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| Author |
McElreath, R.; Strimling, P. |
| Title |
How noisy information and individual asymmetries can make `personality' an adaptation: a simple model |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
72 |
Issue |
5 |
Pages  |
1135-1139 |
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| Abstract |
Recent attention has been drawn to the existence of individual differences in correlated behaviour across contexts, animal `personality' (Gosling 2001, Psychological Bulletin, 127, 45-86) and behavioural syndromes (Sih et al. 2004b, Quarterly Review of Biology, 79, 241-277). The causes of these patterns of behaviour are subjects of debate. Here, we present a very simple model of how adaptively managing noisy information, combined with differences in individual state, can lead to evolutionarily stable differences in how individuals respond to environmental cues. When information is very noisy, behavioural syndromes are most likely, but as long as there is some error, some types of individuals display the same behaviour in all contexts. In extreme cases, very few individuals display flexible behaviour, and different stable behavioural types dominate the population. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4280 |
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| Author |
Bateson, M.; Kacelnik, A. |
| Title |
Starlings' preferences for predictable and unpredictable delays to food |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
1997 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
53 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1129-1142 |
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Risk-sensitive foraging theory is based on the premise that unpredictable runs of good or bad luck can cause a variable food source to differ in fitness value from a fixed food source yielding the same average rate of gain but no unpredictability. Thus, risk-sensitive predictions are dependent on the food intake from variable sources being not only variable but also unpredictable or `risky' in outcome. This study tested whether unpredictability is a component of the value that foraging starlings,Sturnus vulgarisattribute to food sources that are variable in the delay to obtain food. Two groups of birds chose between a fixed and a variable delay option; the variable option was unpredictable in the risky group and predictable in the risk-free group in the overall rate of intake it yielded. In both groups the fixed option was adjusted by titration to quantify the magnitude of preference for predictable and unpredictable variance. On negative energy budgets both groups were significantly risk-prone, with the risky group being significantly more risk-prone than the risk-free group. Switching the birds to positive budgets by doubling the size of each food reward had no significant effect on preference, and similar trends to those found with negative budgets were observed. These results are not readily explained by risk-sensitive foraging theory, but may be explained by the algorithm used by the birds to attribute value to average expected rewards. |
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2108 |
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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 |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2009 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
77 |
Issue |
5 |
Pages |
1119-1126 |
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chimpanzee; gorilla; Gorilla gorilla gorilla; Pan troglodytes; social structure; tool use |
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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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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5858 |
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Fritz, J.; Bisenberger, A.; Kotrschal, K. |
| Title |
Stimulus enhancement in greylag geese: socially mediated learning of an operant task |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2000 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
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59 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1119-1125 |
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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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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5962 |
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Becker, C. D.; Ginsberg, J. R. |
| Title |
Mother-infant behaviour of wild Grevy's zebra: adaptations for survival in semidesert East Africa |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
1990 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
40 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1111-1118 |
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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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from Professor Hans Klingels Equine Reference List |
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yes |
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927 |
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Pongrácz, P.; Miklósi, Á.; Kubinyi, E.; Gurobi, K.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V. |
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Social learning in dogs: the effect of a human demonstrator on the performance of dogs in a detour task |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2001 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
62 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1109-1117 |
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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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refbase @ user @ |
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847 |
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Richards, S.A.; de Roos, A.M. |
| Title |
When is habitat assessment an advantage when foraging? |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2001 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
61 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1101-1112 |
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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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2153 |
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Monard, A.M.; Duncan,P.; Boy, V. |
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The proximate mechanisms of natal dispersal in female horses. |
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Journal Article |
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1996 |
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Behaviour |
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Behaviour |
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133 |
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1095-1124 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2387 |
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Whitehead, H. |
| Title |
Precision and power in the analysis of social structure using associations |
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Journal Article |
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2008 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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75 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
1093-1099 |
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association; precision; social structure; statistical power |
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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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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4692 |
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Cuthill, I.; Kacelnik, A. |
| Title |
Central place foraging: a reappraisal of the `loading effect' |
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Journal Article |
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1990 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
40 |
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6 |
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1087-1101 |
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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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2116 |
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