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Discrimination And Generalization Of Leaf Damage By Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Pamela G. Real, Ruth Iannazzi, Alan C. Kamil, Bernd Heinrich

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) responded to projected black-and-white silhouettes of cherry leaves that were either undamaged or were damaged by either cryptic caterpillars that disguise leaf damage due to their feeding or by noncryptic caterpillars that do not disguise leaf damage due to their feeding. Pecks to the key on which the images were projected were reinforced only if interresponse times fell within specified temporal boundaries. These boundaries were different in the presence of the two types of leaf damage. Following training with one exemplar of each damage type, the jays correctly categorized novel instances of both types. …

Dummy-Elicited Aggressive Behavior In The Polychromatic Midas Cichlid, George W. Barlow, William Rogers, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

Aggressive responses of 12 individuals of the polychromatic Midas cichlid Cichlasoma citrinellum were tested with five different sizes of neutrally colored (spot pattern) life-like dummies. The dummies were presented daily over six days, for one minute apiece, in a balanced design. Color (gold or normal morph) and sex of the subjects were varied independently. The attacks and threats at the dummies were positively correlated in their occurrence so they were combined to yield an aggregate measure of aggression. Attacks on blinded juveniles, five minutes before and five minutes after viewing a dummy, were analyzed to test for the occurrence of …

Aspects Of The Nesting Ecology Of Least Terns And Piping Plovers In Central Nebraska, Craig A. Faanes

Papers in Ornithology

Breeding habitat of the least tern is made up primarily of coastal beaches and inland river sandbars. Populations of the interior (Sterna antillarum athalassos) and east coast (S. a. antillarum) subspecies are now declining (Marshall et al. 1975, Duffy 1977, Jernigan et al. 1978) and the western subspecies (S. a. browni) is endangered (Wilbur 1974). Although coastal populations have received considerable attention (Wolk 1974, Atwood et al. 1977, Blodgett 1978), little research has been conducted on the interior race (Hardy 1957, Downing 1975).

The piping plover inhabits river sandbars and sand beaches and, like …

Optimal Foraging Theory And The Psychology Of Learning, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

The development of optimization theory has made important contributions to the study of animal behavior. But the optimization approach needs to be integrated with other methods of ethology and psychology. For example, the ability to learn is an important component of efficient foraging behavior in many species, and the psychology of animal learning could contribute substantially to testing and extending the predictions of optimal foraging theory.

Visual Search And Selection Of Natural Stimuli In The Pigeon: The Attention Threshold Hypothesis, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

During visual search for samples of varying proportions of familiar, natural food grains displayed against a complex gravel background, pigeons exhibited “matching selection,” a tendency to overselect the more common grain. The matching selection effect was decreased at low levels of stimulus/background contrast and reversed when the grains were highly conspicuous. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that stimulus detectability should be enhanced by recent experience with a particular grain type, but they showed no convincing indications of a corresponding effect on the response criterion. An explanatory model, termed the attention threshold hypothesis, argues that the mean latency of …

Scaring Of Carrion Crows (Corvus Corone Corone) By Species-Specific Distress Calls And Suspended Bodies Of Dead Crows, Luzia Naef-Daenzer

Bird Control Seminars Proceedings

In Switzerland, carrion crows can cause considerable damage to sprouting corn fields when feeding on the germinated corn. I tried to evaluate a method to prevent these damages. The use of species-specific distress calls, for the first time described by Frings and Jumber (1954), seemed to be the most promising method. Agronomes and biologists have applied it in field studies to several different bird species causing damage in agriculture and on airports (e.g., Gramet, 1962; Brough, 1968). However, the literature either describes single actions or several different scaring devices being used together. To be able to judge the method, quantitative …

The Transmission Of Learned Behavior: An Observational Study Of Father-Child Interactions During Fishing, Judy Diamond, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Mechanisms of transmission of learned behavior were described in terms of the behavioral interactions between fathers and their children as they fished from a pier on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis and the patterns of association in the behavioral repertoire were described in detail. Groupings of associated behaviors ranged from clusters suggestive of modeling or simple showing to complex combinations of behaviors involved in teaching. There were indications that the transmission behaviors varied with the content of the transmitted information and the role of the performer. Role differentiation in the transmission behaviors …

