Animal Studies Commons^™

Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus Urophasianus) Habitat Selection In Northwestern Wyoming And Stable Isotope Analysis Of Fecal Material, Andrea Renee Green

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dramatic range-wide declines in Greater Sage-Grouse populations have prompted efforts to determine habitat characteristics that are selected by sage-grouse for foraging, nesting and brood-rearing areas in an effort to conserve this species. Managers at Heart Mountain and Y U Bench in northwestern Wyoming expressed the need to quantify various habitat characteristics and to determine key use areas at both study sites. Data were collected on a variety of habitat variables in spots selected by grouse for foraging, nesting, and brood-rearing activities. These variables were compared to the same variables measured at random points at both study sites. Significant differences existed …

Stress And Reproductive Hormones In Grizzly Bears Reflect Nutritional Benefits And Social Consequences Of A Salmon Foraging Niche, Heather M. Bryan, Chris T. Darimont, Paul C. Paquet, Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards, Judit E. G. Smits

Physiology Collection

Physiological indicators of social and nutritional stress can provide insight into the responses of species to changes in food availability. In coastal British Columbia, Canada, grizzly bears evolved with spawning salmon as an abundant but spatially and temporally constrained food source. Recent and dramatic declines in salmon might have negative consequences on bear health and ultimately fitness. To examine broadly the chronic endocrine effects of a salmon niche, we compared cortisol, progesterone, and testosterone levels in hair from salmon-eating bears from coastal BC (n = 75) with the levels in a reference population from interior BC lacking access to salmon …

Laterality Influences Schooling Position In Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Spp, Anne-Laurence Bibost, Culum Brown

Aquaculture Collection

Cerebral lateralization is a widespread trait among animals, is often manifested as side biases in behaviour (laterality) and has been suggested to provide fitness benefits. Here we examined the influence of laterality on the organisation of fish schools using rainbowfish (Melanotaenia spp) as model species. The pattern and strength of laterality for each individual was determined by examining eye preferences whilst examining their reflection in a mirror. Schools of four fish of known laterality were then created and the preferred position for each fish within the school was repeatedly observed in a flume. Fish which showed right eye preferences in …

Discrimination Of Familiar Human Faces In Dogs (Canis Familiaris), Ludwig Huber, Anaïs Racca, Billy Scaf, Zsófia Virányi, Friederike Range

Recognition Collection

Faces are an important visual category for many taxa, and the human face is no exception to this. Because faces differ in subtle ways and possess many idiosyncratic features, they provide a rich source of perceptual cues. A fair amount of those cues are learned through social interactions and are used for future identification of individual humans. These effects of individual experience can be studied particularly well in hetero-specific face perception. Domestic dogs represent a perfect model in this respect, due to their proved ability to extract important information from the human face in socio-communicative interactions. There is also …

Predator Recognition In Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Embryos, Lois J. Oulton, Vivian Haviland, Culum Brown

Aquaculture Collection

Exposure to olfactory cues during embryonic development can have long term impacts on birds and amphibians behaviour. Despite the vast literature on predator recognition and responses in fishes, few researchers have determined how fish embryos respond to predator cues. Here we exposed four-day-old rainbowfish (Melanotaenia duboulayi) embryos to cues emanating from a novel predator, a native predator and injured conspecifics. Their response was assessed by monitoring heart rate and hatch time. Results showed that embryos have an innate capacity to differentiate between cues as illustrated by faster heart rates relative to controls. The greatest increase in heart rate occurred in …

Economic Contribution Of The Agricultural Sector To The Arkansas Economy In 2011, Leah English, Jennie Popp, Wayne Miller

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

This report is the eighth in a series of reports examining agriculture’s economic contribution on the Arkansas economy. Utilizing data from the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Inc. (MIG), the economic contribution of agriculture on the Arkansas economy was estimated for the most recent year available, 2011. The total economic contribution of agriculture (direct, indirect, and induced effects) to value added, employment, and labor income was estimated using the Impact Analysis for Planning System (IMPLAN). The economic contributions of agricultural production and processing …

