Animal behavior : new research

240 Pages·2008·6.419 MB·English

by  Emilie A Weber, Lara H Krause

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: NEW RESEARCH

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ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: NEW RESEARCH

EMILIE A. WEBER
AND
LARA H. KRAUSE
EDITORS

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 2008 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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Animal behavior : new research / Emilie A. Weber and Lara H. Krause (editors).
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-61122-949-3 (eBook)

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York
CONTENTS

Preface vii
Chapter 1 Sexual Selection, Mate Choice, and Primate Preferences 1
Jack A. F. Griffey and Anthony C. Little
Chapter 2 Female Mate Choice in Non-human Mammals 35
Benjamin D. Charlton
Chapter 3 Partition Test and Sexual Motivation in Male Mice 57
N. N. Kudryavtseva
Chapter 4 Gaze Following in Non-human Animals:
The Corvid Example 73
Christian Schloegl, Judith Schmidt,Christelle Scheid,
Kurt Kotrschal and Thomas Bugnyar
Chapter 5 How Different Host Species Influence Parasitism
Patterns and Larval Competition of Acoustically-
Orienting Parasitoid Flies (Tachinidae: Ormiini) 93
Gerlind U. C. Lehmann
Chapter 6 Insights into the Acoustic Behaviour of Polar Pinnnipeds –
Current Knowledge and Emerging Techniques of Study 133
Ilse Van Opzeeland, Lars Kindermann,
Olaf Boebel and Sofie Van Parijs
Chapter 7 Food Hoarding in the New Zealand Robin:
A Review and Synthesis 163
Ignatius J. Menzies and K. C. Burns
Chapter 8 Discriminative Learning, Learning Generalization
and Masking Tests as Three Strategies to
Assess Olfactory Discrimination 185
Julien Colomb
vi Contents
Chapter 9 Constraints and the Evolution of Mutual Ornamentation 193
Ken Kraaijeveld and Barbara M. Reumer
Index 215
PREFACE

