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Author Magat, M.; Brown, C.
Title Laterality enhances cognition in Australian parrots Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 276 Issue 1676 Pages (down) 4155-4162
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Abstract Cerebral lateralization refers to the division of information processing in either hemisphere of the brain and is a ubiquitous trait among vertebrates and invertebrates. Given its widespread occurrence, it is likely that cerebral lateralization confers a fitness advantage. It has been hypothesized that this advantage takes the form of enhanced cognitive function, potentially via a dual processing mechanism whereby each hemisphere can be used to process specific types of information without contralateral interference. Here, we examined the influence of lateralization on problem solving by Australian parrots. The first task, a pebble-seed discrimination test, was designed for small parrot species that feed predominately on small seeds, which do not require any significant manipulation with the foot prior to ingestion. The second task, a string-pull problem, was designed for larger bodied species that regularly use their feet to manipulate food objects. In both cases, strongly lateralized individuals (those showing significant foot and eye biases) outperformed less strongly lateralized individuals, and this relationship was substantially stronger in the more demanding task. These results suggest that cerebral lateralization is a ubiquitous trait among Australian parrots and conveys a significant foraging advantage. Our results provide strong support for the enhanced cognitive function hypothesis.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5380
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Author McComb, K.; Shannon, G.; Durant, S.M.; Sayialel, K.; Slotow, R.; Poole, J.; Moss, C.
Title Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.
Volume 278 Issue 1722 Pages (down) 3270-3276
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Abstract The value of age is well recognized in human societies, where older individuals often emerge as leaders in tasks requiring specialized knowledge, but what part do such individuals play in other social species? Despite growing interest in how effective leadership might be achieved in animal social systems, the specific role that older leaders may play in decision-making has rarely been experimentally investigated. Here, we use a novel playback paradigm to demonstrate that in African elephants (Loxodonta africana), age affects the ability of matriarchs to make ecologically relevant decisions in a domain critical to survival—the assessment of predatory threat. While groups consistently adjust their defensive behaviour to the greater threat of three roaring lions versus one, families with younger matriarchs typically under-react to roars from male lions despite the severe danger they represent. Sensitivity to this key threat increases with matriarch age and is greatest for the oldest matriarchs, who are likely to have accumulated the most experience. Our study provides the first empirical evidence that individuals within a social group may derive significant benefits from the influence of an older leader because of their enhanced ability to make crucial decisions about predatory threat, generating important insights into selection for longevity in cognitively advanced social mammals.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5652
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Author Proops, L.; McComb, K.
Title Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses (Equus caballus) extends to familiar humans Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 279 Issue 1741 Pages (down) 3131-3138
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Abstract It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5616
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Author Bode, N.W.F.; Faria, J.J.; Franks, D.W.; Krause, J.; Wood, A.J.
Title How perceived threat increases synchronization in collectively moving animal groups Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 277 Issue 1697 Pages (down) 3065-3070
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Abstract Nature is rich with many different examples of the cohesive motion of animals. Previous attempts to model collective motion have primarily focused on group behaviours of identical individuals. In contrast, we put our emphasis on modelling the contributions of different individual-level characteristics within such groups by using stochastic asynchronous updating of individual positions and orientations. Our model predicts that higher updating frequency, which we relate to perceived threat, leads to more synchronized group movement, with speed and nearest-neighbour distributions becoming more uniform. Experiments with three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) that were exposed to different threat levels provide strong empirical support for our predictions. Our results suggest that the behaviour of fish (at different states of agitation) can be explained by a single parameter in our model: the updating frequency. We postulate a mechanism for collective behavioural changes in different environment-induced contexts, and explain our findings with reference to confusion and oddity effects.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2010.0855 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5188
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Author Gerber, B.; Hendel, T.
Title Outcome expectations drive learned behaviour in larval Drosophila Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 273 Issue 1604 Pages (down) 2965-2968
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Abstract Why does Pavlov's dog salivate? In response to the tone, or in expectation of food? While in vertebrates behaviour can be driven by expected outcomes, it is unknown whether this is true for non-vertebrates as well. We find that, in the Drosophila larva, odour memories are expressed behaviourally only if animals can expect a positive outcome from doing so. The expected outcome of tracking down an odour is determined by comparing the value of the current situation with the value of the memory for that odour. Memory is expressed behaviourally only if the expected outcome is positive. This uncovers a hitherto unrecognized evaluative processing step between an activated memory trace and behaviour control, and argues that learned behaviour reflects the pursuit of its expected outcome. Shown in a system with a simple brain, an apparently cognitive process like representing the expected outcome of behaviour seems to be a basic feature of behaviour control.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3525
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Author Tan, H.; Wilson, A.M.
Title Grip and limb force limits to turning performance in competition horses Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 278 Issue 1715 Pages (down) 2105-2111
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Abstract Manoeuverability is a key requirement for successful terrestrial locomotion, especially on variable terrain, and is a deciding factor in predator–prey interaction. Compared with straight-line running, bend running requires additional leg force to generate centripetal acceleration. In humans, this results in a reduction in maximum speed during bend running and a published model assuming maximum limb force as a constraint accurately predicts how much a sprinter must slow down on a bend given his maximum straight-line speed. In contrast, greyhounds do not slow down or change stride parameters during bend running, which suggests that their limbs can apply the additional force for this manoeuvre. We collected horizontal speed and angular velocity of heading of horses while they turned in different scenarios during competitive polo and horse racing. The data were used to evaluate the limits of turning performance. During high-speed turns of large radius horizontal speed was lower on the bend, as would be predicted from a model assuming a limb force limit to running speed. During small radius turns the angular velocity of heading decreased with increasing speed in a manner consistent with the coefficient of friction of the hoof–surface interaction setting the limit to centripetal force to avoid slipping.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2010.2395 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5701
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Author Dickens, M.J.; Delehanty, D.J.; Romero, L.M.
