Digital Commons Network^™

Nest Building In Captive Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla, Kristen E. Lukas, Tara S. Stoinski, Kyle Burks, Rebecca Snyder, Sarah Bexell, Terry L. Maple

Sentience Collection

Although various aspects of gorilla nest building have been described in wild populations, nest-building behavior of captive gorillas has not been subject to much scientific review. We observed nest building in 17 gorillas during three periods: summer baseline, winter baseline, and winter treatment, in which the amount of available nesting material was doubled. We conducted observations exclusively in the indoor holding area in the hour following evening departure of animal care staff. During baseline, gorillas engaged in nest-building on 3.1% of scans and were on a constructed nest on 27.9% of scans. Overall, gorillas spent significantly more time on elevated …

What It Is To Be A Dog: A Qualitative Method For The Study Of Animals Other Than Humans, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

No abstract provided.

Toxicology And New Social Ethics For Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Experimentation Collection

The issue of animal treatment has emerged as a major social concern over the past three decades. This ramified in a new ethic for animal treatment that goes beyond concern about cruelty and attempts to eliminate animal pain and suffering, whatever its source. This is evidenced by laws governing animal research in many countries. Insofar as toxicology can entail significant and prolonged animal suffering, it is at loggerheads with this new ethic. Ways are suggested for the toxicological community to put itself in harmony with the ethic and thereby preserve its autonomy.

Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

This paper emphasizes the importance of broadening behavioral, ecological, and conservation science into a more integrative, interdisciplinary, socially responsible, compassionate, spiritual, and holistic endeavor.2,3 I will stress the significance of studies of animal behavior, especially ethological research concerned with animal emotions, in which individuals are named and recognized for their own personalities and temperaments, for helping us not only to learn about the nonhuman animal beings (hereafter animals) with whom we share Earth, but also for learning about who we are, our place in Nature, our humanness. We can be best understood in relationship to others. I will also develop …

The State Of The Animals Ii: 2003, Deborah J. Salem

In this all new volume in the State of the Animals series, internationally known scholars and distinguished experts examine the challenges facing farm animals, shelter animals, and wildlife worldwide from religious, legal, educational, and strategic perspectives.

Description Of A Poorly Differentiated Carcinoma Within The Brainstem Of A White Whale (Delphinapterus Leucas) From Magnetic Resonance Images And Histological Analysis, Sam H. Ridgway, Lori Marino, T. P. Lipscomb

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

In this study we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate neuroanatomical structure in the brain of a white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) that died from a large tumor within the brainstem. This specimen was also compared with a normal white whale brain using MRI. MRI scans of the white whale specimen show how the tumor deformed surrounding brain structure. Histopathological analysis indicated a poorly differentiated carcinoma of uncertain origin. These analyses demonstrate the usefulness of supplementing histological analyses of pathology with studies of gross morphology facilitated by MRI.

Neuroanatomy Of The Common Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) As Revealed By Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Mri), L. Marino, Keith Sudheimer, D. Ann Pabst, William A. Mclellan, David Filsoof, John I. Johnson

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

In this study, magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain of an adult common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) were acquired in the coronal plane at 66 antero-posterior levels. From these scans a computer-generated set of resectioned virtual images in orthogonal planes was constructed using the programs VoxelView and VoxelMath (Vital Images, Inc., Michigan State Univ.). Sections in all three planes reveal major neuroanatomical structures. These structures in the adult common dolphin brain are compared with those from a fetal common dolphin brain from a previously published study as well as with MR images of adult brains of other odontocetes. …

Modern Elements Of Informed Consent For General Veterinary Practitioners, Martin J. Fettman, Bernard Rollin

Professional Veterinary Ethics Collection

No abstract provided.

Habitat Structure And Alarm Call Dialects In Gunnison's Prairie Dog (Cynomys Gunnisoni), Bianca S. Perla, C. N. Slobodchikoff

Habitat Assessment and Management Collection

We examined the relationship between habitat structure and alarm call characteristics in six colonies of Gunnison’s prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) near Flagstaff, Arizona, before and after a mid-summer vegetation change. We found significant differences in alarm call characteristics between colonies, confirming the existence of alarm call dialects. Differences in frequency components but not temporal components of calls were associated with differences in habitat structure. Playback experiments revealed that differences in alarm call structure affected acoustic transmission of calls through the local habitat. Thus, we identify habitat structure as one factor that may contribute to alarm call differences between colonies of …

Endogenous Gonadal Hormone Exposure And Bone Sarcoma Risk, Dawn M. Cooley, Benjamin C. Beranek, Deborah L. Schlittler, Nita W. Glickman, Lawrence T. Glickman, David J. Waters

Endocrinology Collection

Although experimental and clinical evidence suggest that endogenous sex hormones influence bone sarcoma genesis, the hypothesis has not been adequately tested in an appropriate animal model. We conducted a historical cohort study of Rottweiler dogs because they frequently undergo elective gonadectomy and spontaneously develop appendicular bone sarcomas, which mimic the biological behavior of the osteosarcomas that affect children and adolescents. Data were collected by questionnaire from owners of 683 Rottweiler dogs living in North America. To determine whether there was an association between endogenous sex hormones and risk of bone sarcoma, relative risk (RR) of incidence rates and hazard ratios …

