Animal Behaviour最新文献

{"title":"Alarm cue properties and euthanasia impact on tadpole antipredator behaviour in Rana temporaria and Bufo bufo","authors":"Konrad Lipkowski,&nbsp;Diana Abondano Almeida,&nbsp;David Wenzel,&nbsp;Lisa Maria Schulte","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chemical cues are crucial for aquatic organisms to assess predation risks, impacting their antipredator mechanisms. Tadpoles, recognized as valuable model organisms, use conspecific alarm cues to modulate their behaviours. However, ethical considerations in chemical communication research often necessitate the use of chemical anaesthetics, potentially disrupting ecologically relevant processes and complicating result interpretation. Furthermore, our understanding of alarm cue characteristics across most anuran species and their potential interactions with chemical anaesthetics remains limited or unexplored. In this study, we examined euthanasia and extract processing techniques on tadpole behaviour in the common toad, <em>Bufo bufo,</em> and common frog, <em>Rana temporaria,</em> to achieve three objectives: investigate alarm cue properties, assess the impact of euthanasia methods on alarm cue effectiveness, and explore anaesthetic interference mechanisms using tricaine and <span>l</span>-arginine. Tadpoles were exposed to various chemical stimuli, including alarm cues extracted via mechanical, hypothermal and chemical euthanasia methods, as well as differently processed crude extracts (formerly frozen, boiled, aged or protein-digested). Additionally, tadpoles were exposed to varying concentrations of <span>l</span>-arginine and tricaine, both individually and in combination. Our results revealed consistent species-specific responses, with <em>R. temporaria</em> tadpoles exhibiting reduced activity in response to alarm cues, while <em>B. bufo</em> tadpoles displayed no behavioural changes. Moreover, we observed significant differences among methods of euthanasia. Tadpoles of <em>R. temporaria</em> responded to processed extracts and <span>l</span>-arginine, indicating the presence of amino acids but not proteinaceous compounds in alarm cues. Finally, divergent species’ responses to <span>l</span>-arginine and tricaine suggest interference within individuals rather than alarm cues. This study enhances our understanding of alarm cue characteristics in tadpoles and underscores the potential species-specific impact of chemical anaesthetics on behavioural responses in aquatic organisms. It underscores the necessity for further research into interference mechanisms and alternative euthanasia methods while emphasizing the importance of comparative studies in comprehending chemical communication in aquatic ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123109"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Freeze or escape? Tadpoles' behavioural decisions based on conspecifics' chemical alarm cues","authors":"Lucas D. Jungblut ,&nbsp;Araceli R. Coceres ,&nbsp;Marilina Raices ,&nbsp;Carola A.M. Yovanovich ,&nbsp;Andrea G. Pozzi","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123127","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123127","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Optimal antipredator strategies are crucial for prey animals to stay safe without sacrificing opportunities for resource exploitation in their environment. Such optimization requires the flexibility to adapt to different predation scenarios, which in turn requires some kind of assessment of the predation risk, pondering trade-offs and selecting some component(s) of a behavioural repertoire to be displayed as responses. For aquatic animals, including amphibian larvae, chemosensory cues tend to be important in detecting danger and eliciting a response to it. However, the extent to which different aspects of chemical cues can be perceived, discriminated, interpreted and used to shape an antipredator response remains unknown. Here, we tackle the problem using tadpoles of the toad <em>Rhinella arenarum</em> as the experimental model. We exposed them to chemical alarm cues in which we manipulated the source, concentration and spatial distribution. Video-tracking individually tested tadpoles allowed us to perform a precise analysis of the antipredator behaviours in <em>R. arenarum</em> larvae, obtaining details of their antipredator strategy that are usually missed when tadpoles are tested in groups or when the analysis is restricted to the general change in activity. The responses included active and passive behaviours, including freezing, fleeing (usually changing their swimming direction) and avoiding areas displayed in specific locations and moments. This suggests that tadpoles can extract different types of information from chemical cues and use it to tune their behavioural outputs. Furthermore, our results show that cue variation in a single sensory modality can be sufficient to modulate opposing antipredator responses, such as freeze and flight behaviours.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123127"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Predation risk creates unexpected migration decisions in a nonhoming semelparous fish","authors":"Thomas M. Luhring ,&nbsp;John B. Hume,&nbsp;C. Michael Wagner","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Predation risk and migration are major forces shaping animal behaviour and fitness. Migratory animals are often under incredible energy and time constraints, yet predation risk is present during many natural migrations. Manipulating risk landscapes of migrating animals in natural settings offers an especially powerful way to assess how the perception of multiple chemical cues across large scales affects migratory behaviour and decision-making processes. In this study, we presented 432 upstream migrating sea lamprey, <em>Petromyzon marinus</em> (a nonhoming semelparous fish) with a choice between two streams that differed in the presence or absence of an alarm cue, while chemical cues associated with suitable breeding conditions were present in each stream (larvae from previous generations). Three-quarters of them were detected at the confluence 3.3 km upstream on their night of release and during alarm cue exposure