Tag: Behaviour (Ethology)

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First validated canine behavioral genetics, findings of nine fear, aggression traits in dogs

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental illness in the United States. And while much is understood about the biochemistry of anxiety, little is known about the genetic variation associated with it.

Recently published in BMC Genetics, a study led by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports that genetic predisposition to aggression toward an owner or a familiar dog is distinct from that for fear and aggression directed at unfamiliar humans and dogs. The researchers identified approximately 12 genes associated with these traits.

“Our strongest focus is on specific genes related to aggression toward unfamiliar humans and dogs, which are associated with highly relevant genes at two genome regions,” said Carlos Alvarez, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Molecular and Human Genetics in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Those genes are consistent with the core fear and aggression neural pathway known as the amygdala to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.”

The findings not only relate to the most important dog behavioral problems but are also likely to be highly relevant to human anxiety disorders, according to Dr. Alvarez.

While the most immediate implications are for veterinary behavioral medicine — genetic testing for risk of specific types of fear and aggression, the long term implications for adults and children with anxiety disorders are encouraging.

Because these risk variants are common across dog breeds, the canine veterinary setting provides an ideal testbed for new therapies targeting those biochemical pathways. Once it is determined which neuronal circuits are affected by the risk variation, this will likely reveal drug targets that could be inhibited or activated to increase or decrease the emotional behavioral effects. Those findings can immediately be tested in pet dog patients under owner consent. And, if those therapies are effective in dogs, they can then be applied to humans with similar conditions. Knowledge of the affected pathways will also provide biomarkers that can be used to identify the patients who are most likely to respond to such treatments.

“This project has only just begun,” said Dr. Alvarez. “We are continuing to identify and validate other genes associated with these traits, including the expansion of dog breeds studied and biological validation of the findings. We are excited about what this work will continue to uncover.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160810180908.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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How climate change will hurt humanity’s closest cousins

The consequences of climate change are an increasing concern for humans around the world. How will we cope with rising sea levels and climbing temperatures? But it’s not just humans who will be affected by these worldwide shifts — it’s our closest cousins, too: monkeys, apes and lemurs.

A new Concordia study published in the International Journal of Primatology shows that the world’s primate populations may be seriously impacted by climate change.

“Our research shows that climate change may be one of the biggest emerging threats to primates, compounding existing pressures from deforestation, hunting and the exotic pet trade,” says Tanya Graham, the article’s lead author and an MSc student in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

She worked with environment professor Damon Matthews from Concordia and primatology post-doctoral researcher Sarah Turner from McGill to assess the exposure and potential vulnerability of all non-human primate species to projected future temperature and precipitation changes. They found that overall, 419 species of non-human primates — such as various species of lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys and apes — will experience 10 per cent more warming than the global average, with some primate species experiencing increases of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius in annual average temperature for every degree of global warming.

The researchers also identified several hotspots of primate vulnerability to climate change, based on the combination of the number of species, their endangered status and the severity of climate changes at each location. Overall, the most extreme hotspots, which represent the upper 10 per cent of all hotspot scores, cover a total area of 3,622,012 square kilometres over the ranges of 67 primate species.

The highest hotspot scores occur in Central America, the Amazon and southeastern Brazil, as well as portions of East and Southeast Asia — prime territory for some of the globe’s best-known primates who call these areas home.

The ursine howler monkey, black howler monkey, and barbary macaque are expected to be exposed to the highest magnitude of climate change when both temperature and precipitation are considered. For example, the ursine howler monkey, found in Venezuela, will experience an increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius annually and a 5.3 per cent decline in annual rainfall for each degree of global temperature increase.

“This study highlights the vulnerability of individual species, as well as regions in which primates as a whole may be vulnerable to climate change,” says Matthews, who will present the findings of this study during the Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the American Society of Primatologists in Chicago later this month.

“Our findings can be taken as priorities for ongoing conservation efforts, given that any success in decreasing other current human pressures on endangered species may also increase that species’ ability to withstand the growing pressures of climate changes,” says Graham.

“Primates are often seen as flagship species for entire ecosystems, so conservation can have important ramifications for many other species too. I hope our study will help direct conservation efforts for individual primate species in particular, but also for vulnerable ecosystems in general throughout the tropical regions inhabited by non-human primates,” adds Turner.

This study was funded in part by the Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec — Nature et technologies.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160810114052.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Across the animal kingdom there is a strong trend for females to be more caring parents

Using mathematical models, the researchers found that if the only initial difference between the sexes is the size of the sex cells they make (sperm by males and eggs by females), evolution does not favor females becoming more attentive parents.

“Although an egg is a much larger parental investment than a tiny sperm, there is no propensity for females to care more as a result,” said Academy Research Fellow, Dr Lutz Fromhage, from the University of Jyväskylä. But he added, “There is, however, also no evolutionary force favouring equal care by both sexes.” This new finding refutes earlier theories that concluded that equal care by both parents will evolve.

Although females tend to care more than males, there is much variation among species. In many fish, for example, only males guard eggs and defend babies, but in mammals females usually care alone. Dr Fromhage said the study, published in Nature Communications, would lead to a more solid theoretical foundation to understand how male and female parental care evolves.

So why do females provide more care? The researchers propose that another process is important: investment in being sexy, hence mating sooner, might trade-off with the ability to provide care efficiently. Taking this balancing act into account, evolution favors ever more care by the initially more-caring sex. Eventually this sex might end up caring alone. “One factor that could set the ball rolling is an inevitable difference in the certainty of parentage of males and females,” said Prof Michael Jennions from the Australian National University, “with many more sperm than eggs, it is often hard for a male to be sure that he is the father. So males might initially care a little less.”

Many researchers have put forward arguments to explain why females care more than males, but this new study provides formal confirmation based on solid maths.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160818090143.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Burnout is caused by mismatch between unconscious needs and job demands

New research shows that burnout is caused by a mismatch between a person’s unconscious needs and the opportunities and demands at the workplace. These results have implications for the prevention of jobburnout.

Imagine an accountant who is outgoing and seeks closeness in her social relationships, but whose job offers little scope for contact with colleagues or clients. Now imagine a manager, required to take responsibility for a team, but who does not enjoy taking center-stage or being in a leadership role. For both, there is a mismatch between their individual needs and the opportunities and demands at the workplace. A new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology shows that such mismatches put employees at risk of burnout.

Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from work, which results in a lack of motivation, low efficiency, and a helpless feeling. Its health effects include anxiety, cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, insomnia, and depression. The financial burden from absenteeism, employee turnover, reduced productivity, and medical, legal, and insurance expenses due to burnout and general work-related stress is staggering: for example, the American Institute of Stress estimates the total cost to American enterprises at 300 billion US$ per year, while a 2012 study commissioned by the Health Programme of the European Union estimates the annual cost to EU enterprises at 272 billion €.

In the new study, researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Leipzig show that the unconscious needs of employees — their so-called “implicit motives” — play an important role in the development of burnout. The researchers focus on two important motives: the power motive, that is, the need to take responsibility for others, maintain discipline, and engage in arguments or negotiation, in order to feel strong and self-efficacious; and the affiliation motive, the need for positive personal relations, in order to feel trust, warmth, and belonging. A mismatch between job characteristics and either implicit motive can cause burnout, the results show. Moreover, a mismatch in either direction is risky: employees can get burned out when they have too much or not enough scope for power or affiliation compared to their individual needs.

“We found that the frustration of unconscious affective needs, caused by a lack of opportunities for motive-driven behavior, is detrimental to psychological and physical well-being. The same is true for goal-striving that doesn’t match a well-developed implicit motive for power or affiliation, because then excessive effort is necessary to achieve that goal. Both forms of mismatch act as ‘hidden stressors’ and can cause burnout,” says the leading author, Veronika Brandstätter, Professor of Psychology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Brandstätter and colleagues recruited 97 women and men between 22 and 62 through the Swiss Burnout website, an information resource and forum for Swiss people suffering from burnout. Participants completed questionnaires about their physical well-being, degree of burnout, and the characteristics of their job, including its opportunities and demands.

To assess implicit motives — whose strength varies from person to person, but which can’t be measured directly through self-reports since they are mostly unconscious — Brandstätter et al. used an inventive method: they asked the participants to write imaginative short stories to describe five pictures, which showed an architect, trapeze artists, women in a laboratory, a boxer, and a nightclub scene. Each story was analyzed by trained coders, who looked for sentences about positive personal relations between persons (thus expressing the affiliation motive) or about persons having impact or influence on others (expressing the power motive). Participants who used many such sentences in their story received a higher score for the corresponding implicit motive.

The greater the mismatch between someone’s affiliation motive and the scope for personal relations at the job, the higher the risk of burnout, show the researchers. Likewise, adverse physical symptoms, such as headache, chest pain, faintness, and shortness of breath, became more common with increasing mismatch between an employee’s power motive and the scope for power in his or her job.

Importantly, these results immediately suggest that interventions that prevent or repair such mismatches could increase well-being at work and reduce the risk of burnout.

“A starting point could be to select job applicants in such a way that their implicit motives match the characteristics of the open position. Another strategy could be so-called “job crafting,” where employees proactively try to enrich their job in order to meet their individual needs. For example, an employee with a strong affiliation motive might handle her duties in a more collaborative way and try to find ways to do more teamwork,” says Brandstätter.

“A motivated workforce it the key to success in today’s globalized economy. Here, we need innovative approaches that go beyond providing attractive working conditions. Matching employees’ motivational needs to their daily activities at work might be the way forward. This may also help to address growing concerns about employee mental health, since burnout is essentially an erosion of motivation. To do so, we must increasingly take account of motivational patterns in the context of occupational stress research, and study person-environment-fit across entire organizations and industries,” says Beate Schulze, a Senior Researcher at the Department of Social and Occupational Medicine of the University of Leipzig and Vice-President of the Swiss Expert Network on Burnout.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811171643.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Human ‘super predator’ more terrifying than bears, wolves and Human ‘super predator’ more terrifying than bears, wolves and dogs

Bears, wolves and other large carnivores are frightening beasts but the fear they inspire in their prey pales in comparison to that caused by the human ‘super predator.’

