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Bergmann, H. H., Klaus, S., Muller, F., & Wiesner, J. (1975). [Individuality and type specificity in the songs of a population of hazel grouse (Bonasa bonasia bonasia L., Tetraoninae, Phasianidae)]. Behaviour, 55(1-2), 94–114.
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Bergstrom, C. T., & Lachmann, M. (1998). Signaling among relatives. III. Talk is cheap. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 95(9), 5100–5105.
Abstract: The Sir Philip Sidney game has been used by numerous authors to show how signal cost can facilitate honest signaling among relatives. Here, we demonstrate that, in this game, honest cost-free signals are possible as well, under very general conditions. Moreover, these cost-free signals are better for all participants than the previously explored alternatives. Recent empirical evidence suggests that begging is energetically inexpensive for nestling birds; this finding led some researchers to question the applicability of the costly signaling framework to nestling begging. Our results show that cost-free or inexpensive signals, as observed empirically, fall within the framework of signaling theory.
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Bering, J. M. (2004). A critical review of the “enculturation hypothesis”: the effects of human rearing on great ape social cognition. Anim. Cogn., 7(4), 201–212.
Abstract: Numerous investigators have argued that early ontogenetic immersion in sociocultural environments facilitates cognitive developmental change in human-reared great apes more characteristic of Homo sapiens than of their own species. Such revamping of core, species-typical psychological systems might be manifest, according to this argument, in the emergence of mental representational competencies, a set of social cognitive skills theoretically consigned to humans alone. Human-reared great apes' capacity to engage in “true imitation,” in which both the means and ends of demonstrated actions are reproduced with fairly high rates of fidelity, and laboratory great apes' failure to do so, has frequently been interpreted as reflecting an emergent understanding of intentionality in the former. Although this epigenetic model of the effects of enculturation on social cognitive systems may be well-founded and theoretically justified in the biological literature, alternative models stressing behavioral as opposed to representational change have been largely overlooked. Here I review some of the controversy surrounding enculturation in great apes, and present an alternative nonmentalistic version of the enculturation hypothesis that can also account for enhanced imitative performance on object-oriented problem-solving tasks in human-reared animals.
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Bermudez, J. L. (1996). The moral significance of birth. Ethics, 106(2), 378–403.
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Bernstein, I. S., & Dobrofsky, M. (1981). Compensatory social responses of older pigtailed monkeys to maternal separation. Dev Psychobiol, 14(2), 163–168.
Abstract: Thirteen 3-5-year-old pigtailed monkeys were subjected to five 2-hr maternal separations while remaining in their normal social group. Significant changes in activity profiles were noted during separation and reunion phases. This suggests the continued social dependence of older offspring upon the matriarch. The shift in social activities reflected attempts by the juvenile and adolescent subjects to compensate for maternal absence by intensification of other affiliative social behavior and avoidance of potentially socially disruptive situation. The subjects oriented more towards kin in the absence of the matriarch, but actual time with kin decreased. Upon the return of the matriarch, the intensified some responses depressed during her absence and returned to preseparation social relationships. Play and aggressive responses declined whereas social approaches increased during maternal absences. Submissive responses declined upon the return of the matriarch, and play increased. The subjects also showed a marked, temporary increase of direct interaction, largely sniffing and grooming, with the matriarch upon her return.
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Bertram, D. S. (1971). Mosquitoes of British Honduras, with some comments on malaria, and on arbovirus antibodies in man and equines. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 65(6), 742–762.
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Beveridge, W. I. (1993). Unravelling the ecology of influenza A virus. Hist Philos Life Sci, 15(1), 23–32.
Abstract: For 20 years after the influenza A virus was discovered in the early 1930s, it was believed to be almost exclusively a human virus. But in the 1950s closely related viruses were discovered in diseases of horses, pigs and birds. Subsequently influenza A viruses were found to occur frequently in many species of birds, particularly ducks, usually without causing disease. Researchers showed that human and animal strains can hybridise thus producing new strains. Such hybrids may be the cause of pandemics in man. Most pandemics have started in China or eastern Russia where many people are in intimate association with animals. This situation provides a breeding ground for new strains of influenza A virus.
