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Author Koenen, E.P.C.; van Veldhuizen, A.E.; Brascamp, E.W. url  openurl
  Title Genetic parameters of linear scored conformation traits and their relation to dressage and show-jumping performance in the Dutch Warmblood Riding Horse population Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Livestock Production Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 43 Issue 1 Pages 85-94  
  Keywords Horse; Heritability; Conformation; Dressage; Show jumping  
  Abstract (up) In this study genetic parameters of linear scored conformation traits of the Dutch Warmblood Riding Horse were estimated in relation to performance in competition. Observations on 10 665 mares were analyzed with an animal model including the fixed effects age, classifier, location and percentage of thoroughbred. Using restricted maximum likelihood algorithms, heritabilities of 26 linear scored conformation traits were estimated in the range 0.09-0.28. Several conformation traits had high up to very high mutual genetic correlations. Competition results of 3476 horses with performance in dressage and 3220 horses with performance in show-jumping were linked to the conformation data to estimate the genetic relationship between conformation and performance in competition. The model for the evaluation of the competition results included the fixed effects riding club, age and sex. Estimated heritabilities for dressage and show-jumping were 0.17 +/- 0.05 and 0.19 +/- 0.04, respectively. Genetic correlations between conformation and performance were low to moderate. The length of the neck, length and position of the shoulders, shape and length of croup and muscularity of the haunches had a significant moderate genetic correlation with dressage. Muscularity of the neck, shape of the croup and muscularity of the haunches had a significant genetic correlation with show-jumping. The results indicate that, due to the low genetic correlations with performance traits, indirect selection for performance using conformation results is of limited value.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3961  
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Author Lefebvre, L. url  openurl
  Title Ecological correlates of social learning: problems and solutions for the comparative method Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 35 Issue 1-3 Pages 163-171  
  Keywords Adaptive specialization; Social learning; Comparative method  
  Abstract (up) Interspecific variation in learning and cognition is often accounted for by adaptive specialization, an ecological framework where variation between species in the environmental problems they face is thought to select for quantitatively and/or qualitatively different abilities. Adaptive specialization theory relies on the comparative method for testing its hypotheses and assumes a naturally selected basis for the predicted differences. This review examines social learning as a specialization to group-living and scramble feeding competition. It points out one important problem with current studies in the area, the lack of quantitative controls for confounding variables that may cause type 1 or 2 error in comparative tests. A linear regression technique is proposed to measure and remove interspecific differences on control tests for which there is no predicted adaptive specialization; as in other areas of comparative biology, the adaptive prediction is then made on the residual deviation from the regression of these confounding variables. Examples are given from research on opportunistic Columbids, the group-living feral pigeon Columbia livia, and the territorial Zenaida dove, Zenaida aurita.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 843  
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Author Swaddle, J.P.; Witter, M.S. doi  openurl
  Title Chest Plumage, Dominance and Fluctuating Asymmetry in Female Starlings Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 260 Issue 1358 Pages 219-223  
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  Abstract (up) It has been proposed that levels of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) may be used in establishing and maintaining dominance hierarchies, as asymmetry reflects aspects of individual quality. However, previous manipulations of FA have failed to reveal that the level or outcome of agonistic intra-sexual interactions are affected by levels of FA. In female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), correlational data suggest that FA of the speckled chest plumage may be related to dominance status. These data are confounded, however, by total number of spots on the chest and the proportion of the chest that is white, both of which positively covary with chest asymmetry. Thus, we deconfounded the effects of these plumage traits on dominance by experimentally manipulating the number of spots and spot number asymmetry in a factorial design. The results indicated that dominance is influenced by the number of spots on the chest, but not by spot asymmetry. Birds with spottier chests were dominant over birds with experimentally decreased spot number. We suggest that female starlings' chests are exposed to extensive abrasion throughout the breeding season and so are susceptible to damage asymmetries that may mask the `true' fluctuating asymmetry of the trait. This may devalue the use of chest asymmetry as a quality indicator. Spottier chests may be costly to maintain, in part because of increased susceptibility to abrasion, and so may be a better indicator of quality than asymmetry.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2202  
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Author Boyd, R.; Richerson, P.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Why does culture increase human adaptability? Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Ethology and Sociobiology Abbreviated Journal Ethol. a. Sociob.  
  Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 125-143  
  Keywords Social learning; Adaptation; Culture; Sociobiology  
  Abstract (up) It is often argued that culture is adaptive because it allows people to acquire useful information without costly learning. In a recent paper Rogers (1989) analyzed a simple mathematical model that showed that this argument is wrong. Here we show that Rogers' result is robust. As long as the only benefit of social learning is that imitators avoid learning costs, social learning does not increase average fitness. However, we also show that social learning can be adaptive if it makes individual learning more accurate or less costly.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4196  
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Author Hart, D.; Whitlow, J.W.J. openurl 
  Title The experience of self in the bottlenose dolphin Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Consciousness and Cognition Abbreviated Journal Conscious Cogn  
  Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 244-247  
  Keywords Animal Communication; Animals; *Awareness; Body Image; Dolphins/*psychology; Female; Humans; Male; *Self Concept; Social Behavior; Species Specificity; *Television; *Visual Perception  
  Abstract (up) Marten and Psarakos have presented some evidence which suggests that objective self-awareness and possibly representations of self may characterize the dolphins' experience of self. Their research demonstrates the possibility of similarities in the sense of self between primate species and dolphins, although whether dolphins have subjective self-awareness, personal memories, and theories of self--all important facets of the sense of self in humans--was not examined. Clearly, even this limited evidence was difficult to achieve; the difficulties in adapting methods and coding behavior are quite apparent in their report. Future progress, however, may depend upon clarification of what are the necessary components for a sense of self and an explication of how these might be reflected in dolphin behavior. We are mindful of the authors' point (pp. 219 and 220) that the dolphin lives more in an acoustic than a visual environment. Thus, while tasks relying upon vision may reveal the presence or absence of the sense of self in primates, it might well be the case that in dolphins self-related experiences might be better revealed in auditory tasks. But then, what is the nature of human self-awareness in terms of audition? While both conceptual and methodological hurdles remain, Marten and Psarakos have demonstrated that important questions can be asked about the minds and phenomenal worlds of nonanthropoid species.  
  Address Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey 08102, USA  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1053-8100 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:8521264 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4162  
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Author Godin, J.-G.J.; Dugatkin, L.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Variability and repeatability of female mating preference in the guppy Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 49 Issue 6 Pages 1427-1433  
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  Abstract (up) Models of inter-sexual selection generally assume heritable variation in mating preferences among females within populations. However, little is known about the nature of such variation. The aim of this study was to characterize quantitatively the phenotypic variation in female preference for a sexually selected male trait, body colour pattern, within a population of the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata. Significantly more female guppies preferred the more brightly coloured of two similar-sized males presented simultaneously as potential mates. Mating preference scores for individual females were significantly and positively correlated between two repeated trials on successive days. Females were thus individually consistent in their particular choice of mates, and the calculated repeatability of their mating preference was relatively high. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, significant variation existed among females in the degree of their preference for brightly coloured males. Individual mating preference scores were not normally distributed, but were rather skewed to the right (i.e. towards greater values). These results suggest that additive genetic variation for mating preferences based on male colour pattern is maintained, and the opportunity for the further evolution of both bright male colour patterns and female preference for this trait appears to exist in the study population from the Quare River, Trinidad.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 492  
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Author Kiltie, R.A.; Fan, J.; Laine, A.F. openurl 
  Title A wavelet-based metric for visual texture discrimination with applications in evolutionary ecology Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Mathematical Biosciences Abbreviated Journal Math Biosci  
  Volume 126 Issue 1 Pages 21-39  
  Keywords Animals; Carnivora; *Ecology; Equidae; *Evolution; Humans; Mathematics; Models, Biological; Moths; *Pattern Recognition, Visual; Pigmentation  
  Abstract (up) Much work on natural and sexual selection is concerned with the conspicuousness of visual patterns (textures) on animal and plant surfaces. Previous attempts by evolutionary biologists to quantify apparency of such textures have involved subjective estimates of conspicuousness or statistical analyses based on transect samples. We present a method based on wavelet analysis that avoids subjectivity and that uses more of the information in image textures than transects do. Like the human visual system for texture discrimination, and probably like that of other vertebrates, this method is based on localized analysis of orientation and frequency components of the patterns composing visual textures. As examples of the metric's utility, we present analyses of crypsis for tigers, zebras, and peppered moth morphs.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville  
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  ISSN 0025-5564 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:7696817 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2660  
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Author Marinier, S.L.; Alexander, A.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Coprophagy as an avenue for foals of the domestic horse to learn food preferences from their dams Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Journal of Theoretical Biology Abbreviated Journal J. Theor. Biol.  
