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Author McGregor, A.; Saggerson, A.; Pearce, J.; Heyes, C.
Title Blind imitation in pigeons, Columba livia Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 287-296
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Abstract Pigeons that had been trained with a food reward both to peck at and to step on a horizontal plate were allowed to observe a conspecific demonstrator pecking at or stepping on the plate before a test in which the observers were not rewarded for either pecking or stepping. In experiment 1, the demonstrators were not rewarded while being observed. In spite of this, the observers provided evidence of imitation: those that had observed pecking made a greater proportion of pecking responses on test than observers of stepping. In experiment 2, each observer was exposed to a pecking or a stepping conspecific on two occasions. On one occasion, the demonstrator received a food reward for each demonstrated response (continuous reinforcement condition), and on the other the demonstrator's responses were rewarded only rarely (variable interval condition). The observers provided equally strong evidence of imitation in each of these conditions; on test, they made proportionally more of the observed response both when the demonstrators had been richly rewarded and when they had been rarely rewarded. These results show that pigeons engage in `blind' imitation, that is, their imitative behaviour is not always guided by observational learning about response outcomes.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 294
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Author McBride, S.D.; Wolf, B.
Title Using multivariate statistical analysis to measure ovine temperament; stability of factor construction over time and between groups of animals Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 103 Issue 1-2 Pages 45-58
Keywords Arena test; Factor analysis; Temperament; Sheep
Abstract The ovine arena test in conjunction with multivariate statistical analysis (factor analysis) may be a means of measuring ovine temperament for practical purposes. Stability of factor construction over time and between groups of animals is considered to demonstrate trait consistency and is, therefore, one of the first steps in validating a temperament/personality test from this perspective. The aim of this study, therefore, was to assess the stability of factor construction, as a measure of trait consistency, using arena test data from three groups of animals with one group (Group 1) tested repeatedly over three rounds (twice at 8 months and once at 22 months of age). Group 1 consisted of 193 mule (Bluefaced Leicester Sire x Scottish Blackface/Welsh Speckled Face dam), ewe lambs (8 months old). Groups 2 and 3 consisted of 189 and 185 mules, respectively (14 months old). All animals were tested for 6 min in a 13 m x 3 m arena. Factor analysis (varimax rotation) was performed twice on the behavioural data (latency to bleat, total number of vocalisations, distance travelled, time spent in different areas of the arena and number of times crossing in and out of pertinent areas), initially using all data recorded on a per minute basis (`Per Minute') for all 6 min of the test (10 factors extracted) and then using total values (`Total'), the summation of the 6 min for each behaviour measured (4 factors extracted). Stability of factor loadings between rounds and between groups was tested using Kendall's coefficient of concordance. For the `Per Minute' data, 5 out of the 10 factors showed significant (p < 0.05) concordance between rounds whilst 9 out of 10 factors showed significant (p < 0.05) concordance between groups. All four factors generated from the `Total' data demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) concordance between rounds and between groups. The four factors generated from the `Total' data were considered to be of potential merit for future studies. These factors were named--`conspecific motivation-fear', `conspecific motivation-distress', `activity' and `low conspecific motivation'.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 295
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Author Kelly, C.D.
Title Fighting for harems: assessment strategies during male-male contests in the sexually dimorphic Wellington tree weta Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 72 Issue 3 Pages 727-736
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Abstract Females often aggregate at particular sites for feeding or shelter, thus giving adult males the opportunity to defend harems and increase male reproductive success. Rival males compete for control of harems via ritualized displays or direct combat using weaponry. Contests for harems or the resources required by females can be settled based on asymmetries in fighting ability or resource ownership. Males that accurately assess a rival's fighting ability prior to engaging in potentially costly combat should be favoured by selection. Game theory and optimality models provide three models to explain how individuals decide to persist in or flee from a fight. These models are the energetic war of attrition, the sequential assessment model and the cumulative assessment model. Using staged contests in the laboratory, I tested predictions of these models using the Wellington tree weta, Hemideina crassidens, a sexually dimorphic insect native to New Zealand. Male H. crassidens use their enlarged mandibles as weapons in fights for access to adult females that reside in cavities in trees. My results supported a prediction common to each assessment model: contest duration was negatively correlated with the asymmetry in opponent's weapon size. The sequential assessment model of contest settlement was partially supported but the strongest support was for the cumulative assessment model. Predictions of the latter model were supported because: (1) fights are apparently settled based on own-size assessment; (2) fights occur in a single phase and escalate; and (3) contests involve physical combat and injury. I suggest that, in nocturnal species, cumulative assessment will generally be most applicable.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 297
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Author Flack, J.C.; Girvan, M.; de Waal, F.B.M.; Krakauer, D.C.
