From: IN%"Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at" "Susanne Waiblinger" 2-SEP-1997 04:36:05.09 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Long term recognition in cattle Dear Terry, there is a paper on "social interactions among dairy cows during herd formation in spring" by Bremner Kathryn (Proc. NZ Soc. Anim. Product. 35, 1975), where fithting between regrouped cows was related to the length of separation. Animals being separated for less than 6 weeks had only 5% head to head encounters compared to 18% when separated for 6 to 11 weeks. Former rank position appeared not to be a relvant factor, but no fights appeared with the two former top dominant cows. But as Joe wrote, I think this fights do not indicate, that cows do not remember each other , but that they might try to change further positions. This supported by the incidence, that with the top dominant animals there were no fights at all. From own observation I could tell an anecdote supporting long term recognition abilities in cattle. Two animals which were reared twogether in loose stable and than tethered for about 1 and a half year without being able to see one another were integrated in a new grouped herd in loose housing. This two animals kept in close proximity from the beginning. It not only could be explained by the same stable smell because there were other animals from the same tying stable, too. This supports the paper mentioned ( Swanson and Stricklin) by Joe. Best regards, Susanne ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. Susanne Waiblinger Institute of Animal Husbandry and Animal Protection University of Veterinary Sciences Josef Baumann-Gasse 1 1210 Wien Austria Tel. +43 1 250 77 49 05 Fax +43 1 250 77 49 90 Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: IN%"joseph.stookey@usask.ca" 2-SEP-1997 09:55:54.93 To: IN%"Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at" "Susanne Waiblinger" CC: IN%"STOOKEY@sask.usask.ca", IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Long term recognition in cattle Dear Susanne, Thank you for your comments. I must look for the references you mentioned. I think a very intregal part of this "long term recognition" issue is of course the concept of memory. The recognition process must include some basic components of memory which allows an individual to compare some distinguishing features of another individual to a learned template or memory of that individual (unless we are talking about phenotypic kin recogntion, which I do not believe applies to cattle). What I find fascinating about the long term recognition ability in cattle is that you can begin to question what other situations long term "memory" would function. Once an organism has evolved long term memory, whether for use in remembering individuals, water holes or migration routes, the possibility exist for the multiple use of the trait for other tasks which were not originally selected for or present in the environment. I think the work by Jeff Rushen and Anne Marie de Passille' investigating whether dairy cows recognize individual humans (good guys and bad guys) and associate negative experiences with certain people or places is very much related to this same issue of recognizing conspecifics. I would imagine the relevance of the experience (how frightful or rewarding) would have some impact on how quickly or firmly a memory is established. There seems to be no limit to the questions one could ask or the topics you could investigate within this subject. Good luck, Joe ======================= Joseph M. Stookey Department of Herd Medicine and Theriogenology Western College of Veterinary Medicine University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B4 From: IN%"aladd@zoo.uvm.edu" "Alison E. Ladd" 2-SEP-1997 16:32:27.46 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied ethology network" CC: Subj: Introduction My name is Alison Ladd, I am a third year student at the University of Vermont. My major is Aniaml Science, and when I graduate, I hope to go to grad school and specialize in ethology. I have been interested in this field for as long as I can remember, particularly with exotic wild animals. However, domestic animal behaviour interests me as well. From: IN%"eoprice@ucdavis.edu" "Edward O. Price" 2-SEP-1997 17:16:20.55 To: IN%"applied-ethology-error@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology-error" CC: Subj: RE: Introduction Dear Alison: I hope you will consider the University of California at Davis for your degree work. Both Joy Mench and I are trained in ethology and would be happy to discuss degree opportunities. Edward Price Department of Animal Science eoprice@ucdavis.edu ---------- >From: applied-ethology-error >To: applied ethology network >Subject: Introduction >Date: Tuesday, September 02, 1997 