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Author (up) Dumont, B.; Boissy, A.; Achard, C.; Sibbald, A.M.; Erhard, H.W.
Title Consistency of animal order in spontaneous group movements allows the measurement of leadership in a group of grazing heifers Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 95 Issue 1-2 Pages 55-66
Keywords Cattle; Grazing; Leadership; Movement order; Walking
Abstract The term `leadership' has been used in several different senses, resulting in very different ways of identifying leaders and apparently inconsistent conclusions on how leadership is determined in herbivores. We therefore propose the following definitions: (i) a leader is the individual that is consistently the one who initiates long-distance, spontaneous group movements toward a new feeding site and (ii) long-distance spontaneous group movements are movements which happen when an animal changes activity and location and is immediately followed by a similar change in activity and location by other members of the group. Using these definitions, we tested for consistency of movement order across time and situation within a group of fifteen 2-year-old heifers. We found that the same individual was recorded as the very first animal in 48% of movements toward a new feeding site and could therefore be identified as the `leader'. We also showed that movement order when the animals entered an experimental plot, or progressed slowly through the field during a grazing bout, did not produce the same result. This method, which enables us to identify leaders in groups of animals at pasture, should improve our knowledge of how leadership is determined in grazing herbivores.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 Serial 2027
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Author (up) Dunbar, R.I.M.; McAdam, M.R.; O'connell, S.
Title Mental rehearsal in great apes (Pan troglodytes and Pongo pygmaeus) and children Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.
Volume 69 Issue 3 Pages 323-330
Keywords Algorithms; Animals; Child; Child, Preschool; Food; Frontal Lobe/anatomy & histology/physiology; Humans; *Imagination; Pan troglodytes; Pongo pygmaeus; Problem Solving/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward
Abstract The ability to rehearse possible future courses of action in the mind is an important feature of advanced social cognition in humans, and the “social brain” hypothesis implies that it might also be a feature of primate social cognition. We tested two chimpanzees, six orangutans and 63 children aged 3-7 years on a set of four puzzle boxes, half of which were presented with an opportunity to observe the box before being allowed to open it (“prior view”), the others being given without an opportunity to examine the boxes before handling them (“no prior view”). When learning effects are partialled out, puzzle boxes in the “prior view” condition were opened significantly faster than boxes given in the “no prior view” condition by the children, but not by either of the great apes. The three species differ significantly in the speed with which they opened boxes in the “no prior view” condition. The three species' performance on this task was a function of relative frontal lobe volume, suggesting that it may be possible to identify quantitative neuropsychological differences between species.
Address Evolutionary Psychology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. rimd@liv.ac.uk
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15896530 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2097
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Author (up) Earley, R.L.; Druen, M.; Alan Dugatkin, L.
Title Watching fights does not alter a bystander's response towards naive conspecifics in male green swordtail fish, Xiphophorus helleri Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 69 Issue 5 Pages 1139-1145
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Abstract Bystanders are capable of extracting cues from signalling interactions between others and appear to use information gained via eavesdropping when confronted with the watched individuals. A question that has gained little attention is whether observing fights affects bystander behaviour outside the context of interacting with the watched individuals. Our aim was to determine whether watching fights elicits general changes in bystander aggression levels in Xiphophorus helleri. We manipulated the bystanders' ability to witness encounters using clear, one-way-mirror and opaque partitions. After watching (or not watching) an initial contest, the bystanders were pitted against naive conspecifics instead of the animals they had seen fight. Observing fights did not alter the bystanders' propensity to initiate aggression, escalate, or win against naive individuals, indicating that bystanders do not experience general changes in aggressive behaviour after watching a fight. Earlier work in this species, however, has shown that bystanders respond in predictable ways to individuals they have witnessed winning or losing a fight. Taken together, these data support the notion that bystanders consistently modify their behaviour towards previously watched winners or losers in response to information gained via eavesdropping. We discuss our results in light of some recent work on the behavioural and endocrinological responses triggered by watching fights and suggest that comparative approaches to understanding networking phenomena may be productive.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 394
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Author (up) Ernst, K.; Puppe, B.; Schon, P.C.; Manteuffel, G.
