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Author |
Boogert, N.J.; Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
The relation between social rank, neophobia and individual learning in starlings |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
72 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1229-1239 |
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Abstract |
Researchers with diverse interests in topics ranging from the formation of dominance hierarchies and social intelligence to animal personalities have predicted specific, and often conflicting, relations between social rank, neophobia and learning ability. We investigated the relations between these variables in captive groups of wild-caught starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, adopting a multidimensional approach to social rank and neophobia. Both agonistic and competitive rank orders were determined for each group and we tested individuals in the absence of their groupmates for object neophobia, latency to feed in a novel environment and performance on an extractive foraging task. In each starling group, the fastest learners occupied the highest competitive ranks, supporting the hypothesis that cognitive ability is positively correlated with social dominance. Competitive rank orders, however, did not correlate significantly with agonistic rank orders. Situation-specific foraging neophobia was suggested: individuals showed consistency in their latencies to feed near a variety of novel objects, but no significant correlation was found between this measure of object neophobia and latency to feed in a novel environment. Starlings fastest to feed in the novel environment were fastest in solving the foraging task. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers studying hierarchy formation in animal groups, social intelligence and animal personalities. |
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yes |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 |
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2074 |
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Kenward, B.; Rutz, C.; Weir, A.A.S.; Kacelnik, A. |
Title |
Development of tool use in New Caledonian crows: inherited action patterns and social influences |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
72 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1329-1343 |
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Abstract |
New Caledonian crows, Corvus moneduloides, are the most advanced avian tool makers and tool users. We previously reported that captive-bred isolated New Caledonian crows spontaneously use twig tools and cut tools out of Pandanus spp. tree leaves, an activity possibly under cultural influence in the wild. However, what aspects of these behaviours are inherited and how they interact with individual and social experience remained unknown. To examine the interaction between inherited traits, individual learning and social transmission, we observed the ontogeny of twig tool use in hand-reared juveniles. Successful food retrieval was preceded by stereotyped object manipulation action patterns that resembled components of the mature behaviour, demonstrating that tool-oriented behaviours in this species are an evolved specialization. However, there was also an effect of social learning: juveniles that had received demonstrations of twig tool use by their human foster parent showed higher levels of handling and insertion of twigs than did their naive counterparts; a choice experiment showed that they preferred to handle objects that they had seen being manipulated by their human foster parent. Our observations are consistent with the hypothesis that individual learning, cultural transmission and creative problem solving all contribute to the acquisition of the tool-oriented behaviours in the wild, but inherited species-typical action patterns have a greater role than has been recognized. |
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2103 |
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Author |
Grange, S.; Duncan, P. |
Title |
Bottom-up and top-down processes in African ungulate communities: resources and predation acting on the relative abundance of zebra and grazing bovids |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Ecography |
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Volume |
29 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
899-907 |
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African ungulate populations appear to be limited principally by their food resources. Within ungulate communities, plains zebras coexist with grazing bovids of similar body size, but rarely are the dominant species. Given the highly effective nutritional strategy of the equids and the resistance of zebras to drought, this is unexpected and suggests that zebra populations may commonly be limited by other mechanisms. Long-term research in the Serengeti ecosystem and in the Kruger National Park suggests that zebra could be less sensitive to food shortage, and more sensitive to predation, than grazing bovids: if this is a general principle, then, at a larger scale, resource availability should have a weaker effect on the abundance of zebra than on grazing ruminants of similar body size (wildebeest and buffalo), and zebras should be relatively more abundant in ecosystems where predators are rare or absent. We test these expectations using data on 23 near-natural ecosystems in east and southern Africa. The abundance of wildebeest is more closely related to resources than is that of zebra; buffalo are intermediate. We show that hyena densities are closely correlated with those of lions, and use the abundance of lions as an index of predation by large predators. The numerical response of lions to increases in the abundance of their prey was linear for mesoherbivores, and apparently so for the three species alone. Finally, the abundance of zebra relative to grazing bovids is lower in ecosystems with high biomasses of lions. These results indicate that zebras may commonly be more sensitive to top-down processes than grazing bovids: the mechanism(s) have not been demonstrated, but predation could play a role. If it is true, then when numbers of the large mammalian predators decline, zebra populations should increase faster than buffalo and wildebeest. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ Grange2006 |