Title Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature
Volume 439 Issue 7075 Pages 426-429
Keywords Animals; Conflict (Psychology); Female; Macaca nemestrina/*physiology/*psychology; Male; Models, Biological; *Social Behavior
Abstract All organisms interact with their environment, and in doing so shape it, modifying resource availability. Termed niche construction, this process has been studied primarily at the ecological level with an emphasis on the consequences of construction across generations. We focus on the behavioural process of construction within a single generation, identifying the role a robustness mechanism--conflict management--has in promoting interactions that build social resource networks or social niches. Using 'knockout' experiments on a large, captive group of pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), we show that a policing function, performed infrequently by a small subset of individuals, significantly contributes to maintaining stable resource networks in the face of chronic perturbations that arise through conflict. When policing is absent, social niches destabilize, with group members building smaller, less diverse, and less integrated grooming, play, proximity and contact-sitting networks. Instability is quantified in terms of reduced mean degree, increased clustering, reduced reach, and increased assortativity. Policing not only controls conflict, we find it significantly influences the structure of networks that constitute essential social resources in gregarious primate societies. The structure of such networks plays a critical role in infant survivorship, emergence and spread of cooperative behaviour, social learning and cultural traditions.
Address Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA. jflack@santafe.edu
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ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN (down) Medium
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Notes PMID:16437106 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 298
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Author Aureli, F.; Cords, M.; van Schaik, C.P.
Title Conflict resolution following aggression in gregarious animals: a predictive framework Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 64 Issue 3 Pages 325-343
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Abstract Knowledge of how animals manage their conflicts is critical for understanding the dynamics of social systems. During the last two decades research on gregarious animals, especially primates, has focused on the mechanisms of conflict management, mainly on friendly postconflict reunions (also called `reconciliation') in which former opponents exchange affiliative behaviour soon after an aggressive conflict. Our aim in this paper is to present a framework in which the costs and benefits of friendly postconflict reunions, both for each individual opponent and for their mutual relationship, are used to predict the patterning of postconflict resolution mechanisms in other gregarious animals. The framework predicts the occurrence of postconflict reunions in species that live in stable social units, have individualized relationships, and experience postconflict hostility, but especially in those in which intragroup aggression disrupts valuable relationships. The critical issue is whether aggressive conflicts occur between cooperative partners and whether the level of aggression is sufficient to jeopardize the benefits associated with such valuable relationships. We conclude by proposing four research priorities to evaluate the role of friendly reunions in negotiating relationships and the way they are themselves influenced by asymmetries in partner value and biological market effects. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 299
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Author Call, J.; Aureli, F.; de Waal, F.B.M.