A new study by Western University demonstrates that smaller carnivores, like European badgers, that may be prey to large carnivores, actually perceive humans as far more frightening. Globally, humans now kill smaller carnivores at much higher rates than large carnivores do, and these results indicate that smaller carnivores have learned to fear the human ‘super predator’ far more than they fear their traditional enemies.

These findings by Liana Zanette and Michael Clinchy from Western’s Faculty of Science, in collaboration with celebrated British biologist David Macdonald from University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and others, were published this week in Behavioral Ecology.

Zanette, a professor in Western’s Department of Biology, and her colleagues experimentally demonstrated that smaller carnivores, like badgers, foxes and raccoons, that may appear to be habituated to humans because they live among us, are actually experiencing elevated levels of fear — living in fear of the human ‘super predator’ in human-dominated landscapes.

“Our previous research has shown that the fear large carnivores inspire can itself shape ecosystems. These new results indicate that the fear of humans, being greater, likely has even greater impacts on the environment, meaning humans may be distorting ecosystem processes even more than previously imagined,” explains Zanette, a wildlife ecologist. “These results have important implications for conservation, wildlife management and public policy.”

By frightening their prey, large carnivores help maintain healthy ecosystems by preventing smaller carnivores from eating everything in sight, and the loss of this ‘landscape of fear’ adds to conservation concerns regarding the worldwide loss of large carnivores. Fear of humans has been proposed to act as a substitute, but these new results demonstrate that the fear of humans is qualitatively different and cannot be expected to fulfill the same ecosystem function.

The team conducted the study on Europeans badgers in Wytham Woods, just outside of Oxford (UK). To experimentally compare their relative fearfulness, the team played badgers the sounds of bears, wolves, dogs and humans in their natural habitat and filmed their responses, using hidden automated speakers and cameras. Whereas hearing bears and dogs had some effect, simply hearing the sound of people speaking, in conversation, or reading passages from books, prevented most badgers from feeding entirely, and dramatically reduced the time spent feeding by those few badgers that were brave enough to venture forth — while hearing the sound of the human ‘super predator.’

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160725135357.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Songbirds’ epic migrations connected to a small cluster of genes

Scientists from the University of British Columbia have shown that there is a genetic basis to the migratory routes flown by songbirds, and have narrowed in on a relatively small cluster of genes that may govern the behaviour.

“It’s amazing that the routes and timing of such complex behaviour could be genetically determined and associated with a very small portion of the genome,” said researcher Kira Delmore, lead author of the paper published in Current Biology.

“What’s even more amazing is that differences in this behaviour could be helping to maintain the huge diversity of songbirds we see in the natural world.”

Seasonal migration is one of the most remarkable biological phenomena in the world, with routes spanning thousands of kilometres and involving billions of animals. Songbirds travel up to 15,000 kilometres, despite often weighing under ten grams. They undertake these journeys alone at night and return to the same locations year after year.

Delmore and her colleagues used coin-sized light-level geolocators to track songbirds’ migrations, and next-generation sequencing techniques to get an in-depth view of their genomes. They applied these two recently-developed techniques to two closely related groups of Swainson’s thrushes in B.C., and their hybrids.

While the groups are evolutionarily and genetically related, they take different routes on migration each year. A coastal group migrates down the west coast, southward to Mexico and Central America, while an inland group near Kamloops migrates southeastward to the southeastern USA and then South America. The groups interbreed northeast of Vancouver, in the coastal mountains.

Previous work conducted by the team showed that birds from the hybrid population take intermediary migration routes, which cross deserts and mountainous regions. These inferior routes likely cause hybrids to have lower reproductive success, resulting in less gene flow between the groups and more differentiation between them.

By linking the migratory behavior of hybrids to their genetic makeup, these researchers pinpointed a single cluster of roughly 60 genes on one chromosome that largely accounts for the difference in migration patterns.

The genes play an important role in the birds’ circadian, nervous and cell signalling systems. They are also located in regions of the genome that have reduced movement of genes from one population of thrushes to the other.

“Smaller scale studies have associated some genes in this region with migratory behavior in organisms as diverse as butterflies, fish and other birds,” said UBC zoologist Darren Irwin, senior author of the study. “These results provide even stronger evidence that evolution of this genetic cluster can cause different migratory routes, facilitating the evolution of two species from one.”

Delmore conducted the research while at UBC and is now with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, where she will continue to winnow down the set of genes responsible for migration, and use the same cutting edge techniques to investigate other populations of birds.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Sciencè Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160728143251.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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* Can you teach koalas new tricks?

In a paper titled Using complementary remote detection methods for retrofitted eco-passages: a case study for monitoring individual koalas in south-east Queensland published by the CSIRO on Tuesday (July 26), the Environmental Futures Research Institute team verified 130 crossings by koalas involving a retrofitted structure or a road surface over a 30-month period.

Professor Darryl Jones said nobody knew whether the structures would actually keep koalas safe from being hit by cars or if they would work. “We expected the animals to take a while to get used to them,” he said.

“To our great surprise they were using them three weeks into it. Can you teach koalas new tricks? You can, that’s the point. I was the first sceptical person to say they’re not that smart.”

The team used a range of technologies that allowed them to not just generically monitor whether koalas passed through the crossing but pinpointed individual koalas and the exact time they entered and left the tunnel.

Using camera traps, audio radio transmitters and RFID tags that are similar to microchips in pets, they gathered more information than any researcher ever has or would be necessary to monitor koala movements and habits.

“This is all about trying to make absolutely sure that koalas are using some of the structures we’ve put out for them to get safely under roads,” Professor Jones said.

“Knowing how they do that is really difficult. You can get photos but you don’t know if it’s the same animal each time.

“The essence of this you can get really import information using a range of technologies at the same time. That’s a world first. Nobody has done that so comprehensively before.

“We really wanted to know what individual koalas were doing, whether they crossed at the same time each day. We wanted more information than most people ever need and we did that using this range of technologies.”

Professor Jones said most people living in suburban Brisbane or parts of the Gold Coast did not realise koalas lived all around them and that these structures were keeping them safe in their backyards and off the roads.

The research was supported by funding from the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, which was responsible for the structures.

“The tunnels were an experiment,” Professor Jones said.

“Nobody knew whether they would work or not. We really wanted to know what the local koala was doing so we got ridiculous amount of details of these animals.

“We needed to be clear on whether they were successful because the structures were so innovative and risky that we tried really hard to prove it. That’s why it was worth it.

“Although we don’t want the koalas to be disturbed, all over the place on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane there are special koala specific tunnels and ledges that’s allowing them to cross. Those animals are not going to be hit anymore so that’s good news.

The crossings studied in Brisbane were within the jurisdictions of Brisbane City, Redland City and Moreton Bay Regional Council.

Traffic volumes for this region are predicted to increase by 19 per cent, or 2.8 million trips per day between 2006 and 2031.

The paper states: “The continuous clearing of koala habitat for development has placed a great deal of pressure on local koala populations and the risk of vehicle strike is recognised as a key threatening process for ongoing koala persistence in this region.

“The focus must shift from studies that simply assess how many species pass through an eco-passage (i.e. presence), to those that assess the utilisation level by individuals.

“Such information will represent a powerful step forward in providing road authorities with recommendations in relation to the design and placement of crossing structures, and ensuring that the costs equal the ecological benefit.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804101628.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Scavenger crows provide public service, research shows

Crows are performing a useful function and keeping our environment free from rotting carcasses, research carried out at the University of Exeter in Cornwall has discovered.

Using motion activated cameras in and around Falmouth and the University’s Penryn Campus, Cornwall, ecologists observed what happened to experimental rat carcasses which they placed under view.

The researchers found that most of the carcass removal ecosystem service — which has been well studied in more natural and exotic habitats, such as vultures in Africa — is being carried out by crows, with a little help from foxes, magpies, badgers and herring gulls.

Dr Richard Inger, a researcher attached to the Environmental and Sustainability Institute at Penryn Campus, said: “If you consider all the wildlife that lives in the habitats in our towns and countryside, it might seem odd that we rarely see dead animals, apart from roadkill. This is because other animals act as scavengers and eat them.

“It’s a bit grizzly but crows and other scavengers, which are often perceived as pests and generally fairly unloved species, are performing a very valuable service. Without these scavengers dead animals would be scattered around our environment rotting and causing a hygiene hazard.”

The researchers observed and filmed 17 vertebrate species eating rat carcasses which they placed at 12 study sites between May and September 2015. Seven species including the Carrion Crow, the Common Buzzard, European Magpie, Herring Gull, Fox and Badger were recorded eating the carcasses, with 98 per cent of the activity carried out by the Crows.

Dr Inger highlighted the importance of the scavenger role and added: “We know what can happen when natural scavengers are removed as this was the case with the vulture populations of India, which plummeted massively in the 1990s. Vultures were fatally poisoned by a veterinary drug given to cattle, meaning that carcasses were not eaten by vultures but instead by feral dogs, which grew in numbers and caused a huge increase in cases of rabies.”

