Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

Physiological And Behavioural Evaluation Of Common Anaesthesia Practices In The Rainbow Trout, Kieran C. Pounder, Jennifer L. Mitchell, Jack S. Thomson, Tom G. Pottinger, Lynne U. Sneddon

Lynne Sneddon, PhD

Anaesthetic drugs are commonly administered to fish in aquaculture, research and veterinary contexts. Anaesthesia causes temporary absence of consciousness and may reduce the stress and/or pain associated with handling and certain invasive procedures. The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a widely-used model species with relevance to both aquaculture and natural ecosystems. This study sought to establish the relative acute impact of commonly used anaesthetics on rainbow trout when used for anaesthesia or euthanasia by exploring their effects on aversion behaviour and stress physiology. Five widely used anaesthetics were investigated at two concentrations reflective of common laboratory practises: MS-222, benzocaine, 2-phenoxyethanol, …

Reduction In Activity By Noxious Chemical Stimulation Is Ameliorated By Immersion In Analgesic Drugs In Zebrafish, Javier Lopez-Luna, Qussay Al-Jubouri, Waleed Al-Nuaimy, Lynne U. Sneddon

Lynne Sneddon, PhD

Research has recently demonstrated that larval zebrafish show similar molecular responses to nociception to those of adults. Our study explored whether unprotected larval zebrafish exhibited altered behaviour after exposure to noxious chemicals and screened a range of analgesic drugs to determine their efficacy to reduce these responses. This approach aimed to validate larval zebrafish as a reliable replacement for adults as well as providing a high-throughput means of analysing behavioural responses. Zebrafish at 5 days postfertilization were exposed to known noxious stimuli: acetic acid (0.01%, 0.1% and 0.25%) and citric acid (0.1%, 1% and 5%). The behavioural response of each …

Cognitive Dysfunction In Naturally Occurring Canine Idiopathic Epilepsy, Rowena M.A. Packer, Paul D. Mcgreevy, Hannah Salvin, Michael Valenzuela, Chloe M. Chaplin, Holger A. Volk

Paul McGreevy, PhD

Globally, epilepsy is a common serious brain disorder. In addition to seizure activity, epilepsy is associated with cognitive impairments including static cognitive impairments present at onset, progressive seizure-induced impairments and co-morbid dementia. Epilepsy occurs naturally in domestic dogs but its impact on canine cognition has yet to be studied, despite canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) recognised as a spontaneous model of dementia. Here we use data from a psychometrically validated tool, the canine cognitive dysfunction rating (CCDR) scale, to compare cognitive dysfunction in dogs diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy (IE) with controls while accounting for age. An online cross-sectional study resulted in …

Perception Of Emotional Valence In Horse Whinnies, Elodie Briefer, Roi Mandel, Anne-Laure Maigrot, Sabrina Briefer Freymond, Iris Bachmann, Edna Hillmann

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Background: Non-human animals often produce different types of vocalisations in negative and positive contexts (i.e. different valence), similar to humans, in which crying is associated with negative emotions and laughter is associated with positive ones. However, some types of vocalisations (e.g. contact calls, human speech) can be produced in both negative and positive contexts, and changes in valence are only accompanied by slight structural differences. Although such acoustically graded signals associated with opposite valence have been highlighted in some species, it is not known if conspecifics discriminate them, and if contagion of emotional valence occurs as a result. We tested …

Encoding Of Emotional Valence In Wild Boar (Sus Scrofa) Calls, Anne-Laure Maigrot, Edna Hillmann, Elodie Briefer

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Measuring emotions in nonhuman mammals is challenging. As animals are not able to verbally report how they feel, we need to find reliable indicators to assess their emotional state. Emotions can be described using two key dimensions: valence (negative or positive) and arousal (bodily activation or excitation). In this study, we investigated vocal expression of emotional valence in wild boars (Sus scrofa). The animals were observed in three naturally occurring situations: anticipation of a food reward (positive), affiliative interactions (positive), and agonistic interactions (negative). Body movement was used as an indicator of emotional arousal to control for the effect of …

The Physiological Consequences Of Crib-Biting In Horses In Response To An Acth Challenge Test, S. Briefer Freymond, D. Bardou, Elodie F. Briefer, R. Bruckmaier, N. Fouché, J. Fleury, A.-L. Maigrot, A. Ramseyer, K. Zuberbühler, I. Bachmann

