Animal Studies Commons^™

Gender Differences In Attitudes Toward Animal Research, Jennifer J. Eldridge, John P. Gluck

Experimentation Collection

Although gender differences in attitudes toward animal research have been reported in the literature for some time, exploration into the nature of these differences has received less attention. This article examines gender differences in responses to a survey of attitudes toward the use of animals in research. The survey was completed by college students and consisted of items intended to tap different issues related to the animal research debate. Results indicated that women were more likely than men to support tenets of the animal protection movement. Likewise, women were more likely than men to favor increased restrictions on animal use …

Taking Evolution Seriously: A Matter Of Primate Intelligence, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

Intelligence Collection

No abstract provided.

Scientists And Animal Research: Dr. Jekyll Or Mr. Hyde?, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

Why is the public so sensitive about the use of a few tens of millions of animals in research when they do not object to killing hundreds of millions of pigs and cows and billions of chickens for our meat diet? Why is animal research considered so bad despite the public's high opinion of science (and scientists)? Perhaps it is the image of the scientist as an objective and cold individual who deliberately inflicts harm (pain, distress, or death) on his (the public image is usually male) innocent animal victims that arouses so much horror and concern. This paper does …

Evaluation Of Animal Welfare By The Self-Expression Of An Anxiety State, M. P. Carey, J. P. Fry

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Although mental well-being has long been accepted as an important aspect of animal welfare, the subjective feelings of farm or laboratory animals are regarded as lying beyond the scope of scientific enquiry. We now report that pharmacological conditioning of pigs with a drug, pentylenetetrazole, known to induce anxiety in man, permits investigation of the presence or absence of this psychological state during exposure to a variety of environmental stimuli encountered during normal husbandry. Such pharmacological conditioning therefore provides a valuable means to assess and improve elements of animal welfare and should be applicable to other species that show operant behaviour.

Chimpanzees In Laboratories: Distribution And Types Of Research, Martin L. Stephens

Laboratory Experiments Collection

This review presents the results of an informal 1993 survey of the distribution of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the world's laboratories, and the types of research conducted on them. Based on the available information, there are over 2200 chimpanzees in.laboratories, most of which are located in several US facilities. Europe apparently has less than 200 chimpanzees housed in two facilities. Worldwide, an estimated 80% of the chimpanzees in laboratories are used in studies on AIDS and hepatitis. It is concluded that, if Europe terminated its use of chimpanzees in research, for either financial, moral or political reasons, the impact on …

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 …

Mirror Use By African Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Sean E. Garcia, Eric C. Jackson, Sharon Marconi

Sentience Collection

No abstract provided.

Get The Facts On Cats

Close Up Reports

No abstract provided.

Indicating Acts During Counting By A Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes), Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Berntson, Traci A. Shreyer, Michelle B. Hannan

Sentience Collection

A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) experienced in counting arrays of 0-7 items and trained for comprehension of number symbols, spontaneously displayed a variety of indicating acts (e.g., pointing, touching, and rearranging items) during counting. Twenty-five sessions were videotaped, and all trials were evaluated for the relations among number of items presented, number of indicating acts displayed, and the Arabic number selected to represent the array. Significant correlations included the relations between number of items and the cardinal number selected by the animal, between the number of items and indicating acts displayed by the chimpanzee, and between the number of indicating acts …

Wildlife Wins At The Polls

Close Up Reports

No abstract provided.

The Animal Research Controversy: Protest, Process & Public Policy, Andrew N. Rowan, Franklin M. Loew, Joan C. Weer

Experimentation Collection

The controversy today regarding the use of animals in research appears on the surface to be a strongly polarized struggle between the scientific community and the animal protection movement. However, there is a wide range of opinions and philosophies on both sides. Mistrust between the factions has blossomed while communication has withered. Through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the animal movement grew in numbers and financial resources, and developed much greater public recognition and political clout. The research community paid relatively little attention to the animal movement for much of this period but, alarmed by several public relations coups …

How The Rat Turned White, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

This is the first in a three-part series on the use of animals in psychological research. In it, I describe how animals got into laboratories in the first place, and their purpose and life there. In the second, I will describe animal model research, the strategy whereby psychologists' develop nonhuman animal models to study human psychopathology. In the concluding piece, I will present a critique of this enterprise, using original data I gathered. The three articles are based on a forthcoming book, Animal Models of Human Psychology: Science, Ethics, and Policy.