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2313 |
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Author |
Verheyen, K.; Price, J.; Lanyon, L.; Wood, J. |
Title |
Exercise distance and speed affect the risk of fracture in racehorses |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Bone |
Abbreviated Journal |
Bone |
Volume |
39 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1322-1330 |
Keywords |
Animals; Case-Control Studies; Cohort Studies; England; Exertion; Female; Fractures, Bone/etiology/*veterinary; Horse Diseases/*etiology; Horses/*injuries; Male; Physical Conditioning, Animal/adverse effects/methods; Poisson Distribution; Prospective Studies; Regression Analysis; Risk Factors; Running/injuries/physiology |
Abstract |
In order to gain insight into those training regimens that can minimise the risk of fracture in athletic populations, we conducted a large epidemiological study in racehorses. Thoroughbred racehorses provide a suitable model for studying fracture development and exercise-related risk factors in physically active populations. They represent a homogeneous population, undertaking intensive exercise programmes that are sufficiently heterogeneous to determine those factors that influence injury risk. Daily exercise information was recorded for a cohort of 1178 thoroughbreds that were monitored for up to 2 years. A total of 148 exercise-induced fractures occurred in the study population. Results from a nested case-control study showed a strong interactive effect of exercise distances at different speeds on fracture risk. Horses that exceeded 44 km at canter (< or =14 m/s) and 6 km at gallop (>14 m/s) in a 30-day period were at particularly increased risk of fracture. These distances equate to ca. 7700 bone loading cycles at canter and 880 loading cycles at gallop. Fifty-six fractures occurred in the subset of study horses that were followed since entering training as yearlings, when skeletally immature (n = 335). Cohort analysis of this data set showed that, in previously untrained bones, accumulation of canter exercise increased the risk of fracture (P < or = 0.01), whereas accumulation of high-speed gallop exercise had a protective effect (P < 0.01). However, increasing distances at canter and gallop in short time periods (up to one month) were associated with an increasing fracture risk. All training exercise involves a balance between the risk of fracture inherent in exposure to loading and the beneficial effect that loading has by stimulating bone cells to produce a more robust architecture. Results from our study provide important epidemiological evidence of the effects of physical exercise on bone adaptation and injury risk and can be used to inform the design of safer exercise regimens in physically active populations. |
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Epidemiology Unit, Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, United Kingdom. kverheyen@rvc.ac.uk |
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8756-3282 |
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PMID:16926125 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4030 |
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Author |
Nettle, D. |
Title |
The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
The American Psychologist |
Abbreviated Journal |
Am Psychol |
Volume |
61 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
622-631 |
Keywords |
Animals; Birds; *Evolution; Female; Fishes; Humans; Insects; Male; Personality/*genetics/*physiology |
Abstract |
A comprehensive evolutionary framework for understanding the maintenance of heritable behavioral variation in humans is yet to be developed. Some evolutionary psychologists have argued that heritable variation will not be found in important, fitness-relevant characteristics because of the winnowing effect of natural selection. This article propounds the opposite view. Heritable variation is ubiquitous in all species, and there are a number of frameworks for understanding its persistence. The author argues that each of the Big Five dimensions of human personality can be seen as the result of a trade-off between different fitness costs and benefits. As there is no unconditionally optimal value of these trade-offs, it is to be expected that genetic diversity will be retained in the population. |
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University of Newcastle, Newcastle, United Kingdom. daniel.nettle@ncl.ac.uk |
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0003-066X |
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PMID:16953749 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4105 |
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Rosell, F.; Sanda, J.I. |
Title |
Potential risks of olfactory signaling: the effect of predators on scent marking by beavers |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Behavioral Ecology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Ecol. |
Volume |
17 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
897-904 |
