Animal Behaviour最新文献

{"title":"Effects of negative stimuli on object permanence performance in baboons, Papio anubis, according to task complexity","authors":"E. Mortessagne ,&nbsp;S. Bouziane ,&nbsp;A. Meguerditchian ,&nbsp;F. Pifferi ,&nbsp;E. Pouydebat ,&nbsp;D. Bovet","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123427","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123427","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Object permanence is a fundamental aspect of spatial cognition, referring to the ability to understand that objects continue to exist even when out of sight. This cognitive skill, essential for object tracking in daily activities, provides a relevant ecological framework for exploring how emotional states can affect cognitive performances across species with varying evolutionary histories. The transposition task, a common method for assessing object permanence, evaluates individuals' ability to track the movement of an object hidden under a container. While the complex relationship between emotion and cognition is extensively studied in a diversity of taxa, little is known about how emotion influences performance in object permanence tasks in primates. In this study, we investigated the effect of emotional distractors on the performance of four adult and captive olive baboons, <em>Papio anubis</em>, during a modified transposition task. The task involved a choice between two cups, one containing a food reward and the other containing either nothing (control condition), an identification medal (neutral condition) or plastic snakes/spiders (negative condition). Task difficulty was manipulated through five cups’ displacement patterns. We compared the success rates (i.e. tracking and pointing toward the cup containing the reward) across those three conditions. Our results suggest that the presence of a negative distractor influenced baboon performance in various ways, depending on the difficulty of the task. This research underscores that factors such as task difficulty are essential in interpreting how emotion interacts with cognitive performance, and that the lack of consideration of such factors may, in part, explain conflicting results across experimental studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123427"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145797553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Female assortment in Gouldian finch, Chloebia gouldiae, flocks: a case of female driven social niche construction?","authors":"Gregory M. Kohn,&nbsp;Thomas Mateo,&nbsp;Alex Gibson,&nbsp;Christina Galloway","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123429","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123429","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The organization of animal groups is both a cause of and a consequence of patterns of interactions among individuals. The stability of social organization reflects how individuals construct and maintain resilient patterns of interactions across changes in group size and membership. The challenges individuals face within the group are largely a factor of who they choose to interact with. In this study, we describe patterns of social interactions in multiple flocks of Gouldian finches that were exposed to changing social conditions. In the first session, flocks experienced repeated introductions of juveniles into the group. In a second session, males were swapped between two adult flocks. In almost all flocks, we found significant levels of female-driven sex assortment. Further analysis showed that females were more likely to ‘leave’ interactions after being approached by males than were males, thus constituting a social decision by females to avoid male interactions. These findings highlight how the stable interactive decisions made by individuals contribute to higher-order patterns of organization in bird flocks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123429"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145797550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Timing is everything: accurate parasitism timing is critical to cowbird nestling success","authors":"Julia Boldrick ,&nbsp;Wendy M. Schelsky ,&nbsp;Mark E. Hauber ,&nbsp;Abigail Tullius ,&nbsp;Jeffrey P. Hoover","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123430","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123430","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Obligate brood parasitism is a reproductive strategy whereby the parasitic parent leaves its offspring to be raised by a host of a different species. This has resulted in specialized adaptive behaviours selected to improve the survival of parasitic progeny. The timing of when to leave a parasitic propagule with the host can be paramount to the parasite’s success, and erring in this decision could have dire fitness consequences. Brown-headed cowbirds, <em>Molothrus ater</em>, are North America’s most widespread avian obligate brood parasite and, as generalists, successfully parasitize over 170 host species. Female cowbirds are cryptic and difficult to monitor, and much of how they make parasitic egg-laying decisions is not well understood. Despite the diversity in potential host species, cowbirds nearly always parasitize nests during a narrow window of the host’s egg-laying period just before the onset of incubation, resulting in their offspring typically hatching before the host’s own young. How important is it to get this timing right, and what are reproductive costs to parasitizing nests ‘late’ (i.e. after the onset of host incubation)? We simulated three different parasitic egg-laying timing decisions by adding cowbird eggs to the nests of a locally common host, the prothonotary warbler, <em>Protonotaria citrea</em>, at different stages of the host’s laying and incubation periods and monitored the subsequent effects on cowbird hatching success, hatching asynchrony relative to host eggs, nestling size, haematocrit, a health proxy, and survival. Our experiment established the costs of delayed parasitic egg laying: late egg addition produced cowbird nestlings that hatched at the same time or later than their host nestmates, had smaller same-age body size and showed markedly lower survival compared to those placed in the pre-incubation window, supporting our hypothesis that parasitism timing is a behaviour under strong selection in this, and perhaps other, obligate brood parasites.