A Note On Pigs’ Knowledge Of Hidden Objects, Christian Nawroth, Mirjam Ebersbach, Eberhard Von Borell

Memory Collection

Object permanence is the notion that objects continue to exist even when they are out of observer’s sight. This ability is adaptive for free ranging animals who have to cope with a dangerous and highly changeable environment and allows them to be aware of predators sneaking in their proximity or to keep track of conspecifics or food sources, even when out of sight. Farm animals might also benefit from object permanence because the ability to follow the trajectory of hidden food or objects may lead to a higher predictability of subjects’ environment, which in turn might affect the level of …

Examining The Link Between Personality And Laterality In A Feral Guppy Poecilia Reticulata Population, Eleanor Irving, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

This study examined whether variation in the strength and direction of lateralization in a detour task was linked with variation in three common personality measurements: boldness, activity and sociability, in a population of wild guppies Poecilia reticulata. Additionally, the aim was to determine whether any consistent correlations between these behavioural traits, known as behavioural syndromes, were present in the study population. The results revealed that all three personality traits were highly repeatable over time in both sexes. Evidence of a complex syndrome in the form of a correlation between boldness, sociability and activity was found; however, this relationship was only …

Turpentine Creek: Arkansas' Refuge, Jacob Paul Bain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this Master's thesis film project was twofold. First, I wanted to explore the problem, huge but relatively unknown, of the ownership of exotic pets in the United States of America. Second, in conjunction with that problem, I wanted to see how Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR) approached it and what, as an organization, they do to help resolve this problem locally and nationally. In turn, the film also provides an in-depth look at a very unique refuge in the state of Arkansas. Using my own equipment, I shot and edited a short-form documentary about TCWR. The film …

Evaluation Of Water Sanitation Options For Poultry Production, Pramir Maharjan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An evaluation of poultry farm water supplies was conducted to determine the value and impact of water system sanitation practices in commercial broiler houses on microbial levels. Water line cleaning between flocks using concentrated disinfectant solution before placing chicks reduced biofilms retained in the lines to a safe level. Occasional microbial surges were noticed during different points of flock grow-out period even when daily water sanitation was present indicating water is highly susceptible to microbial contamination. However, the daily water sanitation practice controlled the occasional microbial surges in water from sustaining and kept drinking water to a microbiologically acceptable level. …

Evaluating Economic And Environmental Impacts Of Changing Herd Sire Genetics On Arkansas Cow-Calf Operations, Daniel Keeton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at impacts of changing sires, and thus bull genetics, on cow-calf operations of varying land and herd sizes in the state of Arkansas. A 2012 Across-Breed EPD table, adjusted to the Angus breed, was used to estimate breed sire effects on birth weight and weaning weight of the herd's offspring (Kuehn and Thallman 2012a). Together with modified animal performance, the use of 2012 and most recent five- and ten- year Arkansas state average prices, allowed the evaluation of changing herd sires by accounting for breed type and hide color differences in prices. Using a spreadsheet tool that …

Real-Time Bioacoustics Monitoring And Automated Species Identification, T. Mitchell Aide, Carlos Corrada-Bravo, Marconi Campos-Cerqueira, Carlos Milan, Giovany Vega, Rafael Alvarez

Bioacoustics Collection

Traditionally, animal species diversity and abundance is assessed using a variety of methods that are generally costly, limited in space and time, and most importantly, they rarely include a permanent record. Given the urgency of climate change and the loss of habitat, it is vital that we use new technologies to improve and expand global biodiversity monitoring to thousands of sites around the world. In this article, we describe the acoustical component of the Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network (ARBIMON), a novel combination of hardware and software for automating data acquisition, data management, and species identification based on audio recordings. …

Rescued Goats At A Sanctuary Display Positive Mood After Former Neglect, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Sentience Collection