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Mammals scent mark their territories to advertise occupancy and ownership. However, signaling with scent for territorial defense can have a negative effect by advertising an individual's presence and location to predators. In this study, we measured responses to a simulated territorial intrusion by conspecific adult male Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) either in the localized presence or in the absence of odor of a predator to test the hypothesis that the territorial defense of free-living beavers would be disrupted by the presence of predation risk in their natural environment. We predicted that beavers would significantly reduce their willingness to countermark intruder's scent in the presence of the scent of predators (wolf [Canis lupus] and lynx [Lynx lynx]), compared with a control (no odor), as responses are in general stronger to predator scent marks than nonpredator scent. Therefore, we also predicted that the effects of nonpredatory mammal scent (neophobic control) (eland [Taurotragus oryx] and horse [Equus cabalus]) are to be expected somewhere in between the effects of the predator odor and a control. Our results suggest that both predator and nonpredator scents reduce beavers response to a simulated intruder's scent mounds and therefore disrupt their territorial defense. However, predator scent had a stronger effect than nonpredator scent. Beavers may therefore be at great risk on territories with predators present because of the trade-off between predator avoidance and territorial defense. Our study demonstrates the potential of predation risk as a powerful agent of counterselection on olfactory signaling behavior. |
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10.1093/beheco/arl022 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4359 |
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Thornton, A.; McAuliffe, K. |
Title |
Teaching in wild meerkats |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Science (New York, N.Y.) |
Abbreviated Journal |
Science |
Volume |
313 |
Issue |
5784 |
Pages |
227-229 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Animals, Wild/psychology; Behavior, Animal; *Herpestidae/psychology; *Learning; *Predatory Behavior; South Africa; *Teaching; Vocalization, Animal |
Abstract |
Despite the obvious benefits of directed mechanisms that facilitate the efficient transfer of skills, there is little critical evidence for teaching in nonhuman animals. Using observational and experimental data, we show that wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) teach pups prey-handling skills by providing them with opportunities to interact with live prey. In response to changing pup begging calls, helpers alter their prey-provisioning methods as pups grow older, thus accelerating learning without the use of complex cognition. The lack of evidence for teaching in species other than humans may reflect problems in producing unequivocal support for the occurrence of teaching, rather than the absence of teaching. |
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Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. jant2@cam.ac.uk |
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1095-9203 |
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PMID:16840701 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2834 |
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Kerr, R.A. |
Title |
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY. Atlantic mud shows how melting ice triggered an ancient chill |
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Journal Article |
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2006 |
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Science (New York, N.Y.) |
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Science |
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312 |
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5782 |
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1860 |
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PMID:16809498 |
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refbase @ user @ |
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283 |
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Author |
Miller, G. |
Title |
Animal behavior. Signs of empathy seen in mice |
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Journal Article |
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2006 |
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Science (New York, N.Y.) |
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Science |
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312 |
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5782 |
Pages |
1860-1861 |
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Altruism; Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Empathy; Formaldehyde/administration & dosage; Mice/*psychology; Motivation; Pain/*psychology; *Social Behavior |
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1095-9203 |
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PMID:16809499 |
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refbase @ user @ |
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461 |
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Author |
Pennisi, E. |
Title |
Animal cognition. Man's best friend(s) reveal the possible roots of social intelligence |
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2006 |
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Science (New York, N.Y.) |
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Science |
Volume |
312 |
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5781 |
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1737 |
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Animals; *Cognition; Comprehension; Cooperative Behavior; Cues; Dogs/*psychology; *Evolution; *Intelligence; *Social Behavior |
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1095-9203 |
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PMID:16794056 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2835 |
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