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123430"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145797551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework","authors":"Gal Badihi ,&nbsp;Jennifer Taylor-O’Connor ,&nbsp;Gabriela Bezerra de Melo Daly ,&nbsp;Viola Komeda ,&nbsp;Sophia Daoudi-Simison ,&nbsp;Evelina D. Rodrigues ,&nbsp;Michael M. Webster ,&nbsp;Drew M. Altschul ,&nbsp;Catherine Hobaiter ,&nbsp;Charlotte Wiltshire ,&nbsp;Harmonie Klein ,&nbsp;Elodie Freymann ,&nbsp;Charlotte Grund ,&nbsp;Adrian Soldati ,&nbsp;Matthew Henderson ,&nbsp;Maël M. Leroux ,&nbsp;Nora E. Slania","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123428","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123428","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite increasing awareness of animal welfare, there are vast discrepancies between legal protections and recommended practices for different species, in different countries and at different institutions. While many guidelines are now available, they often target specific research contexts or species, leaving a gap in comprehensive ethical oversight across the entire research process. Within animal behaviour research, there is a bias for considering ethics during only the methodology and design phase. This often means only the immediate impact on animals directly involved in the research is accounted for. Conducting ethical research should extend beyond ensuring animal welfare during data collection and include environmentally sustainable research practices, alongside the ethical treatment of people working within and alongside animal behaviour research. We offer the Consult, Approve, Research and Evaluate (CARE) framework to improve the scientific integrity, transparency and ethical practices within the field of animal behaviour. CARE encourages researchers and academic bodies to (1) Consult existing (academic and traditional) knowledge on the study species, local human–animal interactions, their environment and previously implemented ethical practices and to reflect on personal experience and biases when approaching a study question; (2) seek Approval from relevant bodies (e.g. institutional ethics committees and local and government authorities) even when not mandatory; (3) uphold ethical standards while carrying out Research and (4) Evaluate the short- and long-term impacts of the specific study. Our framework is designed to distribute accountability at every level of the academic system, from individual researchers to their institutions, funding bodies and publishers. We pitch this framework as a ‘version 1.0’ to recognize the fast-evolving nature of ethical standards in animal behaviour research and to allow space for improvement. CARE provides a necessary infrastructure for addressing systemic biases and ensuring ethically sound, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable animal behaviour research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123428"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Experimental exposure of indirect light at night alters western bluebird parent activity and nestling development","authors":"Kerstin Ozkan,&nbsp;Jordan M. Langley,&nbsp;Clinton D. Francis","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123419","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123419","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The pervasive spread of artificial light at night has been documented to disrupt natural rhythms with varying consequences on wildlife. Disruption to the night sky can alter nestling development either through indirect exposure to light or due to changes in adults' behaviour, both having potential physiological costs or benefits. To test these effects, we experimentally manipulated light outside of western bluebird, <em>Sialia mexicana</em>, nesting cavities and investigated whether exposure to light at night affects nestling development and adult behaviour. We found no evidence of light at night advancing or delaying the onset or cessation of adult daily activity; however, repeatability analyses suggested that onset and cessation of daily activity was more repeatable for pairs breeding in control nests compared to those in nests with experimental light exposure. Additionally, we found that nestlings exposed to light had smaller wing chords and lower mass than those in the control. The effect of light on night was dependent on brood size: nests exposed to light with brood sizes of three nestlings had smaller wing chords than nests without lights, but there were no strong differences between light-exposed nests and control nests with five chicks. Nevertheless, light-exposed chicks were smaller than those in control nests, which could negatively influence fledgling survival. These findings suggest that indirect