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Ratcliffe, J. M., Fenton, M. B., & Shettleworth, S. J. (2006). Behavioral flexibility positively correlated with relative brain volume in predatory bats. Brain Behav Evol, 67(3), 165–176.
Abstract: We investigated the potential relationships between foraging strategies and relative brain and brain region volumes in predatory (animal-eating) echolocating bats. The species we considered represent the ancestral state for the order and approximately 70% of living bat species. The two dominant foraging strategies used by echolocating predatory bats are substrate-gleaning (taking prey from surfaces) and aerial hawking (taking airborne prey). We used species-specific behavioral, morphological, and ecological data to classify each of 59 predatory species as one of the following: (1) ground gleaning, (2) behaviorally flexible (i.e., known to both glean and hawk prey), (3) clutter tolerant aerial hawking, or (4) open-space aerial hawking. In analyses using both species level data and phylogenetically independent contrasts, relative brain size was larger in behaviorally flexible species. Further, relative neocortex volume was significantly reduced in bats that aerially hawk prey primarily in open spaces. Conversely, our foraging behavior index did not account for variability in hippocampus and inferior colliculus volume and we discuss these results in the context of past research.
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Shettleworth, S. J. (2003). Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition. Brain Behav Evol, 62(2), 108–116.
Abstract: The three-way association among food-storing behavior, spatial memory, and hippocampal enlargement in some species of birds is widely cited as an example of a new 'cognitive ecology' or 'neuroecology.' Whether this relationship is as strong as it first appears and whether it might be evidence for an adaptive specialization of memory and hippocampus in food-storers have recently been the subject of some controversy [Bolhuis and Macphail, 2001; Macphail and Bolhuis, 2001]. These critiques are based on misconceptions about the nature of adaptive specializations in cognition, misconceptions about the uniformity of results to be expected from applying the comparative method to data from a wide range of species, and a narrow view of what kinds of cognitive adaptations are theoretically interesting. New analyses of why food-storers (black-capped chickadees, Poecile Atricapilla) respond preferentially to spatial over color cues when both are relevant in a memory task show that this reflects a relative superiority of spatial memory as compared to memory for color rather than exceptional spatial attention or spatial discrimination ability. New studies of chickadees from more or less harsh winter climates also support the adaptive specialization hypothesis and suggest that within-species comparisons may be especially valuable for unraveling details of the relationships among ecology, memory, and brain in food-storing species.
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Hampton, R. R., Sherry, D. F., Shettleworth, S. J., Khurgel, M., & Ivy, G. (1995). Hippocampal volume and food-storing behavior are related in parids. Brain Behav Evol, 45(1), 54–61.
Abstract: The size of the hippocampus has been previously shown to reflect species differences and sex differences in reliance on spatial memory to locate ecologically important resources, such as food and mates. Black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus) cached more food than did either Mexican chickadees (P. sclateri) or bridled titmice (P. wollweberi) in two tests of food storing, one conducted in an aviary and another in smaller home cages. Black-capped chickadees were also found to have a larger hippocampus, relative to the size of the telencephalon, than the other two species. Differences in the frequency of food storing behavior among the three species have probably produced differences in the use of hippocampus-dependent memory and spatial information processing to recover stored food, resulting in graded selection for size of the hippocampus.
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Pepperberg, I. M. (2002). In search of king Solomon's ring: cognitive and communicative studies of Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Brain Behav Evol, 59(1-2), 54–67.
Abstract: During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses 'no', 'come here', wanna go X' and 'want Y' (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to judge category, relative size, quantity, presence or absence of similarity/difference in attributes, and show label comprehension. He semantically separates labeling from requesting. He thus exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates. Studies on this and other Greys show that parrots given training that lacks some aspect of input present in M/R protocols (reference, functionality, social interaction) fail to acquire referential English speech. Examining how input affects the extent to which parrots acquire an allospecific code may elucidate mechanisms of other forms of exceptional learning: learning unlikely in the normal course of development but that can occur under certain conditions.
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Albentosa, M. J., Kjaer, J. B., & Nicol, C. J. (2003). Strain and age differences in behaviour, fear response and pecking tendency in laying hens. Br Poult Sci, 44(3), 333–344.
Abstract: 1. Behaviours associated with a high or low tendency to feather peck could be used as predictors of feather pecking behaviour in selective breeding programmes. This study investigated how strain and age at testing influenced responses in behavioural tests. 2. Four layer-type strains (ISA Brown, Columbian Blacktail, Ixworth and a high feather pecking (HP) and a low feather pecking (LP) line of White Leghorn) were reared in 6 same-strain/line pens of 8 birds from one day old. Birds in half the pens were given an open field test, a novel object test and a test with loose feather bundles between 4 and 12 weeks of age and a tonic immobility (TI) test at 13 weeks of age. All pens were tested with fixed feather bundles at 26 weeks, and undisturbed behaviour in the home pens was videoed at 1 and 27 weeks of age. Daily records of plumage damage were used as an indicator of feather pecking activity in the home pens. 3. Strain did not influence novel object test, open field test or loose feather test behaviour, although age effects in all three tests indicated a reduction in fearfulness and/or an increase in exploratory behaviour with increasing age. 4. White Leghorns showed longer TI durations than the other strains but less pecking at fixed feather bundles than ISA Browns and Columbian Blacktails. 5. There were few associations between behaviour in the 5 different tests, indicating that birds did not have overall behavioural traits that were consistent across different contexts. This suggests hens cannot easily be categorised into different behavioural 'types', based on their test responses and casts doubt on the usefulness of tests as predictors of feather pecking.
