Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Statistical And Biological Analyses Of Acoustic Signals In Estrildid Finches, Moises Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Acoustic communication is a process that involves auditory perception and signal processing. Discrimination and recognition further require cognitive processes and supporting mechanisms in order to successfully identify and appropriately respond to signal senders. Although acoustic communication is common across birds, classical research has largely disregarded the perceptual abilities of perinatal altricial taxa. Chapter 1 reviews the literature of perinatal acoustic stimulation in birds, highlighting the disproportionate focus on precocial birds (e.g., chickens, ducks, quails). The long-held belief that altricial birds were incapable of acoustic perception in ovo was only recently overturned, as researchers began to find behavioral and physiological evidence …

Between Choice And Compulsion: An Examination And Critique Of The Evolution Of 'Original Sin', Matthew James Wynn

MSU Graduate Theses

“Why are we the way that we are?” is one of the hardest questions to answer because it requires grasping the origin of human beings. This has left philosophers and theologians in century-long debates on forming a “cosmogony of ontology” (i.e., how the origin of the universe informs the human condition). The concept, “original sin” was developed by a North African theologian named Augustine (354 – 430 CE). Augustine’s reading of Genesis 3, and inaccurate translation of Romans 5:12, taught that a person is born morally culpable for a fault antecedent to their existence. This way of thinking about the …

Caregivers’ Inclination To See Their Children As Psychological Agents And Its Antecedents: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Parental Bonding, Reflective Functioning, And Maternal Mind-Mindedness, Chun-Hao Chiu

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examined difference in maternal mind-mindedness among American mothers, Taiwanese mothers, and mothers who emigrated from Taiwan and had their first child in the United States (Taiwanese Immigrant Mothers). It also investigated relationships between maternal mind-mindedness and mothers’ bonding with their parents during early years and their general mentalizing abilities for these three groups of mothers. One hundred twenty-three American mothers (Mage = 33.33 years old; SD = 5.31), 129 Taiwanese mothers (Mage = 35.93 years old; SD = 4.05), and 105 Taiwanese Immigrant Mothers (Mage = 36.85 years old; SD = 4.42) participated in this study online, through …

Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations

Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …

From Psychology To Phylogeny: Bridging Levels Of Analysis In Cultural Evolution, Mason Youngblood

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cultural evolution, or change in the socially learned behavior of a population over time, is a fascinating phenomenon that is widespread in humans and present in some non-human animals. In this dissertation, I present an array of cultural evolutionary studies that bridge pattern and process in a wide range of research models including music, extremism, and birdsong. The first chapter is an introduction to the field of cultural evolution, including a bibliometric analysis of its structure. The second and third chapters are studies on the cultural dynamics of music sampling traditions in hip-hop and electronic music communities and far-right extremism …

Social Context Influences On Behavior Of Carolina Chickadees, Brittany A. Coppinger

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation assesses fundamental social factors that drive variation in calling and other behaviors of experimental flocks of Carolina chickadees. Specifically, I tested how group member familiarity and group composition affected individual behavior. In addition, I performed a direct experimental test of the Social Complexity Hypothesis for Communicative Complexity, which states that groups that are more socially complex will communicate with greater signal complexity than groups that are less social complex. I consider complexity to be a combination of three factors: the number of parts in a system, the variation among the parts, and the variation in the way those …

Body States Of Asian Elephants Within And Around Protected Areas In The Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Caitlyn Thai

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers are becoming increasingly aware that studying a species’ landscape of fear or, more broadly, their emotional states, can better inform cognitive questions about how animals navigate their environments. Vigilance behaviors are one way to determine how certain species perceive and respond to risky situations. Due to rapid environmental change, large animals such as elephants are experiencing risky encounters with humans more often than ever before. This study aims to investigate Asian elephants’ expressions of body states and how they might regulate their behavior based on perceived environmental risk or change. Specifically, we investigated the behavioral responses of Asian elephants …

A Foray Into The Interval Timing Capabilities Of Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] Apella), Gryff Griffin

