Rating Methodology, Personality Axes, and Behavioral Plasticity: A Case Study in African Lions
Animal personality refers to individual differences in behavior that are consistent across time and across contexts. As it plays an ecological and evolutionary role for many animals by affecting fitness, it is likely to play a role in how both species and individuals fare in captivity. Assessment of animal personality by caretaker ratings has been […]
Female mating preferences, lighting environment, and a test of the sensory bias hypothesis in the bluefin killifish
Sensory drive proposes that environmental conditions affect signalling dynamics and the evolution of signals and receivers. For visual systems, delineating the effects of lighting on mating preferences is difficult because lighting conditions can affect preferences via three mechanisms: (1) genetic differentiation in mating preferences can result from selection under different lighting conditions, (2) development under […]
Tool-like behavior in the sixbar wrasse, Thalassoma hardwicke (Bennett, 1830)
Abstract There are only a few documented cases of the use of either tools or substrates (anvils) as pseudotools in fishes. Described here is an anvil behavior of a labrid fish, Thalassoma hardwicke, observed under aquarium conditions. This fish was fed with pellets that are too large to swallow and too hard to break up […]
Dampened Behavioral and Physiological Responses Mediate Birds’ Association With Humans
The study of the mechanisms involved in phenotypic adaptations or plasticity to environmental stressors may serve to evaluate contemporary ecological and evolutionary dynamics in threatened or growing wildlife populations. By addressing human disturbance as a main stressor agent, we investigated antipredator response (flushing distance), social behavior (degree of gregarism), health (fecal pathogens), and endocrine status […]
Plasticity of Boldness in Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss: Do Hunger and Predation Influence Risk-Taking Behaviour?
Boldness, a measure of an individual’s propensity for taking risks, is an important determinant of fitness but is not necessarily a fixed trait. Dependent upon an individual’s state, and given certain contexts or challenges, individuals may be able to alter their inclination to be bold or shy in response. Furthermore, the degree to which individuals […]