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Freire, R., Wilkins, L. J., Short, F., & Nicol, C. J. (2003). Behaviour and welfare of individual laying hens in a non-cage system. Br Poult Sci, 44(1), 22–29.
Abstract: 1. A leg band containing a transponder was fitted to 80 birds in a perchery containing 1,000 birds. 2. The transponder emitted a unique identification number when a bird walked on one of 8 flat antennae on the floor. The recording apparatus was used to measure the amount of time that each of the tagged birds spent on the slatted and littered areas in a 6-week period. 3. Some birds spent long periods of time on the slats, possibly as a means of avoiding repeated attacks. Duration on the slats was greatest in birds with the worst (as opposed to better) feather scores of the head, back and tail regions. 4. Birds that spent long periods on the slats were lighter than other birds at both 39 weeks of age and 72 weeks of age and had greater back, head and tail feather damage, consistent with these birds being victims of pecking. 5. Tagged birds received a social avoidance test outside the perchery at 39 weeks of age, which suggested that birds retreated to the slats in response to pecks rather than just to close proximity to other birds. 6. The failure to find that duration on the slats was related to anatomical indicators of stress (liver, spleen and bursa of Fabricius) suggests that retreating to the slats following pecking attenuates physiological stress responses. 7. We conclude that the provision of areas where birds in a large group can avoid pecking may improve the welfare of a minority of victimised birds.
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Meese, G. B., & Ewbank, R. (1973). Exploratory behaviour and leadership in the domesticated pig. Br. Vet. J., 129(3), 251–259.
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Christie, J. L., Hewson, C. J., Riley, C. B., McNiven, M. A., Dohoo, I. R., & Bate, L. A. (2006). Management factors affecting stereotypies and body condition score in nonracing horses in Prince Edward Island. Can Vet J, 47(2), 136–143.
Abstract: In North America, there are few representative data about the effects of management practices on equine welfare. In a randomized survey of 312 nonracing horses in Prince Edward Island (response rate 68.4%), owners completed a pretested questionnaire and a veterinarian examined each horse. Regression analyses identified factors affecting 2 welfare markers: body condition score (BCS) and stereotypic behavior. Horses' BCSs were high (mean 5.7, on a 9-point scale) and were associated with sex (males had lower BCSs than females; P < 0.001) and examination date (P = 0.052). Prevalences of crib biting, wind sucking, and weaving were 3.8%, 3.8%, and 4.8%, respectively. Age (OR = 1.07, P = 0.08) and hours worked weekly (OR = 1.12, P = 0.03) were risk factors for weaving. Straw bedding (OR = 0.3, P = 0.03), daily hours at pasture (OR = 0.94, P = 0.02), and horse type (drafts and miniatures had a lower risk than light horses; P = 0.12) reduced the risk of horses showing oral stereotypies. Some of these results contradict those of other studies perhaps because of populations concerned.
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de Waal, F. B., & Johanowicz, D. L. (1993). Modification of reconciliation behavior through social experience: an experiment with two macaque species. Child Dev, 64(3), 897–908.
Abstract: Reconciliation, defined as a friendly reunion between former opponents shortly after an aggressive encounter, is common in the stumptail macaque (Macaca arctoides) but rare in the rhesus macaque (M. mulatta). Juveniles of the two species were cohoused for 5 months, after which they were observed with conspecifics only. Control rhesus monkeys, matched in age and sex to the experimental subjects, went through the same procedure without exposure to the other species. A threefold increase in the proportion of reconciled fights was measured in the rhesus subjects. The difference emerged gradually during cohousing with the tutor species and was sustained following removal of this species. Other behavior, such as grooming and aggression, decreased over time. It is suggested that the social attitude of the subjects was affected through contact with a species characterized by a more relaxed dominance style.
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Wang, L. Y. (1975). Host preference of mosquito vectors of Japanese encephalitis. Zhonghua Min Guo Wei Sheng Wu Xue Za Zhi, 8(4), 274–279.
Abstract: The host preference of 4 Culex mosquito species collected in Miaoli and Pingtung counties, Taiwan was studied by capillary precipitin method. Antisera to alum-precipitated sera of man, bovine, swine, rabbit, horse, dog, cat, mouse, chicken, duck, and pigeon were produced in rabbits and reacted with 758 mosquito blood meals among which reactions to one or more antisera. Culex annulus and Culex tritaeniorhynchus summorosus showed a great avidity for pig, and Culex fuscocephala for bovine. Culex pipiens fatigans was ornithophilic. None of 110 C. t. summorosus and 2.4% of 223 C. annulus had fed on man. Among 66 samples of C.p. fatigans tested 10.3% had fed on man, while none of 359 C. fuscocephala did. It seems that the latter does not act as a primary vector of Japanese encephalitis.
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