Animal

From super flies to chimps, international animal behaviour conference at U of T next week

ullahnor — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 20:48:15 +0000

From super flies to chimps, international animal behaviour conference at U of T next week

ullahnor Fri, 06/09/2017 - 16:48

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Baby gorilla rides on mother's back. A conference at U of T Scarborough next week looks at research into all kinds of animal behaviour (photo by Smithsonian's National Zoo via Flickr)

Megan Easton

Author legacy

Megan Easton

Topic

Global Lens

Animal

U of T Scarborough

Maydianne Andrade

Are you fan of Animal Planet? Can't get enough of the Discovery Channel?

More than 750 experts in animal behaviour from across the globe – leading researchers from North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe – gather at U of T Scarborough next week for a conference that probes all aspects of why animals do what they do.

The 54th annual conference of the Animal Behavior Society, will be hosted June 12 to 16 by Professor Maydianne Andrade and Professor Andrew Mason of the department of biological sciences.

“Our larger goal is to put U of T Scarborough on the map for animal behaviour,” says Andrade.

The breadth of high-profile researchers attending and presenting at the conference has attracted significant media attention from science journalists. The Discovery Channel will be on campus all week doing interviews, among other TV and radio outlets.

The Animal Behavior Society has ensured that students will also get the rare opportunity to hear from world-class scientists, offering a reduced registration fee to graduate students and a special program for undergraduates.

About 60 elementary school students are invited to the “Adventures in Animal Behaviour” outreach fair on Monday, and there are 100 tickets to the animal behaviour film festival on Tuesday evening reserved for students and the public (priced at just $5).

The Animal Behavior Society, founded in 1964, promotes the study of animal behaviour in the broadest sense. Members’ research areas span the invertebrates and vertebrates, both in the field and the lab, and include experimental psychology, behavioral ecology, neuroscience, zoology, biology, applied ethology, human ethology as well as many other specialized areas.

How do dogs learn? U of T's undergrads look for answers

ullahnor — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:30:30 +0000

How do dogs learn? U of T's undergrads look for answers

ullahnor Wed, 03/08/2017 - 14:30

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One of the studies finds dogs are not interpreting what they are being shown as a “teaching” moment in the same way that a child does. Photo of Olive, one of the dogs participating in the research (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Peter Boisseau

Author legacy

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Breaking Research

Dogs

Animal

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

They've discovered dogs are selective when copying humans, and how we train dogs may not be that helpful

Undergraduate students in U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science are assisting with ongoing research that sheds some light on what goes on inside a dog’s head when humans are trying to train them.

Among their findings:

Dogs learn, and look to us for direction, but the ways we “teach” may not be as helpful as we think
Dogs are less prone to the “gravity bias” – the belief that objects land directly beneath where there they are dropped. Gravity bias often stumps human infants and monkeys.

The findings are part of two separate dog cognition studies led by Daphna Buchsbaum, an assistant professor of psychology, and postdoctoral researcher Emma Tecwyn. The research included extensive assistance from undergraduate students, including several in the Faculty of Arts & Science's research opportunity program.

Monkeys play the odds, say U of T researchers

ullahnor — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 20:06:02 +0000

Monkeys play the odds, say U of T researchers

ullahnor Tue, 01/10/2017 - 15:06

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Assistant Professor of Psychology Daphna Buchsbaum: “It might be that they are not that very different from us at all” (photos by Emma Tecwyn)

Peter Boisseau

Author legacy

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Subheadline

A study on statistical reasoning among capuchin monkeys finds the first evidence that a monkey species is capable of making decisions on the basis of probabilities

It wasn’t exactly a Planet of the Apes moment, but when two University of Toronto researchers recently proved monkeys can reason about proportions and ratios, it opened a world of possibilities to tickle the fancy of even a Hollywood scriptwriter.

The study on statistical reasoning among capuchin monkeys by Daphna Buchsbaum, an assistant professor of psychology, and Emma Tecwyn, a postdoctoral researcher, is the first evidence a monkey species is capable of making decisions on the basis of probabilities.

The Faculty of Arts & Science researchers' study, published online in Animal Cognition, tested the monkeys using jars of desirable peanuts and undesirable pellets in different ratios to prove they can reason about relative amounts, as opposed to just making straightforward comparisons about quantities. The 19 monkeys who participated in the study are from the ‘Living Links to Human Evolution’ Research Centre at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Edinburgh Zoo, UK.

The study also demonstrated that the monkeys – like great apes – share a capability once thought to be uniquely human.

“It might be that they are not that very different from us at all,” says Buchsbaum, adding that in a sense, the results also further our understanding of ourselves as humans.

