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Author Silk, J.B.; Alberts, S.C.; Altmann, J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social Bonds of Female Baboons Enhance Infant Survival Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Science Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 302 Issue 5648 Pages 1231-1234  
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  Abstract Among nonhuman primates, females often form strong bonds with kin and other group members. These relationships are thought to have adaptive value for females, but direct effects of sociality on fitness have never been demonstrated. We present 16 years of behavioral data from a well-studied population of wild baboons, which demonstrate that sociality of adult females is positively associated with infant survival, an important component of variation in female lifetime fitness. The effects of sociality on infant survival are independent of the effects of dominance rank, group membership, and environmental conditions. Our results are consistent with the evidence that social support has beneficial effects on human health and well-being across the life span. For humans and other primates, sociality has adaptive value.  
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  Notes 10.1126/science.1088580 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5151  
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Author Cameron, E.Z.; Setsaas, T.H.; Linklater, W.L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social bonds between unrelated females increase reproductive success in feral horses Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 106 Issue 33 Pages 13850-13853  
  Keywords (up)  
  Abstract In many mammals, females form close social bonds with members of their group, usually between kin. Studies of social bonds and their fitness benefits have not been investigated outside primates, and are confounded by the relatedness between individuals in primate groups. Bonds may arise from kin selection and inclusive fitness rather than through direct benefits of association. However, female equids live in long-term social groups with unrelated members. We present 4 years of behavioral data, which demonstrate that social integration between unrelated females increases both foal birth rates and survival, independent of maternal habitat quality, social group type, dominance status, and age. Also, we show that such social integration reduces harassment by males. Consequently, social integration has strong direct fitness consequences between nonrelatives, suggesting that social bonds can evolve based on these direct benefits alone. Our results support recent studies highlighting the importance of direct benefits in maintaining cooperative behavior, while controlling for the confounding influence of kinship.  
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  Notes 10.1073/pnas.0900639106 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5152  
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Author Neumann Inga D; Veenema Alexa H; Beiderbeck Daniela I url  doi
openurl 
  Title Aggression and anxiety: social context and neurobiological links Type Journal Article
  Year 2010 Publication Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages  
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  Abstract BACKGROUND: Psychopathologies such as anxiety- and depression-related disorders are often characterized by impaired social behaviours including excessive aggression and violence. Excessive aggression and violence likely develop as a consequence of generally disturbed emotional regulation, such as abnormally high or low levels of anxiety. This suggests an overlap between brain circuitries and neurochemical systems regulating aggression and anxiety. In this review, we will discuss different forms of male aggression, rodent models of excessive aggression, and neurobiological mechanisms underlying male aggression in the context of anxiety. We will summarize our attempts to establish an animal model of high and abnormal aggression using rats selected for high (HAB) versus low (LAB) anxiety-related behaviour. Briefly, male LAB rats and, to a lesser extent, male HAB rats show high and abnormal forms of aggression compared with non-selected (NAB) rats, making them a suitable animal model for studying excessive aggression in the context of extremes in innate anxiety. In addition, we will discuss differences in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, brain arginine vasopressin, and the serotonin systems, among others, which contribute to the distinct behavioural phenotypes related to aggression and anxiety. Further investigation of the neurobiological systems in animals with distinct anxiety phenotypes might provide valuable information about the link between excessive aggression and disturbed emotional regulation, which is essential for understanding the social and emotional deficits that are characteristic of many human psychiatric disorders.  
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  ISSN Issn 1662-5153 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5163  
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Author Bode, N.W.F.; Faria, J.J.; Franks, D.W.; Krause, J.; Wood, A.J. url  doi
openurl 
  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 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 Dugatkin, L.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Breaking up fights between others: a model of intervention behaviour Type Journal Article
  Year 1998 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B  
  Volume 265 Issue 1394 Pages 433-437  
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  Abstract To examine when and why animals break up fights between others in their group, I modelled whether ‘winner’ and ‘loser’ effects might be one element driving the evolution of intervention behaviour. I considered one particular type of intervention: when the intervener simply breaks up fights between two others, but does not favour either party in so doing. When victories at time T + 1 are more likely given a victory at time T (i.e. winner effects), intervention is often favoured. Intervention is favoured in these circumstances because the intervening party in essence stops others from ‘getting on a roll’ and climbing up any hierarchy that exists. However, when loser effects alone are at work (defeats at time T + 1 are more likely given a defeat at time T), breaking up fights between others is never selected. If both winner and loser effects are operating simultaneously, then the likelihood of intervention behaviour evolving is a function of the relative strength of these two effects. The greater the winner effect relative to the loser effect, the more likely intervention behaviour is to evolve.  
