Ethology最新文献

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: J. N. Pruitt, A. W. Berning, B. Cusack, T. A. Shearer, M. McGuirk, A. Coleman, R. Y. Y. Eng, F. Armagost, K. Sweeney, and N. Singh, “Precopulatory Sexual Cannibalism Causes Increase Egg Case Production, Hatching Success, and Female Attractiveness to Males,” Ethology 120, no. 5 (2014): 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12216.

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 01 March 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been issued by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Wolfgang Goymann, and Wiley-VCH GmbH. The Expression of Concern has been agreed upon after concerns have been raised regarding the validity of the data collected and analysis methods reported in the research conducted by author J. N. Pruitt. The author did not respond to repeated requests to provide the primary data and validate the data collection and analysis methods reported in this study. As we are unable to obtain the original data and analysis, an EOC is warranted to inform and alert the readers.

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: J.N. Pruitt, K.W. Demes, and D.R. Dittrich-Reed, “Temperature Mediates Shifts in Individual Aggressiveness, Activity Level, and Social Behavior in a Spider,” Ethology 117, no. 4 (2011): 318–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01877.x.

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 07 February 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been issued by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Wolfgang Goymann, and Wiley-VCH GmbH. The Expression of Concern has been agreed after concerns have been raised regarding the validity of the data collected and analysis methods reported in the research conducted by author J.N. Pruitt. The author did not respond to repeated requests to provide the primary data and validate the data collection and analysis methods reported in this study. As we are unable to obtain the original data and analysis, an EOC is warranted to inform and alert the readers.

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: K. Sweeney, R. D. H Gadd, Z. L. Hess, D. R. McDermott, L. MacDonald, P. Cotter, F. Armagost, J. Z. Chen, A. W. Berning, N. DiRienzo, and J. N. Pruitt, “Assessing the Effects of Rearing Environment, Natural Selection, and Developmental Stage on the Emergence of a Behavioral Syndrome,” Ethology, 119, no. 5 (2013): 436–447. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12081.

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 15 March 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been issued by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Wolfgang Goymann, and Wiley-VCH GmbH. The Expression of Concern has been agreed upon after concerns have been raised regarding the validity of the data collected and the analysis methods reported in the research conducted by author J.N. Pruitt. The author did not respond to repeated requests to provide the primary data and validate the data collection and analysis methods reported in this study. As we are unable to obtain the original data and analysis, an EOC is warranted to inform and alert the readers.

Animals across taxa form aggregations, with increased defenses as one of the benefits. Some defensive behaviors of grouped animals involve body movements. However, how those behaviors are triggered varies, and how between-individual morphological variation affects them remains unknown. In this project, we explored three drivers of bobbing—an up-and-down body vibration behavior assumed to be a defensive response—with field observations and a lab experiment in one species of the arachnid order Opiliones (Prionostemma sp.2). First, we explored the variation in bobbing duration across groups of a variable number of individuals, as animals could modulate their engagement in this behavior to ensure a successful predator-deterrent behavior. We found that the duration of bobbing increased with group size. Second, we explored the effect of different triggering stimuli that might represent natural scenarios of an approaching predator. We found that a touching stimulus (gentle stick touching) triggered longer bobbing than an airflow stimulus (gentle blow). Third, we explored if the individuals' leg condition (whether they had all eight or fewer legs when found) affects their engagement in this behavior. We found that variations in leg condition did not affect their defensive engagement, as bobbing duration was similar between intact individuals and those missing legs. Together, these data provide novel observational and experimental insights into the drivers of collective behavior in animals. While individual variation in morphological conditions does not affect bobbing in these understudied arachnids, variability in group size and the triggering stimuli impacted their engagement in movement behavioral defenses.