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Biederman, G. B., Robertson, H. A., & Vanayan, M. (1986). Observational learning of two visual discriminations by pigeons: a within-subjects design. J Exp Anal Behav, 46(1), 45–49.
Abstract: Pigeon's observational learning of successive visual discrimination was studied using within-subject comparisons of data from three experimental conditions. Two pairs of discriminative stimuli were used; each bird was exposed to two of the three experimental conditions, with different pairs of stimuli used in a given bird's two conditions. In one condition, observers were exposed to visual discriminative stimuli only. In a second condition, subjects were exposed to a randomly alternating sequence of two stimuli where the one that would subsequently be used as S+ was paired with the operation of the grain magazine. In a third experimental condition, subjects were exposed to the performance of a conspecific in the operant discrimination procedure. After exposures to conspecific performances, there was facilitation of discriminative learning, relative to that which followed exposures to stimulus and reinforcement sequences or exposures to stimulus sequences alone. Exposure to stimulus and food-delivery sequences enhanced performance relative to exposure to stimulus sequences alone. The differential effects of these three types of exposure were not attributable to order effects or to task difficulty; rather, they clearly were due to the type of exposure.
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Birch, H. L., Bailey, A. J., & Goodship, A. E. (1998). Macroscopic 'degeneration' of equine superficial digital flexor tendon is accompanied by a change in extracellular matrix composition. Equine Vet J, 30(6), 534–539.
Abstract: Injuries to the superficial digital flexor tendon are common in horses required to gallop and jump at speed. Partial rupture of this tendon usually occurs in the central core of the midmetacarpal region and may be preceded by localised degenerative changes. Post mortem examination of apparently normal equine flexor tendons has revealed an abnormal macroscopic appearance in the central core, characterised by a reddish discolouration. We have previously shown that there is also physical damage to the collagen fibres. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that the abnormal appearance is accompanied by changes in the composition of the extracellular matrix of the tendon. Biochemical analysis of the extracellular matrix demonstrated an increase in total sulphated glycosaminoglycan content, increase in the proportion of type III collagen and decrease in collagen linked fluorescence in the central core of 'degenerated' tendons relative to tissue from the peripheral region of the same tendon. Dry matter content and total collagen content were not significantly different between tendon zones or normal and 'degenerated' tendons. These changes suggest a change in cell metabolism and matrix turnover in the central core of the tendon and are likely to contribute to a decrease in mechanical properties in this part of the tendon, predisposing to the characteristic partial rupture of the tendon.
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Biro, D., Inoue-Nakamura, N., Tonooka, R., Yamakoshi, G., Sousa, C., & Matsuzawa, T. (2003). Cultural innovation and transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees: evidence from field experiments. Anim. Cogn., 6(4), 213–223.
Abstract: Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the most proficient and versatile users of tools in the wild. How such skills become integrated into the behavioural repertoire of wild chimpanzee communities is investigated here by drawing together evidence from three complementary approaches in a group of oil-palm nut- ( Elaeis guineensis) cracking chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. First, extensive surveys of communities adjacent to Bossou have shown that population-specific details of tool use, such as the selection of species of nuts as targets for cracking, cannot be explained purely on the basis of ecological differences. Second, a 16-year longitudinal record tracing the development of nut-cracking in individual chimpanzees has highlighted the importance of a critical period for learning (3-5 years of age), while the similar learning contexts experienced by siblings have been found to result in near-perfect (13 out of 14 dyads) inter-sibling correspondence in laterality. Third, novel data from field experiments involving the introduction of unfamiliar species of nuts to the Bossou group illuminates key aspects of both cultural innovation and transmission. We show that responses of individuals toward the novel items differ markedly with age, with juveniles being the most likely to explore. Furthermore, subjects are highly specific in their selection of conspecifics as models for observation, attending to the nut-cracking activities of individuals in the same age group or older, but not younger than themselves. Together with the phenomenon of inter-community migration, these results demonstrate a mechanism for the emergence of culture in wild chimpanzees.
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