Pub Date : 2025-02-06DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105161
Marina V. Rutovskaya , Ilya A. Volodin , Fedor N. Golenishchev , Elena V. Volodina
We examined the ontogeny of pup ultrasonic isolation-induced calls (USVs) in a highly social Arvicolinae rodent species, the Harting’s vole (Microtus hartingi). We recorded, with two-days intervals, the USVs of 55 individual pups from 11 litters from 1 to 12 days of age and measured body mass and the linear body size variables of each subject. The number of pups producing USVs decreased from 100 % at 1–2 days of age to 11.5 % at 11–12 days of age. Call rate changed with age, with maximum at 3–4 d of age. It ranged from 121.8 to 94.2 USVs/min between 1–2 and 7–8 days of age, decreased to 36.4 USVs/min at 9–10 days of age and to 1.5 USVs/min at 11–12 days of age. Overall, pup USVs were becoming simpler in their contour shapes with increase of age. Pup age class significantly affected all acoustic variables for the exclusion of the start and maximum fundamental frequencies, which values did not display significant changes with age. Body mass negatively correlated with USV acoustic variables, for the exclusion of call rate. A high percent of USVs contained nonlinear phenomena. We discuss the differences and similarities of pup Harting’s vole USV ontogeny with other vole species and summarize the traits which make pup USVs of the Harting’ vole a convenient model for biomedical research.
{"title":"Ontogeny of pup isolation-induced ultrasonic calls in a highly social rodent, the Harting’s vole (Microtus hartingi)","authors":"Marina V. Rutovskaya , Ilya A. Volodin , Fedor N. Golenishchev , Elena V. Volodina","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105161","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105161","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examined the ontogeny of pup ultrasonic isolation-induced calls (USVs) in a highly social Arvicolinae rodent species, the Harting’s vole (<em>Microtus hartingi</em>). We recorded, with two-days intervals, the USVs of 55 individual pups from 11 litters from 1 to 12 days of age and measured body mass and the linear body size variables of each subject. The number of pups producing USVs decreased from 100 % at 1–2 days of age to 11.5 % at 11–12 days of age. Call rate changed with age, with maximum at 3–4 d of age. It ranged from 121.8 to 94.2 USVs/min between 1–2 and 7–8 days of age, decreased to 36.4 USVs/min at 9–10 days of age and to 1.5 USVs/min at 11–12 days of age. Overall, pup USVs were becoming simpler in their contour shapes with increase of age. Pup age class significantly affected all acoustic variables for the exclusion of the start and maximum fundamental frequencies, which values did not display significant changes with age. Body mass negatively correlated with USV acoustic variables, for the exclusion of call rate. A high percent of USVs contained nonlinear phenomena. We discuss the differences and similarities of pup Harting’s vole USV ontogeny with other vole species and summarize the traits which make pup USVs of the Harting’ vole a convenient model for biomedical research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"226 ","pages":"Article 105161"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143372272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-04DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105162
Madeleine Berry , Benedikte Austad , Johan Höjesjö
Personality is an area of increasing interest in fish ecology because of its potential to affect important ecological processes. Assessing personality traits, such as boldness, usually involves a combination of tests and repeated trials in controlled laboratory environments. However, distress from transportation, handling and extended time in artificial laboratory settings may affect behaviour, increase stress and disrupt natural processes such as feeding. As such, there is a need for a simplified way to assess boldness within a field setting. Here, using a juvenile salmonid as a model, we describe a modified open field test that can easily be applied close to natural habitats. A startle response following sudden exposure to light in a novel environment was used as a measure of boldness in brown trout in two case studies. We showed that boldness was significantly correlated to size with smaller individuals being bolder than larger individuals. In a secondary study, we assessed whether the method could be used to investigate differences in boldness relating to migration timing of sea trout and found that early migrants were bolder than late migrants. We hope this method offers an easy approach to measuring boldness on site and could be particularly useful in situations where transport is unfeasible.
