bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Influences of Motivation On Display Divergences in Three Cichlid Fish Species (Haplochromis)
Authors: Carlstead Kathy 
Published: April 2008

AbstractDifferences between three cichlid fish species in responsiveness to a restrained territorial intruder have been investigated while an experimenter, considered a disturbing stimulus, was sitting 2 meters in front of the tank in view of the fish. The purpose of the analyses was to determine which motivational factors control responses to intruders and disturbances between Haplochromis elegans, H. squamipinnis, and H. angustifrons. This could be done on the basis of a model for the causal organization of these responses that was developed in an earlier paper (CARLSTEAD, 1982). It was found that H. angustifrons responds significantly less to the intruder than the other two species, and this is because it responds more to the experimenter. H. squampinnis hides from the experimenter in longer bouts than the other two. It was concluded that angustifrons has a basically higher activation level of system D (refer to model, Fig. 3), a system determining the responsiveness to stimuli indicative of potential danger and controlling motor patterns for hiding responses. Elegans has a relatively higher activation level of system T for responding to territorial intruders. Squamipinnis was found to have a higher level of a general factor for reactivity to all unexpected, thus novel stimuli. Species differences in courtship display were also investigated. These displays differ little between species, but each shows one particular display more often than expected in temporal association with spawning. This display proved in each species to be the display performed more often than expected to a restrained male territorial intruder in the behavior sequence after a conflict to approach it or withdraw from it had occurred (Turning-Around). Using the model, the motivational differences between the three species described above could account for the latter differences. If only one particular motivational configuration can be assumed to be required for a display to occur in any situation, then a approach/withdrawal conflict to a male intruder and a female showing willingness to spawn must elicit the same motivational configuration. It was concluded that species divergences in the activation level of certain motivational factors are reflected in this particular momentary motivational configuration. Characteristics of each species' ecological niche in Lake George, to which they are all endemic, have been discussed with respect to the factors selecting for these motivational divergences, It was concluded that the hypothesis is supported that adaptations for features of a species' habitat may cause divergences in display behavior that are not directly selected for their signal value. This occurs through selection for optimal activation levels of motivational factors that in the behavioral organization control both responsiveness to types of environmental stimuli and motor patterns of display.
Movement Orders and Leadership in a Semi-Wild Cattle Herd
Authors: Reinhardt Viktor 
Published: April 2008

AbstractStable movement orders have been found in a semi-wild cattle herd. Orders of voluntary movements (2-4 km to and from nocturnal resting site) were correlated with each other but not with the order of foced movement (dipping). The individual average travelling positions as well as their standard deviations showed no significant dependency on age or on dominance. A tendency for old (experienced) animals to walk in the van and for young ones to make up the rear was only evidenced during forced movement. Calves travelled in the neighbourhood of their dams. It was concluded that the conservative retainment of particular movement positions is primed by matrilineal tradition. The single adult bull consistently walked in the rear group of the moving mob. It was only during encounters with strange cattle that he temporarily took the leadership and actively hindered his animals from mixing with the other herd. Each kind of herd movement was preceded by a different leader cow who regularly walked on position No. 1. During voluntary movements the herd showed a certain dependency on its leader, and it was up to her to make the decision when to start moving away from one location and which direction to choose. In cow Alma spatial leadership was traced over a period of five years. Leadership showed no strict dependency on age or dominance.
Use of Perches as Vantage Points During Foraging By Male and Female Stonechats Saxicola Torquata
Authors: Greig-Smith P.W. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe behaviour of individual stonechats (Saxicola torquata) foraging in heathland habitats was studied, to reveal possible influences of the height of the perches used as vantage points on feeding efficiency. Feeding rates, methods of prey capture, time spent on perches, and perching heights were quantified for male and female birds in a pre-breeding, and breeding periods; in addition, the integration of foraging with pre-breeding male song behaviour was examined. Rates of prey capture were highly variable, showing no clear seasonal trends or sex differences. Perching heights averaged 1.0 m in spring, and 1.6 m in summer, and although sex differences were small, males tended to perch higher, and closer to the top of the vegetation, in spring. Comparison with randomly encountered perches showed that birds selected higher perches than the average available. Of three principal prey-capture techniques, only diving to the ground was used in spring, but flycatching, and snatching prey off foliage, were also employed in summer. The change correlated with the appearance of new prey types on the foliage of birch and bracken. Visits to perches were short, averaging 25 s, and showed no clear sex or seasonal differences, but tended to be longer on higher perches, up to 2 min. These data were combined to assess the profitabilty for foraging of different perching heights. For feeding by diving to the ground, the lowest heights provided the greatest capture rates, but for flycatching and snatching, very high perches were more successful. The birds' observed preferences for perches in spring corresponded to those allowing the highest chance of capture per visit, rather than per unit time. In summer, there was no correspondence. Birds departed from perches when their prospects of capture were still high, and thus the lengths of unsuccessful visits cannot be regarded as 'giving-up' times. In spring, the frequencies of foraging attempts and song-phrases were inversely related in short observation periods, and incompatibility of the activities was suggested by the different heights chosen (averaging 0.9 m for foraging, 1.8 m for singing). The lack of differences in the spring foraging behaviour of males and females (who do not sing) suggests that males separated their foraging and singing into discrete bouts. This was apparently accomplished by tactical allocation of time in stable conditions, rather than relegation of singing to times when foraging conditions were poor.
