Showing papers in "Animal Behaviour in 2005"

TL;DR: In this paper, the basic assumptions underlying one-factor ANCOVA analysis are discussed and the same general problem applies to all linear models with one or more covariates, including generalized linear models (GLIM) such as logistic regressions and even survival analysis.

TL;DR: The authors investigated the formation and function of the multilevelled, fission-fusion social structure in a free-ranging African elephant, Loxodonta africana, population.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors manipulated the fundamental frequencies and apparent vocal tract lengths of young adult male voices, both independently and simultaneously, and assessed their impact on female ratings of masculinity, size, age and attractiveness.

TL;DR: Fish from high- and low-predation regions within four streams that run independently into the Panama Canal were tested and boldness scores were strongly influenced by standard length and the relative level of predation pressure in the rivers.

TL;DR: This paper investigated whether domestic goats can use the gaze direction of a conspecific as a cue to find food and found that they were able to do this at a level comparable to that of primates.

TL;DR: It was found that elk herd size increased as distance to protective cover increased, which suggests that aggregation far from cover on days that wolves were absent was a foraging response, rather than an antipredator response.

TL;DR: A longitudinal study on great tits from two lines bidirectionally selected for fast or slow exploratory performance during the juvenile phase, a trait thought to reflect different personalities, concludes that behavioural differences were stable over time and extended to other situations.

TL;DR: A demonstration of a robust association between reduced lipid stores and the transition to foraging suggests that worker nutritional state may be involved in the regulation of division of labour in honeybee colonies.

TL;DR: A characteristic selective responsiveness to the owner in young dogs, similar to that observed in adults, is found, which supports the view that puppies show patterns of attachment towards their owners.

TL;DR: It is argued that whole-brain or ‘blackout’ sleep may be the safest way to sleep given a functionally interconnected brain, and a conceptual model of sleep architecture is outlined in which dynamic changes in sleep states reflect a trade-off between the benefits of reducing a sleep debt and the cost of predation.

TL;DR: Evidence is supported that aggregation relies on mechanisms of amplification, supported by interactions between individuals that follow simple rules based on local information and without knowledge of the global structure.

TL;DR: It is made the observation that the other major groups of animal pigments, including melanin, pterins, porphyrins, psittacofulvins and flavonoids, also exhibit antioxidant activity in living systems and many types of pigment-based colour ornaments in animals have the potential to honestly reveal health state via the immunomodulatory action of the pigments themselves.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors formalize the degree of interdependence by defining an individual's "stake" in another as the dependence of its fitness on that of the other.

TL;DR: The results suggest that minnows learn to respond more intensely to predation cues associated with high risk, as well as showing adaptive antipredator behaviour through cultural transmission.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that whole-brain or "blackout" sleep may be the safest way to sleep given a functionally interconnected brain, and also outline a conceptual model of sleep architecture in which dynamic changes in sleep states reflect a trade-off between the benefits of reducing a sleep debt and the cost of predation.

TL;DR: This study isolated the effect of predator distance on alarm call design, and showed that individuals respond appropriately to calls in the absence of any other cues, the most explicit demonstration that avian flee alarm calls can convey urgency.

TL;DR: This study investigated how the superior hearing ability of mammalian prey has shaped the vocal behaviour of the transient killer whale ecotype and recorded pulsed calls and the associated behavioural context of groups of transient and resident killer whales in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska.

TL;DR: The pay-to-stay hypothesis as discussed by the authors proposes that subordinate group members help dominants in order to be tolerated in the territory and that helpers should be punished if they are not helping sufficiently and should increase helping behaviour thereafter.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the position of an individual in the shy–bold continua might reflect its optimal antipredator behaviour, which would be a function of its health, general quality and ability to evade predators.

TL;DR: It is suggested that both the differential response by males and females to mate removal and the lack of a fitness effect of mate removal reflected the sex difference in the involvement in care before removal.

TL;DR: This work investigates the effects of both density and operational sex ratio on male territoriality and female oviposition in the zebrafish and proposes that this response, whereby males constrain courtship in the presence of potential rivals, may be adaptive in the context of sperm competition avoidance.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the consistency of behaviour over repeated tests in dogs, Canis familiaris, and found significant correlations over the test series in all the specific traits as well as in the Boldness dimension.

TL;DR: Young females successfully termite-fished an average of 27 months earlier than young males and were more proficient at the skill after acquisition had occurred, suggesting that the process by which termite fishing is learned differs for male and female chimpanzees.

TL;DR: In the case of no preference or avoidance, the distributions of the standard deviation of association indexes, or any other suitable test statistic, are not analytically tractable under the null hypothesis as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: This work focused on the individually distinctive calls of yellow-bellied marmots, Marmota flaviventris, to describe attributes of individuals encoded in calls, and found significant potential information about identity, age and sex encode in calls.

TL;DR: Colonies of the ant Temnothorax (formerly LeptothorAX) albipennis can collectively choose the best of several nest sites, even when many of the active ants who organize the move visit only one site.

TL;DR: The Paradoxes of Play as discussed by the authors explores the question of when play started in the non-human animal kingdom and finds that play is defined as a behavior that satisfies the following conditions:

TL;DR: Modelling work is presented, and it is suggested that in U. mjoebergi individual cost thresholds may determine duration, but that larger opponents may inflict those costs more rapidly, consistent with the cumulative assessment game of animal conflict.

TL;DR: Male wolf spider Schizocosa ocreata clearly possess the ability to assess reproductive status as well as age-related potential receptivity of conspecific females based on cues associated with silk.