Title A complex automatic feeding system for pigs aimed to induce successful behavioural coping by cognitive adaptation Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 91 Issue 3-4 Pages 205-218
Keywords Learning; Cognition; Reward; Welfare; Pig
Abstract In modern intensive husbandry systems there is an increasing tendency for animals to interact with technical equipment. If the animal-technology interface is well-designed this may improve animal welfare by offering challenges for cognitive adaptation. Here a system and its application is presented that acoustically calls individual pigs out of a group (n = 8) to a feeding station. In three different learning phases, the computer-controlled “call-feeding-station” (CFS) trained the animals to recognize a specific acoustic signal as a summons for food, using a combination of classical and operant conditioning techniques. The experimental group's stall contained four CFSs, at each of which one animal at a time was able to feed. When an animal had learned to discriminate and recognize its individual acoustic signal it had to localize the particular CFS that was calling and to enter inside it. Then, it received a portion of feed, the amount of which was adapted to the respective age of the animals. Each animal was called at several, unpredictable times each day and the computer programme ensured that the total feed supply was sufficient for each animal. In the last phase of the experiment the animals, in addition, had to press a button with an increasing fixed ratio for the delivery of feed. It was demonstrated that the pigs were able to adapt quickly to the CFSs. Although they were challenged over 12 h daily by requirements of attention, sensory localization and motor efforts to gain comparatively low amounts of feed, they performed well and reached fairly constant success rates between 90 and 95% and short delays between 14 and 16 s between a summons and the food release in the last phase of the experiment. The weight gain during the experiment was the same as in a conventionally fed control group (n = 8). We therefore conclude that CFSs present a positive challenge to the animals with no negative effects on performance but with a potentially beneficial role for welfare and against boredom. The system is also a suitable experimental platform for research on the effects of successful adaptation by rewarded cognitive processes in pigs.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2898
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Author (up) Feh, C.
Title Relationships and Communication in Socially Natural Horse Herds Type Book Chapter
Year 2005 Publication The domestic horse : the origins, development, and management of its behaviour Abbreviated Journal The domestic horse : the origins, development, and management of its behaviour
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Abstract Horses are quite unique. In most mammals, sexes segregate and maintain bonds only during the breeding season (Clutton-Brock, 1989). Some canids, a few rodents and primate species such as gorillas, hamadryas baboons and red howler monkeys are the exception, where the same males stay with the same females all year round and over many breeding seasons. Typically, both sexes disperse at puberty in these species. In horses, it was clearly shown that the causes for female dispersal were incest avoidance and not intra-specific competition (Monard, 1996). As a rule, this is confirmed for mammal species where tenure length by males exceeds the age at first reproduction in females (Clutton-Brock, 1989). When horses are allowed to choose their mating partner freely, the inbreeding coefficient of the offspring is lower than expected should they mate randomly (Duncan et al, 1984).
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Publisher Cambridge University Press 2005 Place of Publication Cambridge Editor Mills, D. S. ; McDonnell, , S. M.
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ISSN ISBN 13 978-0-521-81414-6 Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @; Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.092 Serial 472
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Author (up) Ferkin, M.H.; Pierce, A.A.; Sealand, R.O.; Delbarco-Trillo, J.
Title Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, can distinguish more over-marks from fewer over-marks Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 182-189
Keywords Animals; Arvicolinae/*psychology; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Intermediate Filament Proteins; Male; Mathematics; Sex Factors; *Smell
Abstract Is it possible that voles have a sense of number? To address this question, we determined whether voles discriminate between two different scent-marking individuals and identify the individual whose scent marks was on top more often than the other individual. We tested whether voles show a preference for the individual whose scent marks was on top most often. If so, the simplest explanation was that voles can make a relative size judgement-such as distinguishing an area containing more of one individual's over-marks as compared to less of another individual's over-marks. We found that voles respond preferentially to the donor that provided a greater number of over-marks as compared to the donor that provided a lesser number of over-marks. Thus, we concluded that voles might display the capacity for relative numerousness. Interestingly, female voles were better able than male voles to distinguish between small differences in the relative number of over-marks by the two scent donors.
Address Department of Biology, The University of Memphis, Ellington Hall, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. mhferkin@memphis.edu
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15580367 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2501
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Author (up) Fernández-Juricic,E.; Smith, R.; Kacelnik,A.
Title Increasing the costs of conspecific scanning in socially foraging starlings affects vigilance and foraging behaviour Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 69 Issue 1 Pages 73-81
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Abstract Social foragers receive and use information both about companions (social information) and about events external to the group, such as presence of potential predators. Scanning behaviour is often incorporated in theoretical models using simplifying assumptions in relation to the trade-off in information gathering between body postures (head-up versus head-down); however, some avian visual systems may allow individuals to scan in both body postures. We studied these issues experimentally, using starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, foraging in enclosures on natural fields. We varied the availability of information from conspecifics by placing visual barriers that blocked the view when the subjects were in head-down position and by manipulating the distance between group members. We found that as social information was reduced, starlings spent more time scanning (on and off the ground) and head-up scanning was mainly oriented towards conspecifics. The visual-obstruction effects imply that some information about conspecifics is normally gathered while starlings are foraging head-down. Neighbour distance and visual obstruction negatively affected food-searching rates and intake rates in two ways: (1) the effect of obstruction was mediated mostly through time competition between foraging and scanning on the ground, and (2) the effect of distance was due to a reduction in the rate of prey returns per searching effort while the birds were head-down. We conclude that the head-up posture is only one component of scanning, that the effects of head-down scanning should also be considered in species with ample visual fields, and that scanning in starlings is strongly connected to monitoring other flock members.
