Animal Behaviour最新文献

{"title":"The unfulfilled potential of dogs in studying behavioural ecology and evolution during the Anthropocene","authors":"Christina Hansen Wheat ,&nbsp;Clive D.L. Wynne","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dogs have the potential to be 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 systems in diverse areas of biological science. These include extensive anthropomorphization of dog behaviour, a profound bias towards almost exclusively studying pet dogs, a widespread belief that dog domestication was human-driven, and that the majority of dogs are not subjects of natural selection. Here we argue that dogs should be studied using species-general fundamental principles of ecology and evolution, and that the focus in dog research should shift towards free-ranging dogs, which comprise ca. 80% of the global dog population. By reviewing the available literature on free-ranging dog behavioural ecology we place the dog within an objective biological framework. We find that free-ranging dog populations express substantial variation in their behavioural ecology across their global range and propose that this variation is key to understanding dogs' great success in the rapidly developing anthropogenic niche. Since free-ranging dogs have a global distribution across various environmental gradients, including urbanization, climate and social structures, they provide an ideal opportunity to collect comparable, large-scale data across populations. Combined with in-depth knowledge of dog evolutionary history and the advanced genetic tools specifically developed using this species, dogs can be an outstanding model for the study of behavioural ecology and evolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123020"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143096241","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":"Do nonhuman animals copy successful and prestigious models? Disentangling payoff-biased transmission across taxa","authors":"Patricio Cruz y Celis Peniche","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the empirical literature on social learning across taxa has exploded, some claims that certain social learning strategies are uniquely human have been challenged. While enriching, the interdisciplinary nature of cultural transmission studies has also weakened semantic and conceptual congruence across fields. A theoretical gap has thus been growing between the observed animal behaviours and the hypothesized social learning strategies underlying them. This review specifically explores the taxonomic distribution of social learning strategies based on payoff correlates, like a model's success or prestige, and the possibility that these extend beyond humans. Such ‘copy-if-better model’ (i.e. indirect bias) strategies are functionally distinct from ‘copy-if-better variant’ (i.e. direct bias) strategies, although they are both often generically described as payoff-biased transmission. Perhaps most importantly, copy-if-better model heuristics may increase the risks of maladaptive transmission and have been implicated in the spread of fitness-reducing behaviours in humans. This paper first proposes broad criteria of cognitive mechanisms that are required for indirectly biased social learning strategies to be deployed. It then reviews the empirical evidence for these strategies across nonhuman animals. While several studies call into question the ability of nonhuman animals to preferentially copy a model in the absence of any immediately and directly observed relative benefits (e.g. payoffs), multiple others meet the criteria for indirectly biased transmission. Observing indirectly biased transmission dynamics across a range of different taxa could be indicative of the adaptive potential of these social learning strategies. On the other hand, species that rely on this type of social learning strategy may be vulnerable to the transmission of maladaptive information, suggesting future research into how animals mitigate the risks inherent in such a low-cost, but potentially uncertain, heuristic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123018"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143096242","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":"The curious case of rhesus macaques: despotism does not prevent third-party postconflict affiliation","authors":"Simone Aere ,&nbsp;Luca Pedruzzi ,&nbsp;Giulia Facondini ,&nbsp;Martin Böye ,&nbsp;Elisabetta Palagi ,&nbsp;Alban Lemasson","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ability to manage aggression in social animals is crucial for maintaining stable group dynamics. Triadic postconflict contacts (TC) are widespread behavioural strategies across mammal species consisting of affiliative contacts provided spontaneously by a third party or bystander towards the victim or the aggressor of a previous conflict (unsolicited triadic contacts, UTC) or upon request by one of them (solicited, STC). Depending on the target, the social context and the relationship quality shared by the interacting agents, TC's functions can range from bystander self-protection to victim comfort with the ultimate outcome of maintaining group cohesion. Evidence suggests that TCs are strongly affected by social styles, with despotic species engaging less frequently in such behaviours. Here, we tested hypotheses on the presence, modulation and possible functions of UTC and STC in a group of rhesus macaques, <em>Macaca mulatta</em>, a highly despotic species. For the first time, we found that bystanders spontaneously provided affiliation to both victims and aggressors. In contrast, we did not find any significant evidence for STC. Macaques seem to be sensitive to potential risks implied in providing postconflict affiliation to victims and aggressors (e.g. age, arousal). To some extent, UTC decreased the probability of bystanders being the target of redirection. UTC coincides with consolation when bystanders direct affiliation mainly towards ‘friend’ victims, when they perceive the negative affective state of the victim (measured by screaming), and when affiliation reduces the victim's distress (measured by self-scratching). Our data support the first two criteria but not the last one. Bystanders' spontaneous motivation to offer affiliation to victims of aggression in <em>M</em>. <em>mulatta</em> goes beyond the social constraints associated with the species' despotic style suggesting that several factors can affect the emergence of prosocial behaviours also in despotic-intolerant