Life Sciences Commons^™

The Use Of Animals In Higher Education: Problems, Alternatives, & Recommendations, Jonathan Balcombe

eBooks

Despite recent advances in technology and increasing societal concern for animals, animals continue to be exploited and killed in large numbers so that students can learn about their structure and function. Dissection may not be without its merits from an educational standpoint, if well implemented, but it appears from student surveys that it usually is not. When one considers the associated costs—animal suffering and death in the supply trade, disruption of wild animal populations, messages that tend to undermine rather than reinforce respect for life and concern for others, rising costs of animal carcasses (as compared with alternatives with longer …

A Preliminary Investigation Of The Construct Of Psychopathic Personality (Psychopathy) In Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Scott O. Lilienfeld, Jonathan Gershon, Marshall Duke, Lori Marino, Frans B. M. De Waal

Sentience Collection

Although the construct of psychopathy has received considerable attention in humans, its relevance to other animals is largely unknown. We developed a measure of psychopathy for use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), the Chimpanzee Psychopathy Measure (CPM), and asked 6 raters to complete this index on 34 chimpanzees. The CPM (a) demonstrated satisfactory interrater reliability and internal consistency; (b) exhibited marginally significant sex differences (males > females); (c) correlated positively with measures of extraversion, agreeableness, and observational ratings of agonism, sexual activity, daring behaviors, teasing, silent bluff displays, and temper tantrums, and negatively with observational ratings of generosity; and (d) demonstrated incremental …

Social Mechanisms Enhance Escape Responses In Shoals Of Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Culum Brown, Kevin Warburton

Aquaculture Collection

Shoaling behaviour has been shown to provide many benefits to group members. In this study we examined the ability of fish shoals to escape from a novel trawl apparatus. Fish in shoals of 5 found, and escaped through, a hole in the oncoming trawl more quickly than fish in pairs. Fish in the larger shoals displayed a significant decrease in escape latencies over a series of five trawls, providing clear evidence of net avoidance learning, whereas fish in pairs showed no evidence of learning over successive runs. Observations suggested that more information on the location of the escape route was …

Scale-Model Comprehension By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen, Kimberly L. Mukobi

Sentience Collection

The ability of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to recognize the correspondence between a scale model and its real-world referent was examined. In Experiments 1 and 2, an adult female and a young adult male watched as an experimenter hid a miniature model food in 1 of 4 sites in a scale model. Then, the chimpanzees were given the opportunity to find the real food item that had been hidden in the analogous location in the real room. The female performed significantly above chance, whereas the male performed at chance level. Experiments 3 and 4 tested 5 adult and 2 adolescent chimpanzees …

Overall Animal Welfare Assessment Reviewed. Part 1: Is It Possible?, M.B.M. Bracke, B. M. Spruijt, J.H.M. Metz

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Several authors have concluded that scientists should not attempt to perform overall animal welfare assessment (OWA). They argue that scientists have continued to fail to make progress in this area and that value judgements are inherently involved in OWA for which science cannot provide answers. We take a more positive attitude toward OWA and argue that scientists should avoid creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. OWA is necessary for making actual moral and political decisions. Science has already accumulated much relevant information about welfare and this information should be applied in decision making.

The task of OW A is to assess welfare …

Overall Animal Welfare Reviewed. Part 2: Assessment Tables And Schemes, M.B.M. Bracke, J.H.M. Metz, B. M. Spruijt

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

In the scientific literature several attempts have been made to systematically assess the overall welfare-status of animals in relation to housing and management. This paper reviews assessment tables and schemes that have been constructed to this end. These tables and schemes have a tabular format that allows an assessment of housing systems using a list of welfare-relevant attributes (properties of the housing system). Rather than identifying deficits, the focus of this review is on finding positive recommendations for the purpose of developing a method for overall welfare assessment (OWA) on a scientific basis. The main recommendation is to use the …

Overall Animal Welfare Reviewed. Part 3: Welfare Assessment Based On Needs And Supported By Expert Opinion, M.B.M. Bracke, B. M. Spruijt, J.H.M. Metz

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Welfare concerns what matters to animals from their point of view. What matters to animals is their state of need. Satisfaction and frustration of needs are associated with emotional states, the subjective experience of which directly determines the welfare status of an animal. Because emotional states are difficult to assess, overall welfare assessment (OWA) is best approached as an assessment of needs.