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  Notes 10.1098/rspb.1998.0313 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5240  
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Author Ward, A.J.W.; Sumpter, D.J.T.; Couzin, I.D.; Hart, P.J.B.; Krause, J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Quorum decision-making facilitates information transfer in fish shoals Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 105 Issue 19 Pages 6948-6953  
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  Abstract Despite the growing interest in collective phenomena such as “swarm intelligence” and “wisdom of the crowds,” little is known about the mechanisms underlying decision-making in vertebrate animal groups. How do animals use the behavior of others to make more accurate decisions, especially when it is not possible to identify which individuals possess pertinent information? One plausible answer is that individuals respond only when they see a threshold number of individuals perform a particular behavior. Here, we investigate the role of such “quorum responses” in the movement decisions of fish (three-spine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus). We show that a quorum response to conspecifics can explain how sticklebacks make collective movement decisions, both in the absence and presence of a potential predation risk. Importantly our experimental work shows that a quorum response can reduce the likelihood of amplification of nonadaptive following behavior. Whereas the traveling direction of solitary fish was strongly influenced by a single replica conspecific, the replica was largely ignored by larger groups of four or eight sticklebacks under risk, and the addition of a second replica was required to exert influence on the movement decisions of such groups. Model simulations further predict that quorum responses by fish improve the accuracy and speed of their decision-making over that of independent decision-makers or those using a weak linear response. This study shows that effective and accurate information transfer in groups may be gained only through nonlinear responses of group members to each other, thus highlighting the importance of quorum decision-making.  
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  Notes 10.1073/pnas.0710344105 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5252  
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Author Schmidt, M.; Lipson, H. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Distilling Free-Form Natural Laws from Experimental Data Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Science Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 324 Issue 5923 Pages 81-85  
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  Abstract For centuries, scientists have attempted to identify and document analytical laws that underlie physical phenomena in nature. Despite the prevalence of computing power, the process of finding natural laws and their corresponding equations has resisted automation. A key challenge to finding analytic relations automatically is defining algorithmically what makes a correlation in observed data important and insightful. We propose a principle for the identification of nontriviality. We demonstrated this approach by automatically searching motion-tracking data captured from various physical systems, ranging from simple harmonic oscillators to chaotic double-pendula. Without any prior knowledge about physics, kinematics, or geometry, the algorithm discovered Hamiltonians, Lagrangians, and other laws of geometric and momentum conservation. The discovery rate accelerated as laws found for simpler systems were used to bootstrap explanations for more complex systems, gradually uncovering the “alphabet” used to describe those systems.  
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  Notes 10.1126/science.1165893 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5264  
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Author Bugnyar, T. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Knower–guesser differentiation in ravens: others' viewpoints matter Type Journal Article
  Year 2011 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 278 Issue 1705 Pages 634-640  
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  Abstract Differentiating between individuals with different knowledge states is an important step in child development and has been considered as a hallmark in human evolution. Recently, primates and corvids have been reported to pass knower–guesser tasks, raising the possibility of mental attribution skills in non-human animals. Yet, it has been difficult to distinguish ‘mind-reading’ from behaviour-reading alternatives, specifically the use of behavioural cues and/or the application of associatively learned rules. Here, I show that ravens (Corvus corax) observing an experimenter hiding food are capable of predicting the behaviour of bystanders that had been visible at both, none or just one of two caching events. Manipulating the competitors' visual field independently of the view of the test-subject resulted in an instant drop in performance, whereas controls for behavioural cues had no such effect. These findings indicate that ravens not only remember whom they have seen at caching but also take into account that the other's view was blocked. Notably, it does not suffice for the birds to associate specific competitors with specific caches. These results support the idea that certain socio-ecological conditions may select for similar cognitive abilities in distantly related species and that some birds have evolved analogous precursors to a human theory-of-mind.  
  Address raven; Corvus corax; knowledge attribution; perspective; competitive food retrieval; caching  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5287  
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Author Johnstone, R.A.; Dugatkin, L.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Coalition formation in animals and the nature of winner and loser effects Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 267 Issue 1438 Pages 17-21  
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  Abstract Coalition formation has been documented in a diverse array of taxa, yet there has been little formal analysis of polyadic interactions such as coalitions. Here, we develop an optimality model which examines the role of winner and loser effects in shaping coalition formation. We demonstrate that the predicted patterns of alliances are strongly dependent on the way in which winner and loser effects change with contestant strength. When winner and loser effects decrease with the resource-holding power (RHP) of the combatants, coalitions will be favoured between the strongest members of a group, but not between the weakest. If, in contrast, winner and loser effects increase with RHP, exactly the opposite predictions emerge. All other things being equal, intervention is more likely to prove worthwhile when the beneficiary of the aid is weaker (and its opponent is stronger), because the beneficiary is then less likely to win without help. Consequently, intervention is more probable when the impact of victory on the subsequent performance of a combatant increases with that individual's strength because this selects for intervention in favour of weaker combatants. The published literature on hierarchy formation does not reveal how winner and loser effects actually change with contestant strength and we therefore hope that our model will spur others to collect such data; in this light we suggest an experiment which will help to elucidate the nature of winner and loser effects and their impact on coalition formation in animals.  
  Address * aggression * dominance * hierarchy * intervention * reciprocity  
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  Notes 10.1098/rspb.2000.0960 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5290  
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Author Begall, S.; Cervený, J.; Neef, J.; Vojtech, O.; Burda, H. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 105 Issue 36 Pages 13451-13455  
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  Abstract We demonstrate by means of simple, noninvasive methods (analysis of satellite images, field observations, and measuring “deer beds” in snow) that domestic cattle (n = 8,510 in 308 pastures) across the globe, and grazing and resting red and roe deer (n = 2,974 at 241 localities), align their body axes in roughly a north–south direction. Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north. This study reveals the magnetic alignment in large mammals based on statistically sufficient sample sizes. Our findings open horizons for the study of magnetoreception in general and are of potential significance for applied ethology (husbandry, animal welfare). They challenge neuroscientists and biophysics to explain the proximate mechanisms.  
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  Notes 10.1073/pnas.0803650105 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5316  
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