species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123022"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143097320","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":"Earwig mothers can boost offspring’s defence against pathogens during postoviposition care","authors":"Manon Boucicot ,&nbsp;Marie-Charlotte Cheutin ,&nbsp;Tiffany Laverre ,&nbsp;Christine Braquart-Varnier ,&nbsp;Julien Verdon ,&nbsp;Joël Meunier","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.024","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.024","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An important function of parental care is to ensure the survival of offspring against pathogens. In insects, it was long believed that this function was limited in scope and time and consisted mainly of parental behaviours reducing contact between offspring and pathogens. However, recent data show that insect parents can also improve offspring’s defence against pathogens by transferring their acquired immune experience to the eggs during oogenesis. Here, we investigated whether this parental protection could be extended to include postoviposition care. We addressed this question in the European earwig, <em>Forficula auricularia</em>, an insect in which mothers provide extensive forms of care to their eggs and juveniles. We immune-challenged mothers with dead bacterium <em>Serratia marcescens</em> or control solutions while they were caring for their eggs and then monitored the survival rate of these mothers and their resulting adult offspring after a new infection by the same live pathogen. In line with our prediction, we found that both the mothers that were immune-challenged after oviposition and the adult offspring reared by these immune-challenged mothers had the highest survival after infection. However, what triggered this higher survival rate was the wounding of the mothers and not their previous exposure to dead bacteria. Our data also show that these higher survival rates were not associated with changes in the expression of maternal egg care or offspring quality. Overall, our findings shed light on a novel benefit of postoviposition parental care in insects. More generally, they support the recent claim that access to social immunity by offspring may play a key role in the early emergence and maintenance of family life in animals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123010"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143097329","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":"Attracting mates or suppressing rivals? Distance-dependent calling strategy in Hainan frilled treefrogs","authors":"Yan-Mei Liu ,&nbsp;Ke Deng ,&nbsp;Tong-Liang Wang ,&nbsp;Ji-Chao Wang ,&nbsp;Jian-Guo Cui","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.11.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.11.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Acoustic communication is prevalent in a broad range of taxa, playing an important role in a variety of scenarios. Acoustic signals attenuate with distance, allowing individuals to assess proximity, which is one of the crucial factors affecting animal decision making in intraspecific competition. Female choice and male–male competition in anurans (frogs and toads) are highly dependent on acoustic signals, and numerous studies have shown that males adjust their call effort, call complexity or call type according to competitive contexts. However, there is less empirical work focused on the effects of spatial distance between calling males on the calling strategy. In the present study, we used playback experiments to investigate whether and how male Hainan frilled treefrogs, <em>Kurixalus hainanus</em>, adjust their calling strategies based on spatial distance. We found that compared to the spontaneous period, focal males produced significantly fewer advertisement calls but more suppression calls and encounter calls when presented with conspecific advertisement calls, regardless of the distance from the simulated rival. We also found that the number and proportion of advertisement calls and corresponding note type increased with distance. In contrast, the number and proportion of suppression calls, encounter calls and their corresponding note types decreased with distance. Interestingly, the descending trends of these two types of aggressive calls were not quite the same. These findings suggest that male <em>K</em>. <em>hainanus</em> can alter call types and their frequency of occurrence based on the distance from a calling rival, demonstrating a graded aggressive interaction. Our study provides evidence for a distance-dependent competitive strategy in vocal interaction and contributes to a better understanding of the reproductive trade-off in male–male competition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123033"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143097325","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":"Persistence of alternative reproductive tactics: a test of game-theoretic predictions","authors":"Courtney R. Garrison ,&nbsp;Scott K. Sakaluk ,&nbsp;Ned A. Dochtermann","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.023","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.023","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In many species, males produce signals to attract females. However, in some species and populations, only some males produce these signals, with other males competing for and intercepting reproductive opportunities. In these systems, at least three tactics are expected: Always Signal, signal only when others are not (Assess) and Never Signal. The expected representation of these tactics within a population is frequently unknown in part because the costs of signalling (<em>C</em>) and the fitness value of a single reproductive bout (<em>V</em>) are difficult to quantify. Using a game-theoretic model, we predicted that the Always Signal strategy should only be present in a population if the fitness value of calling is greater than twice the cost (2<em>C</em> &lt; <em>V</em>). We found that males that Always Signal are apparently absent in decorated crickets, <em>Gryllodes sigillatus</em>, at least in our sampling of a laboratory-housed population. Moreover, males were not strict assessors and instead signalled infrequently (30% of the time) when signalling by others was constant. Males also exhibited substantial among-individual variation in the propensity to call when other males were not signalling (τ = 0.3). Our results indicate a high relative cost of signalling (2<em>C</em> &gt; <em>V</em>). The presence of among-individual variation in propensity to call is also suggestive of underlying genetic variation and a mixed evolutionarily stable strategy. More generally, the apparent high cost of signalling and the presence of variation in calling propensity suggest that reduced-cost strategies should spread quickly in populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123009"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143096924","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":"Singing on the wing reveals respiratory performance constraints of song production","authors":"Fabian Teipel ,&nbsp;Franz Goller","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.11.