6:31PM > >My name is Alison Ladd, I am a third year student at the University of >Vermont. My major is Aniaml Science, and when I graduate, I hope to go to >grad school and specialize in ethology. I have been interested in this >field for as long as I can remember, particularly with exotic wild >animals. However, domestic animal behaviour interests me as well. From: IN%"Frank.Odberg@rug.ac.be" "Frank Odberg" 3-SEP-1997 08:46:21.29 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology" CC: Subj: A student of mine is looking for the following publication: Animal shelter reporting study. Denver. American Humane Association, 1988. That's all the data she has. We cannot trace it here. Can somebody help her finding it? Many thanks! Prof.Dr. Frank O. Odberg University of Ghent Dpt. of Animal Nutrition, Genetics, Production and Ethology Heidestraat 19 B-9820 Merelbeke Belgium tel: +32-(0)9-2647804 fax: 7849 From: IN%"Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at" "Susanne Waiblinger" 3-SEP-1997 10:06:55.53 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: long term recognition in cattle Dear Joe, tanks for your reply! Concerning long term recognition of humans in cattle there are references that bulls could remember and attack people, which had caused strong aversive or frightful experiences for the bulls, years later (Renger, 1975, dissertation in Munich, "Aggressives Verhalten von Bullen gegenueber Wartern" mentioned two references). This strong aversive, but short? experiences thus caused memory being firmly and long-lasting established. Probably a short-lasting positive experience wouldn't be as effective but long lasting positive experiences would be. From this point, if memory establishes quicklier with strong aversive experience, one could claim that few aversive handling could destroy quickly possible effects of longer lasting positive handling in human animal interaction - except "positive memory" was already established and strengthened. It isreally an interesting field! Best regards, Susanne ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. Susanne Waiblinger Institute of Animal Husbandry and Animal Protection University of Veterinary Sciences Josef Baumann-Gasse 1 1210 Wien Austria Tel. +43 1 250 77 49 05 Fax +43 1 250 77 49 90 Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: IN%"holson@california.com" "Howard Olson" 3-SEP-1997 12:20:50.39 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Introducing myself Hello, My name is Howard Olson. I am an instructor in the Veterinary Assistant program at the Loma Vista Adult Center in Concord, CA. I have a BA in Biochemistry from San Francisco State University and an MA in Biology from the Calif. State. U at Hayward. My primary interests are in behavioral endocrinology and teaching. I have specific interests in pheromone structure and function. I look forward to participating in this List. Howard From: IN%"jennifer.williams@attws.com" "Williams, Jennifer" 3-SEP-1997 15:03:52.11 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "'applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca'" CC: Subj: One more introduction! My name is Jennifer Williams and I am looking into graduate school programs that focus on the behavior of wild animals within their natural environment, primarily using field observational studies (i.e. vs lab studies). I am very new to this field, but I have had an interest in animals behavior most of my life. My background is unique in that I have BA in Marketing Research and I am currently in the telecommunications field working as a Network Engineer. Before returning to graduate school I am researching the types of specialization and potential job descriptions within the field of ethology. Any advice and/or information will be greatly appreciated! From: IN%"mshea@ansc.purdue.edu" "Margaret Shea-Moore" 4-SEP-1997 23:06:07.22 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "'applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca'" CC: Subj: new member --Boundary_(ID_eagOJjiw3MX+h4KY1QVbwQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I would like to join the applied ethology network. My e-mail address is mshea@ansc.purdue.edu I have recently joined the Livestock Behavior Research Unit, USDA, ARS with Dr. Julie Morrow-Tesch, in West Lafayette, IN Thanks. Margaret Shea-Moore Ph. 765-494-6358 Fax 765-496-1993 --Boundary_(ID_eagOJjiw3MX+h4KY1QVbwQ)-- From: IN%"george@global-expos.com" 6-SEP-1997 13:36:27.42 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Osteological Supplies We would like to announce the Skulls Unlimited, One of the largest Osteological Supply Companies now has its catalog available online 24 hours a day. Mammal (including Primate), reptile, bird and reference material is pictured in the catalog. Items can be purchesed by