Moods influence cognitive processes in that people in positive moods expect more positive events to occur and less negative ones (“optimistic bias”), whereas the opposite happens for people in negative moods (“pessimistic bias”). The evidence for an effect of mood on cognitive bias is also increasing in animals, suggesting that measures of optimism and pessimism could provide useful indicators of animal welfare. For obvious ethical reasons, serious poor treatments cannot be easily replicated in large mammals in order to study their long-term effects on moods. In this study, we tested the long-term effects (>2 years) of prior poor welfare …

Environmental Change Alters Personality In The Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus Mykiss, Ashley J. Frost, Jack S. Thomson, Charlotte Smith, Hannah C. Burton, Ben Davis, Phillip C. Watts, Lynne U. Sneddon

Sentience Collection

Boldness is a personality trait that defines how individuals respond to risky situations and has clear fitness consequences. Since the adaptive value of boldness is context dependent, the benefit of a distinct personality is less clear when the environment is unpredictable. An ability to modulate behaviour can be beneficial, although as behavioural plasticity itself may be costly this depends on the levels of environmental stability. Both boldness and its plasticity are linked with physiological stress coping mechanisms, whereby animals with reduced glucocorticoid responses to stress are bolder and less flexible in behaviour. We investigated the behavioural changes made by bold …

Site Fidelity And Homing Behaviour In Intertidal Fishes, Gemma E. White, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

The theory of ecological cognition poses that the brains and behaviour of animals are shaped by the environmental challenges they face in their everyday lives. Site fidelity and homing ability was tested for five species of intertidal rock pool fish by tagging and displacing them to new rock pools at various distances from their ‘home’ rock pools. Three of the species were rock pool specialists whilst the remaining two spend a small proportion of their life in rock pools during early ontogeny. The three specialists showed strong site fidelity with >50 % of individuals found in the same pool 42 …

Are Juvenile Domestic Pigs (Sus Scrofa Domestica) Sensitive To The Attentive States Of Humans? The Impact Of Impulsivity On Choice Behaviour, Christian Nawroth, Mirjam Ebersbach, Eberhard Von Borell

Attention Collection

Previous studies have shown that apes, dogs and horses seem to be able to attribute attentive states to humans. Subjects chose successfully between two persons: one who was able to see the animal and one who was not. Using a similar paradigm, we tested a species that does not rely strongly on visual cues, the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica). Subjects could choose between two unfamiliar persons, with only one showing attention, in three different conditions (body, head away, body turned - head front). Subjects (n = 16) only showed a tendency towards …

Estimating Animal Population Density Using Passive Acoustics, Tiago A. Marques, Len Thomas, Stephen W. Martin, David K. Mellinger, Jessica A. Ward, Danielle Harris, Peter L. Tyack

Bioacoustics Collection

Reliable estimation of the size or density of wild animal populations is very important for effective wildlife management, conservation and ecology. Currently, the most widely used methods for obtaining such estimates involve either sighting animals from transect lines or some form of capture-recapture on marked or uniquely identifiable individuals. However, many species are difficult to sight, and cannot be easily marked or recaptured. Some of these species produce readily identifiable sounds, providing an opportunity to use passive acoustic data to estimate animal density. In addition, even for species for which other visually based methods are feasible, passive acoustic methods offer …

Genetic Analysis Of The Promoter Region Of The Serotonin Receptor 5ht2b And Its Contribution To Pulmonary Hypertension Syndrome In Broiler-Type Chickens, Khaloud Awada Alzahrani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a sever disorder characterized by high pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance along with specific histological changes. Idiopathic PAH is a human disease of unknown origin that showed common characteristics to PHS/ascites in chicken. PHS/ascites is a condition found in broilers causing right ventricular hypertrophy, valvular insufficiency, increased venous pressure, variable liver changes, accumulation of fluids in the abdominal cavity, and finally lung and heart failure. Currently, there is no acceptable animal model for human PAH. Our group has been validating the chicken as the medical animal model for human PAH, thus we have …