Professor Kevin J.Gaston, Director of the Environment and Sustainability Institute, and co-author on the paper, said: “It is vital that we understand the different ecological functions and services that organisms provide, if we are to value and manage them most appropriately. Sometimes, as in this case, it will be individual species that are especially important. In others it will be the diversity of species. In both cases, the level of function and service depends on having sufficient individuals thriving in the landscape.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160712110430.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Ravens learn best from their affiliates

Transmission of information from one individual to another forms the basis of long-term traditions and culture, and is critical in adjusting to changing environmental conditions. Animals frequently observe each other to learn about food, predators and their social environment. The study fills an important gap in our understanding of how different types of social connections affect animals’ ability to learn from the behavior of others.

Social connections range from aggressive interactions to the affiliative behaviors that are critical in forming strong social bonds. Human social behavior is frequently analyzed as social networks to capture its extent and complexity. By adopting a similar approach for ravens and analyzing their social networks, Christine Schwab and Thomas Bugnyar found that not all social connections are equally effective at influencing observation and learning. In particular, networks based on affiliative behaviors (sitting close to and preening each other, sharing food and objects) played a major role in influencing how information was transmitted in the group. Some of the most frequent affiliative behaviors were between siblings, thus emphasizing the importance of family ties in learning.

Previous studies have shown that physical proximity between individuals can facilitate learning. However, until now, hardly anything was known about the role of different social connections in observation and learning. To mimic the presence of novel information, the researchers gave raven groups a task with which they were unfamiliar. The task included a food reward to motivate ravens to solve it. Ravens only observed others’ interactions with the task if they had strong social bonds to those group members. Presence of strong social bonds increases tolerance among individuals, allowing them to observe each other from a close distance. Birds with strong bonds to the group members who had already solved the task were able to observe them from a close distance, and as a result, gained this new information sooner than those who were not connected.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713101619.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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* Black bear links real objects to computer images

American black bears may be able to recognize things they know in real life, such as pieces of food or humans, when looking at a photograph of the same thing. This is one of the findings of a study led by Zoe Johnson-Ulrich and Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in the US, which involved a black bear called Migwan and a computer screen. The findings are published in Springer’s journal Animal Cognition.

The study forms part of a broader research project into the welfare of bears in captivity. It aims to find out how the animals themselves rate the environment in which they are held, and the facilities, food and features provided to them. The goal is to assess this by presenting bears with photographs of objects. To do so, the research team first had to assess whether bears are in fact able to recognize 2-D images of objects and people familiar to them when these are presented to them on a touch screen.

With this in mind, the researchers tested the responses of an American black bear named Migwan. The bear was born in the wild, but was rescued at a very young age and rehabilitated due to injuries. She had previously received several months of training on an unrelated task using photographs of food items from her normal diet. In this study, Migwan was first presented with two sets of objects new to her. Her ability to recognize these later, when presented with photographs including the items she had learned, was then assessed. In a reverse task, she was also trained on the photographs of two different sets of objects and tested on the transfer to real objects.

It was found that Migwan was able to recognize, on a photograph, the visual features of objects or natural stimuli she already knew. It is an ability that bears share with hens, rhesus monkeys, pigeons, tortoises and horses.

“Bears can transfer learning with real objects to photographs of those objects presented on computer screens,” says Johnson-Ulrich.

This means that photographs of items (food, objects, people or other bears) that are familiar to bears can be used to further test their discrimination ability. Johnson-Ulrich therefore believes that the findings have important implications for the use of photographs in computerized studies involving bears, and in ultimately ensuring the welfare of captive bears.

“Because a lot of research with photographic stimuli uses familiar images, for example food or conspecifics, this is useful in suggesting that bears’ responses to these photographs may reflect behaviors towards real items,” Vonk notes.

Johnson-Ulrich and Vonk however caution that the ability of bears to recognize features of real objects within 2D-images does not necessarily mean they understand the representational nature of photographs. It is also still uncertain how well bears are able to recognize tangible objects which they first saw on a photograph before being introduced to the real thing. Further research using other bears is therefore needed to verify if the animals can transfer information from pictures to objects, too.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160714110745.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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What free will looks like in the brain

Johns Hopkins University researchers are the first to glimpse the human brain making a purely voluntary decision to act.

Unlike most brain studies where scientists watch as people respond to cues or commands, Johns Hopkins researchers found a way to observe people’s brain activity as they made choices entirely on their own. The findings, which pinpoint the parts of the brain involved in decision-making and action, are now online, and due to appear in a special October issue of the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

“How do we peek into people’s brains and find out how we make choices entirely on our own?” asked Susan Courtney, a professor of psychological and brain sciences. “What parts of the brain are involved in free choice?”

The team devised a novel experiment to track a person’s focus of attention without using intrusive cues or commands. Participants, positioned in MRI scanners, were left alone to watch a split screen as rapid streams of colorful numbers and letters scrolled past on each side. They were asked simply to pay attention to one side for a while, then to the other side — when to switch sides was entirely up to them. Over an hour, the participants switched their attention from one side to the other dozens of times.

Researchers monitored the participants’ brains as they watched the media stream, both before and after they switched their focus.

For the first time, researchers were able to see both what happens in a human brain the moment a free choice is made, and what happens during the lead-up to that decision — how the brain behaves during the deliberation over whether to act.

The actual switching of attention from one side to the other was closely linked to activity in the parietal lobe, near the back of the brain. The activity leading up to the choice — that is, the period of deliberation — occurred in the frontal cortex, in areas involved in reasoning and movement, and in the basal ganglia, regions deep within the brain that are responsible for a variety of motor control functions including the ability to start an action. The frontal-lobe activity began earlier than it would have if participants had been told to shift attention, clearly demonstrating that the brain was preparing a purely voluntary action rather than merely following an order.

Together, the two brain regions make up the core components underlying the will to act, the authors concluded.

“What’s truly remarkable about this project,” said Leon Gmeindl, a research scientist at Johns Hopkins and lead author of the study, “is that by devising a way to detect brain events that are otherwise invisible — that is, a kind of high-tech ‘mind reading’ — we uncovered important information about what may be the neural underpinnings of volition, or free will.”

Now that scientists have a way to track choices made from free will, they can use the technique to determine what’s happening in the brain as people wrestle with other, more complex decisions. For instance, researchers could observe the brain as someone tried to decide between snacking on a doughnut or on an apple — watching as someone weighed short-term rewards against long-term rewards, and perhaps being able to pinpoint the tipping point between the two.

“We now have the ability to learn more about how we make decisions in the real world,” Courtney said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713114937.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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* Newborn ducklings can acquire notions of ‘same’ and ‘different’

Scientists from the University of Oxford have shown that newly hatched ducklings can readily acquire the concepts of ‘same’ and ‘different’ — an ability previously known only in highly intelligent animals such as apes, crows and parrots.

Ducklings and other young animals normally learn to identify and follow their mother through a type of learning called imprinting, which can occur in as little as 15 minutes after hatching. Imprinting is a powerful form of learning that can allow ducklings to follow any moving object, provided they see it within the species’ typical ‘sensitive period’ for imprinting.

In this new study, published in the journal Science, ducklings were initially presented with a pair of objects either the same as or different from each other — in shape or in colour — which moved in a circular path.

The ducklings therefore ‘imprinted’ on these pairs of moving objects before being tested for their preferences between different sets of objects. In these subsequent choice tests, each duckling was allowed to follow either of two pairs of objects composed of shapes or colours to which the duckling had not previously been exposed.

For example, if an individual duckling had originally been exposed to a pair of spherical objects, in the choice test it may have had to choose between following a pair of pyramids (same) or a pair made up of one cube and one cuboid (different).

If the birds had learned the relationship between members of the original moving pair, then they should have followed the pairs of novel objects showing that same relationship (either ‘same’ or ‘different’), even if they had never seen the test objects.

In the example above, ducklings that had been imprinted on two spheres should have followed the set of two pyramids, because they were the same as each other. This is exactly what the ducklings did.

About three-quarters of the ducklings preferred to follow the stimulus pair exhibiting the relationship they had learned in imprinting, and their accuracy was as good whether they had to learn the concept of equal or different, or whether they were tested with shapes or colours.

Professor Alex Kacelnik of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, who has worked extensively on learning and decision-making in animals, said: ‘To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of a non-human organism learning to discriminate between abstract relational concepts without any reinforcement training. The other animals that have demonstrated this ability have all done so by being repeatedly rewarded for correct performance, while our ducklings did it spontaneously, thanks to their predisposition to imprint when very young.

‘And because imprinting happens so quickly, the ducklings learned to discriminate relational concepts much faster than other species, and with a similar level of precision.’

Antone Martinho, a doctoral student in Oxford’s Department of Zoology and the study’s first author, said: ‘While it seems surprising at first that these one-day-old ducklings can learn something that normally only very intelligent species can do, it also makes biological sense. When a duckling is young, it needs to be able to stay near its mother for protection, and an error in identifying her could be fatal.

‘Ducks walk, swim and fly, and are constantly changing their exact shape and appearance as they extend their wings or become partially submerged, or even change angle with respect to the viewer. If the ducklings just had a visual “snapshot” of their mother, they would lose her. They need to be able to flexibly and reliably identify her, and a library of concepts and characteristics describing her is a much more efficient way to do so, compared with a visual memory of every possible configuration of the mother and her environment.

‘Still, this is an unexpected feat for a duckling, and a further reminder that “bird-brain” is quite an unfair slur.’

The discovery of relational concept learning in a new species and in a newly hatched baby bird suggests that this ability may not be as rare or as difficult as previously thought.

Professor Kacelnik added: ‘It may mean that relational concepts are adaptively useful or even necessary to a wider variety of animal. Most animals will, like the ducklings, need identification mechanisms that are robust to natural variation. A challenge we face now is to identify the processes by which the animals’ brains achieve it.’

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160714151856.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Overeating in obese mice linked to altered brain responses to food cues

Obese mice are much more likely than lean mice to overeat in the presence of environmental cues, a behavior that could be related to changes in the brain, finds a new study by a Michigan State University neuroscientist. The study is to be presented this week at the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior.

