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Author Johnsson, J.I.; Akerman, A.
Title Watch and learn: preview of the fighting ability of opponents alters contest behaviour in rainbow trout Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 771-776
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Abstract The costs associated with initial conflicts could be reduced if animals can assess the fighting ability of possible future opponents by watching their contest success against other individuals. We tested this hypothesis by conducting repeated dyadic dominance trials on size-matched juvenile rainbow trout,Oncorhynchus mykiss. In the first trial a dyadic contest was `observed' by a single fish separated by a transparent divider. In the second trial, the observer was paired against either the `familiar' dominant fish or an unfamiliar dominant fish from the first trial. We predicted that observers should settle conflicts with previewed opponents faster and with less aggression than those with unfamiliar fish. This prediction was supported for observers that lost against a previewed competitor, since these fish reduced their aggression more rapidly than did unfamiliar observers. Familiar observers that won, however, showed a more rapid increase in aggression compared with unfamiliar winning observers. This suggests that, regardless of whether an observer challenges the initial dominant, this `decision' is taken more rapidly in conflicts with preassessed contestants, because of the a priori information about their fighting ability. Since preassessment could save energy and allow effort to be concentrated on contests with a high payoff/probability of winning, selection may favour preview strategies when contest competition over resources is important for fitness.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2869
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Author Pavey, C.R.; Smyth, A.K.
Title Effects of avian mobbing on roost use and diet of powerful owls,Ninox strenua Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 55 Issue 2 Pages 313-318
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Abstract We observed the species and numbers of mobbing birds and their effects on a large, nocturnal, bird-eating predator, the powerful owl, together with the pattern of owl predation on mobbing and non-mobbing species. Owls were mobbed on 35 occasions by seven of 44 species of forest birds at a site composed of open forest (88% by area) and rainforest (12%). The majority of bouts involved individuals of a single species, although mixed groups were observed on nine occasions. Regular mobbers were between 4 and 26% of the owls' body weight. Owls abandoned their daytime roosts during 20% of bouts and responded by calling or actively monitoring mobbers during 54% of bouts. Mobbing appeared to explain why owls roosted in rainforest significantly more often than expected by its availability, mobbing being significantly less frequent in rainforest than in open forest. Only one mobbing species regularly occupied rainforest and the canopy of roosts in rainforest was denser than that in open forest, thus reducing the chances of an owl being detected by potential mobbers. Twelve species of forest birds were within the range of prey size of the powerful owl (75-800 g): six were mobbers and six non-mobbers. The frequency of owl predation on non-mobbers was 8.75 times that on mobbers. The species in this study took a high risk by mobbing a very large predator, but benefited by greatly reducing their chances of predation.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4090
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Author Henzi, S.P.; Lycett, J.E.; Weingrill, T.
Title Mate guarding and risk assessment by male mountain baboons during inter-troop encounters Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 55 Issue 6 Pages 1421-1428
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Abstract Aggressive herding of females is a frequent but not invariant response by male savannah baboons,Papio cynocephalus, to encounters with other troops. While males in some troops are consistently more likely to herd than those in others, not all inter-troop encounters result in herding, even within particular troops. This suggests that males assess the risk of male invasion posed by each encounter and respond accordingly. We used data from baboon troops in the Drakensberg mountains to determine the rules males follow in deciding whether to herd. Consistent differences between troops were explained only by the adult sex ratio. Males were more likely to herd if the sex ratio of their own troop was female biased, a finding that is concordant with the observation that males are more likely to immigrate into troops where the sex ratio is more female biased than the population average. Differences within troops were a consequence only of encounter distance, with herding being more likely at closer distances. We found a negative correlation between the angle of approach to the other troop and the subsequent angle of deflection. We interpret this to mean that herding functions to increase the distance between the interacting troops, thereby curtailing opportunities for strange males to inspect the troop and determine its sex ratio. In this way, possibly unlike those in other populations, the decision rules of these male baboons are geared to protecting longer-term reproductive prospects.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5311
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Author Griffin, D.R.
Title From cognition to consciousness Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 1 Pages 3-16
Keywords Animal minds – Cognitive ethology – Cognition – Consciousness
Abstract This paper proposes an extension of scientific horizons in the study of animal behavior and cognition to include conscious experiences. From this perspective animals are best appreciated as actors rather than passive objects. A major adaptive function of their central nervous systems may be simple, but conscious and rational, thinking about alternative actions and choosing those the animal believes will get what it wants, or avoid what it dislikes or fears. Versatile adjustment of behavior in response to unpredictable challenges provides strongly suggestive evidence of simple but conscious thinking. And especially significant objective data about animal thoughts and feelings are already available, once communicative signals are recognized as evidence of the subjective experiences they often convey to others. The scientific investigation of human consciousness has undergone a renaissance in the 1990s, as exemplified by numerous symposia, books and two new journals. The neural correlates of cognition appear to be basically similar in all central nervous systems. Therefore other species equipped with very similar neurons, synapses, and glia may well be conscious. Simple perceptual and rational conscious thinking may be at least as important for small animals as for those with large enough brains to store extensive libraries of behavioral rules. Perhaps only in “megabrains” is most of the information processing unconscious.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3088
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Author Czeschlik, T.
