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Author Bode, N.W.F.; Faria, J.J.; Franks, D.W.; Krause, J.; Wood, A.J.
Title (down) How perceived threat increases synchronization in collectively moving animal groups Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 277 Issue 1697 Pages 3065-3070
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Abstract Nature is rich with many different examples of the cohesive motion of animals. Previous attempts to model collective motion have primarily focused on group behaviours of identical individuals. In contrast, we put our emphasis on modelling the contributions of different individual-level characteristics within such groups by using stochastic asynchronous updating of individual positions and orientations. Our model predicts that higher updating frequency, which we relate to perceived threat, leads to more synchronized group movement, with speed and nearest-neighbour distributions becoming more uniform. Experiments with three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) that were exposed to different threat levels provide strong empirical support for our predictions. Our results suggest that the behaviour of fish (at different states of agitation) can be explained by a single parameter in our model: the updating frequency. We postulate a mechanism for collective behavioural changes in different environment-induced contexts, and explain our findings with reference to confusion and oddity effects.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2010.0855 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5188
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Author Schneider, A.-C.; Melis, A.P.; Tomasello, M.
Title (down) How chimpanzees solve collective action problems Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
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Abstract We presented small groups of chimpanzees with two collective action situations, in which action was necessary for reward but there was a disincentive for individuals to act owing to the possibility of free-riding on the efforts of others. We found that in simpler scenarios (experiment 1) in which group size was small, there was a positive relationship between rank and action with more dominant individuals volunteering to act more often, particularly when the reward was less dispersed. Social tolerance also seemed to mediate action whereby higher tolerance levels within a group resulted in individuals of lower ranks sometimes acting and appropriating more of the reward. In more complex scenarios, when group size was larger and cooperation was necessary (experiment 2), overcoming the problem was more challenging. There was highly significant variability in the action rates of different individuals as well as between dyads, suggesting success was more greatly influenced by the individual personalities and personal relationships present in the group.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5629
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Author Tan, H.; Wilson, A.M.
Title (down) Grip and limb force limits to turning performance in competition horses Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 278 Issue 1715 Pages 2105-2111
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Abstract Manoeuverability is a key requirement for successful terrestrial locomotion, especially on variable terrain, and is a deciding factor in predator–prey interaction. Compared with straight-line running, bend running requires additional leg force to generate centripetal acceleration. In humans, this results in a reduction in maximum speed during bend running and a published model assuming maximum limb force as a constraint accurately predicts how much a sprinter must slow down on a bend given his maximum straight-line speed. In contrast, greyhounds do not slow down or change stride parameters during bend running, which suggests that their limbs can apply the additional force for this manoeuvre. We collected horizontal speed and angular velocity of heading of horses while they turned in different scenarios during competitive polo and horse racing. The data were used to evaluate the limits of turning performance. During high-speed turns of large radius horizontal speed was lower on the bend, as would be predicted from a model assuming a limb force limit to running speed. During small radius turns the angular velocity of heading decreased with increasing speed in a manner consistent with the coefficient of friction of the hoof–surface interaction setting the limit to centripetal force to avoid slipping.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2010.2395 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5701
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Author Witter, M.S.; Swaddle, J.P.
Title (down) Fluctuating Asymmetries, Competition and Dominance Type Journal Article
Year 1994 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 256 Issue 1347 Pages 299-303
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Abstract Levels of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in the primary feathers of European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, have been shown to be sensitive to nutritional and energetic stress. Furthermore, between-individual variation in plumage FA has been found to be related to social dominance, even without social interactions during feather growth, with dominant birds exhibiting the highest levels of FA. Here we examine whether the relation between dominance and FA differs when birds are housed in social groups, under different degrees of competition for food, during moult. We reason that dominants should derive a greater benefit from their social status as competition for food increases. Our results support this proposition. The relation between dominance and FA differed significantly according to the degree of competition for food. However, in no cases did the dominants exhibit lower levels of FA than subdominants. When competition for food was low, dominants had higher levels of FA than subdominants. When competition for food was high, there was no systematic relation between dominance and FA. These results suggest that dominants may only derive a net benefit from their social status, under the circumstances of our experiment, during severe conditions of competition.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2203
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Author Reeve, H. Kern
Title (down) Evolutionarily stable communication between kin: a general model Type Journal Article
Year 1997 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 264 Issue (1384) Pages 1037-1040.
Keywords Signalling Systems
Abstract At present, the most general evolutionary theory of honest communication is Grafen's model of Zahavi's 'handicap' signalling system, in which honesty of signals about the signaller's quality (e.g. mate suitability or fighting ability) is maintained by the differentially high cost of signals to signallers having lower quality. The latter model is here further generalized to include any communication between signallers and receivers that are genetically related (e.g. parents and begging offspring, cooperative or competing siblings). Signalling systems involving relatives are shown to be evolutionarily stable, despite a potential pay-off for false signalling, if the Zahavian assumption of differential signal costs holds and there are diminishing reproductive returns to the signaller as the receiver's assessed value of its attribute increases, or if, regardless of whether the Zahavian assumption holds, signallers with high values of the attribute benefit more from a given receiver assessment than signallers with low values (e.g. begging chicks that are hungrier benefit more from being fed). In stable systems of signalling among kin, it is also shown to be generally true that (i) levels of signalling and thus observed signal costs will decline as relatedness increases or as the receiver's reproductive penalty for erroneous assessment increases, and (ii) receivers will consistently, altruistically overestimate the true value of the signalled attribute.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 557
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Author Pedersen, E.J.; Kurzban, R.; McCullough, M.E.
