Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

Social And Cognitive Capabilities Of Nonhuman Primates: Lessons From The Wild To Captivity, William C. Mcgrew

Sentience Collection

All anthropoid primates in nature lead highly sociable lives. In infancy and childhood this is characterized by stability and familiarity for both sexes; in adulthood either one or the other sex changes groups. The natal group provides a social network of matrilineal kinship; after sexual maturity incest avoidance and exogamy are the rule. Important differences exist across species and between the sexes in mating strategies. In most species, males emigrate, but in others females do so. Male sexual behavior is based on competition between peers; females exercise choice in selecting sexual partners. Normal development of sexual behavior and maternal caretaking …

Stress: What Is It And How Can It Be Quantified?, T. H. Friend

Sentience Collection

An animal may be considered to be in a state of stress if abnormal behavior or extreme adjustments in its behavior or physiology are necessary in order to cope with adverse aspects of its environment. Methods used to determine if an animal is stressed can be either behavioral or physiological. Behavioral methods may be highly erroneous due to their subjective nature since alterations in behavior do not necessarily prove that an animal is stressed. There is no single measure of stress that can be used in all situations at this time. Every measure must be critically evaluated to ensure that …

Social Communication In Canids: Evidence For The Evolution Of A Stereotyped Mammalian Display, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

The variability in the duration and form of the canid play bow was studied in infant coyotes, wolves, wolf-dog hybrids, beagles, and adult free-ranging dogs. Both duration and form showed marked stereotypy. It appears that the role of this context-specific social signal in the communication of play intention has been fostered by selection for "morphological" stereotypy.

Vocalizations Of Isolated Piglets. Ii. Some Environmental Factors, D. Fraser

Communication Skills Collection

The vocalizations of suckling piglets were studied during brief tests which involved social isolation, restriction of movement, and exposure to unfamiliar surroundings. Similar trends were shown in most cases by the three classes of call studied - closed mouth grunts, open mouth grunts, and squeals. The rate of calling was much lower when a piglet was in the home pen than when alone in an unfamiliar pen, and more calls were given in both situations when the animal’s movement was restricted by caging. The presence of the dam and four littermates in unfamiliar surroundings caused a large reduction in calling, …

Vocalizations Of Isolated Piglets. I. Sources Of Variation And Relationships Among Measures, D. Fraser

Communication Skills Collection

The vocalizations and activity of suckling piglets aged 4 to 25 days were studied during 5-min periods of social isolation in an unfamiliar enclosure. The animals became very active and vocalized repeatedly during the test, but the reaction was attenuated among older litters. Calls were predominantly closed mouth grunts at low rates of calling, and mainly squeals and open mouth grunts at high overall rates. Squealing correlated with open mouth grunting and with the activity measure both within and between litters. Even so, the measures appeared to be affected independently by the piglets’ behaviour in the home pen just before …

The Communication Of Play Intention: Are Play Signals Functional?, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Changes Due To Overpopulation In Mice, James Robert Hammock

Dissertations and Theses

Previous research has found that if a population were allowed to exceed a comfortable density level, then many catastrophic events occurred such as increased mortality among the young, cannibalism, homosexuality, and lack of maternal functions. The most influential researcher in this area is Calhoun (1962), after whose experimental design a pilot study was fashioned to replicate his results. The results of this pilot study inspired a more detailed research project of which this thesis is an account.

Forty-eight albino mice of the Swiss Webster strain were divided into three groups of sixteen each. Each group consisted of ten females and …