Importance of Female's Precopulatory Behaviour for the Primary Initiation of Male's Copulatory Behaviour in the Laboratory Rat
Authors: Madlafousek J. , Hlinák Z. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
Precopulatory and copulatory behaviour of adult (90-100 days old) Wistar male laboratory rats in their first encounter with a female was observed. Four levels of female sexual behaviour, characterized by lordosis, presenting, hopping and darting, were used as the experimental variable. A male was considered to have exhibited precopulatory behaviour if he performed at least three specific activities toward the female, such as anogenital exploration, touching the flanks, climbing over, pursuing. The performance of three intromittory copulations, the first of which had to occur within 10 minutes, was used as a criterion of the initiation of copulatory behaviour. In Experiment 1 it was found that not all the males who exhibit precopulatory behaviour also initiate copulations. With increasing level of sexual behaviour of the female the percentage of males exhibiting precopulatory behaviour hardly changes, but the probability that a male will initiate copulations substantially increases. Whereas no male imtiates copulations with a lordotic (passively receptive) female, a darting female provokes copulations in about 90% of the males. Experiment 2 showed that different breeding conditions, additional testosterone and cadmium intoxication did not influence the established dependence of the male's sexual behaviour on sexual behaviour of the female. Multiple repeated exposures of the males to a presenting female (Experiment 3) led to an increase in the percentage of males
Contests for Space in Breeding Cichlasoma Meeki: the Use of Increased Apparent Size Displays
Authors: Neil Susan J. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract1. The conditions under which firemouth cichlids (Cichlasoma meeki) employed a branchiostegal display (erection of the gill membranes) were investigated to test four predictions concerning Increased Apparent Size (IAS) displays, in which the apparent size of an animal increases without an increase in Resource Holding Potential (RHP). Since size correlates with RHP for many species, IAS displays are assumed to increase an animal's apparent RHP. If contests are settled on the basis of differences in perceived RHP values, animals exhibiting falsely high values of RHP may avoid escalated contests and thus acquire resources at less cost. 2. The branchiostegal display could be performed alone or simultaneously with any other agonistic behaviour. It accompanied non-contact behaviour acts more commonly than contact acts, but accompanied no type of act more than one third of the times that act was performed. 3. It was performed primarily towards paired intruders, and those equal to or larger in size than the resident. 4. It was performed more often towards larger heterospecifics than towards larger conspecifics, and rarely towards smaller fish of any species. 5. The display often accompanied the first act of a contest, and this probability was greatest for contests with larger pairs of conspecifics. 6. The function of the display seems most likely to be a combination of an IAS display and a signal of a low probability of attack.
The Significance of a Hovering Display At Nests of the Long-Tailed Tit Aegithalos Caudatus
Authors: Greig-Smith Peter W. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractBreeding long-tailed tits were studied to determine the significance of a hovering display performed by birds bringing food to nestlings. Its contexts implied that it represents communication to other adults, rather than to nestlings, or predators. Three-quarters of nests with young were attended by one or two 'helpers' as well as the parents, and all birds made hover displays. Feeding visits to the nest tended to be synchronous. This pattern was related to the hover display, which if performed by the second of two birds visiting the nest together caused them to return more quickly, and more often synchronously than if there was no display. Two functional aspects of this effect were tested. It did not serve to accelerate food delivery to nestlings after they had been deprived, nor did it minimise the presence of adults near nests that were most vulnerable to predation. The importance of the display may lie in its promotion of communal foraging by the adults.