{"title":"Streamlining boldness measurement in fish: A practical approach to field studies","authors":"Madeleine Berry , Benedikte Austad , Johan Höjesjö","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105162","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105162","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Personality is an area of increasing interest in fish ecology because of its potential to affect important ecological processes. Assessing personality traits, such as boldness, usually involves a combination of tests and repeated trials in controlled laboratory environments. However, distress from transportation, handling and extended time in artificial laboratory settings may affect behaviour, increase stress and disrupt natural processes such as feeding. As such, there is a need for a simplified way to assess boldness within a field setting. Here, using a juvenile salmonid as a model, we describe a modified open field test that can easily be applied close to natural habitats. A startle response following sudden exposure to light in a novel environment was used as a measure of boldness in brown trout in two case studies. We showed that boldness was significantly correlated to size with smaller individuals being bolder than larger individuals. In a secondary study, we assessed whether the method could be used to investigate differences in boldness relating to migration timing of sea trout and found that early migrants were bolder than late migrants. We hope this method offers an easy approach to measuring boldness on site and could be particularly useful in situations where transport is unfeasible.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"226 ","pages":"Article 105162"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143208063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-03DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105163
Jarl Giske , Magda L. Dumitru , Katja Enberg , Ole Folkedal , Sigurd Olav Handeland , Andrew D. Higginson , Anders F. Opdal , Ivar Rønnestad , Anne Gro Vea Salvanes , Knut Wiik Vollset , Fabio M. Zennaro , Marc Mangel , Sergey Budaev
Many species of fish, birds and mammals commonly live in human captivity; Atlantic salmon Salmo salar is one of them. The international legal status of the welfare of captive animals is slowly developing and still requires rigorous specification. For example, even though fish have complex cognition and elements of sentience, The United Nations’ animal welfare principles still take a functional health-centred perspective overlooking the cognitive-affective component. Wellbeing problems remain a major source of slow growth and high mortality in intensive aquaculture of Atlantic salmon. The value system for decision making in vertebrates is based on expectations of emotional wellbeing for the options available and is linked with the individual’s assessment of its future. We propose a new approach for monitoring and improving the welfare of salmon (or any other captive or wild vertebrate) based on modelling the salmon’s wellbeing system by digital twins, which are simulation models that implement major bodily mechanisms of the organism. Indeed, predictions on boredom, stress and wellbeing can all be captured by a computational evolutionary model of the factors underlying behaviour. We explain how such an agent-based model of salmon digital twins can be constructed by modelling a salmon’s subjective wellbeing experience along with prediction of its near future and allostasis (the bodily preparation for the expected near future). We attempt to identify the building blocks required in digital twin models to deliver early warnings about escalating issues that could eventually lead to negative effects on salmon health in aquaculture. These models would provide critical insights for optimizing production processes and could significantly reduce the reliance on animal experiments. Overall, reports of a population of digital twins could support the implementation of 3Rs - replacement, reduction, refinement - by offering actionable information to fish farmers as well as consumers, voters, politicians and regulators on relevant issues as well as guide experimental work on animal wellbeing across species.
