| Records |
| Author |
Biondi, L.M.; García, G.O.; Bó, M.S.; Vassallo, A.I. |
| Title |
Social Learning in the Caracara Chimango, Milvago chimango (Aves: Falconiformes): an Age Comparison |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
116 |
Issue |
8 |
Pages |
722-735 |
| Keywords |
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Abstract  |
Abstract Milvago chimango is a gregarious raptor showing great ecological plasticity. Their ability to explore new resources has allowed them to survive in areas with increasing human modification. In this study, we evaluated the social learning ability in wild-caught individuals of M. chimango. In particular, we tested whether an ‘observer’ individual could improve the acquisition of a novel behaviour by watching a ‘demonstrator,’ and we examined the effects of age of both observers and demonstrators on social learning. We measured the ability of 18 observers to open an opaque Plexiglas box containing food, and we compared their performance to that of 10 control birds who did not watch a demonstrator solve the task. Prior to watching a demonstrator, only two of the observers and two of the control birds were able to open the box. After watching a demonstrator, 67% of observers were able to open the box, outperforming control birds in speed and success. Juvenile observers were more successful and faster than adults at contacting and opening the box. The age of the demonstrator did not influence the observers’ likelihood of success. These results showed that M. chimango are able to learn a box-opening task with a hidden food reward by observing the behaviour of a conspecific and that this behaviour persisted over several days. Social learning ability in M. chimango might allow certain behavioural patterns, such as those related to novel resource acquisition in modified environments, to be socially transmitted among individuals in a population. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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| ISSN |
1439-0310 |
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no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5283 |
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| Author |
Martín, J.; López, P.; Bonati, B.; Csermely, D. |
| Title |
Lateralization When Monitoring Predators in the Wild: A Left Eye Control in the Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis) |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
no-no |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
Abstract Lateralization is the function specialization between left and right brain hemispheres. It is now ascertained in ectotherms too, where bias in eye use for different tasks, i.e., visual lateralization, is widespread. The lateral eye position on the head of ectotherm animals, in fact, allows them to observe left/right stimuli independently and allows lateralized individuals to carry out left and right perceived tasks at the same time. A recent study conducted on common wall lizards, Podarcis muralis, showed that lizards predominantly monitor a predator with the left eye while escaping. However, this work was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting owing to the difficulty of carrying out lateralization experiments under natural conditions. Nevertheless, field studies could provide important information to support what was previously found in the laboratory and demonstrate that these traits occur in nature. In this study, we conducted a field study on the antipredatory behavior of P. muralis lizards. We simulated predatory attacks on lizards in their natural environment. We found no lateralization in the measure of eye used by the lizard to monitor the predator before escaping from it, but the eye used was probably determined by the relative position of the lizard and the predator just before the attack. This first eye used did not affect escape decisions; lizards chose to escape toward the nearest refuge irrespective of whether it was located to the lizard’s left or right side. However, once they had escaped to a refuge, lizards had a left eye–mediated bias to monitor the predator when first emerging from the refuge, and this bias was likely independent of other environmental variables. Hence, these field findings support a left eye–mediated observation of the predator in P. muralis lizards, which confirms previous findings in this and other species. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5182 |
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| Author |
Harcourt, J.L.; Biau, S.; Johnstone, R.; Manica, A. |
| Title |
Boldness and Information Use in Three-Spined Sticklebacks |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
116 |
Issue |
5 |
Pages |
440-447 |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
Abstract In foraging groups, individuals may utilise information from their social environment to aid decision making when choosing where to search for food. Little work has looked at the costs or benefits of behavioural differences, such as consistent individual variation in boldness, with respect to learning ability. Here, we investigate the response of three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to ‘social cues’, ‘local enhancement’ and ‘public information’ during foraging tasks. Our results confirm previous work suggesting that this species responds to social cues and local enhancement but not public information. Variation in boldness did not affect the use of different types of information. However, time taken to make a choice and reach a patch varied between fish with different levels of boldness. Contrary to expectation, shy fish were the more variable individuals, having a greater range of reaction times when responding to the tasks. This suggests that individual behavioural differences still play a role when utilising information obtained from the environment and may influence the relative benefits that could result in different contexts. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5198 |
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| Author |
McPhee, M.E.; Segal, A.; Johnston, R.E. |
| Title |
Hamsters Use Predator Odors as Indirect Cues of Predation Risk |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
116 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
517-523 |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
