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Galef BG, J., & Giraldeau, L. A. (2001). Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions. Anim. Behav., 61(1), 3–15.
Abstract: We summarize 20 years of empirical and theoretical research on causes and functions of social influences on foraging by animals. We consider separately studies of social influence on when, where, what and how to eat. Implicit in discussion of the majority of studies is our assumption that social influences on foraging reflect a biasing of individual learning processes by social stimuli rather than action of independent social-learning mechanisms. Our review of theoretical approaches suggests that the majority of formally derived hypotheses concerning functions of social influence on foraging have not yet been tested adequately and many models are in need of further refinement. We also consider the importance to the future of the field of integrating 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches to the study of social learning. Copyright 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Richards, S. A., & de Roos, A. M. (2001). When is habitat assessment an advantage when foraging? Anim. Behav., 61(6), 1101–1112.
Abstract: Foragers can often show a broad range of strategies when searching for resources. The simplest foraging strategy is to search randomly within a habitat; however, foragers can often assess habitat quality over various spatial scales and use this information to keep themselves in, or direct themselves to, regions of high resource abundance or low predation risk. We investigated models that describe a population of consumers competing for a renewable resource that is distributed among discrete patches. Our aim was to identify what foraging strategy or strategies are expected to persist within a population, where strategies differ in the degree of habitat assessment (i.e. none, local, or global). We were interested in how the optimal strategies are dependent on the cost of assessment and habitat structure (i.e. the variation in renewal rates and predation risks among patches). The models showed that the simple random foraging strategy (i.e. make no habitat assessments) often persisted even when the cost of habitat assessment was low. Persistence could occur when habitat assessment and population dynamics generated an ideal free distribution because it could be exploited by the random foragers. Habitat assessment was more advantageous when consumers could not achieve ideal free distributions, which was more likely as patches became less productive. When productivity was low we sometimes observed the situation where different foraging strategies generated resource heterogeneities that promoted their coexistence, and this could occur even when all patches were intrinsically identical.
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Gosling, L. M., & Roberts, S. C. (2001). Testing ideas about the function of scent marks in territories from spatial patterns. Anim. Behav., 62(3), F7–F10.
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McLean, A. N. (2001). Cognitive abilities -- the result of selective pressures on food acquisition? Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 71(3), 241–258.
Abstract: Locating and capturing food are suggested as significant selection pressures for the evolution of various cognitive abilities in mammals and birds. The hypothesis is proposed that aspects of food procuring behaviour should be strongly indicative of particular cognitive abilities. Experimental data concerning higher mental abilities in mammals and birds are reviewed. These data deal with self-recognition studies, rule-learning experiments, number concept, deceptive abilities, tool-use and observational learning. A Darwinian approach reveals: (1) the adaptiveness of particular abilities for particular niches, (2) that in complex foraging environments, increases in foraging efficiencies in animals should result from the evolution of particular cognitive abilities, (3) that phenomena such as convergent mental evolution should be expected to have taken place across taxonomic groups for species exploiting similar niches, (4) that divergence in mental ability should also have taken place where related species have exploited dissimilar niches. Experimental data of higher mental abilities in animals concur with a Darwinian explanation for the distribution of these cognitive abilities and no anomalies have been found. There are, as a consequence, significant implications for the welfare of animals subject to training when training methodology gives little or no consideration to the various mental abilities of species.
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Kudo, H., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2001). Neocortex size and social network size in primates. Anim. Behav., 62(4), 711–722.
Abstract: Primates use social grooming to service coalitions and it has been suggested that these directly affect the fitness of their members by allowing them to reduce the intrinsic costs associated with living in large groups. We tested two hypotheses about the size of grooming cliques that derive from this suggestion: (1) that grooming clique size should correlate with relative neocortex size and (2) that the size of grooming cliques should be proportional to the size of the groups they have to support. Both predictions were confirmed, although we show that, in respect of neocortex size, there are as many as four statistically distinct grades within the primates (including humans). Analysis of the patterns of grooming among males and females suggested that large primate social groups often consist of a set of smaller female subgroups (in some cases, matrilinearly based coalitions) that are linked by individual males. This may be because males insert themselves into the interstices between weakly bonded female subgroups rather than because they actually hold these subunits together.
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Kasuya, E. (2001). Mann-Whitney U test when variances are unequal. Anim. Behav., 61(6), 1247–1249.
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Tomasello, M., & Call, J. (2001). Books Received. Animal Behaviour, 61(1), 269–270.
Abstract: The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey
Parrots. By I. M. PEPPERBERG. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press (1999).