{"title":"Premises for digital twins reporting on Atlantic salmon wellbeing","authors":"Jarl Giske , Magda L. Dumitru , Katja Enberg , Ole Folkedal , Sigurd Olav Handeland , Andrew D. Higginson , Anders F. Opdal , Ivar Rønnestad , Anne Gro Vea Salvanes , Knut Wiik Vollset , Fabio M. Zennaro , Marc Mangel , Sergey Budaev","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105163","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105163","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many species of fish, birds and mammals commonly live in human captivity; Atlantic salmon <em>Salmo salar</em> is one of them. The international legal status of the welfare of captive animals is slowly developing and still requires rigorous specification. For example, even though fish have complex cognition and elements of sentience, The United Nations’ animal welfare principles still take a functional health-centred perspective overlooking the cognitive-affective component. Wellbeing problems remain a major source of slow growth and high mortality in intensive aquaculture of Atlantic salmon. The value system for decision making in vertebrates is based on expectations of emotional wellbeing for the options available and is linked with the individual’s assessment of its future. We propose a new approach for monitoring and improving the welfare of salmon (or any other captive or wild vertebrate) based on modelling the salmon’s wellbeing system by digital twins, which are simulation models that implement major bodily mechanisms of the organism. Indeed, predictions on boredom, stress and wellbeing can all be captured by a computational evolutionary model of the factors underlying behaviour. We explain how such an agent-based model of salmon digital twins can be constructed by modelling a salmon’s subjective wellbeing experience along with prediction of its near future and allostasis (the bodily preparation for the expected near future). We attempt to identify the building blocks required in digital twin models to deliver early warnings about escalating issues that could eventually lead to negative effects on salmon health in aquaculture. These models would provide critical insights for optimizing production processes and could significantly reduce the reliance on animal experiments. Overall, reports of a population of digital twins could support the implementation of 3Rs - replacement, reduction, refinement - by offering actionable information to fish farmers as well as consumers, voters, politicians and regulators on relevant issues as well as guide experimental work on animal wellbeing across species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"226 ","pages":"Article 105163"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143254484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105151
Sarah M.L. Smeltz , Moriah J. Deimeke , Prateek K. Sahu , Carolina Montenegro , Katharine H. Stenstrom , Ilex Starenchak , Victoria Rennie , Inaara M. Ebrahim , John Anthony Jones , Christopher B. Sturdy
Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) vocalisations remain plastic throughout their lifespans. Although fledglings employ vocal plasticity to refine their vocalisations through the use of tutor mimicry, adults employ vocal plasticity to create unique population dialects. Vocal convergence is one mechanism by which flockmates’ vocalisations become increasingly similar to each other and distinct from the calls of other flocks. Chick-a-dee call plasticity via vocal convergence has been observed in wild and group aviary-housed laboratory chickadee flocks. Our study aimed to answer whether individually-housed laboratory chickadee colonies possess unique vocal dialects similar to wild populations. A group of six individually-housed chickadees from two laboratory colony rooms were introduced to a new experimental colony room. Calls were recorded at baseline and weekly thereafter for eight weeks. We then conducted an operant conditioning study using a Go/No-go paradigm with birds not included in our experimental-colony, to determine whether black-capped chickadees could discriminate between calls from the two laboratory colonies, using four experimental-colony birds’ baseline pre-assembly recordings as discriminative stimuli. We tested generalisation using novel, pre-assembly calls from the remaining two experimental-colony birds. Next, we tested whether chickadees perceived a change in calls following experimental-colony assembly, putatively indicative of vocal plasticity, marked by a decrease in discrimination accuracy. Chickadees successfully discriminated reinforced from non-reinforced calls using pre-assembly calls, but did not generalise this learning when later presented with novel pre-assembly calls from new birds. We posit that instead of employing colony-based discrimination, chickadees relied on individual-based discrimination. Chickadees were also not able to generalise their learning when presented with post-assembly calls from the same birds. Our findings suggest that chickadees were able to discriminate among individuals’, but not colonies’, chick-a-dee calls in an operant-conditioning procedure. Furthermore, chickadees can perceive differences in pre-versus-post assembly calls. Taken together, these findings suggest that group and individual identity information may be correlated, as post-assembly vocal plasticity impeded individual discrimination.