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Stereotypies are repetitive and relatively invariant patterns of behavior, which are observed in a wide range of species in captivity. Stereotypic behavior occurs when environmental demands produce a physiological response that, if sustained for an extended period, exceeds the natural physiological regulatory capacity of the organism, particularly in situations that include unpredictability and uncontrollability. One hypothesis is that stereotypic behavior functions to cope with stressful environments, but the existing evidence is contradictory. To address the coping hypothesis of stereotypies, we triggered physiological reactions in 22 horses affected by stereotypic behavior (crib-biters) and 21 non-crib-biters (controls), using an ACTH challenge test. …

Investigation Of Zebrafish Larvae Behavior As Precursor For Suborbital Flights: Feasibility Study, Pedro Llanos, Kristina Andrijauskaite, Mark Rubinstein, Sherine S.L. Chan

Pedro J. Llanos (www.AstronauticsLlanos.com)

An Ethogram For Benthic Octopods (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae), Jennifer Mather, Jean S. Alupay

Jennifer Mather, PhD

The present paper constructs a general ethogram for the actions of the flexible body as well as the skin displays of octopuses in the family Octopodidae. The actions of 6 sets of structures (mantle–funnel, arms, sucker–stalk, skin–web, head, and mouth) combine to produce behavioral units that involve positioning of parts leading to postures such as the flamboyant, movements of parts of the animal with relation to itself including head bob and grooming, and movements of the whole animal by both jetting in the water and crawling along the substrate. Muscular actions result in 4 key changes in skin display: (a) …

Dog Behavior Co-Varies With Height, Bodyweight And Skull Shape, Paul D. Mcgreevy, Dana Georgevsky, Johanna Carrasco, Michael Valenzuela, Deborah L. Duffy, James A. Serpell

Paul McGreevy, PhD

Dogs offer unique opportunities to study correlations between morphology and behavior because skull shapes and body shape are so diverse among breeds. Several studies have shown relationships between canine cephalic index (CI: the ratio of skull width to skull length) and neural architecture. Data on the CI of adult, show-quality dogs (six males and six females) were sourced in Australia along with existing data on the breeds’ height, bodyweight and related to data on 36 behavioral traits of companion dogs (n = 8,301) of various common breeds (n = 49) collected internationally using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire …

Vocal Individuality And Species Divergence In The Contact Calls Of Banded Penguins, Livio Favaro, Claudia Gili, Cristiano Da Rugna, Guido Gnone, Chiara Fissore, Daniel Sanchez, Alan G. Mcelligott, Marco Gamba, Daniela Pessani

Alan G. McElligott, PhD

Penguins produce contact calls to maintain social relationships and group cohesion. Such vocalisations have recently been demonstrated to encode individual identity information in the African penguin. Using a source-filter theory approach, we investigated whether acoustic cues of individuality can also be found in other Spheniscus penguins and the acoustic features of contact calls have diverged within this genus. We recorded vocalisations from two ex-situ colonies of Humboldt penguin and Magellanic penguin (sympatric and potentially interbreeding in the wild) and one ex-situ group of African penguins (allopatric although capable of interbreeding with the other two species in captivity). We measured 14 …

Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity In A Free-Ranging Mammal: Effects Of Dominance Rank And Personality, Elodie F. Briefer, James A. Oxley, Alan G. Mcelligott

Alan G. McElligott, PhD

Modulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity allows animals to effectively respond to internal and external stimuli in everyday challenges via changes in, for example, heart and respiration rate. Various factors, ranging from social such as dominance rank to internal such as personality or affective states can impact animal physiology. Our knowledge of the combinatory effects of social and internal factors on ANS basal activity and reactivity, and of the importance that each factor has in determining physiological parameters, is limited, particularly in nonhuman, free-ranging animals. In this study, we tested the effects of dominance rank and personality (assessed …

Acoustic Divergence In The Rut Vocalizations Of Persian And European Fallow Deer, J. B. Stachowicz, E. Vannoni, B. J. Pitcher, Elodie F. Briefer, E. Geffen, A. G. Mcelligott