Honors Theses

Time is a critical part of life and timing on the range from milliseconds to minutes has proven to be critical for several behaviors such as foraging and movement. While the exact neurological structures of interval timing are currently undefined, several studies have been completed comparing the interval timing capabilities of humans and nonhuman primates. However, these studies have unanimously utilized members of Macaca, which limits the abilities for researchers to make apt comparisons between humans and all nonhuman primates. This study sought to investigate whether tufted capuchins (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) have the capability to measure time …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Examining Environmental Use By Captive Lemur Catta And Varecia Rubra, Rhiannon Belcher

All Master's Theses

There are over 100 named species of lemurs, of which 94% are considered threatened with extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They live in increasingly fragmented forests. To understand how best to protect them in their natural habitats, we can observe how they manipulate the environment and how they use objects, both natural and humanmade, around them. Understanding their behavior is a critical component of conservation, and observing behavior in a captive setting allows us to study lemur-environment relationships without disrupting what little habitat is left in Madagascar. In this study I investigated whether the …

Stabilizing Forces In Acoustic Cultural Evolution: Comparing Humans And Birds, Daniel C. Mann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Learned acoustic communication systems, like birdsong and spoken human language, can be described from two seemingly contradictory perspectives. On one hand, learned acoustic communication systems can be remarkably consistent. Substantive and descriptive generalizations can be made which hold for a majority of populations within a species. On the other hand, learned acoustic communication systems are often highly variable. The degree of variation is often so great that few, if any, substantive generalizations hold for all populations in a species.

Within my dissertation, I explore the interplay of variation and uniformity in three vocal learning species: budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), …

Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Vocal Responses To Sonar And Spectrally Pink Background Noise, Maria Zapetis

Dissertations

As human populations rise, the level of man-made noise increases globally. Naval sonar and boat traffic are underwater sound sources of particular concern to marine mammal welfare. To better understand the impact of these noise increases on cetaceans, studies can explore animals’ behavioral changes in response to noise. Studies have investigated the ‘dose-response’ relationship between the received sound pressure level of sonar signals and the behavior of cetaceans in the wild, but exposure studies in controlled environments are limited. The studies in this dissertation examined bottlenose dolphin vocal modifications during various experimental noise treatments. Acoustic recordings previously obtained for bottlenose …

Dolphins In Space: Quantifying The Relative Positions Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Megan S. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are socially sophisticated mammals with high fission-fusion dynamics and complex communication. The relative positioning of individual dolphins as they swim within their social group may aid in the expression of social roles. This study sought to quantify relative positioning in a small social group of female bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore that included two mother-daughter pairs, maternal and paternal half-sisters, a half-aunt and niece, and one unrelated female. We devised a method for scoring relative positioning in three dimensions. We found that the two mothers and their juvenile and adult daughters …

Behavioral Assessment Of Social Structure And Guest Provisioning Program Participation Of Zoo-Housed Giraffes (Giraffa Camelopardalis) Under Varying Spatial Availability., Fatima Ramis

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Close encounters with animals are considered integral for visitors and are trademark components of traditional educational engagement in zoological parks. As capacity for up-close encounters continue to increase with a simultaneous development in the field of animal welfare science, behavioral assessments on the role of common close encounters is timely. Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) visitor feeding programs are established in approximately 57% of institutions accredited by Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Due to successful breeding and capacity building for zoological giraffe populations, this percentage will likely continue to increase. There is a great deal of variation in the environmental …

Effect Of Group Size On The Activity Budget Of Two Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Kaeley Sullins

All Master's Theses

Captive facilities housing chimpanzees are required to provide adequate care and provisions such as dietary, social, and environmental enrichment to promote the psychological well-being of the apes in their care. Chimpanzees are social creatures and changes in groups as well as relocation to a facility with new social partners, can impact each individual chimpanzee’s welfare. By tracking each chimpanzee’s activity budgets, managers can assess welfare and make improvements or adjustments if necessary. I looked at the activity budgets of two captive chimpanzees after the death of a group member and the two chimpanzees’ subsequent relocation to a novel, more socially …

Bubble Stream Production By Belugas (Delphinapterus Leucas), Megan Slack

Theses

Bubble stream production in belugas has been poorly characterized and its function is not well understood. I examined behavioral states when producing bubble streams (“bubbling”), and when bubbling calls, to determine whether bubbling was significantly associated with a particular call category or behavioral state. Using 19 hours of video and audio recordings collected over a two-day period, I quantified bubble streams of a 4-month old calf and an unrelated adult female housed together. Based on the overall activity budgets and pool of vocalizations for both animals, I calculated the expected counts of bubble streams with and without vocalizations, assuming that …

