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The Pherobase - http://www.pherobase.com
A searchable database of insect pheromones and semiochemicals, now covering over 7000 species of insect. |
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Avian Visual Cognition - http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/toc.htm
This multimedia cyberbook provides a comprehensive survey of this area of comparative research with chapters by top international scientists. |
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Bear Center Conducts Hibernation Study - http://www.bear.org/Black/BlackBearResearch/Bear_Center_Conducts_Hibernation_Study.html
Article by Lynne L Rogers who has studied black bear behavior and ecology in northeastern Minnesota since 1969. |
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Honey Bee Research at the University of Illinois - http://www.life.uiuc.edu/robinson/
Research in Gene E. Robinson's lab that studies the mechanisms of social behavior in honey bees. |
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Bird Behavior - http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~millerd/bbframes.html
Bird Behavior is an international and interdisciplinary journal that publishes research on avian behavior, including the areas of ethology, behavioral ecology, comparative psychology, and behavioral neuroscience. |
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Chimpanzee Cultures - http://culture.st-and.ac.uk/chimp/
A searchable database of chimpanzee cultural behaviors. |
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About Gender: Ethology - http://www.gender.org.uk/about/index.htm#ethol
An introduction to animal reproduction, maternal strategies, living in groups, dominance and male behavior. The rest of the site deals with human gender roles, variance and identity. |
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Chelonian Research Foundation - http://www.chelonian.org/
This foundation supports worldwide turtle and tortoise research and produces a journal – Chelian Conservation and Biology. |
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Fongoli Chimps - http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/04/chimps-with-spears/mary-roach-text.html
Article from the National Geographic Magazine on how the chimpanzees on the savannas of Senegal are hunting bush babies with spearlike sticks. |
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Hummingbirds and Torpor - http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2006/04/hummingbirds_and_torpor.php
Article by Devorah Bennu on the strategy used by hummingbirds to conserve energy in order to survive long cold nights. |
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Flocker 1.1 - http://www.behav.org/flocker.htm
This free software quantifies and compares statistical measures of group size. It differentiates between outsiders' view (group size) versus insiders' view (crowding) measures, controls for the ties among data points in the latter case and handles biased distributions correctly. |
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The Gordon Lab - http://www.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/
A long-term study of ant colony behavior, organization and ecology undertaken by Deborah Gordon and her colleagues at Stanford University. |
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The Arts of Deception - Mimicry and Camouflage - http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0306.htm
Article by Rhett Butler on camouflage as used by animals and the three forms of mimicry utilized by both predator and prey. |
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Animal Cognition - http://cognition.icapb.ed.ac.uk
Researchers at Edinburgh University are using both evolutionary and behavioral approaches to try to understand the factors that shape animal cognitive abilities. |
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Behaviour - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/behaviour.shtml
Article from the BBC Science and Nature series on why mammals have developed such complex social strategies. |
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Variation in Lekking Costs in Blackbuck - http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/kavita/Isvaran_Jhala_2000.pdf
Researchers at the Wildlife Institute of India examine the hypothesis that among lekking males of the species Antilope cervicapra, variations in lekking costs are related to differences in mating benefits. [PDF] |
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University of Los Andes Frog Research - http://gecoh.uniandes.edu.co
Group working on frog behavior and ecophysiology at Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. |
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Animal Behavior/Sensory Biology - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Animal_Behavior/Sensory_Biology
Article from Wikibooks explaining that, by learning how the senses gather information, a better understanding of behavior is gained. |
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Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour - http://www.une.edu.au/cnab/
Research into brain function and behavior, communication and higher cognition in animals as undertaken at the University of New England, Australia. |
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Pelican Lagoon Research Centre - http://www.echidna.edu.au
This centre in Australia provides habitats for long term field studies, especially on monotremes, free from the impact of introduced species. |
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Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science Research Group. - http://www.uoguelph.ca/abw/