Effects Of Ergot Alkaloids And Bovine Bodily Fluids On Cytochrome P450 Activity, Nicholas Scott Ezell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the Promega^TM P450-Glo assay (Promega^TM V9800) as a tool for quantifying ergot alkaloid concentration. Current techniques used for detection of ergot alkaloids are slow and expensive, do not detect all ergot alkaloids, or are not effective on bovine bodily fluids. The first study was conducted to determine effects of commercial ergot alkaloids (n = 6; 0 - 400 μM) on the Promega^TM P450-Glo assay. Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) activity in assay had a differential response to each ergot alkaloid and concentration. As concentrations of ergotamine, dihydroergotamine, ergocornine, and ergocryptine increased CYP450 activity was inhibited (P …

Effects Of Using Canola Meal As A Protein Source In Broiler Diets, Charles Danny Bradley Jr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Six experiments were conducted to evaluate the response of broilers fed canola meal. Experiment 1 assessed performance and carcass yields when broilers were fed various combinations of canola and soybean meal in nutritionally balanced diets based on digestible amino acid values. The results suggested that canola meal can be used in isocaloric diets as a partial replacement for Soybean meal.

Experiment 2 assessed broiler performance and carcass yields when using various levels of canola meal in broiler diets with a constant level of supplemental poultry oil. The resulting data suggested when diets are formulated with a constant level of supplemental …

Eurasian Jays Predict The Food Preferences Of Their Mates, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

The cognitive abilities of animals continue to fascinate both scientists and nonscientists. Although the abilities of the primates, our closest living relatives, generally attract most interest, several different lines of research have demonstrated high levels of intellectual capacity in birds, particularly corvids. The members of this family are known for their large brains and have performed well in many cognitive tasks using different paradigms (1–3). This finding has led to substantial revision of thinking about avian intelligence, including the suggestion of convergence in the evolution of cognitive abilities between corvids and primates (4). In PNAS, Ostojić et al. (5) add …

Neutering Dogs: Effects On Joint Disorders And Cancers In Golden Retrievers, Gretel Torres De La Riva, Benjamin L. Hart, Thomas B. Farver, Anita M. Oberbauer, Locksley L. Mcv Messam, Neil H. Willits, Lynette A. Hart

Endocrinology Collection

In contrast to European countries, the overwhelming majority of dogs in the U.S. are neutered (including spaying), usually done before one year of age. Given the importance of gonadal hormones in growth and development, this cultural contrast invites an analysis of the multiple organ systems that may be adversely affected by neutering. Using a single breed-specific dataset, the objective was to examine the variables of gender and age at the time of neutering versus leaving dogs gonadally intact, on all diseases occurring with sufficient frequency for statistical analyses. Given its popularity and vulnerability to various cancers and joint disorders, the …

Evolutionary Responses To Invasion: Cane Toad Sympatric Fish Show Enhanced Avoidance Learning, Georgina Caller, Culum Brown

Aquaculture Collection

The introduced cane toad (Bufo marinus) poses a major threat to biodiversity due to its lifelong toxicity. Several terrestrial native Australian vertebrates are adapting to the cane toad’s presence and lab trials have demonstrated that repeated exposure to B. marinus can result in learnt avoidance behaviour. Here we investigated whether aversion learning is occurring in aquatic ecosystems by comparing cane toad naı¨ve and sympatric populations of crimson spotted rainbow fish (Melanotaenia duboulayi). The first experiment indicated that fish from the sympatric population had pre-existing aversion to attacking cane toad tadpoles but also showed reduced attacks on native tadpoles. The second …

The Applicability Of The Self-Fulfillment Account Of Welfare To Nonhuman Animals, Babies, And Mentally Disabled Humans, Tatjana Visak, Jonathan Balcombe

