Animal Studies Commons^™

“My Dog Needs A Job”: Identifying The Motivations Of Therapy Animal Volunteers, Jean Kirnan, Anna Ciarrocca, Matthew Malloy, Shawne Hoehne, Grace Norris, Marc Nuzzo

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Volunteers provide billions of hours in free labor annually and are essential for the success of many organizations. Understanding who volunteers as well as the motivating factors that attract and retain volunteers is critical. This study explored the motivations of therapy animal volunteers (TAVs) identifying commonality with general volunteerism as well as unique motivators. Respondents were 748 TAVs with Pet Partners who completed an online survey. The Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) was used to allow comparisons to prior research. Supplemental items specific to animal handler motivation were added to the 30 VFI items. Additionally, participants responded to an open-ended question …

The Effect Of Caffeine On Bee Behavior: A Progressive Ratio Study, Kayle Cohen, Becky Hansis-O'Neill, Aimee Dunlap Dr

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This presentation focuses on the effect of caffeine on bee behavior using behavioral pharmacology methodologies. Researchers trained bumblebees to drink out of artificial flowers, then administered sucrose nectar or caffeinated sucrose nectar during a schedule of progressive and fixed ratios. The finding suggests that caffeine did increase the number of rewards during the fixed ratio, but not in the progressive ratio. However, research is still ongoing as bees continue to be tested..

The Biobehavioral Effects Of Embryonic Exposure To Neural Inflammation And Oxidative Stress In Zebrafish, Dalton J. Anderson

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to improve understanding of the neurodevelopmental effects of embryonic exposure to elevated inflammation and oxidative stress induced by the antipyretic drug acetaminophen (APAP). Our study was the first to examine the interactive effects of APAP and inflammation in zebrafish embryos and how the treatments affect brain development and larval behavior. Experimental groups of zebrafish larvae were exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce inflammation, APAP, or LPS + APAP and larval behavior was analyzed using Ethovision automated behavioral tracking software. We also measured changes in whole-brain Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Beta (GSK3B) and GSK3B phosphorylation, …

Repeated Treatment With 5-Ht1a And 5-Ht1b Receptor Agonists: Evidence Of Tolerance And Behavioral Sensitization, Jordan Taylor

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Serotonin has been found to regulate several cognitive and physiological functions, and its role in depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders has been a focus of research. More specifically, a wealth of research regarding serotonin focuses on serotonergic medications in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and stimulates the 5-HT_1A and 5-HT_1B receptors. Within the last decade, there has been an increase in prescriptions of psychotropic medication for children, however, the efficacy and adverse effects of these drugs have not been evaluated in younger populations. While antidepressants reduce symptoms of depression in adults, they are …

Inner Portraits, Bethany Salisbury

Graduate Theses

This paper investigates the many interconnected layers of women’s mental health through portraiture and how animal and plant symbolism can represent the way women's hormones and bodily health affect their mental health. I reveal how the artwork created presents these connections and inner mental health narratives to the viewer, creating a space of empathy, destigmatization, and self-reflection. This body of portraiture art connects five women through a series of both two-and three-dimensional portraits based on interviews using my own adaptation of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoots’ (1983) portrait methodology.

Women and non-binary individuals have always dealt with difficult interactions of bodily and mental …

The Role Of Nest Location On The Reproductive Success Of Piping Plovers Breeding At Rockaway Beach, New York, Clara I.D. Arndtsen

Theses and Dissertations

The study’s goal was to learn what aspects of the piping plover experience affect reproductive outcomes at Rockaway Beach Endangered Species Nesting Area. Nest location was found to help predict reproductive success. Nests further from American oystercatcher nests were likely to fledge more chicks. Reproductive success was low in 2021.