While it still leaves capuchin monkeys a long way from the talking hero apes of the popular movie series, the type of intuitive ability they demonstrated in the lab tests is a building block for complex thinking, such as understanding cause and effect, and language.

The researchers say infants use the same ability to understand other people’s goals and preferences.

“I think the fact that monkeys do share this ability would make us potentially more optimistic that they might also be capable of more sophisticated social inferences,” says Buchsbaum. “While monkeys are unlikely to be capable of learning language, the ability to track probabilities is absolutely related to language learning.”

The statistical reasoning abilities shared by human infants and monkeys are part of a broader range of cognitive skills that encompass everything from predicting the behaviour of others to being able to reason about someone’s desires and mental state.

Buchsbaum notes there are more immediate applications for this ability in monkeys such as how to forage and compete for food successfully.

For now, the scientists are satisfied to add to their growing knowledge about the evolutionary traits of humans and other animals, particularly primates.

Until recently, the ability to make inferences using probabilities was thought to develop relatively late in childhood. But recent work revealed this ability in infants as young as 10 months old to a one year old.

Other research suggests that great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans also share this intuitive statistical ability with human infants.

What’s intriguing about the monkey study is it suggests that this ability developed earlier on the ancestral tree before apes and humans branched off, Tecwyn says.

Humans shared a common ancestor with chimps about six million years ago. But we last shared a common ancestor with capuchin monkeys about 30 million years ago.

“So we could make the inference that this ability is at least that ancient,” Tecwyn says.

It is possible but unlikely, that statistical reasoning is a trait capuchins evolved independently, and it is not shared by other monkey species, adds Buchsbaum.

“Given that humans, apes and capuchins all share the trait, it is more likely that it evolved once earlier rather than independently in these different groups.”

Researchers have long been on a quest to establish what makes humans unique from other animals and conversely, what cognitive abilities are shared. Like the ape studies before it, the capuchin research further lays to rest the idea that probabilistic reasoning is one of the traits that makes humans unique.

Buchsbaum says an exciting avenue for future research would be investigating whether animals other than primates also share this ability to make intuitive statistical inferences, and whether non-human animals are capable of more sophisticated social reasoning often thought to be unique to humans.

“But regardless, within the broader animal kingdom, I don’t think we can doubt monkeys are pretty sensitive and intelligent animals,” Buchsbaum says.

Other collaborators on the research – conducted at the Living Links research centre at the Edinburgh Zoo – are Stephanie Denison of the University of Waterloo and Emily Messer of Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

The complicated history of zoos: U of T's Dan Bender

ullahnor — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 21:56:13 +0000

The complicated history of zoos: U of T's Dan Bender

ullahnor Wed, 11/16/2016 - 16:56

Cutline

U of T Scarborough history professor Dan Bender talks about the controversial history of zoos in his new book (photo by Bradley Anderson via Flickr)

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

The ethics of zoos provoke intense debate, but they’re still the most popular cultural institutions in North America when it comes to annual attendance.

In his new book The Animal Game, U of T Scarborough history professor Dan Bender dives into this irony, exploring the uncomfortable aspects of zoo history while also illustrating their rise as important centres for conserving animals that are quickly disappearing in the wild.

“The history of zoos can be troubling, and the zoos of the past are certainly very different than those of today,” says Bender, who teaches a course on animal history.

“But we need to make sense of why zoos are such important cultural institutions that continue to define our popular understanding of different parts of the world.”

Bender’s book focuses on the period from the 1870s when zoos were first being established to their evolution as places for animal conservation and breeding beginning in the 1970s. It’s a history that coincides with the rise of American imperial power whose elites were competing with their contemporaries in Europe to build the biggest and best cultural institutions. Those elites envisioned zoos as orderly places of education, where the public could go to learn about animals.

“Early zoos were organized in opposition to the little menageries of circuses and the world of P.T. Barnum, but it didn’t work,” says Bender.

“Zoo visitors didn’t follow the signs. They wanted to poke and feed the animals. Zoos were meant to be science labs for study, yet all people wanted to do was ride the animals.”

Bender uses sources including archival documents, artifacts, books, films, memoirs and other materials such as souvenir postcards, maps and magazines to bring the history of zoos to life. But it wasn’t always easy gaining access to zoo archives.

“Some zoos were great. Others outright told me I would never get to see their archives,” he says. “It became a challenge to get into these archives and shed a light on a history many were intent on keeping in the closet.”

The U of T Scarborough library has digitized parts of Marlin Perkins' Zoo Parade Board game

It’s impossible to talk about the history of zoos without looking at the wild animal trade, notes Bender. He recalls Frank Buck, an American icon during his time, but someone who would be judged as appalling by modern standards. Buck was heavily involved in the animal trade and created a celebrity persona around capturing animals in the wild. In reality, notes Bender, he was buying animals from markets in Singapore and shipping them to America.