The findings offer clues in Alexander Johnson’s quest to unpack the interconnected mechanisms of overeating and obesity. Obesity is an epidemic domestically — more than a third of Americans are considered to be obese — and a growing health problem in other parts of the world.

“In today’s society we are bombarded with signals to eat, from fast-food commercials to the smell of barbecue and burgers, and this likely drives overeating behaviors,” said Johnson, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University. “Our study suggests both a psychological and neurobiological account for why obese individuals may be particularly vulnerable to these signals.”

The study involved two groups of mice — one group that was fed a high-calorie diet until they became obese and a second group that was fed a regular lab chow diet so they stayed lean. Johnson then trained the mice with different auditory cues. Whenever they heard one cue, such as a tone, the mice received sugar reward; with a second cue, such as a white noise, they received no reward.

The mice were then given access to their assigned maintenance diet for three days so they were satiated (i.e., not hungry) for the final test phase of the study. In that test, the sugar solution was available to the mice at all times, to see what would trigger them to start eating. When no cue was given, and when the white-noise cue was given (which previously offered no reward), the lean mice and obese mice ate roughly the same amount. When the rewarding tone cue was given, however, the obese mice ate significantly more of the sugar solution compared to the lean mice.

“From a psychological perspective, this tells us that the obese mice are more vulnerable to the effects of environmental triggers on evoking overeating behavior,” Johnson said. “Looking at it through a human lens, this suggests that obese individuals may be more sensitive to overeating food in the presence of say, the McDonald’s Golden Arches.”

Johnson also examined the mice’s lateral hypothalamus, which is known as a key brain area in appetite and feeding behavior. Using a procedure called immunofluorescence to label neurons in this area of the brain, he found that neurons releasing a certain hormone- Melanin-Concentrating Hormone, or MCH — were more abundant in obese mice. But importantly, these MCH-releasing neurons were more active when the obese mice encountered the environmental reminders of sugar.

“In other words, if you become obese this leads to increases in MCH expression, which may make you more sensitive to this form of overeating,” Johnson said.

The novel findings, he added, start to paint a picture of the relationship between brain-behavior mechanisms that may underlie learned overeating in obese individuals.

“This could be one of perhaps many reasons why obese people may have the urge to eat more when presented with food cues.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160712092351.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Thinking ‘I can do better’ really can improve performance, study finds

Telling yourself I can do better, can really make you do better at a given task, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology has found.

Over 44,000 people took part in an experiment to discover what motivational techniques really worked. In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, Professor Andrew Lane and his colleagues tested which physiological skills would help people improve their scores in an online game.

This complex study examined if one motivational method would be more effective for any specific aspect of a task. The methods tested were self-talk, imagery, and if-then planning. Each of these psychological skills was applied to one of four parts of a competitive task: process, outcome, arousal-control, and instruction.

People using self-talk, for example telling yourself “I can do better next time” — performed better than the control group in every portion of the task.

The greatest improvements were seen in self-talk-outcome (telling yourself, “I can beat my best score”), self-talk-process (telling yourself, “I can react quicker this time”), imagery-outcome (imagining yourself playing the game and beating your best score), and imagery-process (imagining yourself playing and reacting quicker than last time).

They also found a short motivational video could improve performance. Participants watched a short video before playing the online game. The coach for these videos was, none other than, four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, an athlete known for advocating mental preparedness in addition to physical training.

If-then planning was found to be one of the least successful of this study, despite being an effective tool in weight management and other real life challenges.

Professor Lane said: “Working on, ‘Can You Compete?’ was inspirational and educational; since we have been developing online interventions to help people manage their emotions and doing this across a range of specific contexts from delivering a speech to fighting in a boxing ring, from taking an exam to going into dangerous places.”

Over 44,000 people participated in the study, an astounding number considering that the majority of psychological experiments have fewer than 300 participants. The participants were divided into 12 experimental groups and one control group, also impressive, because most studies have two or three experimental groups.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160630102038.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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‘Big mama’ bonobos help younger females stand up for themselves

Female bonobo coalitions more easily defeat aggressive males. Bullying happens in the primate world too, but for young bonobo females, big mama comes to the rescue. Japanese primatologists report in Animal Behaviour that older bonobo females frequently aid younger females when males behave aggressively towards them.

“We may have uncovered one of the ways in which females maintain a superior status in bonobo society,” says lead author Nahoko Tokuyama of Kyoto University.

In their study, Tokuyama and fellow researcher Takeshi Furuichi observed a group of wild bonobos at Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Primate females sometimes forge partnerships to attack others. Typically, such coalitions are formed between relatives to protect useful resources from non-relatives.” says Tokuyama. “For bonobos, females leave their birth group during adolescence, so females in a group are generally non-relative to each other. Despite this, they frequently form coalitions; a major research goal for us was to highlight the dynamics in which coalition-forming happens in non-relative individuals.”

Through four years of observation they found that all female coalitions were formed to attack males, usually after males behaved aggressively toward one or more females. They also found that older females have better chances of winning when the battle is one-one-one, and when females form alliances they always win over males. What’s more, the older females don’t play favorites; whether a younger female is friendlier with the older female has no relation to whether the older female comes to help.

Tokuyama observes that coalition-forming in female bonobos may have evolved as a way to combat male harassment. “Young females have a lower social status than males, but protection from older females seem to let young females join the group without fear of being attacked by males. By controlling aggression by males in this manner, females maintain overall superiority in the social hierarchy.

“It’s beneficial for the older females as well, because the younger females start spending more time with them in hopes of getting protection. This way, the older female can give her son more opportunities to mate with the younger females. Such partnerships might in fact be the very factor that fosters gregariousness and promotes tolerance among females.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160719105718.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Chimpanzees who travel are more frequent tool users

Chimpanzees who travel are more frequent tool users, according to new findings from the University of Neuchâtel and the University of Geneva, Switzerland, to be published in eLife.

Hawa is a wild chimpanzee from the Budongo Forest in Uganda who burns up a lot of energy travelling, which he has learnt to replenish with a dose of honey. His friend Squibs makes less of an effort to roam and has not acquired the skills needed to enjoy this high-energy treat. This pattern was repeated in other members of the study group over seven years of observation.

A low quantity of ripe fruit also increases chimpanzees’ motivation to acquire new foraging skills, but the effect is less pronounced than travel.

“Our results show that travel fosters tool use in wild chimpanzees and it may also have been a driving force in early technological evolution by humans,” says Dr Thibaud Gruber from the University of Geneva.

The team reviewed data from nine other chimpanzee communities to confirm the pattern. Chimpanzees’ closest relative, the Bonobo, travels around the same average distance as the Sonso and other Ugandan chimpanzees and uses a similar set of tools. Gorillas and most orangutans show limited or no feeding-related tool use and spend significantly less time travelling per day on the ground compared to chimpanzees. In contrast, modern human hunter-gatherers walk on average 11.4-14.1 km per day and use many more tools than any of the great apes.

Gruber studied 70 individuals of the Sonso community of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, known for its limited tool use behaviour. This made them ideal subjects to study how tool use emerges. The only feeding-related tools they use are folded leaves, usually to collect water, and moss to soak up mineral deposits from a clay pit. 52 of them engaged with the experiment.

“After seven years of field work, I had a massive amount of data and there was clear variation in how chimpanzees engaged with the experiment. I thought it would be interesting to analyse why,” says Gruber.

He deployed the “honey trap experiment.” The Sonso chimpanzees already used their fingers to take honey from bees’ nests, with limited success. In the “honey trap” experiment, a hole is drilled into a log and partially filled with this tempting prize so it can only be accessed with an implement. Most of the individuals who successfully extracted honey employed the community’s habitual tool, a folded leaf sponge, while two used a stick. A total of 21 instances of tool use were observed in 11 individuals.

The team reviewed the data against a whole range of variables including the quantity of ripe fruits eaten and the average daily distance the chimpanzees travelled.

“We didn’t expect travel to be that important, and were surprised that it had an even greater influence than if they fed less on their preferred food of ripe fruits,” says Gruber.

The team conclude that travel created an extra need for high-energy food while the challenge of inaccessible honey created an opportunity for innovation. The team did not analyse the potential influence of social learning to influence it. In 2011, Gruber and a colleague Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews discovered that the community’s use of moss as a sponge emerged from one individual named Nick, whose behavior was copied by a dominant female and quickly spread.

The study also reveals the influence of local ecology in the development of tool use. The Budongo Forest has provided a rich environment for chimpanzees, which could explain the previous lack of tool use in the Sonso community. However, in the last few decades, the food supply has steadily decreased.

It has been suggested that the development of tool use and sociality in early humans could likewise have been adaptive responses to heightened habitat instability caused by climate change.

“When times are changing, you have to adapt your behavior and our data illustrate that chimps will pay more attention to the possibilities offered by their environment in more demanding periods,” says Gruber.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160719091722.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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It’s not just a grunt: Pigs really do have something to say

The grunts made by pigs vary depending on the pig’s personality and can convey important information about the welfare of this highly social species, new research has found.

Scientists specialising in animal behaviour and welfare devised an experiment to investigate the relationship between personality and the rate of grunting in pigs. They also examined the effect different quality living conditions had on these vocalisations.

Findings from the study, carried out by researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, and Queens University Belfast, are published in the Royal Society journal Open Science.

The study involved 72 male and female juvenile pigs. Half were housed in spacious ‘enriched’ pens with straw bedding, while the other half were kept in more compact ‘barren’ pens with partially slatted concrete floors, which adhered to UK welfare requirements.