The Effects Of Venlafaxine And Voluntary Exercise On Chronic Unpredictable Stress Induced Anxiety, Marly Mcgowan

Senior Independent Study Theses

Anxiety disorders can impair cognition and emotional control, particularly in the face of novel situations, which is concerning due to the high prevalence of such diagnoses. Exposure to unpredictable chronic stress can provide a way to induce anxiety-like behaviors in rodents by disrupting the stress response systems, including the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system. Pharmacological treatments, including SNRIs like venlafaxine, and voluntary exercise are both anxiolytic treatments that can alleviate the impacts of chronic stress. Using unpredictable chronic stress to mimic the human condition, and exposure to venlafaxine and exercise to mitigate the stress, the open field and elevated …

The Effects Of Olfactory Enrichment On Shelter Dog Behavior, Madison J. Pattillo, Lauren N. Mitchell, Jessica A. Catchpole, Allison L. Martin

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

Shelter environments are stressful for dogs due to loud noises and unfamiliar surroundings. Previous research showed that exposure to some scents resulted in reductions in activity and vocalizations in shelter dogs. We investigated the effects of two calming (lavender and vetiver) and two stimulating (lemon and rosemary) essential oils on crate position and active, resting, and stress behaviors. There were 8, 5-min observations conducted each week per dog, split between baseline and scent exposure. Our analysis using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test found that dogs exposed to lavender (n = 13), lemon (n = 10), rosemary (n = …

The Impact Of Location And Time Of Day On The Expression Of Social And Physical Maintenance Behaviors In Wild Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) In Thailand, Summer Fiori

Theses and Dissertations

Much of what we know about Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) behavioral ecology is the result of long-term ethological studies on wild elephants in India and Sri Lanka or experimental research on captive elephant behavior and cognition. While it is important to study the behavior and ecology of elephants to understand the evolution of adaptations that have made them well-suited for their natural environments, there is also a growing need to study populations of wild Asian elephants for applied conservation purposes. More specifically, elephants are endangered and are facing increasing threats such as human-elephant conflict. In this study, behavioral data …

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.

The Effects Of Music On Dairy Production, Anneliese Kemp

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to find which genre of music dairy cows produce the most milk to in order to aid dairy farmers in yielding maximum product while also keeping their cattle as comfortable as possible. During each lactation a different genre of music will play, basic vital signs, and behavioral observations of the cows will be taken, then the amount of milk produced during that genre will be measured. First, no music will be played, base line vitals will be taken, and milk yield will be measured. This will give an estimate to how positively or negatively …

Presence And Degree Of Contrafreeloading In African Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Gabriella E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined contrafreeloading—choosing a physical task to access food over free food—in two Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Both birds contrafreeloaded for food of equal or higher value, but differed in which contrafreeloading task they preferred. Differences between the parrots are considered as individual preferences for self-reinforcing tasks.

Impact Of Animal Programming On Human Attitudes Of Local Wildlife, Ashton Jerger

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Attitudes towards wildlife can have direct implications on peoples’ interest in conserving local habitats and their overall ecological choices. Attitudes are formed by multiple components of an individual’s life history. However, through interactive, educational experiences, there is a potential to change current attitudes. Animal programs are an example of interactive, educational experiences that provide individuals the opportunity to get up-close to animal ambassadors and participate in engaging conversations about them. An animal program assessment was conducted with the 2019 summer camps at the Ohio Wildlife Center to quantify the changes in peoples’ affiliation for local wildlife and their willingness to …

Nursing Campus Therapy Dog, Deborah A. Hall

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

An acknowledged bond has existed between humans and animals throughout history. Therapeutic physical and psycho-social effects of these bonding relationships have been noted in health care settings. Professional nursing education is known to be one of the most demanding and stressful fields of study. Students begin to experience extreme stress early in their nursing education. An animal-assisted intervention with a therapy dog is an innovative and inexpensive action that can help decrease the stress, anxiety, and depression students experience in higher education.

