{"title":"Observation of female-male mounting in the carrion crow","authors":"Claudia A.F. Wascher , Friederike Hillemann","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105055","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105055","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the biological sciences, sexual behaviours in non-human animals are traditionally investigated in the context of reproduction and direct fitness benefits. While the evolutionary functions of non-conceptive sexual behaviours (‘socio-sexual behaviours’) remain less well explored, these interactions and displays have been suggested to be important for shaping and maintaining social relationships. Here, we report an observation of a captive female carrion crow, <em>Corvus corone corone</em>, mounting her co-housed male partner. We highlight the importance of more systematic research, reporting, and discussions of rarely observed behaviours in social evolution research, including considerations for behaviours that transcend binary or heteronormative frameworks, for a more comprehensive understanding of non-conceptive socio-sexual behaviours.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 105055"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635724000706/pdfft?md5=9c257a24444301e1cb5b49d6bb3d0d56&pid=1-s2.0-S0376635724000706-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141080389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"User behaviors in a community-based multifunctional urban park with dog friendly area","authors":"Yuika Kase, Naoko Koda","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Urban parks are essential for community revitalization; for example, they are places to walk dogs and interact with other dog keepers. This study focused on an urban park with a dog-friendly area to be used by both dog keepers and other users as an alternative to off-leash dog parks that completely separate them and clarified aspects of park use through behavioral observation. The behaviors of 7122 visitors in 14 areas in the park and 294 pairs of dogs and their keepers in the dog-friendly area were observed. The results showed that the visitors’ age groups and use behaviors differed by area. The dog-friendly area was in constant demand among dog keepers as a place where they could stay and interact with others and as a destination or relay point when walking their dogs. Visitors used the park in accordance with rules and morals, and the park was well managed. As it can be comfortably used by everyone (with or without dogs), this park can serve as a model for the development and maintenance of community-based multifunctional parks in urban areas.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 105048"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141080390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of delay sequence in a delay discounting task","authors":"J.R. Macías-Navarrete, C.V. dos Santos","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105046","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Delay discounting refers to the decrease in subjective value of a reward as the delay until its receipt increases. In the present study we assessed the effects of the sequence of delay blocks (increasing or decreasing) on discounting and the data systematicity using a titrating procedure with human participants. All participants completed the delay discounting task in both an increasing and decreasing sequence of delays. Delays ranged from one day to ten years. We found steeper discounting when the delays were presented in an increasing sequence compared with when they were presented in a decreasing sequence. We also found steeper discounting when participants completed the increasing sequence condition first. Our results agree with other findings reported in the literature and suggest that delay discounting may be affected by prior and subsequent experience.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 105046"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140955553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miguel Aguayo-Mendoza, Jonathan Buriticá, José E. Burgos
{"title":"Autoshaped impulsivity: Some explorations with a neural network model","authors":"Miguel Aguayo-Mendoza, Jonathan Buriticá, José E. Burgos","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study evaluated the effect of delay and magnitude of reinforcement in Pavlovian contingencies, extending the understanding of the phenomenon of autoshaped impulsivity as described in Alcalá's thesis (2017) and Burgos and García-Leal (2015). The effects of adding a trace interval were analyzed on the maintained responses of impulsive choice, seen as the preference of a small and immediate reinforcer over a larger and delayed one, and the role of the contextual unit, as well as the inhibitory units according to the Diffuse Discrepancy Model. In the Simulation, the model with inhibitory units was used, trained in two signals with different delays and reinforcement magnitudes, and subsequently presented concurrently in choice tasks without reinforcement nor learning, using an ABA within-subject design. In general, the DD model successfully simulated the phenomenon of autoshaped impulsivity, consistent with studies from Alcalá's thesis (2017), Burgos and García-Leal (2015), and Picker and Poling (1982). It also predicted the elimination of this effect (autoshaped impulsivity) after introducing a trace interval. The observed results and their implications are discussed, as well as possible future studies with animals and humans.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105040"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140815681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental conditions shape learning in larval zebrafish","authors":"Elia Gatto , Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato , Cristiano Bertolucci","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Growing evidence reveals notable phenotypic plasticity in cognition among teleost fishes. One compelling example is the positive impact of enriched environments on learning performance. Most studies on this effect have focused on juvenile or later life stages, potentially overlooking the importance of early life plasticity. To address this gap, we investigated whether cognitive plasticity in response to environmental factors emerges during the larval stage in zebrafish. Our findings indicate that larvae exposed to an enriched environment after hatching exhibited enhanced habituation learning performance compared to their counterparts raised in a barren environment. This work underscores the presence of developmental phenotypic plasticity in cognition among teleost fish, extending its influence to the very earliest stages of an individual's life.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105045"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140849301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Longhui Zhao , Guo Zhong , Qiqi Liu , Xuan Zhang , Jichao Wang , Wei Liang