For actual OW A a list of needs must be formulated. Different authors have formulated different lists. From these lists a concept need-list was constructed. For validation the needs-based approach for OWA was discussed in interviews with experts …

Predicting Flock Vigilance From Simple Passerine Interactions: Modelling With Cellular Automata, David B. Bahr, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

Vigilance in flocks can be described and modelled as a plausible set of local interactions between neighbouring birds. Each bird in the modelled flock chooses to feed or to scan based solely on whether or not its neighbours are feeding or scanning. This simple model has the ability both to reproduce observations that have not been previously explained and to predict flock behaviours that might be confirmed with future field studies. Examples include simulations showing decreased vigilance with increased flock size (as observed in the field), greater time spent scanning when obstacles such as trees are present (as observed) and …

Asymmetry And Fighting Performance In The Shore Crab Carcinus Maenas, Lynne U. Sneddon, John P. Swaddle

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Fluctuating asymmetries (left–right differences in symmetric traits) can be negatively related to fitness parameters in a number of biological systems. Hence, it has been suggested that symmetric individuals should outcompete asymmetric individuals during intraspecific agonistic encounters. However, there is a lack of experimental evidence for such a relationship. We investigated the relationship between trait asymmetry (both directional and fluctuating asymmetry) and the outcome of agonistic encounters among size-matched male shore crabs. Our findings indicate that cheliped (‘weapon claw’) directional asymmetry is not related to the outcome of fights, whereas fluctuating asymmetry in the fifth pereiopod, but not the second pereiopod, …

Overcoming Response Bias Using Symbolic Representations Of Number By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Sarah T. Boysen, Kimberly L. Mukobi, Gary G. Berntson

Sentience Collection

We previously reported that chimpanzees were unable to optimally select the smaller of two candy arrays in order to receive a larger reward. When Arabic numerals were substituted for the candy arrays, animals who had had prior training with numerical symbols showed an immediate and significant improvement in performance and were able to select reliably the smaller numeric representation in order to obtain a larger reward. Poor performance with candy arrays was interpreted as reflecting a response bias toward the intrinsic incentive and/or perceptual features of the larger array. In contrast, the Arabic numerals represent numerosity symbolically and appear to …

Observations And Possible Function Of The Striking Anterior Coloration Pattern Of Galathea Intermedia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura), J. M. Hall-Spencer, P. G. Moore, L. U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Galathea intermedia is common, but cryptic, on Clyde maerl deposits where it lives in small groups of mixed sex and age, sharing shelters (typically dead Dosinia shells) to avoid predation. Its appearance is marked by six iridescent blue spots which may play an important role in intra- or interspecific interactions.

Behavioral Interactions And Conflict Among Domestic Dogs, Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs, And People In Boulder, Colorado, Marc Bekoff, Robert W. Ickes

Ethology Collection

Interactions among domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), and people were studied at Dry Creek, Boulder, Colorado. Our objective was to develop a basic understanding of the nature of dog–prairie dog interactions in this recreational area, because this is an issue that has high visibility and over which there is conflict in Boulder: There are those who want dogs to run free regardless of their impact on the behavior and lives of prairie dogs and those who want to protect prairie dogs and have dogs restrained or go elsewhere. We found that dogs clearly influenced the behavior …

Research Fundamentals: V. The Use Of Laboratory Animal Models In Research, Brian J. O'Neil, Jeffrey A. Kline, Keith Burkhart, John Younger

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

Animal research has provided important information about many aspects of the pathophysiology of human disease. Well-performed animal studies can determine the potential benefit of many proposed therapeutic interventions, and experimental results from animal studies have served as the basis for many landmark clinical trials. Many animal research models are described in the research literature, and choosing the appropriate model to answer a research question can be a daunting task. Even more challenging is developing a new model when none of the existing systems are relevant to the proposed question. This article was prepared by members of the SAEM Research Committee …

Geographic Variation In Alarm Calls Of Gunnison's Prairie Dogs, C. N. Slobodchikoff, S. H. Ackers, M. Van Ert

Communication Skills Collection

Geographic variation in alarm calls of Gunnison's prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) was analyzed at regional and local scales. Alarm calls in response to a common stimulus (the same human) were recorded at four colonies near Flagstaff, Arizona, and at six sites throughout the southwestern United States. The acoustic structure of calls was analyzed for seven call variables. Regional differences fit the prediction of greater differences with increased geographical separation. Differences between colonies at a local scale were not related to geographical distance, suggesting that local dialects exist within a region. Differences in the level of predation by humans …

Impact Of An Ecological Factor On The Costs Of Resource Acquisition: Fighting And Metabolic Physiology Of Crabs, L. U. Sneddon, F. A. Huntingford, A. C. Taylor

