Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Toward A Resolution Of The Paradox Of Aggressive Displays: I. Optimal Deceit In The Communication Of Fighting Ability, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

One inference from game theory models of animal conflict is that adversaries should not inform one another about concealed components of their fighting ability. This poses a paradox for the customary ethological account of aggressive displays in that it is usually assumed that the primary function of such behavior is to make such information available. To resolve the paradox, I propose that the information in aggressive displays may not be strictly truthful, but may instead represent "optimal deceit," a balance between the advantages of deceit or bluffing and the disadvantages of selecting for skepticism in the receiver. Numerical simulation of …

Lasting Responsiveness Of A Kea (Nestor Notabilis) Toward Its Mirror Image, Judy Diamond, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

At the San Diego Zoo we had the opportunity of observing the behaviour of a Kea Nestor notabilis toward its mirror image under conditions of constant exposure over a period of 12 months. ... The introduction of the mirrors appears to have had a striking impact on the bird's listless state. Reports from keepers indicated that the Kea's appetite was restored after the introduction of the mirrors, and the animal was generally more active. Incidents of feather pulling were generally reduced in frequency.

Studies Of Learning And Memory In Natural Contexts : Integrating Functional And Mechanistic Approaches To Behavior, Alan Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

My purpose in this paper is to describe two research projects that combine experimental psychology and behavioral ecology . The first employs the operant conditioning technology developed by psychologists to test hypotheses arising from ecological studies of foraging animals. The second uses concepts from natural history and ecology to explore the nature and evolution of spatial memory. These two projects demonstrate both the advantages and the challenges of interdisciplinary work.

There are many advantages to combining psychological and biological perspectives on the behavior of animals. But truly interdisciplinary work is rare, mostly because it is so difficult to achieve meaningful …

Toward A Resolution Of The Paradox Of Aggressive Displays: Ii. Behavioral Efference And The Communication Of Intentions, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

An inference from game-theory models of animal conflict is that adversaries should not inform one another about their level of aggressive motivation. This poses a paradox for the traditional ethological account of graded aggressive displays because it is usually assumed that the adaptive significance of these behavior patterns lies in their making such information available. To resolve the paradox, I propose that communication is only an incidental effect of displays, and that their primary adaptive function is regulation of the intensity of aggressive encounters through positive feedback on aggressive motivation, a process termed "behavioral efference." Evidence in support of this …

Elaphe Bairdi (Baird’S Rat Snake): Drinking Behavior., Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

On 13 February 1988. at 1600 h. a captive-bred (hatched July 1985) male Elaphe bairdi (TL.136.9 cm, SVL .. 89.54 cm). maintained in a 50.5 x 25 x 30 cm terrerium was accidently splashed with water. As beads of water on the snake's head rolled down to the upper labial sceles. swallowing was observed. The water on the labial scales was drawn Into the mouth while It was closed. This behavior lasted 42 sec. This behavior was repeated 23 out of 24 trials conducted during the next 24 days. The duration of swallowing wes 9-62 sec (avg 35.8, N = …

Toward A Resolution Of The Paradox Of Aggressive Displays: Ii. Behavioral Efference And The Communication Of Intentions, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

An inference from game-theory models of animal conflict is that adversaries should not inform one another about their level of aggressive motivation. This poses a paradox for the traditional ethological account of graded aggressive displays because it is usually assumed that the adaptive significance of these behavior patterns lies in their making such information available. To resolve the paradox, I propose that communication is only an incidental effect of displays, and that their primary adaptive function is regulation of the intensity of aggressive encounters through positive feedback on aggressive motivation, a process termed "behavioral efference." Evidence in support of this …

Foraging Behavior And Switching By The Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus Savannarum Searching For Multiple Prey In A Heterogeneous Environment, Anthony Joern

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Switching among four alternative grasshopper species by the grasshop- per sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) through frequency-dependent predation was ex- amined. Grasshoppers were presented against a heterogeneous natural background in an outdoor aviary where total density was held constant but relative density of each grasshopper species varied. Switching among prey, primarily between two of the four species, and inter-bird variability in switching was observed. Species-specific prefer- ences and interactions among the alternative grasshopper species affected the final diet choice as one grasshopper species was always preferentially selected and another disregarded independent of changes in relative density. Attributes of avian foraging behavior, including: …

A Comparative-Ecological Approach To The Study Of Learning, Alan Kamil, John E. Mauldin

