Search results for "Animal Behavior"
showing 10 items of 83 documents
Design of composite measure schemes for comparative severity assessment in animal-based neuroscience research: A case study focussed on rat epilepsy …
2020
PLOS ONE 15(5), e0230141 (2020). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230141
Chemical Cues Influence Pupation Behavior of Drosophila simulans and Drosophila buzzatii in Nature and in the Laboratory.
2012
International audience; In the wild, larvae of several species of Drosophila develop in heterogeneous and rapidly changing environments sharing resources as food and space. In this scenario, sensory systems contribute to detect, localize and recognize congeners and heterospecifics, and provide information about the availability of food and chemical features of environments where animals live. We investigated the behavior of D. simulans and D. buzzatii larvae to chemicals emitted by conspecific and heterospecific larvae. Our goal was to understand the role of these substances in the selection of pupation sites in the two species that cohabit within decaying prickly pear fruits (Opuntia ficus…
Observing animals and humans : dogs target their gaze to the biological information in natural scenes
2020
Background This study examines how dogs observe images of natural scenes containing living creatures (wild animals, dogs and humans) recorded with eye gaze tracking. Because dogs have had limited exposure to wild animals in their lives, we also consider the natural novelty of the wild animal images for the dogs. Methods The eye gaze of dogs was recorded while they viewed natural images containing dogs, humans, and wild animals. Three categories of images were used: naturalistic landscape images containing single humans or animals, full body images containing a single human or an animal, and full body images containing a pair of humans or animals. The gazing behavior of two dog populations,…
Dominància i ocupació de l'espai en grups de primats no-humans: un model basat en conducta adaptativa
2007
L'estructura jeràrquica és una de les característiques fonamentals de les societats de primats, que condiciona en gran mesura el comportament dels individus que conviuen al grup. Quines lleis regeixen la formació i l'estructura d'aquestes jerarquies? Per què en determinats grups els subjectes més dominants se situen al centre del grup i en uns altres de la mateixa espècie no? En el camp de la conducta animal s'han proposat múltiples hipòtesis, però no n'hi ha cap que siga totalment satisfactòria, ja que a causa de les múltiples variables que hi infl ueixen, és difícil desplegar una teoria que explique tota la complexitat que s'observa empíricament. La nostra proposta d'estudi es basa en l'e…
Luminance and contrast in visual perception of time to collision.
2013
AbstractMany animals avoid dark, approaching objects seen against a lighter background but show no or weaker reactions to stimuli with inverted contrast. We investigated whether human observers would respond differently to such stimuli in terms of estimated time-to-arrival. We varied luminances of an approaching, light or dark disk and a plain, grey background, and for several conditions, continuously adjusted calibrations so as to keep contrast and/or overall lightness constant. Since no effects were found, we conclude that humans are able to discard luminance and contrast for the task at hand. Generally, however, performance was affected by different, consecutive regimes of feedback: Init…
Immune-mediated change in the expression of a sexual trait predicts offspring survival in the wild.
2011
9 pages; International audience; BACKGROUND: The "good genes" theory of sexual selection postulates that females choose mates that will improve their offspring's fitness through the inheritance of paternal genes. In spite of the attention that this hypothesis has given rise to, the empirical evidence remains sparse, mostly because of the difficulties of controlling for the many environmental factors that may covary with both the paternal phenotype and offspring fitness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that offspring sired by males of a preferred phenotype should have better survival in an endangered bird, the houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We…
High population density in bank voles stimulates food hoarding after breeding.
1998
The effects of conspecific density (i.e. risk of intraspecific competition) on hoarding behaviour were studied in breeding pairs of bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus. I simulated high population density by using odours of conspecifics, to exclude the direct effects of exploitation or interference competition for food. The pairs of bank voles hoarded only at the end of their breeding season. Hoarding was not correlated with whether the voles had a litter during the experiment or their litter size, but was more likely at the high population density and for pairs with small females. This may indicate that smaller females especially make caches in the autumn, possibly to ensure better winter …
Ecological specialization to fluctuating resources prevents long-distance migratory raptors from becoming sedentary on islands
2013
[Background]: The adaptive transition between behavioral strategies, such as the shift from migratoriness to sedentariness, remains an outstanding question in evolutionary ecology. Density-dependent variation in the age of first breeding has been proposed as a feasible mechanism through which long-lived migratory birds with deferred sexual maturity should become sedentary to persist on islands. Although this pattern seems to hold for most raptors and herons, a few exceptions have been identified. One of these exceptions is the Eleonora's falcon, a long-distance migratory bird, which shows one of the most peculiar adaptations in the timing of reproduction and food requirements among raptors.…
Genetic dissimilarity between mates, but not male heterozygosity, influences divorce in schistosomes.
2008
6 pages; International audience; Background: Correlational studies strongly suggest that both genetic similarity and heterozygosity can influence female mate choice. However, the influence of each variable has usually been tested independently, although similarity and heterozygosity might be correlated. We experimentally determined the relative influence of genetic similarity and heterozygosity in divorce and re-mating in the monogamous endoparasite Schistosoma mansoni. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed sequential infections of vertebrate hosts with controlled larval populations of parasites, where sex and individual genetic diversity and similarity were predetermined before infe…
The effects of morphine on the temporal structure of Wistar rat behavioral response to pain in hot-plate
2016
Rationale: The largest amount of researches on the hot-plate test was carried out using quantitative assessments. However, the evaluation of the relationships among the different elements that compose the behavioral response to pain requires different approaches. Although previous studies have provided clear information on the behavioral structure of the response, no data are available on its temporal structure. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the temporal structure of the behavioral response to pain in Wistar rat tested in hot-plate and how this structure was influenced by morphine-induced analgesia. Methods: The behavior of four groups of subjects tested in hot-…