Title Postconflict third-party affiliation in stumptailed macaques Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 209-216
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Abstract Stumptailed macaques, Macaca arctoides, are characterized by high levels of postconflict affiliative contacts between opponents. We investigated the occurrence of postconflict affiliative contacts between opponents and third parties that were not involved in the original conflict. We collected 10-min focal observations during postconflict and control periods in which we recorded all aggressive and affiliative behaviours between opponents and third parties. We distinguished three types of third parties depending on the relationship with the focal animal: own kin, opponent's kin and individuals unrelated to both opponents. We analysed the interactions with third parties separately, while distinguishing two classes of affiliative behaviours: (1) allogrooming and contact sitting and (2) sociosexual behaviours (e.g. genital inspection). The macaques showed differences between postconflict and control periods in their affiliative contacts with third parties. Aggressors received more postconflict grooming and contact sitting from their opponents' kin, received more sociosexual behaviour from their own kin and unrelated individuals, and directed more sociosexual behaviour to unrelated individuals. Victims received and directed less postconflict grooming from and towards their own kin. They received more postconflict sociosexual behaviour from all partners except their own kin and directed more sociosexual behaviour to all partners except the opponent's kin. This study establishes the occurrence of multiple postconflict triadic affiliation in stumptailed macaques, and is the first to show that victims receive contacts from third parties in a cercopithecine species, a behaviour previously described only in chimpanzees. It also highlights the importance of analysing the different affiliative behaviours separately in postconflict situations. Otherwise, many of the patterns we report, especially those involving victims, would have been missed.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 304
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Author Koski, S.E.; Sterck, E.H.M.
Title Triadic postconflict affiliation in captive chimpanzees: does consolation console? Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 73 Issue 1 Pages 133-142
Keywords chimpanzee; consolation; Pan troglodytes; postconflict affiliation
Abstract Consolation is a triadic postconflict interaction between a conflict participant and an uninvolved third party. The term consolation implies stress alleviation. Consequently, consolation may be an effective mechanism to alleviate postconflict stress. However, this assumption has not been tested. We tested whether consolation alleviates postconflict stress in captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. In addition, we examined whether consolation is a substitute postconflict interaction for reconciliation. We collected 643 postconflict-matched control pairs on aggressees and 576 on aggressors. Consolation occurred equally frequently with aggressees and aggressors. However, we found no evidence that consolation alleviated stress, regardless of the identity of the consoler. In addition, consolation was also directed to conflict participants with no evident postconflict stress. Furthermore, we found no evidence for consolation being a substitute for reconciliation. The occurrence of consolation did not depend on the occurrence of reconciliation and consolation was not more prevalent with the sex class that reconciled less often or had the highest postconflict stress levels. We conclude that consolation is a postconflict interaction in its own right, the function of which is not likely to be connected to stress alleviation of the consoled individual. We propose that the function of triadic postconflict affiliation, previously labelled as consolation, should be reassessed with regard to the third parties' reasons to affiliate with conflict opponents.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 306
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Author Mills, D.S.; Riezebos, M.
Title The role of the image of a conspecific in the regulation of stereotypic head movements in the horse Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 91 Issue 1-2 Pages 155-165
Keywords Behaviour; Horse; Nodding; Perception; Stereotypy; Vision; Weaving
Abstract Weaving is a common locomotor stereotypy in horses, which has been shown to be reduced by the presence of a mirror in the stable; however, it remains unclear whether this effect is due to the reflected image of a horse or some other property associated with the introduction of a mirror. To investigate this further, the response of six known weaving horses to each of three different types of poster was recorded. The poster images consisted of a life-size image of a horse's face (true image), a version of the same image cut into 54 squares, which were then randomly rearranged (pixilated image) and a blank (white image) display of the same size as the other posters. Four observation periods were included in each of the two days of observation per treatment condition: 08:00-08:30 h, 10:00-10:30 h, 12:00-12:30 h and 16:00-17:00 h. The first observation period was followed by the provision of concentrate feed and forage, the second observation period by exercise, the third by further forage and the fourth by concentrate feed and forage. The horses' activities and positions in the box were scanned at 1 min intervals and the number of observations registering each activity and position was calculated as a percentage of the total number of observations for each observation period. Weaving was significantly less when the horses were provided with the image of a horse's face (mean percentage of observations +/- S.E.M.; 5.56 +/- 1.57), compared to both the pixilated (14.85 +/- 3.06) and white (20.52 +/- 4.12) images. Nodding was significantly less when provided with the true image of a horse (0.45 +/- 0.15) compared to the pixilated image (2.15 +/- 0.67). The pattern of weaving throughout the day differed from that of nodding, and together these results suggest that the two behaviours are not analogous. The presence of the image of the horse's face was associated with a significant increase in alertness (F112,2 = 11.31, p < 0.001) and recorded time spent looking at the poster(F112,2 = 3.46, p < 0.05). The timing of stereotypic head movements in the horse in this study suggests that they are not associated with boredom, or lack of stimulation but rather acute frustration.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 307
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Author Sondergaard, E.; Halekoh, U.