Personality In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus) And Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina): Methodological Convergence And Species-Specific Emotional Repertoires, Amber De Vere

Dissertations

Despite the wide acceptance of animal personality as a valid area of study, research on marine mammal personality remains remarkably scarce. What literature does exist predominantly focuses on bottlenose dolphins (Frick, 2016; Highfill & Kuczaj, 2007; Kuczaj, Highfill & Byerly, 2012; Lilley, de Vere, Yeatre & Kuczaj, 2018; Moreno, Highfill & Kuczaj, 2017). There is also strong evidence for individual differences in grey seals (Robinson et al., 2015; Twiss & Franklin, 2010; Twiss, Culloch & Pomeroy, 2011; Twiss, Cairns, Culloch, Richards & Pomeroy, 2012), and preliminary research has provided evidence of broad personality factors in pinniped species using behavioral coding …

Social Influences On Songbird Behavior: From Song Learning To Motion Coordination, Iva Ljubičić

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social animals learn during development how to integrate successfully into their group. How do social interactions combine to maintain group cohesion? We first review how social environments can influence the development of vocal learners, such as songbirds and humans (Chapter 1). To bypass the complexity of natural social interactions and gain experimental control, we developed Virtual Social Environments, surrounding the bird with videos of manipulated playbacks. This way we were able to design sensory and social scenarios and test how social zebra finches adjust their behavior (Chapters 2 & 3). A serious challenge is that the color output of a …

Does Genotype Correlate With Phenotype? Evaluating Ruffed Lemur (Varecia Spp.) Color Vision Using Subject Mediated Automatic Remote Testing Apparatus (Smarta), Raymond Vagell

Theses and Dissertations

Ruffed lemur (Varecia spp.) color vision research was conducted using a multidisciplinary approach: psychophysics, genetic analysis, technology, and animal training. The behavioral manifestation of Varecia spp. trichromacy was shown using a touchscreen apparatus (SMARTA). Trichromats performed better than dichromats when discriminating red from green (G₂ = 78.10, p < 0.001).

Lacuna: Transcendence Of The Human Body Through The Space Between, Anica Bottom

Honors Theses

This essay examines the author’s choreography, Lacuna, and research integral to its representation. During the choreographic process, experimentation of how the human body moves in relation to different architectural space was observed. In collaboration with the cast of dancers, cohesion of personal experiences in particular locations was evaluated: specifically, investigation of how environments has the ability to trigger habits or patterns of movement from both past and present experiences. A closer look at how the body responds on a visceral level to the physical and emotional sense of place is described. Although the choreographic piece, Lacuna, came to …

The Effect Of Boat Type On Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Trucatus) Behavior In The Mississippi Sound, Maria Zapetis

Master's Theses

Increases in oceanic shipping are a global phenomenon, and a leading cause of concern for marine animal welfare. While it may be difficult to assess the effect of boat traffic on all species in all contexts, it is vital to report anthropogenic impacts where longitudinal data is available, and doubly so where a dearth of information exists. The purpose of this study is to describe how dolphin behavior changed in the presence of boats in the Mississippi Sound between 2006 and 2012, and more specifically, to detail how different boat types impacted dolphins’ behavioral states. This study is unique in …

Investigating The Nest Sanitation Hypothesis In A Rejecter Species: Is Sanitation A Proximate Link, Pre-Adaptation, Or By-Product Of Egg Ejection?, Alec B. Luro

Theses and Dissertations

Nest sanitation, a behavior similar in motor pattern to egg ejection, has been proposed repeatedly as a potential pre-adaptation to foreign egg ejection in avian brood parasites hosts. We found no support for the sanitation hypothesis--therefore we suggest egg ejection may have evolved independently of sanitation.

Ménage À Trois In The Atlantic Brief Squid (Lolliguncula Brevis): Prior Presence Affects Mate Choice, Rachel A. Schlessinger

Theses and Dissertations

Lolliguncula brevis given prior presence experienced a significantly greater number of contacts with opposite sex squid than rivals. Males given prior presence also spent significantly more time in proximity to females than rivals. This suggests that for both female and male Atlantic brief squid, having prior presence influences mating behavior.