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Call Number Serial 2105
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Author (up) Flack, J.C.; de Waal, F.B.M.; Krakauer, D.C.
Title Social structure, robustness, and policing cost in a cognitively sophisticated species Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication The American Naturalist Abbreviated Journal Am Nat
Volume 165 Issue 5 Pages E126-139
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Conflict (Psychology); Female; Macaca nemestrina/*physiology; Male; Models, Biological; *Social Behavior
Abstract Conflict management is one of the primary requirements for social complexity. Of the many forms of conflict management, one of the rarest and most interesting is third-party policing, or intervening impartially to control conflict. Third-party policing should be hard to evolve because policers personally pay a cost for intervening, while the benefits are diffused over the whole group. In this study we investigate the incidence and costs of policing in a primate society. We report quantitative evidence of non-kin policing in the nonhuman primate, the pigtailed macaque. We find that policing is effective at reducing the intensity of or terminating conflict when performed by the most powerful individuals. We define a measure, social power consensus, that predicts effective low-cost interventions by powerful individuals and ineffective, relatively costly interventions by low-power individuals. Finally, we develop a simple probabilistic model to explore whether the degree to which policing can effectively reduce the societal cost of conflict is dependent on variance in the distribution of power. Our data and simple model suggest that third-party policing effectiveness and cost are dependent on power structure and might emerge only in societies with high variance in power.
Address Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA. jflack@santafe.edu
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1537-5323 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15795848 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 168
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Author (up) Flack, J.C.; Krakauer, D.C.; de Waal, F.B.M.
Title Robustness mechanisms in primate societies: a perturbation study Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 272 Issue 1568 Pages 1091-1099
Keywords Aggression/physiology; Animals; *Conflict (Psychology); Female; *Hierarchy, Social; Macaca nemestrina/*physiology; Male; *Models, Theoretical; Observation; *Social Behavior
Abstract Conflict management mechanisms have a direct, critical effect on system robustness because they mitigate conflict intensity and help repair damaged relationships. However, robustness mechanisms can also have indirect effects on system integrity by facilitating interactions among components. We explore the indirect role that conflict management mechanisms play in the maintenance of social system robustness, using a perturbation technique to 'knockout' components responsible for effective conflict management. We explore the effects of knockout on pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) social organization, using a captive group of 84 individuals. This system is ideal in addressing this question because there is heterogeneity in performance of conflict management. Consequently, conflict managers can be easily removed without disrupting other control structures. We find that powerful conflict managers are essential in maintaining social order for the benefit of all members of society. We show that knockout of components responsible for conflict management results in system destabilization by significantly increasing mean levels of conflict and aggression, decreasing socio-positive interaction and decreasing the operation of repair mechanisms.
Address Santa Fe Institute, NM 87501, USA. jflack@santafe.edu
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ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:16024369 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 165
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Author (up) Fripp, D.; Owen, C.; Quintana-Rizzo, E.; Shapiro, A.; Buckstaff, K.; Jankowski, K.; Wells, R.; Tyack, P.
Title Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves appear to model their signature whistles on the signature whistles of community members Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 17-26
Keywords Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; Dolphins/*psychology; Female; *Imitative Behavior; Individuality; *Learning; *Social Environment; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Bottlenose dolphins are unusual among non-human mammals in their ability to learn new sounds. This study investigates the importance of vocal learning in the development of dolphin signature whistles and the influence of social interactions on that process. We used focal animal behavioral follows to observe six calves in Sarasota Bay, Fla., recording their social associations during their first summer, and their signature whistles during their second. The signature whistles of five calves were determined. Using dynamic time warping (DTW) of frequency contours, the calves' signature whistles were compared to the signature whistles of several sets of dolphins: their own associates, the other calves' associates, Tampa Bay dolphins, and captive dolphins. Whistles were considered similar if their DTW similarity score was greater than those of 95% of the whistle comparisons. Association was defined primarily in terms of time within 50 m of the mother/calf pair. On average, there were six dolphins with signature whistles similar to the signature whistles of each of the calves. These were significantly more likely to be Sarasota Bay resident dolphins than non-Sarasota dolphins, and (though not significantly) more likely to be dolphins that were within 50 m of the mother and calf less than 5% of the time. These results suggest that calves may model their signature whistles on the signature whistles of members of their community, possibly community members with whom they associate only rarely.
Address Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. deborah.fripp@verizon.net
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15221637 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2520
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