Inferring dominance interactions from automatically recorded temporal data
Abstract
Understanding dominance hierarchies is an important aspect of many studies of animal groups. Collecting the necessary data requires a large amount of time and effort to detect only a small number of interactions. Here, we assess the viability of extracting interactions from a temporal data stream of arrival and departures to a feeder equipped with a radio‐frequency identifier antenna. We show that the interactions extracted from this type of data can create similar dominance hierarchies to those produced by analysing video data of interactions. Additionally, we assessed the amount of temporal data required to ob...
Source: Ethology - January 1, 2018 Category: Zoology Authors: Julian C. Evans, Isabelle Devost, Teri B. Jones, Julie Morand ‐Ferron Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Changes in courtship behaviour following rejection: The influence of female phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract
Courtship can be costly and so selection should favour individual males that reduce courtship towards female types that have a low probability of resulting in copulation. One way males can do this is by associating previous courtship failure with the traits of particular rejecting females. We characterised changes in male Drosophila melanogaster courtship behaviour following a failed mating attempt with one of the four female phenotypes that varied in size, age or mating status. To do this, we assessed individual courtship behaviour for each male presented again with a female of the same phenotype that previously ...
Source: Ethology - December 22, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Jesse Balaban ‐Feld, Thomas J. Valone Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Persistence of antipredator behavior in an island population of California quail
Abstract
Island populations may provide unique insights into the evolution and persistence of antipredator behavior. If antipredator behavior is costly and islands have reduced predation risk, then we expect the reduction or loss of antipredator behavior on islands. However, if even a single predator remains, the multipredator hypothesis predicts that antipredator behaviors will be conserved. We compared the flight initiation distances (FID) of California quail (Callipepla californica) on Santa Catalina Island (a location with reduced predation pressure) with quail on the mainland. We found no differences in FID between ma...
Source: Ethology - December 21, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Ayesha A. Rasheed, Kristina Hambley, Gabriel Chan, Carlos A. Rosa, Brenda Larison, Daniel T. Blumstein Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Female response to predation risk alters conspecific male behaviour during pre ‐copulatory mate guarding
Abstract
Mating behaviour often increases predation risk, but the vulnerability within mating pairs differs between the sexes. Such a sex difference is expected to lead to differences in responses to predation risk between the sexes. In the two‐spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, males engage in pre‐copulatory mate guarding because only the first mating results in fertilisation. We investigated (i) whether pre‐copulatory pairs are more conspicuous to the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis than solitary females, (ii) whether the vulnerability to the predator differs between sexes within the pre‐copulatory p...
Source: Ethology - December 11, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Keiko Oku, Erik H. Poelman, Peter W. Jong, Marcel Dicke Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Generalized estimating equations: A pragmatic and flexible approach to the marginal GLM modelling of correlated data in the behavioural sciences
Abstract
Within behavioural research, non‐normally distributed data with a complicated structure are common. For instance, data can represent repeated observations of quantities on the same individual. The regression analysis of such data is complicated both by the interdependency of the observations (response variables) and by their non‐normal distribution. Over the last decade, such data have been more and more frequently analysed using generalized mixed‐effect models. Some researchers invoke the heavy machinery of mixed‐effect modelling to obtain the desired population‐level (marginal) inference, which can be ...
Source: Ethology - December 11, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Stano Pek ár, Marek Brabec Tags: PERSPECTIVES AND REVIEWS Source Type: research
Disentangling the effects of genetic and environmental factors on movement behaviour
Abstract
Individual variability in animal movement behaviour is well documented for many species. However, it remains unclear whether this variability reflects genetic variation, environmental variation or a combination of the two. Here, we conduct a cross‐fostering experiment with the aim of investigating the role of these two components in movement patterns during the post‐fledging dependence period and early natal dispersal of 21 eagle owls Bubo bubo. Our experiment showed that cross‐fostering did not influence any of the movement parameters considered. Movement parameters were, however, affected by the age and se...
Source: Ethology - December 5, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Giulia Bombieri, Antonio Fasciolo, Vincenzo Penteriani, Juan Carlos Illera, Dan Chamberlain, Mar ía del Mar Delgado Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) behavioral reactions toward a dead member of the herd
Abstract
Humans, elephants, chimpanzees, and cetaceans show concern with the death of other members of their species and respond to death in particular ways. Science considers that these species are exceptions and that other mammal species show little or no reaction to the dead bodies of individuals of their species. Collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu; Tayassuidae) are social animals that live in groups of 5–50 individuals maintaining close and complex social relationships. The collared peccary occupies many different environments and it is widely distributed from the south of North America to the north of Argentina. Thei...