{"title":"Individual vocal identity may be obscured following colony assembly in captive black-capped chickadees","authors":"Sarah M.L. Smeltz , Moriah J. Deimeke , Prateek K. Sahu , Carolina Montenegro , Katharine H. Stenstrom , Ilex Starenchak , Victoria Rennie , Inaara M. Ebrahim , John Anthony Jones , Christopher B. Sturdy","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105151","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105151","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Black-capped chickadee (<em>Poecile atricapillus</em>) vocalisations remain plastic throughout their lifespans. Although fledglings employ vocal plasticity to refine their vocalisations through the use of tutor mimicry, adults employ vocal plasticity to create unique population dialects. Vocal convergence is one mechanism by which flockmates’ vocalisations become increasingly similar to each other and distinct from the calls of other flocks. <em>Chick-a-dee</em> call plasticity via vocal convergence has been observed in wild and group aviary-housed laboratory chickadee flocks. Our study aimed to answer whether individually-housed laboratory chickadee colonies possess unique vocal dialects similar to wild populations. A group of six individually-housed chickadees from two laboratory colony rooms were introduced to a new experimental colony room. Calls were recorded at baseline and weekly thereafter for eight weeks. We then conducted an operant conditioning study using a Go/No-go paradigm with birds not included in our experimental-colony, to determine whether black-capped chickadees could discriminate between calls from the two laboratory colonies, using four experimental-colony birds’ baseline pre-assembly recordings as discriminative stimuli. We tested generalisation using novel, pre-assembly calls from the remaining two experimental-colony birds. Next, we tested whether chickadees perceived a change in calls following experimental-colony assembly, putatively indicative of vocal plasticity, marked by a decrease in discrimination accuracy. Chickadees successfully discriminated reinforced from non-reinforced calls using pre-assembly calls, but did not generalise this learning when later presented with novel pre-assembly calls from new birds. We posit that instead of employing colony-based discrimination, chickadees relied on individual-based discrimination. Chickadees were also not able to generalise their learning when presented with post-assembly calls from the same birds. Our findings suggest that chickadees were able to discriminate among individuals’, but not colonies’, <em>chick-a-dee</em> calls in an operant-conditioning procedure. Furthermore, chickadees can perceive differences in pre-versus-post assembly calls. Taken together, these findings suggest that group and individual identity information may be correlated, as post-assembly vocal plasticity impeded individual discrimination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105153
Catarina Soares , Mairiele Santos, Carlos Pinto
Despite their intended goal of simply separating trials, inter-trial intervals have been found to affect choice behavior in delayed matching-to-sample procedures, leading to choice biases. In the present study, we assessed the effects of delay on choice without the potential influence of inter-trial intervals. Sixteen pigeons learned a symbolic matching-to-sample task with samples differing in duration (3 s vs. 9 s) and no inter-trial intervals. In testing, a delay lasting 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 s was introduced between sample and comparisons. There were two differing delay conditions: for Group Light Off, the delay was spent in darkness and, for Group Light On, the delay was illuminated by a houselight. For Group Light Off, as the delay increased, matching accuracy following both samples decreased towards indifference. For Group Light On, matching accuracy remained relatively high in short-sample trials but decreased abruptly in long-sample trials (choose-short effect). Hence, we found that a choice bias may occur even without inter-trial intervals.
{"title":"Is choice bias in delayed matching a consequence of inter-trial interval effects?","authors":"Catarina Soares , Mairiele Santos, Carlos Pinto","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105153","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105153","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite their intended goal of simply separating trials, inter-trial intervals have been found to affect choice behavior in delayed matching-to-sample procedures, leading to choice biases. In the present study, we assessed the effects of delay on choice without the potential influence of inter-trial intervals. Sixteen pigeons learned a symbolic matching-to-sample task with samples differing in duration (3 s vs. 9 s) and no inter-trial intervals. In testing, a delay lasting 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 s was introduced between sample and comparisons. There were two differing delay conditions: for Group Light Off, the delay was spent in darkness and, for Group Light On, the delay was illuminated by a houselight. For Group Light Off, as the delay increased, matching accuracy following both samples decreased towards indifference. For Group Light On, matching accuracy remained relatively high in short-sample trials but decreased abruptly in long-sample trials (choose-short effect). Hence, we found that a choice bias may occur even without inter-trial intervals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"226 ","pages":"Article 105153"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143121745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105149
Claryana Araújo-Wang , Mauricio Cantor , John Y. Wang
Scent marking through urine spraying is known to aid mate selection, territory marking and chemical communication in terrestrial, but not in aquatic mammals. We quantify an unusual aerial urination behaviour in botos (Inia geoffrensis) and discuss its potential functions. Between 2014 and 2018, we conducted land-based behavioural surveys on wild botos in central Brazil, recording the sequence, duration and social context of aerial urination. Aerial urination starts with a boto slowly positioning itself upside down, exposing its penis above water, and ejecting a stream of urine into the air. When a ‘receiver’ male is present, it either approaches the urine stream with its rostrum (sometimes pursuing it) or stays where the stream contacts the water. We recorded 36 aerial urination events during 218.9 observation hours, with 67 % occurring in the presence of receivers. The events were short (11.6 ± 9.6 SD s), highly variable (range 1–41 s) and involved only males—urinators and receivers. We hypothesize that the bristles on botos’ rostrums can serve a chemical sensory role (haptosense) in detecting urine streams and that aerial urination, often occurring in the presence of other males, serves social or communicative functions beyond the physiological need for waste elimination.