The University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada examines how an understanding of the behavior of domesticated animals and poultry can contribute to their welfare. |
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Research Centre for Behavioural and Physiological Ecology (BPERC) - http://www.une.edu.au/zoology/bperc.php
BPERC aims to investigate behavioral and physiological adaptations of native Australian mammals and birds living in various habitats and the impact of environmental change on them. |
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Too Mellow for our Predatory World - http://www.orn.mpg.de/aktuelles/presse/echsen_en.pdf
Article from the Max Planck Society on research examining flexibility in flight behavior in marine iguanas on the Galapagos Islands. |
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Kohler’s Research on the Mentality of Apes - http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/kohler.htm
Excerpt from a book by Gould and Gould discussing the tests that Kohler set the chimpanzees he was marooned with during the First World War. |
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Brood Parasitism - http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Brood_Parasitism.html
This essay describes the behavior of birds that lay their eggs in the nest of another species, with links to other essays covering similar topics. |
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Behaviour: Looking after Relatives - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/relatives.shtml
Article discussing the reasons behind actions such as a female molerat working to help raise her mother's children. |
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Behaviour: Altruism - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/altruism.shtml
Article discussing how helping another member of the same species may have benefits for the donor. |
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Behavioral Ecology Research Group - http://www.uq.edu.au/berg/
Research on the evolution of social systems and social learning at the University of Queensland, Australia. |
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Unfaithful Songbirds Increase Offspring Fitness - http://www.orn.mpg.de/aktuelles/presse/blaumeisen_en.pdf
Article from the Max Planck Society on research showing that female promiscuity can reduce the negative consequences of inbreeding in socially monogamous birds. |
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Consciousness in Animals and People with Autism - http://grandin.com/references/animal.consciousness.html
Temple Grandin discusses his views on animal consciousness, using comparisons from his experience with autism, citing scientific evidence on other neurological disorders which affect consciousness. |
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Dominance in Domestic Hen Triads - http://cogprints.org/1960/
The role of individual differences and patterns of resolution in the formation of dominance orders in domestic hen triads. |
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Cooperative Breeding - http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Cooperative_Breeding.html
Communal breeding occurs when more than two birds of the same species provide care in rearing the young from one nest. |
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NPR: Animal Thought and Communication - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1601349
Ira Flatow and guests look at thought and communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys [Real Audio broadcast]. |
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Warning Colour and Mimicry - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbhdjm/courses/b242/Mimic/Mimic.html
Mimicry is a great example of evolution by natural selection. Outline of a lecture on the subject from the Evolutionary Genetics course at University College, London. |
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Slagsvold Group - http://folk.uio.no/larsejo/tits/index.php
A research group at the University of Oslo, Norway. Primary focus is on the study of sexual imprinting in small passerines. |
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Oklahoma University Behavioral Neuroscience - http://www.ou.edu/oubns/
Research in the OU Zoology Department addresses major biological questions through studies of molecules, cells, organisms, and ecosystems to uncover mechanisms of physiology, development, behavior, and evolution. |
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Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery: Animal Architecture - http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/zoology/animals/animal_architecture.shtml
Dr Michael Hansell has built up an extensive collection of animal artefacts, mainly bird and insect nests but also other fascinating items. |
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Fish and Shrimp Interactions - http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/fish_invert_ecology/predator_prey/fish_shrimp.jsp
Details of research carried out by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on the behavior of fish with varying numbers of prey species and fish densities. |
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Animal Navigation Group - http://www.rin.org.uk/sigs-branches/animal/animal-navigation-group
Provides an e-mail animal forum and disseminates news on animal navigation, orientation and migration through its newsletter and conferences. |
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EcoBirds: Anting - http://birds.ecoport.org/Behaviour/EBanting.htm
Article discussing the strange behavior adopted by some birds in using ants in preening or in some instances, lying down among ants. |
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Multiple Sexual Ornaments in Satin Bowerbirds - http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/4/503