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, …

Comprehension Of Cause-Effect Relations In A Tool-Using Task By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Luca Limongelli, Sarah T. Boysen, Elisabetta Visalberghi

Sentience Collection

Five chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were tested to assess their understanding of causality in a tool task. The task consisted of a transparent tube with a trap-hole drilled in its middle. A reward was randomly placed on either side of the hole. Depending on which side the chimpanzee inserted the stick into, the candy was either pushed out of the tube or into the trap. In Experiment 1, the success rate of 2 chimpanzees rose highly above chance, but that of the other subjects did not. Results show that the 2 successful chimpanzees selected the correct side for insertion beforehand. Experiment …

Responses To Quantity: Perceptual Versus Cognitive Mechanisms In Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Berntson

Sentience Collection

Two chimpanzees were trained to select among 2 different amounts of candy (1-6 items). The task was designed so that selection of either array by the active (selector) chimpanzee resulted in that array being given to the passive (observer) animal, with the remaining (nonselected) array going to the selector. Neither animal was able to select consistently the smaller array, which would reap the larger reward. Rather, both animals preferentially selected the larger array, thereby receiving the smaller number of reinforcers. When Arabic numerals were substituted for the food arrays, however, the selector animal evidenced more optimal performance, immediately selecting the …

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 …

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 …

Calling By Domestic Piglets: Reliable Signals Of Need?, Daniel M. Weary, David Fraser

Communication Skills Collection

Two manipulations were performed on domestic piglets to determine whether differences in calling during periods of separation from the mother can indicate differences in need. In both cases, the aim was to manipulate the piglet's need for the sow's attention. In the first manipulation a 'thriving' piglet (i.e. the piglet with the heaviest weight and most rapid weight gain) and a 'non-thriving' one (lightest and slowest weight gain) were selected from each of 15 litters. The two piglets were removed from the sow and litter and recorded for 13 min in separate isolated enclosures. For the second manipulation, two piglets …

Animal Well-Being In Zoos, Conservation Centers And In-Situ Conservation Programs, John Lukas

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

Well-being, as defined in reference to one's welfare, is the condition of happiness, prosperity and good health. In dealing with an animal's well-being, there are two frames of reference to consider. First, biological well-being which encompasses the spacial, social, nutritional, behavioral and reproductive needs of a species. Secondly, cultural well-being of animals concentrating on their perception of happiness, cleanliness, safety and the way the animals are treated by the people who care for them.

In this paper, we are not addressing freedom as a condition of well-being, only happiness, prosperity and good health. Free-ranging wild animals are not free but …

Preserving Individuals Versus Conserving Populations: Is There A Conflict?, Donald G. Lindburg

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

Summarized briefly, animal liberation/animal rights' valuation of the individual about its zoological taxon or associates in a community is an extension of ethical theory to animals, using the criterion of sentience rather than rationality for ascribing to the individual the right to an existence free of human-imposed pain and suffering. Humans are not entitled to inflict pain of any purpose, according to this view, including the utilization of animals for food or clothing, for scientific and medical experimentation, for recreation, or even for the animals' own survival as a zoological entity. Insofar as the have written on the subject, the …

Wild / Captive And Other Suspect Dualisms, Dale Jamieson

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

Dualisms have had a hard time in recent years. Philosophers used to think that facts and values were distinct, and that philosophy and science were radically different enterprises. While scientists employed empirical methods to discover the way the world happens to be, the job of philosophers was to use conceptual analysis to reveal how the world necessarily is. In the wake of the revolution unleashed by Quine in the early 1950s, philosophers either had to learn some science, find another job, or fight an irredentist action on behalf of conceptual analysis that is mainly of interest only to a few …

The Wild And The Tame, Juliet Clutton-Brock

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

The Western belief that the world is divided into the "human" and the "natural" stems from the philosophy, first propounded by the ancient Greeks, notably Aristotle, that all living organisms could be placed in a Scale of Nature or Great Chain of Being with "primeval slime" at its base and "Man" at its summit. This belief, which is imbued in Christianity and in all aspects of western civilization, has led to a great divide with "the wild" on one side and "the tame", that is all the animals and plants that are exploited by human, on the other.