{"title":"Aerial urination suggests undescribed sensory modality and social function in river dolphins","authors":"Claryana Araújo-Wang , Mauricio Cantor , John Y. Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105149","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105149","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Scent marking through urine spraying is known to aid mate selection, territory marking and chemical communication in terrestrial, but not in aquatic mammals. We quantify an unusual aerial urination behaviour in botos (<em>Inia geoffrensis</em>) and discuss its potential functions. Between 2014 and 2018, we conducted land-based behavioural surveys on wild botos in central Brazil, recording the sequence, duration and social context of aerial urination. Aerial urination starts with a boto slowly positioning itself upside down, exposing its penis above water, and ejecting a stream of urine into the air. When a ‘receiver’ male is present, it either approaches the urine stream with its rostrum (sometimes pursuing it) or stays where the stream contacts the water. We recorded 36 aerial urination events during 218.9 observation hours, with 67 % occurring in the presence of receivers. The events were short (11.6 ± 9.6 SD s), highly variable (range 1–41 s) and involved only males—urinators and receivers. We hypothesize that the bristles on botos’ rostrums can serve a chemical sensory role (haptosense) in detecting urine streams and that aerial urination, often occurring in the presence of other males, serves social or communicative functions beyond the physiological need for waste elimination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105149"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143045518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105137
Felipe P. da Costa , Maria F. Arruda , Karina Ribeiro , Daniel M.A. Pessoa
The selection and expression of conspicuous colorations in animals is often related to anti-predation strategies and sociosexual communication. The giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) is a species with three male morphotypes that vary in claws’ coloration and the size of the animals. It has been suggested that male reproductive quality might be associated to their coloration, but evidence is still conflicting. In addition, a possible communication function of orange patches, that occupies a large portion of egg-bearing females’ cephalothorax, has never been investigated before. For that matter, in this study, we evaluated the importance of visual cues for reproductive decision making by males and females of the giant river prawn. Through two-choice discrimination experiments, we verified whether: 1) females would be equally attracted to the presence of males expressing different claw colorations and body sizes; 2) female reproductive status and body size would influence males’ decision making. Under the tested experimental conditions, females predominantly chose larger over smaller males, while males showed no significant preference for any kind of female. It is possible that body size is one of the cues that females use to identify males’ morphotype. The choice of larger males could provide greater protection for females against harassment by other males. Further studies should employ visual cues in combination with chemical ones for a better understanding of mate choice in this species.
动物中显眼颜色的选择和表达通常与反捕食策略和社会性交流有关。罗氏巨虾（Macrobrachium rosenbergii, de Man, 1879）是一种有三种雄性形态的河虾，它们的爪子颜色和体型各不相同。有人认为男性的生殖质量可能与他们的颜色有关，但证据仍然相互矛盾。此外，占据产卵雌性头胸很大一部分的橙色斑块可能具有的交流功能，此前从未被研究过。因此，在本研究中，我们评估了视觉线索对雄性和雌性巨型河对虾生殖决策的重要性。通过双选择歧视实验，我们验证了：1)雌性是否会同样地被不同爪色和体型的雄性所吸引；2)女性生殖状态和体型会影响男性的决策。在测试的实验条件下，雌性倾向于选择体型较大的雄性而不是体型较小的雄性，而雄性对任何一种雌性都没有明显的偏好。体型可能是雌性用来识别雄性形态的线索之一。选择体型较大的雄性可以更好地保护雌性免受其他雄性的骚扰。为了更好地了解这个物种的配偶选择，进一步的研究应该将视觉线索与化学线索结合起来。
{"title":"The importance of color and body size for reproductive decision making by males and females of the giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) (Decapoda, Caridea, Palaemonidae)","authors":"Felipe P. da Costa , Maria F. Arruda , Karina Ribeiro , Daniel M.A. Pessoa","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105137","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105137","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The selection and expression of conspicuous colorations in animals is often related to anti-predation strategies and sociosexual communication. The giant river prawn, <em>Macrobrachium rosenbergii</em> (de Man, 1879) is a species with three male morphotypes that vary in claws’ coloration and the size of the animals. It has been suggested that male reproductive quality might be associated to their coloration, but evidence is still conflicting. In addition, a possible communication function of orange patches, that occupies a large portion of egg-bearing females’ cephalothorax, has never been investigated before. For that matter, in this study, we evaluated the importance of visual cues for reproductive decision making by males and females of the giant river prawn. Through two-choice discrimination experiments, we verified whether: 1) females would be equally attracted to the presence of males expressing different claw colorations and body sizes; 2) female reproductive status and body size would influence males’ decision making. Under the tested experimental conditions, females predominantly chose larger over smaller males, while males showed no significant preference for any kind of female. It is possible that body size is one of the cues that females use to identify males’ morphotype. The choice of larger males could provide greater protection for females against harassment by other males. Further studies should employ visual cues in combination with chemical ones for a better understanding of mate choice in this species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105137"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142926348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105138