Function of Manx Shearwater Calls in Mate Attraction
Authors: Storey A.E. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractPlayback experiments were used to study the role of vocalization in mate attraction by Manx shearwaters, a nocturnal seabird. Pre-breeding birds were exposed to test calls of male and female shearwaters calling from the range of normal locations: above the colony as in a flyover call, on the ground in the colony, or from within the nesting burrow. Both female and male test calls increased the frequency of male calling but only male calls increased the frequency of female calling. These findings suggest that male calls 1) facilitated competing responses from other males that are attempting to attract females to their burrows and 2) stimulated calling in available females that require more directional information to find the advertising male. Male calling location, inside or outside the burrow, probably reflected a compromise between being audible to females and being susceptible to predation. Because the call was more widely broadcast, male test calls played from outside the burrow caused more females to land in the colony than the same call played from inside the burrow. However in a simultaneous choice test between a burrow and an outside male test call, males calling from inside did not lose females to the adjacent outside male. Thus calling from inside the burrow in an area where another male is calling outside maximized female attraction while minimizing risk of predation. The male call played from inside the burrow attracted as many females as a pair call from inside but the response of females to the pair was less sustained, indicating that duetting pairs-inhibited the response of unpaired females. Male and female calls emanating from above the colony suppressed the rate of female flyover calls suggesting that during this test condition other birds stopped calling in an attempt to orient to the source of the test call.
Alternative Mating Strategies in the Mongolian Gerbil
Authors: Agren Greta 
Published: April 2008

Abstract1. In previous enclosure studies female Mongolian gerbils were found to trespass into strange territories on oestrous days and mate with the neighbouring males, although they lived in stable territorial pairs or family-groups (ÅGREN, 1976, 1983, 1984). The females mated with their social partners as well. 2. A comparable 'unfaithful' behaviour in females in oestrous was observed in a laboratory choice-test (ÅGREN & MEYERSON, 1977). 3. A mating-preference for non-siblings has been demonstrated in enclosure as well as laboratory studies (ÅGREN, 1981, 1983). 4. In the present enclosure studies four females of one family consistently trespassed in oestrous, while three females in a second family did not. Only these latter females mated within their own social group, i.e. the two daughters incestuously. 5. When two females and three males of each of these same families were placed into a new enclosure only cross family pairs formed. 6. In a laboratory experiment 12 out of 18 pairliving females gave birth to, and raised their litter, sired by a strange male, when replaced into the cage of the familiar male the day following oestrous. The cage mate was prevented from copulations by a wire-mesh during 10 days following the insemination by the strange male. These results indicate that an 'unfaithful' female may be reproductively successful. 7. The observations of the unfaithful behaviour in the females are suggestive of an alternative mating strategy to monogamy in females beneficial under high population densities. This strategy would result in avoidance of inbreeding, low migration costs, and increased chances for winter-survival.
Some Observations of the Caravaning Behavior in the Musk Shrew (Suncus Murinus)
Authors: Tsuji Keiichiro , Ishikawa Tomohiko 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObservations of caravaning were made on the domesticated musk shrew (Suncus murinus) with particular reference to its developmental aspects. In a rearing box (Experiment I), caravaning appeared from 10 to 22 days of age, peaking at 16 days. In the open-field test (Experiment II), it occurred over a range from 5 to 22 days, with its peak at around 13 days. Its formation patterns also changed with age of days; five patterns were identified in this situation. Another type of test (encounter test; Experiment III) showed a sensitive period similar to that obtained in Experiment II. Caravaning peaked at a period shifting from the mother-initiative stage to the young-initiative stage in the mother-offspring relation. Inanimated model released caravaning, as was expected (Experiment IV). It occurred for the same period, peaking at the same age of days, although on closer examination it was found that the smaller peak obtained in Experiment II disappeared. The findings of the present study suggest that caravaning plays an important role in the mother-offspring relation of this species. Developmental changes in caravaning seem to reflect the maturation process of sensory functions. Possibilities of releasers in caravan formation were discussed by referring to histological and electrophysiological investigations.
The Suckling Behaviour of Domestic Pigs in a Semi-Natural Environment
Authors: Newberry Ruth C. , Wood-Gush David G.M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe suckling behaviour of domestic pigs living in a socially and ecologically rich outdoor environment was examined in order to obtain a baseline for comparison with behaviour in more restricted and barren environments. It was found that the piglets' growth rates were not consistently influenced by their suckling location along the udder, and that the concept of dominance at the udder was not justified. Crowding at the udder was probably an important factor prompting piglets to seek milk and solid food elsewhere, and two piglets switched from suckling from their own mother to suckling from another sow. True communal suckling was not exhibited. Piglets were responsible for locating their preferred teat and defending it from others. Sows did not attempt to prevent familiar piglets from other litters from suckling from them, although they sometimes terminated a suckling bout when disturbed by fights at the udder. Synchronization of suckling between litters was common. Suckling bouts did not always result in milk let-down, indicating that this is not a phenomenon exclusive to intensive housing systems. Weaning occurred naturally between 60 and 100 days after birth, and its timing varied both within and between litters but was not closely linked to the amount of aggression received from the sow.