“As he was doing this he also spun these imagined tales and created this image of animal capturers as brave men.”

Buck’s movies were very popular during the interwar period and heavily influenced western perceptions of jungles as wild, untamed places filled with “savage” people and dangerous animals. They also contained “horrific” animal fights that were staged for the camera.

Many of the artifacts collected for the book have been digitized by the U of T Scarborough library. One of these is the Marlin Perkins' Zoo Parade board game, which involves capturing animals in the wild and shipping them to America. The game has also been programmed to play online and also features interactive photos highlighting important events in zoo history.

Bender notes that during the Cold War period, popular culture turned its attention towards the nuclear family of the 1950s. The wild animal trade was slowly being outlawed, thus zoos began looking more into their breeding programs. This not only maintained their stock of animals, it also attracted visitors eager to see baby monkeys, lions and elephants.

While the debate over the true place of zoos continues – dominated by animal rights advocates on one side and by those committed to the conservation of wild animals on the other – there’s no denying the importance zoos play in shaping popular attitudes towards animals.

Bender points to the popularity of chimpanzee shows of the early 20th century as a prime example. These vaudeville shows with often racist aspects were adopted by zoos and became big money makers. By the 1980s most accredited zoos across the U.S. had all but decided to put an end to them, not because the public didn’t want them, but because zoos no longer wanted to display their animals that way.

“The aim of the book is to shed a light on the uncomfortable aspects of zoo history while also recognizing their enduring place as important cultural institutions,” he says.

Why some hummingbirds balloon up before they fly south: U of T research

ullahnor — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 18:14:29 +0000

Why some hummingbirds balloon up before they fly south: U of T research

ullahnor Thu, 10/13/2016 - 14:14

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A ruby-throated hummingbird (Photo by Ken Jones)

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

Some adult ruby-throated hummingbirds choose to pack on significant weight in the four days before their long migratory flights south for the winter, a new U of T study has found.

“Many different birds fatten up before they migrate, but we wanted to know what specific strategies hummingbirds use to fuel up prior to migration,” says Ken Welch, an associate professor of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough.

“It turns out that individual hummingbirds make individual decisions – some fatten up for long flights, while others stop and fuel along the way.”

Welch and master's student Lily Hou developed a unique system to track and weigh hummingbirds in the wild before migration using radio frequency identification tags. Every bird had a microchip and was weighed each time it landed on a balance attached to the feeder.

Hummingbirds that fatten up spent more time at feeders in order to gain weight rapidly, the researchers found – in some cases putting on as much as 35 to 40 per cent of their body mass in the four days before migration. They also found that no juvenile birds were fattening, meaning that those choosing to spend more time at feeders had made the migratory trip at least once.

“This suggests fattening could be a learned behaviour,” says Welch.

The findings add to a growing body of research that suggests pre-migration strategies for some birds are affected by age and experience, he says.

Birds generally use two strategies when it comes to preparing for migration. One prioritizes fattening to allow a more direct flight in order to arrive at the wintering grounds quickly. The other involves shorter flights, stopping and feeding along the way.

There are advantages to both, notes Welch. Short trips can be a safe strategy as long as resources can be found reliably along the way, but it can take longer to arrive at the final destination. For other birds, fattening may be necessary to take longer flights over large ecological barriers like oceans or deserts.

“The reason some hummingbirds fatten up before their long flight may be to gain an advantage over potential rivals – by arriving at their wintering grounds in southern Mexico and Central America quickly they can establish territories and control the best resources,” he says.

(hummingbird approaching a feeder, photo by Ken Welch)

During breeding season, hummingbirds generally only increase their eating activity in the evening before fasting for the night, while reducing it in the middle of the day. But the hummingbirds that fatten for migration tended to increase their eating activity during midday and the early evening.

Animal

From super flies to chimps, international animal behaviour conference at U of T next week

How do dogs learn? U of T's undergrads look for answers

Read more at CBC News

Monkeys play the odds, say U of T researchers

The complicated history of zoos: U of T's Dan Bender

Why some hummingbirds balloon up before they fly south: U of T research

Read more about Welch ’s research

Read more about the hummingbird diet

Animal

From super flies to chimps, international animal behaviour conference at U of T next week

How do dogs learn? U of T's undergrads look for answers

Read more at CBC News

Monkeys play the odds, say U of T researchers

The complicated history of zoos: U of T's Dan Bender

Why some hummingbirds balloon up before they fly south: U of T research

Read more about Welch’s research

Read more about the hummingbird diet

Read more about Welch ’s research