Article by Stephanie Doucet and Robert Montgomerie on their research into the interrelationship between bower features, plumage coloration, and indicators of male quality in this species. |
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Sexual Conflict, Ecology and Breeding Systems in Shorebirds - http://www.bath.ac.uk/bio-sci/biodiversity-lab/publications/BioScience_Octobert2006.pdf
Paper by Tamas Szekely, Gavin Thomas and Innes Cuthill examining the different reproductive payoffs for male and female birds of adopting various diverse breeding systems. |
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Overview of Our Research on the Variable Field Cricket - http://cricket.unl.edu/research.html
At the Wagner Laboratory at the University of Nebraska, research is being undertaken on the evolution of male singing behavior and female song preferences in the variable field cricket |
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Deep-sea Octocorals as Homes for Other Species - http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04mountains/background/commensals/commensals.html
Researchers at the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine, examine the commensal relationships of octocorals with brittle stars and marine scale worms. |
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Universal Parasitism and the Co-evolution of Extended Phenotypes - http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1989univpara.shtml
Article by Richard Dawkins argues that we should ask “Which animal is benefiting from this behavior?” rather than asking “In what way is this animal benefiting from this behavior?” Parasites are used to illustrate this thesis. |
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Essay: A Baboon’s Life - http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9607/9607essy01.shtml
An essay written by Robert Sapolsky in 1996 on violence between male baboons, aging and friendship. |
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Ontologies for Ethology - http://www.mesquiteproject.org/ontology/
Peter E. Midford's research in coding animal behavior descriptions, particularly ethograms using ontology. |
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Social Behaviour of African Wild Dogs - http://www.shef.ac.uk/aps/mbiolsci/green-kathleen/level3dissertation.pdf
Katherine Green at the University of Sheffield, England, examines how the social behavior of the African wild dog is contributing to its high risk of extinction. |
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Dominance in Crayfish. - http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/21/8/2759
Article from the Journal of Neuroscience on patterns of behavior, including the activation of neural circuits, during the formation of a dominance hierarchy in crayfish. |
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Group Predation of Lions - http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~amb/papers/lionsIJCAI05.pdf
An investigation into the visual cues required to coordinate the complex cooperative behavior involved in hunting. |
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Research Projects in the Mammal Research Unit - http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/mammal/research.html
Details of the current research projects being undertaken at the Mammal Research Unit at Bristol University, England. |
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Mammalian Hibernation - http://www.ucalgary.ca/~kmuldrew/cryo_course/cryo_chap12_1.html
Article by Ken Muldrew on mammalian hibernation, sleep and torpor. |
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Article: Bee Behavior - http://www.beesource.com/pov/usda/beekpUSA33.htm
By studying bees as individuals and as a colony, Stephen Taber researches how their behavior may be changed to our benefit. The site also provides a sourcebook for beekeeping. |
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Antipredator Adaptations: Crypsis - http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~croman/crypsis/antipredator.htm
Notes, with photographs, on the four cryptic strategies employed by animals to blend in with their background and avoid detection. |
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The Peripheral Auditory Characteristics of Noctuid Moths - http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/199/4/857.pdf
Research by Dean Waters into the auditory systems sensitive to ultrasound possessed by these moths and their ability to recognise and respond to the echolocation sounds emitted by bats. |
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Animal Cognition Network - http://www.animalcognition.net
Provides links to current scientific literature in the field of animal cognition. Includes journal articles, reviews, books and relevant websites. |
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How Locusts Decide it is Time to Swarm - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9255-how-locusts-decide-its-time-to-swarm.html
Article from the New Scientist discussing the factors that turn a relatively harmless cloud of insects into a devastating plague. |
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Why Grandmothers? - http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/09/why_grandmothers.php
Article by Devorah Bennu examining whether grandmothers play any part in the cooperative rearing of young birds. |
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Nests and Nest-Building in Birds - http://docserver.bis.uni-oldenburg.de/publikationen/dissertation/2005/metada05/pdf/introduction.pdf
Outlines a study of the Red Bishop, a colony breeding weaverbird from sub-Saharan Africa, and examines aspects of male nest-building behavior and resulting male reproductive success. |
