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Mertens, P. A., & Unshelm, J. (1996). Effects of Group and Individual Housing on the Behavior of Kennelled Dogs in Animal Shelters. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 9, 40–51.
Abstract: To emphasize the effects of group- and single housing of kennelled dogs, the behavior of 211 dogs in two German animal shelters was tested and observed. After being placed, 197 of the dogs' new owners were interviewed.
Although 51% of the German animal shelters already keep dogs in groups, there is strong prejudice against group housing because of the fear of fights. This study demonstrates that this apprehension is unfounded. Ninety-one percent of the social confrontations between dogs housed together were settled by the use of behavioral rituals. Keeping dogs in groups, furthermore, leads to a significant reduction in noise emission (p<.001). Group housing fulfills the dog's need for social interaction and the need to move. Dogs that were housed in groups displayed a closer human-animal relationship (80%) than those that had been kept individually (43%). A high percentage of individually housed dogs suffered from behavioral problems (31%) and 10% developed stereotypes. The percentage of behaviorally disturbed dogs observed in group housing was 11%, and stereotyped forms of behavior did not occur. Dogs who had been kept in groups were, on average, placed within 10 days, and were returned to the animal shelter less often (9%) compared to those housed individually (25%). Dogs that were housed separately needed an average of 17 days to be placed. Even after being placed, there is a correlation between the animal shelter's type of housing and the dog's behavior. Within four weeks after picking up their pet, 88% of the owners of dogs that had been housed individually complained of problems compared to the owners of the dogs that had been kept in groups, 53% of whom were completely satisfied with the adoption. Despite the fact that these results might be influenced by the small number of shelters examined, the study leads to the conclusion that keeping dogs in groups is a suitable alternative for dog housing in animal shelters and, for the animals' welfare, is preferable to individual housing. |
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Barnes, J. I., & Jager, J. L. V. de. (1996). Economic and financial incentives for wildlife use on private land in Namibia and the implications for policy. S. Afr. J. Wildl. Res, 26(2), 37–46.
Abstract: Abstract
Aggregate estimates for wildlife populations and species diversity on private land in Namibia were made for 1972 and 1992, using questionnaire surveys. Numbers of species and biomass appear to have increased by some 80 percent, or three percent per annum over the period. The number of game species recorded increased by 44 percent. Cost – benefit analysis models were developed and used to analyse economic and financial efficiency of land use involving wildlife on private land. Financial profitability was generally low with both livestock – game production for consumptive use and wildlife production for non-consumptive use. However these activities appear to be economically efficient, and result in a positive contribution to National Income. The results suggest that there are financial incentives for private landholders to group together and form large scale conservancies. The latter benefit from economies of scale which make them more financially profitable and robust, and also more economically efficient, than ranches. Wildlife production for non-consumptive wildlife viewing was found to yield greater economic net value added per unit of land than livestock – wildlife production for consumptive use. This was particularly the case at the larger conservancy scale of operation. Aggregate estimates, in 1994 prices, of the annual net value added to National Income from wildlife use on private land are N$ 30.6 million in 1972 and N$ 56 million in 1992. The economic value of wildlife use as a proportion of the economic value of all private land rangeland uses appears to have risen from five percent to eleven percent over the twenty year period. Current policy to promote the development of wildlife conservancies appears to be economically sound, particularly where these are aimed at eventual conversion to wildlife-based tourism uses. _________________________ |
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Barton, R. A., Byrne, R. W., & Whiten, A. (1996). Ecology, feeding competition and social structure in baboons. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 38(5), 321–329.
Abstract: Predictions of the model of van Schaik (1989) of female-bonding in primates are tested by systematically comparing the ecology, level of within-group contest competition for food (WGC), and patterns of social behaviour found in two contrasting baboon populations. Significant differences were found in food distribution (percentage of the diet from clumped sources), feeding supplant rates and grooming patterns. In accord with the model, the tendencies of females to affiliate and form coalitions with one another, and to be philopatric, were strongest where ecological conditions promoted WGC. Group fission in the population with strong WGC was “horizontal” with respect to female dominance rank, and associated with female-female aggression during a period of elevated feeding competition. In contrast, where WGC was low, females' grooming was focused on adult males rather than other females. Recent evidence suggests that group fission here is initiated by males, tends to result in the formation of one-male groups, and is not related to feeding competition but to male-male competition for mates. An ecological model of baboon social structure is presented which incorporates the effects of female-female competition, male-male competition, and predation pressure. The model potentially accounts for wide variability in group size, group structure and social relationships within the genus Papio. Socio-ecological convergence between common baboons and hamadryas baboons, however, may be limited in some respects by phylogenetic inertia.
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Fulhorst, C. F., Hardy, J. L., Eldridge, B. F., Chiles, R. E., & Reeves, W. C. (1996). Ecology of Jamestown Canyon virus (Bunyaviridae: California serogroup) in coastal California. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 55(2), 185–189.
Abstract: This paper reports the first isolation of Jamestown Canyon (JC) virus from coastal California and the results of tests for antibody to JC virus in mammals living in coastal California. The virus isolation was made from a pool of 50 Aedes dorsalis females collected as adults from Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County, California. The virus isolate was identified by two-way plaque reduction-serum dilution neutralization tests done in Vero cell cultures. Sera from the mammals were tested for antibody to JC virus by a plaque-reduction serum dilution neutralization method. A high prevalence of JC virus-specific antibody was found in horses and cattle sampled from Morro Bay. This finding is additional evidence for the presence of a virus antigenically identical or closely related to JC virus in Morro Bay and indicates that the vectors of the virus in Morro Bay feed on large mammals. A high prevalence of virus-specific antibody was also found in horses sampled from Marin and San Diego counties. This finding suggests that viruses antigenically identical or closely related to JC virus are geographically widespread in coastal California.
