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Tanaka, Hiroshi; Fukuda, Yukihiro; Yuki, Etsuko; Ota, Yukihiro; Hosoi, Eiji; Kojima, Wataru
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00718-xpmid: N/A
In some vertebrates, sexually mature individuals delay dispersal from their natal sites. Delayed dispersers are known to help their parents in many species; however, few studies have investigated the behavior of delayed dispersers in carnivores. Male offspring of the Japanese badger, Meles anakuma, remain in their natal sites and share setts with their mothers well after reaching sexual maturation. In this study, we investigated the contribution of male delayed dispersers in den maintenance activities of digging and bedding at their setts from September to February between 2010 and 2018. We found that delayed dispersers contributed approximately 60 and 30% of digging and bedding tasks, respectively. Specifically, while digging was constantly performed throughout the surveyed period, efforts in bedding gradually increased from September to February. We also found that delayed dispersers occasionally performed digging and bedding simultaneously with their mothers and siblings. Mothers may allow the male offspring to remain in the natal sites because of their help with den maintenance. It is probably advantageous for the males to remain in a familiar environment and have access to resources until they become large and competitive enough to establish and defend their mates and their own territories. Digital video images related to the article are available at http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma01a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma02a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma03a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma04a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma05a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma06a and http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo210707ma07a.
Paclík, Martin; Misík, Jan; Weidinger, Karel
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00721-2pmid: N/A
Cavity nests are safer than open nests and they uniquely allow a defence from inside. We studied the rates of nest defence from inside/outside the cavity with respect to nesting stage and number of responding parents in the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) against its dominant nest intruder, the Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Undisturbed behaviour before Starling exposure (a control level) included high inside cavity attentiveness during incubation that decreased in subsequent nesting stages, while outside cavity attentiveness remained low in all nesting stages. Both inside and outside cavity attentiveness mostly increased after Starling exposure (caged individual). During Starling exposure, the pattern of inside cavity attentiveness was similar in singly and pair-responding parents. In vulnerable stages of incubation and young nestlings, singly-responding parents predominantly defended the cavity from inside, but this was not simply a consequence of parent´s initial position; they defended the cavity from outside as late as in the stage of old nestlings, while increased outside cavity attentiveness in the stages of incubation and young nestlings was a product of mate presence. Moreover, parents that defended the nest from outside behaved more aggressively in the presence of a mate, regardless of nesting stage. We consider the inside defence a priority tactics of nest protection; intruders probably pose a threat particularly to unattended cavity. These findings call attention to different (context-dependent) effectiveness of inside and outside cavity defence, which are often combined into general nest defence scores.
Fančovičová, Jana; Prokop, Pavol; Šramelová, Dominika; Thiebaut, Gaëtan; Méot, Alain; Witt, Arnaud; Bonin, Patrick; Medina-Jerez, William
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00722-1pmid: N/A
Disgust is a basic emotion which protects individuals from potential contamination. It is hypothesized that disgust evolved primarily as a mechanism against oral contamination or as a strategy against disease infections in general. We investigated visual attention to disgusting oral (rotten food) and non-oral (e.g., a tick) and control (e.g., a gull), non-disgusting stimuli using a touch-screen paradigm with a sample of 60 adult participants in Slovakia. We found that disgusting pictures triggered visual attention more than control pictures and that visual attention was not related to an individual’s sensitivity to pathogen disgust. Although participants identified disgusting food items quicker than non-disgusting food pictures, these differences did not reach statistical significance. Findings in this study suggest that the evolution of disgust could have been originally favoured by the repulsion of contaminated food, but the benefits from disease avoidance were soon extended to disgust sensitivity to pathogens that threaten our bodies using non-oral entry points.
Del-Claro, Kleber; Anjos, Diego V.; Torezan-Silingardi, Helena Maura
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00724-zpmid: N/A
Facilitation is an ecological interaction in which the presence of one species (e.g., ecosystem engineers) alters the environment in a way that enhances growth, survival or reproduction of a neighboring species. Wood-boring insects are considered facilitators for cavities-nesting ants, which experience intense intra and interspecific competition for these sites. But how do ants find these cavities? Here, we suggest that ants could be attracted by chemical/odorous cues emitted by the frass of wood-boring insects. Using captive colonies of Cephalotes pusillus (Klug 1824) in controlled conditions, we carried out a bioassay to test the following hypotheses: (i) the frass from beetles are more attractive to ants than those from caterpillars (Cossidae: Lepidoptera), since boring beetles are more common and produce more cavities for ant nest on the studied plant, Caryocar brasiliensis (Caryocaraceae). If this first hypothesis is true, (ii) in relation to the cavity substrate type, the insect frass will be an attraction for workers from captive colonies (colonies, hereafter): both from compromised colonies (colonies without nest and in vulnerable condition) and intact colonies in tubes and (iii) and workers from compromised colonies colonize tubes with frass more quickly than those from intact colonies. The three hypotheses were confirmed, and Cephalotes pusillus ants prefer beetle frass, moving more quickly (five times faster) into tubes with frass when in vulnerable conditions. Our findings revealed that frass from beetles is a trigger to workers of C. pusillus locate and then nesting on branches of C. brasiliensis in Brazilian Cerrado. We suggest that the selection for a nesting cavity by arboreal ants is not random, but guided by chemical/odorous cues.