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.11.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Birdsong is a critical behaviour for reproductive success and therefore exhibits features that reach physiological performance limits. Only few examples of production constraints have been studied in detail. To address this gap in our knowledge, we ask whether singing during flight reaches respiratory and energetic limitations. Male common whitethroats, <em>Curruca communis</em> (formerly <em>Sylvia communis</em>), display three singing modes, perched stereotyped song, variable song during flight and variable song after landing. We compared temporal and frequency modulation characteristics of song for these three modes. When flying, males reduced the duration of syllables and increased silent periods between syllables, which resulted in markedly reduced sound density. These changes in temporal structure and similar minimal pause duration for all singing modes imply that ventilatory changes induced by flight drive these changes in song rhythm, while neither respiratory nor syringeal dynamics indicate limitations in oxygen delivery to vocal muscles. These findings identify song features that are potential indicators of the fitness of the singing bird.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123039"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143097316","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":"Persistence suggests metacognition in capuchin monkeys","authors":"Tony Calmette ,&nbsp;Tom Calmette ,&nbsp;Hélène Meunier","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Awareness of one's own mental states, also known as metacognition, is an important component of human self-awareness. In recent decades, several studies have investigated nonhuman metacognition and evidence of this ability has notably been gathered in catarrhine primates. Conversely, numerous studies on capuchin monkeys have reported mixed or negative results. Because it has been suggested that the failure of capuchins may be due to species-related limitations of classical metacognition tasks, we tested metacognition in the brown capuchin, <em>Sapajus apella</em>, using a novel experimental paradigm adapted from a study of human infants. In this experiment, capuchins had to choose between two boxes, one of which had previously been baited with a treat under their gaze, before searching the hidden content of the chosen box. As the treat was surreptitiously removed, the time capuchins were willing to search the box for the treat could be used as a nonverbal postdecision indicator of metacognitive confidence, with longer persistence times indicating greater confidence in remembering which box was baited and expecting to find the treat in the chosen box. Consistent with the possibility that capuchins possess metacognitive abilities, capuchins persisted longer in their search after a correct versus incorrect choice. This result suggests that metacognition in primates is not restricted to catarrhines. Although nonmetacognitive explanations are possible, experimental paradigms involving a postdecision indicator of confidence, such as persistence, have advantages over classical paradigms and offer promising perspectives for investigating metacognition in a wide range of animals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123008"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143135741","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 influences on embryonic behaviour and the developmental onset of embryonic acquired predator recognition in minnows","authors":"Brooke Karasch,&nbsp;Jessica Ward","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For oviparous species, the external environment is replete with cues that contain diverse information relevant to developing embryos, including potential predation threats. Information about predators obtained during the egg stage is known to improve survival after hatching by allowing individuals to recognize and respond to potential threats more effectively, but the development and mechanisms by which embryos learn are not well studied. Here, we sought to identify the developmental onset of embryonic learning in a freshwater fish, the fathead minnow, <em>Pimephales promelas,</em> by conditioning embryos to identify a piscivorous predator, the bluegill sunfish, <em>Lepomis macrochirus</em>, and evaluating their behaviour in response to predatory cues each day before hatching. In addition, we manipulated egg number (small or large clutch) and configuration (clustered, isolated) in experimental clutches to determine whether social attributes of the clutch, specifically, group size and embryo proximity, influence the acquisition of learned predator information or the expression of antipredator behaviour. Behavioural evidence of learned predator recognition first emerged among predator-conditioned embryos at 4 days postfertilization, expressed as a reduction in locomotor activity in the presence of predator cues. In addition, we found general effects of both the number and proximity of neighbouring eggs on embryonic activity levels but not on the developmental onset of predator recognition in predator-conditioned embryos or the expression of antipredator behaviour. These findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge on embryonic learning in oviparous aquatic vertebrate species and suggest that aquatic vertebrate embryos may be more sensitive to the social environment of the clutch than is commonly considered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 123017"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143135742","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(24)00333-6","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0003-3472(24)00333-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"218 ","pages":"Page i"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142700111","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}