Abstract Golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) use olfactory cues to assess traits of conspecifics such as kinship, individual identity, and reproductive status. The environment, however, is full of a wide variety of other olfactory information such as signals emitted by some of the hamster’s primary predators. Given this, we hypothesized that hamsters use odors from predators as an indirect sign of increased predation risk in the environment. In addition, based on data that show that wild hamsters are diurnal while laboratory hamsters are nocturnal, we hypothesized that if golden hamsters did respond to the predator odors, perceived predator risk might influence daily activity patterns in hamsters. We tested male and female hamsters over 5 d with scent gland secretion from domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) and compared their behavior to that observed when they were exposed to a clean arena. In response to the predator odor, subjects significantly decreased the amount of time active outside of their burrow, returned to their burrow more quickly, and spent less time near the predator odor than the clean control stimulus. These results strongly support our hypothesis that hamsters, like other species of small mammals, avoid predator odors. The results did not, however, support our second hypothesis that exposure to predator odors during the dark phase of the light cycle would elicit a switch to a more diurnal pattern of activity. More work is needed to understand how environmental cues and internal mechanisms interact to shape activity patterns. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5212 |
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| Author |
Bamford, A.J.; Monadjem, A.; Hardy, I.C.W. |
| Title |
Associations of Avian Facial Flushing and Skin Colouration with Agonistic Interaction Outcomes |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
no-no |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
Abstract Facial flushing, a colour change caused by variation of blood flow through highly vascularized skin, has been observed in taxonomically diverse bird species but the function of the behaviour has not been assessed. Lappet-faced vultures, Aegypius tracheliotos, have unfeathered heads that can rapidly flush from pink to dark red, and this has been hypothesized to indicate contest ability in vulture gatherings. We show that adults with flushed heads won most interactions against those with pale heads. A previously unnoticed colour variation of the throat, visible only when the head is flushed, was also related to the outcome of interactions: blue-throated adults participated in, and won, more interactions than red-throated adults. We suggest that the non-fixed groups of which lappet-faced vulture populations consist promote the evolution of signals of dominance that can be adjusted extremely rapidly. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5180 |
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| Author |
Collier, T.C.; Blumstein, D.T.; Girod, L.; Taylor, C.E. |
| Title |
Is Alarm Calling Risky? Marmots Avoid Calling from Risky Places |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
no-no |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
Abstract Alarm calling is common in many species. A prevalent assumption is that calling puts the vocalizing individual at increased risk of predation. If calling is indeed costly, we need special explanations for its evolution and maintenance. In some, but not all species, callers vocalize away from safety and thus may be exposed to an increased risk of predation. However, for species that emit bouts with one or a few calls, it is often difficult to identify the caller and find the precise location where a call was produced. We analyzed the spatial dynamics of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) alarm calling using an acoustic localization system to determine the location from where calls were emitted. Marmots almost always called from positions close to the safety of their burrows, and, if they produced more than one alarm call, tended to end their calling bouts closer to safety than they started them. These results suggest that for this species, potential increased predation risk from alarm calling is greatly mitigated and indeed calling may have limited predation costs. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5181 |
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| Author |
Llusia, D.; Márquez, R.; Beltrán, J.F. |
| Title |
Non-Selective and Time-Dependent Behavioural Responses of Common Toads (Bufo bufo) to Predator Acoustic Cues |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Ethology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ethology |
| Volume |
116 |
Issue |
12 |
Pages |
1146-1154 |
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| Abstract |
Abstract Acoustic predator recognition has rarely been studied in anurans, in spite of the fact that hearing is widespread in these animals and that it has been demonstrated to play an important role in both arthropods and other vertebrates. Using field playback experiments, we tested the hypothesis that adult common toads (Bufo bufo) are capable of recognizing natural vocalizations of a common predator, the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), and show antipredator responses. We found that toads exposed to both natural (two types of otter sounds) and synthetic stimuli [white noise (WN) and otter sound-based amplitude modulated WN] increased time allocated to locomotion and escape behaviour. These responses were correlated with time elapsed from sunset to the onset of testing and were independent from the type of acoustic signal, toad features and other environmental factors monitored. We conclude that B. bufo has not developed a selective recognition of predator vocalizations, suggesting that low-frequency or seismic sounds associated with predator movements may provide anurans with better cues about an approaching risk. We propose that the time-dependent response to acoustic stimuli of common toads represents a case of threat-sensitivity and demonstrates that it can occur even when the response to the threat is not predator specific. |
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
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1439-0310 |
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Approved |
no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5282 |
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| Author |
Tricomi, E.; Rangel, A.; Camerer, C.F.; O/'Doherty, J.P. |
| Title |
Neural evidence for inequality-averse social preferences |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
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Abbreviated Journal |
Nature |
| Volume |
463 |
Issue |
7284 |
Pages |
1089-1091 |
| Keywords |
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| Abstract |
