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Author Linklater, W.L. doi  openurl
  Title Adaptive explanation in socio-ecology: lessons from the Equidae Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Abbreviated Journal Biol. Rev.  
  Volume 75 Issue 1 Pages 1-20  
  Keywords *Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; Ecology; Equidae/*physiology; Female; Male; Phylogeny  
  Abstract Socio-ecological explanations for intra- and interspecific variation in the social and spatial organization of animals predominate in the scientific literature. The socio-ecological model, developed first for the Bovidae and Cervidae, is commonly applied more widely to other groups including the Equidae. Intraspecific comparisons are particularly valuable because they allow the role of environment and demography on social and spatial organization to be understood while controlling for phylogeny or morphology which confound interspecific comparisons. Feral horse (Equus caballus Linnaeus 1758) populations with different demography inhabit a range of environments throughout the world. I use 56 reports to obtain 23 measures or characteristics of the behaviour and the social and spatial organization of 19 feral horse populations in which the environment, demography, management, research effort and sample size are also described. Comparison shows that different populations had remarkably similar social and spatial organization and that group sizes and composition, and home range sizes varied as much within as between populations. I assess the few exceptions to uniformity and conclude that they are due to the attributes of the studies themselves, particularly to poor definition of terms and inadequate empiricism, rather than to the environment or demography per se. Interspecific comparisons show that equid species adhere to their different social and spatial organizations despite similarities in their environments and even when species are sympatric. Furthermore, equid male territoriality has been ill-defined in previous studies, observations presented as evidence of territoriality are also found in non-territorial equids, and populations of supposedly territorial species demonstrate female defence polygyny. Thus, territoriality may not be a useful categorization in the Equidae. Moreover, although equid socio-ecologists have relied on the socio-ecological model derived from the extremely diverse Bovidae and Cervidae for explanations of variation in equine society, the homomorphic, but large and polygynous, and monogeneric Equidae do not support previous socio-ecological explanations for relationships between body size, mating system and sexual dimorphism in ungulates. Consequently, in spite of the efforts of numerous authors during the past two decades, functional explanations of apparent differences in feral horse and equid social and spatial organization and behaviour based on assumptions of their current utility in the environmental or demographic context remain unconvincing. Nevertheless, differences in social cohesion between species that are insensitive to intra- and interspecific variation in habitat and predation pressure warrant explanation. Thus, I propose alternative avenues of inquiry including testing for species-specific differences in inter-individual aggression and investigating the role of phylogenetic constraints in equine society. The Equidae are evidence of the relative importance of phylogeny and biological structure, and unimportance of the present-day environment, in animal behaviour and social and spatial organization.  
  Address Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand  
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  ISSN 1464-7931 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10740891 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2024  
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Author Feh, C.; Munkhtuya, B.; Enkhbold, S.; Sukhbaatar, T. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Ecology and social structure of the Gobi khulan Equus hemionus subsp. in the Gobi B National Park, Mongolia Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Biological Conservation Abbreviated Journal Biol. Conserva.  
  Volume 101 Issue 1 Pages 51-61  
  Keywords Equus hemionus; Ecology and social structure; Gobi National Park; Mongolia  
  Abstract The status of the Gobi khulan Equus hemionus subsp. is recorded as “insufficiently known” in the Species Survival Commission's Equid Action Plan. Recent counts confirm that Mongolia holds the most important population of the whole species. Since 1953, the animals have benefited from a protected status, but this is now challenged. A 5-year study in the B part of the Gobi National Park on one subpopulation showed that it has remained stable over the past 15 years with an adequate mean reproductive rate of 15% and a 50% survival rate over the first year. Age/sex related mortality and prey analysis indicate that wolf predation probably has some impact on the population, in particular for 4-6-year-olds of both sexes at the start of reproduction. Desert and mountain steppes are the khulan's year-round preferred habitat, but `oases', play an important role at the beginning of lactation. Anthropogenic factors affect both home range and habitat use through direct intervention or permanent occupation of the scarce water sources. Khulans of this subpopulation, unlike other Asian and African wild asses, form year-round stable, non-territorial families. These families and all-male groups join together into “bands” in winter, and herds of several hundred animals, where reproductive rate is highest, form throughout the year. The existence of such herds may thus be critical for the breeding success of the population. Our study provides the first detailed quantitative data for this subspecies, which will help to monitor changes in the future.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2289  
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Author Burke, D.; Cieplucha, C.; Cass, J.; Russell, F.; Fry, G. doi  openurl
  Title Win-shift and win-stay learning in the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 2 Pages 79-84  
