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Author Lonsdorf, E.V.; Ross, S.R.; Linick, S.A.; Milstein, M.S.; Melber, T.N.
Title An experimental, comparative investigation of tool use in chimpanzees and gorillas Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 77 Issue 5 Pages (down) 1119-1126
Keywords chimpanzee; gorilla; Gorilla gorilla gorilla; Pan troglodytes; social structure; tool use
Abstract Studies of ape tool use have been conducted in captivity since the early 1900s and in the wild since the 1960s. Chimpanzees are the most prolific tool users among the apes, and are known to use more tools than any other nonhuman animal. In contrast, reports of gorilla tool use are rare both in wild and captive settings. Studies of the processes involved in tool use learning have been limited in the wild by the lack of ability to control several unpredictable variables, and in captivity by tool use opportunities that are often presented in non-naturalistic contexts. We attempted to address both of these limitations by providing naïve subjects with a naturalistic tool use device (built to simulate a termite mound) while housed in a more natural social setting to approximate how learning would occur in the wild. Both gorillas and chimpanzees participated in the experiment to allow comparative analyses of acquisition of tool behaviour and the factors that may affect acquisition. Both species showed low frequencies of interaction with the mound in the baseline condition, before baiting with a food reward. Once baited, chimpanzees both attempted and succeeded to extract the reward more quickly than did gorillas. The number of social group members at the mound was significantly higher for chimpanzees than for gorillas and may have affected skill acquisition. We advocate that comparative approaches to skill acquisition and learning are valuable, but that researchers need to be cognizant of species differences in social structure that may affect results.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5858
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Author Fritz, J.; Bisenberger, A.; Kotrschal, K.
Title Stimulus enhancement in greylag geese: socially mediated learning of an operant task Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal
Volume 59 Issue 6 Pages (down) 1119-1125
Keywords
Abstract We recently observed the spreading of a novel tradition in a flock of semiferal greylag geese, Anser anser: an increasing number of individuals began to bite and chew the stems of butterbur, Petasites hybridus. Because this behaviour spread particularly fast within families, social learning seemed to be involved. We therefore designed an experiment with hand-reared goslings, which were socially imprinted on humans, to investigate whether and how the observation of an experienced tutor affects the acquisition of a novel skill. Goslings had to open the gliding lid of a box to get at a food reward. To each of seven hand-reared observers a human tutor demonstrated where and how to open the lid, whereas seven controls remained untutored. All observers learned to perform the task but only one of the controls succeeded. The observers explored more often at the position shown by the tutor than elsewhere and seemingly learned by trial and error. In contrast, control birds explored primarily at positions that did not allow them to open the box. These results indicate that in greylag goslings the observation of an experienced model facilitates the learning of an operant task. We conclude that stimulus enhancement followed by operant conditioning were the mechanisms involved, which may have accounted for the fast spread of the stem-chewing tradition between family members.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5962
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Author Becker, C. D.; Ginsberg, J. R.
Title Mother-infant behaviour of wild Grevy's zebra: adaptations for survival in semidesert East Africa Type Journal Article
Year 1990 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 40 Issue 6 Pages (down) 1111-1118
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Abstract Mother-infant interactions and patterns of foal behaviour in the Grevy's zebra, Equus grevyi, differe from those reported for other equids. Grevy's zebra foals exhibit longer intervals between suckling bouts, do not drink water until they are 3 months old, and reach independence from the mare sooner than other equids. Furthermore, Grevy's zebra foals advance their acquisition of adult feeding behaviour. A 6-week-old Grevy's zebra foal spends as much time feeding as a 5-month-old wild horse foal. From the time their foals are born until the foals reach an age of 3 months, females form small groups (three females and their foals). These groups are never found further than 2·0 km from surface water and are usually associated with a territorial male. Unlike other equids, the foals of which always follow their mares, when female Grevy's zebra go to drink, they leave their foals in “kindergartens”, which are guarded by a single adult animal, usually a territorial male. It is proposed that many of these differences in behaviour and rates of juvenile development are the result of adaptation to an arid environment. Water requirements during early lactation appear to influence strongly the social behaviour of the Grevy's zebra and should also be a strong influence on the mother-infant behaviour of other arid-living ungulates.
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Notes from Professor Hans Klingels Equine Reference List Approved yes
Call Number Serial 927
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Author Pongrácz, P.; Miklósi, Á.; Kubinyi, E.; Gurobi, K.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V.