Title Young horses' reactions to humans in relation to handling and social environment Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 84 Issue 4 Pages 265-280
Keywords Horses; Human-animal relationship; Social environment; Handling
Abstract Forty Danish warmblood colts in two replicates were used to investigate the effect of housing and handling in the rearing period on the reactions to humans. The horses entered the experiment after weaning and were housed either individually (n=16) or in groups of three (n=24). Half of the horses from each housing group were handled three times per week for a period of 10 min. Approach tests were performed in the home environment when the horses were 6, 9, 12, 18, 21, and 24 months old, and an Arena and Human Encounter test was performed in a novel environment when the horses were 12 and 24 months old, respectively. In the home environment, single-housed horses approached sooner and were more easily approached by a human than group-housed horses where no effect of handling was observed. Horses approached sooner and were more easily approached with increasing age. In the Arena and Human Encounter test, single-housed horses expressed less restless behaviour, more explorative behaviour, and less vocalisation than group-housed horses. Handled horses showed lower increase in heart rate during the test than non-handled horses. There was no difference between the number of times single or group-housed horses touched an unfamiliar person in the Arena and Human Encounter test but handled horses approached sooner than non-handled horses. It is concluded that the social environment affected the way horses reacted to humans when tested in the home environment but not in a novel environment. In contrast, handling affected the reactions to humans when tested in the novel environment but not in the home environment. However, handled horses also reacted less to the novel environment in general, thus indicating that handling is a mean of avoiding potential dangerous situations.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 308
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Author Rietmann, T.R.; Stuart, A.E.A.; Bernasconi, P.; Stauffacher, M.; Auer, J.A.; Weishaupt, M.A.
Title Assessment of mental stress in warmblood horses: heart rate variability in comparison to heart rate and selected behavioural parameters Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 88 Issue 1-2 Pages 121-136
Keywords Horse; Hrv; Heart rate; Mental stress; Behaviour; Autonomic nervous system
Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate whether heart rate variability (HRV) could assess alterations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) at different levels of excitement. The behavioural and physiological responses of 20 warmblood horses to a challenging ground exercise task were studied. Prior to the experiment, the horses were evaluated at rest and during forward walking (FW). The horses were then forced to move backwards continuously during 3 min according to a standardised protocol (BW1). Subsequently, the horses were exposed to two training sessions, after which the backward walking (BW2) was re-evaluated. Heart rate (HR) and HRV-parameters such as the standard deviation of the beat-to-beat intervals (SDRR), the low (LF; sympathetic tone) and high frequency (HF) component of HRV (HF; parasympathetic tone) and their ratio (LF/HF; index representing the sympatho-vagal balance) were sampled at rest, and during FW, BW1 and BW2. Stress-related behaviour during BW1 and BW2 was determined from video recordings. The results of the different evaluations were compared to each other. Compared to rest and FW, the first backward experiment induced a significant rise in HR, LF and LF/HF and a significant decrease of HF. SDRR decreased from both FW and rest with only the latter reaching significance. In BW2 after the training sessions, HR and the parameters of the sympathetic branch of the ANS (LF, LF/HF) were decreased and the vagal tone (HF) increased compared to BW1; all changes were significant. The duration of stress indicating behavioural patterns revealed also a significant decrease of excitement after the training, when backward walking did not differ from forward walking in any parameter. Correlations between HRV-parameters and stress indicating behaviour as well as HR were found. We conclude that the HRV-parameters LF and HF are valuable measures to quantify sympatho-vagal balance, which allows a more precise assessment of the responses of HR and SDRR to mental stress during low intensity exercise.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 314
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