  Volume 173 Issue 2 Pages 121-124  
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  Abstract (up) Observation of foal development shows that the appearance of adult-type motor grazing behaviour, selection of grass vs. non-grass and the avoidance of poisonous plants occur concurrently between the ages of 4 and 6 weeks. Suckling behaviour and close association of foal with dam change with time but show no particular coincidence with grazing behavioural changes. Coprophagy of the foal on maternal faeces does, however, correspond chronologically with the foal learning to graze selectively. This correspondence suggests that, as well as other uses, in domestic horses coprophagy may function to imprint on the foal the food-selective values of its dam.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3626  
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Author Boissy, A. url  doi
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  Title Fear and Fearfulness in Animals Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication The Quarterly Review of Biology Abbreviated Journal The Quarterly Review of Biology  
  Volume 70 Issue 2 Pages 165-191  
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  Abstract (up) Persistence of individual differences in animal behavior in reactions to various environmental challenges could reflect basic divergences in temperament, which might be used to predict details of adaptive response. Although studies have been carried out on fear and anxiety in various species, including laboratory, domestic and wild animals, no consistent definition of fearfulness as a basic trait of temperament has emerged. After a classification of the events that may produce a state of fear, this article describes the great variability in behavior and in physiological patterns generally associated with emotional reactivity. The difficulties of proposing fearfulness-the general capacity to react to a variety of potentially threatening situations-as a valid basic internal variable are then discussed. Although there are many studies showing covariation among the psychobiological responses to different environmental challenges, other studies find no such correlations and raise doubts about the interpretation of fearfulness as a basic personality trait. After a critical assessment of methodologies used in fear and anxiety studies, it is suggested that discrepancies among results are mainly due to the modulation of emotional responses in animals, which depend on numerous genetic and epigenetic factors. It is difficult to compare results obtained by different methods from animals reared under various conditions and with different genetic origins. The concept of fearfulness as an inner trait is best supported by two kinds of investigations. First, an experimental approach combining ethology and experimental psychology produces undeniable indicators of emotional reactivity. Second, genetic lines selected for psychobiological traits prove useful in establishing between behavioral and neuroendocrine aspects of emotional reactivity. It is suggested that fearfulness could be considered a basic feature of the temperament of each individual, one that predisposes it to respond similarly to a variety of potentially alarming challenges, but is nevertheless continually modulated during development by the interaction of genetic traits of reactivity with environmental factors, particularly in the juvenile period. Such interaction may explain much of the interindividual variability observed in adaptive responses.  
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  Publisher The University of Chicago Press Place of Publication Editor  
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  ISSN 0033-5770 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes doi: 10.1086/418981 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6664  
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Author Figueredo, A.J.; Cox, R.L.; Rhine, R.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title A Generalizability Analysis of Subjective Personality Assessments in the Stumptail Macaque and the Zebra Finch Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Multivariate Behavioral Research Abbreviated Journal Multivariate Behav Res  
  Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 167-197  
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  Abstract (up) Psychometric findings are reported from two studies concerning the construct validity, temporal stability, and interrater reliability of the latent common factors underlying subjective assessments by human raters of personality traits in two nonhuman animal species: (a) the Stumptail macaque (Maraca arctoides), a cercopithecine monkey; and (b) the Zebra finch (Poephila guttata), an estrildid songbird. Because most theories of animal personality have historically implied that certain personality constructs should be relatively universal across taxa, parallel analyses of similar data are reported for two phylogenetically distant species of subject using the same psychometric methods. Each of the samples was drawn from a socially-housed colony of the same species: that of macaques consisted of 5 mature adult fem ales and 8 of their adult offspring and that of finches consisted of 5 adult individuals. A modified version of the 1978 Stevenson-Hinde and Zunz (SHZ) list of personality items was applied to the macaques at various times during the eight years from 1980-1988 and to the finches during 1992. This study also used the three SHZ scales – Confident, Excitable, and Sociable – originally derived from principal components. Generalizability analyses were used to assess the construct validity, temporal stability, and interrater reliability of the hypothesized factors. Both Stumptail macaques and Zebra finches manifest measurable personality factors that are highly valid across multiple items, stable across multiple years, and reliable across multiple raters. The same model fits both species, as predicted by theory. The construct validity of the factors is slightly higher for the finches than for the macaques, although the interrater reliability is somewhat lower. This study illustrates how generalizability analysis can be used to test prespecified confirmatory factor models when the number of individual subjects is quite small.  
  Address  
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  Publisher Psychology Press Place of Publication Editor  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0027-3171 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5169  
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