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Richards, S. M. (1974). The concept of dominance and methods of assessment. Anim. Behav., 22(Part 4), 914–930.
Abstract: The arrangement of a social group of individuals into a dominance hierarchy is useful in studies of social behaviour only if a wide variety of social interactions can then be predicted. However, definitions of dominance commonly used are numerous and confused. To assess the usefulness of the concept of dominance, studies were made on six breeding groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulata) to determine whether different measures of dominance agreed with each other. The measures tested in this study were found to agree. It is therefore suggested that dominance is a useful intervening variable. Possible reasons for the reported lack of correlation between some measures used by other authors are discussed.
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Clutton-Brock, T. H., Albon, S. D., Gibson, R. M., & Guinness, F. E. (1979). The logical stag: Adaptive aspects of fighting in red deer (Cervus elaphus L.). Anim. Behav., 27(Part 1), 211–225.
Abstract: For red deer stags, fighting both has appreciable costs and yields considerable benefits. Up to 6% of rutting stags are permanently injured each year, while fighting success and reproductive success are closely related, within age groups as well as across them. Fighting behaviour is sensitive to changes in the potential benefits of fighting: stags fight most frequently and most intensely where potential benefits are high and tend to avoid fighting with individuals they are unlikely to beat. The relevance of these findings to theoretical models of fighting behaviour is discussed.
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Kacelnik, A. (1979). The foraging efficiency of great tits (Parus major L.) in relation to light intensity. Anim. Behav., 27(Part 1), 237–241.
Abstract: I report an experiment aimed at testing whether foraging efficiency of great tits is limited by light intensity at the time of the dawn chorus. Captive great tits hunting for prey under different luminance conditions were less successful in finding prey when foraging, hunted for a lower proportion of their time, and handled individual prey items for longer when luminance was under approximately 7 cd/m2. This luminance is not reached in the field until after the time of the dawn chorus, suggesting that in the early morning foraging is limited by light intensity. I suggest that a satisfactory functional explanation of the dawn chorus must take into account the comparatively low foraging opportunity early in the morning, as well as the factors affecting the opportunity for singing and other territorial activities.
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Powell, R. A. (1979). The dog: Its domestication and behavior : By . New York: Garland STPM Press (1978). 296 pp. $24.50. Anim. Behav., 27(Part 1), 318–1211.
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Roberts, J., Kacelnik, A., & Hunter, M. L. (1979). A model of sound interference in relation to acoustic communication. Anim. Behav., 27(Part 4), 1271–1273.
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Kacelnik, A. (1987). Information primacy or preference for familiar foraging techniques? A critique of Inglis & Ferguson. Anim. Behav., 35(3), 925–926.
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Cuthill, I., & Kacelnik, A. (1990). Central place foraging: a reappraisal of the `loading effect'. Anim. Behav., 40(6), 1087–1101.
Abstract: Animals that provision a central place usually bring back larger loads when foraging far from home. This positive correlation between average load size and distance is typically explained as rate-maximizing behaviour in the face of a trade-off between travel costs and a decelerating rate of prey gain in food patches (the `loading effect'). By using feeders to provide wild parent starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, with constant rates of prey loading, a positive load-distance correlation was shown to exist in the absence of a loading effect (experiment I). However, in a laboratory simulation where no load was transported (experiment II). the average number of prey eaten in patch visits by self-feeding starlings was invariant with travel distance, so the explanation of the load-distance correlation in experiment I must lie in featues peculiar to central place foraging. Bottlenecks in ingestion by chicks and interruption by visual detection of nest disturbance (experiment III) were rejected as causes of the correlation. Risks of dropping prey in flight appeared low, but the risk of kleptoparasitism received weak support. The travel-load size correlation may be an adaptive response to load transport costs, as return travel times increased with the load size being carried (experiment IV).
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Reboreda, J. C., & Kacelnik, A. (1990). On cooperation, tit-for-tat and mirros. Anim. Behav., 40(6), 1188–1189.
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Kacelnik, A., & Todd, I. A. (1992). Psychological mechanisms and the Marginal Value Theorem: effect of variability in travel time on patch exploitation. Anim. Behav., 43(2), 313–322.
Abstract: The Marginal Value Theorem (MVT) describes the behaviour that maximizes the ratio of expected gain over expected foraging time in a patchy environment. When travel time is variable, the MVT rationale and its predictions are sensitive only to the mean travel time and not to the spread or skew of the distribution. Two mechanistic arguments contradict these predictions. First, tests of the MVT have previously shown that there is a disproportionate influence of the last travel time, and second, psychological models of information processing suggest that memory for time intervals is strongly dependent on the scatter of the distribution experienced. These mechanistic concepts, combined with Jensen's inequality, suggest that patch exploitation should decrease as the scatter of the travel distribution increases. In a Skinner box experiment with pigeons, Columba livia, the problem was examined by simulating three environments with identical patches and the same mean travel time, but different travel time variability. Patch exploitation decreased with increasing variance in travel time. The results are used to argue in favour of the inclusion of realistic psychological properties as constraints in functional models of behaviour. Although both the MVT and the mechanistic models account for some features of the results, none of them can explain all the findings.
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Thouless, C. R., & Guinness, F. E. (1986). Conflict between red deer hinds: the winner always wins. Anim. Behav., 34(4), 1166–1171.
Abstract: Dominance relations between free-living, female red deer (hinds) (Cervus elaphus L.) on the Isle of Rhum, Scotland, were investigated. Most interactions were won by the older hind of the pair and this was the case even when both individuals had reached full body size. The younger hind was more likely to be the winner if the conflict was escalated or if the two hinds were strangers, in which case escalation was more frequent than usual. When outside their normal home range, older hinds were much more likely to lose, and younger ones more likely to win, than usual. These results can be best explained by the hinds using previous experience as a cue for conventional resolution of conflict, with the result that dominance relationships established early in life are perpetuated. No such cue is available if the hinds have not previously met.
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