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25 records returned

Relative Abundance of Xiphophorus Fishes and Its Effect on Sexual CommunicationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As major river drainages separated and stream capture occurred, some populations of Xiphophorus fishes became geographically isolated from one another, while others came into contact with new Xiphophorus species. Sexual communication and mechanisms of reproductive isolation were likely influenced by the variation in community structure each population experienced. One swordtail species, Xiphophorus birchmanni, occurs both in streams where other Xiphophorus species are rare, or more typically with large populations of congeners. Using the X. birchmanni system, we tested the theory that species recognition should be favored ...
Source: Ethology - November 3, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Heidi S. Fisher, Gil G. Rosenthal Source Type: journals

Mate Choice for Genetic Benefits: Time to Put the Pieces TogetherEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It is thought that mate choice allows individuals to obtain genetic benefits for their offspring, and although many studies have found some support for this hypothesis, several critical questions remain unresolved. One main problem is that empirical studies on mate choice and genetic benefits have been rather piecemeal. Some studies (1) aimed to test how mate choice affects offspring fitness, but have not examined whether the benefits are because of genetic effects. Other studies tested whether mate choice provides (2) additive or (3) non-additive genetic benefits and only a few studies (4) considered these genetic effects...
Source: Ethology - November 2, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Attila Hettyey, Gergely Hegyi, Mikael Puurtinen, Herbert Hoi, János Török, Dustin J. Penn Source Type: journals

Socio-Spatial Relationships in Dairy CowsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Farm animals may serve as models for evaluating social networks in a controlled environment. We used an automated system to track, at fine temporal and spatial resolution (once per minute, ±50 cm) every individual in six herds of dairy cows (Bos taurus). We then analysed the data using social network analyses. Relationships were based on non-random attachment and avoidance relationships in respect to synchronous use and distances observed in three different functional areas (activity, feeding and lying). We found that neither synchrony nor distance between cows was strongly predictable among the three functional areas. Th...
Source: Ethology - November 2, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Lorenz Gygax, Gesa Neisen, Beat Wechsler Source Type: journals

Age Affects Over-Marking of Opposite-Sex Scent Marks in Meadow Voles, Microtus pennsylvanicusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Models of age-related effects on behavior predict that among short-lived species younger adults are more attractive and attracted to opposite-sex conspecifics than are older adults, whereas the converse is predicted for long-lived species. Although most studies of age-related effects on behavior support these predictions, they are not supported by many studies of scent marking, a behavior used in mate attraction. Over-marking, a form of scent marking, is a tactic used by many terrestrial mammals to convey information about themselves to opposite-sex conspecifics. The present study tested the hypothesis that the age of mead...
Source: Ethology - November 2, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Michael H. Ferkin Source Type: journals

Independence of Sexual and Anti-Predator Perceptual Functions in an Acoustic Moth: Implications for the Receiver Bias Mechanism in Signal EvolutionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The receiver bias model for the evolution of mating signals proposes that selection favors male displays that happen to stimulate a general, ancestral perception in females such that receptivity and successful courtship increase. If these male signals do arise, however, the female perception will operate in two contexts, the original, typically non-sexual, one and courtship. We may then ask whether these two functions represent the same or distinct traits, which may be under separate neural and genetic control. We studied this question in Achroia grisella, a pyralid moth species in which males attract females, with an ultr...
Source: Ethology - October 19, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Michael D. Greenfield, Hannah Hohendorf Source Type: journals

Male Performance and Body Size Affect Female Re-Mating Occurrence in the Orb-Web Spider Leucauge mariana (Araneae, Tetragnathidae)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Females can affect male probabilities of paternity success through behavioural, morphological and/or physiological processes occurring during or after copulation. These processes under female-control include the acceptance or rejection of mating attempts by subsequent males. Leucauge mariana is an orb weaving spider that shows male mate guarding of penultimate females, male[ndash]male competition on female webs and copulatory plugs, suggesting a polyandric mating system. The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether male behaviour during courtship and copulation in L. mariana relate with female re-mating decisions....
Source: Ethology - October 12, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Anita Aisenberg Source Type: journals

