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Author Mostl, E.; Rettenbacher, S.; Palme, R. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Measurement of corticosterone metabolites in birds' droppings: an analytical approach Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Ann N Y Acad Sci  
  Volume 1046 Issue Pages 17-34  
  Keywords Animals; Birds/*metabolism; Corticosterone/*analysis/metabolism; Feces/*chemistry; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Immunoassay; Molecular Structure; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity  
  Abstract Fecal steroid analyses are becoming increasingly popular among both field and laboratory scientists. The benefits associated with sampling procedures that do not require restraint, anesthesia, and blood collection include less risk to subject and investigator, as well as the potential to obtain endocrine profiles that are not influenced by the sampling procedure itself. In the feces, a species-specific pattern of metabolites is present, because glucocorticoids are extensively metabolized. Therefore, selection of adequate extraction procedures and immunoassays for measuring the relevant metabolites is a serious issue. In this review, emphasis is placed on the establishment and analytical validation of methods to measure glucocorticoid metabolites for a noninvasive evaluation of adrenocortical activity in droppings of birds.  
  Address Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Veterinarplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria. erich.moestl@vu-wien.ac.at  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0077-8923 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16055841 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4082  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Touma, C.; Palme, R. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Measuring fecal glucocorticoid metabolites in mammals and birds: the importance of validation Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Ann N Y Acad Sci  
  Volume 1046 Issue Pages 54-74  
  Keywords Animals; Birds/*metabolism; Circadian Rhythm; Feces/*chemistry; Glucocorticoids/*analysis; Mammals/*metabolism; Reproducibility of Results; Seasons; Sex Factors  
  Abstract In recent years, the noninvasive monitoring of steroid hormone metabolites in feces of mammals and droppings of birds has become an increasingly popular technique. It offers several advantages and has been applied to a variety of species under various settings. However, using this technique to reliably assess an animal's adrenocortical activity is not that simple and straightforward to apply. Because clear differences regarding the metabolism and excretion of glucocorticoid metabolites (GCMs) exist, a careful validation for each species and sex investigated is obligatory. In this review, general analytical issues regarding sample storage, extraction procedures, and immunoassays are briefly discussed, but the main focus lies on experiments and recommendations addressing the validation of fecal GCM measurements in mammals and birds. The crucial importance of scrutinizing the physiological and biological validity of fecal GCM analyses in a given species is stressed. In particular, the relevance of the technique to detect biologically meaningful alterations in adrenocortical activity must be shown. Furthermore, significant effects of the animals' sex, the time of day, season, and different life history stages are discussed, bringing about the necessity to seriously consider possible sex differences as well as diurnal and seasonal variations. Thus, comprehensive information on the animals' biology and stress physiology should be carefully taken into account. Together with an extensive physiological and biological validation, this will ensure that the measurement of fecal GCMs can be used as a powerful tool to assess adrenocortical activity in diverse investigations on laboratory, companion, farm, zoo, and wild animals.  
  Address Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, Kraepelinstrasse 2-10, D-80804 Munich, Germany. touma@mpipsykl.mpg.de  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0077-8923 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16055843 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4073  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol  
  Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 108-116  
  Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Color Perception/physiology; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Hippocampus/*physiology; Memory/*physiology; Species Specificity  
  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.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., M5S 3G3, Canada. shettle@psych.utoronto.ca  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12937349 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 367  
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Author Gauvin, S.; Giraldeau, L.-A. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Nutmeg mannikins ( Lonchura punctulata) reduce their feeding rates in response to simulated competition Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Oecologia Abbreviated Journal Oecologia  
  Volume 139 Issue 1 Pages 150-156  
  Keywords Animals; *Feeding Behavior; Population Density; *Social Behavior; *Songbirds  
  Abstract Group feeding animals experience a number of competitive foraging costs that may result in a lowered feeding rate. It is important to distinguish between reductions in feeding rates that are caused by reduced food availability and physical interactions among foragers from those caused by the mere presence of foraging companions that may be self-imposed in order to obtain some benefit of group membership. Starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris) reduce their feeding rates when in the company of simulated competitors located in an adjacent cage that cannot affect the food availability or interact with the forager. In the present study, we investigate whether the presence of simulated competitors in another species of passerine, nutmeg mannikins ( Lonchura punctulata), can result in self-imposed reductions in feeding rates. When feeding in the company of simulated competitors, mannikins spent more non-foraging time near them, fed more slowly, reduced travel times between patches, reduced their scanning time and pecked more slowly. These results provide evidence that simulated competitors induce a reduction in pecking rate: behavioural interference. These self-imposed responses to competitors may have resulted from attempts to remain close to the non-feeding companions. Such self-imposed reductions in feeding rates may be a widespread yet generally unrecognised foraging cost to group feeding individuals.  