To get a measure of the pigs’ personalities, the researchers conducted two tests: a social isolation test and a novel object test. Each pig spent three minutes in social isolation, and five minutes in a pen with a large white bucket or an orange traffic cone they had not previously encountered. Their behaviour, including vocalisations, were observed. These tests were repeated two weeks later, allowing the researchers to determine if the pigs’ responses were repeatable — the defining characteristic of personality (also known as ‘coping style’ in animals).

They also recorded the frequency of grunts they made by counting the number of grunts produced per minute of the test, and investigated the effect different quality environments had on the sounds made.

The study indicated that pigs with more proactive personality types produced grunts at a higher rate than the more reactive animals. The study also found that male pigs (but not females) kept in the lower-quality conditions made fewer grunts compared with those housed in the enriched environment, suggesting greater susceptibility among male pigs to environmental factors.

The results add to evidence that acoustic signalling indicates personality in pigs. This may have had far reaching consequences in shaping the evolution of social behaviours, the researchers believe. The findings also suggest personality needs to be kept in mind when using vocalisation as a measure of the animals’ welfare status.

Principal investigator, Dr Lisa Collins, a specialist in animal health, behaviour and welfare epidemiology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: “The domestic pig is a highly social and vocal species which uses acoustic signals in a variety of ways; maintaining contact with other group members while foraging, parent-offspring communication, or to signal if they are distressed.

“The sounds they make convey a wide range of information such as the emotional, motivational and physiological state of the animal. For example, squeals are produced when pigs feel fear, and may be either alerting others to their situation or offering assurance. Grunts occur in all contexts, but are typical of foraging to let other members of the group know where they are.”

Mary Friel, lead author of the study and PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast, added: “The aim of this research was to investigate what factors affect vocalisations in pigs so that we can better understand what information they convey. Understanding how the vocalisations of pigs’ relate to their personality will also help animal behaviourists and welfare experts have a clearer picture of the impact those personalities have on communication, and thus its role in the evolution of social behaviour and group dynamics in social species.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160629100349.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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* The story of how a touch screen helped a paralyzed chimp walk again

The case of Reo, a male chimpanzee that learned to walk again after being paralyzed due to illness, shows how much can be done to rehabilitate animals injured in captivity. So says lead author Yoko Sakuraba of Kyoto University, in an article in Primates, the official journal of the Japan Monkey Centre published by Springer.

In their normal work, researchers of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University use chimpanzees’ interaction with computers and touch screens to study the cognition and perception of these primates. When Reo was paralyzed from the neck down, dedicated staff put this technology to further use by encouraging the animal to walk again. This is the first case in which a paralyzed chimpanzee has been rehabilitated through such a dedicated programme.

When Reo was 24 years old in 2006, he suddenly became paralyzed when a portion of his spinal cord became inflamed. For the first ten months thereafter, the chimpanzee was severely disabled, lying on his back. He gradually recovered enough to sit up, and could later pull himself upright by using suspended ropes. Intensive physiotherapy over a period of 41 months followed, after which he was able to climb about again using only his arms.

To aid Reo’s ultimate integration back among the other twelve animals held at the institute, his carers decided to try to get him walking again. They incorporate a computerised task in this process. This was considered an option because in his youth Reo had learnt how to perform cognitive tasks on a touch panel, and in so doing had become used to receiving food rewards whenever he succeeded at tasks presented to him.

A computer-controlled monitor was therefore placed on one wall, and cognitive tasks were again put to him. It was not plain sailing at first, and the research team had to adapt their ideas seven times before they received any cooperation from a somewhat fearful Reo. Thereafter, whenever he completed a task successfully, a food reward was placed on a tray on the opposite side of the room. This meant that Reo had to move at least two meters to reach it. To busy himself at the screen again to start a new task, he had to make the two meter return journey.

At first he did so using a rope for assistance, but gradually he started travelling in an upright seated position which resembled the side-to-side manner of a penguin walking on land. The rehabilitation sessions encouraged him to increase his movements considerably, and he started walking up to five hundred meters in a two-hour session.

“Cognitive tasks may be a useful way to rehabilitate physically disabled chimpanzees, and thus improve their welfare in captivity,” says Sakuraba, who says that euthanasia need not be the only option for animals injured in captivity.

She further notes that the personality and physical condition of each animal must be considered when designing and adjusting such a rehabilitation program.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160705120143.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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* The snow leopard — world’s most mysterious big cat — may be more common than thought

The snow leopard has long been one of the least studied — and therefore poorly understood — of the large cats. No longer.

Scientists studying snow leopards now say the big cats may be more common than previously thought. New estimates focused on areas described as ‘Snow Leopard Conservation Units,’ covering only 44 percent of the snow leopard’s extensive range (which extends over roughly 3 million km2 or 1,158,306 square miles) suggests that there may be between 4,678 and 8,745 snow leopards just in these units. This is higher than previous estimates for the entire global population, which had previously been thought to be only between 3,920 and 7,500.

The new census information appears in Snow Leopards, published by Elsevier Press and edited by Dr. Tom McCarthy and Dr. David Mallon. The book is an astonishingly comprehensive work on the biology, behavior and conservation status of these previously mysterious and enigmatic large carnivores. The book brings together the most current scientific knowledge, documents the most pressing conservation issues, and shares success stories in alleviating the broad threats that now jeopardize the long-term survival of this species.

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) lives across the great mountain ranges of Asia, occurring in the highland regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Nepal, and Russia. The snow leopard is perfectly adapted for these high mountains with its powerful legs for jumping, thick fur for warmth, grayish-white color pattern for camouflage, and long tail for balance.

However, because of their remote and difficult habitat, shy behavior, and cryptic coloration, studying snow leopards has been extremely difficult.

“Only in recent years have advances such as satellite telemetry and compact camera traps capable of taking high-quality night shots while surviving extreme low temperatures allowed scientists to begin to unravel the mysteries behind the snow leopard’s life,” said WCS scientist and veterinarian Dr. Stephane Ostrowski.

Said Peter Zahler, Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Snow Leopard Program: “This is an incredibly important book. It has collected virtually all the most recent research and information from all 12 range states, covering biology, behavior, threats, and conservation activities for this mysterious and elusive big cat and for the ‘mountain monarchs’ — Asia’s wild mountain goats and sheep — that are their main prey. This book will serve as the go-to reference work on snow leopards for decades to come.”

WCS affiliates and staff authored or co-authored nine chapters in the book, covering such topics as biogeography and status; community governance; transboundary initiatives; disease; resource extraction and linear infrastructure; rescue, rehabilitation, translocation, reintroduction, and captive rearing; the role of snow leopards as zoo ambassadors; status and conservation in Afghanistan; and global strategies for snow leopard conservation.

WCS authors included Peter Zahler, Richard Paley, Stephane Ostrowski, Dale Miquelle, Patrick Thomas, Eric Sanderson, Kim Fisher, Zalmai Moheb, Anthony Simms, and Martin Gilbert, as well as a forward by WCS Senior Conservationist George Schaller.

Despite the good news about snow leopard numbers, the species still faces multiple pressures.

Said Richard Paley, Director of the WCS Afghanistan Program: “Snow leopards are still regularly poached for their beautiful fur. They are also killed in retaliation for taking herder’s livestock. With the decline in their wild prey from overhunting, snow leopards may find themselves forced to take more livestock, which leads to a vicious cycle that snow leopards often lose.”

Said Dale Miquelle, WCS Big Cat expert: “We have lost over 90 percent of the world’s wild tigers in the last 100 years, and we have lost over 40 percent of African lions in the last 20 years. Big cats around the world are in danger of extinction. While it is great news to discover that there are more snow leopards than we thought, there is also a good chance that this situation might not last.”

“The protection of snow leopards, their prey, and their unique high-mountain landscapes must continue to be a priority for the global community,” said Zahler. “Because of the low human density in these mountains there is still extensive habitat for snow leopards. But with growing pressures — hunting, mining, roads, and even climate change — our window for ensuring long-term protection of these big cats will close fast.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160705160429.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Exploring ways to ‘coexist with wildlife’

Although protected areas such as national parks can play a crucial role in conserving wildlife, most species of large carnivores and large herbivores also depend on being able to occupy human-dominated landscapes. This sharing of space is often associated with conflicts between humans and wildlife, and between different groups of humans with divergent interests. In order to achieve a situation that can be described as “coexistence” there is a need to develop a more nuanced and realistic understanding of what this state looks like.

A paper written by Neil Carter, assistant professor in the Human-Environment Systems Research Center in the College of Innovation and Design at Boise State, and John Linnell, a senior research scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, was recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Titled “Co-adaptation is key to coexisting with large carnivores,” the paper looks at ways to improve the ability of humans and carnivores to co-exist, which is crucial to carnivore conservation efforts around the world.

The study is based on research conducted by the authors in areas as diverse as North America, Europe and Asia on species such as wolves, tigers, leopards, lynx and bears. In the paper, the researchers note that large carnivores need larger ranges than many protected areas afford. This means that carnivores often come in contact with human populations that are sometimes less than welcoming.

Carter and Linnell wondered what actions could help mitigate the negative impacts of these contacts, allowing both humans and carnivores to more peacefully coexist in shared landscapes. They suggest that mutual adaptations are key to success, implying that not only do wild animals have to behaviourally adapt to the presence of humans, but humans also have to adapt their behavior to the presence of wild animals. Studies conducted by the authors and their colleagues have shown that many species of large carnivores show an incredible ability to occupy heavily modified human-dominated landscapes. Many human societies also show a wide range of adaptations to the proximity of large carnivores. This includes changes to the way they keep livestock and the adoption of cultural or religious practices to “negotiate” their relationship with their wild neighbours.

However, in many areas these adaptations have been lost, either due to a temporary absence of large carnivores or in the face of changing social-economic situations. The result is often severe conflicts of both an economic and social nature. Realising the necessity of adaptation by both humans and the carnivores is a key first step towards transforming conflict to coexistence. Conservation efforts that fail to focus on both halves of the equation are doomed to fail.

