scholarly journals Boldness traits, not dominance, predict exploratory flight range and homing behaviour in homing pigeons

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1727) ◽  
pp. 20160234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Portugal ◽  
Rhianna L. Ricketts ◽  
Jackie Chappell ◽  
Craig R. White ◽  
Emily L. Shepard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Homing Pigeons ◽  
Laboratory Conditions ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Spontaneous Exploration ◽  
The Individual

Group living has been proposed to yield benefits that enhance fitness above the level that would be achieved through living as solitary individuals. Dominance hierarchies occur commonly in these social assemblages, and result, by definition, in resources not being evenly distributed between group members. Determinants of rank within a dominance hierarchy can be associated with morphological characteristics, previous experience of the individual, or personality traits such as exploration tendencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether greater exploration and positive responses to novel objects in homing pigeons ( Columba livia ) measured under laboratory conditions were associated with (i) greater initial exploration of the local area around the home loft during spontaneous exploration flights (SEF), (ii) faster and more efficient homing flights when released from further afield, and (iii) whether the traits of greater exploration and more positive responses to novel objects were more likely to be exhibited by the more dominant individuals within the group. There was no relationship between laboratory-based novel object exploration and position within the dominance hierarchy. Pigeons that were neophobic under laboratory conditions did not explore the local area during SEF opportunities. When released from sites further from home, neophobic pigeons took longer routes to home compared to those birds that had not exhibited neophobic traits under laboratory conditions, and had spontaneously explored to a greater extent. The lack of exploration in the neophobic birds is likely to have resulted in the increased costs of homing following release: unfamiliarity with the landscape likely led to the greater distances travelled and less efficient routes taken. Birds that demonstrated a lack of neophobia were not the dominant individuals inside the loft, and thus would have less access to resources such as food and potentially mates. However, a lack of neophobia makes the subordinate position possible, because subordinate birds that incur high travel costs would become calorie restricted and lose condition. Our results address emerging questions linking individual variation in behaviour with energetics and fitness consequences. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.

scholarly journals Overall dynamic body acceleration as an indicator of dominance in homing pigeons

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhianna L. Ricketts ◽  
Daniel W. Sankey ◽  
Bryce P. Tidswell ◽  
Joshua Brown ◽  
Joseph F. Deegan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Linear Structure ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Homing Pigeons ◽  
Body Acceleration ◽  
Nesting Sites ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
Overall Dynamic Body Acceleration ◽  
The Individual

The benefits of dominance are well known and numerous, including first access to resources such as food, mates and nesting sites. Less well studied are the potential costs associated with being dominant. Here, the movement of two flocks of domestic homing pigeons (Columba livia) – measured via accelerometry loggers – was recorded over a period of two weeks. Movement was then used to calculate each individual’s daily overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA, G), which can be used as a proxy for energy expenditure. The dominance hierarchy of the two flocks was determined via group-level antagonistic interactions, and demonstrated a significantly linear structure. The most dominant bird within each flock was found to move significantly more than conspecifics – on average, c.39% greater than the individual with the next highest degree of movement – indicating a possible cost to possessing the top rank within a hierarchy. Despite the dominance hierarchy being linear, mean daily total ODBA did not reflect a linear nature, with no pattern observed between rank and ODBA, once the top ranked individuals had been accounted for. This suggest that energy expenditure may be more reflective of a despotic hierarchy. These results show the potential for the future use of accelerometery as a tool to study the fusion of energetics and behaviour.Subject CategorybehaviourSubject Areasbehaviour, physiology

Leaders of spontaneous group movements influence whole-group social organization: an experimental study on grazing heifers

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia Della-Rossa ◽  
Joël Chadœuf ◽  
Alain Boissy ◽  
Bertrand Dumont
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Heterogeneous Environments ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Social Traits ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Group Compositions ◽  
Group Movements

Group-living animals have to reach consensus decisions through recruitment processes while collectively exploiting food resources in heterogeneous environments. In farming conditions, the group compositions are frequently modified, which can force the animals to readjust their collective strategies, e.g., when group leaders are removed. We, therefore, conducted a group-manipulation experiment for testing how the loss of the individual with the highest leadership score in spontaneous group movements is likely to influence decision-making and whole-group social organization. Observations were carried out in two groups of nine familiar heifers, as using animals of the same age-class simplifies the analysis of the proximate determinants of leadership. Under the hypothesis of distributed leadership, we expected the emergence of a new leader but no change in social relationships due to the stability of dominance hierarchy and affinities among the familiar remaining heifers. Both group leaders were heifers that had a low cohesion index and expressed few allogrooming interactions. Leadership did not relate to position in the dominance hierarchy. After removing the leader and replacing it with a familiar peer, the number of spontaneous group movements decreased by 40% in both groups, and no new leader emerged. Both groups maintained a structure after leader removal but the distribution of pairwise association was modified. Allogrooming interactions dropped by nearly 60% in one group and their overall distribution were modified in the other group. These findings demonstrate interrelations between various social traits — even in the case of same-age herbivore groups — and difficulties with rapidly reaching a new consensus for maintaining synchronized activity and group cohesion.

