Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Conflict And Cooperation: Sociobiological Principles And The Behaviour Of Pigs, David Fraser, D. L. Kramer, E. A. Pajor, D. M. Weary

Sociobiology Collection

The pig provides many examples of how principles of behavioural ecology and sociobiology can lead to insights into farm animal behaviour. According to parent-offspring conflict theory, parents should tend to give a level of parental investment somewhat below that solicited by the young. When closely confined during lactation, sows can do little to limit the amount of contact with the piglets, and the young stimulate a prolonged, high level of lactation. Certain alternative housing systems allow the sow to limit the stimulation she receives, and the resulting reduction in lactation can actually be advantageous to both parties. Communal care of …

Behavioral Responses To Pine Needle Oil In The Northern Pocket Gopher, Gisela Epple, Dale L. Nolte, J. Russell Mason, Eugeny Aronov, Shirley Wager-Page

National Wildlife Research Center Repellents Conference 1995

For many herbivorous mammals, oils from conifers are feeding repellents. Our study investigated effects of pine needle oil on feeding and other behaviors of northern pocket gophers. In one-choice feeding trials pocket gophers were offered sweet potato from single feeding stations placed into each subject's home cage. Stations contained either a scent dispenser with pine needle oil or with mineral oil. Pine needle oil did not inhibit food retrieval under these conditions. Responses to pine needle oil and to a control odorant, d-pulegone, were also tested in mazes where subjects were offered choices between two goal boxes, each containing food …

The Challenge And Opportunity Of Recovering Wolf Populations, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The gray wolf once inhabited a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the northern hemisphere north of 20°N latitude. Because the animal preyed on livestock and competed with humans for wild prey, it was extirpated from much of its range outside of wilderness areas. Environmental awareness in the late 1960s brought for the wolf legal protection, increased research, and favorable media coverage. The species has increased in both Europe and North America, is beginning to reoccupy semiwilderness and agricultural land, and is causing increased damage to livestock. Because of the wolfs high reproductive rate and long dispersal tendencies, the …

Elephants, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Book review for the following title:

Elephants. By Clive Spinage, Kent, UK: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994, 319 pages. £27.45.

Vigilance, Flock Size, And Flock Geometry: Information Gathering By Western Evening Grosbeaks (Aves, Fringillidae), Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

Vigilance (scanning) and other behavior patterns were studied in free-ranging Evening Grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertinus) at feeders to assess how flock size and flock geometry influenced the behavior of individual birds. The present results indicate that the way in which individual grosbeaks are positioned with respect to one another effects many aspects of their behavior, especially when a flock contains four or more birds. Birds in a linear array who have difficulty seeing one another, when compared to individuals organized in a circle who can easily see one another, are (1) more vigilant, (2) change their head and body positions more …

Performance Of Four Seed-Caching Corvid Species In Operant Tests Of Nonspatial And Spatial Memory, Deborah J. Olsen, Alan Kamil, Russell P. Balda, Pamela J. Nims

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

The performance of 4 seed-caching corvid species was tested using 2 different operant nonmatching tasks. These species differ in their dependence on stored food, and differences in spatial memory tests have been correlated with better performance by the more cache-dependent species. Acquisition and retention of a color non-matching-to-sample task was tested in Experiment 1. Acquisition of the color task was not correlated with cache dependence, and no differences between species in performance during memory testing were found. Acquisition and retention of an operant spatial non-matching-to-sample task was tested in Experiment 2. Species differences in the spatial task were found for …

Interactions Between Predation Risk And Competition - A Field-Study Of Kangaroo Rats And Snakes, Amos Bouskila

Amos Bouskila

The effects of predation risk from snakes on microhabitat use of kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti and D. merriami) was studied in the Mojave Desert. I concentrated on the effects of the predator on the foraging behavior of the rodents and eliminated effects of prey capture on prey population size. Foraging stations contained three seed trays, one in each of three microhabitats (Open, Bush, Grass). The amount of seed left in each tray after one night of foraging was used to assess the responses to predation risk and other foraging costs; additional data were collected during direct observations and by trapping. …