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the effects of a parameter which is present in every learning experiment, but about which we know relatively little--the species being tested. The effects of the species variable have been studied relatively infrequently by animal learning psychologists for at least three reasons. (1) Psychologists have tended to assume that a few general processes will account entirely for most, if not all, of the important phenomena of animal learning in a broad range of species. This assumption has been criticized frequently in recent years (e.g., Seligman, 1970; Seligman & Hager, 1972), but still …

The Spatial Memory Of Clark’S Nutcrackers (Nucifraga Columbiana) In An Analogue Of The Radial Arm Maze, Russel P. Balda, Alan Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) use spatial memory to recover stored food in the field. In the present experiments, an open-field analogue of the radial arm maze was developed and used to test the ability of nutcrackers to remember spatial locations. The nutcrackers showed high levels of retention after 6 h, but were close to chance levels after a 24-h retention interval. These results suggest that nutcrackers may use different spatial memory systems under different conditions. After long retention intervals, nutcrackers performed more accurately than pigeons tested by other experimenters using similar procedures. This raises the possibility of species …

Diet Choices Of Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata) As A Function Of Time Spent Foraging, Sonja I. Yoerg, Alan C. Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Optimal diet theory predicts choices among prey types. With sequential prey encounters, less profitable prey types may be rejected immediately because rejecting the prey item at hand increases the probability of encountering more profitable types. However, Lucas (1985) argued that at the end of a foraging bout, all encountered prey types should be accepted because the opportunity to encounter more profitable types is limited. We tested Lucas’s prediction in a simulation, allowing blue jays to hunt for two moth types differing in profitability. During the last min of both 10- and 20-min foraging bouts, the less profitable type was attacked …

Wolf Distribution And Road Density In Minnesota, L. David Mech, Steven H. Fritts, Glenn L. Radde, William J. Paul

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Distribution of the wolf (Canis lupus) in parts of Wisconsin (Thiel 1985) and Michigan and Ontario (Jensen et al. 1986) has been related to the density of roads passable by 2-wheel-drive vehicles. Wolves in those regions generally do not occur where road densities exceed 0.58 km/km², whereas similar areas nearby with fewer roads do contain wolves.

In a small segment of the wolf range in Minnesota, wolves did not have territories where roads exceeded a density of 0.73 km/km² (T. K. Fuller, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, unpublished data). In another small area of Minnesota …

Alloparental Care In The Prairie Skink, Eumeces Septentrionalis: A Case Of Mistaken Identity?, Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

Alloparental care , or one individual caring for the eggs or young of another , ha s been documented for a variety of verte brate organism s (Coyne & Sohn 1978; Frame et a1. 1983; Gowaty & Karlin 1984) . In t h i s a rticle I document an instance of alloparental care in the prairie skink , Eumeces septentrionalis .

A Synthetic Approach To The Study Of Animal Intelligence, Alan Kamil

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Psychologists have been studying animal learning for about a century. This century of experimental and theoretical work has produced some remarkable successes, particularly in understanding basic conditioning processes. However, these successes are limited in two major ways. First, they have been confined to a narrow domain. Recent research from a variety of settings has demonstrated that animals have mental abilities far beyond what they were given credit for just a few years ago. We must dramatically expand the range of phenomena addressed by the study of animal learning. Second, there has been an almost complete failure to place animal learning …

Mortality Of White-Tailed Deer In Northeastern Minnesota, Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Abstract: Two hundred nine white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were radiotracked in the central Superior National Forest, Minnesota, from 1973 through winter 1983-84; 85 deaths were recorded. Annual survival was 0.31 for fawns (<1.0 years old), 0.80 for yearling (1.0-2.0 years old) females, 0.41 for yearling males, 0.79 for adult (≥2.0 years old) females, and 0.47 for adult males. Monthly survival rates were high from May through December (0.94-1.00), except for yearling (0.60) and adult (0.69) bucks during the November hunting season. Most mortality occurred from January through April when gray wolf (Canis lupus) predation was an important mortality source for all cohorts. Yearlings males were most vulnerable to hunting and adult males to wolf predation.

Relationship Between Snow Depth And Gray Wolf Predation On White-Tailed Deer, Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Abstract: Survival of 203 yearling and adult white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was monitored for 23,441 deer days from January through April 1975-85 in northeastern Minnesota. Gray wolf (Canis lupus)predation was the primary mortality cause, and from year to year during this period, the mean predation rate ranged from 0.00 to 0.29. The sum of weekly snow depths/month explained 51% of the variation in annual wolf predation rate, with the highest predation during the deepest snow.

