Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Behavior and Ethology
Linking Predator Responses to Alkaloid Variability in Poison Frogs
Published: 2022-09-21
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Zoology
Many chemically-defended/aposematic species rely on diet for sequestering the toxins with which they defend themselves. This dietary acquisition can lead to variable chemical defenses across space, as the community composition of chemical sources is likely to vary across the range of (an aposematic) species. We characterized the alkaloid content of two populations of the Dyeing Poison Frog [...]
Foraging Efficiency and the Importance of Knowledge in Pemba, Tanzania: Implications for Childhood Evolution.
Published: 2022-09-12
Subjects: Anthropology, Behavior and Ethology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Childhood is a period of life unique to humans. Childhood may have evolved through the need to acquire knowledge and subsistence skills. In an attempt to evaluate the importance of learning for the evolution of childhood, previous research examined the increase with age of returns to foraging across various resources. Any increase could be due to increases in knowledge or other factors such as [...]
Bayesian reinforcement learning models reveal how great-tailed grackles improve their behavioral flexibility in serial reversal learning experiments
Published: 2022-08-11
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Environments can change suddenly and unpredictably and animals might benefit from being able to flexibly adapt their behavior through learning new associations. Serial (repeated) reversal learning experiments have long been used to investigate differences in behavioral flexibility among individuals and species. In these experiments, individuals initially learn that a reward is associated with a [...]
Repeatability of performance within and across contexts measuring behavioral flexibility
Published: 2022-08-10
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Research into animal cognitive abilities is increasing quickly and often uses methods where behavioral performance on a task is assumed to represent variation in the underlying cognitive trait. However, because these methods rely on behavioral responses as a proxy for cognitive ability, it is important to validate that the task structure does, in fact, target the cognitive trait of interest [...]
Female preferences for higher vocal effort in Neotropical singing mice
Published: 2022-07-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Despite the importance of vocalizations in mammalian sociosexual communication, little is known about female preferences for male vocal displays in wild mammals. Here, we characterized female preferences for the advertisement songs of male Alston’s singing mice (Scotinomys teguina). We developed procedures for inducing estrus, using vaginal morphology as a bioindicator. We then broadcasted [...]
Generation and applications of simulated datasets to integrate social network and demographic analyses
Published: 2022-07-27
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Social networks are tied to population dynamics; interactions are driven by population density and demographic structure, while social relationships can be key determinants of survival and reproductive success. However, difficulties integrating models used in demography and network analysis have limited research at this interface. We introduce the R package genNetDem for simulating integrated [...]
Social manipulations trigger shifts in group-level dominance patterns
Published: 2022-07-20
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Within dynamic social systems, individuals are expected to change how they interact with each other over time. This social plasticity is critical to understand in groups with dominance hierarchies, where changes in aggression patterns could alter the characteristics of the hierarchy. However, whether changes in individual aggression decisions can alter characteristics of group-level dominance [...]
Social niche shapes social behavior and cortisol concentrations during adolescence in female guinea pigs
Published: 2022-07-16
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Individualized social niches arise in social groups and are associated with behavior and hormone (e.g. cortisol) concentrations. During sensitive life phases, social interactions can have a profound impact on the development of social behavior. Focusing on adolescence, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the social niche, social behavior, and cortisol concentrations (baseline and [...]
The effect of experimental hybridization on cognition and brain anatomy: limited phenotypic variation and transgression in Poeciliidae
Published: 2022-06-24
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Hybridization can promote phenotypic variation and often produces trait combinations distinct from the parental species. This increase in available variation can lead to the manifestation of functional novelty when new phenotypes bear adaptive value under the environmental conditions in which they occur. While the role of hybridization as a driver of variation and novelty in traits linked to [...]
The Evolution of Peace
Published: 2022-06-02
Subjects: Anthropology, Behavior and Ethology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology
While some species have affiliative and even cooperative interactions between individuals of different social groups, humans are alone in having durable, positive-sum, interdependent relationships across unrelated social groups. Our capacity to have harmonious relationships that cross group boundaries is an important aspect of our species’ success, allowing for the exchange of ideas, materials, [...]
Perturbations highlight importance of social history in parakeet rank dynamics
Published: 2022-06-01
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Dominance hierarchies can provide many benefits to individuals, such as access to resources or mates, depending on their ranks. In some species, rank can emerge as a product of the history of social interactions within a group. However, it can be difficult to determine whether social history is critical to rank in observation-based studies. Here, we investigated rank dynamics in three captive [...]
The role of climate change and niche shifts in divergent range dynamics of a sister-species pair
Published: 2022-05-25
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Species ranges are set by limitations in factors including climate tolerances, habitat use, and dispersal abilities. Understanding the factors governing species range dynamics remains a challenge that is ever more important in our rapidly changing world. Species ranges can shift if environmental changes affect available habitat, or if the niche or habitat connectivity of a species changes. We [...]
One hand washes the other: cooperation and conflict in hygiene and immunity
Published: 2022-05-25
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In humans and wild animals, pathogens impose costs on both the individual and the social group as a whole. To minimise these costs, group-living species have evolved many hygienic and immune traits that benefit from cooperation between individuals, thereby subjecting them to the laws of social evolution. Such social contracts include reciprocal grooming, altruistic self-isolation, spiteful [...]
Within-colony segregation of foraging areas: from patterns to processes
Published: 2022-05-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Spatial segregation of foraging areas among conspecifics breeding in different colonies has been observed in several colonial vertebrates and is assumed to originate from competition and information use. Segregation between sub-groups of foraging animals from the same colony (hereafter sub-colonies) has comparatively received limited attention, even though it may have strong impacts on colony [...]
A Systematic Map of Research Exploring the Ecological Modifiers and Consequences of Bark Damaging Behaviour in Squirrel Species
Published: 2022-05-17
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Zoology
Bark-stripping and browsing by mammals in woodlands can cause widespread damage to trees, inhibiting tree growth and leading to whole tree or canopy death. Sciurid species worldwide are known to incorporate inner bark or cambium tissue into their diets, and outer bark can additionally be used as nesting material. The drivers and causes of bark-stripping behaviour have been investigated and [...]