Ethology Collection

1. Current game theory models and recent experimental evidence suggests that the strategy an animal adopts in agonistic encounters is determined by individual state. Therefore manipulation of an individual’s state should elicit different behavioural responses. In this paper, mechanisms are examined that underlie state-dependent strategies using Shore Crabs, Carcinus maenas, and how, by altering the environment, behaviour and physiology are affected.
2. Fights were staged between pairs of male crabs under normoxic and severely hypoxic (< 15 torr) conditions to determine if the metabolic costs of fighting and resource acquisition are affected by water P_O2. After fighting, blood and tissue samples from each crab were taken and analysed for metabolites associated with anaerobiosis (L-lactate, glucose and glycogen).
3. The spectrum …

Assessment Of Side Effects Induced By Injection Of Different Adjuvant/Antigen Combinations In Rabbits And Mice, P.P.A.M. Leenaars, M. A. Koedam, P. W. Wester, V. Baumans, E. Claassen, C. F.M. Hendriksen

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

We evaluated the side effects induced by injection of Freund's adjuvant (FA)and alternative adjuvants combined with different antigens. Rabbits and mice were injected subcutaneously, intramuscularly (rabbits) and intraperitoneally (mice)with different adjuvants (FA, Specol, RIBI,TiterMax, Montanide ISA50)in combination with several types of antigens (synthetic peptides, autoantigen, glycolipid, protein, mycoplasma or viruses). The effects of treatment on the animals' well-being were assessed by clinical and behavioural changes (POTand LABORASassays) and gross and histopathological changes. In rabbits, treatment did not appear to induce acute or prolonged pain and distress. Mice showed behavioural changes immediately after (predominantly secondary) immunization. Injection of several adjuvant/antigen mixtures …

Animal Organs In Humans: Uncalculated Risks And Unanswered Questions, Gillian R. Langley, Joyce D'Silva

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

This report, produced jointly by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and Compassion in World Farming, fills a number of significant gaps in the current debate about xenotransplantation.

In this report we also summarise the ethical and welfare issues concerning experiments on animals for xenotransplant research and their possible use as source animals for organs. Both these aspects are responsible for much pain and distress caused to many animals. We prefer the term “source animals” to “donor animals”, because animals do not choose to donate their organs for xenotransplantation.

Evolution And Animal Welfare, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Animal welfare is a topic often thought to reside outside mainstream biology. The complexity of the methods used to assess welfare (such as health, physiology, immunological state, and behavior) require an understanding of a wide range of biological phenomena. Furthermore, the "welfare" of an animal provides a framework in which a diversity of its responses can be understood as fitness-enhancing mechanisms. Different methods for assessing animal welfare are discussed, with particular emphasis on the role of an animal's own choices and reinforcement mechanisms. No part of biology is as yet able to explain consciousness, but by confronting the possibility that …

Fmri Of Monkey Visual Cortex, Lisa Stefanacci, Paul Reber, Jennifer Costanza, Eric Wong, Richard Buxton, Stuart Zola, Larry R. Squire, Thomas D. Albright

Neurology Collection

While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is now used widely for demonstrating neural activity-related signals associated with perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes in humans, to date this technique has not been developed for use with nonhuman primates. fMRI in monkeys offers a potentially valuable experimental approach for investigating brain function, which will complement and aid existing techniques such as electrophysiology and the behavioral analysis of the effects of brain lesions. There are, however, a number of significant technical challenges involved in using fMRI with monkeys. Here, we describe the procedures by which we have overcome these challenges to …

A Comparison Of Encephalization Between Odontocete Cetaceans And Anthropoid Primates, L. Marino

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

There have been very few studies of brain size and encephalization in cetaceans and essentially none that have made direct quantitative comparisons of cetaceans and another mammalian group using large normative samples. In the present study two different measures of encephalization were calculated and used to rank and compare 21 odontocete species and 60 anthropoid primate species. Comparisons were made both within and between the two groups. Results show that the encephalization level of Homo sapiens is still extraordinary relative to that of nonhuman species. Nevertheless, a subset of delphinid odontocetes are significantly more highly encephalized than the most highly …

Unrelieved Pain And Distress In Animals: An Analysis Of Usda Data On Experimental Procedures, Martin Stephens, Philip Mendoza, Adrianna Weaver, Tamara Hamilton

Experimentation Collection

Pain and distress are core issues in the field of animal experimentation and in the controversy that surrounds it. We sought to add to the empirical base of the literature on pain and distress by examining government data on experimental procedures that caused unrelieved pain and distress (UPAD) in animals. Of the species regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of the approximately 100,000 animals subjected to UP AD during the year analyzed (1992) were guinea pigs and hamsters. Most of these animals were used in industry laboratories for various testing procedures, primarily vaccine potency testing. We discuss …

Psychology's Use Of Animals: Current Practices And Attitudes, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

In this chapter, I present a psychology primer for the uninitiated, with special emphasis on psychology's uses of animals. After sketching the scope of the field generally, I review available data on present numbers and species of animals used in psychological research, level of suffering induced and current trends. I also provide several concrete examples of psychological research involving animals. Finally, the chapter concludes with a presentation of attitudes of psychologists toward animals and these practices.