Complex Dynamics Based on a Quorum: Decision-Making Process by Cockroaches in a Patchy EnvironmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study on the cockroach species Periplaneta americana highlights a shelter-selection mechanism based on an amplification process resulting from the interactions between congeners. This mechanism leads to complex spatiotemporal aggregation dynamics characterized by transient bimodality, bifurcation patterns (shelter selection) and the existence of a quorum size in the settlement behaviour of the cockroaches. Finally, we discuss the generic aspect for other gregarious species of the collective decision-making process demonstrated for cockroaches. (Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - October 11, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Grégory Sempo, Stéphane Canonge, Claire Detrain, Jean-Louis Deneubourg Source Type: journals

ART for ART's SakeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - October 11, 2009 Category: Zoology Source Type: journals

Food Color Preferences of Molting House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) in Relation to Sex and Plumage ColorationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Food color can be indicative of specific nutrients, and thus discrimination based on color can be a valuable foraging behavior. Several bird and fish species with carotenoid-based body ornamentation show color preferences for presumably carotenoid-rich red and orange foods. However, little is known within species about whether or not individuals with (or growing) more colorful ornaments show stronger food-color preferences than those with drabber coloration. Here, we examine food color preferences in house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) [ndash] a species with sexually dichromatic and selected carotenoid coloration [ndash] ...
Source: Ethology - September 14, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Ana L. Bascuñán, Elizabeth A. Tourville, Matthew B. Toomey, Kevin J. McGraw Source Type: journals

Melanin-based Feather Colour and Moulting Latitude in a Migratory SongbirdEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined the hypothesis that individuals moulting during migration produce relatively dull feathers compared to individuals moulting on the breeding grounds prior to migration because of the costs associated with overlapping these two activities. We estimated both the colour and moulting latitude of melanin-based feathers in barn swallows (Hirundo rustica). Moulting latitude was inferred from stable-hydrogen isotope ([delta]D) values of individuals that were known to have bred at the same site the previous year. Contrary to expectations, [delta]D values in feathers suggested that most, if not all, individuals moulted th...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: D. Ryan Norris, Oddmund Kleven, Arild Johnsen, T. Kurt Kyser Source Type: journals

The Sound of Arousal: The Addition of Novel Non-linearities Increases Responsiveness in Marmot Alarm CallsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Vocal structure should reflect vocal function. While much attention has focused on quantifying attributes of harmonic vocalizations, the vocalizations of many species also may contain non-linear phenomena such as warbles, subharmonics, biphonation, and deterministic chaos or noise. The function of these non-linearities remains enigmatic. In some species, harmonic vocalizations abruptly become 'noisy' when individuals are physiologically aroused and the sudden onset of these non-linearities could signal arousal or fear to receivers. One untested functional hypothesis is that vocalizations containing non-linearities are more...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Daniel T. Blumstein, Charlotte Récapet Source Type: journals

Diversity of the Vocal Signals of Concave-Eared Torrent Frogs (Odorrana tormota): Evidence for Individual SignaturesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Male concave-eared torrent frogs (Odorrana tormota) have an unusually large call repertoire and have been shown to communicate ultrasonically. We investigated the individual specificity of male advertisement calls in order to explore the acoustic bases of individual recognition, which was demonstrated in an accompanying study. Vocalizations of 15 marked males were recorded in the field. A quantitative analysis of the signals revealed eight basic call-types. Two of them (the single- and multi-note long-calls) were investigated in more detail. Long-calls were characterized by pronounced and varying frequency modulation patte...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Albert S. Feng, Tobias Riede, Victoria S. Arch, Zulin Yu, Zhi-Min Xu, Xin-Jian Yu, Jun-Xian Shen Source Type: journals