Title Social learning in dogs: the effect of a human demonstrator on the performance of dogs in a detour task Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 62 Issue 6 Pages (down) 1109-1117
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Abstract We recorded the behaviour of dogs in detour tests, in which an object (a favourite toy) or food was placed behind a V-shaped fence. Dogs were able to master this task; however, they did it more easily when they started from within the fence with the object placed outside it. Repeated detours starting from within the fence did not help the dogs to obtain the object more quickly if in a subsequent trial they started outside the fence with the object placed inside it. While six trials were not enough for the dogs to show significant improvement on their own in detouring the fence from outside, demonstration of this action by humans significantly improved the dogs' performance within two-three trials. Owners and strangers were equally effective as demonstrators. Our experiments show that dogs are able to rely on information provided by human action when confronted with a new task. While they did not copy the exact path of the human demonstrator, they easily adopted the detour behaviour shown by humans to reach their goal.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 847
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Author Richards, S.A.; de Roos, A.M.
Title When is habitat assessment an advantage when foraging? Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 61 Issue 6 Pages (down) 1101-1112
Keywords
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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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2153
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Author Whitehead, H.
Title Precision and power in the analysis of social structure using associations Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 75 Issue 3 Pages (down) 1093-1099
Keywords association; precision; social structure; statistical power
Abstract I develop guidelines for assessing the precision and power of statistical techniques that are frequently used to study nonhuman social systems using observed dyadic associations. Association indexes estimate the proportion of time that two individuals are associated. Binomial approximation and nonparametric bootstrap methods produce similar estimates of the precision of association indexes. For a mid-range (0.4-0.9) association index to have a standard error of less than 0.1 requires about 15 observations of the pair associated, and for it to be less than 0.05, this rises to 50 observations. The coefficient of variation among dyads of the proportion of time that pairs of individuals are actually associated describes social differentiation (S), and this may be estimated from association data using maximum likelihood. With a poorly differentiated population (S~0.2), a data set needs about five observed associations per dyad to achieve a correlation between true and estimated association indexes of r=~0.4. It requires about 10 times as much data to achieve a representation with r=~0.8. Permutation tests usually reject the null hypothesis that individuals have no preferred associates when S2H>5, where H is the mean number of observed associations per individual. Thus most situations require substantial numbers of observations of associations to give useful portrayals of social systems, and sparse association data inform only when social differentiation is high.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4692
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Author Cuthill, I.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Central place foraging: a reappraisal of the `loading effect' Type Journal Article
Year 1990 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 40 Issue 6 Pages (down) 1087-1101
Keywords
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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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2116
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Author Povinelli DJ; Gallup GG; Eddy TJ; Bierschwale DT; Engstrom MC
Title Chimpanzees recognize themselves in mirrors Type Journal Article
Year 1997 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 53 Issue Pages (down) 1083
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Abstract
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3029
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Author Ventolini, N.; Ferrero, E.A.; Sponza, S.; Della Chiesa, A.; Zucca, P.; Vallortigara, G.
Title Laterality in the wild: preferential hemifield use during predatory and sexual behaviour in the black-winged stilt Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 69 Issue 5 Pages (down) 1077-1084
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Abstract We recorded preferential use of the left and right monocular visual field in black-winged stilts, Himantopus himantopus, during predatory pecking and during courtship and mating behaviour in a naturalistic setting. The stilts had a population-level preference for using their right monocular visual field before predatory pecking; pecks that followed right-hemifield detection were more likely to be successful than pecks that followed left-hemifield detection, as evinced by the occurrence of swallowing and shaking head movements after pecking. In contrast, shaking behaviour, a component of courtship displays, and copulatory attempts by males were more likely to occur when females were seen with the left monocular visual field. Asymmetric hemifield use observed in natural conditions raises interesting issues as to the costs and benefits of population-level behavioural lateralization in wild animals.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5589
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Author Tomasello, M.; Call, J.; Hare, B.
Title Five primate species follow the visual gaze of conspecifics Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 55 Issue 4 Pages (down) 1063-1069
Keywords
Abstract Individuals from five primate species were tested experimentally for their ability to follow the visual gaze of conspecifics to an outside object. Subjects were from captive social groups of chimpanzees,Pan troglodytes, sooty mangabeys,Cercocebus atys torquatus, rhesus macaques,Macaca mulatta, stumptail macaques,M. arctoides, and pigtail macaques,M. nemestrina. Experimental trials consisted of an experimenter inducing one individual to look at food being displayed, and then observing the reaction of another individual (the subject) that was looking at that individual (not the food). Control trials consisted of an experimenter displaying the food in an identical manner when the subject was alone. Individuals from all species reliably followed the gaze of conspecifics, looking to the food about 80% of the time in experimental trials, compared with about 20% of the time in control trials. Results are discussed in terms of both the proximate mechanisms that might be involved and the adaptive functions that might be served by gaze-following.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 592
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