Csro Fall 2002

Central States Regional Office

• Disease threatens WI deer
• CSRO leads effort to stop animal fighting
• Disaster update
• Minnesota legislative update
• Wisconsin legislative update: The Captive Wildlife Bill, Special Session Bill 1 (addresses chronic wasting disease in deer)
• Illinois legislative update: Humane Care for Animals Act
• Tennessee legislative update
• Kentucky legislative update: H.B. 863 (makes bestiality a felony)
• North Carolina legislative update
• CSRO brings much-needed clinics
• Director's Report: Beyond dogs and cats (Phil Snyder)

Glro Fall 2002

Great Lakes Regional Office

• A message from Sparky
• HSUS teams save lives in WV floods
• MI developers welcome people and wildlife
• Workshop series helps rural, under-resourced shelters
• Help keep kids safe
• 10 years helping farm animals
• Ohio, now is the time (Sandy Rowland)

Maro Fall 2002

Mid-Atlantic Regional Office

• Geese need you!
• Turnpike turtles
• Cheers to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer
• Put old fur to good use
• Long Island / New York City emergency conference
• Morristown Goose Project update
• HSUS keeps things cool for the animals evacuated by the Arizona fires
• Saving Hokget
• Ulster Co., NY, hosts training event
• Region represented at Expo
• Butch doing well
• Regional Snapshots
• Gifts that keep giving (Nina Austenberg)

Nero Fall 2002

New England Regional Office

• Nuisance or neighbor?
• NERO rallies to fight factory farming
• NERO gives scholarships
• 2002 Shaw-Worth announcement bittersweet
• A new era for Maine's animals
• 2002 Legislative Update
• Individual efforts and teamwork: a winning combo (Joanne Bourbeau)

Nrro Fall 2002

Northern Rockies Regional Office

• NRRO rescues Boot Hill prairie dogs
• Saving Hokget
• Spay/neuter education at Wind River
• Please support the HSUS's remote area veterinary services
• WY animal activists needed
• Getting "technical"
• So much to do, so little time ... (Dave Pauli)

Pnro Fall 2002

Pacific Northwest Regional Office

• PNRO works to ban OR elk farming
• Stemming animal overpopulation on native nations
• Building bridges with veternarians
• Making room for wolves in Oregon
• Regional Update
• No peace for geese (Lisa Wathne)

Pnro Spring 2002

Pacific Northwest Regional Office

• Making the connection
• Fighting animal cruelty in the region
• Oregon's cougars threatened!
• People making a difference
• WA Senators betray voters
• Your actions make a difference (Lisa Wathne)
• Honoring legislators

Sero Fall 2002

Southeast Regional Office

• Vote "Yes" to halt FL pig factory farming
• Dealing blows to greyhound racing
• Greyhound racing Q&A
• Georgia voters to decide on license plate
• FL expands cruelty law
• The more things change ... (Laura Bevan)

Swro Fall 2002

Southwest Regional Office

• SWRO reunites lost cat with owner
• HSUS keeps things cool for animals rescued from fires
• SWRO saves horse bound for slaughter
• Oklahoma voters face two crucial animal ballot questions
• Arkansas ballot measures makes extreme animal cruelty a felony
• Colorado, Arizona legislate in favor of animals
• SWRO hosts Disaster Conference
• One Saturday at the Spay Neuter Clinic
• Native Nations program heads to Utah
• Can you teach compassion? (Lou Guyton)

Wcro Fall 2002

West Coast Regional Office

• Saving Hokget
• One cockfighting operation shut down, then another
• Encinitas bans display of exotic animals
• Kauai Society refuge for all
• Native program expands into Nevada
• BARK is better than a bite
• Expo 2003 set for Biggest Little City
• Dollars for Arthur
• National Conference on Animals in Disaster
• Legislative Update
• CA activist network strengthened
• Common sense means no overreacting (Eric Sakach)

Do Female Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia Spp.) Prefer To Shoal With Familiar Individuals Under Predation Pressure?, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Shoaling with familiar individuals may have many benefits including enhanced escape responses or increased foraging efficiency. This study describes the results of two complimentary experiments. The first utilised a simple binary choice experiment to determine if rainbowfish (Melanotaenia spp.) preferred to shoal with familiar individuals or with strangers. The second experiment used a “free range” situation where familiar and unfamiliar individuals were free to intermingle and were then exposed to a predator threat. Like many other small species of fish, rainbowfish were capable of identifying and distinguishing between individuals and choose to preferentially associate with familiar individuals as opposed to …

Mitochondrial Dna And The Origins Of The Domestic Horse, Thomas Jansen, Peter Forster, Marsha Levine, Hardy Oelke, Matthew Hurles, Colin Renfrew, Jürgen Weber, Klaus Olek