The Ecology Of Foraging Behavior: Implications For Animal Learning And Memory, Alan Kamil, Herbert L. Roitblat

Avian Cognition Papers

In his recent Annual Review of Psychology article, Snowdon (1983) discussed the synthesis of ethology and comparative psychology. A similar synthesis of behavioral ecology and animal learning is beginning to take place. This article reviews developments in the behavioral ecology and ethology of foraging behavior relevant to psychological research on animal learning. The psychological literature shows that animals possess a wide range of learning abilities, including “simple” classical and operant conditioning; they acquire spatial, nonspatial, and temporal discriminations; they exhibit various forms of rule learning (e.g. matching-to-sample and learning set), and may even in certain senses learn language. Why does …

Two Modal Action Patterns With A Continuous Temporal Distribution, Alan B. Bond, George W. Barlow, William Rogers

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Most methods of quantitative analysis of animal behavior assume that action patterns can be unambiguously classified into discrete, exclusive categories. This is not invariably the case. The digging behavior of the Midas cichlid (Cichlasoma citrinellum), for example, exhibits two functionally distinct modalities, scoop and pi&, that intergrade continuously in form but are separable probabilistically. We present a technique for analyzing such behaviors that provides a reliable basis for formulating and verifying categories and allows a quantitative assessment of functional dissimilarity.

Die meisten Methoden quantitativer Verhaltensanalysen setzen eindeutige Klassifizierung der Verhaltensweisen in sich wechselseitig ausschlieißende Kategorien voraus. Die sind …

The Effects Of Prey Depletion On The Patch Choice Of Foraging Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Alan Kamil, Sonja I. Yoerg

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) were trained to hunt for non-cryptic moths presented in projected images. On each trial, the jays chose one of two patches to hunt in: (1) a uniform, “non-depleting” patch with constant prey density of 0.25; or (2) a “depleting” patch in which prey density changed during the foraging bout. In the depleting patch, the initial prey density was 0.50, declining to zero in a single step part-way through each foraging bout (session). The patch choices of the jays were greatly affected by these conditions. The jays chose the depleting patch early in the session, …

Sex Differences In The Recognition Of Infant Facial Expressions Of Emotion: The Primary Caretaker Hypothesis, Raymond B. Hames, Wayne A. Babchuk

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Although much research has been devoted to studying sex differences In functioning (e.g., Maccoby and Jacklin 1974), most efforts have been directed toward documenting or elucidating the proximate causes of sex differences. Few attempts have been made, however, to explain the ultimate causes of these differences or the selective pressures that have led to the development or psychological differences between males and females [for exception see Symons (1979) and Daly and Wilson (1983)]. Toward this end of blending psychology with evolutionary theory we develop what we call the " primary caretaker hypothesis," which predicts that the sex that through evolutionary …

Notes On Maternal Behavior And Post-Brooding Aggression In The Prairie Skink, Eumeces Septentrionalis, Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

Observations of three female prairie skinks (E. septentrionalis) obtained in Omaha, NE, in 1983, including nest building, oviposition, incubation, defensive behavior, grooming of hatchlings, neonatal care, and post-brooding aggression.

Simulation Analyses Of Space Use: Home Range Estimates, Variability, And Sample Size, Marc Bekoff, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Simulations of space use by animals were run to determine the relationship among home range area estimates, variability, and sample size (number of locations). As sample size increased, home range size increased asymptotically, whereas variability decreased among mean home range area estimates generated by multiple simulations for the same sample size. Our results suggest that field workers should ascertain between 100 and 200 locations in order to estimate reliably home range area. In some cases, this suggested guideline is higher than values found in the few published studies in which the relationship between home range area and number of locations …

Discrimination And Generalization Of Leaf Damage By Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Pamela G. Real, Ruth Iannazzi, Alan C. Kamil, Bernd Heinrich

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) responded to projected black-and-white silhouettes of cherry leaves that were either undamaged or were damaged by either cryptic caterpillars that disguise leaf damage due to their feeding or by noncryptic caterpillars that do not disguise leaf damage due to their feeding. Pecks to the key on which the images were projected were reinforced only if interresponse times fell within specified temporal boundaries. These boundaries were different in the presence of the two types of leaf damage. Following training with one exemplar of each damage type, the jays correctly categorized novel instances of both types. …

Dummy-Elicited Aggressive Behavior In The Polychromatic Midas Cichlid, George W. Barlow, William Rogers, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