Diverging Cave- and River-Dwelling Newts Exert the Same Mate Preference in their Native Light ConditionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When colonizing a new habitat, populations must adapt their sexual behaviour to new ecological constraints. Because caves display drastically different conditions from surface habitats and cave animals are deprived from visual information, hypogean populations are expected to have modified their mate preference and signalling behaviour after cave colonization. Here, we experimentally examined the female preference and the sexual behaviour of brook newts Calotriton asper from different cave and river populations, either in light or in darkness. Our results suggest that females prefer large individuals in both hypogean and e...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Amélie N. Dreiss, Olivier Guillaume, Jean Clobert Source Type: journals

Antipredator Responses by Native Mosquitofish to Non-Native Cichlids: An Examination of the Role of Prey NaivetéEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this study, we tested this notion by examining the antipredator response of native mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki, to two non-native predators found in the Everglades, the African jewelfish, Hemichromis letourneuxi, and the Mayan cichlid, Cichlasoma urophthalmus. We manipulated prey naiveté by using two mosquitofish populations that varied in their experience with the recent invader, the African jewelfish, but had similar levels of experience with the longer-established Mayan cichlid. Specifically, we tested these predictions: (1) predator hunting modes differed between the two predators, (2) predation rates would be...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Jennifer S. Rehage, Katherine L. Dunlop, William F. Loftus Source Type: journals

Facultative Adjustment of Brood Sex Ratio in Response to Indirect Manipulation of BehaviourEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Sex allocation theory states that parents should adjust their offspring sex ratio according to the expected fitness returns from sons and daughters. Several recent studies indicate that such adaptive manipulation of offspring sex ratio is achievable, and that it may be influenced by e.g. morphological characters. Here we manipulate behaviour through interspecific cross-fostering of great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), and investigate its effect on the offspring sex ratio of adults that were themselves cross-fostered as chicks. The experience of being raised by a different species has previously bee...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Lars Erik Johannessen, Lena Kristiansen, Bo Terning Hansen, Tore Slagsvold Source Type: journals

Selective Prey Delivery to Incubating Females by Dominant Males, but not Helpers, in the Cooperatively Breeding Green WoodhoopoeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In cooperatively breeding bird species, one of the most conspicuous helping behaviours is the provisioning of food. Many studies have considered the feeding of nestlings, but far fewer have examined feeding of incubating females, and none have looked at the types of prey delivered at this stage. Here I show that green woodhoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) group members selectively feed incubating females with certain prey items: the diet delivered to incubating females contains a higher proportion of caterpillars, centipedes and cockroaches than that eaten by the provisioning adults themselves. The prey items selectively deli...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Andrew N. Radford Source Type: journals

Colony Budding and its Effects on Food Allocation in the Highly Polygynous Ant, Monomorium pharaonisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
To advance our understanding of the causes and the consequences of budding (colony multiplication by fragmentation of main nests), we investigated nest movement in the facultatively polydomous Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis. Demographic data revealed that Pharaoh ants are highly polygynous and have a relatively low worker to queen ratio of 12.86. Budding experiments demonstrated that the number of available bud nests has a significant effect on colony fragmentation and increasing the number of bud nests resulted in smaller colony fragments. The overall distribution among bud nests was uneven, even though there was no ev...
Source: Ethology - September 13, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Grzegorz Buczkowski, Gary Bennett Source Type: journals

Effects of Predation Threat on the Structure and Benefits from Vacancy Chains in the Hermit Crab Pagurus bernhardusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Vacancy chains occur when individuals occupy discrete re-useable resource units, which once abandoned by the current owner can then be occupied by a new owner. In order to enter the newly vacated resource the new owner must first vacate its current resource unit, such that a vacancy chain consists of a series of linked moves between resource units of different value, equivalent to different 'strata' in the chain. Vacancy chains may represent an important route by which resources are distributed through populations. Indeed, the arrival of a new resource has the potential to initiate a series of moves propagating beyond the ...
Source: Ethology - August 26, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Mark Briffa, Mark Austin Source Type: journals