A factor for success has to do with realising that a state of coexistence does not involve an idealized absence of conflict. Rather than trying to eliminate all risk, which can mean eliminating a species, the authors explore ways to keep risks below tolerable levels. That involves understanding what factors influence tolerance. While some communities may not tolerate any risks from carnivores, others may tolerate high risks because they attribute carnivores with ecological and cultural benefits that exceed those risks. In many communities, the priorities of various stakeholder groups are still sometimes at odds, and there is a reduced trust in authorities. Interventions such as new policies must take into account local concerns, the authors say, such as the adoption of novel decision-making strategies that give voice to varying viewpoints.

Carter and Linnell believe that the challenges are surmountable through the help of community leaders, conservation organizations, and state or federal agencies. Insights from studies on coexistence “can help reconcile debates about carnivore conservation in shared landscapes and advance broader discourses in conservation,” they wrote, “such as those related to rewilding, novel ecosystems, and land-sharing vs. land-sparing.”

“In many ways large carnivores represent the ultimate test for human willingness to make space for wildlife on a shared planet. If it is possible to find ways to coexist with these species, it should be possible to coexist with any species,” says John Linnell, co-author on the study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160707083440.htm Original web page at Science Dail

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* Monkeys in Brazil ‘have used stone tools for hundreds of years at least’

New archaeological evidence suggests that Brazilian capuchins have been using stone tools to crack open cashew nuts for at least 700 years. Researchers say, to date, they have found the earliest archaeological examples of monkey tool use outside of Africa. In their paper, published in Current Biology, they suggest it raises questions about the origins and spread of tool use in New World monkeys and, controversially perhaps, prompts us to look at whether early human behaviour was influenced by their observations of monkeys using stones as tools. The research was led by Dr Michael Haslam of the University of Oxford, who in previous papers presents archaeological evidence showing that wild macaques in coastal Thailand used stone tools for decades at least to open shellfish and nuts.

This latest paper involved a team from Oxford and the University of São Paulo in Brazil, who observed groups of modern capuchins at Serra da Capivara National Park in northeast Brazil, and combined this with archaeological data from the same site. Researchers watched wild capuchins use stones as hand-held hammers and anvils to pound open hard foods such as seeds and cashew nuts, with young monkeys learning from older ones how to do the same. The capuchins created what the researchers describe as ‘recognisable cashew processing sites’, leaving stone tools in piles at specific places like the base of cashew trees or on tree branches after use. They found that capuchins picked their favourite tools from stones lying around, selecting those most suitable for the task. Stones used as anvils were over four times heavier than hammer stones, and hammers four times heavier than average natural stones. The capuchins also chose particular materials, using smooth, hard quartzite stones as hammers, while flat sandstones became anvils

Using archaeological methods, the researchers excavated a total of 69 stones to see if this tool technology had developed at all over time. They dug to a depth of 0.7 metres at a site close to cashew trees where they had seen modern capuchins frequently using their stone tools. They identified the tools from inspecting the size and shape of the stones, as well as the distinctive damage on the stone surface caused by capuchin pounding. Through mass spectrometry, the researchers were able to confirm that dark-coloured residues on the tools were specifically from cashew nuts. They also carbon dated small pieces of charcoal discovered with the stones to establish the oldest were least 600 to 700 years old — meaning the tools predate the arrival of Europeans in the New World.

In the paper, the researchers estimate that around 100 generations of capuchins have used this tradition of stone tools. They compared tools used by modern capuchins with the oldest excavated examples, finding they are similar in terms of weight and materials chosen. This apparent lack of change over hundreds of years suggests monkeys are ‘conservative’, preferring not to change the technology used, unlike humans living in the same region, says the paper.

Lead author Dr Michael Haslam, from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: ‘Until now, the only archaeological record of pre-modern, non-human animal tool use comes from a study of three chimpanzee sites in Cote d’Ivoire in Africa, where tools were dated to between 4,300 and 1,300 years old. Here, we have new evidence that suggests monkeys and other primates out of Africa were also using tools for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. This is an exciting, unexplored area of scientific study that may even tell us about the possible influence of monkeys’ tool use on human behaviour. For example, cashew nuts are native to this area of Brazil, and it is possible that the first humans to arrive here learned about this unknown food through watching the monkeys and their primate cashew-processing industry.’

Tool use by monkeys has featured in other research led by Dr Haslam in recently published papers. In a study in the Journal of Human Evolution (published in June 2016), the team noted how groups of macaques in the marine national park on Piak Nam Yai Island, Thailand, selected stones as tools to crush marine snails, nuts and crabs. They also identified 10 tools in excavations at the site, which they dated as between 10 and 50 years old. In another research paper detailing fieldwork at the same site, they say the modern macaques typically moved their tools a metre or less from where they picked them up, but the longest distance they observed was around 87m. The macaques ate nine oysters at a time, on average, and generally carried the same tool over short distances. In one case, however, the researchers saw a hungry macaque eat 63 oysters one after the other, using the same stone tool to open all the shells, says the paper.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160711150920.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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On the path to controlled gene therapy

The ability to switch disease-causing genes on and off remains a dream for many physicians, research scientists and patients. Research teams from across the world are busy turning this dream into a reality, including a team of researchers from Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. Led by Dr. Mazahir T. Hasan, and working under the auspices of the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, the team has successfully programmed a virus to transport the necessary genetic material to affected tissue and nerve cells inside the body.

A report on their new virus-based method, which delivers instructions to the host genome without becoming part of it, has been published in the journal Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.

From cancer to Alzheimer’s disease, many life-threatening diseases can only be treated using drug-based treatment options, if at all. Many of these treatments are non-specific in nature, or even ineffective. In some cases, the undesirable side-effects may even outweigh the desirable ones. This is because indiscriminate treatments damage healthy cells, impairing their ability to communicate with other cells; as a result, it is hoped that genetically produced and modified mediators will be able to selectively target diseased cells, and improve the way treatment is delivered. “In the laboratory, we use attenuated, i.e. non-replicating viruses that are known as recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAV). We use them to transport genetically encoded material into live organisms affected by disease,” explains Dr. Hasan. “This approach opens up a whole range of options which, in the future, may allow us to treat and heal various diseases.”

By successfully completing the initial step of testing this new method using an animal model, the researchers have laid the groundwork for future genetic treatments for use in humans. Before these can be used, however, they will need to be tested to ensure their safety. It is already known that rAAVs can transport genetically encoded material into any type of cell and tissue, including the brain, and that, once inside the cells, they are capable of repeatedly switching gene therapy applications on and off again. This on/off switch is controlled chemically, via either food intake or drinking water: “The fact that gene function can be switched on and off in this manner is of particular value, and renders the method a perfect candidate for use in controlled gene therapy,” emphasizes Dr. Hasan

The fact that rAAV-infected cells do not trigger any form of measurable immune response and that their genetic material remains completely intact represents an additional benefit. While this does not mean that future gene therapy applications are guaranteed to be successful, the researchers are full of confidence for the future. “We are still at the laboratory stage,” says Dr. Hasan, adding: “Once additional safety options are in place, this development could spearhead innovation, heralding in a time when the transfer of genetically encoded material will be used to heal severe diseases, including neurological ones such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160719110225.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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* Droppings activate the immune system in nestlings

Until now, it was believed that birds removed droppings from their nests to avoid the appearance of parasites. A recent investigation contradicts this hypothesis, concluding that feces activate the immune system of blackbird chicks and only attract insects.

In the animal world, strict rules are followed to deal with sources of contamination and potential dangers such as predation. In the case of birds, parents remove their chicks’ droppings from the nest on a daily basis to conserve hygiene. A new study carried out in Spain and published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology demonstrates that the presence of feces in nests attracts insects and provokes the activation of nestlings’ immune systems. This provides important information on the reason for this sanitation behaviour.

Until now, the predominant hypothesis in ornithology (the branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds) was that birds removed droppings from the nest in order to avoid attracting parasite species to the nest. However, the new research refutes this. “Our study demonstrates that parasites being attracted by feces does not appear to be the reason for which evolution has favoured this behaviour, despite this having been traditionally assumed to be the case,” Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo said, the paper’s main author and an investigator at the Spanish National Scientific Research Council’s (CSIC) Doñana Biological Station and at the University of Groningen (Netherlands).

The scientists ran three different experiments using insect traps, artificial nests and real blackbird nests in order to observe the attractant effect of droppings on parasites.

Although the experimental predictions were for a higher quantity of parasites when feces were present, “the fecal sacs did not attract a higher number of parasites,” says the researcher.

The chicks’ immune systems were affected by the presence of feces; specifically, there was a change in the ratio of heterophils to lymphocytes (blood cells that fight against pathogens such as parasites), a physiological indicator of birds’ response to stress. “This ratio was significantly higher in nestlings that lived near the fecal sacs than in those which did not have feces near them,” state the authors. The scientists also observed that the chicks’ droppings caused an increase in the appearance of flies and a reduction in the number of acarids. The authors indicate the capacity of flies to act as vectors for the transmission of damaging microorganisms as a cause of immune system activation.

Nestlings produce feces enclosed in a mucous covering. This unique structure, shown in a previous study to function as isolation against bacteria, may also be responsible for preventing parasites being attracted to the nest. “It is possible that the mucus acts as a barrier, blocking the spread of chemical signals that parasites may use to locate the chicks,” says Ibáñez-Álamo. “The findings of our study appear to indicate that microorganisms may play a very significant role in relation to the cleanliness of birds’ nests,” he adds.

