Solitary play of the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

1975 ◽  
Vol 53 (11) ◽  
pp. 1495-1499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Ferron
Keyword(s):  
Relative Proportion ◽  
Play Behavior ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Play Fighting ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Solitary Play ◽  
The Social ◽  
Use Of An Object

A description of the different forms of solitary play behavior in the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is presented here. These play activities are subdivided into two main groups: non-directed and object-directed. In the first are included (a) tumbles on the ground; (b) leaps and feats of skill in trees; (c) body shaking while suspended by the feet, and (d) running. In the second the motor patterns can be (a) gnawing, eating and caching food; (b) rubbing against an object; (c) acrobatic use of an object; (d) play-fighting with objects, and (e) chasing and play-fighting with the tail. The comparison of the solitary play behavior of the red squirrel with that of some other sciurids shows that this behavior seems to be almost non-existent in the social species studied so far and is subject to variation with age at the intraspecific level. It is suggested that a certain relation exists between the degree of sociability and the relative proportion of solitary and social play activities.

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.

Knowledge sharing, complex environments and small-worlds

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
Mike Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
System Thinking ◽  
Small Worlds ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Strategic Response ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
Do So

This paper is about knowledge sharing vision appropriate for a complex environment. In these environments, traditional views of knowledge sharing as informing a hierarchical, centralised leadership may be misleading. A complex environment is defined as one that emerges unpredictable changes that require organisations to reconnect, to reorganise. Organisations need to be able to rapidly reconnect relationships so as to reflect new priorities, and to do so without causing change “bottlenecks”. The empirical biologists have observed that some social species have evolved structures that enable them to do this automatically what ever the environmental change. These organisational forms have survived for millions of years without central planning; rather they use local knowledge is reconnect as required overall providing an appropriate strategic response. These organisational forms seem to result from the small-worlds phenomenon and it is self organising. Specifically, this paper will argue that this small-worlds, self organisation, phenomena is a useful vision for designing a knowledge sharing vision appropriate for a complex environment. The supportive evidence is provided in the form of identifying the empirical attributes of self organisation and small worlds to provide an explanation of how and why it works. The system thinking, biology (insect) and the social-network literature are used.

scholarly journals Excavation of Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) Middens by Bears (Ursus spp.) in Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis) Habitat in Banff National Park, Alberta

2017 ◽  
Vol 130 (4) ◽  
pp. 281 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hamer
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Limber Pine ◽  
Banff National Park ◽  
Pine Stands ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Pinus Spp

Bears (Ursus spp.) in North America eat the seeds of several pines (Pinus spp.), including Limber Pine (P. flexilis E. James). Information on use of Limber Pine in Canada is limited to a report of three bear scats containing pine seeds found in Limber Pine stands of southwestern Alberta. After my preliminary fieldwork in Banff National Park revealed that bears were eating seeds of Limber Pine there, I conducted a field study in 2014–2015 to assess this use. Because bears typically obtain pine seeds from cone caches (middens) made by Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), I described the abundance, habitat characteristics, and use by bears of Red Squirrel middens in and adjacent to Limber Pine stands at six study sites. On Bow River escarpments, I found abundant Limber Pines (basal area 1–9 m2/ha) and middens (0.8 middens/ha, standard deviation [SD] 0.2). Of 24 middens, 13 (54%) had been excavated by bears, and three bear scats composed of pine seeds were found beside middens. Although Limber Pines occurred on steep, xeric, windswept slopes (mean 28°, SD 3), middens occurred on moderate slopes (mean 12°, SD 3) in escarpment gullies and at the toe of slopes in forests of other species, particularly Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). At the five other study sites, I found little or no use of Limber Pine seeds by bears, suggesting that Limber Pine habitat may be little used by bears unless the pines are interspersed with (non-Limber Pine) habitat with greater forest cover and less-steep slopes where squirrels establish middens. These observations provide managers with an additional piece of information regarding potential drivers of bear activity in the human-dominated landscape of Banff National Park’s lower Bow Valley.

SEASONAL DAMAGE BY INSECTS AND SQUIRRELS TO FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF BLACK SPRUCE, PICEA MARIANA (MILL.) B.S.P.