Alan G. McElligott, PhD

We conducted a study of the male rut vocalizations (groans) of two closely related species, Persian and European fallow deer. Persian fallow deer are endangered, restricted to Iran and Israel, and their rut vocalizations have never been studied. By contrast, European fallow deer are one of the most common deer species in the world, and have been the subject of numerous detailed studies. Persian bucks are approximately 16% larger than European bucks, and this can have important implications for vocalizations. Persian bucks were recorded in Israel, and European bucks were recorded in the UK and Ireland. We measured temporal, fundamental …

Vetcompass Australia: A National Big Data Collection System For Veterinary Science, Paul Mcgreevy, Peter Thomson, Navneet K. Dhand, David Raubenheimer, Sophie Masters, Caroline S. Mansfield, Timothy Baldwin, Ricardo J. Soares Magalhaes, Jacquie Rand, Peter Hill, Anne Peaston, James Gilkerson, Martin Combs, Shane Raidal, Peter Irwin, Peter Irons, Richard Squires, David Brodbelt, Jeremy Hammond

Paul McGreevy, PhD

Investigation Of The Impact Of Increased Dietary Insoluble Fiber Through The Feeding Of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles (Ddgs) On The Incidence And Severity Of Brachyspira-Associated Colitis In Pigs, Bailey Lauren Wilberts, Paulo Elias Arruda, Joann M. Kinyon, Timothy S. Frana, Chong Wang, Drew Robert Magstadt, Darin M. Madson, John F. Patience, Eric Ryan Burrough

Bailey (Wilberts) Arruda

Diet has been implicated as a major factor impacting clinical disease expression of swine dysentery and Brachyspira hyodysenteriae colonization. However, the impact of diet on novel pathogenic strongly beta-hemolytic Brachyspira spp. including “B. hampsonii” has yet to be investigated. In recent years, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a source of insoluble dietary fiber, has been increasingly included in diets of swine. A randomized complete block experiment was used to examine the effect of increased dietary fiber through the feeding of DDGS on the incidence of Brachyspira-associated colitis in pigs. One hundred 4-week-old pigs were divided …

Microhabitat Use Affects Goby (Gobiidae) Cue Choice In Spatial Learning Task, G. E. White, C. Brown

Culum Brown, PhD

This study investigated whether spatial learning ability and cue use of gobies (Gobiidae) from two contrasting habitats differed in a spatial task. Gobies were collected from the spatially complex rock pools and dynamic, homogenous sandy shores. Fishes were trained to locate a shelter under the simulated threat of predation and it was determined whether they used local or extra-maze (global) and geometric cues to do so. It was hypothesized that fishes from rock pools would outperform fishes from sandy shores in their ability to relocate shelter and the two groups would differ in their cue use. It was found that …

Predator Recognition And Responses In The Endangered Macquarie Perch (Macquaria Australasica), Culum Brown, Jennifer Morgan

Culum Brown, PhD

Macquarie perch, Macquaria austalasica, is an endangered species endemic to southern Australia whose distribution is highly fragmented and continues to decline. Key threatening processes include habitat destruction, dams and weirs, overfishing and interactions with introduced species. Here, we examined the responses of small and large Macquarie perch to two native predators and to the introduced redfin perch, Perca fluviatilis. Our results showed that Macquarie perch generally avoided large-bodied native predators but was attracted to small-bodied native predators. Responses to large and small redfin perch lay between these two extremes, suggesting that the Macquarie perch does treat these foreign fish as …

Laterality Enhances Numerical Skills In The Guppy, Poecilia Reticulata, Marco Dadda, Christian Agrillo, Angelo Bisazza, Culum Brown

Culum Brown, PhD

It has been hypothesized that cerebral lateralization can significantly enhance cognition and that this was one of the primary selective forces shaping its wide-spread evolution amongst vertebrate taxa. Here, we tested this hypothesis by examining the link between cerebral lateralization and numerical discrimination. Guppies, Poecilia reticulata, were sorted into left, right and non-lateralized groups using a standard mirror test and their numerical discrimination abilities tested in both natural shoal choice and abstract contexts. Our results show that strongly lateralized guppies have enhanced numerical abilities compared to non-lateralized guppies irrespective of context. These data provide further credence to the notion that …