The Foraging Behavior Of Lacewing Larvae On Vertical Rods, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The foraging behavior of lacewing larvae (Chrysopa carnea Stephens, Chrysopidae, Neuroptera) on vertical lucite rods was observed under a variety of experimental conditions to investigate the decision processes responsible for the distribution of foraging effort. Food deprivation increased the duration of searching on all parts of the rod, whereas contact with prey at the rod tip induced only a local enhancement of searching activity. Searching at the rod tip did not decline with repeated trials on the same rod, but the duration of searching on the rest of the rod was reduced, evidently reflecting recognition and avoidance of previously-searched …

An Analysis Of Howling Response Parameters Useful For Wolf Pack Censusing, Fred H. Harrington, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were studied from April 1972 through April 1974 in National Forest in northeastern Minnesota by radio-tracking and simulated howling. Based during 217 of 456 howling sessions, the following recommendations were derived for using howling as a census technique: (1) the best times of day are dusk and night; (2) July, August, and are the best months; (3) precipitation and winds greater than 12 km/hour should be avoided; (of 5 single howls should be used, alternating "flat" and "breaking" howls; (5) trials should 3 times at about 2-minute intervals with the first trial at lower …

Spatial Learning As An Adaptation In Hummingbirds, Susan Cole, F. Reed Hainsworth, Alan Kamil, Terre Mercier, Larry L. Wolf

Avian Cognition Papers

An ecological approach based on food distribution suggests that hummingbirds should more easily learn to visit a flower in a new location than to learn to return to a flower in a position just visited, for a food reward. Experimental results support this hypothesis as well as the general view that differences in learning within and among species represent adaptations.

Response Strategies In The Radial Arm Maze: Running Around In Circles, Sonja I. Yoerg, Alan C. Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

The effects of the size of the central arena on the use of response strategies by rats on an eight~arm elevated maze were examined. The size of the central arena had no effect on accuracy, but the use of adjacent arms increased significantly with a larger central arena, regardless of the size of arena to which rats were first exposed. These results are interpreted in terms of foraging efficiency.

The Bead Game: Response Strategies In Free Assortment, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

Subjects were presented with a collection of spherical beads of four different colors and were instructed to sort them as fast and as accurately as possible. The sequence in which the beads were sorted was recorded, along with the time intervals between successive beads. Subjects were observed to sort in nonrandom sequences, producing runs in which a given bead type was taken exclusively. The speed and accuracy of the sorting process was positively correlated with the degree of nonrandomness of the sorting sequence. This relationship appeared to be primarily attributable to perceptual factors involved in the initiation of a run …

Dynamics, Movements, And Feeding Ecology Of A Newly Protected Wolf Population In Northwestern Minnesota, Steven H. Fritts, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The gray wolf Canis lupus occupies only about 1 percent of its former range in the lower 48 states (Mech 1974a). Most of the range is in northern Minnesota, where the resident population is classified as "threatened" by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Wolves have been and will continue to be the subject of considerable controversy in Minnesota.

The first scientific study of wolves in Minnesota was conducted by Olson (1938a,b). That and all subsequent re- search was in the Superior National Forest (SNF) of northeastern Minnesota even though wolves inhabit approximately the northern third of the state. Consequently, …

Deer Social Organization And Wolf Predation In Northeastern Minnesota, Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus has been subject to intensive research and management, yet we are just beginning to understand its social organization. Little is known about home range formation, migration, social bonds, and traditions in this deer, what functions they serve, and what selective forces have affected them.

Predation by wolves Canis lupus, in particular, has not been examined as a factor in deer evolution, yet the intimate interactions between deer and wolf through the millennia no doubt strongly influenced major morphological and behavioral adaptations in both species. It is a reasonable assumption that wolf predation has been …

Spatial Memory And The Performance Of Rats And Pigeons In The Radial-Arm Maze, Alan B. Bond, Robert G. Cook, Marvin R. Lamb

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

The resource-distribution hypothesis states that the ability of an animal to remember the spatial location of past events is related to the typical distribution of food resources for the species. It appears to predict that Norway rats would perform better than domestic pigeons in tasks requiring spatial event memory. Pigeons, tested in an eight-arm radial maze, exhibited no more than half of the memory capacity observed in rats in the same apparatus and may not have used spatial memory at all. The results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis.