Sentience Collection

In this paper we will argue that generality is a virtue of Haybron’s account of welfare. Indeed, reflecting on the applicability of his theory to nonhuman animals will give us a better understanding of its applicability to humans. We will first focus on self-fulfillment and suggest an interpretation of Haybron’s account according to which the self-fulfillment of an individual consists in the fulfillment of the aspects of the self that are applicable to that particular individual. This makes Haybron’s account of welfare applicable to all sentient beings. Then we will focus on sub-personal nature-fulfillment and argue that the same interpretation …

Are Apes’ Responses To Pointing Gestures Intentional?, Olivia Sultanescu, Kristin Andrews

Sentience Collection

This paper examines the meaningfulness of pointing in great apes. We appeal to Hannah Ginsborg’s conception of primitive normativity, which provides an adequate criterion for establishing whether a response is meaningful, and we attempt to make room for a conception according to which there is no fundamental difference between the responses of human infants and those of other great apes to pointing gestures. This conception is an alternative to Tomasello’s view that pointing gestures and reactions to them reveal a fundamental difference between humans and other apes.

Social Learning In Juvenile Lemon Sharks, Negaprion Brevirostris, Tristan L. Guttridge, Sander Van Dijk, Eize Stamhuis, Jens Krause, Samuel Gruber, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Social learning is taxonomically widespread and can provide distinct behavioural advantages, such as in finding food or avoiding predators more efficiently. Although extensively studied in bony fishes, no such empirical evidence exists for cartilaginous fishes. Our aim in this study was to experimentally investigate the social learning capabilities of juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris. We designed a novel food task, where sharks were required to enter a start zone and subsequently make physical contact with a target in order to receive a food reward. Naive sharks were then able to interact with and observe (a) pre-trained sharks, that is, ‘demonstrators’, …

Does True Syntax Or Simple Auditory Object Support The Role Of Skylark Song Dialect?, Elodie F. Briefer, Fanny Rybak, Thierry Aubin

Sentience Collection

Parallels between birdsong and human language are numerous and include particular temporal arrangements of acoustic units and the existence of dialects. In animal communication, modifications of the temporal ordering of existing acoustic units have rarely been clearly linked with changes in information content, particularly in a natural environment. Here, we show that the organization of birdsong units (‘syllables’) in sequences supports interindividual relationships within skylark communities. We manipulated the temporal arrangement of song dialect variants (‘shared phrases’) in the skylark, Alauda arvensis, a songbird with a very large repertoire of syllables and complex song. When tested with playback experiments performed …

Ape Autonomy? Social Norms And Moral Agency In Other Species, Kristin Andrews

Autonomy Collection

No abstract provided.

Do Painful Sensations And Fear Exist In Fish?, Lynne U. Sneddon

Distress Collection

The detection of pain and fear in fi sh has been subject to much debate and, since fi sh are a popular experimental model and commercially important in both angling and aquaculture, many procedures that fi sh are subjected to cause injury, fear and stress. These injuries would give rise to the sensation of pain in humans but whether fi sh have the capacity for pain is relatively under explored. Recent evidence has shown that fi sh have the same neural apparatus to detect pain that mammals and humans do, that their brain is active during a potentially painful experience, …

Associations Of Housing, Management, Milking Activity, And Standing And Lying Behavior Of Dairy Cows Milked In Automatic Systems, Justine A. Deming, Renée Bergeron, Kenneth E. Leslie, Trevor J. Devries

Farm Animal Husbandry Collection

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to describe the housing, feeding management, and characteristics (parity and stage of lactation) of cows on commercial automatic milking system (AMS) dairies and their associations with the standing and lying behavior patterns and milking activity (frequency and yield) of lactating dairy cows. Thirteen AMS herds were enrolled in the study, with an average herd size of 71 ± 30 (mean ± SD; range: 34 to 131) lactating cows. All of the herds used freestall barns, each set up for free cow traffic to the AMS. On-farm measurements were taken to determine stocking density …