Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

Zur Populationsökologie Und Raumnutzung Der Steppenwühlmaus Microtus Brandti (Radde, 1861) In Der Fortpflanzungsperiode, Ulrich Zöphel, N. Dawaa

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

During the growing season between 1988 and 1990 the population biology of Brandt’s vole (Microtus brandti) was observed in a population near Ulaanbaatar. Mark-recapture techniques (1,438 markings, 19,606 recaptures in total) and complementary methods were used. The density maximum was observed in July with 98 (1988); 169 (1989) and 94 (1990) individuals/ha and the population fluctuated by a factor of 7.4.

At the beginning of reproductive period the males disperse over a minimum distance of one female home range whereas the females do not migrate after winter. The typical mating system is promiscuity. Youngsters have been recorded from …

Biodiversity And Ecology Of Soil Oribatid Mites (Acari: Oribatida) In The Grassland Habitats Of Eastern Mongolia, Badamdorj Bayartogtokh

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Composition, abundance, distribution, and diversity of oribatid mite communities were investigated at five study areas in Eastern Mongolia. A total of 88 species of oribatid mites were recorded from the studied areas. The largest number of species (51 spp.) was found in the habitats of river valleys, while the plain steppe which covers the largest area contained the lowest species richness (24 spp.). Three other sub-regions with similar landscape types show approximately the same species richness (39 to 45 spp.), although they are located relatively far from each other. The oribatid mite faunas of all sub-regions were essentially similar to …

Origin And Evolution Of Large Brains In Toothed Whales, Lori Marino, Daniel W. Mcshea, Mark D. Uhen

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Toothed whales (order Cetacea: suborder Odontoceti) are highly encephalized, possessing brains that are significantly larger than expected for their body sizes. In particular, the odontocete superfamily Delphinoidea (dolphins, porpoises, belugas, and narwhals) comprises numerous species with encephalization levels second only to modern humans and greater than all other mammals. Odontocetes have also demonstrated behavioral faculties previously only ascribed to humans and, to some extent, other great apes. How did the large brains of odontocetes evolve? To begin to investigate this question, we quantified and averaged estimates of brain and body size for 36 fossil cetacean species using computed tomography and …

Size Matters: A Test Of Boldness In Eight Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

Individual variation in behaviour within populations may be explained in part by demographics and long-term, stable individual psychological differences. We examined the relation between boldness (taken as the time to emerge from a shelter and explore a novel environment) and body size in eight populations of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcopi originating from sites upstream and downstream of waterfalls in four rivers that run into the Panama Canal. The relation between body size and time to emerge from a shelter was positive, with larger fish taking longer to emerge. This relation differed between downstream and upstream sites, being significant in the …

Evolution Of Nociception In Vertebrates: Comparative Analysis Of Lower Vertebrates, Lynne U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Nociception is an important sensory system of major fundamental and clinical relevance. The nociceptive system of higher vertebrates is well studied with a wealth of information about nociceptor properties, involvement of the central nervous system and the in vivo responses to a noxious experience are already characterised. However, relatively little is known about nociception in lower vertebrates and this review brings together a variety of studies to understand how this information can inform the evolution of nociception in vertebrates. It has been demonstrated that teleost fish possess nociceptors innervated by the trigeminal nerve and that these are physiologically similar to …

Reflections On Animal Selves, Marc Bekoff, Paul W. Sherman

Sentience Collection

Is self-cognizance a uniquely human attribute, or do other animals also have a sense of self? Although there is considerable interest in this question, answers remain elusive. Progress has been stymied by misunderstandings in terminology, a focus on a narrow range of species, and controversies over key concepts, experimental paradigms and interpretations of data. Here, we propose a new conceptual and terminological framework, emphasizing that degrees of self-cognizance differ among animals because of the cognitive demands that their species-specific social structures and life-history characteristics have placed upon them over evolutionary time. We suggest that the self-cognizance of an organism falls …

Differences In Response To Hypoxia In The Three-Spined Stickleback From Lotic And Lentic Localities: Dominance And An Anaerobic Metabolite, L. U. Sneddon, J. Yerbury

Aquaculture Collection

Dominance hierarchies of the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus from river and pond populations were subjected to hypoxia (20%, range±1%). Under hypoxia, the hierarchies were less stable in terms of rank position and tissue L-lactate was higher in river fish than pond fish under normoxia and hypoxia. Dominant fish gained mass under normoxia but lost mass under hypoxic conditions possibly due to them maintaining high levels of aggression.