Giving-Up As A Poisson Process: The Departure Decision Of The Green Lacewing, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

Predators that forage for aggregated prey appear to require a decision rule for determining the point at which to discontinue their search in a given prey patch and move on to another. Although the optimum rule depends heavily on features of the searching behavior of the predator and the distribution of the prey (Oaten 1977), most previous authors have assumed that the decision must involve an assessment of the capture rate within a patch and a comparison with the mean capture rate in the environment as a whole (Krebs 1978). When the perceived quality of the given patch becomes significantly …

Population Regulation In Wolves, Jane M. Packard, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The possibility of social regulation of wolf populations has been discussed in the literature for several years. Some of the first ecological studies of wolves indicated that their populations did not increase as rapidly as was theoretically possible, and that they reached a saturation point apparently not set by food. Subsequent captive studies demonstrated the existence of social mechanisms possibly capable of regulating population growth. However, the importance of these factors in wild populations has not been established. This paper has four objectives: (1) to evaluate the existing concept of "intrinsic limitation," (2) to propose that wolf population dynamics may …

Optimal Foraging In A Uniform Habitat: The Search Mechanism Of The Green Lacewing, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The effects of food deprivation and prey contact on the components of searching behavior in larval green lacewings (Chrysopa carnea Stephens) were examined to test the applicability of optimal foraging theory to predation in a uniform habitat. Variation in foraging intensity was primarily the result of changes in the meander. Modulation of the response to prey contact with increasing deprivation involved changes in the velocity and the response persistence and suggested the occurrence of adaptation to inferred differences in the spatial distribution of the prey. The ratio of giving-up times at different levels of deprivation was in accordance with …

Search Image Formation In The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta Cristata), Alexandra T. Pietrewicz, Alan Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Blue jays trained to detect Catocala moths in slides were exposed to two types of slide series containing these moths: series of one species and series of two species intermixed. In one species series, detection ability increased with successive encounters with one prey type. No similar effect occurred in two species series. These results are a direct demonstration of a specific search image.

Wolf Howling And Its Role In Territory Maintenance, Fred H. Harrington, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The wolf (Canis lupus) is a wide-ranging social carnivore with a complex spatial organization (MECH, 1972; 1973). The precise manner in which this organization is maintained is unknown, but territory advertisement using olfactory and acoustic modes seems to be involved.

The acoustic mode includes primarily howling. Within a wolf pack, howling may be useful to reassemble separated members (MECH, 1966; THEBERGE & FALLS, 1967), and may communicate information on individual identity, location, and other behavioral and environmental contingencies (THEBERGE & FALLS, 1967). Between packs, however, howling may serve to advertise territory, communicating the locations of packs and thus …

A Mid-Continent Irruption Of Canada Lynx, 1962-63, Harvey L. Gunderson

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

There was a mid-continent irruption of the Canada lynx (Felis lynx) population and subsequent extensive movement into non-lynx habitats during the years 1962-1963. Lynx were found in the prairie provinces of Canada and the prairie areas of Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. They were also found in urban areas such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota: Winnipeg, Manitoba: and Calgary, Saskatchewan, Canada. Causes for the irruption remain unknown but speculations include primarily a change in snowshoe hare population, disease, extensive forest fires and extensive spraying. Unusual behavior seemed to be most often reflected by a lack of …

Relating Wolf Scat Content To Prey Consumed, Theodore J. Floyd, L. David Mech, Peter A. Jordan

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

In 9 trials, captive wolves (Canis lupus) were fed prey varying in size from snowshoe (Lepus americanus) to adult deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and the resulting scats were counted. collectible scats were distinguished from liquid, noncollectible stools. In collectible scats, the small prey occurred in greater proportion relative to the prey's weight, and in lesser proportion to the prey's numbers, than did the remains of larger prey. A regression equation with an excellent the data (r² = 0.97) was derived to estimate the weight of prey eaten per collectible scat for With this information …

Food Deprivation And The Regulation Of Meal Size In Larvae Of Chrysopa Carnea, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The course of repletion and the effects of food deprivation on meal size were explored in three experiments on larvae of Chrysopa carnea (Neuroptera). Feeding to repletion was found to occur within the first 30 min of exposure to food. Meal size increased as an ogival function of deprivation, up to the limit of gut capacity. Behavioral components involved in the initiation of feeding were little affected by deprivation and did not appear to be inhibited by distention of the gut. Termination of a meal may be mediated by the stimulation of prey-release behavior, rather than by inhibition of feeding.

