Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Hpi Reactivity Does Not Reflect Changes In Personality Among Trout Introduced To Bold Or Shy Social Groups, Jack S. Thomson, Phillip C. Watts, Tom G. Pottinger, Lynne U. Sneddon

Lynne Sneddon, PhD

Physiological stress responses often correlate with personalities (e.g., boldness). However, this relationship can become decoupled, although the mechanisms underlying changes in this relationship are poorly understood. Here we quantify (1) how an individual’s boldness (response to novel objects) in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, changes in response to interactions with a population of either bold or shy conspecifics and we (2) measured associated post-stress cortisol levels. Initially-bold trout became shyer regardless of group composition, whereas shy trout remained shy demonstrating that bold individuals are more plastic. Stress-induced plasma cortisol reflected the original personality of fish but not the personality induced …

Social Assemblages And Mating Relationships In Prairie Dogs: A Dna Fingerprint Analysis, Steven E. Travis, Con Slobodchikoff, Paul Kefan

Con Slobodchikoff, PhD

Mating system characterizations have been hindered by difficulties in accurately assigning parentage to offspring. We investigated the relationship between social assemblages and mating relationships in a territorial harem polygynous mammal, the Gunnison's prairie dog, using a combination of behavioral and molecular analyses. We demonstrate multiple paternity and an extraordinarily high incidence of extraterritorial fertilizations (i.e., 61% of all progeny), in combination with the existence of female kin groups. On this basis, we conclude that social assemblages alone provide a poor description of the Gunnison's prairie dog mating system, and suggest several potential reasons for the maintenance of territoriality in this …

Resources And The Evolution Of Social Behavior, Con Slobodchikoff

Con Slobodchikoff, PhD

No abstract provided.

Behaviour Development: A Cephalopod Perspective, Jennifer A. Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

This paper evaluates the development of behaviour from the viewpoint of the intelligent and learningdependent cephalopod mollusks as a contrast to that of mammals. They have a short lifespan, commonly one to two years, and most are semelparous, reproducing only near the end of their lifespan. In the first two months of life, Sepia officinalis cuttlefish show drastic limitation on learning of prey choice and capture, gradually acquiring first short-term and then long-term learning over 60 days. This is paralleled by development of the vertical lobe of the brain which processes visually learned information. In the long nonreproductive adulthood, Octopus …

Does Detection Range Matter For Inferring Social Networks In A Benthic Shark Using Acoustic Telemetry?, Johann Mourier, Nathan Charles Bass, Tristan L. Guttridge, Joanna Day, Culum Brown

Culum Brown, PhD

Accurately estimating contacts between animals can be critical in ecological studies such as examining social structure, predator–prey interactions or transmission of information and disease. While biotelemetry has been used successfully for such studies in terrestrial systems, it is still under development in the aquatic environment. Acoustic telemetry represents an attractive tool to investigate spatio-temporal behaviour of marine fish and has recently been suggested for monitoring underwater animal interactions. To evaluate the effectiveness of acoustic telemetry in recording interindividual contacts, we compared co-occurrence matrices deduced from three types of acoustic receivers varying in detection range in a benthic shark species. Our …

Rationale, Design, And Baseline Characteristics Of Walkit Arizona: A Factorial Randomized Trial Testing Adaptive Goals And Financial Reinforcement To Increase Walking Across Higher And Lower Walkable Neighborhoods, Marc A. Adams, Jane Hurley, Christine Phillips, Michael Todd, Siddhartha Angadi, Vincent Berardi, Melbourne F. Hovell, Steven Hooker

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Little change over the decades has been seen in adults meeting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) guidelines. Numerous individual-level interventions to increase MVPA have been designed, mostly static interventions without consideration for neighborhood context. Recent technologies make adaptive interventions for MVPA feasible. Unlike static interventions, adaptive intervention components (e.g., goal setting) adjust frequently to an individual's performance. Such technologies also allow for more precise delivery of “smaller, sooner incentives” that may result in greater MVPA than “larger, later incentives”. Combined, these factors could enhance MVPA adoption. Additionally, a central tenet of ecological models is that MVPA is sensitive to neighborhood environment …

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 …

Efficiency Of The Male Effect With Photostimulated Bucks Does Not Depend On Their Familiarity With Goats, A. L. Muñoz, M. Bedos, R. M. Aroña, J. A. Flores, H. Hernández, C. Moussu, Elodie F. Briefer, P. Chemineau, M. Keller, J. A. Delgadillo

Elodie Briefer, PhD

In ewes, the ovulatory response of females exposed to familiar rams is lower than the response of those exposed to novel ones. In goats, males rendered sexually active by exposure to long days are more efficient to induce ovulation in seasonal anestrous females than untreated males. Two experiments were conducted to determine 1) whether male goats remain familiar to females after 45 days of separation; and 2) whether photostimulated males are able to stimulate the sexual activity of females, independently of their familiarity with them. In Experiment 1, three groups of goats (n = 10 goats per group) were put …

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 …

Moral Relevance Of Cognitive Complexity, Empathy And Species Differences In Suffering, John Lazarus

Animal Sentience

I qualify two criticisms made by commentators on Chapman & Huffman’s target article. Responding to the view that differences between humans and other animals are irrelevant to deciding how we should treat other species, I point out that differences between any species in their capacity to suffer are morally relevant. And in response to the claim that suffering is the sole criterion for the moral treatment of animals, I argue that cognitive complexity and a capacity for empathy also have moral relevance to the extent that they influence suffering.

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 …