scholarly journals Non-random associations in group housed rats (Rattus norvegicus)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne Proops ◽  
Camille A. Troisi ◽  
Tanja K. Kleinhappel ◽  
Teresa Romero
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Rattus Norvegicus ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Rat Strains ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEcological factors, such as predation, have traditionally been used to explain sociability. However, it is increasingly recognised that individuals within a group do not associate randomly, and that these non-random associations can generate fitness advantages. The majority of the empirical evidence on differentiated associations in group-living mammals, however, comes from a limited number of taxa and we still know very little about their occurrence and characteristics in some highly social species, such as rats (Rattus spp.). Here, using network analysis, we quantified association patterns in four groups of male fancy rats. We found that the associations between rats were not randomly distributed and that most individuals had significantly more preferred/avoided associates than expected by random. We also found that these preferences can be stable over time, and that they were not influenced by individuals’ rank position in the dominance hierarchy. Our findings are consistent with work in other mammals, but contrast with the limited evidence available for other rat strains. While further studies in groups with different demographic composition are warranted to confirm our findings, the occurrence of differentiated associations in all male groups of rats have important implications for the management and welfare of captive rat populations.

scholarly journals Individual behavioural traits not social context affects learning about novel objects in archerfish

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Behavioural Phenotype ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.

Short distance phase shifts revisited: tracking clock-shifted homing pigeons (Rock Dove Columba livia) close to the loft

Ibis ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD HOLLAND ◽  
FRANSISCO BONADONNA ◽  
LUIGI DALL'ANTONIA ◽  
SILVANO BENVENUTI ◽  
THERESA BURT DE PERERA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Short Distance ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Phase Shifts ◽  
Homing Pigeons

scholarly journals Behavioural traits of individual homing pigeons, Columba livia f. domestica, in their homing flights

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. e0201291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schiffner ◽  
Patrick Fuhrmann ◽  
Juliane Reimann ◽  
Roswitha Wiltschko
Keyword(s):  
Columba Livia ◽  
Homing Pigeons

scholarly journals GENDER FEATURES OF THE ALVEOLAR PROCESS OF THE UPPER JAW

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-14
Author(s):  
Z. Masna
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Functional Restoration ◽  
Occlusal Plane ◽  
Dental Arch ◽  
Alveolar Process ◽  
Dental Examination ◽  
Upper Jaw ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Alveolar Arch

The individual face shape, the ratio of its proportions, the articulation capabilities of each person to a significant extent depend on the characteristics of occlusion and occlusion, in turn, are determined by the size, shape and ratio of dental, alveolar and basal arches. Two of them - alveolar and basal - pass at the corresponding levels of the alveolar areas of the jaws, which means that it is almost impossible to correct them, therefore they play the role of landmarks for setting the dental arch during dental prosthetics. A full-fledged aesthetic and functional restoration of the maxillofacial region after prosthetics largely depends on the dentist taking into account the individual morphological characteristics of the jaws, their cellular areas and specifically the morphometric parameters of the collar and basal arches. In order to determine the possible variants of the shape of the alveolar and basal arches of the upper jaw and the patterns of their ratio during the routine dental examination, 55 people (27 men and 28 women) aged 21-60 years with preserved maxillary dentition were examined. It has been established that the alveolar and basal arches of the upper jaw can have the shape of five geometric shapes: an oval, a semicircle, an ellipse, a trapezoid or a square. In this case, the shape of the collar and basal arches can coincide or be combined in various combinations. The analysis of the obtained results showed that in men the alveolar arch most often had the shape of an oval (70%), in women - an oval or semicircle (43%, respectively). With the aim of possible variants of the alveolar and basal arches form determination and peculiarities of their correlation 55 individuals (27 men and 28 women) in age of 21-60 years with the preserved teeth row were examined during planned dental examination. All examined were patients of the “Dental clinic of dr. Dakhno” (Kyiv). Computer tomographic investigation was made to these patients according to medical indications, scanning was made parallely to the occlusal plane. Image reconstruction was conducted with the use of highly dimentional bone algorithm. Alveolar and basal arch form of the upper jaw were determined on the images. It was established that alveolar and basal arches of the upper jaw can have a form of five geometrical figures: oval, semicircle, ellipse, trapeze or square. Form of the alveolar and basal arches can match or can combine in different combinations. Received results analysis testified that alveolar arch has a form of the oval in men and oval or semicircle – in women. Basal arch in men also most frequently has a form of oval, less often – semicircle, square and trapeze. In women basal arch more often has a form of trapeze or semicircle, less often – oval or square. In men alveolar and basal arches form matched in 41% of cases, in women – only in 31% of cases among total amount of all examined individuals. Most often alveolar and basal arches matched in the form of oval and semicircle, only in one case arches of the trapeze form matched in man, in woman – square form. Maxillary alveolar and basal arches form variants analysis let to determine areas, where distance between alveolar crests was maximal. Most variable this index was in individuals with the oval form of the alveolar arch on the level of 16-26, 17-27 or 18-28 teeth. Peculiarities of the alveolar and basal arches form of the alveolar process of the upper jaw in male and female individuals are characterized with expressed individual variability. These peculiarities consideration during dental prosthesis let avoid series of complications connected with the pressure redistribution on the osseous tissue of the jaws during articulation. 

Overall dynamic body acceleration as an indicator of dominance in Homing Pigeons ( Columba livia)

Ibis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhianna L. Ricketts ◽  
Daniel W. E. Sankey ◽  
Bryce P. Tidswell ◽  
Joshua Brown ◽  
Joseph F. Deegan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Columba Livia ◽  
Homing Pigeons ◽  
Body Acceleration ◽  
Overall Dynamic Body Acceleration
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