Sometimes we should take a closer look at the natural behaviour of even the most familiar domestic mammals. An example is the nesting behaviour of the female European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus and her offspring. After giving birth in a nest of dry grass and fur, mothers return to briefly nurse once a day and deposit faecal pellets there. In domestic rabbits, we examined the temporal pattern of mothers' defecation in the nest, the response of pups to these faeces and the effect of these and nest hay on pups' pre- and postweaning growth and survival. In Experiment 1, we tested primiparous and multiparous mothers given a nest box and hay and allowed access to their pups once a day to nurse. We recorded daily the number of faecal pellets deposited in the nest and the number nibbled by the pups until weaning on postnatal day 30. Mothers defecated in the nest until around postnatal day 12. The pellets and hay then started to be nibbled by the pups, and histological analysis showed that pups ingested plant material. We found no difference in maternal behaviour between primiparous and multiparous females. In Experiment 2, we investigated the growth and survival of pups before and after weaning: (1) with hay and mother's faeces present in the nest; (2) without hay; (3) without mother's faeces; and (4) without hay or mother's faeces. In condition 1, pups transitioned to solid food with little sign of digestive pathology, whereas in conditions 2 and 3, and particularly in condition 4, pups developed diarrhoea and several died. Thus, the presence of nest hay and mother's faeces appear to contribute to pups' transition to solid food. We conclude that rabbits show a well-coordinated pattern of behaviour between mothers and their preweaning offspring, likely relevant to the appropriate management of domestic rabbits.

In the Indo-West Pacific biogeographical region, a suite of shorebirds searches for crabs as food. While the majority of these shorebirds hunt on burrowing crabs, the endemic crab plover Dromas ardeola additionally feeds on swimming crabs with “fast and powerful claws”. Here, we examined the trade-off made by crab plovers between foraging for swimming crabs and burrowing crabs on the intertidal mudflats of Barr Al Hikman in the Sultanate of Oman during four winters (2012–2015). Foraging on burrowing crabs requires waiting for the occupant to emerge, whereas foraging on swimming crabs involves searching and extensive handling. We found that crab plovers strongly preferred swimming crabs. In fact, diet composition was exclusively a function of the densities of swimming crabs, that is, crab plovers stopped waiting for burrowing crabs above threshold densities of swimming crabs even if burrowing crabs were abundant. Using a two-prey functional response model, we could explain diet composition from an energy-maximization perspective, but only if waiting time was added as an identification phase independent of prey densities. This suggests that crab plovers exhibit selective attention and can only wait for a limited number of burrowing crabs at a time. We conclude that the preference for swimming crabs emerges from both the efficient handling of swimming crabs by the crab plover and the long hiding times of the burrowing crabs. Undoubtedly, it is the crab plovers' specialized bill which makes handling of swimming crabs profitable. We speculate that this bill uniquely evolved in the “escalated” environment of the Indo-West Pacific.

Predation risk exerts significant pressure on the survival of prey species and has many indirect impacts on their habitat use, energy allocation, and community dynamics. Prey must consistently assess their surroundings by using multiple information sources to monitor predation risk and respond accordingly. In aquatic environments, chemical signals (i.e., alarm cues, disturbance cues, and predator odors) play a crucial role in informing prey of predation risk. Here, we systematically assess the impact of two non-lethal cues, disturbance cue and predator odor, on four aspects of prey fish behavior using the common blackchin shiner (Miniellus heterodon), a possible surrogate species for the Threatened pugnose shiner (Miniellus anogenus). In experiment 1, we found that conspecific disturbance cue elicited an increase in activity relative to the controls. However, there were no changes in area use, shoaling, or shelter use. In experiment 2, we found that predator odor elicited increased shelter use in blackchin shiner, consistent with an antipredator strategy, but no changes in activity, area use, or shoaling. Our two experiments suggest that disturbance cues and predator odors elicit different behavioral responses in blackchin shiner, perhaps since sources of risk information vary in their urgency and reliability. These results aimed to provide the baseline for future work on pugnose shiner, and demonstrate the value of using non-lethal chemical cues, with standardized methods, to study antipredator behavior in threatened species.