  Keywords Animals; Echidna/*psychology; Ecology; Female; *Learning; *Memory; *Predatory Behavior; Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract Numerous previous investigators have explained species differences in spatial memory performance in terms of differences in foraging ecology. In three experiments we attempted to extend these findings by examining the extent to which the spatial memory performance of echidnas (or “spiny anteaters”) can be understood in terms of the spatio-temporal distribution of their prey (ants and termites). This is a species and a foraging situation that have not been examined in this way before. Echidnas were better able to learn to avoid a previously rewarding location (to “win-shift”) than to learn to return to a previously rewarding location (to “win-stay”), at short retention intervals, but were unable to learn either of these strategies at retention intervals of 90 min. The short retention interval results support the ecological hypothesis, but the long retention interval results do not.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. darren_burke@uow.edu.au  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12150039 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2605  
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Author No authors listed openurl 
  Title Workshop on the geographic spread of Aedes albopictus in Europe and the concern among public health authorities. Proceedings of a workshop held at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy, 19-20 December 1994 Type Conference Article
  Year 1995 Publication Parassitologia Abbreviated Journal Parassitologia  
  Volume 37 Issue 2-3 Pages 87-90  
  Keywords *Aedes/growth & development/parasitology/virology; African horse sickness virus; Animals; Commerce; Dengue Virus; Dirofilaria; Disease Reservoirs; Ecology; Europe; Humans; *Insect Vectors/growth & development/parasitology/virology; Italy; *Mosquito Control/methods/organization & administration; Public Health; Rift Valley fever virus  
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  ISSN 0048-2951 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8778669 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2659  
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Author [No authors listed] openurl 
  Title International Conference on Environmental Cadmium: an overview Type Conference Article
  Year 1979 Publication Environmental Health Perspectives Abbreviated Journal Environ Health Perspect  
  Volume 28 Issue Pages 297-30  
  Keywords Animals; Cadmium/*toxicity; Cadmium Poisoning/metabolism; Congresses; Ecology; Environmental Exposure; Environmental Pollutants/*toxicity; Female; Forecasting; Haplorhini; Horses; Humans; Rats; Waste Disposal, Fluid  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0091-6765 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:39745 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2694  
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Author Henson, S.M.; Dennis, B.; Hayward, J.L.; Cushing, J.M.; Galusha, J.G. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Predicting the dynamics of animal behaviour in field populations Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 74 Issue 1 Pages 103-110  
  Keywords colony occupancy; differential equation; dynamic modelling; glaucous-winged gull; habitat ecology; Larus glaucescens; mathematical modelling; sleep; territory attendance  
  Abstract Many species show considerable variation in behaviour among individuals. We show that some behaviours are largely deterministic and predictable with mathematical models. We propose a general differential equation model of behaviour in field populations and use the methodology to explain and predict the dynamics of sleep and colony attendance in seabirds as a function of environmental factors. Our model explained over half the variability in the data to which it was fitted, and it predicted the dynamics of an independent data set. Differential equation models may provide new approaches to the study of behaviour in animals and humans.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4206  
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Author Janson, C.; Byrne, R. url  doi
openurl 
  Title What wild primates know about resources: opening up the black box Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 357-367  
  Keywords Cognitive map – Primate – Foraging – Ecology – Psychology  
  Abstract Abstract  We present the theoretical and practical difficulties of inferring the cognitive processes involved in spatial movement decisions of primates and other animals based on studies of their foraging behavior in the wild. Because the possible cognitive processes involved in foraging are not known a priori for a given species, some observed spatial movements could be consistent with a large number of processes ranging from simple undirected search processes to strategic goal-oriented travel. Two basic approaches can help to reveal the cognitive processes: (1) experiments designed to test specific mechanisms; (2) comparison of observed movements with predicted ones based on models of hypothesized foraging modes (ideally, quantitative ones). We describe how these two approaches have been applied to evidence for spatial knowledge of resources in primates, and for various hypothesized goals of spatial decisions in primates, reviewing what is now established. We conclude with a synthesis emphasizing what kinds of spatial movement data on unmanipulated primate populations in the wild are most useful in deciphering goal-oriented processes from random processes. Basic to all of these is an estimate of the animals ability to detect resources during search. Given knowledge of the animals detection ability, there are several observable patterns of resource use incompatible with a pure search process. These patterns include increasing movement speed when approaching versus leaving a resource, increasingly directed movement toward more valuable resources, and directed travel to distant resources from many starting locations. Thus, it should be possible to assess and compare spatial cognition across a variety of primate species and thus trace its ecological and evolutionary correlates.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Admin @ knut @ Serial 4214  
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Author Griffin, A.S. doi  openurl
  Title Socially acquired predator avoidance: Is it just classical conditioning? Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Brain Research Bulletin Abbreviated Journal Special Issue:Brain Mechanisms, Cognition and Behaviour in Birds  