Reaction To Novel Objects in a Troop of Guinea Baboons: Approach and Manipulation
Authors: Joubert A. , Vauclair J. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractA troop of Guinea baboons living in an enclosure was exposed every day and for twelve consecutive days to a new object. The new object and the object(s) of the previous day(s) were presented simultaneously in the compound. The troop as a whole demonstrated excellent abilities to rapidly react to the new objects: 11 out of 12 new objects were discovered within a maximum of 3 min of their first presentation and were furthermore the first to be approached. An analysis conducted on data from age and sex subgroups showed the preponderant part played by juveniles and by some adult males in the discovery process and subsequent contacts with objects. The results are discussed within the conceptual frame of "cognitive mapping". In addition, the extent to which social factors (e.g. dominance) and perceptual and cognitive factors might determine the differential role of subgroups in the exploration and manipulation of objects is examined.
The Hidden Costs of Sociality: Intra-Group Variation in Feeding Strategies in Sumatran Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca Fascicularis)
Authors: VAN NOORDWIJK Maria A. , VAN SCHAIK Carel P. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractGroups of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are often fissioned into a large main party and one or more small parties. We studied the size and composition of the main party in relation to fruit supply and the ecology of the various age-sex categories in order to establish the cause of this fissioning. The size of the main party varied not only because the size of available fruit trees varied but also because the various age-sex categories were so different in their feeding strategies that they sometimes went separate ways. Our observations suggest that body size and sex profoundly affected food requirements and the risks attached to leaving the main party. We concluded that adult females left the main party mainly to escape from feeding competition and attempted to reduce travel time when they had infants so as to minimise the costs of carrying infants. Males, by contrast, left above all because of their different food requirements; subadult males left to eat more fruit than the others, adult males mainly to eat bigger fruit than the others. This intra-group variation in feeding strategies constitutes a usually hidden cost to sociality.
The Significance of Antiphonal Vocalisation By the Spring Peeper, Pseudacris Crucifer (Amphibia, Anura)
Authors: Forester Don C. , Harrison W. Keith 
Published: April 2008

Abstract1. Male spring peepers respond to acoustic interference from an encroaching conspecific with a graded behavioral sequence: they increase their call repetition rate, they emit one or more encounter calls, they entrain their calls to those of the intruder. 2. Once entrained, males continue to call synchronously for extended periods. 3. The time interval between the end of the leader's call and the beginning of the follower's call (the intraduet interval) is consistent, and is maintained despite changes in the duration or repetition rate of the leader's call. 4. Our data corroborate earlier investigators who concluded that the follower is stimulated by the onset of the leader's call, but is inhibited from calling until a fixed time interval after the leader has ceased calling. 5. Controlled discrimination tests reveal no differential mating success by the leader or the follower within a simulated duet. 6. Females exhibited a significant preference for a duet over a soloing male. 7. Although test females were able distinguish between the simultaneous broadcast of two phase-locked call sequences differing only in frequency, they did so in the absence of alternative, uncovered calls. 8. We conclude that antiphonal vocalisation functions primarily to reduce the potential for broadcast interference during the initial phase of female phonotaxis.
Influences of Prior Agonistic Experiences On Aggression Measures in the Male Swordtail (Xiphophorus Helleri)
Authors: Franck Dierk , Ribowski Alexander 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe influences of prior agonistic experience on the aggressive behaviour of swordtail males were studied in standardized aggression tests. In the "standard-opponent" test the test subject fights against a much smaller opponent behind a transparent partition, whereas in the mirror test it attacks its own mirror image. Both tests are appropriate to measure mean biting rates in an adequate sample of individuals. If reproducible estimates of the aggressiveness of single individuals are needed, the mirror test is the most appropriate method, for it gives correlation coefficients up to 0.96 between a first and a second measurement. When fish had been involved in a series of escalating activities without final decision of the encounters, in subsequent mirror tests their biting frequencies were elevated for at least 24 h after the last fight. Winning a rank order fight led to an increase and losing to a decrease in biting frequency 24 h later. By contrast, after social settlement in a long-term stabilized social hierarchy the relation is totally reversed: Dominant males showed much lower biting frequencies than subordinate males in the mirror test. The hypothesis is proposed that even under natural conditions high ranking males tend to use their energy potential in a more economic way than low ranking males. The existence of rank-dependent fighting strategies could be due to differences in risk: The fighting activities of dominant males are extremely risky because they can lose their high social status, which inevitably would lead to a lowered genetic fitness, whereas the aggressive actions of subordinate males are not very risky because their social status is low anyway.