Elizabeth D. Lovitz, Daniele Ortu
This study investigated the impact of engaging in concurrent behaviors on the emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relations, specifically examining interruptions, accuracy, and reaction times during test. Six participants completed a computerized matching-to-sample task under three conditions: a baseline condition, a singing condition hypothesized to be incompatible with covert verbal behavior, and a foot tapping condition hypothesized to be compatible with covert verbal behavior. The tempo was kept consistent across both singing and foot tapping tasks. Results indicated a higher average number of interruptions in the foot tapping condition compared to the singing condition. Accuracy and reaction time results varied between participants, indicating individual differences in the impact of the concurrent behaviors. Some participants showed decreased accuracy and increased reaction times during the foot tapping condition, while others demonstrated consistent performance across both conditions. These findings highlight the potential role of response fluency in the execution of concurrent tasks and the influence of verbal mediation on complex behaviors. These insights have implications for the design of experimental tasks and the interpretation of results in studies involving complex behavior and concurrent tasks.
{"title":"Emergent relations and competing behavior: Effects on interruptions, accuracy and reaction time","authors":"Elizabeth D. Lovitz, Daniele Ortu","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105138","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105138","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated the impact of engaging in concurrent behaviors on the emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relations, specifically examining interruptions, accuracy, and reaction times during test. Six participants completed a computerized matching-to-sample task under three conditions: a baseline condition, a singing condition hypothesized to be incompatible with covert verbal behavior, and a foot tapping condition hypothesized to be compatible with covert verbal behavior. The tempo was kept consistent across both singing and foot tapping tasks. Results indicated a higher average number of interruptions in the foot tapping condition compared to the singing condition. Accuracy and reaction time results varied between participants, indicating individual differences in the impact of the concurrent behaviors. Some participants showed decreased accuracy and increased reaction times during the foot tapping condition, while others demonstrated consistent performance across both conditions. These findings highlight the potential role of response fluency in the execution of concurrent tasks and the influence of verbal mediation on complex behaviors. These insights have implications for the design of experimental tasks and the interpretation of results in studies involving complex behavior and concurrent tasks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105138"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142943528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105139
Li Zhang , Zihui Zhang , Wei Liang
Predation risk can influence behavioral decisions of animals in various ways. Prey animals have the opportunity to choose antipredation behaviors and escape strategies only by quickly and accurately identifying predators. As precocial birds, domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) have no adaptation period after hatching and must immediately survive under predation risk. They possess a strong ability to identify threats through vocalizations. To explore whether domestic chickens have innate predator recognition ability and whether the antipredation behavior of breeding chickens is stronger than that of non-breeding chickens. We tested the antipredation behaviors of three types of flocks (non-breeding chickens; hen with chicks; isolated chicks) of domestic chickens in response to sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) calls using playback experiments, while Oriental turtle dove (Streptopelia orientalis) calls were used as a control. We found that breeding hens are significantly more vigilant than non-breeding chickens. We also found that although isolated chicks can exhibit antipredator behavior, they cannot accurately identify the calls of predators and non-predators. Therefore, it can be concluded that domestic chickens exhibit varying degrees of vigilance towards predator calls at different stages of their life history. Reproductive costs can lead to increased vigilance in domestic chickens. The accurate identification of predators by domestic chickens is not innate, but gradually formed over time.