‘Pleasures’, ‘Pains’ And Animal Welfare: Toward A Natural History Of Affect, D. Fraser, I. J.H. Duncan

Animal Welfare Collection

In hedonic theories of motivation, 'motivational affective states' (MASs) are typically seen as adaptations which motivate certain types of behaviour, especially in situations where a flexible or learned response is more adaptive than a rigid or reflexive one. MASs can be negative (eg unpleasant feelings of hunger or pain) or positive (eg pleasant feelings associated with eating and playing). Hedonic theories often portray negative and positive MASs as opposite ends of a one-dimensional scale.

We suggest that natural selection has favoured negative and positive affect as separate processes to solve two different types of motivational problems. We propose that negative …

Translocation Effects On The Behavior Of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys Ludovicianus), John P. Farrar, Karin L. Coleman, Marc Bekoff, Eric Stone

Ethology Collection

We examined the effects of translocation on Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) anti-predator behavior by recording response distances and response times to a human intruder in three colonies containing native, translocated, and combined native and translocated prairie dogs. The translocated prairie dogs barked alarms and concealed themselves at significantly greater intruder distances than mixed or native colonies. However, individuals in different colonies did not differ in the time taken to return to a burrow, to conceal themselves after a human approached the colony, or in the time elapsed after concealment until an animal reappeared. Translocated prairie dogs exhibited nearly twice …

Collecting Birds: The Importance Of Moral Debate, Marc Bekoff, Andrzej Elzanowski

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

No abstract provided.

Farrowing Behaviour And Stillbirth In Two Environments: An Evaluation Of The Restraint-Stillbirth Hypothesis, D. Fraser, P. A. Phillips, B. K. Thompson

Reproductive Behavior Collection

A total of 59 farrowings were studied in either a conventional, narrow farrowing crate (0.43 m wide) or a much wider alternative design with sides spaced 1.2 m apart at the sow’s standing height but narrowing near the floor to limit the sow’s lying area. Using video recording, we monitored each “birth interval” (i.e. the period between two successive births) and noted the interval’s length, the sow’s posture and postural changes during the interval, and whether the interval ended with a live-born or stillborn piglet. The wide and conventional crates did not differ significantly in median interval between piglets (15.9 …

Weapon Size Versus Body Size As A Predictor Of Winning In Fights Between Shore Crabs, Carcinus Maenas (L.), Lynne U. Sneddon, Felicity A. Huntingford, Alan C. Taylor

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Relative body size (carapace width) and weapon size (chela length) were used as indicators of resource holding potential (RHP) in the agonistic behaviour of male shore crabs, Carcinus maenas (L.). Weapon size was found to be a more reliable predictor of the outcome of pairwise fights than body size. Crabs with longer chelae than their opponents were more likely to win fights than crabs with relatively larger bodies. Body size had less influence on the outcome of fights. Relative body and weapon size did not influence initiation of contests but did affect the likelihood of winning; however, this was significant …

Vocal Response Of Piglets To Weaning: Effect Of Piglet Age, Daniel M. Weary, David Fraser

Ontogeny Collection

Piglets vocalize a great deal during the first few days after weaning. The aim of this experiment was to determine if the calls given by piglets vary in response to one factor thought to influence post-weaning adaptation: weaning age. In 22 litters, each containing a minimum of 9 piglets, 3 piglets were weaned under identical conditions at 3, 4 and 5 weeks of age. Vocalizations and weight gain were monitored for the week after weaning. The number of calls produced by piglets of all three ages declined from an average of 8.2 calls/min per piglet on the day of weaning …

Dna Fingerprinting Reveals Low Genetic Diversity In Gunnison's Prairie Dog (Cynomys Gunnisoni), Steven E. Travis, C. N. Slobodchikoff, Paul Keim

Genetics Collection

The use of molecular techniques for the assessment of familial relationships among social species of mammals has become relatively commonplace. However, some species represent poor candidates for such studies due to naturally low levels of genetic diversity, leading to unacceptably large standard errors associated with estimates of relatedness. Here, we report on a preliminary study of genetic diversity within two populations of a social species of ground squirrel, Gunnison's prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) using DNA fingerprinting. We observed low levels of diversity in the form of large mean coefficients of genetic similarity among individuals occupying the same population. …

Life In Captivity: Its Lack Of Opportunities For Variable Behaviour, Françoise Wemelsfelder

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

No abstract provided.