  Address Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0029-8549 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:14722748 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2133  
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Author Dawson, B.V.; Foss, B.M. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Observational learning in budgerigars Type Journal Article
  Year 1965 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 13 Issue 4 Pages 470-474  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; *Behavior, Animal; Birds; *Learning  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2991  
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Author Zucca, P.; Milos, N.; Vallortigara, G. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 10 Issue 2 Pages 243-258  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Birds/*physiology; *Cognition; *Cues  
  Abstract Object permanence in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) was investigated using a complete version of the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Nine hand-raised jays were studied, divided into two groups according to their different developmental stages (experiment 1, older jays: 2-3 months old, n = 4; experiment 2, younger jays: 15 days old, n = 5). In the first experiment, we investigated whether older jays could achieve piagetian stage 6 of object permanence. Tasks were administered in a fixed sequence (1-15) according to the protocols used in other avian species. The aim of the second experiment was to check whether testing very young jays before their development of “neophobia” could influence the achievement times of piagetian stages. Furthermore, in this experiment tasks were administered randomly to investigate whether the jays' achievement of stage 6 follows a fixed sequence related to the development of specific cognitive abilities. All jays tested in experiments 1 and 2 fully achieved piagetian stage 6 and no “A not B” errors were observed. Performance on visible displacement tasks was better than performance on invisible ones. The results of experiment 2 show that “neophobia” affected the response of jays in terms of achievement times; the older jays in experiment 1 took longer to pass all the tasks when compared with the younger, less neophobic, jays in experiment 2. With regard to the achieving order, jays followed a fixed sequence of acquisition in experiment 2, even if tasks were administered randomly, with the exception of one subject. The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences.  
  Address Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy. zucca@units.it  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17242935 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2423  
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Author Paz-y-Miño C. G.; Bond, A.B.; Kamil, A.C.; Balda, R.P. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Pinyon jays use transitive inference to predict social dominance Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 430 Issue 7001 Pages 778-781  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Group Structure; Male; *Social Dominance; Songbirds/*physiology  
  Abstract Living in large, stable social groups is often considered to favour the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities, such as recognizing group members, tracking their social status and inferring relationships among them. An individual's place in the social order can be learned through direct interactions with others, but conflicts can be time-consuming and even injurious. Because the number of possible pairwise interactions increases rapidly with group size, members of large social groups will benefit if they can make judgments about relationships on the basis of indirect evidence. Transitive reasoning should therefore be particularly important for social individuals, allowing assessment of relationships from observations of interactions among others. Although a variety of studies have suggested that transitive inference may be used in social settings, the phenomenon has not been demonstrated under controlled conditions in animals. Here we show that highly social pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) draw sophisticated inferences about their own dominance status relative to that of strangers that they have observed interacting with known individuals. These results directly demonstrate that animals use transitive inference in social settings and imply that such cognitive capabilities are widespread among social species.  