Cerveira, Ana M.; Jackson, Robert R.
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00725-ypmid: N/A
Previous research on Cyrba algerina (Araneae, Salticidae) has shown this jumping spider expresses predatory specialisation with respect to spiders as prey as well as inter-population variation in responsiveness to prey-spider odour. However, this earlier research pertained to a single prey species (Oecobius machadoi) and only field-collected C. algerina individuals were tested. Here we extend the previous research by using laboratory-reared, as well as field-collected, individuals of C. algerina and also by using another prey-spider species, Zelotes thorelli, as well as O. machadoi. Two localities in Portugal are considered, Sintra where C. algerina and both prey species are abundant and Tavira where C. algerina is present but neither prey species has been found. In olfactometer experiments, field-collected C. algerina individuals from Sintra, but not Tavira, were attracted to the odour of both prey species. Next, we tested the response of laboratory-reared Sintra C. algerina individuals that had been maintained with no prior experience with the odour of either prey species. We found no evidence of laboratory-reared individuals being attracted to the odour of either prey species in the olfactometer. These findings suggest that prior experience mediates responsiveness of C. algerina to the odour of local prey.
Yamamoto, Chisato; Ishibashi, Toshiaki
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00729-8pmid: N/A
The exchange of prosocial behaviors such as grooming may be affected by several factors, including the social structure and social relationships of the individuals. However, studies on the reciprocity of prosocial affiliative behaviors in non-primate animals are limited. Flipper rubbing is considered a prosocial affiliative behavior in dolphins. We investigated the reciprocity of flipper rubbing and tested the following hypotheses in common bottlenose dolphins: trade for tolerance, trade for a reduction in renewed aggressions, the value of flipper rubbing partner, and reciprocity over short and long time frames. There was no correlation between the frequency of flipper rubbing and aggression. Age difference did not affect reciprocal flipper rubbing. Flipper rubbing by former opponents did not increase after aggression. Dolphins did not provide flipper rubbing immediately after receiving flipper rubbing. The exchange of flipper rubbing was more reciprocal over long time frames than over short time frames. Dolphins preferentially rubbed the individuals who rubbed them the most. Pairs who performed flipper rubbing more frequently partook in more reciprocal flipper rubbing than pairs who performed flipper rubbing less frequently. Results suggest that bottlenose dolphins maintain flipper rubbing reciprocity over the long-term via partner choice based on an emotional bookkeeping system.
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00730-1pmid: N/A
Death feigning is an adaptive defence strategy that improves survival rates, often by decreasing predation risk. Although death-feigning behavior has been documented in many animals, the study on insects has gradually attracted more focus. Previous study reported two weevil species—Eucryptorrhynchus scrobiculatus (ESCR) and E. brandti (EBRA)—considered forestry pests, and exhibited death-feigning behavior. To examine the trade-off between the particular anti-predator behaviors and prey fitness, we endeavoured to experimentally determine how temporal (age), activity, and diurnal rhythm may affect death-feigning duration. We found that the death-feigning duration was gradually increased and then decreased with the increased age, and the variation appeared on 5 days. The death-feigning duration during the day (the zeitgeber time, ZT12) was shorter than during the night (the zeitgeber time, ZT5 and ZT24) for both species. However, ESCR weevils with lower locomotor activity displayed longer death-feigning durations. The significant correlations between age, activity, diurnal rhythm, and death feigning would provide the timescale when death-feigning pests were likely to be caught by natural enemies, which help us fully understand the behavioral rhythm to develop novel methods of biological pest control.
Hirata, Masahiko; Matsubara, Ai; Uchimura, Moeko
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00731-0pmid: N/A
This small-scale study aimed to preliminarily explore the potential of leadership in group movements in cattle for improving uniformity of grazing distribution of the group on grazing land. We created two groups of beef cows with two common individuals without leadership or followership plus an individual with either strong leadership or strong followership and compared foraging patterns of the groups in two grassland plots. The plots, which comprised subplots separated by walls having narrow passages, were designed so that naïve cows would have difficulty in knowing the presence of a grazable subplot next to them, and especially the common cows and the follower cow would have a fear of entering the subplot by themselves even if they noticed its presence. The inclusion of the leader cow in replacement of the follower expanded grazing distribution patterns of the entire group into the subplot or subplots that were relatively unexploited by the group with the follower cow (P = 0.005–0.015), as a result of increased occurrence of inter-subplot group movements led by the leader cow (P = 0.005–0.043). More studies are needed for shaping the leadership into a management tool for manipulating spatial distribution of livestock at the farm scale.
doi: 10.1007/s10164-021-00720-3pmid: N/A
There is increasing evidence of social information transfer about predation risk in foraging animal groups. However, little is known about whether individuals also acquire such information from non-members of their own group. We experimentally manipulated the perceived threat and heterospecific cues about low predation risk in the house sparrow, Passer domesticus, by presenting stuffed dummies of the Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, and the Eurasian tree sparrow, Passer montanus, at the feeder. Data were collected during winter 2016/2017 in two private yards in south-west and north Slovakia, where 1677 individuals in 83 flocks were observed at two feeders. We found no evidence for heterospecific information use in foraging single-species flocks of house sparrows. We suggest that strong bonds created among flock members may explain the observed pattern.
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