Keywords: Aedes/virology; Animals; Antibodies, Viral/blood; California/epidemiology; Cattle; Cattle Diseases/epidemiology; Deer; Dog Diseases/epidemiology; Dogs; Encephalitis Virus, California/immunology/*isolation & purification; Encephalitis, California/epidemiology/*veterinary; Female; Horse Diseases/epidemiology; Horses; Insect Vectors/virology; Lagomorpha; Male; Neutralization Tests/veterinary; Peromyscus; Rodent Diseases/epidemiology; Sigmodontinae
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Kroodsma, D. E., & Miller, E. H. (Eds.). (1996). Ecology and evolution of acoustic communication in birds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
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Tomasello, M. (1996). Do apes ape? In C. M. Heyes, & B. G. Galef (Eds.), Social learning in animals: the roots of culture (pp. 319–346). London: Academic Press.
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Bennett, A. T. (1996). Do animals have cognitive maps? J Exp Biol, 199(Pt 1), 219–224.
Abstract: Drawing on studies of humans, rodents, birds and arthropods, I show that 'cognitive maps' have been used to describe a wide variety of spatial concepts. There are, however, two main definitions. One, sensu Tolman, O'Keefe and Nadel, is that a cognitive map is a powerful memory of landmarks which allows novel short-cutting to occur. The other, sensu Gallistel, is that a cognitive map is any representation of space held by an animal. Other definitions with quite different meanings are also summarised. I argue that no animal has been conclusively shown to have a cognitive map, sensu Tolman, O'Keefe and Nadel, because simpler explanations of the crucial novel short-cutting results are invariably possible. Owing to the repeated inability of experimenters to eliminate these simpler explanations over at least 15 years, and the confusion caused by the numerous contradictory definitions of a cognitive map, I argue that the cognitive map is no longer a useful hypothesis for elucidating the spatial behaviour of animals and that use of the term should be avoided.
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Ballew, R. M., Sabelko, J., & Gruebele, M. (1996). Direct observation of fast protein folding: the initial collapse of apomyoglobin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 93(12), 5759–5764.
Abstract: The rapid refolding dynamics of apomyoglobin are followed by a new temperature-jump fluorescence technique on a 15-ns to 0.5-ms time scale in vitro. The apparatus measures the protein-folding history in a single sweep in standard aqueous buffers. The earliest steps during folding to a compact state are observed and are complete in under 20 micros. Experiments on mutants and consideration of steady-state CD and fluorescence spectra indicate that the observed microsecond phase monitors assembly of an A x (H x G) helix subunit. Measurements at different viscosities indicate diffusive behavior even at low viscosities, in agreement with motions of a solvent-exposed protein during the initial collapse.
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Fetterman, J. G. (1996). Dimensions of stimulus complexity. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process, 22(1), 3–18.
Abstract: Animal learning research has increasingly used complex stimuli that approximate natural objects, events, and locations, a trend that has accompanied a resurgence of interest in the role of cognitive factors in learning. Accounts of complex stimulus control have focused mainly on cognitive mechanisms and largely ignored the contribution of stimulus information to perception and memory for complex events. It is argued here that research on animal learning stands to benefit from a more detailed consideration of the stimulus and that James Gibson's stimulus-centered theory of perception serves as a useful framework for analyses of complex stimuli. Several issues in the field of animal learning and cognition are considered from the Gibsonian perspective on stimuli, including the fundamental problem of defining the effective stimulus.
Keywords: Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Cognition; *Learning; Memory; Time Factors
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Prud`homme, J., & Chapais, B. (1996). Development of intervention behavior in Japanese macaques: Testing the targeting hypothesis. Int. J. Primatol., 17(3), 429–443.
Abstract: Matrilineal dominance systems, which characterize several species of cercopithecines, are determined largely by the patterning of third-party aggressive interventions in conflicts. Although the role of interventions in structuring rank relations has received much attention, very few studies have dealt specifically with the development of intervention behavior. In other words,most studies have focused on the interventions received and their effect on the recipients rather than on the interventions performed and the goals of the interveners. We analyzed the intervention behavior of 10 juvenile females in a colony of 40 Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)housed at the University of Montreal Laboratory of Behavioral Primatology. The analysis of 749 interventions performed by the juveniles over their first 4 years and 2425 interventions received over the same period reveals that (1) juvenile females intervened selectively against females ranking below their mother, (2) they began to intervene at about the same time that they began to challenge the latter females in dyadic contests, (3) they sided with females as well as with males against these females, (4) juvenile interveners incurred little risks in terms of aggressive retaliation from their targets, (5) they derived immediate benefits in terms of conflicts won over stronger targets, (6) interventions often did not take place when the possible recipients needed support, and (7) interveners did not conform to a pattern of mutually preferential support. These results support the view that interventions by juveniles are selfish (vs altruistic) and constitute a low-cost and effective means to target and to outrank prospectively subordinate females.
Keywords: Biomedical and Life Sciences
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