Title Stress and translocation: alterations in the stress physiology of translocated birds Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 276 Issue 1664 Pages (down) 2051-2056
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Abstract Translocation and reintroduction have become major conservation actions in attempts to create self-sustaining wild populations of threatened species. However, avian translocations have a high failure rate and causes for failure are poorly understood. While ‘stress’ is often cited as an important factor in translocation failure, empirical evidence of physiological stress is lacking. Here we show that experimental translocation leads to changes in the physiological stress response in chukar partridge, Alectoris chukar. We found that capture alone significantly decreased the acute glucocorticoid (corticosterone, CORT) response, but adding exposure to captivity and transport further altered the stress response axis (the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis) as evident from a decreased sensitivity of the negative feedback system. Animals that were exposed to the entire translocation procedure, in addition to the reduced acute stress response and disrupted negative feedback, had significantly lower baseline CORT concentrations and significantly reduced body weight. These data indicate that translocation alters stress physiology and that chronic stress is potentially a major factor in translocation failure. Under current practices, the restoration of threatened species through translocation may unwittingly depend on the success of chronically stressed individuals. This conclusion emphasizes the need for understanding and alleviating translocation-induced chronic stress in order to use most effectively this important conservation tool.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5582
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Author Horváth, G.; Blahó, M.; Kriska, G.; Hegedüs, R.; Gerics, B.; Farkas, R.; Åkesson, S.
Title An unexpected advantage of whiteness in horses: the most horsefly-proof horse has a depolarizing white coat Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 277 Issue 1688 Pages (down) 1643-1650
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Abstract White horses frequently suffer from malign skin cancer and visual deficiencies owing to their high sensitivity to the ultraviolet solar radiation. Furthermore, in the wild, white horses suffer a larger predation risk than dark individuals because they can more easily be detected. In spite of their greater vulnerability, white horses have been highly appreciated for centuries owing to their natural rarity. Here, we show that blood-sucking tabanid flies, known to transmit disease agents to mammals, are less attracted to white than dark horses. We also demonstrate that tabanids use reflected polarized light from the coat as a signal to find a host. The attraction of tabanids to mainly black and brown fur coats is explained by positive polarotaxis. As the host's colour determines its attractiveness to tabanids, this parameter has a strong influence on the parasite load of the host. Although we have studied only the tabanid–horse interaction, our results can probably be extrapolated to other host animals of polarotactic tabanids, as the reflection–polarization characteristics of the host's body surface are physically the same, and thus not species-dependent.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5702
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Author Tibbetts, E.A.
Title Visual signals of individual identity in the wasp Polistes fuscatus Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.
Volume 269 Issue 1423 Pages (down) 1423-1428
Keywords hymenoptera; individual-recognition; learning-insect
Abstract Individual recognition is an essential component of interactions in many social systems, but insects are often thought incapable of the sophistication necessary to recognize individuals. If this were true, it would impose limits on the societies that insects could form. For example, queens and workers of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus form a linear dominance hierarchy that determines how food, work and reproduction are divided within the colony. Such a stable hierarchy would be facilitated if individuals of different ranks have some degree of recognition. P. fuscatus wasps have, to our knowledge, previously undocumented variability in their yellow facial and abdominal markings that are intriguing candidates for signals of individual identity. Here, I describe these highly variable markings and experimentally test whether P. fuscatus queens and workers use these markings to identify individual nest-mates visually. I demonstrate that individuals whose yellow markings are experimentally altered with paint receive more aggression than control wasps who are painted in a way that does not alter their markings. Further, aggression declines towards wasps with experimentally altered markings as these novel markings become familiar to their nestmates. This evidence for individual recognition in P. fuscatus indicates that interactions between insects may be even more complex than previously anticipated.

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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ 929 Serial 4732
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Author Melis, A.P.; Warneken, F.; Jensen, K.; Schneider, A.-C.; Call, J.; Tomasello, M.
Title Chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain food and non-food items Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 278 Issue 1710 Pages (down) 1405-1413
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Abstract Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) sometimes help both humans and conspecifics in experimental situations in which immediate selfish benefits can be ruled out. However, in several experiments, chimpanzees have not provided food to a conspecific even when it would cost them nothing, leading to the hypothesis that prosociality in the food-provisioning context is a derived trait in humans. Here, we show that chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain both food and non-food items—given that the donor cannot get the food herself. Furthermore, we show that the key factor eliciting chimpanzees' targeted helping is the recipients' attempts to either get the food or get the attention of the potential donor. The current findings add to the accumulating body of evidence that humans and chimpanzees share the motivation and skills necessary to help others in situations in which they cannot selfishly benefit. Humans, however, show prosocial motives more readily and in a wider range of contexts.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5630
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