Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie最新文献

8 malexj golden hamsters were observed two at a time in a plexiglas cage (area roughly 11 sp.ft) subdivided into 47 connected compartments. Each pair spent 2--3 weeks in this cage, observations lasting 1--2 weeks. Dominance relationships, food hoarding and marking behaviour in this situation are described.

Courtship and copulation behaviour of the tropical spider Cyrtophora cicatrosa were observed in the laboratory. They are described and compared with the behaviour of C. citricola. Emphasis is placed on the roles of pheromones and web tapping, and on the species' different ways of overcoming the problems resulting from extreme sexual dimorphism.

Colony Defence in Asian Honey Bees. 1. In Ais cerana, Apis dorsata and Apis florea a defence behaviour (Körperschütteln) can be released by the approach of flying insects. Films of Apis cerana colonies exhibiting this behaviour were made and anaylysed. 2. Körperschütteln "could not be released by various mechanical and chemical" stimuli. Only the movement of a dark object before light background was effective in releasing this behaviour. 3. The optimal angular velocity of the dark object when moved on a moving disk was between 80 degrees to 250 degrees per sec. The optimal size for stimulation was between 5 degrees and 12 degrees (visual angle). 4. The stimulatory effect was not greatly influenced by the shape of the dark object. 5. Continued stimulation over a 90 min period resulted in 80% reduction in the number of responding bees. 6. The colony's ability to discriminate between returning forager bees and other flying insects is discussed.

In young male Zebra finches, singing was advanced in time by injections of testosterone-propionate. The juvenile song, which normally occurs on day 34 to 37, could be shifted to day 18 to 19, when injection took place at the 16th day; either earlier or later injections delayed singing (at 25 to 35 days). The advanced juvenile song differs from the normal one, mainly the rhythm is less mature. There seems to be a point prior to which juvenile song cannot be induced, depending possible on the maturation of central nervous motor centers.

This ethogram of the fighting and sexual behaviour of European wild hogs is supposed to serve as a basis for further research on the social behaviour of Sus scrofa L. The observations were recorded in writing respectively on cassette recorder as well as photographed and filmed. Behaviour patterns of the European wild hogs which were wrongly interpreted or not yet described could be documented. Being comparatively original, omnivorous social Artiodactyla, Suidae are well comparable with other Artiodactyla, with Perissodactyla, Carnivora and their domesticated types. There might also be references to the origin and development of behaviour patterns in various zoological categories or on reductions of social behaviour in domestication.

Guillemots (Uria aalge) swallow fish head first when they are fed, when they pick up fish from the ground and when hunting. The responsible orientation processes in the first two situations are investigated. Experiments on over 300 hand-reared chicks, partly food-naive, showed that when they are fed, swallowing the fish head first results from a combination of orientation processes on the part of the parent and the chick. When picking up fish it results solely from characteristics of the fish. It is explained why the Taxis theory does not seem applicable. Instead of this the study is based on the theory of orientation processes.

This study was carried out in the laboratory on experimental groups of adult Mudskippers of both sexes; also natural populations were observed in mangrove swamps along the west coast of Madagascar. This paper deals mainly with the various aggressive postures and their role in the establishment and defense territories, the variations of aggression in an experimental group and, in the field, according to the tide movements. The hierarchial organization in the group of Mudskippers, the emergence of displacement activities and vacuum activities, the structure and dimensions of territories have also been studied.

The influence of olfactory and visual prey stimuli on the feeding behaviour of toads was studied as well as their response to lasting olfactory cues. A further aim was to find simple methods for testing olfactory responsiveness in anurans. Subjects were 8 adult specimens of the European species Bufo calamita (natterjack) kept in captivity one year at least. The results point to the rôle of olfaction in these animals.

Increased aggressive activity between male and female in isolated pairs of Etroplus maculatus has hitherto been explained either by the drive hypothesis or by the external stimulus hypothesis. In an attempt to investigate these two hypotheses the partners of 48 pairs were separated and their aggressiveness towards their mirrored images and their non-aggressive activities were recorded the following day and again 4 days later after 180 brief presentations of an adjacent compartment. For both sexes aggressiveness was lowered if this compartement was empty (isolation) and heightened if it held the original mate. Females also reacted more aggressively on seeing conspecific strangers of both sexes. There was no significant alteration of non-aggressive activities in any of the series. The increase of aggressiveness caused by the presence of the mate was normally offset by various investigated mechanisms preventing its eruption against the partner. Attacks only occurred if the equilibrium between aggressiveness and inhibition was disturbed. All results and those of other authors are discussed; it is concluded that the behaviour of E. maculatus can be better explained in terms of external stimulation than in terms of an endogenous production of aggressive drive energy.

Groups of 3-5 homing pigeons individually recognizable by different colours of their plumage were followed by helicopter on their way home. In most cases the animals flew together as a group with frequently changing leadership. Flight formations in terms of leadership were noted every minute. It was examined statistically whether the flight order varies at random or whether there are leading and led birds. In 6 out of 7 experiments with groups of 4-5 pigeons flight order was far from random, one or two pigeons proving to be leaders. In only one experiment leadership did not differ from a random distribution. No correlation could be found between the tendency to lead within a group and homing performance of the single pigeon when released individually.