Even so, the authors consider this habit of parent birds to be the result of several factors: “We cannot rule out that parental behaviour may be altered by the presence of feces near the nest,” they state. Even predation could be another determinant cause for this behaviour.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160621095548.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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How chameleons capture their prey

Despite their nonchalant appearance, chameleons are formidable predators, capturing their prey by whipping out their tongues with incredible precision. They can even capture preys weighing up to 30% of their own weight. In collaboration with the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle de Paris, researchers from the Université de Mons (UMONS) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) have studied this amazing sticky weapon.

Chameleons are fascinating creatures with amazing characteristics. Their feet have opposable toes, giving them a tongs-like appearance, to firmly grip branches. Their eyes move independently of each other to provide 360 degree vision. Their skin changes colour via the active tuning of a lattice of nanocrystals contained in some cells. But their most outstanding characteristic is probably their ballistic tongue, allowing the capture of distant preys.

Despite their nonchalant appearance, chameleons are formidable predators, leaving little chance to their prey. During a capture, their tongue whips out with an acceleration up to 1500 m/s² and extends to reach a length twice that of the chameleon’s body. They are also able to capture preys weighing up to 30% of their own weight. Sufficient adhesion between the prey and the tongue is therefore necessary to catch such preys.

Under the leadership of Fabian Brau from the ULB Faculty of Science’s Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit, Pascal Damman from the UMONS Interfaces and Complex Fluids Laboratory, Faculty of Science researchers from the UMONS, ULB, and Vincent Bels from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle de Paris have just demonstrated that the mucus secreted at the tip of a chameleon’s tongue has a viscosity 400 times larger than the one of human saliva. The tongue’s deformability during projection, producing a large contact area with the prey, together with this viscous liquid, form a particularly efficient adhesive weapon.

Published in the Nature Physics journal on 20 June, this interdisciplinary study, combining experiments with a dynamical model of prey capture, allowed the researchers to shed light on the basic mechanisms used by chameleons to capture their preys.

The authors used mechanical tools combined with tongue morphology measurements to demonstrate that the viscous adhesion built up during a capture is large enough to catch preys with a high mass compared to that of chameleons. Their theoretical model compares favourably with experimental data on the maximum prey mass with respect to the chameleon size.

These results provide a new methodology for studying prey prehension by other predators, such as salamanders or toads, using the tongue to capture preys.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160621115647.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Precise control of brain circuit alters mood

Pacemaker circuit keeps emotional centers working together. By combining super-fine electrodes and tiny amounts of a very specific drug, Duke University researchers have singled out a circuit in mouse brains and taken control of it to dial an animal’s mood up and down.

Stress-susceptible animals that behaved as if they were depressed or anxious were restored to relatively normal behavior by tweaking the system, according to a study appearing in the July 20 issue of Neuron.

“If you ‘turn the volume up’ on animals that hadn’t experienced stress, they start normal and then they have a problem,” said lead researcher Kafui Dzirasa, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and neurobiology. “But in the animals that had experienced stress and didn’t do well with it, you had to turn their volume up to get them back to normal. It looked like stress had turned the volume down.”

The circuit the team identified and altered is a connection the prefrontal cortex uses to keep time for the limbic system, which governs emotions and basic drives. To regulate mood, the prefrontal cortex acts as a pacemaker to coordinate the actions of the amygdala, which governs stress responses, and the ventral tegmental area, which plays a role in the brain’s reward circuitry.

“These subcortical circuits are the key regulators of our emotional life,” said Helen Mayberg, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and radiology at Emory University who was not involved in this research. “What’s great about this paper is that they use different approaches to see a circuit that’s relevant to a lot of disorders,” said Mayberg, who has been pioneering deep-brain stimulation of very specific sites in the human prefrontal cortex to treat mood disorders.

The emerging picture from this study and others is of a brain built of multi-part circuits that respond in concert and regulate one another. Specificity in understanding these circuits is going to be key to resolving different disorders, Dzirasa said.

“The prefrontal cortex is not just a blob of cells,” Mayberg said. “These findings give insight into which cells go to which area and allow researchers to kind of choreograph their actions.”

Dzirasa is an M.D. just finishing his residency in psychiatry and a Ph.D. neuroscientist with an engineering background. Postdoctoral researcher and first author Rainbo Hultman is a biochemist.

In addition to overcoming the challenges of understanding each other, they asked, “Could we go from a protein, to a signaling activity, to a cell, to a circuit, to this big activity that happens across the whole brain, to actual behavior?” Hultman said.

“Illness can happen at any one of these levels,” said Dzirasa, who is also a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.

The team started by precisely placing arrays of 32 electrodes in four brain areas of the mice. Then they recorded brain activity as these mice were subjected to a stressful situation called chronic social defeat. This allowed them to see activity between the prefrontal cortex and three areas of the limbic system that are implicated in major depression.

To interpret the complicated data coming from the electrodes, the neuroscientists then turned to Duke colleagues David Dunson of statistical science and Lawrence Carin of electrical engineering, who specialize in statistical analysis of noisy data to find important patterns. Using machine learning algorithms, they identified which parts of the data seemed to be the timing control signal between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and zeroed in on the individual neurons involved in that circuit.

“They came back with, ‘It’s this clock signature here that is responsible for which mice become susceptible to stress and which become resilient,'” Dzirasa said.

Hultman then turned to engineered molecules called DREADD developed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pharmacologist Bryan Roth. These Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drug are very specific signal receptors that can be incorporated into the neural circuit’s control spots in very tiny amounts (0.5 microliter). A drug that attaches only to that DREADD is then administered to give the researchers control over the circuit.

This new combination of electronics and drugs to intervene in an individual brain circuit might be used to create mouse models of other mood disorders for other studies, Dzirasa said. But Emory’s Mayberg cautions that a mouse brain is not a human brain and to assess anything like “mood” in a mouse, one can only infer from its behaviors. “It’s hard to do, even in a human,” she said.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160623122942.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Aging monkeys become more selective regarding their social circle

As people get older, they become choosier about how they spend their time and with whom they spend it. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 23 find, based on a series of experimental and behavioral studies, that similar changes take place in Barbary macaques. The findings offer an evolutionary perspective on why aging humans behave as they do, according to the researchers.

“An important psychological theory suggests that humans become more socially selective when they know that their remaining life time is limited, such as in old age,” says Laura Almeling of the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany. “We assume that monkeys are not aware of their own limited future time. Therefore, if they show similar motivational changes in old age, their selectivity cannot be attributed to their knowledge about a limited future time. Instead, we should entertain the possibility that similar physiological changes in aging monkeys and humans contribute to increased selectivity.”

The researchers investigated Barbary macaques’ selectivity regarding their interest in the nonsocial and social environment in a large sample of more than 100 monkeys of different ages kept in the enclosure “La Forêt des Singes” in Rocamadour.

To assess monkeys’ curiosity to explore new things, the researchers presented them with novel objects such as animal toys, a cube filled with colorful plastic pieces in a viscose liquid, and an opaque tube closed with soft tissue at both ends and baited with a food reward. By early adulthood, the monkeys had lost interest in the novel objects. Only the tube containing food held interest for all but the oldest monkeys.

To study their social interests, the researchers showed the monkeys photographs of newborn monkeys, “friends” and “non-friends” and played recorded screams of “friends” and “non-friends.” They also observed how often and how long monkeys interacted with each other. They found that the aging monkeys maintained a keen interest in other monkeys, especially when the other monkey was a socially important individual. Older females continued to make vocalizations in response to interactions of group members in their vicinity, such as infant handlings or conflicts. However, older females engaged in fewer social interactions, although other group members continued to invest in relationships with them.

“With increasing age, the monkeys became more selective in their social interactions,” Almeling says. “They had fewer ‘friends’ and invested less in social interactions. Interestingly, however, they were still interested in what was going on in their social world.”

“Older females continued to respond particularly strongly to hearing a scream for help from their best friend,” Almeling adds. “Older males still looked preferentially at pictures of the newborns,” she says, noting that Barbary macaque males use infants as status symbols.

Overall, the studies suggest that, just like humans, monkeys become more selective as they age: they select social over non-social information, and they are more selective regarding their social interactions. However, the reduced social behavior is not due to a general loss of interest in others. “Changes in social behavior in monkeys and humans may occur in the absence of a limited time perspective and are most likely deeply rooted in primate evolution,” concludes Alexandra Freund from the University of Zurich, who was also involved in the study.

Julia Fischer, principal investigator of the study, suggests that “older monkeys might spend less time socializing because they find social interactions increasingly stressful and therefore avoid them.” She says they will explore these issues and changes in the monkeys’ cognitive performance in future studies.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160623122938.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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To tool or not to tool? Clever cockatoos make economic decisions about tool use

As animal tool use events are extremely rare, is often quickly rated as intelligent. Nevertheless, some types of tool use can be controlled by much simpler processes that are a part of the respective animal’s inborn behavioural repertoire. Intelligent tool use requires the ability to flexibly adapt a behaviour to changing environmental situations. The Indonesian Goffin’s cockatoo has even the rare capacity to use two different types of tools (sticks for probing and raking food into reach as well dropping stones/balls into tubes to knock out a reward inside). The same birds also previously showed a solid performance in the classic “marshmallow” experiment from human psychology: They controlled their impulse to consume an immediate lower quality food item in the prospect of gaining a better food type after a time delay.

Isabelle Laumer, Alice Auersperg und Thomas Bugnyar from the University of Vienna and the Veterinary University of Vienna now investigate flexibility in tool related decision-making in the Goffin’s cockatoo. Two different types of food items were used: Cashew nut which is their favourite food type and Pecan nut which the birds like but disregard if cashew nut is available as well. The also used two types of apparatuses containing a food item which was temporarily out-of-reach and two types of tools: an apparatus which is only operable by probing with a stick tool but not by dropping a ball inside and an apparatus which could only be operated by dropping a ball inside but not by probing with a stick. During testing, an apparatus was placed on a table and a choice between two items (usually a food item and a tool) was offered alongside. Once birds had picked one item the other was immediately removed.