Rescued Goats At A Sanctuary Display Positive Mood After Former Neglect, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Moods influence cognitive processes in that people in positive moods expect more positive events to occur and less negative ones (“optimistic bias”), whereas the opposite happens for people in negative moods (“pessimistic bias”). The evidence for an effect of mood on cognitive bias is also increasing in animals, suggesting that measures of optimism and pessimism could provide useful indicators of animal welfare. For obvious ethical reasons, serious poor treatments cannot be easily replicated in large mammals in order to study their long-term effects on moods. In this study, we tested the long-term effects (>2 years) of prior poor welfare …

Artificial Neural Network Approach For Revealing Individuality, Group Membership And Age Information In Goat Kid Contact Calls, Livio Favaro, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Machine learning techniques are becoming an important tool for studying animal vocal communication. The goat (Capra hircus) is a very social species, in which vocal communication and recognition are important. We tested the reliability of a Multi-Layer Perceptron (feed-forward Artificial Neural Network, ANN) to automate the process of classification of calls according to individual identity, group membership and maturation in this species. Vocalisations were obtained from 10 half-sibling (same father but different mothers) goat kids, belonging to 3 distinct social groups. We recorded 157 contact calls emitted during first week, and 164 additional calls recorded from the same individuals at …

Emotions In Goats: Mapping Physiological, Behavioural And Vocal Profiles, Elodie F. Briefer, Federico Tettamanti, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Emotions are important because they enable the selection of appropriate behavioural decisions in response to external or internal events. Techniques for understanding and assessing animal emotions, and particularly positive ones, are lacking. Emotions can be characterized by two dimensions: their arousal (bodily excitation) and their valence (negative or positive). Both dimensions can affect emotions in different ways. It is thus crucial to assess their effects on biological parameters simultaneously, so that accurate indicators of arousal and valence can be identified. To find convenient and noninvasive tools to assess emotions in goats, Capra hircus, we measured physiological, behavioural and vocal responses …

Fallow Bucks Attend To Vocal Cues Of Motivation And Fatigue, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Elodie F. Briefer, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Vocalizations encode a range of information about the caller, and variation in calling behavior and vocal structure may provide listeners with information about the motivation and condition of the caller. Fallow bucks only vocalize during the breeding season and can produce more than 3000 groans per hour. Males modulate their calling rates, calling faster when other calling males and/or females are nearby. Groans also reveal caller fatigue, becoming shorter and higher pitched toward the end of the rut. Thus, fallow deer groans vary both over very short (minute to minute) and longer timescales (the rut). However, no studies have investigated …

Mother Goats Do Not Forget Their Kids’ Calls, Elodie F. Briefer, Mónica Padilla De La Torre, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Parent–offspring recognition is crucial for offspring survival. At long distances, this recognition is mainly based on vocalizations. Because of maturation-related changes to the structure of vocalizations, parents have to learn successive call versions produced by their offspring throughout ontogeny in order to maintain recognition. However, because of the difficulties involved in following the same individuals over years, it is not clear how long this vocal memory persists. Here, we investigated long-term vocal recognition in goats. We tested responses of mothers to their kids’ calls 7–13 months after weaning. We then compared mothers’ responses to calls of their previous kids with …

Semi-Wild Chimpanzees Open Hard-Shelled Fruits Differently Across Communities, Bruce Rawlings, Marina Davilla-Ross, Sarah T. Boysen

Sarah Boysen, PhD

Researchers investigating the evolutionary roots of human culture have turned to comparing behaviours across nonhuman primate communities, with tool-based foraging in particular receiving much attention. This study examined whether natural extractive foraging behaviours other than tool selection differed across nonhuman primate colonies that had the same foods available. Specifically, the behaviours applied to open the hard-shelled fruits of Strychnos spp. were examined in three socially separate, semi-wild colonies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) that lived under shared ecological conditions at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, and were comparable in their genetic makeup. The chimpanzees (N = 56) consistently applied six techniques to open …

Mother--Offspring Recognition Via Contact Calls In Cattle, Bos Taurus, Mónica Padilla De La Torre, Elodie F. Briefer, Brad M. Ochocki, Alan G. Mcelligott, Tom Reader

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Individual recognition in gregarious species is fundamental in order to avoid misdirected parental investment. In ungulates, two very different parental care strategies have been identified: ‘hider’ offspring usually lie concealed in vegetation whereas offspring of ‘follower’ species remain with their mothers while they forage. These two strategies have been suggested to impact on mother--offspring vocal recognition, with unidirectional recognition of the mother by offspring occurring in hiders and bidirectional recognition in followers. In domestic cattle, Bos taurus, a facultative hider species, vocal communication and recognition have not been studied in detail under free-ranging conditions, where cows and calves can graze …