Assessing Animal Welfare At The Farm And Group Level: The Interplay Of Science And Values, D. Fraser

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

In the social debate about animal welfare we can identify three different views about how animals should be raised and how their welfare should be judged: (1) the view that animals should be raised under conditions that promote good biological functioning in the sense of health, growth and reproduction, (2) the view that animals should be raised in ways that minimise suffering and promote contentment, and (3) the view that animals should be allowed to lead relatively natural lives. When attempting to assess animal welfare, different scientists select different criteria, reflecting one or more of these value-dependent views. Even when …

Novel Object Test: Examining Nociception And Fear In The Rainbow Trout, Lynne U. Sneddon, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Michael J. Gentle

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

This study aimed to assess fear responses to a novel object while experiencing a noxious event to determine whether nociception or fear will dominate attention in a fish in novel object testing paradigm. This experimentally tractable animal model was used to investigate (1) the degree of neophobia to a novel object while experiencing noxious stimulation, (2) the response of the fish after removing the fear-causing event by using a familiar object, and (3) the effects of removing the nociceptive response by morphine administration and examining the response to a novel object. Control animals displayed a classic fear response to the …

The Evidence For Pain In Fish: The Use Of Morphine As An Analgesic, Lynne U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

This paper discusses the evidence for pain perception in fish and presents new data on morphine analgesia in fish. Recent anatomical and electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that fish are capable of nociception, the simple detection of a noxious, potentially painful stimulus and the reflex response to this. To prove pain perception, it must be demonstrated that an animal’s behaviour is adversely affected by a potentially painful event and this must not be a reflex response. The present study examined the acute effects of administering a noxious chemical to the lips of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to assess what changes occurred …

Social Learning Of Prey Location In Hatchery-Reared Atlantic Salmon, C. Brown, A. Markula, K. Laland

Aquaculture Collection

Naïve, hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon Salmo salar parr were paired with demonstrators that had been pre-trained to accept live prey from the surface or from the benthos. After 6 days of observing demonstrators through a clear perspex partition the naïve fish’s benthic foraging skills were tested. The results revealed that hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon can be taught to target benthic prey items by observation alone and social learning protocols can be utilized to dramatically increase benthic foraging success. The results are discussed with reference to refining hatchery-rearing practices with a view to improving the post-release survival of hatchery fishes. The role of …

Do Fishes Have Nociceptors? Evidence For The Evolution Of A Vertebrate Sensory System, Lynne U. Sneddon, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Michael J. Gentle

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Nociception is the detection of a noxious tissue-damaging stimulus and is sometimes accompanied by a reflex response such as withdrawal. Pain perception, as distinct from nociception, has been demonstrated in birds and mammals but has not been systematically studied in lower vertebrates. We assessed whether a fish possessed cutaneous nociceptors capable of detecting noxious stimuli and whether its behavior was sufficiently adversely affected by the administration of a noxious stimulus. Electrophysiological recordings from trigeminal nerves identified polymodal nociceptors on the head of the trout with physiological properties similar to those described in higher vertebrates. These receptors responded to mechanical pressure, …

Considering Animals—Not “Higher” Primates, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

In this essay I argue that many nonhuman animal beings are conscious and have some sense of self. Rather than ask whether they are conscious, I adopt an evolutionary perspective and ask why consciousness and a sense of self evolved—what are they good for? Comparative studies of animal cognition, ethological investigations that explore what it is like to be a certain animal, are useful for answering this question. Charles Darwin argued that the differences in cognitive abilities and emotions among animals are differences in degree rather than differences in kind, and his view cautions against the unyielding claim that humans, …

Trigeminal Somatosensory Innervation Of The Head Of A Teleost Fish With Particular Reference To Nociception, Lynne U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Trigeminal somatosensory receptors have not been characterised in teleost fish and studies in elasmobranchs have failed to identify nociceptors. The present study examined the trigeminal nerve of a teleost fish, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to determine what types of somatosensory receptors were present on the head of the trout specifically searching for nociceptors. Single unit recordings were made from receptive fields on the head of the fish innervated by the trigeminal nerve. Each receptive field was tested for sensitivity to mechanical, thermal and chemical stimulation. Five different receptor types were found: fast adapting receptors responding to mechanical stimulation; slowly …

Reconstructing Cetacean Brain Evolution Using Computed Tomography, Lori Marino, Mark D. Uhen, Nicholas D. Pyenson, Bruno Frohlich

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Until recently, there have been relatively few studies of brain mass and morphology in fossil cetaceans (dolphins, whales, and porpoises) because of difficulty accessing the matrix that fills the endocranial cavity of fossil cetacean skulls. As a result, our knowledge about cetacean brain evolution has been quite limited. By applying the noninvasive technique of computed tomography (CT) to visualize, measure, and reconstruct the endocranial morphology of fossil cetacean skulls, we can gain vastly more information at an unprecedented rate about cetacean brain evolution. Here, we discuss our method and demonstrate it with several examples from our fossil cetacean database. This …