Productivity, Mortality, And Population Trends Of Wolves In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Population parameters, mortality causes, and mechanisms of a population decline were studied in wolves (Canis lupus lycaon) from 1968 to 1976 in the Superior National Forest. The main method was aerial radio-tracking of 129 wolves and their packmates. Due to a decline in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the wolf population decreased during most of the study. Average annual productivity varied from 1.5 to 3.3 pups per litter, and annual mortality rates from 7 to 65 percent. Malnutrition and intraspecific strife accounted equally for 58 percent of the mortality; human causes accounted for the remainder. As wolf …

Wolf-Pack Buffer Zones As Prey Reservoirs, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Abstract. In a declining herd, surviving deer inhabited overlapping edges of wolf- pack territories. There, wolves hunted little until desperate, in order to avoid fatal encounters with neighbors. Such encounters reduce wolf numbers and predation pressure and apparently allow surviving deer along territory edges to repopulate the area through dispersal of their prime, less vulnerable offspring into territory cores.

Comparison Of Coyote And Coyote × Dog Hybrid Food Habits In Southeastern Nebraska, Brian R. Mahan

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The recent taxonomic study by Mahan et al. (1978) documented the occurrence of coyote (Canis latrans) x dog (c. familiaris) hybrids in Nebraska. This study, and those by Freeman (1976) in Oklahoma and Gipson et al. (1974) in Arkansas show coyote x dog hybrids, though not abundant, to be numerous in some areas. The purpose of the present study was to compare the stomach contents of coyote x dog hybrids collected by Mahan et al. (1978) from southeastern Nebraska with those of contemporary coyotes.

Stomachs of 12 coyote x dog hybrids and 16 coyotes collected November 1975 …

Visual Detection Of Cryptic Prey By Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Alexandra T. Pietrewicz, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

Blue jays learned to respond differentially to the presence or absence of Catocala moths in slides. This detection of the moths by the jays was affected by the background upon which the moth was placed and its body orientation, thus providing an objective measure of crypticity. These procedures are useful for the study of visual detection of prey.

Intraproblem Retention During Learning-Set Acquisition In Bluejays (Cyanocitta Eristata), Alan C. Kamil, John E. Maulden

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Recent experiments have shown that bluejays and rhesus monkeys experienced in object-discrimination learning set (ODLS) exhibit a rapid decline in performance when a retention interval is inserted between successive trials of individual ODLS problems (Bessemer & Stollnitz, 1971; Kamil, Lougee, & Shulman, 1973). This intraproblem retention loss (IRL), or forgetting, has been interpreted as reflecting the importance of relatively transient memory traces for events of previous trials of the ODLS problem as determinants of choice behavior on the current trial of the same problem. According to this model, these memory traces function as discriminative stimuli in a conditional discrimination which …

Marginal Learning-Set Formation By The Crow (Corvus Brachyrhynchos), Maxwell W. Hunter Iii, Alan C. Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Each of three hand raised crows received 300 learning set problems in a modified WGTA using three-dimensional stimuli. Consistent within-problem learning was obtained but learning set formation was minimal. An analysis of hypothesis behavior (Levine, 1959) revealed a strong tendency towards position and stimulus preferences. These results raise the possibility of large species differences in learning set formation within the family Corvid

Canis Lupus., L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Order Carnivora, Family Canidae. The genus Canis includes eight species. Approxi- mately 24 New World and eight Old World subspecies of C. lupus are recognized, the number depending on authorities accepted. For summary, see Mech (1970); for full synonymy, see Pocock (1935), Goldman (1944), Ellerman and Morrison- Scott (1951), Novikov (1956), and Hall and Kelson (1959).