The focus of this dissertation portfolio was an animal-assisted intervention with a nursing campus therapy dog. The initial …

First Thirty Days Of Life: Examining Calf Behavioral Development In Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus Leucas) And Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (Lagenorhyncus Obliquidens) At One Zoological Facility, Kendal Smith

Master's Theses

Cetacean development is important for general comparative understanding and the implementation of informed husbandry policies. Due to the inaccessibility of many of these species in the wild, researchers can study managed care populations to better understand basic developmental patterns of cetaceans, as well as to improve husbandry policies for facility animals. However, no previous studies have attempted to observe the behavioral development of Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhyncus obliquidens). Eight beluga whale calves and four Pacific white-sided dolphin calves were observed for the first 30 days of life to determine the developmental trajectory of several typically monitored behaviors. The …

Mesotocin Influences Pinyon Jay Prosociality, Juan Duque, Whitney Leichner, Holly Ahmann, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Many species exhibit prosocial behavior, in which one individual’s actions benefit another individual, often without an immediate benefit to itself. The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important hormonal mechanism influencing prosociality in mammals, but it is unclear whether the avian homologue mesotocin plays a similar functional role in birds. Here, we experimentally tested prosociality in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), a highly social corvid species that spontaneously shares food with others. First, we measured prosocial preferences in a prosocial choice task with two different payoff distributions: Prosocial trials delivered food to both the subject and either an empty cage or a partner …

Response Of Three Species Of Monkeys To Caregiver Use Of Species-Typical Behavior, Lillian Anna Stolar

All Master's Theses

Caregivers are a primary part of captive monkey environments. When addressing psychological well-being of captive nonhuman primates, social environment should be considered. Chimpanzees, gorillas, New World monkeys, and Old World monkeys responded positively to interactions with caregivers. Some species showed increased affiliative behaviors and decreased abnormal or self-directed behaviors after interactions. These studies showed that caregivers can affect the behavior of nonhuman primates. Caregivers are underutilized as a source of social interaction for captive nonhuman primates. Utilizing species-typical behaviors during interactions, caregivers and nonhuman primates can communicate and interact in different ways that may be beneficial to both caregiver and …

The Association Of Feline Behavior To Acoustical Features Of Kitten Directed Speech, Daniela Acevedo

Theses and Dissertations

This study observed responses of cats to kitten and adult human directed speech. Human vocalization analysis showed significant variation in harmonicity for kitten directed speech. Playback experiments analyzing feline responses to owners and strangers using kitten and human directed speech showed higher attentiveness to a stranger’s kitten directed speech.

Social Interactions Among Giant Panda Cubs (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca): An Investigation Into The Role Of Kin Recognition, Kelly M. Jackson

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

Although giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are known to be solitary in the wild, cubs engage in frequent bouts of affiliative behavior in captive settings. The goal of the project was to investigate whether kinship or familiarity based on housing influenced the frequency of social interactions within one-year old giant panda cubs. Data were collected from June through mid-July 2016 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan, China. Over 113 hours of behavioral observations were recorded on four sets of twins and one singleton, focusing specifically on affiliative behaviors. Time housed together was a significant predictor of the …

The Effect Of The Presence And Familiarity Of A Dog On People’S Performance Of A Stressful Task, Lyn Brown

Undergraduate Honors Posters

The purpose of the current study was to test whether the familiarity of a dog affects a person’s stress and task performance on a stressful task. Pets can improve people’s health mentally, physically, and socially. Dogs can lower people’s stress. This stress-reduction effect has been explained by the stress-buffering hypothesis. Dogs’ stress reducing capabilities have been applied with dog therapy in schools, hospitals, and with the elderly. In this study, dog-owning students performed mental arithmetic as a stressful task, with or without a dog present, during which their heart rate was measured as a stress indicator. The independent variables were …

Review Of Bird Brain: An Exploration Of Avian Intelligence By Nathan Emery, Alan B. Bond

Avian Cognition Papers

Over the past 30 years, the study of bird behavior has been completely transformed by the ongoing revolution in cognitive psychology, opening up wholly new perspectives on the mental processes underlying such areas as foraging decisions, social intelligence, problem solving, memory encoding, and communication. Although these studies have contributed to a number of recent popular books, until now there has been no attempt to integrate avian cognition and recent findings in avian neuroanatomy and endocrinology into a single account that is attractive and accessible to a general readership. It is a steep challenge, but Nathan Emery has undertaken it in …

Behavioral Differences Between Urban And Rural American Crows (Corvus Brachyrhynchos), Carolina Montenegro

All Master's Theses

The consequences of transforming a natural environment into a human-modified environment (i.e., urbanization) on wildlife has long been a topic of concern, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical evidence focused on animal behavior. The current study was designed to explore behavioral differences between urban and rural American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) by installing baited perches in urban and rural settings in Kittitas County, Washington. In order to observe differences in urban and rural crow behavior to approach or avoidance-oriented stimuli, perches included custom cameras and audio equipment that alternated between periods of playing crow calls or …

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.