hours. Sea lamprey preferred the warmer of the two stream branches upstream of the confluence on nights when alarm cue was absent. Unexpectedly, the presence of alarm cue in either stream branch led to a preference for the branch upstream of the deeper portion of the main channel, independent of temperature differences between the streams. These results demonstrate that migratory decisions by sea lamprey at key points in their migration can be altered by the presence of predation risk. However, physical stream properties such as depth can potentially alter the perceived risk of predation and antipredator responses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123013"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “The dynamics of dominance in a ‘despotic’ society” [Anim Behav 218 (2024) 55–64]","authors":"Rosemary Blersch ,&nbsp;Brianne A. Beisner ,&nbsp;Jessica J. Vandeleest ,&nbsp;Brenda McCowan","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123121","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123121","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123121"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editors Page","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S0003-3472(25)00099-5","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0003-3472(25)00099-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Parental predator exposure affects offspring boldness and laterality in the stickleback","authors":"Flavia Berlinghieri ,&nbsp;Martina Vittorietti ,&nbsp;Dario Savoca ,&nbsp;Andrea Pace ,&nbsp;Marion Nicolaus ,&nbsp;Bernd Riedstra ,&nbsp;Culum Brown ,&nbsp;Ton G.G Groothuis","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123154","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123154","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parental influences on offspring phenotype occurring through pathways other than via inherited DNA sequences are known as parental effects. Parental effects profoundly influence offspring behaviour, including behaviour laterality and personality, two traits that are widespread and of fundamental importance in the animal kingdom with clear fitness consequences. However, the impact of parental effects on the interaction between behavioural laterality and personality within the same species has not been previously explored. If such a link exists, it would deepen our understanding of personality traits, extending them to brain laterality and its underlying neurobiology. In addition, if both traits are causally linked, it may constrain evolution as changing one of these traits would affect the other. The aim of this study was to examine whether offspring personality traits and behavioural laterality are related and can simultaneously be influenced by parental effects, suggesting a common underlying mechanism. Here we exposed parents of an egg-laying species, the stickleback <em>Gasterosteus aculeatus</em>, to a predator cue or not and examined the impact of this exposure on two behavioural traits of their offspring. Shortly after laying, clutches were split: half were reared without predator cues for 12 weeks before behavioural testing, and the other half were used for cortisol analysis. We found that both parents and offspring from predator-exposed parents were bolder, with the offspring more likely to show lateralized behaviour, and were smaller than offspring from parents that were not exposed to predation. The egg cortisol levels were too low to be detected by LC-MS/MS. To our knowledge, these results are the first to indicate that parental effects under varying predation conditions can influence laterality, personality and growth of offspring within the same individuals, although further evaluation and experiments are needed to determine the role of maternal cortisol.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"223 ","pages":"Article 123154"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early environmental conditions do not impact behavioural flexibility in an invasive and noninvasive lizard species","authors":"Pablo Recio ,&nbsp;Dalton C. Leibold ,&nbsp;Ondi L. Crino ,&nbsp;Kristoffer H. Wild ,&nbsp;Christopher R. Friesen ,&nbsp;Basile Mauclaire ,&nbsp;Amelia Y. Peardon ,&nbsp;Daniel W.A. Noble","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123106","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123106","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Behavioural flexibility, the ability to adjust behaviour adaptively in response to internal or external changes, is expected to be crucial for animals adapting to environmental fluctuations. However, conditions experienced during early development can profoundly impact behavioural flexibility, making it unclear how populations will respond to novel circumstances. Stressful situations faced by the parents can have a direct impact on offspring cognition through the transmission of glucocorticoids, stress-related hormones that affect offspring cognition. At the same time, stressful conditions can influence parental behaviours during nesting and, consequently, the thermal developmental conditions that offspring experience. Here, we investigated the interactive effects of prenatal corticosterone (CORT) levels and temperature on behavioural flexibility in two lizard species: <em>Lampropholis delicata</em> and <em>Lampropholis guichenoti</em>. We manipulated prenatal CORT levels and incubation temperature in a 2 × 2 factorial design and then assessed behavioural flexibility through a reversal learning task. We hypothesized that prenatal CORT levels and cold temperatures would impair performance in the reversal task. We expected <em>L. delicata</em>, given its success as an invasive species, to show more flexibility and be less susceptible to early environmental conditions. Contrary to our expectations, behavioural flexibility appears robust to prenatal temperatures and CORT levels in both species. The lack of difference in reversal learning between <em>L. delicata</em> and <em>L. guichenoti</em> suggests that novel environments are unlikely to influence flexible behavioural learning, and behavioural flexibility itself is unlikely to explain differences in invasion success between these