1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (12) ◽  
pp. 1113-1121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.H. Prévost ◽  
J.E. Laing ◽  
V.F. Haavisto
Keyword(s):  
Picea Mariana ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Choristoneura Fumiferana ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Reproductive Structures ◽  
Cone Axis ◽  
Viable Seeds ◽  
Cone Growth

AbstractThe seasonal damage to female reproductive structures (buds, flowers, and cones) of black spruce, Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P., was assessed during 1983 and 1984. Nineteen insects (five Orders) and the red squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben), were found feeding on these reproductive structures. Collectively, these organisms damaged 88.9 and 53.5% of the cones in 1983 and 1984, respectively. In the 2 years, Lepidoptera damaged 61.8% of the cones in 1983 and 44.4% of the cones in 1984. The spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), and the spruce coneworm, Dioryctria reniculelloides Mut. and Mun., were the most important pests. Cones damaged by Lepidoptera could be classed into three categories: (a) severe, yielding no seeds; (b) moderate, yielding 22.3 seeds per cone; and (c) light, yielding 37.5 seeds per cone. Undamaged cones yielded on average 39.9 seeds per cone. Red squirrels removed 18.8% of the cones in 1983 and none in 1984. The spruce cone axis midge, Dasineura rachiphaga Tripp, and the spruce cone maggot, Lasiomma anthracinum (Czerny), caused minor damage in both years. Feeding by spruce cone axis midge did not reduce cone growth significantly or the number of viable seeds per cone, but feeding by the spruce cone maggot did. During both years new damage by insects to the female reproductive structures of the experimental trees was not observed after mid-July. In 1983 damage by red squirrels occurred from early to late September. In 1984 damage to cones on trees treated with dimethoate was 15.6% compared with 53.5% for untreated trees, without an increase in the number of aborted cones.

scholarly journals Individuals, knowledge and governance in the 21st-century society

2007 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. C04 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Cerroni
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Process ◽  
Knowledge Circulation ◽  
Structure Of Knowledge

The knowledge society is a new social species that, despite many uncertainties and some (old and new) ambiguities, is emerging on the horizon of the 21st century. Placed at the convergence of two long-term processes (society of individuals and knowledge society), it is characterised by the social-economic process of knowledge circulation, which can be divided into four fundamental phases (generation, institutionalisation, spreading and socialisation). The current situation also sees the traditional (modern) structure of knowledge being outdated by the convergence of nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information technologies and neuro-cognitive technologies (NBIC). In the background, the need arises to cross the cultural frontier of modernity.

Conclusions and Prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-132
Author(s):  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Solitary Species

Throughout the book, I have been searching for empirical examples and theories dealing with how perturbations trigger behavioural feedback responses in social animals, how these responses affect the decision to disperse between patches, and the consequences of dispersal for complex, nonlinear population dynamics. What seems quite clear is that social feedbacks—and especially runaway dispersal by copying—do play an important role in those responses, compared to solitary species. Although philopatry to the patch has many benefits, perturbations may decrease the suitability of this patch. When a patch is perturbed, do social species show different responses than solitary species? Since evolution has selected for maximizing fitness prospects, individuals living either in groups or in solitary will try to avoid the detrimental effects of the perturbation, for instance by leaving the patch. The behavioural mechanisms triggered by perturbations are similar for both social and solitary species: increase of information gathering to reduce uncertainty and the use of this updated information to make optimal decisions about either staying or leaving. Thus, the answer is that solitary and social species show similar responses to perturbations. Nevertheless, the way those behavioural mechanisms operate is rather different between social and solitary species: in the former, information is shared among individuals, and decisions about when to leave the patch and where to go are made not only using private or personal information, but mostly using social information. Last but not least, there is social copying, a trend to copy in a nonrational way what others have decided before. This social copying, also called conformity, may trigger what I termed runaway dispersal: perturbations may accumulate over time, decreasing resilience of the social group until attaining a tipping point. Once this threshold is surpassed, the decision to disperse is led by a few individuals, and this decision is copied by the rest of the group in an autocatalytic way....

scholarly journals Hormone-mediated dispersal and sexual maturation in males of the social paper wasp Polistes lanio

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (23) ◽  
pp. jeb226472
Author(s):  
Robin J. Southon ◽  
Andrew N. Radford ◽  
Seirian Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Maturation ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Social Hymenoptera ◽  
Natal Nest ◽  
Male Dispersal ◽  
Accessory Glands ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Males And Females