Acoustic Analysis Of Cattle (Bos Taurus) Mother–Offspring Contact Calls From A Source–Filter Theory Perspective, Mónica Padilla De La Torre, Elodie F. Briefer, Tom Reader, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Cattle vocalisations have been proposed as potential indicators of animal welfare. How-ever, very few studies have investigated the acoustic structure and information encoded in these vocalisations using advanced analysis techniques. Vocalisations play key roles in a wide range of communication contexts; e.g. for individual recognition and to help coordinate social behaviours. Two factors have greatly assisted our progress in developing an understanding of animal vocal communication. Firstly, more rigorous call analysis methods allow us to describe the variation in the vocal parameters in unprecedented detail. Secondly, the adoption of the “source–filter theory” of call production links the acoustic structure of …

Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity In A Free-Ranging Mammal: Effects Of Dominance Rank And Personality, Elodie F. Briefer, James A. Oxley, Alan G. Mcelligott

Elodie Briefer, PhD

Modulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity allows animals to effectively respond to internal and external stimuli in everyday challenges via changes in, for example, heart and respiration rate. Various factors, ranging from social such as dominance rank to internal such as personality or affective states can impact animal physiology. Our knowledge of the combinatory effects of social and internal factors on ANS basal activity and reactivity, and of the importance that each factor has in determining physiological parameters, is limited, particularly in nonhuman, free-ranging animals. In this study, we tested the effects of dominance rank and personality (assessed …

Overcoming Response Bias Using Symbolic Representations Of Number By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Sarah T. Boysen, Kimberly L. Mukobi, Gary G. Berntson

Sarah Boysen, PhD

We previously reported that chimpanzees were unable to optimally select the smaller of two candy arrays in order to receive a larger reward. When Arabic numerals were substituted for the candy arrays, animals who had had prior training with numerical symbols showed an immediate and significant improvement in performance and were able to select reliably the smaller numeric representation in order to obtain a larger reward. Poor performance with candy arrays was interpreted as reflecting a response bias toward the intrinsic incentive and/or perceptual features of the larger array. In contrast, the Arabic numerals represent numerosity symbolically and appear to …

Spontaneous Discrimination Of Natural Stimuli By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), David A. Brown, Sarah T. Boysen

Sarah Boysen, PhD

Six chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were presented with pairs of color photographic images of 5 different categories of animals (cat, chimp, gorilla, tiger, fish). The subjects responded to each pair using symbols for "same" and "different." Both within- and between-category discriminations were tested, and all chimpanzees classified the image pairs in accordance with the 5 experimenter-defined categories under conditions of nondifferential reinforcement. Although previous studies have demonstrated identification or discrimination of natural categories by nonhuman animals, subjects were typically differentially reinforced for their responses. The present findings demonstrate that chimpanzees can classify natural objects spontaneously and that such classifications may be …

Chimpanzee Research: An Examination Of Its Contribution To Biomedical Knowledge And Efficacy In Combating Human Diseases, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe, Theodora Capaldo

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

Research on captive chimpanzees incurs considerable animal welfare, ethical and financial costs. Advocates of such research claim these costs are outweighed by substantial advancements in biomedical knowledge, and that the genetic similarity of chimpanzees to humans enables the former to make critical contributions to preventing, diagnosing and combating human diseases. To assess these claims, we examined the disciplines investigated in 749 studies of captive chimpanzees published from 1995-2004 inclusive, and subjected 95 randomly selected papers to a detailed citation analysis:

49.5% (47/95) of papers had not been cited at the time of this study; 38.5% (34/95) were cited by 116 …

An Examination Of Chimpanzee Use In Human Cancer Research, Jarrod Bailey

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Advocates of chimpanzee research claim the genetic similarity of humans and chimpanzees make them an indispensable research tool to combat human diseases. Given that cancer is a leading cause of human death worldwide, one might expect that if chimpanzees were needed for, or were productive in, cancer research, then they would have been widely used. This comprehensive literature analysis reveals that chimpanzees have scarcely been used in any form of cancer research, and that chimpanzee tumours are extremely rare and biologically different from human cancers. Often, chimpanzee citations described peripheral use of chimpanzee cells and genetic material in predominantly human …