{"title":"Are domestic chickens born with predator recognition? Validation of a sound playback experiment","authors":"Li Zhang , Zihui Zhang , Wei Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105139","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105139","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Predation risk can influence behavioral decisions of animals in various ways. Prey animals have the opportunity to choose antipredation behaviors and escape strategies only by quickly and accurately identifying predators. As precocial birds, domestic chickens (<em>Gallus gallus domesticus</em>) have no adaptation period after hatching and must immediately survive under predation risk. They possess a strong ability to identify threats through vocalizations. To explore whether domestic chickens have innate predator recognition ability and whether the antipredation behavior of breeding chickens is stronger than that of non-breeding chickens. We tested the antipredation behaviors of three types of flocks (non-breeding chickens; hen with chicks; isolated chicks) of domestic chickens in response to sparrowhawk (<em>Accipiter nisus</em>) calls using playback experiments, while Oriental turtle dove (<em>Streptopelia orientalis</em>) calls were used as a control. We found that breeding hens are significantly more vigilant than non-breeding chickens. We also found that although isolated chicks can exhibit antipredator behavior, they cannot accurately identify the calls of predators and non-predators. Therefore, it can be concluded that domestic chickens exhibit varying degrees of vigilance towards predator calls at different stages of their life history. Reproductive costs can lead to increased vigilance in domestic chickens. The accurate identification of predators by domestic chickens is not innate, but gradually formed over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105139"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142943526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105125
Sarah Cowie, Michael Davison
One of the simplest forms of behavior, operant behavior, appears fundamentally prospective, implying potential similarity to ‘sophisticated’ prospective behaviors like planning in terms of underlying mechanisms. But differences between paradigms for studying behavior resulting from ‘simple’ versus ‘sophisticated’ mechanisms prevent true comparison of underlying mechanisms. To aid development of an operant paradigm with more similarity to ‘sophisticated’ prospective paradigms, we replicated and extended Cowie and Davison’s (2021) investing task. Pigeons were required to emit an investing response to ensure food at a different time and different response location. We asked if investing depended on whether the behavior was a single, discrete key peck (typical in operant paradigms) or an extended sequence of pecks (echoing behaviors in planning paradigms), and whether facilitative effects of an immediate stimulus change persisted when the stimulus change no longer occurred. Pigeons invested successfully whether investing required one or more responses, and for extended investing responses, performance did not worsen significantly with increasing response requirements. Experience investing with an immediate stimulus change did not enhance subsequent investing without the stimulus change. Findings show simple learning mechanisms can support extended activities with no immediate consequences. Further, they support the investing paradigm as a potential tool for investigations of overlap in mechanisms controlling ‘simple’ and ‘sophisticated’ behavior.
{"title":"Cost does not prevent pigeons from investing in the future","authors":"Sarah Cowie, Michael Davison","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105125","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105125","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the simplest forms of behavior, operant behavior, appears fundamentally prospective, implying potential similarity to ‘sophisticated’ prospective behaviors like planning in terms of underlying mechanisms. But differences between paradigms for studying behavior resulting from ‘simple’ versus ‘sophisticated’ mechanisms prevent true comparison of underlying mechanisms. To aid development of an operant paradigm with more similarity to ‘sophisticated’ prospective paradigms, we replicated and extended Cowie and Davison’s (2021) investing task. Pigeons were required to emit an investing response to ensure food at a different time and different response location. We asked if investing depended on whether the behavior was a single, discrete key peck (typical in operant paradigms) or an extended sequence of pecks (echoing behaviors in planning paradigms), and whether facilitative effects of an immediate stimulus change persisted when the stimulus change no longer occurred. Pigeons invested successfully whether investing required one or more responses, and for extended investing responses, performance did not worsen significantly with increasing response requirements. Experience investing with an immediate stimulus change did not enhance subsequent investing without the stimulus change. Findings show simple learning mechanisms can support extended activities with no immediate consequences. Further, they support the investing paradigm as a potential tool for investigations of overlap in mechanisms controlling ‘simple’ and ‘sophisticated’ behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 105125"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142827294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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