ABSTRACTSex-biased dispersal is common in social species, but the dispersing sex may delay emigration if associated benefits are not immediately attainable. In the social Hymenoptera (ants, some bees and wasps), newly emerged males typically disperse from the natal nest whilst most females remain as philopatric helpers. However, little information exists on the mechanisms regulating male dispersal. Furthermore, the conservation of such mechanisms across the Hymenoptera and any role of sexual maturation are also relatively unknown. Through field observations and mark–recapture, we observed that males of the social paper wasp Polistes lanio emerge from pupation sexually immature, and delay dispersal from their natal nest for up to 7 days whilst undergoing sexual maturation. Delayed dispersal may benefit males by allowing them to mature in the safety of the nest and thus be more competitive in mating. We also demonstrate that both male dispersal and maturation are associated with juvenile hormone (JH), a key regulator of insect reproductive physiology and behaviour, which also has derived functions regulating social organisation in female Hymenoptera. Males treated with methoprene (a JH analogue) dispersed earlier and possessed significantly larger accessory glands than their age-matched controls. These results highlight the wide role of JH in social hymenopteran behaviour, with parallel ancestral functions in males and females, and raise new questions on the nature of selection for sex-biased dispersal.

Ontogénèse du comportement de l'Ecureuil roux (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1090-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Ferron
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Neonatal Period ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Physical Development ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Behaviour Pattern ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Behavioural Development

A detailed analysis of the behavioural development of the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) from birth to weaning is presented. For each behaviour pattern, the earliest and latest ages of emergence in a series of 14 young (from three litters) were registered and a mean was calculated. A review of the principal events of physical development is given first. The ontogeny of behaviour is then considered under five headings: locomotion, alertness and exploration, feeding, comfort, and social interactions. In the discussion, a general analysis of the development of behaviour with regard to the different periods of ontogeny (neonatal period, transition period, and socialization period) and the two leading events of the early life of the red squirrel (emergence from the nest and weaning) is given. It appears that the young are equipped with a minimum of behaviour patterns during the period of nest confinement and that close to emergence, a series of new behaviours come into effect with the exception of locomotion, which evolves gradually and regularly during ontogeny.

Genetic structure of the arboreal squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus and Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the North American Black Hills

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 1191-1200 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Kiesow ◽  
E.M. Monroe ◽  
H.B. Britten
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Allelic Diversity ◽  
Black Hills ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Glaucomys Sabrinus ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Red Squirrels

We selected two isolated mammalian populations, the Black Hills northern flying squirrel ( Glaucomys sabrinus (Shaw, 1801)) and red squirrel ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben, 1777)), to elucidate their genetic structure. We trapped both squirrels from 2005 to 2007, in three regions of the Black Hills, differing in geology and vegetation, to collect ear samples for genetic analyses. Microsatellite loci (northern flying (9) and red squirrel (13)) were used to examine genetic structure. Data analyses estimated genetic variability, substructure, and gene flow. Northern flying and red squirrel populations have allelic diversity and observed heterozygosity similar to other isolated populations. Each species shows weak substructure from STRUCTURE and GENELAND analyses, suggesting squirrel movements may be inhibited by topography or unsuitable habitat. Recent gene flow estimates from BAYESASS indicate that both species experience some within population gene flow and red squirrels may be more structured than northern flying squirrels because of lower migration rates. Concordant patterns of genetic structure in northern flying and red squirrels indicate that other species’ movements in the Black Hills may be affected by topography and habitat. Because their habitat is isolated in the Black Hills, management practices and conservation measures are recommended to promote viability and survival of each species.

Body temperature dynamics of the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus): adaptations for energy conservation

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1349-1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald W. Pauls
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Motor Activity ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Red Squirrel ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Temperature Dynamics

Abdominal temperatures (Tb) of two captive female red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in a natural outdoor environment were monitored by radiotelemetry at air temperatures (Ta) from −33 to 28 °C. Abdominal temperature ranged from 35.9 to 41.4 °C with values usually less than 39 °C when an animal was in the nest and greater than 39 °C when outside. An increase of Tb to about 39 °C usually occurred before an animal left the nest. In the nest Tb was positively correlated with Ta. Outside the nest there was a weak positive correlation at Ta less than 15 °C and a stronger negative correlation at higher Ta. During subnivean activity a rapid decline in Tb usually occurred. It is suggested that in the nest a low Tb is adaptive in that it results in energy conservation while a higher Tb is required outside the nest for rapid and coordinated motor activity.

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