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Munksgaard, L., DePassillé, A. M., Rushen, J., Herskin, M. S., & Kristensen, A. M. (2001). Dairy cows' fear of people: social learning, milk yield and behaviour at milking. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 73(1), 15–26.
Abstract: We examined the effects of the presence of an unfamiliar, a gentle or an aversive handler during milking on behaviour and milk yield, and whether cows can learn to approach or avoid a handler by observing the neighbouring cow?s responses. In Experiment 1, Danish Friesian cows (n=16) were treated gently (offering hay and concentrates) by one handler and aversively (hit every 15s on the head with the hand) by another handler for six periods of 2min each. The two handlers wore different coloured overalls, and each cow received either gentle or aversive treatment in the first week and the other treatment the following week. All cows kept a longer distance to the aversive than to the gentle handler in a 1min test after treatment. Milk yield and residual milk did not differ when the aversive or the gentle handler was standing in front of the cow during milking, although the cows moved their legs and tail less when the aversive handler was present. When an unfamiliar person was standing in front of the cows during milking, behaviour and milk yield did not differ from control milkings. Cows and heifers (n=10) that had observed their neighbours receiving gentle treatment by one handler and aversive treatment from another handler did not differ in the distance they kept from these two handlers. In Experiment 2, cows (n=15) that had observed the neighbours receiving a gentle treatment (eight times for 2min) kept a shorter distance to that handler after treatment of their neighbours, and the distance they kept was correlated with the distance kept by the neighbouring cows. This suggests that responses of observer cows may be affected by the responses of the cows being treated. The cows rapidly learned to avoid an aversive handler, but although the cows showed clear avoidance response to the aversive handler there was no effect on milk yield when the aversive handler was present at milking.
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Aureli, F., Cords, M., & van Schaik, C. P. (2002). Conflict resolution following aggression in gregarious animals: a predictive framework. Anim. Behav., 64(3), 325–343.
Abstract: Knowledge of how animals manage their conflicts is critical for understanding the dynamics of social systems. During the last two decades research on gregarious animals, especially primates, has focused on the mechanisms of conflict management, mainly on friendly postconflict reunions (also called `reconciliation') in which former opponents exchange affiliative behaviour soon after an aggressive conflict. Our aim in this paper is to present a framework in which the costs and benefits of friendly postconflict reunions, both for each individual opponent and for their mutual relationship, are used to predict the patterning of postconflict resolution mechanisms in other gregarious animals. The framework predicts the occurrence of postconflict reunions in species that live in stable social units, have individualized relationships, and experience postconflict hostility, but especially in those in which intragroup aggression disrupts valuable relationships. The critical issue is whether aggressive conflicts occur between cooperative partners and whether the level of aggression is sufficient to jeopardize the benefits associated with such valuable relationships. We conclude by proposing four research priorities to evaluate the role of friendly reunions in negotiating relationships and the way they are themselves influenced by asymmetries in partner value and biological market effects. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Call, J., Aureli, F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2002). Postconflict third-party affiliation in stumptailed macaques. Anim. Behav., 63(2), 209–216.
Abstract: Stumptailed macaques, Macaca arctoides, are characterized by high levels of postconflict affiliative contacts between opponents. We investigated the occurrence of postconflict affiliative contacts between opponents and third parties that were not involved in the original conflict. We collected 10-min focal observations during postconflict and control periods in which we recorded all aggressive and affiliative behaviours between opponents and third parties. We distinguished three types of third parties depending on the relationship with the focal animal: own kin, opponent's kin and individuals unrelated to both opponents. We analysed the interactions with third parties separately, while distinguishing two classes of affiliative behaviours: (1) allogrooming and contact sitting and (2) sociosexual behaviours (e.g. genital inspection). The macaques showed differences between postconflict and control periods in their affiliative contacts with third parties. Aggressors received more postconflict grooming and contact sitting from their opponents' kin, received more sociosexual behaviour from their own kin and unrelated individuals, and directed more sociosexual behaviour to unrelated individuals. Victims received and directed less postconflict grooming from and towards their own kin. They received more postconflict sociosexual behaviour from all partners except their own kin and directed more sociosexual behaviour to all partners except the opponent's kin. This study establishes the occurrence of multiple postconflict triadic affiliation in stumptailed macaques, and is the first to show that victims receive contacts from third parties in a cercopithecine species, a behaviour previously described only in chimpanzees. It also highlights the importance of analysing the different affiliative behaviours separately in postconflict situations. Otherwise, many of the patterns we report, especially those involving victims, would have been missed.
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