species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123106"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Importance of visual and chemical cues in infection detection and avoidance in freshwater fish","authors":"Ariane Côté ,&nbsp;Sandra A. Binning","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.123060","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.123060","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The characteristics of infected animals, including their odour, appearance, behaviour and sound, greatly differ from those of uninfected conspecifics. These differences can serve as cues to recognize and avoid infected individuals and minimize the risk of infection. Avoidance of infected conspecifics is a risk-sensitive behaviour that can be influenced by various factors, including sensory cues, which are poorly understood in fish. We investigated the ability of two populations of wild-caught pumpkinseed sunfish, <em>Lepomis gibbosus</em>, to distinguish between conspecifics infected with parasitic worms and uninfected individuals in two-choice experiments using visual and chemical cues separately. One population was from a lake without parasites (parasite-naïve), whereas the second population originated from a lake with a high prevalence of trematode and cestode worms (parasite-experienced). Both populations preferred to be with conspecifics, regardless of their infection level, over being alone when given visual cues but avoided conspecifics and preferred to be alone when given chemical cues, suggesting that visual and chemical cues are not redundant. Fish from neither population showed a preference between infected and uninfected conspecifics when given visual cues. However, there was a large interindividual variation in preference for chemical cues: some fish preferred uninfected conspecifics, whereas others preferred infected fish. On average, naïve fish avoided infected conspecifics, whereas experienced fish did not show any preferences, suggesting that fish from lakes with high prevalence of infection are habituated to infection cues. We suggest that pumpkinseeds use chemical rather than visual cues to discriminate between infected and uninfected conspecifics during shoaling decisions. Our study highlighted the importance of considering different sensory cues as well as environmental parasite abundance when studying avoidance and shoaling behaviours, especially considering the growing impacts of global changes on the sensory landscape and parasite abundance in freshwater ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123060"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Olfaction and reproductive isolation in birds","authors":"Alex Van Huynh ,&nbsp;Amber M. Rice","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123076","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123076","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Olfaction is an important sense that has contributed to reproductive isolation and speciation in many taxa. However, in birds, olfaction and its potential role in communication has historically been neglected. Thus, what role olfaction plays in avian speciation is mostly unknown. Here, we aim to guide future research by highlighting the likely potential for olfaction to contribute to reproductive isolation and speciation in birds. First, we detail the best-understood example found thus far that is consistent with reproductive isolation by olfaction in birds: black-capped and Carolina chickadees. These species show interspecific differences in preen oil chemistry and conspecific odour preferences within their natural hybrid zone. We then suggest a number of promising avenues for future research and the kinds of systems, approaches and evidence that would help to advance this severely understudied area. In sum, the growing body of research into the chemical ecology of birds suggests an important role of olfaction in many areas of avian life. Future research will be necessary to determine to what extent olfaction contributes to the formation and maintenance of species boundaries in birds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123076"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social learning of navigational routes in tandem-running acorn ants, Temnothorax nylanderi","authors":"Aina Colomer-Vilaplana ,&nbsp;Tara Williams ,&nbsp;Simone M. Glaser ,&nbsp;Christoph Grüter","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123107","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123107","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tandem running in ants is a form of social learning that involves an informed leader guiding a naïve nestmate to a valuable resource, such as a nest site or a food source. Little is currently known about what tandem followers learn and how socially acquired navigational information affects future trips. While some studies suggest that tandem followers learn the resource position but not the route taken by the tandem pair to reach the resource, more recent evidence contradicts this view. We studied tandem running in foraging acorn ants, <em>Temnothorax nylanderi</em>, and provide evidence that tandem followers socially learn routes from their leaders and later use these routes when travelling between their nest and a food source. Followers that became tandem leaders themselves then guided their follower along the same routes in 90% of tandem runs, demonstrating that navigational information can spread in a forager population through sequential social learning. Ants increased their travelling speed, but not path straightness over successive trips. We also found that ants needed less time on subsequent trips if they experienced longer-lasting tandem runs, suggesting that longer-lasting tandem runs allow followers to learn routes more efficiently. Adding potentially salient visual cues did not affect most of the quantified variables, and we currently know little about the cues used by <em>T. nylanderi</em> during navigation. We discuss how the visual environment inhabited by different species might affect the importance of route learning during tandem running.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 123107"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}