Aggressive responses of 12 individuals of the polychromatic Midas cichlid Cichlasoma citrinellum were tested with five different sizes of neutrally colored (spot pattern) life-like dummies. The dummies were presented daily over six days, for one minute apiece, in a balanced design. Color (gold or normal morph) and sex of the subjects were varied independently. The attacks and threats at the dummies were positively correlated in their occurrence so they were combined to yield an aggregate measure of aggression. Attacks on blinded juveniles, five minutes before and five minutes after viewing a dummy, were analyzed to test for the occurrence of …

Aspects Of The Nesting Ecology Of Least Terns And Piping Plovers In Central Nebraska, Craig A. Faanes

Papers in Ornithology

Breeding habitat of the least tern is made up primarily of coastal beaches and inland river sandbars. Populations of the interior (Sterna antillarum athalassos) and east coast (S. a. antillarum) subspecies are now declining (Marshall et al. 1975, Duffy 1977, Jernigan et al. 1978) and the western subspecies (S. a. browni) is endangered (Wilbur 1974). Although coastal populations have received considerable attention (Wolk 1974, Atwood et al. 1977, Blodgett 1978), little research has been conducted on the interior race (Hardy 1957, Downing 1975).

The piping plover inhabits river sandbars and sand beaches and, like …

The Foraging Behavior Of Lacewing Larvae On Vertical Rods, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The foraging behavior of lacewing larvae (Chrysopa carnea Stephens, Chrysopidae, Neuroptera) on vertical lucite rods was observed under a variety of experimental conditions to investigate the decision processes responsible for the distribution of foraging effort. Food deprivation increased the duration of searching on all parts of the rod, whereas contact with prey at the rod tip induced only a local enhancement of searching activity. Searching at the rod tip did not decline with repeated trials on the same rod, but the duration of searching on the rest of the rod was reduced, evidently reflecting recognition and avoidance of previously-searched …

Scaring Of Carrion Crows (Corvus Corone Corone) By Species-Specific Distress Calls And Suspended Bodies Of Dead Crows, Luzia Naef-Daenzer

Bird Control Seminars Proceedings

In Switzerland, carrion crows can cause considerable damage to sprouting corn fields when feeding on the germinated corn. I tried to evaluate a method to prevent these damages. The use of species-specific distress calls, for the first time described by Frings and Jumber (1954), seemed to be the most promising method. Agronomes and biologists have applied it in field studies to several different bird species causing damage in agriculture and on airports (e.g., Gramet, 1962; Brough, 1968). However, the literature either describes single actions or several different scaring devices being used together. To be able to judge the method, quantitative …

Optimal Foraging Theory And The Psychology Of Learning, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

The development of optimization theory has made important contributions to the study of animal behavior. But the optimization approach needs to be integrated with other methods of ethology and psychology. For example, the ability to learn is an important component of efficient foraging behavior in many species, and the psychology of animal learning could contribute substantially to testing and extending the predictions of optimal foraging theory.

The Transmission Of Learned Behavior: An Observational Study Of Father-Child Interactions During Fishing, Judy Diamond, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Mechanisms of transmission of learned behavior were described in terms of the behavioral interactions between fathers and their children as they fished from a pier on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis and the patterns of association in the behavioral repertoire were described in detail. Groupings of associated behaviors ranged from clusters suggestive of modeling or simple showing to complex combinations of behaviors involved in teaching. There were indications that the transmission behaviors varied with the content of the transmitted information and the role of the performer. Role differentiation in the transmission behaviors …

Visual Search And Selection Of Natural Stimuli In The Pigeon: The Attention Threshold Hypothesis, Alan B. Bond

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

During visual search for samples of varying proportions of familiar, natural food grains displayed against a complex gravel background, pigeons exhibited “matching selection,” a tendency to overselect the more common grain. The matching selection effect was decreased at low levels of stimulus/background contrast and reversed when the grains were highly conspicuous. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that stimulus detectability should be enhanced by recent experience with a particular grain type, but they showed no convincing indications of a corresponding effect on the response criterion. An explanatory model, termed the attention threshold hypothesis, argues that the mean latency of …

An Analysis Of Howling Response Parameters Useful For Wolf Pack Censusing, Fred H. Harrington, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were studied from April 1972 through April 1974 in National Forest in northeastern Minnesota by radio-tracking and simulated howling. Based during 217 of 456 howling sessions, the following recommendations were derived for using howling as a census technique: (1) the best times of day are dusk and night; (2) July, August, and are the best months; (3) precipitation and winds greater than 12 km/hour should be avoided; (of 5 single howls should be used, alternating "flat" and "breaking" howls; (5) trials should 3 times at about 2-minute intervals with the first trial at lower …