Source: Ethology - December 5, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Dante Kort, Mariana Altrichter, Sara Cortez, Micaela Camino Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Experimental manipulation of female tail length did not cause differential allocation by males in the barn swallow
Abstract
The evolution and maintenance of female ornamentation has attracted increasing attention, because the previous explanation, that is a non‐functional copy of functional male ornamentation, seems insufficient to explain female ornamentation. A post‐mating sexual selection, differential allocation, may be more common than pre‐mating sexual selection, but few studies have investigated differential allocation by males. Here, we studied differential allocation of incubation investment by male barn swallows Hirundo rustica, a model species for the study of sexual selection, because our previous correlative study de...
Source: Ethology - December 5, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Masaru Hasegawa, Emi Arai, Masahiko Nakamura Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Measuring social tolerance: An experimental approach in two lemurid primates
Abstract
Social tolerance crucially affects the life of group‐living animals as it can influence, among other things, their competitive regimes, access to food, learning behavior, and recruitment. However, social tolerance tests were mainly conducted in semi‐free or captive populations, and we know little about the behavioral mechanisms and consequences of social tolerance under natural conditions. We therefore developed a co‐feeding experiment to measure social tolerance in groups of wild and captive animals across two primate species. Specifically, we recorded the social tolerance level of redfronted lemurs (Eulemu...
Source: Ethology - December 4, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Claudia Fichtel, Anna V. Schnoell, Peter M. Kappeler Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - December 4, 2017 Category: Zoology Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
Baby Chacma Baboon, Papio ursinus, sitting on a tree branch. Photograph taken in Mosi ‐oa‐Tunya National Park (Zambia) and reproduced by permission of David Hewes.
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - December 4, 2017 Category: Zoology Tags: FRONT COVER Source Type: research
Habitat ‐specific capture timing of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) suggests that predators structure temporal activity of prey
Abstract
Timing is an essential component of the choices that animals make: The likelihood of successful resource capture (and predator avoidance) depends not just on what an animal chooses to do, but when it chooses to do it. Despite the importance of activity timing, our ability to understand the forces that constrain activity timing has been limited because this aspect of animal behavior is shaped by several factors (e.g., interspecific competitors, predators, physical conditions), and it is difficult to examine activity timing in a setting where only a single factor is operating. Using an island system that makes it po...
Source: Ethology - November 22, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Brian M. Connolly, John L. Orrock Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Does it always pay to defend one's nest? A case study in African penguin
In this study, we related breeding success to individual behaviour, specifically a risk‐taking behaviour, and pair assortment per behaviour in African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) over two breeding seasons of contrasting food availability. On Bird Island, Algoa Bay, South Africa, we used indices of boldness and overall mobility in penguins’ nest defence behaviour as a response to a standard pedestrian approach during chick‐rearing. These behaviours were consistent over the trials and indicated these traits may be related to personality in African penguins. Individuals were categorized as risk‐prone (“bold,” ...
Source: Ethology - November 16, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Gwendoline Traisnel, Lorien Pichegru Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Behavior and temperature modulate a thermoregulation –predation risk trade‐off in juvenile gopher tortoises
Abstract
Ectotherms frequently thermoregulate behaviorally to improve physiological processes such as digestion and growth, but basking and other thermoregulatory activities can also increase predation risk. Organismal and environmental characteristics can, in some species, influence predation risk associated with thermoregulation and thereby relax or tighten constraints on thermoregulatory behavior, physiological performance, and, ultimately, life history traits. Providing one of the first such investigations in turtles, we examine whether behavior and thermal environment modulate a thermoregulation–predation risk trade...
Source: Ethology - November 9, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Thomas A. Radzio, Michael P. O'Connor Tags: RESEARCH PAPER Source Type: research
Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) basking in the sun with mouth agape. Crocodiles do not have sweat glands and therefore open their jaws to avoid overheating. Photograph taken in Zimanga Private Game Reserve (South Africa) and reproduced by permission of Emmanuel Do Linh San.
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - November 9, 2017 Category: Zoology Tags: FRONT COVER Source Type: research
