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Author Bates, L.A.; Sayialel, K.N.; Njiraini, N.W.; Poole, J.H.; Moss, C.J.; Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) African elephants have expectations about the locations of out-of-sight family members Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication Biology Letters Abbreviated Journal Biol Lett
Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 34-36
Keywords elephants, olfaction, urine, individual recognition
Abstract Monitoring the location of conspecifics may be important to social mammals. Here, we use an expectancy-violation paradigm to test the ability of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) to keep track of their social companions from olfactory cues. We presented elephants with samples of earth mixed with urine from female conspecifics that were either kin or unrelated to them, and either unexpected or highly predictable at that location. From behavioural measurements of the elephants' reactions, we show that African elephants can recognize up to 17 females and possibly up to 30 family members from cues present in the urine-earth mix, and that they keep track of the location of these individuals in relation to themselves.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4332
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Author Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) Animal imitation Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Current Biology Abbreviated Journal
Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages R111-R114
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ISSN 0960-9822 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4735
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Author Bates, L.A.; Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) Creative or created: Using anecdotes to investigate animal cognition Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Methods Abbreviated Journal Methods
Volume 42 Issue 1 Pages 12-21
Keywords Anecdote; Creativity; Intelligence; Deception; Innovation; African elephant
Abstract In non-human animals, creative behaviour occurs spontaneously only at low frequencies, so is typically missed by standardised observational methods. Experimental approaches have tended to rely overly on paradigms from child development or adult human cognition, which may be inappropriate for species that inhabit very different perceptual worlds and possess quite different motor capacities than humans. The analysis of anecdotes offers a solution to this impasse, provided certain conditions are met. To be reliable, anecdotes must be recorded immediately after observation, and only the records of scientists experienced with the species and the individuals concerned should be used. Even then, interpretation of a single record is always ambiguous, and analysis is feasible only when collation of multiple records shows that a behaviour pattern occurs repeatedly under similar circumstances. This approach has been used successfully to study a number of creative capacities of animals: the distribution, nature and neural correlates of deception across the primate order; the occurrence of teaching in animals; and the neural correlates of several aptitudes--in birds, foraging innovation, and in primates, innovation, social learning and tool-use. Drawing on these approaches, we describe the use of this method to investigate a new problem, the cognition of the African elephant, a species whose sheer size and evolutionary distance from humans renders the conventional methods of comparative psychology of little use. The aim is both to chart the creative cognitive capacities of this species, and to devise appropriate experimental methods to confirm and extend previous findings.
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ISSN 1046-2023 ISBN Medium
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Notes also special issue: Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Creativity: A Toolkit Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6185
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Author Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) Culture in great apes: using intricate complexity in feeding skills to trace the evolutionary origin of human technical prowess Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.
Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 577-585
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Abstract Geographical cataloguing of traits, as used in human ethnography, has led to the description of “culture” in some non-human great apes. Culture, in these terms, is detected as a pattern of local ignorance resulting from environmental constraints on knowledge transmission. However, in many cases, the geographical variations may alternatively be explained by ecology. Social transmission of information can reliably be identified in many other animal species, by experiment or distinctive patterns in distribution; but the excitement of detecting culture in great apes derives from the possibility of understanding the evolution of cumulative technological culture in humans. Given this interest, I argue that great ape research should concentrate on technically complex behaviour patterns that are ubiquitous within a local population; in these cases, a wholly non-social ontogeny is highly unlikely. From this perspective, cultural transmission has an important role in the elaborate feeding skills of all species of great ape, in conveying the “gist” or organization of skills. In contrast, social learning is unlikely to be responsible for local stylistic differences, which are apt to reflect sensitive adaptations to ecology.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3527
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Author Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) Do larger brains mean greater intelligence? Type Journal Article
Year 1993 Publication Behavioral and Brain Sciences Abbreviated Journal Behav. Brain Sci.
Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 696-697
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Publisher Cambridge University Press Place of Publication Editor
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ISSN 1469-1825 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6171
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Author Riley, J.L.; Noble, D.W.A.; Byrne, R.W.; Whiting, M.J.