This new book is devoted to recent research on animal behavior which relates to what an
animal does and why it does it. The types of behaviors exhibited are rich and various. Some
are genetically determined, or instinctive, while others are learned behaviors. The desire to
understand the animal world has made ethology a rapidly growing field, and since the turn of
the 21st century, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as animal
communication, personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and learning,
and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood, have been revolutionized.
Chapter 1 - Mate choice and the preferences that many animals display when selecting
potential mates are, as Kokko et al. (2003) explain, incredibly important evolutionary
processes which impose selection upon the opposite sex and are accountable for a vast array
of spectacular ornaments and characteristics that remain inexplicable via natural selection
alone. Consequently, due to the evolutionary importance of mate choice and perhaps, as
Bateson (1983) suggests, the renewed vitality of areas such as evolutionary and population
biology, since the 1970s sexual selection and its implications for mate choice have
experienced a rapid revival in interest. Based upon a number of major theoretical insights and
empirical findings there has been a growing interest in the mating preferences of animals to
the point where mate choice and sexual selection have been two of the most active disciplines
of scientific research within behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology.
Chapter 2 - Until now definite studies of mate choice have typically focused on non-
mammal animal species where short life spans and gestation periods make reproductive
success quicker to determine, and in which the females show preferences for clearly defined
morphological or behavioural male traits. Mammals, which are invariably larger, have longer
life spans and inter-birth intervals and are behaviourally more complex, are less suited to this
type of experimentation. However, notwithstanding these difficulties, many studies of mate
choice have been conducted on mammals and the current literature reveals that the females of
several mammal species do appear to choose their mates, and through this potentially gain
important direct and indirect fitness benefits. Here the author reviews this body of work to
reveal that the majority of female mammal mate choice studies conducted so far, particularly
on large mammals, fail to: 1) determine the actual male phenotypic trait (s) of female
preference (which is crucial to identifying male characteristics under sexual selection); 2)
Take into account other environmental and social factors that may affect female response to
male roars, as well as intrinsic factors such as female hormonal state and breeding status; and
3) quantify the fitness benefits to discriminating females. The author goes on to give
viii Emilie A. Weber and Lara H. Krause
suggestions for future research and emphasise the need for a combination of carefully
designed experimental and field studies. Experimental setups allow us isolate specific male
traits from other aspects of the male phenotype, determine female hormonal state and control
for other competing male and female mating strategies that may affect female behaviour.
Field observations of female mating behaviour can then be conducted to determine whether
behavioural responses reported using experimental setups translate to actual copulations in
natural conditions, and hence affect the reproductive success of individuals. Only this
integrative approach will allow us to gain an appreciation of how inter-sexual selection is
generated on specific aspects of the male phenotype, and ultimately enable us to understand
the link between mating preferences, female mate choice and reproductive success in
mammals.
Chapter 3 - Theoretical analysis of own and literature investigations of sexual motivation
with the use of the partition test [Kudryavtseva, 1987, 1994] in male mice was carried out. It
has been shown that appearance of a receptive female in the neighboring compartment of
common cage separated by perforated transparent partition produces the enhancement of
testosterone level in blood and stimulates the behavioral activity near partition as a reaction to
the receptive female in naive males. In many studies this behavioral activity is considered as
sexual motivation, arising in this experimental context in male mice. The lack of correlation
between behavioral parameters and gonad reaction of males on receptive female,
uninterconnected changes of these two parameters as well as the lack of sexual behavior
between naive male and female when partition is removed cast doubt on this data
interpretation. It has been supposed that in naive males behavioral reaction to a receptive
female is induced by positive incentive – odor of the female associated with nursing and
warmth from mother and other females which look after posterity. Short-term increase of the
level of testosterone (possessing rewarding properties) is innate stimulus-response reaction
which stimulates and prolongs behavioral interest of male to receptive female. It has been
supposed that after sexual experience female odor is associated in experienced males with
sexual behavior directed to the sexual partner and resulted in the formation of sexual
motivation. The data are considered also in the light of the theory of motivated behavior
including ―liking‖, ―wanting‖ and ―learning‖ [Robinson and Berridge, 1993, 2000].
Chapter 4 - By definition, following others‘ gaze occurs, if an individual shifts its
attention towards the visual focus of others. Originally considered to be an unique human
skill, this view has been challenged by pioneering work of Povinelli & Eddy (1996), who
showed gaze following abilities in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Since then, many
mammalian species have been found to use others‘ gaze as a source of information with apes
being capable to follow gaze geometrically behind visual barriers. This suggests that they
may even understand how barriers impair their own visual perception. Taken together, the
data suggest that the use of gaze cues may represent an important skill to obtain information
in social mammals. However, hardly anything is known about such skills in non-mammalian
species, rendering the evolutionary history of gaze following unclear.
With respect to birds,the authors‘ knowledge is limited to a single species, the common
raven (Corvus corax). In order to gain an evolutionary perspective, the authors here present
data on two closely related corvids, rooks (C. frugilegus) and jackdaws (C. monedula). As
ravens, the food-caching rooks appear to be capable of following others‘ gaze behind barriers;
additionally, the temporal pattern of the ontogenetic development of gaze following is similar
in both species. In contrast, the authors found no evidence that the non-caching jackdaws
Preface ix
follow human gaze, but have some indication that they may follow conspecifics‘ gaze. An
understanding of barriers, however, could not be demonstrated in jackdaws. These findings
support the idea that geometrical gaze following and gaze following into distant space might
serve different functions. The authors suggest that gaze following into distant space may
primarily reflect an anti-predator response, whereas geometrical gaze following skills may
have developed to protect food caches from scroungers. Finally, the authors will discuss
alternative explanations and will present an outline for potential future research.
Chapter 5 - Sexual signals are often critical for mate attraction and reproduction but their
conspicuousness can expose the signallers to parasites and predators. In orthopteran insects
males typically produce acoustic signals to attract females for mating. Tachinid flies of the
family Ormiini act as illicit receivers by detecting the mating songs of their bushcricket and
gryllid hosts. Ormiini flies can be characterised as opportunistic hunters; the taxonomic
specificity of these flies is moderately low and they can have a range of alternative hosts.
This chapter is in two parts. In the first the author quantify the influence host species has
on body size and life history traits of different populations of Therobia leonidei, the only
European Ormiini fly species. For parasitoids host size can constrain offspring growth,
subsequently influencing the evolution of body size and life history traits. The author
compared fly populations developing in two hosts: Poecilimon mariannae and in the lighter
P. thessalicus. The fly populations investigated had no substantial morphological or
molecular-genetic differences. The general pattern of larval competition was similar in both
hosts; increasing parasitoid brood size reduced pupal weight and survival to adulthood.
Consistent with a local adaptation hypothesis, pupal weight in the heavier host was about
30% heavier than are those parasitizing the lighter host. Similarly, the critical weight
necessary for successful hatching of fly maggots was significantly lower in the lighter host. In
contrast, brood size was similar between host species.
In the second part the author reviews studies of gryllid and tettigoniid parasitizing
Ormiini flies. The general pattern of host usage for temperate species is quite similar, with
pupae from single infected hosts weighing around 10 percent of host weight. One remarkable
exception is the Australian Homotrixa alleni, a very large fly that parasitizes extremely heavy
bushcricket species. In this fly species single pupa weigh less than four percent of host
weight, leading to higher mean parasitoid clutch sizes. Coupled to this reduced parasitoid-to-
host weight ratio is prolonged host survival and an increase in the probability of
superparasitism.
Chapter 6 - This chapter will provide a review of the acoustic behaviour of polar
pinnipeds. It will also present a detailed update of new and emerging passive acoustic
technologies and how these can further the study of behaviour for polar marine mammals.
Both Arctic and Antarctic pinnipeds are known to exhibit a range of adaptations which
enable them to survive and reproduce in an ice-dominated environment. However, large gaps
still exist in our understanding of the fundamental ecology of these species, as investigations
are severely hampered by the animals‘ inaccessibility. Improving our understanding of ice-
breeding species and the effects that changes in habitat might have on their behaviour is vital,
as current climatic trends are rapidly altering the polar environments.
For pinnipeds, acoustic communication is known to play an important role in various
aspects of their behaviour. Mother-pup reunions and the establishment of underwater
territories during the mating season are examples which, for the majority of species, are
known to be mediated by vocal signalling. Acoustic measurements therefore provide an