A popular hypothesis in the social sciences is that humans have social preferences to reduce inequality in outcome distributions because it has a negative impact on their experienced reward1, 2, 3. Although there is a large body of behavioural and anthropological evidence consistent with the predictions of these theories1, 4, 5, 6, there is no direct neural evidence for the existence of inequality-averse preferences. Such evidence would be especially useful because some behaviours that are consistent with a dislike for unequal outcomes could also be explained by concerns for social image7 or reciprocity8, 9, which do not require a direct aversion towards inequality. Here we use functional MRI to test directly for the existence of inequality-averse social preferences in the human brain. Inequality was created by recruiting pairs of subjects and giving one of them a large monetary endowment. While both subjects evaluated further monetary transfers from the experimenter to themselves and to the other participant, we measured neural responses in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, two areas that have been shown to be involved in the valuation of monetary and primary rewards in both social and non-social contexts10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Consistent with inequality-averse models of social preferences, we find that activity in these areas was more responsive to transfers to others than to self in the ‘high-pay’ subject, whereas the activity of the ‘low-pay’ subject showed the opposite pattern. These results provide direct evidence for the validity of this class of models, and also show that the brain’s reward circuitry is sensitive to both advantageous and disadvantageous inequality. |
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Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved |
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| ISSN |
0028-0836 |
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| Notes |
10.1038/nature08785 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5119 |
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| Author |
Bang, A.; Deshpande, S.; Sumana, A.; Gadagkar, R. |
| Title |
Choosing an appropriate index to construct dominance hierarchies in animal societies: a comparison of three indices |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
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| Volume |
79 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
631-636 |
| Keywords |
dominance behaviour; dominance hierarchy; dominance index; dominance rank; Ropalidia cyathiformis; Ropalidia marginata; social wasp |
| Abstract |
A plethora of indices have been proposed and used to construct dominance hierarchies in a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate societies, although the rationale for choosing a particular index for a particular species is seldom explained. In this study, we analysed and compared three such indices, viz Clutton-Brock et al.'s index (CBI), originally developed for red deer, Cervus elaphus, David's score (DS) originally proposed by the statistician H. A. David and the frequency-based index of dominance (FDI) developed and routinely used by our group for the primitively eusocial wasps Ropalidia marginata and Ropalidia cyathiformis. Dominance ranks attributed by all three indices were strongly and positively correlated for both natural data sets from the wasp colonies and for artificial data sets generated for the purpose. However, the indices differed in their ability to yield unique (untied) ranks in the natural data sets. This appears to be caused by the presence of noninteracting individuals and reversals in the direction of dominance in some of the pairs in the natural data sets. This was confirmed by creating additional artificial data sets with noninteracting individuals and with reversals. Based on the criterion of yielding the largest proportion of unique ranks, we found that FDI is best suited for societies such as the wasps belonging to Ropalidia, DS is best suited for societies with reversals and CBI remains a suitable index for societies such as red deer in which multiple interactions are uncommon. |
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0003-3472 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5837 |
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| Author |
Kitchen, D.; Bergman, T.; Cheney, D.; Nicholson, J.; Seyfarth, R. |
| Title |
Comparing responses of four ungulate species to playbacks of baboon alarm calls |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2010 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
13 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
861-870 |
| Keywords |
Biomedical and Life Sciences |
| Abstract |
A growing body of evidence suggests that a wide range of animals can recognize and respond appropriately to calls produced by other species. Social learning has been implicated as a possible mechanism by which heterospecific call recognition might develop. To examine whether familiarity and/or shared vulnerability with the calling species might influence the ability of sympatric species to distinguish heterospecific alarm calls, we tested whether four ungulate species (impala: Aepyceros melampus; tsessebe: Damaliscus lunatus; zebra: Equus burchelli; wildebeest: Connochaetes taurinus) could distinguish baboon (Papio hamadryas ursinus) alarm calls from other loud baboon calls produced during intra-specific aggressive interactions (‘contest’ calls). Overall, subjects’ responses were stronger following playback of alarm calls than contest calls. Of the species tested, impala showed the strongest responses and the greatest difference in composite response scores, suggesting they were best able to differentiate call types. Compared with the other ungulate species, impala are the most frequent associates of baboons. Moreover, like baboons, they are susceptible to both lion and leopard attacks, whereas leopards rarely take the larger ungulates. Although it seems possible that high rates of association and/or shared vulnerability may influence impala’s greater ability to distinguish among baboon call types, our results point to a stronger influence of familiarity. Ours is the first study to compare such abilities among several community members with variable natural histories, and we discuss future experiments that would more systematically examine development of these skills in young ungulates. |
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Springer Berlin / Heidelberg |
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| ISSN |
1435-9448 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5275 |
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