Title Animal cognition – the phylogeny and ontogeny of cognitive abilities Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 1 Pages 1-2
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3100
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Author Westergaard, G.C.; Liv, C.; Chavanne, T.J.; Suomi, S.J.
Title Token-mediated tool-use by a tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages 101-106
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Abstract This research examined token-mediated tool-use in a tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella). We conducted five experiments. In experiment 1 we examined the use of plastic color-coded chips to request food, and in experiments 2-5 we examined the use of color-coded chips to request tools. Our subject learned to use chips to request tools following the same general pattern seen in great apes performing analogous tasks, that is, initial discrimination followed by an understanding of the relationship among tokens, tools, and their functions. Our findings are consistent with the view that parallel representational processes underlie the tool-related behavior of capuchins and great apes.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3152
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Author Astié, A.A.; Kacelnik, A.; Reboreda, J.C.
Title Sexual differences in memory in shiny cowbirds Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages 77-82
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Abstract Avian brood parasites depend on other species, the hosts, to raise their offspring. During the breeding season, parasitic cowbirds (Molothrus sp.) search for potential host nests to which they return for laying a few days after first locating them. Parasitic cowbirds have a larger hippocampus/telencephalon volume than non-parasitic species; this volume is larger in the sex involved in nest searching (females) and it is also larger in the breeding than in the non-breeding season. In nature, female shiny cowbirds Molothrus bonariensis search for nests without the male's assistance. Here we test whether, in association with these neuroanatomical and behavioural differences, shiny cowbirds display sexual differences in a memory task in the laboratory. We used a task consisting of finding food whose location was indicated either by the appearance or the location of a covering disk. Females learnt to retrieve food faster than males when food was associated with appearance cues, but we found no sexual differences when food was associated with a specific location. Our results are consistent with the view that parasitism and its neuroanatomical correlates affect performance in memory tasks, but the effects we found were not in the expected direction, emphasising that the nature of avian hippocampal function and its sexual differences are not yet understood.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3158
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Author Call, J.; Hare, B.A.; Tomasello, M.
Title Chimpanzee gaze following in an object-choice task Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages 89-99
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Abstract Many primate species reliably track and follow the visual gaze of conspecifics and humans, even to locations above and behind the subject. However, it is not clear whether primates follow a human's gaze to find hidden food under one of two containers in an object-choice task. In a series of experiments six adult female chimpanzees followed a human's gaze (head and eye direction) to a distal location in space above and behind them, and checked back to the human's face when they did not find anything interesting or unusual. This study also assessed whether these same subjects would also use the human's gaze in an object-choice task with three types of occluders: barriers, tubes, and bowls. Barriers and tubes permitted the experimenter to see their contents (i.e., food) whereas bowls did not. Chimpanzees used the human's gaze direction to choose the tube or barrier containing food but they did not use the human's gaze to decide between bowls. Our findings allowed us to discard both simple orientation and understanding seeing-knowing in others as the explanations for gaze following in chimpanzees. However, they did not allow us to conclusively choose between orientation combined with foraging tendencies and understanding seeing in others. One interesting possibility raised by these results is that studies in which the human cannot see the reward at the time of subject choice may potentially be underestimating chimpanzees' social knowledge.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3165
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Author Rasa, O.A.E.
Title To stay or to leave? Decision rules for partner species relocation in two symbiotic pairs of desert beetles Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 1 Pages 47-54
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Abstract Four nocturnal Kalahari desert tenebrionid beetles live in closely associated species pairs. The larger member of each pair, Parastizopus and Gonopus, are the primary burrowers while their smaller associates, Eremostibes and Herpiscius, inhabit the burrows with them and feed on detritus the larger beetles carry in. During summer drought, the two large species have different emergence times, surface activity patterns (vagilities) and different probabilities that burrows will be reoccupied before sunrise or remain empty for longer periods. Because their partners leave the burrows, the smaller species must make a decision either to stay in the expectation of a burrow being reinhabited, or leave and locate a new partner. The vagility and burrow fidelity of the associating species were studied using marked individuals in free-living populations. Field inclusion/exclusion experiments to test what influences the decision process showed that neither continual partner presence nor food induced the smaller beetles to remain. Different percentages, depending on species, left overnight. For both associates, these proportions corresponded exactly to the probability that the burrow would not be inhabited by their partner species the next day. Neither species predicted the probability of burrow reoccupation after a short vacancy and adopted a “waiting” strategy.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3166
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Author Fiorito, G.; Biederman, G.B.; Davey, V.A.; Gherardi, F.
Title The role of stimulus preexposure in problem solving by Octopus vulgaris Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication (up) Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages 107-112
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Abstract Octopus vulgaris is able to open transparent glass jars closed with plastic plugs and containing live crabs. The decrease in performance times for removing the plug and seizing the prey with increasing experience of the task has been taken to indicate learning. However, octopuses' attack behaviors are typically slow and variable in novel environmental situations. In this study the role of preexposure to selected features of the problem-solving context was investigated. Although octopuses failed to benefit from greater familiarity with the training context or with selected elements of the task of solving the jar problem, the methodological strategies used are instructive in potentially clarifying the role of complex problem-solving behaviors in this species including stimulus preexposure and social learning.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3198
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