A Case Study: Observations Of Behaviors & Vocalizations In A Captive Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) During Quarantine, Alexandra L. Dilley

Theses and Dissertations

Bozie, an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), was relocated from the Baton Rouge Zoo to Smithsonian’s National Zoo. During a requisite 29-day quarantine period, I recorded Bozie’s stress-related behaviors and the vocalizations she produced when she was alone and with her keepers in free and protected contact.

Same-Sex Socio-Sexual Interactions Among A Group Of Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Natalia Botero Acosta

Master's Theses

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) frequently engage in non-reproductive sexual behavior, including homosexual encounters. In order to better understand the nature and function of these interactions, a longitudinal study of the patterns of association and the dynamics of initiator/recipient role exchange was conducted. Underwater video footage of a colony of bottlenose dolphins housed at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), collected between March of 2010 and May of 2013, was analyzed. Associations occurring during homosexual interactions were transitory for most individuals. Nonetheless, subsequent analyses allowed the rejection of the null hypothesis of random association, suggesting the existence of …

Behavioral And Neural Mechanisms Of Impulsive Choice, Jesse Mcclure

Doctoral Dissertations

Impulsive choice is defined as the preference for a small immediate reward over a larger delayed reward. Individual variablity in impulsive choice correlates with many socially relevant behaviors. Although forms of impulsive choice have been studied in both behavioral ecology and psychology, the exchange of knowledge between these fields is just beginning. Drawing from both of these fields will improve our research methods allowing for a more detailed understanding of this complex behavior. Existing tasks to measure impulsive choice conflate the delay and quantity of the reward. To address this, I have drawn from foraging research to establish a method …

Mechanisms For Social Influence, Jeremy David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Throughout the thesis, I study mathematical models that can help explain the dependency of social phenomena in animals and humans on individual traits. The first chapter investigates consensus building in human groups through communication of individual preferences for a course of action. Individuals share and modify these preferences through speaker listener interactions. Personality traits, reputations, and social networks structures effect these modifications and eventually the group will reach a consensus. If there is variation in personality traits, the time to reach consensus is delayed. Reputation models are introduced and explored, finding that those who can best estimate the average initial …

Age-Related Aspects Of Mirror-Use By Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Rachel A. Morrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bottlenose dolphins are neuroanatomically different and evolutionarily divergent from primates yet they exhibit mirror self-recognition (MSR), a rare cognitive ability in non-human animals. This research investigated the developmental and age-related aspects of MSR in this species. During a longitudinal study, a social group of bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium, Baltimore, MD were exposed to a mirror and their behavioral responses were recorded to: 1) further confirm the presence of MSR in this species, 2) determine the age of emergence of MSR and 3) draw comparisons with data documenting the emergence of this ability in humans and great ape species. …

A Description Of Vocalizations And Their Association With Mouthing Behaviors And Social Context In Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops Truncatus, Christina Elyse Perazio

Master's Theses

Dolphin communication is multimodal and incorporates physical behaviors and vocalizations. Dolphins often exchange information with conspecifics using different types of vocalizations, and these vocalizations are sometimes associated with specific behaviors. However, the relationship of vocalization type and mouthing behavior type has not been investigated. This thesis examines simultaneous acoustic and visual recordings of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) to determine the relationship between type of mouthing behavior and type of vocalization (whistle, whistle-squawk, chirp, moan, burst-pulse type A, burst-pulse type B, and click trains). The role of the social context of a mouthing behavior is also evaluated. Data were obtained opportunistically …

Timing Of Developmental Stress And Phenotypic Plasticity: Effects Of Nutritional Stress At Different Developmental Periods On Physiological And Cognitive-Behavioral Traits In The Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata), Buddhamas Kriengwatana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Developmentally plastic organisms can respond to stressful environmental conditions by altering multiple aspects of their phenotype, often in a permanent fashion. The timing of developmental stress influences these phenotypic alterations because the prioritization of resources to traits necessary to overcome the stressor may be costly for the development of other traits. Despite the importance of this timing, few studies in birds have accounted for it, and those that have usually examined the effect on a single or few variables. This dissertation addresses the outstanding issues regarding i) the effects of timing of developmental stress on developmental plasticity, and ii) the …