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Behavioural and Cognitive Influences of Kairomones on an Araneophagic Jumping Spider - http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/research/groups/ccnr/Papers/Downloads/Jackson_Behav2002.pdf
Jackson, Clark and Harland researched the factors influencing the predatory habits of the jumping spider, Portia fimbriata, which eats other spiders. |
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Conflict and Cooperation - http://www.bath.ac.uk/podcast/powerpoint/Szekely_CharterDay2007.pdf
Tamas Szekely provides a really short, illustrated guide to the family life of birds. |
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A Reproductive Dictatorship: Naked Mole-rats - http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/cgfaulkes/CGFNMR.htm
The eusocial naked mole-rat is the mammalian equivalent of a social insect. This article discusses how and why the dominant queen and the infertile workers cooperate for the benefit of the whole colony. |
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Braun Lab of Hydroacoustic Research and Discovery - http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~cbraun/braunwebsite/Research.htm
Current research at Hunter College, New York, concentrates on the multiple sensory systems that fish use to detect moving and sound-producing objects, including the gymnotiform fishes that use electricity to communicate. |
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The Effect of Light on the Behaviour and Well Being of Marine Fish - http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/delb12.html
Article by J Charles Delbeek on the activities of fish at varying levels of light and the very important role light plays in their lives. |
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Long-distance Land Bird Migration - http://petcaretips.net/bird-migration.html
This article discusses the reasons for migration, its advantages and disadvantages, and the different patterns of migration adopted by different bird groups. |
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Processing Towards Life - http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2861
L Charles Birch discusses self-organisation as exampled by termites, ants and slime moulds, where patterns of behavior are determined, not by some centralised authority, but by local interactions about decentralised components |
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Reading: Manning and Dawkins, Animal Behavior - http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/way/yek18/greg/docs/reading%20-%20Manning%20and%20Dawkins,%20animal%20behaviour.htm
Notes on Chapters 2 to 7 of this book covering aspects of communication, learning, memory, evolution and social organisation. |
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All About How Males Attract Female Birds - http://petcaretips.net/how-bird-attracts.html
Describes research into the extent to which female birds choose their mates according to their vocal ability. |
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Partnership in Birds - http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/behavecol/jstacy_desertion.pdf
Article discussing monogamous birds and those that change partner, and why such divorces occur. |
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Cognitive Ecology: A Field of Substance? - http://cognition.icapb.ed.ac.uk/resources/pdf/Healy00.pdf
Article arguing that a greater insight into behaviors such as animal orientation, song learning, mate choice and foraging is achieved by tackling the subject from more than one starting point. |
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The Dwarf Mongoose: Social Cooperation - http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/behavior/Spring2003/Rizi/SC.htm
Article discussing the benefit for dwarf mongooses of living in a cohesive group. Also describes their symbiotic cooperation with hornbills in Kenya. |
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Cophylogeny between Pocket Gophers and Chewing Lice - http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rdmp1c/book/draft/hafner.pdf
Article discussing the symbiotic association between gophers and chewing lice, creatures whose life histories are conducive to parallel speciation. |
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Cospeciation and Rates of Evolution in Lice and Birds: a Molecular Approach - http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/Jobs/NERC/seabird.html
How old is the association between a given parasite and its host? Rod Page at the University of Glasgow tries to answer this question. |
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The Finch Self-Medication Website - http://astorwilliam.tripod.com/
Birds and animals have often been seen using plants, soil, insects or fungi as 'medicines'. William Astor explains his findings on this remarkable ability with regard to Estrildid finches. |
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Robot Modelling of Insect Proto-Cognition - http://www.ipab.informatics.ed.ac.uk/PROPOSALS/smith_thesis_proposal.pdf
D J Smith’s thesis concerns a bio-robotic investigation of the elementary forms of cognition that might be present in small brains, specifically insect brains. |
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Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Rikkyo University - http://www.rikkyo.ne.jp/grp/animal-ecology/en/
Current research includes the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior, avian behavioral ecology, and what behaviors help an animal to adapt to its environment. |
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Theory of Mind in Nonhuman Primates - http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/05/46/bbs00000546-00/bbs.heyes.html
