Digital Commons Network^™

Comprehension Of Functional Support By Enculturated Chimpanzees Pan Troglodytes, Anna M. Yocom, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Studies of causal understanding of tool relationships in captive chimpanzees have yielded disparate findings, particularly those reported by Povinelli & colleagues (2000) for tool tasks by laboratory chimpanzees. The present set of experiments tested nine enculturated chimpanzees on three versions of a support task, as described by Povinelli (2000), during which food rewards were presented in different experimental configurations. In Experiment 1, stimulus pairs included a choice between a cloth with a reward on the upper right corner or with a second reward off the cloth, adjacent to a corner, with the second pair comprised of a cloth with food …

Mutual Mother–Offspring Vocal Recognition In An Ungulate Hider Species (Capra Hircus), Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Sentience Collection

Parent–offspring recognition can be essential for offspring survival and important to avoid misdirected parental care when progeny mingle in large social groups. In ungulates, offspring anti-predator strategies (hiding vs. following) result in differences in mother–offspring interactions, and thus different selection pressures acting on the recognition process during the first weeks of life. Hider offspring are isolated and relatively stationary and silent to avoid detection by predators, whereas follower offspring are mobile and rapidly mix in large social groups. For these reasons, hiders have been suggested to show low offspring call individuality leading to unidirectional recognition of mothers by offspring and …

Letterbox

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

No abstract provided.

Coffee Break

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

What are some of your favorite programs to help cats?

Here For A Reason, Carrie Allan

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

One dog’s story should remind us to rally around all homeless animals, not just the ones with dramatic backgrounds

A New Day For Fight-Bust Dogs, James Hettinger

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Advocates push the individual approach for dogs rescued from fighting operations

Going Mobile

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

A new smartphone application gives people access to everything a Kansas City, Mo., shelter has to offer— especially adoptable pets!

Spot-Cleaning Cat Cages

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

These days, beating germs doesn’t always mean a bleach bath

Battling Shelter Overpopulation—By The Numbers

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Author Peter Marsh advocates a data-driven approach to reducing euthanasia

Getting Real, Sandra Newbury D.V.M.

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

The ASV Guidelines in Real Life, Part Two: Serving Up Enrichment to the Dogs at Austin Humane Society

After The Adoption

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Are you liable for what happens once an animal leaves your shelter?

Kitty In Their Hands

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Bringing out the best behaviors in kittens

Scoop

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

• Huge effort in Texas rescues Noah’s Ark of animals, including big cats and 200-plus rottweilers
• An Indiana shelter is always eager to help when pets—and those who protect them—need a hand
• Telethons reap rewards, boost adoptions, and showcase shelter programs to the community
• Michigan resident targets pet stores supplied by unethical breeding operations
• Is a nonprofit/government merger good for your community?

Why Do Most Vegetarians Go Back To Eating Meat?, Harold Herzog

Dietary Choice and Foods of Animal Origin Collection

For most people, vegetarianism is temporary phase. Why?

Why Do Most Vegetarians Go Back To Eating Meat?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Dietary Issues

Three times as many American adults admit to being ex-vegetarians as those who are currently vegetarian. The article explores why people gave up the vegetarian lifestyle and returned to eating meat.

Personality Traits Predict Hierarchy Rank In Male Rainbowfish Social Groups, Mathieu Colléter, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Personality traits are becoming increasingly important in explaining adaptive individual differences in animal behaviour and probably represent a leading edge of the evolutionary process. Despite the newfound interest in animal personality among behavioural ecologists, fewstudies have investigated the link between personality traits and fitness measures. We examined this link using male rainbowfish, Melanotaenia duboulayi, as a model species and found that a range of personality traits (aggression, activity and boldness) covaried with a male’s position in a hierarchy, which is directly related to reproductive success in this and many other species. Dominant fish were more aggressive, active, bold and also …

Having Your Dog And Eating It Too?, Harold Herzog

Ethics and Animal Welfare Collection

Is it ever ok to eat your dog?

Having Your Dog And Eating It Too?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Animal and human abuse

The paper examines why many cultures are disgusted at the thought of eating dog compared to eating parts of other equally sentient animals.

Letterbox

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

No abstract provided.

Coffee Break

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Can you tell us about a time when the public came through for your organization in a big way?

The Long Haul

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

In Tanzania, Humane Society International works with local animal welfarists to improve the treatment of working donkeys

Scoop

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

• A rescue effort at a California home removes 2,000 rats
• A Louisiana parish upgrades to a green shelter
• A new book takes aim at a wide range of cruelties to animals— and provides a roadmap for moving beyond them
• Some shelters are learning that it’s smart to provide supplies along with pets
• Common tools for a common mission
• Jon Cicirelli keeps on course by focusing on animals, not egos

Feeling Insecure?

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Shelters turn to technology and training to take a bite out of crime

Walking All The Way To The Bank

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Getting good mileage out of dog walk fundraisers

People Who Need People

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Effective recruitment for volunteer programs

Sanitation Sanity

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Our veterinary columnist answers your cleaning and disinfection questions

Getting Real

Animal Sheltering 2010-12

Making the ASV Standards Work for You

Food Safety And Cage Egg Production

Agribusiness Reports

States have begun legislating against cage egg production and dozens of major U.S. food retailers, restaurant chains, and foodservice providers—as well as hundreds of U.S. universities—are switching to cage-free eggs. Extensive scientific evidence strongly suggests this trend will improve food safety. All sixteen scientific studies published in the last five years comparing Salmonella contamination between caged and cage-free operations found that those confining hens in cages had higher rates of Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning related death in the United States. This has led prominent consumer advocacy organizations, such as the Center for Food Safety, to oppose the …

Assortative Mating In Fallow Deer Reduces The Strength Of Sexual Selection, Mary E. Farrell, Elodie Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Background: Assortative mating can help explain how genetic variation for male quality is maintained even in highly polygynous species. Here, we present a longitudinal study examining how female and male ages, as well as male social dominance, affect assortative mating in fallow deer (Dama dama) over 10 years. Assortative mating could help explain the substantial proportion of females that do not mate with prime-aged, high ranking males, despite very high mating skew. We investigated the temporal pattern of female and male matings, and the relationship between female age and the age and dominance of their mates.

Results: The peak of …

Molecular Correlates Of Social Dominance: A Novel Role For Ependymin In Aggression, Lynne U. Sneddon, Rupert Schmidt, Yongxiang Fang, Andrew R. Cossins

Ethology Collection

Theoretical and empirical studies have sought to explain the formation and maintenance of social relationships within groups. The resulting dominance hierarchies have significant fitness and survival consequences dependent upon social status. We hypothesised that each position or rank within a group has a distinctive brain gene expression profile that correlates with behavioural phenotype. Furthermore, transitions in rank position should determine which genes shift in expression concurrent with the new dominance status. We used a custom cDNA microarray to profile brain transcript expression in a model species, the rainbow trout, which forms tractable linear hierarchies. Dominant, subdominant and submissive individuals had …