{"title":"Behavioral responses to predator and heterospecific alarm calls are habitat-specific in Eurasian tree sparrows","authors":"Longhui Zhao , Guo Zhong , Qiqi Liu , Xuan Zhang , Jichao Wang , Wei Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Acoustic communication plays a vital role in predator-prey interactions. Although habitat structure has been shown to affect anti-predator tactics, little is known about how animals vary their behaviors in response to predator calls or heterospecific alarm calls in different environments. Here we used sound playbacks to test the responses of Eurasian tree sparrows (<em>Passer montanus</em>) foraging in harvested/unharvested rice paddy and open residential area. In the first experiment, we tested their behavioral responses to dove calls, male common cuckoo (<em>Cuculus canorus</em>) calls, hawk-like calls mimicked by female common cuckoo, sparrowhawk (<em>Accipiter nisus</em>) calls, and human yell calls produced to scare birds (predator signal playbacks). In the second experiment, we tested their behavioral responses to the Japanese tit’s (<em>Parus minor</em>) territorial songs and alarm calls (heterospecific alarm signal playbacks). Results showed that the tree sparrows had less fleeing in unharvested ripe rice paddy than in harvested rice paddy and open residential area. In predator signal playbacks, call type affected the escape behavior of sparrows in unharvested rice paddy and open residential area but not harvested rice paddy. In alarm signal playbacks, tit alarm calls evoked more fleeing than territorial songs in harvested rice paddy and open residential area but not unharvested rice paddy. These results suggest that anthropogenic habitat changes may influence avian anti-predator tactics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105043"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140818386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chronic high-dose testosterone impairs economic decision making, but has no effect on memory in male rats","authors":"Ruth I. Wood, Michael Y. Chen , Elizabeth Snow","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The goal is to understand consequences of anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) abuse on cognitive function, using rats as a model. Economic decision making was evaluated in an operant test of effort value discounting, where subjects choose between 2 levers that deliver large and small rewards differing in maximum value and reward contrast. The hypothesis is that chronic high-dose testosterone increases preference for large rewards. Male rats were treated chronically with testosterone (7.5 mg/kg) or vehicle. Initially, all rats preferred the large reward lever when large and small rewards remained fixed at 3 and 1 sugar pellets, respectively. When different reward values were introduced, and with increasing response requirements, testosterone-treated rats made fewer responses for the large reward, and increased omissions. They earned fewer rewards overall. To determine if testosterone impairs memory, rats were tested for recognition memory with the novel object recognition and social transmission of food preference tasks, and for spatial memory with the radial arm maze and Morris water maze. There was not effect of chronic high-dose testosterone on any memory task. These results suggest that testosterone shifts economic decision making towards larger rewards even when they are disadvantageous, but does not alter memory in rats.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105044"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140815680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Claes Anderson, Linda Marie Backeman Hannius, Daiana De Oliveira, Anna Wallenbeck
{"title":"Social sham chewing in sows?","authors":"Claes Anderson, Linda Marie Backeman Hannius, Daiana De Oliveira, Anna Wallenbeck","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105042","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this short communication, we describe chewing behaviour in sows with no apparent edible substrate in their mouth as a potential social behaviour. Chewing in sows during interaction with unfamiliar sows was unexpectedly observed in a study assessing social abilities and damaging behaviours in group-housed dry sows. Such chewing was observed frequently and performed by almost all sows. To our knowledge, this behaviour has not been described previously in a social context in pigs, but rather as an oral stereotypic behaviour related to chronic hunger. We describe the behaviour in its social context and speculate on reasons for its occurrence in that context.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105042"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140825012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tactile cues compensate for unbalanced vestibular cues during progression on inclined surfaces","authors":"Zohar Hagbi , Elad Segev , David Eilam","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A previous study demonstrated that rodents on an inclined square platform traveled straight vertically or horizontally and avoided diagonal travel. Through behavior they aligned their head with the horizontal plane, acquiring similar bilateral vestibular cues – a basic requirement for spatial orientation and a salient feature of animals in motion. This behavior had previously been shown to be conspicuous in Tristram's jirds. Here, therefore jirds were challenged by testing their travel behavior on a circular arena inclined at 0°-75°. Our hypothesis was that if, as typical to rodents, the jirds would follow the curved arena wall, they would need to display a compensating mechanism to enable traveling in such a path shape, which involves a tilted frontal head axis and unbalanced bilateral vestibular cues. We found that with the increase in inclination, the jirds remained more in the lower section of the arena (geotaxis). When tested on the steep inclinations, however, their travel away from the arena wall was strictly straight up or down, in contrast to the curved paths that followed the circular arena wall. We suggest that traveling along a circular path while maintaining contact with the wall (thigmotaxis), provided tactile information that compensated for the unbalanced bilateral vestibular cues present when traveling along such curved inclined paths. In the latter case, the frontal plane of the head was in a diagonal posture in relation to gravity, a posture that was avoided when traveling away from the wall.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105041"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140825013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Proximity and preening in captive Humboldt penguins","authors":"Yuka Kobayashi, Masataka Ueno","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Group-living animals, including penguins, exhibit affiliative behaviors such as grooming (preening) and proximity. Such behaviors in non-primate animals have been less studied than those in primates. Our research focused on 20 identifiable Humboldt penguins in a zoo, analyzing kin relationships and reciprocity in preening and proximity by employing a 5-minute scan sampling method to observe and record individual behavior. Our findings revealed that preening and proximity were more prevalent among mate pairs. However, among non-mate pairs, such behaviors were more commonly observed between siblings and parent-offspring pairs. Notably, the individuals preened on each other simultaneously in all instances. This study highlights the potential influence of kin selection in shaping the affiliative behavior of penguins. Additionally, our findings indicate that penguins gain benefits from mutual preening. This study contributes to our understanding of social behaviors in non-primate species and emphasizes the need for further comparative studies of various animal taxa to elucidate the evolution of sociality.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"218 ","pages":"Article 105032"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140760211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}