A Simple Reason For A Big Difference: Wolves Do Not Look Back At Humans, But Dogs Do, Ádám Miklósi, Eniko Kubinyi, József Topál, Márta Gácsi, Zsófia Virányi, Vilmos Csányi

Communication Skills Collection

The present investigations were undertaken to compare interspecific communicative abilities of dogs and wolves, which were socialized to humans at comparable levels. The first study demonstrated that socialized wolves were able to locate the place of hidden food indicated by the touching and, to some extent, pointing cues provided by the familiar human experimenter, but their performance remained inferior to that of dogs. In the second study, we have found that, after undergoing training to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an insoluble version of the same problem look/gaze at the human, while socialized wolves do …

The Bold And The Shy: Individual Differences In Rainbow Trout, L. U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Boldness and shyness were investigated as ‘personality’ traits in hatchery-reared rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Bold fish spent more time in an open area and were more active than shy fish and these behaviours could be used as indicators of boldness and shyness. These differences were related to learning ability in a simple conditioning task. Bold fish learned the task more quickly than shy fish.

Farm Disease Crises In The United Kingdom: Lessons To Be Learned, Michael C. Appleby

State of the Animals 2003

Over the last fifteen years, a diverse succession of disease-related crises has befallen farm animal and food industries in the United Kingdom. Some have involved animal health, with little risk to humans. Some have involved human health, with animals acting as a reservoir for infection but little affected themselves. Some, however— including the most alarming— have involved both animal and human health through zoonoses, diseases transmittable from animal to human. All of these crises are linked in the public mind and in many commentaries, and indeed there are issues that many of them share. The most common of these is …

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.

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 …

Impact Of The Agricultural Sector On The Arkansas Economy, H. L. Goodwin Jr., Jennie Popp, Wayne Miller, Gina Vickery, Z. Clayton-Niederman

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

Agriculture historically has been one of the primary sectors of the Arkansas economy. Agriculture is defined as the sum of agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production and processing activities unless otherwise specified. Not only does agriculture contribute to the economy through direct agricultural production and added value processing, it also plays an important role through the economy’s other sectors. Utilizing data from the United States Bureau of Economic Affairs and the State of Arkansas, the economic impact of agriculture on the Arkansas economy was estimated for the latest year available, 1999. Gross State Product (GSP) information for Arkansas was compared with …

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’) …

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 …

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 …

Convergence Of Complex Cognitive Abilities In Cetaceans And Primates, Lori Marino

Sentience Collection

What examples of convergence in higher-level complex cognitive characteristics exist in the animal kingdom? In this paper I will provide evidence that convergent intelligence has occurred in two distantly related mammalian taxa. One of these is the order Cetacea (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and the other is our own order Primates, and in particular the suborder anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans). Despite a deep evolutionary divergence, adaptation to physically dissimilar environments, and very different neuroanatomical organization, some primates and cetaceans show striking convergence in social behavior, artificial ‘language’ comprehension, and self-recognition ability. Taken together, these findings have important implications …

Cognitive And Communicative Abilities Of Grey Parrots, Irene M. Pepperberg

Sentience Collection

Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) solve various cognitive tasks and acquire and use English speech in ways that often resemble those of very young children. Given that the psittacine brain is organized very differently from that of mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the study and evolution of vocal learning, communication, and cognition.

Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Recognize Spatial And Object Correspondences Between A Scale Model And Its Referent, Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

In the present study, the contributions of spatial and object features to chimpanzees’ comprehension of scale models were examined. Seven chimpanzees that previously demonstrated the ability to use a scale model as an information source for the location of a hidden item were tested under conditions manipulating the feature correspondence and spatial-relational correspondence between objects in the model and an outdoor enclosure. In Experiment 1, subjects solved the task under two conditions in which one object cue (color or shape) was unavailable, but positional cues remained. Additionally, performance was above chance under a third condition in which both types of …

In Search Of King Solomon’S Ring: Cognitive And Communicative Studies Of Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg

Sentience Collection

During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses ‘no’, ‘come here’, wanna go X’ and ‘want Y’ (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to …

Familiarity With The Test Environment Improves Escape Responses In The Crimson Spotted Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Animals that are familiar with their environment have been reported to have greater survivorship for a number of reasons related to their knowledge of the terrain, which they recall from memory. In an initial experiment rainbowfish significantly improved their escape response towards a novel trawl apparatus over a sequence of five runs. Escape latencies were still low during a subsequent exposure 11 months after the initial exposure. While part of the improvement in escape success was certainly due to learning associated with the location of the escape route, it is likely that this was aided by habituation to the tank …