Animal Well-Being In The Wild And In Captivity, Stephen Bostock

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

I want to compare wild and captivity. This isn't a straight comparison of good with bad. Animals do suffer in the wild, and they are protected in good captivity. I will fill out the details of this in the following sections, before discussing how captivity can be more benign, whether or not it can ever strictly be regarded as better than life in the wild.

What Do "Wild" And "Captive" Mean For Large Ungulates And Carnivores Now And Into The Twenty-First Century, Michael Hutchins

Zoo and Aquarium Animal Populations Collection

The terms "wild" and "captive" have stimulated considerable debate among academicians, animal protectionists and conservationists. Some argue that animals have a right to freedom and that there is a "moral predis-position" against holding them in zoos (Jamieson, 1985; 1995; Varner and Monroe, 1991). Others argue that modern zoos and their living collections are becoming increasing important to wildlife conservation and science, and that the collective benefits so derived may override this predisposition (Hutchins and Wemmer, 1991; Conway, 1995; Hutchins et al, 1995; Norton, 1995). The purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of "wild" and "captive" and their …

Wildlife Conservation, Zoos And Animal Protection: A Strategic Analysis, Andrew N. Rowan

The publication consists of the proceedings of a workshop, sponsored by the Gilman Foundation, and held in April of 1994 at the White Oak Conservation Center in Florida. About thirty participants were invited from zoos, animal protection groups and academic institutions to discuss concepts such as wild, captive and tame; animal well-being in the wild and in zoos; and protecting individuals versus conserving populations. In order to maximize the time engaged in discussion, several individuals were identified to prepare target articles which were distributed to all participants before the meeting. These articles form the main chapters in this book. Other …

Cavity Protection Techniques For Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, Warren G. Montague

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Population growth of red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) is often limited by the availability of suitable cavities. Structural damage to natural and artificial cavities intended for use by P. borealis is common. Roost and nest cavities of P. borealis often become occupied by other cavity-dependent species. Techniques for preventing damage to artificial cavities and for deterring southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) use of otherwise serviceable cavities are described. Such cavity protection techniques may be necessary to prevent extirpation of small, isolated populations of P. borealis.

5'-Nucleotidase And Thrombin-Like Activities Of Selected Crotalid Venoms, Ali M.S. Shams, Dewey H. Sifford, Bob D. Johnson

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Thrombin-like activities were not observed inCrotalus basiliscus, C. molossus and C. scutulatus scutulatus crude venoms. 5'-Nucleotidase specific activities of 0.863, 0.273 and 5.520 units/mg of crude venom protein were observed inC. basiliscus, C. molossus and C. s. scutulatus venoms, respectively. Concanavalin ASepharose 4 B (Con A)affinitychromatography yielded two fractions from each of the crude venoms. Ineach instance, both fractions exhibited 5'-nucleotidase activities and the Con A-binding proteins had higher activities than the Con A-nonbinding proteins. 5'-Nucleotidase activities inthe DEAESephadex A-50 chromatographic fractions were localized in the first elution fraction and the last fraction(s) to elute. EDTAhad no effect on the …

Vertebrate Fauna Of Abandoned Mines At Gold Mine Springs, Independence County, Arkansas, Chris T. Mcallister, Stanley E. Trauth, Linda D. Gage

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Vertebrate Prey Of Selected Arkansas Snakes, Stanley E. Trauth, Chris T. Mcallister

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Egg Mass Characteristics Of Terrestrial Morphs Of The Mole Salamander, Ambystoma Talpoideum (Caudata:Ambystomatidae), From Northeastern Arkansas And Clutch Comparisons With Other Ambystoma Species, Stanley E. Trauth, Robert L. Cox Jr., J. D. Wilhide, Hilary J. Worley

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.