Interestingly, the cockatoos flexibly adapted their decisions to different situations. “If a lower value food or a high value food was out-of-reach inside the apparatus and the choice was between a high value food item and a tool, they chose the food over the tool, even when the tool was functional for the apparatus,” explains Isabelle Laumer who conducted the study as part of her PhD thesis. “However, when the cockatoos could decide between the lower value food and a tool they choose the tool but only provided that it worked for the available apparatus: For example when the stick and the lower value food was available but the ball apparatus was on the table they chose the low value food over the tool. When the stick apparatus with the high value food inside was available they chose the stick tool over the immediate lower value food,” she further elaborates.

Nevertheless, the birds’ ability to solve the problem stopped when both apparatuses were offered at the same time each bearing a different food type and the decision was between the both tools. In the latter case researchers believe that the animals may have hit a limit in working memory capacity due to the amount of task components involved.

“Our findings parallel previous results in primates: the cockatoos could overcome immediate impulses in favor of future gains even if this implied tool use. Beyond that we additionally found that they at same time attended to the functionality of the available tool in the present contex,” says Alice Auersperg, Head of the Goffin Lab in Austria. She continues: “As wild Goffin cockatoos are unlikely to be specialized on tool use, this shows that tool related decision-making can arise from relatively general modes of cognitive processing as, for example a combination of flexibility, sensorimotor and impulse control.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160623100912.htm Original web page at Science Daily

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Female blue tits sing in the face of danger

Until now, the singing behaviour of songbirds had been mainly associated with competitive behaviour and the search for a partner. Moreover, males had long been considered to be the more active singer. Females were compared to the behaviour of the males and were seen as relatively “lazy” with regard to singing.

These assumptions had also been applied to one of the most prominent local songbirds, namely, the blue tit. But female blue tits, like males, also display a variety of vocal patterns. This suggests that vocalization is not limited exclusively to courtship or competition.

Herbert Hoi and Katharina Mahr of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology at Vetmeduni Vienna have demonstrated for the first time that female blue tits sing in the presence of a predator.

Vocalization did not serve as an alarm, however, nor was it limited to females. The researchers used stuffed dummies of two predatory types in order to provoke a reaction from the birds. “We presented the nest of blue tits either with a stuffed sparrow hawk, a bird of prey, or an Aesculapian snake and analysed the reactions mainly of female blue tits. We already knew that songbird males sometimes respond to threats by singing,” said Hoi.

The team from Vetmeduni Vienna, together with Carlo Seifert of the University of South Bohemia, for the first time documented vocalizations of female songbirds in danger situations. Their song strongly resembled that of the males also present in the simulated predation event. Both sexes, however, reacted only to the threat from the bird of prey and not the snake. The sparrow hawk is considered to be a danger to adults, while the snake is a threat to nestlings that can be more easily driven from the nest.

It is interesting that the blue tits react to the threat by singing. One would assume that singing attracts more attention. “The animals may be indicating a heightened ability to escape. They show the predator that they have seen it and can flee at any time,” Hoi says. Song could also be a sign of physiological stress or encouragement

Hoi believes there could be another, for people easily understandable, explanation. The presence of a predator is very stressful. The singing behaviour could therefore simply be an endocrinological response of the body or, to quote Konrad Lorenz, a “displacement activity.”

The researchers were able to exclude the possibility that the females were sending a distress call. In several cases, the male was present during the event. And both would then sing together. The researchers see the joint singing as a way for the pair to encourage each other and to strengthen the pair bond.

The scientists still see the need for future research in order to better understand the singing behaviour of songbirds. “Our work confirms the assumption that females use their singing in more ways than just choosing their partner or defending their territory. But more studies will be needed in order to better interpret the different vocalization patterns,” Hoi believes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160624100810.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Dogs were domesticated not once, but twice … in different parts of the world

The question, ‘Where do domestic dogs come from?’, has vexed scholars for a very long time. Some argue that humans first domesticated wolves in Europe, while others claim this happened in Central Asia or China. A new paper, published in Science, suggests that all these claims may be right. Supported by funding from the European Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, a large international team of scientists compared genetic data with existing archaeological evidence and show that man’s best friend may have emerged independently from two separate (possibly now extinct) wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent. This means that dogs may have been domesticated not once, as widely believed, but twice.

A major international research project on dog domestication, led by the University of Oxford, has reconstructed the evolutionary history of dogs by first sequencing the genome (at Trinity College Dublin) of a 4,800-year old medium-sized dog from bone excavated at the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Newgrange, Ireland. The team (including French researchers based in Lyon and at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris) also obtained mitochondrial DNA from 59 ancient dogs living between 14,000 to 3,000 years ago and then compared them with the genetic signatures of more than 2,500 previously studied modern dogs.

The results of their analyses demonstrate a genetic separation between modern dog populations currently living in East Asia and Europe. Curiously, this population split seems to have taken place after the earliest archaeological evidence for dogs in Europe. The new genetic evidence also shows a population turnover in Europe that appears to have mostly replaced the earliest domestic dog population there, which supports the evidence that there was a later arrival of dogs from elsewhere. Lastly, a review of the archaeological record shows that early dogs appear in both the East and West more than 12,000 years ago, but in Central Asia no earlier than 8,000 years ago.

Combined, these new findings suggest that dogs were first domesticated from geographically separated wolf populations on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent. At some point after their domestication, the eastern dogs dispersed with migrating humans into Europe where they mixed with and mostly replaced the earliest European dogs. Most dogs today are a mixture of both Eastern and Western dogs — one reason why previous genetic studies have been difficult to interpret.

The international project (which is combining ancient and modern genetic data with detailed morphological and archaeological research) is currently analysing thousands of ancient dogs and wolves to test this new perspective, and to establish the timing and location of the origins of our oldest pet.

Senior author and Director of Palaeo-BARN (the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network) at Oxford University, Professor Greger Larson, said: ‘Animal domestication is a rare thing and a lot of evidence is required to overturn the assumption that it happened just once in any species. Our ancient DNA evidence, combined with the archaeological record of early dogs, suggests that we need to reconsider the number of times dogs were domesticated independently. Maybe the reason there hasn’t yet been a consensus about where dogs were domesticated is because everyone has been a little bit right.’

Lead author Dr Laurent Frantz, from the Palaeo-BARN, commented: ‘Reconstructing the past from modern DNA is a bit like looking into the history books: you never know whether crucial parts have been erased. Ancient DNA, on the other hand, is like a time machine, and allows us to observe the past directly.’

Senior author Professor Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, commented: ‘The Newgrange dog bone had the best preserved ancient DNA we have ever encountered, giving us prehistoric genome of rare high quality. It is not just a postcard from the past, rather a full package special delivery.’

Professor Keith Dobney, co-author and co-director of the dog domestication project from Liverpool University’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is heartened by these first significant results. ‘With the generous collaboration of many colleagues from across the world-sharing ideas, key specimens and their own data — the genetic and archaeological evidence are now beginning to tell a new coherent story. With so much new and exciting data to come, we will finally be able to uncover the true history of man’s best friend.’

https://www.sciencedaily.com/  Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160602151723.htm  Original web page at Science Daily

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Sparrows with unfaithful ‘wives’ care less for their young

A new study shows that male sparrows can judge if a spouse is prone to infidelity, providing less food for their brood if their partner is unfaithful.

Sparrows form pair bonds that are normally monogamous, but many females are unfaithful to their partner and have offspring with other males. Biologists believe that the male birds are unfaithful to ensure that they father as many chicks as they can, while females are unfaithful with males of better ‘genetic quality’ — ones that are fitter and could produce stronger offspring.

However, cheating comes with a cost — the cheating female’s partner will provide less food for their nest of young. It has long been suspected that males know that not all the chicks in their nest are theirs, and so make a decision to provide less. But an alternative explanation is that cheating females and lazy males tend to pair up naturally.

Researchers from the UK, Germany, and Australia have now revealed that males make the decision of how much to provide for their chicks based on the tendency of their partner to cheat. The study, published today in The American Naturalist, followed the entire sparrow population of the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel for 12 years.

Lead researcher Dr Julia Schroeder of the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London said: “Males changed their behaviour based on their partner. When they switched from a faithful partner to one prone to infidelity, they provided less food for their brood.” Females might also change their behaviour when paired with a less lazy male, cheating less with a more attentive father.

The research showed that males cannot actually identify whether all the chicks in their nest are theirs or not, and instead base their feeding decisions on who their female partner is.

“If chicks were switched into a nest where the female was faithful, then the father at that nest kept up his hard work providing for the chicks, suggesting they have no mechanism, such as smell, to determine which chicks are theirs,” said Dr Schroeder. “Instead, the males may use cues from the female’s behaviour during her fertile period — for example how long she spends away from the nest.”

The study followed 200 males and 194 females as they formed 313 unique monogamous pairs and hatched 863 broods on Lundy. Some sparrow ‘divorces’ occurred — but most changes of life partner were due to a death.

The team DNA genotyped every sparrow, allowing them to build up precise family trees, and find out which females were most unfaithful and who their cheating males were. “Lundy is a unique natural laboratory because it is almost a closed system — very few birds leave the island or arrive from the mainland. In the entire 12 years only four birds immigrated to Lundy, possibly carried by boat.”

Dr Schroeder and her team are continuing to study the Lundy sparrows to uncover how and why social behaviours like monogamy arose. Being unfaithful may be a costly behaviour for females because they only lay a limited number of eggs, and it may be a hangover from when their ancestors were not monogamous, rather than a useful strategy for getting the strongest offspring.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160531222140.htm  Original web page at Science Daily