  Volume 76 Issue 3 Pages 264-271  
  Keywords Learning; Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning; Social learning; Ecological specialization; General process theory; Ecology; Predation; Backward conditioning  
  Abstract Associative learning theories presume the existence of a general purpose learning process, the structure of which does not mirror the demands of any particular learning problem. In contrast, learning scientists working within an Evolutionary Biology tradition believe that learning processes have been shaped by ecological demands. One potential means of exploring how ecology may have modified properties of acquisition is to use associative learning theory as a framework within which to analyse a particular learning phenomenon. Recent work has used this approach to examine whether socially transmitted predator avoidance can be conceptualised as a classical conditioning process in which a novel predator stimulus acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and acquires control over an avoidance response after it has become associated with alarm signals of social companions, the unconditioned stimulus (US). I review here a series of studies examining the effect of CS/US presentation timing on the likelihood of acquisition. Results suggest that socially acquired predator avoidance may be less sensitive to forward relationships than traditional classical conditioning paradigms. I make the case that socially acquired predator avoidance is an exciting novel one-trial learning paradigm that could be studied along side fear conditioning. Comparisons between social and non-social learning of danger at both the behavioural and neural level may yield a better understanding of how ecology might shape properties and mechanisms of learning.  
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  ISSN 0361-9230 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4697  
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Author Healy, S.D.; Jones, C.M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Animal learning and memory: an integration of cognition and ecology Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Zoology Abbreviated Journal Zoology  
  Volume 105 Issue 4 Pages 321-327  
  Keywords cognitive ecology; spatial learning and memory; adaptive specialisation  
  Abstract Summary A wonderfully lucid framework for the ways to understand animal behaviour is that represented by the four [`]whys' proposed by Tinbergen (1963). For much of the past three decades, however, these four avenues have been pursued more or less in parallel. Functional questions, for example, have been addressed by behavioural ecologists, mechanistic questions by psychologists and ethologists, ontogenetic questions by developmental biologists and neuroscientists and phylogenetic questions by evolutionary biologists. More recently, the value of integration between these differing views has become apparent. In this brief review, we concentrate especially on current attempts to integrate mechanistic and functional approaches. Most of our understanding of learning and memory in animals comes from the psychological literature, which tends to use only rats or pigeons, and more occasionally primates, as subjects. The underlying psychological assumption is of general processes that are similar across species and contexts rather than a range of specific abilities. However, this does not seem to be entirely true as several learned behaviours have been described that are specific to particular species or contexts. The first conspicuous exception to the generalist assumption was the demonstration of long delay taste aversion learning in rats (Garcia et al., 1955), in which it was shown that a stimulus need not be temporally contiguous with a response for the animal to make an association between food and illness. Subsequently, a number of other examples, such as imprinting and song learning in birds (e.g., Bolhuis and Honey, 1998; Catchpole and Slater, 1995; Horn, 1998), have been thoroughly researched. Even in these cases, however, it has been typical for only a few species to be studied (domestic chicks provide the [`]model' imprinting species and canaries and zebra finches the song learning [`]models'). As a result, a great deal is understood about the neural underpinnings and development of the behaviour, but substantially less is understood about interspecific variation and whether variation in behaviour is correlated with variation in neural processing (see review by Tramontin and Brenowitz, 2000 but see ten Cate and Vos, 1999).  
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  ISSN 0944-2006 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4741  
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Author Barton, R.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Neocortex size and behavioural ecology in primates Type Journal Article
  Year 1996 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B Abbreviated Journal Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B  
  Volume 263 Issue 1367 Pages 173-177  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Brain/*anatomy & histology; Cerebral Cortex/*anatomy & histology/*physiology; *Ecology; Evolution; Primates/anatomy & histology/*physiology/psychology; Regression Analysis; Species Specificity  
  Abstract The neocortex is widely held to have been the focus of mammalian brain evolution, but what selection pressures explain the observed diversity in its size and structure? Among primates, comparative studies suggest that neocortical evolution is related to the cognitive demands of sociality, and here I confirm that neocortex size and social group size are positively correlated once phylogenetic associations and overall brain size are taken into account. This association holds within haplorhine but not strepsirhine primates. In addition, the neocortex is larger in diurnal than in nocturnal primates, and among diurnal haplorhines its size is positively correlated with the degree of frugivory. These ecological correlates reflect the diverse sensory-cognitive functions of the neocortex.  
  Address Department of Anthropology, University of Durham  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8728982 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4783  
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