Context-Related Variation in the Vocal Growling Behaviour of the Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We investigated whether the growls of domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, exhibit predictable variations in a range of key acoustic parameters when they are given in two contrasting experimental contexts, and whether humans are sensitive to such variation. In a standardized experimental paradigm, an experimenter visited 32 domestic dogs and generated an aggression context and a play context. In these contexts, 204 isolated growls were recorded and subsequently acoustically analysed. Contrary to previous findings on barks, fundamental and formant frequencies of growls did not vary between the two contexts. However, growls from...
Source: Ethology - July 28, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Anna M. Taylor, David Reby, Karen McComb Source Type: journals

Female Barn Swallows Gain Indirect but not Direct Benefits through Social Mate ChoiceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined a breeding population of Japanese barn swallows Hirundo rustica gutturalis to determine whether male tail streamer length reflected indirect and/or direct benefits to females. There was no significant positive relationship between male streamer length and the number of extra-pair young (EPY) sired, suggesting that male tail streamers are not a signal of indirect benefits (i.e. good genes theory). In addition, we found no evidence that males with longer streamers fed their offspring more frequently or sired more within-pair young (WPY). The result indicates that male streamer length probably does not act as a si...
Source: Ethology - July 27, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Wataru Kojima, Wataru Kitamura, Sachie Kitajima, Yoko Ito, Keisuke Ueda, Go Fujita, Hiroyoshi Higuchi Source Type: journals

Eavesdropping on the Neighbourhood: Collared Pika (Ochotona collaris) Responses to Playback Calls of Conspecifics and HeterospecificsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The acoustic environment, composed in part by the vocalizations of sympatric animals, is a major source of information and can be used to fine-tune behavioural decisions. Active assessment of alarm calls within and between mammal species is not fully understood. We explored the behavioural responses of collared pikas to con- and heterospecific vocalizations, in order to determine whether they selectively attend to these calls. Pikas increased their vigilance after playback of alarm calls of heterospecific mammals (marmots and ground squirrels), but responded most strongly to conspecific calls. While responses to playback c...
Source: Ethology - July 27, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Sarah A. Trefry, David S. Hik Source Type: journals

Duets in Yellow-Naped Amazons: Variation in Syntax, Note Composition and Phonology at Different Levels of Social OrganizationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined geographic variation in the pair duets of yellow-naped amazons, Amazona auropalliata, at five sites within one vocal dialect. We also examined variation at several levels of social organization, including within pairs, among pairs and among sites, to assess where variability was greatest. Variation was highest at the within-pair level, although variation was also present at all other levels and for all of the duet factors. We hypothesize that variation at the among-site level allows duets to indicate site membership, while variation at the within-pair level allows pairs to change their duet to match their curre...
Source: Ethology - June 24, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Christine R. Dahlin, Timothy F. Wright Source Type: journals

Singing in the BrainEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - June 2, 2009 Category: Zoology Source Type: journals

Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Male Scent Marks in the Polygynous Greater Sac-Winged BatEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Scent marks are relatively long-lived signals that can be perceived by conspecifics when the producer is absent. Therefore, it is often not obvious to whom the signal is directed. In daytime roosts of the polygynous greater sac-winged bat, males scent mark territories with facial gland secretions. Territories are a valuable resource for males, as they offer exclusive courtship opportunities, which results in increased male reproductive success and, consequently, increased male[ndash]male competition over territories. The information encoded in male scent marks could, therefore, be either directed at females as part of an o...
Source: Ethology - May 27, 2009 Category: Zoology Authors: Barbara A. Caspers, Christian C. Voigt Source Type: journals

Four noble questionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Ethology)
Source: Ethology - May 6, 2009 Category: Zoology Source Type: journals