artificial light outside the nesting cavity can increase variability in daily activity rhythms and influence the development of nestlings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123419"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reduced visibility and audibility prompt antipredator behaviour even in a relatively predator-free environment","authors":"Daniel J. Herrera ,&nbsp;Lara Abedin ,&nbsp;Gabriela Palomo ,&nbsp;Merri Collins ,&nbsp;Jishan Chowdhury ,&nbsp;Krista Shires ,&nbsp;Travis Gallo","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123420","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123420","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intermittent antipredator behaviours, such as vigilance or increased foraging group size, are behavioural adaptations that allow prey species to forage while simultaneously reducing predation risk. Such behaviours are most useful when environmental conditions permit prey to detect potential predators, and when environmental conditions accurately signal heightened predation risk. When local environmental conditions reduce a prey's predator detection ability, prey may compensate by increasing their vigilance behaviour or forming larger group sizes regardless of actual predation risk. We tested this hypothesis by pairing acoustic recorders and light meters with trail cameras to record white-tailed deer, <em>Odocoileus virginianus</em>, vigilance behaviour and group size along gradients of ambient light, noise and human disturbance, as humans are consistently the only ‘predator’ of deer in our study system. Our findings supported our hypothesis that deer are more likely to express vigilance when low-light conditions preclude them from seeing an approaching predator, but noise and human disturbance had no statistical relationship with vigilance behaviour. Conversely, foraging group size increased in high-noise conditions and decreased during periods of high light and human disturbance. These results suggest that deer compensate for reduced predator detection ability by increasing antipredator behaviours even when predation risk is negligible, supporting the notion that landscapes of fear are reliant on the ability to perceive potential predators rather than the presence of predators themselves. Conservation initiatives can capitalize on this information by maintaining conditions that reduce prey species' ability to perceive potential predators and thus confer the benefits of impending predation even in the absence of predators.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123420"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Great tits show serial reversal learning in the perseverance phase but not in the new learning phase","authors":"Ernő Vincze ,&nbsp;Anders Brodin","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123416","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123416","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An animal possessing reversal learning ability is capable of unlearning a previously learnt association between a stimulus and a reward and learning a new contingency. It is a form of behavioural flexibility, which can be advantageous in changing environments. Serial reversal learning occurs when an animal's performance improves over repeated reversals of contingencies. In this study, we tested the serial reversal learning ability of great tits, <em>Parus major</em>, in an aviary experiment where they could choose between two laterally positioned locations marked with different symbols. One of the two locations contained a hidden food reward, and the side that was rewarding and unrewarding was reversed several times for each bird. We divided the learning process after each reversal into two phases, the perseverance phase and the new learning phase, quantified by the number of visits before and after the first visit to the newly rewarding location, respectively. We found that the length of the perseverance phase significantly decreased over repeated reversals. However, there was no corresponding decrease in the length of the new learning phase. This suggests that perseverance and new learning are separate cognitive processes and that the former may be less challenging than the latter. Initially, the birds also showed a colour preference for yellow over blue, but this did not affect their reversal learning ability. The high behavioural flexibility of great tits may help explain their success in exploiting challenging environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123416"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behaviour identification and time–activity budget estimation of threatened little bustard using accelerometry","authors":"Natalia Revilla-Martín ,&nbsp;João Paulo Silva ,&nbsp;François Mougeot ,&nbsp;Manuel B. Morales ,&nbsp;Ana Teresa Marques ,&nbsp;Santi Mañosa ,&nbsp;David Giralt ,&nbsp;Vincent Bretagnolle ,&nbsp;Gerard Bota ,&nbsp;Beatriz Arroyo ,&nbsp;Carolina Bravo","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123415","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123415","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding animal ecology requires knowing what animals do. GPS devices provide detailed insights into space use, but they lack behavioural information until recent advancements in accelerometry have bridged this gap. In this study, machine learning methods were applied to accelerometry data to identify and classify behaviours in little bustard, <em>Tetrax tetrax</em>, a species whose population is declining because of habitat loss and degradation. Using recordings of four captive