Search results for "Animal Behavior"
showing 10 items of 83 documents
The Structure and Usage of Female and Male Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalizations Reveal only Minor Differences
2012
Ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) of mice are increasingly recognized as informative dependent variables in studies using mouse models of human diseases. While pup vocalizations primarily serve to re-establish contact with the mother, adult male ‘‘songs’’ were considered to be courtship signals. Alternatively, mouse USVs may generally function as territorial signals. To distinguish between these two hypotheses, we compared the structure and usage of adult male and female USVs in staged resident-intruder encounters. If calls function primarily as courtship signals, males should respond stronger than females, specifically when presented with a female intruder. Refuting this hypothesis, we found …
Volatile Drosophila cuticular pheromones are affected by social but not sexual experience.
2012
International audience; Recognition of conspecifics and mates is based on a variety of sensory cues that are specific to the species, sex and social status of each individual. The courtship and mating activity of Drosophila melanogaster flies is thought to depend on the olfactory perception of a male-specific volatile pheromone, cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), and the gustatory perception of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs), some of which are sexually dimorphic. Using two complementary sampling methods (headspace Solid Phase Micro-Extraction [SPME] and solvent extraction) coupled with GC-MS analysis, we measured the dispersion of pheromonal CHs in the air and on the substrate around the fly. We als…
Pet dogs' behavior when the owner and an unfamiliar person attend to a faux rival.
2017
While dog owners ascribe different emotions to their pets, including jealousy, research on secondary emotions in nonhuman animals is very limited and, so far, only one study has investigated jealousy in dogs (Canis familiaris). This work explores jealousy in dogs one step further. We conducted two studies adapting a procedure devised to assess jealousy in human infants. In each study 36 adult dogs were exposed to a situation in which their owner and a stranger ignored them while directing positive attention towards three different objects: a book, a puppet and a fake dog (Study 1: furry; Study 2: plastic). Overall, the results of both studies do not provide evidence that the behavioral resp…
Scavengers on the move: behavioural changes in foraging search patterns during the annual cycle
2013
Background: Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals will tend to maximize foraging success by optimizing search strategies. However, how organisms detect sparsely distributed food resources remains an open question. When targets are sparse and unpredictably distributed, a Lévy strategy should maximize foraging success. By contrast, when resources are abundant and regularly distributed, simple Brownian random movement should be sufficient. Although very different groups of organisms exhibit Lévy motion, the shift from a Lévy to a Brownian search strategy has been suggested to depend on internal and external factors such as sex, prey density, or environmental context. However, animal re…
Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants-An exemplar of how human disturbance im…
2022
Selective harvest, such as poaching, impacts group-living animals directly through mortality of individuals with desirable traits, and indirectly by altering the structure of their social networks. Understanding the relationship between disturbance-induced, structural network changes and group performance in wild animals remains an outstanding problem. To address this problem, we evaluated the immediate effect of disturbance on group sociality in African savanna elephants—an example, group-living species threatened by poaching. Drawing on static association data from ten free-ranging groups, we constructed one empirically based, population-wide network and 100 virtual networks; performed a …
Genetic evidence confirms polygamous mating system in a crustacean parasite with multiple hosts.
2014
Mating systems are diverse in animals, notably in crustaceans, but can be inferred from a limited set of parameters. Baeza and Thiel (2007) proposed a model predicting mating systems of symbiotic crustaceans with three host characteristics and the risk of predation. These authors proposed five mating systems, ranging from monogamy to polygynandry (where multiple mating occurs for both genders). Using microsatellite loci, we tested the putatively mating system of the ectoparasite crab Dissodactylus primitivus. We determined the mating frequencies of males and females, parentage assignment (COLONY & GERUD software) as well as the contents of female spermathecae. Our results are globally consi…
Role of the dopaminergic system in the acquisition, expression and reinstatement of MDMA-induced conditioned place preference in adolescent mice.
2012
Background The rewarding effects of 3,4-methylenedioxy-metamphetamine (MDMA) have been demonstrated in conditioned place preference (CPP) procedures, but the involvement of the dopaminergic system in MDMA-induced CPP and reinstatement is poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, the effects of the DA D1 antagonist SCH 23390 (0.125 and 0.250 mg/kg), the DA D2 antagonist Haloperidol (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg), the D2 antagonist Raclopride (0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg) and the dopamine release inhibitor CGS 10746B (3 and 10 mg/kg) on the acquisition, expression and reinstatement of a CPP induced by 10 mg/kg of MDMA were evaluated in adolescent mice. As expected, MDMA significantly increa…
Adolescent but not adult ethanol binge drinking modulates cocaine withdrawal symptoms in mice.
2016
Background Ethanol (EtOH) binge drinking is an increasingly common behavior among teenagers that induces long-lasting neurobehavioral alterations in adulthood. An early history of EtOH abuse during adolescence is highly correlated with cocaine addiction in adulthood. Abstinence of cocaine abuse can cause psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, psychosis, depression, and cognitive impairments. This study assessed the consequences of adolescent exposure to EtOH on the behavioral alterations promoted by cocaine withdrawal in adulthood. Methods We pretreated juvenile (34-47 days old) or adult (68-81 days old) mice with EtOH (1.25 g/kg) following a binge-drinking pattern. Then, after a three-week…
Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
2013
Numerous sex-related morphological adaptations are connected to reproductive behavior in animals. For example, females of some insect species can submerge during oviposition, which may lead to sex-related adaptations in the hydrophobicity (water-repellency) due to specialization of certain morphological structures. On the other hand, ageing can cause changes in hydrophobicity of the surface, because the morphological structures can wear with age. Here, we investigated sex-and age-related differences in wing hydrophobicity and in morphology (spine density, wax cover characteristics, size of females' pseudopterostigma) potentially related to hydrophobicity of Calopteryx splendens damselflies.…
Personality may confound common measures of mate-choice.
2011
5 pages; International audience; The measurement of female mating preferences is central to the study of the evolution of male ornaments. Although several different methods have been developed to assess sexual preference in some standardized way, the most commonly used procedure consists of recording female spatial association with different males presented simultaneously. Sexual preference is then inferred from time spent in front of each male. However, the extent to which the measurement of female mate-choice is related to exploration tendencies has not been addressed so far. In the present study we assessed the influence of variation in exploration tendencies, a trait closely associated …