Genetics Collection

The place and date of the domestication of the horse has long been a matter for debate among archaeologists. To determine whether horses were domesticated from one or several ancestral horse populations, we sequenced the mitochondrial D-loop for 318 horses from 25 oriental and European breeds, including American mustangs. Adding these sequences to previously published data, the total comes to 652, the largest currently available database. From these sequences, a phylogenetic network was constructed that showed that most of the 93 different mitochondrial (mt)DNA types grouped into 17 distinct phylogenetic clusters. Several of the clusters correspond to breeds and/or geographic …

Within-Litter Birth Weight Variation In The Domestic Pig And Its Relation To Pre-Weaning Survival, Weight Gain, And Variation In Weaning Weights, Barry N. Milligan, David Fraser, Donald L. Kramer

Ontogeny Collection

To determine the relationship between within-litter birth weight variation and pre-weaning survival and weight gain, and to provide practical guidance on fostering low-birth-weight piglets, we analyzed piglet survival and weight gain in litters of piglets from 52 sows followed through eight consecutive parities. Litters with high variation in birth weight had more deaths, especially if the litter’s mean birth weight was low. High variation in birth weight was also associated with high variation in weaning weight, but was not significantly related to mean weaning weight. Piglets with birth weights well below the range of most of the litter (‘low-birth-weight piglets’) …

Csro Spring 2002

Central States Regional Office

• Large-scale rescues costly
• Working for wildlife
• Popular animal behaviorist teaces WI workshop
• Chicago Dangerous Dog Ordinance
• Meet HSUS disaster dogs
• CSRO helps during TN flooding
• Director's Report: Join the Humane Activist Network (Phil Snyder)

Social Learning Of A Novel Avoidance Task In The Guppy: Conformity And Social Release, Culum Brown, Kevin N. Laland

Sentience Collection

Studies of social learning suggest that many animals are disproportionately likely to adopt the behavior of the majority, and that this conformist transmission hinders the spread of novel behavioural variants. However, novel learned behaviour patterns regularly diffuse through animal populations. We propose a hypothesis, termed the ‘social release hypothesis’, that resolves these apparently conflicting findings by suggesting that animals are released from conforming to traditional behaviour in the absence of demonstrators. We investigated the role of pretrained, female demonstrator guppies, Poecilia reticulata, in influencing the escape response of untrained females to an artificial predator. Naïve ‘observer’ guppies were given the …

Vigilance And Predation Risk In Gunnison’S Prairie Dogs (Cynomys Gunnisoni), J. L. Verdolin, C. N. Slobodchikoff

Sentience Collection

Group living in animals is believed to confer advantages related to a decrease in predation risk and an energetic trade-off between vigilance and foraging efficiency. Eight Gunnison’s prairie dog, Cynomys gunnisoni, colonies in Flagstaff, Arizona (elevation 2300 m), were studied from April to August 2000 to examine the adaptive significance of colonial living in the context of predation risk and antipredator behavioral strategies. Each colony was sampled once every 10 days for a period of 3 h. Upright and quadrepedal vigilance was recorded using scan samples. All predation events were recorded. Results suggest that vigilant behavior in Gunnison’s prairie dogs …

Physiology And Behavior Of Dogs During Air Transport, Renée Bergeron, Shannon L. Scott, Jean-Pierre Émond, Florent Mercier, Nigel J. Cook, Al L. Schaefer

Stress Collection

Twenty-four beagles were used to measure physiological and behavioral reactions to air transport. Each of 3 groups of 4 sedated (with 0.5 mg/kg body weight of acepromazine maleate) and 4 non-sedated (control) dogs was flown on a separate flight between Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, Ontario, after being transported by road from Quebec City to Montreal. Saliva and blood samples were taken before ground and air transport and after air transport. The heart rate was monitored during the whole experiment except during ground transport, and behavior was monitored by video during air transport. Sedation did not affect any of the variables …

The Future Of Stock Enhancements: Lessons For Hatchery Practice From Conservation Biology, Culum Brown, Rachel L. Day

Aquaculture Collection

The world’s fish species are under threat from habitat degradation and over-exploitation. In many instances, attempts to bolster stocks have been made by rearing fish in hatcheries and releasing them into the wild. Fisheries restocking programmes have primarily headed these attempts. However, a substantial number of endangered species recovery programmes also rely on the release of hatchery-reared individuals to ensure long-term population viability. Fisheries scientists have known about the behavioural deficits displayed by hatchery-reared fish and the resultant poor survival rates in the wild for over a century. Whilst there remain considerable gaps in our knowledge about the exact causes …

The Use And Abuse Of Aesculapian Authority In Veterinary Medicine, Bernard Rollin

Professional Veterinary Ethics Collection

No abstract provided.

Glro Spring 2002

Great Lakes Regional Office

• WV shelter flooded
• Appalachian spay/neuter program in high gear
• A day at a clinic
• Mackinac horses still at risk
• Doves targeted again in Michigan (Sandy Rowland)