  Address Center for Avian Cognition, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15306809 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @; Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 Serial 352  
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Author Hodgson, Z.G.; Healy, S.D. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Preference for spatial cues in a non-storing songbird species Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 211-214  
  Keywords Animals; Association Learning/*physiology; *Cues; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Female; Male; Memory/*physiology; Sex Factors; Songbirds/*physiology; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology  
  Abstract Male mammals typically outperform their conspecific females on spatial tasks. A sex difference in cues used to solve the task could underlie this performance difference as spatial ability is reliant on appropriate cue use. Although comparative studies of memory in food-storing and non-storing birds have examined species differences in cue preference, few studies have investigated differences in cue use within a species. In this study, we used a one-trial associative food-finding task to test for sex differences in cue use in the great tit, Parus major. Birds were trained to locate a food reward hidden in a well covered by a coloured cloth. To determine whether the colour of the cloth or the location of the well was learned during training, the birds were presented with three wells in the test phase: one in the original location, but covered by a cloth of a novel colour, a second in a new location covered with the original cloth and a third in a new location covered by a differently coloured cloth. Both sexes preferentially visited the well in the training location rather than either alternative. As great tits prefer colour cues over spatial cues in one-trial associative conditioning tasks, cue preference appears to be related to the task type rather than being species dependent.  
  Address Ashworth Laboratories, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK. s.healy@ed.ac.uk  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15611879 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2499  
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Author Doligez, B.; Danchin, E.; Clobert, J. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Public information and breeding habitat selection in a wild bird population Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 297 Issue 5584 Pages 1168-1170  
  Keywords *Animal Migration; Animals; Animals, Wild/physiology; *Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Cues; *Environment; Female; Male; *Nesting Behavior; Probability; *Reproduction; Songbirds/*physiology; Sweden  
  Abstract According to the “public information” hypothesis, some animal species may monitor the current reproductive success of conspecifics to assess local habitat quality and to choose their own subsequent breeding site. To test this hypothesis experimentally, we manipulated two components of public information, the mean number of offspring raised locally (“quantity”) and their condition (“quality”), in the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis. Immigration rate decreased with local offspring quantity but did not depend on local offspring quality, suggesting that immigrants are deprived of information regarding local quality. Conversely, emigration rate increased both when local offspring quantity or quality decreased, suggesting that residents can use both components of public information.  
  Address Laboratoire d'Ecologie CNRS-UMR 7625, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, 7 quai Saint Bernard, Batiment A 7eme etage, Case 237, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. blandine.doligez@esh.unibe.ch  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1095-9203 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12183627 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2841  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Drent, P.J.; van Oers, K.; van Noordwijk, A.J. doi  openurl
  Title (up) Realized heritability of personalities in the great tit (Parus major) Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 270 Issue 1510 Pages 45-51  
  Keywords Aggression; Animals; Animals, Domestic; Animals, Wild; *Behavior, Animal; Breeding; Exploratory Behavior; Female; *Heredity; Male; Selection (Genetics); Songbirds/*genetics/*physiology; Variation (Genetics)  
  Abstract Behaviour under conditions of mild stress shows consistent patterns in all vertebrates: exploratory behaviour, boldness, aggressiveness covary in the same way. The existence of highly consistent individual variation in these behavioural strategies, also referred to as personalities or coping styles, allows us to measure the behaviour under standardized conditions on birds bred in captivity, link the standardized measurements to the behaviour under natural conditions and measure natural selection in the field. We have bred the great tit (Parus major), a classical model species for the study of behaviour under natural conditions, in captivity. Here, we report a realized heritability of 54 +/- 5% for early exploratory behaviour, based on four generations of bi-directional artificial selection. In addition to this, we measured hand-reared juveniles and their wild-caught parents in the laboratory. The heritability found in the mid-offspring-mid-parent regression was significantly different from zero. We have thus established the presence of considerable amounts of genetic variation for personality types in a wild bird.  
  Address Netherlands Institute of Ecology, PO Box 40, 6666 ZG Heteren, The Netherlands. drent@cto.nioo.knaw.nl  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12590770 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 591  
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