Title (down) Do humans really punish altruistically? A closer look Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B
Volume 280 Issue 1758 Pages
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Abstract Some researchers have proposed that natural selection has given rise in humans to one or more adaptations for altruistically punishing on behalf of other individuals who have been treated unfairly, even when the punisher has no chance of benefiting via reciprocity or benefits to kin. However, empirical support for the altruistic punishment hypothesis depends on results from experiments that are vulnerable to potentially important experimental artefacts. Here, we searched for evidence of altruistic punishment in an experiment that precluded these artefacts. In so doing, we found that victims of unfairness punished transgressors, whereas witnesses of unfairness did not. Furthermore, witnesses’ emotional reactions to unfairness were characterized by envy of the unfair individual's selfish gains rather than by moralistic anger towards the unfair behaviour. In a second experiment run independently in two separate samples, we found that previous evidence for altruistic punishment plausibly resulted from affective forecasting error—that is, limitations on humans’ abilities to accurately simulate how they would feel in hypothetical situations. Together, these findings suggest that the case for altruistic punishment in humans—a view that has gained increasing attention in the biological and social sciences—has been overstated.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5804
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Author Proops, L.; McComb, K.
Title (down) Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses (Equus caballus) extends to familiar humans Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 279 Issue 1741 Pages 3131-3138
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Abstract It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5616
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Author Griffiths,S. W.; Brockmark, S.; Höjesjö,J.; Johnsson,J. I.
Title (down) Coping with divided attention: the advantage of familiarity Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 271 Issue 1540 Pages 695-699
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Abstract The ability of an animal to perform a task successfully is limited by the amount of attention being simultaneously focused on other activities. One way in which individuals might reduce the cost of divided attention is by preferentially focusing on the most beneficial tasks. In territorial animals where aggression is lower among familiar individuals, the decision to associate preferentially with familiar conspecifics may therefore confer advantages by allowing attention to be switched from aggression to predator vigilance and feeding. Wild juvenile brown trout were used to test the prediction that familiar fishes respond more quickly than unfamiliar fishes to a simulated predator attack. Our results confirm this prediction by demonstrating that familiar trout respond 14% faster than unfamiliar individuals to a predator attack. The results also show that familiar fishes consume a greater number of food items, foraging at more than twice the rate of unfamiliar conspecifics. To the best of our knowledge, these results provide the first evidence that familiarity–biased association confers advantages through the immediate fitness benefits afforded by faster predator–evasion responses and the long–term benefits provided by increased feeding opportunities.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2003.2648 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5007
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Author Johnstone, R.A.; Dugatkin, L.A.
Title (down) Coalition formation in animals and the nature of winner and loser effects Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 267 Issue 1438 Pages 17-21
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Abstract Coalition formation has been documented in a diverse array of taxa, yet there has been little formal analysis of polyadic interactions such as coalitions. Here, we develop an optimality model which examines the role of winner and loser effects in shaping coalition formation. We demonstrate that the predicted patterns of alliances are strongly dependent on the way in which winner and loser effects change with contestant strength. When winner and loser effects decrease with the resource-holding power (RHP) of the combatants, coalitions will be favoured between the strongest members of a group, but not between the weakest. If, in contrast, winner and loser effects increase with RHP, exactly the opposite predictions emerge. All other things being equal, intervention is more likely to prove worthwhile when the beneficiary of the aid is weaker (and its opponent is stronger), because the beneficiary is then less likely to win without help. Consequently, intervention is more probable when the impact of victory on the subsequent performance of a combatant increases with that individual's strength because this selects for intervention in favour of weaker combatants. The published literature on hierarchy formation does not reveal how winner and loser effects actually change with contestant strength and we therefore hope that our model will spur others to collect such data; in this light we suggest an experiment which will help to elucidate the nature of winner and loser effects and their impact on coalition formation in animals.
Address * aggression * dominance * hierarchy * intervention * reciprocity
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2000.0960 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5290
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Author Melis, A.P.; Warneken, F.; Jensen, K.; Schneider, A.-C.; Call, J.; Tomasello, M.
Title (down) Chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain food and non-food items Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 278 Issue 1710 Pages 1405-1413
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Abstract Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) sometimes help both humans and conspecifics in experimental situations in which immediate selfish benefits can be ruled out. However, in several experiments, chimpanzees have not provided food to a conspecific even when it would cost them nothing, leading to the hypothesis that prosociality in the food-provisioning context is a derived trait in humans. Here, we show that chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain both food and non-food items—given that the donor cannot get the food herself. Furthermore, we show that the key factor eliciting chimpanzees' targeted helping is the recipients' attempts to either get the food or get the attention of the potential donor. The current findings add to the accumulating body of evidence that humans and chimpanzees share the motivation and skills necessary to help others in situations in which they cannot selfishly benefit. Humans, however, show prosocial motives more readily and in a wider range of contexts.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5630
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