individuals, models were fitted to classify key behaviours, standing, lying, vigilance, locomotion, foraging and male courtship, with separate models for each sex because of behavioural differences. In addition, different sampling frequencies, balancing methods and data-splitting approaches were tested to examine interindividual variation and the effect of sample size. Results revealed that models built with data sampled at 10 Hz performed similarly to those sampled at 20 Hz. Male models slightly outperformed female models, achieving precision and sensitivity exceeding 0.87. Male-specific behaviours, such as courtship, attained F1-scores above 0.8. The application of the models to 10 free-ranging individuals showed marked seasonal and sexual differences in time–activity budgets. Males changed their behaviour seasonally, devoting more time to vigilance, locomotion and courtship during the breeding season and to foraging in winter. On the contrary, females showed a more consistent behaviour pattern year-round, predominantly resting, although lying increased during the breeding season, likely reflecting incubation. These findings indicate the potential application of machine learning and accelerometry to monitor behaviours in free-ranging little bustards, offering a valuable tool to understand activity patterns and develop conservation strategies for this threatened species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123415"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tempted yet cautious: how described odds lower risk aversion in capuchins","authors":"Anthony Roig ,&nbsp;Arianna Ferretti ,&nbsp;Serena Gastaldi ,&nbsp;Helene Meunier ,&nbsp;Elsa Addessi","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123422","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123422","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Risk-taking decisions are pervasive throughout life, influencing both everyday choices and long-term survival strategies. In this study, to shed light on the evolutionary origins of human risk attitude, we investigated the description-experience gap in 15 tufted capuchin monkeys, <em>Sapajus</em> spp., from the Primate Center of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of CNR (Rome, Italy) by comparing risky choices under two conditions. In the description condition, subjects received explicit information about the probability of obtaining a larger reward, whereas in the experience condition, they had to infer these probabilities through repeated sampling. Our results reveal that capuchins were generally risk-averse and that risk aversion was more pronounced when probabilities were explicitly described than when they were learned through experience. Moreover, a complex three-way interaction among condition, age and past experience indicated that an individual's risk attitude depended not only on chronological age but also on the cumulative exposure to uncertain outcomes, an effect that emerged solely in the experience condition, in which explicit information was not provided. In addition, sex differences were observed, with males displaying a more pronounced description-experience gap than females. Overall, our findings help clarify the evolutionary tenets of decision-making mechanisms under uncertainty, offering valuable insights into how ecological, demographic and experiential factors jointly shape risk-sensitive decision-making in nonhuman primates and, by extension, humans.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123422"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the caffeine paradox: caffeinated nectar increases pollinators’ perceived value of flowers","authors":"Shuyi Ding ,&nbsp;Jin Ding ,&nbsp;Huan Jiang ,&nbsp;Andrew B. Barron ,&nbsp;Cwyn Solvi ,&nbsp;Fei Peng","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123417","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123417","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Caffeine, nicotine and cocaine are toxic plant defence compounds that are used to deter herbivory, yet they are rewarding, compulsively consumed and addictive. This paradox remains poorly understood. The rewarding effects of plant-derived psychostimulants are thought to be an evolutionary side effect of their toxicity. However, caffeine and nicotine are found at low, nontoxic levels in plant nectars. Here, attention was directed towards caffeine, and whether caffeine changed pollinators’ valuation of flowers was examined. Bumble bees were trained to forage from two differently coloured flowers, with equal or different sugar concentrations separately on consecutive days or simultaneously. One flower type was caffeinated. Bees that experienced equal sugar concentrations from the two flower types showed no immediate preference, but they preferred the caffeinated flower after 24 h. In contrast, bees that experienced unequal sugar concentrations preferred the sweeter, noncaffeinated flower during training, but their preference for the caffeinated flower increased after 24 h compared with controls. These results indicate that caffeine influences bumble bee preferences by altering the perceived comparative value, rather than enhancing memorability. This finding provides a novel explanation for the paradox of plant-derived psychostimulants. That is, plants evolved to use compounds that target animal reward systems, thereby enhancing their perceived value to pollinators in comparison with other neighbouring flowers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123417"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145694135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}