Title (up) Does social environment influence learning ability in a family-living lizard? Type Journal Article
Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 20 Issue 3 Pages 449-458
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Abstract Early developmental environment can have profound effects on individual physiology, behaviour, and learning. In birds and mammals, social isolation during development is known to negatively affect learning ability; yet in other taxa, like reptiles, the effect of social isolation during development on learning ability is unknown. We investigated how social environment affects learning ability in the family-living tree skink (Egernia striolata). We hypothesized that early social environment shapes cognitive development in skinks and predicted that skinks raised in social isolation would have reduced learning ability compared to skinks raised socially. Offspring were separated at birth into two rearing treatments: (1) raised alone or (2) in a pair. After 1 year, we quantified spatial learning ability of skinks in these rearing treatments (N = 14 solitary, 14 social). We found no effect of rearing treatment on learning ability. The number of skinks to successfully learn the task, the number of trials taken to learn the task, the latency to perform the task, and the number of errors in each trial did not differ between isolated and socially reared skinks. Our results were unexpected, yet the facultative nature of this species' social system may result in a reduced effect of social isolation on behaviour when compared to species with obligate sociality. Overall, our findings do not provide evidence that social environment affects development of spatial learning ability in this family-living lizard.
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ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Riley2017 Serial 6190
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Author Barton, R.A.; Byrne, R.W.; Whiten, A.
Title (up) Ecology, feeding competition and social structure in baboons Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.
Volume 38 Issue 5 Pages 321-329
Keywords Key words Ecology – Competition – Group size – Baboons
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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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 807
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Author Cochet, H.; Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) Evolutionary origins of human handedness: evaluating contrasting hypotheses Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Abbreviated Journal Animal Cognition
Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 531-542
Keywords Hand preference; Hemispheric specialization; Communicative gestures; Evolution of language; Nonhuman primates; Human children
Abstract Variation in methods and measures, resulting in past dispute over the existence of population handedness in nonhuman great apes, has impeded progress into the origins of human right-handedness and how it relates to the human hallmark of language. Pooling evidence from behavioral studies, neuroimaging and neuroanatomy, we evaluate data on manual and cerebral laterality in humans and other apes engaged in a range of manipulative tasks and in gestural communication. A simplistic human/animal partition is no longer tenable, and we review four (nonexclusive) possible drivers for the origin of population-level right-handedness: skilled manipulative activity, as in tool use; communicative gestures; organizational complexity of action, in particular hierarchical structure; and the role of intentionality in goal-directed action. Fully testing these hypotheses will require developmental and evolutionary evidence as well as modern neuroimaging data.
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Publisher Springer-Verlag Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5691
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Author Held, S.; Baumgartner, J.; Kilbride, A.; Byrne, R.W.; Mendl, M.
Title (up) Foraging behaviour in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa): remembering and prioritizing food sites of different value Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 114-121
Keywords Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; *Association Learning; Feeding Behavior/*psychology; Female; *Space Perception; Sus scrofa/*psychology
Abstract This experiment investigated whether domestic pigs can remember the locations of food sites of different relative value, and how a restricted retrieval choice affects their foraging behaviour. Nine juvenile female pigs were trained to relocate two food sites out of a possible eight in a spatial memory task. The two baited sites contained different amounts of food and an obstacle was added to the smaller amount to increase handling time. On each trial, a pig searched for the two baited sites (search visit). Once it had found and eaten the bait, it returned for a second (relocation) visit, in which the two same sites were baited. Baited sites were changed between trials. All subjects learnt the task. When allowed to retrieve both baits, the subjects showed no preference for retrieving a particular one first (experiment 1). When they were allowed to retrieve only one bait, a significant overall preference for retrieving the larger amount emerged across subjects (experiment 2). To test whether this preference reflected an avoidance of the obstacle with the smaller bait, 15 choice-restricted control trials were conducted. In control trials obstacles were present with both baits. Pigs continued to retrieve the larger bait, indicating they had discriminated between the two food sites on the basis of quantity or profitability and adjusted their behaviour accordingly when the relocation choice was restricted. This suggests for the first time that domestic pigs have the ability to discriminate between food sites of different relative value and to remember their respective locations.
Address Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, Langford, BS40 5DU, UK. suzanne.held@bris.ac.uk
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15871038 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2487
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Author Byrne, R.W.
Title (up) How monkeys find their way: leadership, coordination, and cognitive maps of African baboons. Type Book Chapter
Year 2000 Publication On the Move: How and Why Animals Travel in Groups Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 491–518
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Publisher Chicago University Press Place of Publication Chicago Editor Boinski, S.; Garber, P.A.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5146
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