An Analysis Of Canine Processing Of Stimulus Compounds Varying In Light And Sound Intensity, Katherine O. Compitus

Theses and Dissertations

A dog was trained to respond deferentially to two light-sound compounds. The dog was then tested with combinations of additional light and sound intensities. The dog appeared to use the information provided by both stimulus dimensions. This research is relevant to the understanding of information processing, specifically categorization and generalization.

Context-Dependent Seed Dispersal By A Scatter-Hoarding Corvid, Mario B. Pesendorfer, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A. Morrison, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

1. Corvids (crows, jays, magpies and nutcrackers) are important dispersers of large-seeded plants. Studies on captive or supplemented birds suggest that they flexibly adjust their scatter-hoarding behavior to the context of social dynamics and relative seed availability. Because many corvid-dispersed trees show high annual variation in seed production, context-dependent foraging can have strong effects on natural corvid scatter-hoarding behavior.

2. We investigated how seed availability and social dynamics affected scatter-hoarding in the island scrub jays (Aphelocoma insularis). We quantified rates of scatter-hoarding behavior and territorial defense of 26 colormarked birds over a three-year period with variable acorn crops. …

Anticipatory Grief, Tara Fox Hall

Animal Sentience

This commentary reviews Barbara King’s How Animals Grieve, delving into the controversial topic of the status of animals in our society, as well as the key difference between human and non-human grief: the ability to anticipate death.

The Domain Specificity Of Intertemporal Choice In Pinyon Jays, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Bryce Kennedy, Dina Morales, Marianna Burks

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

When choosing between a piece of cake now versus a slimmer waistline in the future, many of us have difficulty with self-control. Food-caching species, however, regularly hide food for later recovery, sometimes waiting months before retrieving their caches. It remains unclear whether these long-term choices generalize outside of the caching domain. We hypothesized that the ability to save for the future is a general tendency that cuts across different situations. To test this hypothesis, we measured and experimentally manipulated caching to evaluate its relationship with operant measures of self-control in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus). We found no correlation …

Voluntary Food Sharing In Pinyon Jays: The Role Of Reciprocity And Dominance, Juan F. Duque, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Food sharing offers a clear example of prosocial behavior, in which one individual’s actions benefit another. Researchers have proposed a range of hypotheses that explain why food sharing may occur among unrelated individuals. Two such hypotheses, reciprocity and dominance, have been tested in many species, including fish, corvids, rats, bats, and primates, showing that (1) recipients sometimes reciprocate sharing back to previous donors and (2) dominant individuals share more than subordinates. Although primates dominate the study of prosocial behavior, active donation of food is actually quite rare in primates. In contrast, several corvid species spontaneously share food much more frequently. …

Cognitive Phenotypes And The Evolution Of Animal Decisions, Tamra C. Mendelson, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Charles H. Pence, Rafael L. Rodriguez, Rebecca J. Safran, Caitlin A. Stern, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Despite the clear fitness consequences of animal decisions, the science of animal decision making in evolutionary biology is underdeveloped compared with decision science in human psychology. Specifically, the field lacks a conceptual framework that defines and describes the relevant components of a decision, leading to imprecise language and concepts. The ‘judgment and decision-making’ (JDM) framework in human psychology is a powerful tool for framing and understanding human decisions, and we apply it here to components of animal decisions, which we refer to as ‘cognitive phenotypes’. We distinguish multiple cognitive phenotypes in the context of a JDM framework and highlight empirical …