Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Behavior and Ethology
The gene’s-eye view of culture
Published: 2023-11-24
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Covariance reaction norms: A flexible approach to estimating continuous environmental effects on quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances
Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology
Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances plays a crucial role in investigating key evolutionary ecological phenomena, such as developmental integration, life history tradeoffs, and niche specialization, as well as in describing selection and predicting multivariate evolution in the wild. While most studies assume (co)variances are fixed over short timescales, environmental [...]
Sex-specific associations between social behaviour, its predictability and fitness in a wild lizard
Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology
Social environments impose a number of constraints on individuals’ behaviour. These constraints have been hypothesized to generate behavioural variation among individuals, social responsiveness, and within-individual behavioural consistency (also termed ‘predictability’). In particular, the social niche specialization hypothesis posits that higher levels of competition [...]
Automated tracking of avian parental care behavior
Published: 2023-11-16
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Life Sciences
1. Parental care may be an important source of phenotypic variation for ecological and evolutionary processes. However, it can be difficult to collect and interpret data on parental care behaviors. To address these challenges, we developed a new hardware and software platform for automated behavioral tracking called ABISSMAL (Automated Behavioral Tracking by Integrating Sensors that Survey [...]
Darwin’s road not taken: white sclera, shared intentionality, niche construction, predator fear, teams and Homo origins
Published: 2023-11-04
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Palaeoanthropologists have yet to pinpoint how Homo evolved from Australopithecus. I propose niche construction ending predator ambush and stalking attacks, white sclera, and ultrafast team cognition were key. Human white sclera allows the quick, distant detection of line-of-sight. This is unique. In other primates, predators eliminate conspicuous-eyed individuals. Consequently, nonhuman [...]
Maternal investment and early thermal conditions affect performance and antipredator responses
Published: 2023-10-27
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Exposure to increased temperatures during early development can lead to phenotypic plasticity in morphology, physiology, and behaviour across a range of ectothermic animals. In addition, maternal effects are known to be important contributors to phenotypic variation in offspring. Whether the two factors interact to shape offspring morphology and behaviour has been barely explored. This is [...]
Distribución de anfibios en un bosque urbano tropical en Venezuela: Implicaciones para el manejo de parques urbanos
Published: 2023-10-11
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Zoology
Mundialmente cada vez es más relevante el rol de parques y jardines urbanos en la educación ambiental y valoración de los esfuerzos de conservación. Comprender cuáles factores afectan la calidad del hábitat de los anfibios permite tomar decisiones acertadas para manejar estos espacios, conciliando objetivos recreacionales con los de conservación. Evaluamos la comunidad de anfibios en un sector [...]
The unfulfilled potential of dogs in studying behavioural evolution during the Anthropocene
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Dogs are an exceptional resource for studying ecological, behavioural and evolutionary processes. However, several widespread misconceptions limit our understanding of dog behaviour and inhibit the use of dogs as model study systems in diverse areas of biological science. These include extensive anthropomorphisation of dog behaviour, a profound bias towards almost exclusively studying pet dogs, a [...]
Leadership in Animal Groups: The Interplay between Individual Traits and Coordination Mechanisms
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In social systems, movement of individual group members scales up to spatiotemporal dynamics of the group. However, the level of influence on group movement dynamics can be variable among group members. The influence of an individual is often referred to as their leadership potential. However, despite the common occurrence of leader-follower patterns across various taxa, little is known whether [...]
Recent human-bear conflicts in Northern Italy: a review, with considerations of future perspectives
Published: 2023-07-18
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Zoology
The killing of a runner in Northern Italy by a brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) and the subsequent investigation of such matter highlighted a Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) that has been present in Trentino since the introduction of bears for conservation during the Life Ursus Project. Such conflict may be exacerbated as both human and bear populations get bigger. In this paper, I summarize the [...]
Camtrap DP: An open standard for the FAIR exchange and archiving of camera trap data
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Population Biology
Camera trapping has revolutionized wildlife ecology and conservation by providing automated data acquisition, leading to the accumulation of massive amounts of camera trap data worldwide. Although management and processing of camera trap-derived Big Data are becoming increasingly solvable with the help of scalable cyber-infrastructures, harmonization and exchange of the data remain limited, [...]
Griffon Vultures restrict movements around roosts and supplementary feeding stations, even when carrion is available on the field: a call for wind energy zonation to avoid ecological traps on Mediterranean islands
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Engineering
Wind energy is developing on Mediterranean islands, where endangered populations of Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) occur. As griffons are subjected to collisions with wind turbines while foraging, it is necessary to understand which factors affect their movements, to minimize the potential impact of wind farms. We assessed habitat use by 37 griffons (n. GPS locations = 130,218) and its overlap [...]
The trade-off between vocal learning and dexterity: a balancing act
Published: 2023-05-30
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Behavioral Neurobiology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Uncontroversial evidence of vocal production learning, the capacity to modify vocal output on the basis of experience, is sparsely distributed in the animal kingdom. We suggest that this is in large part due to a trade-off between vocal learning complexity and a much more widely distributed trait—non-vocal dexterity. We argue that given some generally required neural and anatomical conditions for [...]
The Importance of Representative Sampling for Home Range Estimation in Field Primatology
Published: 2023-05-04
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Understanding the amount of space required by animals to fulfill their biological needs is essential for comprehending their behavior, their ecological role within their community, and for effective conservation planning and resource management. Habituated primates are often studied using handheld GPS data, which provides detailed movement information that can link patterns of ranging and [...]
Repeated evolution of extreme locomotor performance independent of changes in extended phenotype use in spiders
Published: 2023-04-25
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Biology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Many animals utilize self-built structures – so-called extended phenotypes – to enhance body functions, such as thermoregulation, prey capture or defence. Yet, it is unclear whether the evolution of animal constructions supplements or substitutes body functions. Here, using Austral brown spiders, we explored if the evolutionary loss and gain of silken webs as extended prey capture devices [...]