Chivalry In Pholcid Spiders Revisited, Julie A. Blanchong, Michael S. Summerfield, Mary A. Popson, Elizabeth M. Jakob

Julie A. Blanchong

Cohabiting pairs of adult spiders are likely to interact over prey, and the outcome of these interactions is likely to affect the reproductive success of both individuals. In two species of pholcid spiders, previous workers reported the occurrence of "chivalrous" behavior, in which males cede prey to females. We looked for the occurrence of chivalrous behavior in another pholcid spider, Holocnemus pluchei. Pairs of spiders were placed on a web and left overnight without prey. A housefly was then introduced onto the web equidistant from the spiders, and subsequent interactions were noted on audiotape. We found no evidence of chivalry …

The Distribution, Ecology And Natural History Of Shrews (Insectivora: Soricidae) In Southern West Virginia, Jeffrey Jerome Hajenga

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A survey of the soricid (shrew) fauna of southern West Virginia was conducted between May 16, 1994 and May 27, 1995. Twenty-five sites were established in Mercer and Summers counties within seven habitat types. Pitfall traps were used and through a limitation of fluid depth within the trap the selectivity for soricids was increased to over 83% of the total capture. Overall, a total of 653 shrews comprising seven species (Sorex cinereus, S. /ongirostris, S. fumeus, S. dispar, S. hoyi, 8/arina brevicauda, and Cryptotis parva) was captured. Two of the species taken (S. hoyi and S. dispar) are new county …

Within-Pair Copulations: Are Female Tree Swallows Feathering Their Own Nests?, Michael P. Lombardo

Peer Reviewed Publications

A variety of hypotheses has been proposed to explain why socially monogamous birds copulate repeatedly with their mates when only a single copulation is necessary to fertilize an entire clutch (Birkhead and Møller 1992, Petrie 1992, Hunter et al. 1993). Petrie (1992) hypothesized that a female should copulate frequently with her mate so as to reduce her mate’s involvement in extrapair copulations. By reducing her mate’s involvement in extrapair copulations, a female may: (1) avoid the transmission of parasites and sexually transmitted diseases (Hamilton 1990); (2) may avoid sperm depletion by her mate; and (3) may monopolize her mate’s paternal …

A Ten-Year History Of The Demography And Productivity Of An Arctic Wolf Pack, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

A pack of two to eight adult wolves (Canis lupus arctos) and their pups was observed during ten summers (1986–95) on Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. The author habituated the wolf pack to his presence in the first summer and reinforced the habituation each summer thereafter. The first alpha female produced four to six pups each year between 1986 and 1989. However, her daughter, who succeeded her as the alpha female, produced only one to three pups each year between 1990 and 1992 and in 1994, and apparently did not whelp in 1993 or in 1995. The tenure …

Science, Values And Animal Welfare: Exploring The ‘Inextricable Connection’, D. Fraser

Animal Welfare Collection

In conceptualizing animal welfare, it is useful to distinguish among three types of concepts. 'Type l' are single, measurable attributes. 'Type 2' are single attributes that cannot be measured directly but can be estimated by correctly combining various contributing attributes. 'Type 3' are concepts involving multiple attributes which are grouped together because they serve some common function, and whose relative importance cannot be established in an entirely objective way. Individuals who treat animal welfare as a type 1 concept may propose single, objective measures of welfare, such as longevity or levels of stress-related hormones; however, this approach rests on judgements, …

Play Signals As Punctuation: The Structure Of Social Play In Canids, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

Actions called play signals have evolved in many species in which social play has been observed. Despite there being only few empirical demonstrations, it generally is accepted that play signals are important in the initiation ("I want to play") and maintenance ("I still want to play") of ongoing social play. In this study I consider whether a specific and highly stereotyped signal, the bow, is used to maintain social play in adult and infant domestic dogs, infant wolves, and infant coyotes.

To answer this question the temporal placement of bows relative to actions that are also used in other contexts …