a larger fraction of the group. The number of influential neighbours and the intensity of the stimulus have a non-linear influence on the proportion of the group arrival, displaying first a positive relationship and then, above a given threshold, a negative one. We conclude that an intermediate level of group cohesion provides optimal transfer information from knowledgeable to naive individuals.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0340-5443 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5295  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Osthaus, B.; Marlow, D.; Ducat, P. doi  openurl
  Title Minding the gap: spatial perseveration error in dogs Type Journal Article
  Year 2010 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 13 Issue 6 Pages 881-885-885  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) We investigated a combination of perseveration and detour behaviour in 50 domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). They were required to make a detour through a gap at one end of a straight barrier in order to reach a target. After one, two, three or four repeats, the gap was moved to the opposite end of the barrier, and the detour behaviour of the dogs was recorded. Although the dogs could solve simple detour tasks (80% correct in the first trial), they committed a perseveration error of following the previously learned route despite the clearly visible change in the location of the gap. This ‘misbehaviour’ occurred in 29 of 30 dogs after only two learning trials. They never reached a 100% correct performance level again even after four runs through the second gap location. The results suggest that dogs are reluctant to unlearn acquired spatial motor responses and reinforced navigation, which has important implications for experimental design, everyday dog training and our understanding of their mental capacities.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5276  
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Author Ramos-Fernández, G.; Boyer, D.; Aureli, F.; Vick, L. doi  openurl
  Title Association networks in spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.  
  Volume 63 Issue 7 Pages 999-1013-1013  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) We use two novel techniques to analyze association patterns in a group of wild spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) studied continuously for 8 years. Permutation tests identified association rates higher or lower than chance expectation, indicating active processes of companionship and avoidance as opposed to passive aggregation. Network graphs represented individual adults as nodes and their association rates as weighted edges. Strength and eigenvector centrality (a measure of how strongly linked an individual is to other strongly linked individuals) were used to quantify the particular role of individuals in determining the network's structure. Female–female dyads showed higher association rates than any other type of dyad, but permutation tests revealed that these associations cannot be distinguished from random aggregation. Females formed tightly linked clusters that were stable over time, with the exception of immigrant females who showed little association with any adult in the group. Eigenvector centrality was higher for females than for males. Adult males were associated mostly among them, and although their strength of association with others was lower than that of females, their association rates revealed a process of active companionship. Female–male bonds were weaker than those between same-sex pairs, with the exception of those involving young male adults, who by virtue of their strong connections both with female and male adults, appear as temporary brokers between the female and male clusters of the network. This analytical framework can serve to develop a more complete explanation of social structure in species with high levels of fission–fusion dynamics.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0340-5443 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5220  
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Author Widdig, A.; Streich, W.; Nürnberg, P.; Croucher, P.; Bercovitch, F.; Krawczak, M. doi  openurl
  Title Paternal kin bias in the agonistic interventions of adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.  
  Volume 61 Issue 2 Pages 205-214  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract (up) When agonistic interventions are nepotistic, individuals are expected to side more often with kin but less often against kin in comparison with non-kin. As yet, however, few mammal studies have been in a position to test the validity of this assertion with respect to paternal relatedness. We therefore used molecular genetic kinship testing to assess whether adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from the free-ranging colony of Cayo Santiago (Puerto Rico) bias their interventions in ongoing dyadic aggressive interactions towards maternal and paternal half-sisters compared with unrelated females. It turned out that females supported maternal half-sisters significantly more often than paternal half-sisters or non-kin regardless of the costs associated with such interventions. Similarly, females targeted maternal half-sisters significantly less often than non-kin when this was associated with high costs. Unrelated females provided significantly higher mean rates of both high- and low-cost support to each other than did paternal half-sisters. However, females targeted paternal half-sisters significantly less often than non-kin when targeting was at low cost, suggesting that females refrain from intervening against paternal half-sisters. Our data confirm the general view that coalition formation in female mammals is a function of both the level of maternal relatedness and of the costs of intervention. The patterns of coalition formation among paternal kin were found to be more complex, and may also differ across species, but clear evidence for paternal kin discrimination was observed in female rhesus as predicted by kin selection theory.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0340-5443 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5251  
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