C M Heyes revisits the question asked by Premack and Woodruff, "Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?" This question dominates the study of both social behavior in nonhuman primates and cognitive development in children. |
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Cognitive Ethology and the Explanation of Nonhuman Animal Behavior - http://cogprints.org/157/00/199709002.html
In this paper, Marc Bekoff attempts to demonstrate the importance of cognitive ethological investigations for advancing the understanding of animal cognition. |
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Play Signals as Punctuation: The Structure of Social Play in Canids - http://cogprints.org/158/00/199709003.html
Paper by Marc Bekoff discussing the use by animals of specific signals primarily to initiate or maintain social play. |
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A Century of Generalization - http://cogprints.org/5279/01/ghirlanda_enquist2003.pdf
This article aims to organise existing data to test the theory that, when a behavior has been established in response to a certain stimulus, novel stimuli resembling the first will usually elicit the same response. |
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The Nest Building Behaviour of Higher Apes - http://home.worldcom.ch/~negenter/081NestbApes_E.html
Noel Egenter outlines his research into the ability of apes to weave branches into a stable construction and whether this requires a definite learning process. |
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The Evolution of Imperfect Mimicry in Hoverflies - http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/archive/00000096/01/ImperfectMimicry.pdf
Article by Francis Gilbert describing Batesian mimicry and discussing the extent to which hoverflies succeed in mimicing bees, wasps and bumblebees. |
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Sexual Selection in Bowerbirds - http://www.life.umd.edu/biology/borgialab/
Research at the Borgia Lab concentrates on understanding the evolution of the complex sexual male displays in the Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. |
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Animal Behavior - http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/index.php/research-areas/animal-behaviour-group.html
Information from McMaster University, Canada on the research program and undergraduate courses available. |
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Movie Archives of Animal Behavior - http://www.momo-p.com/index-e.html
An online animal behavior video database available in various formats. Most clips filmed in Japan. |
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Mammal Research at JCU - http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/tbiol/zoology/auxillry/mammals/mamres.html
Researchers at James Cook University are studying the life histories of several endangered Australian marsupials. |
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Animal Behavior Lab - http://galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au/
Overview of current research at Macquarie University, Australia, with detailed material on each project. |
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Fish Behaviour - http://www.vet.ed.ac.uk/animalwelfare/Fish%20pain/Behaviour.htm
Describes certain behaviors that can indicate pain in fish and the behavioral evidence for the perception of pain by fish. |
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Elephant Corner: Mentality, Cognition and Behavior of Elephants - http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/ElephantCorner/front.htm
Moti Nissani details his research into elephant behavior, cognition and senses, with sounds and video clips. |
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Research Station Petite Camargue Alsacienne - http://www.camargue.unibas.ch
Affiliated with the University of Basel, Switzerland. Focuses on the behavioral ecology of passerines. |
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Personality Gene Makes Songbirds Curious - http://www.orn.mpg.de/aktuelles/presse/meisen_en.pdf
Max Planck scientists find evidence for an association between gene variants and exploratory behavior in great tits. |
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Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs - http://www.scallywags1.freeserve.co.uk/alstat/alstat.htm
Describes the wolf-pack social order as it occurs in nature, discusses the alpha concept and social dominance and submission, and presents data on the precise relationships among members in free-living packs. |
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Stress and the City: Urban Birds Keep Cool - http://www.orn.mpg.de/aktuelles/presse/stress_en.pdf
Ornithologists at the Max Planck Society demonstrate that urban birds are more resistant to acute stress than forest dwelling birds. |
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Trade-offs Between Extraterritorial Prospecting and Helping in a Cooperative Mammal - http://rom.ex.ac.uk/documents/Bios/ajy204/Young%20et%20al%202005%20-%20Trade-offs%20between%20prospecting%20and%20helping%20in%20meerkats.pdf
Researchers at Cambridge University investigated whether male meerkats trade off their cooperative contributions to pup feeding against searching for mating and dispersal opportunities. |
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Describing Social Insect Behaviour Using Process Algebra - http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Chris_Tofts/Papers/SocialInsects.pdf
Chris Tofts at University College Swansea, Wales, presents robust algorithms that describe three different ant behaviours: synchrony, task allocation and sorting |