phone, fax or e-mail. Purchase Orders will be accepted from Museums and Universities. Orders can be shipped world-wide, limitations apply to all CITIES Protected Specimens. The site and catalog can be viewed at: http://www.global-expos.com/Skulls.html George Winters Global Expos From: IN%"tapir@tapirback.com" "Tapir" 6-SEP-1997 16:16:09.17 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"MAMMAL-L@SIVM.SI.EDU" CC: Subj: Facilities with Lutra felina? This is cross-posted to two lists - sorry - it is short. I'm posting for someone who is not (yet) a member. Please respond to her directly. ================ I have been asked to post the following request for information: Does anyone know of any facility that holds the otter species Lutra felina? Thanks for any replies. Pamela Barker Animal Registrar Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust From: IN%"harrism@sask.usask.ca" "Moira Harris" 7-SEP-1997 18:47:57.47 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: IN%"harrism@sask.usask.ca" Subj: Odour as a welfare problem Dear all, Pig farms smell. Some smell more than others, and things can be done to reduce the smell of pig 'waste' at various stages, in order to increase the welfare of humans. In pig areas, however, the smell is fairly constant and, particularly in intensive, fully confined operations, often objectionable -- at least to the human nose. What are the welfare implications for pigs of living almost their entire lives smelling such a smell? Does anybody know of any research, ongoing or published, about this issue, or have any thoughts? - Moira Harris From: IN%"robin@coape.win-uk.net" "Robin Walker" 8-SEP-1997 01:49:45.88 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Porcine population "densitystat" ? Re Pig smell:- I must say that although I do not work with pigs (anymore) I have kept a file of the posts on pig matters. I am moved to wonder in the light of discussion on cannibalism and foraging, whether there is a natural mechanism among pigs to control population density by dispersing or breeding less or killing offspring or "something". Could there be some vestiges of such an adaptive propensity? Could a tendency to prefer not to live in its ordure be ticking in the porcine mind? Does giving them limited access to a field which they can over-root, lead to a "density" unease about availability of food in the territory which could trigger cannibalism? In addition the most interesting observations from Switzerland about suitable soils for outdoor pig rearing have raised the question (for me) of the historical popularity of Cis and Trans Alpine Gaul (In Roman Times) for famous pig production! Does that area indeed have unusually suitable soil for pigs? Or, of course, is the modern pig now free of such motivations (if they existed) and snug in its concrete "thicket" with no worries about food whatsoever? Robin Walker From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 8-SEP-1997 03:27:16.45 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Odour as a welfare problem Moira et al. >> Pig farms smell. Some smell more than others, and things can be done to reduce the smell of pig 'waste' at various stages, in order to increase the welfare of humans. In pig areas, however, the smell is fairly constant and, particularly in intensive, fully confined operations, often objectionable --at least to the human nose. What are the welfare implications for pigs of living almost their entire lives smelling such a smell? Does anybody know of any research, ongoing or published, about this issue, or have any thoughts? >> My feeling is that there are no welfare implications at all. When I have worked regularly with pigs I have rapidly reached the point at which I hardly notice the smell at all, and I guess that if I lived there 24h/d that effect would be even greater. (A concern has of course remained, however, that OTHER people will notice the smell - on me!) If you haven't noticed the same effect, perhaps it's because your pig unit is a well-contained, shower-in-shower-out facility, so the impact is greater each time you arrive. This raises lots of interesting questions, of course. Is the effect the same in pigs (and other animals) ? I'd guess that discrimination of smells would get worse with longer exposure, but I don't know of any work on this. Is the effect greater with smell than with other senses? But as I say, I don't intuitively feel concerned for pig welfare on this matter. Mike From: IN%"d.arey@ab.sac.ac.uk" 8-SEP-1997 04:19:46.05 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Porcine population "densitystat" ? Dear Moira, Robin et al There is evidence that intensively housed pigs do have problems with ammonia (Jones et al, 1997 BSAS Proceedings) and air quality in general (Robertson, 1994 Pig Journal, 33:113-125). I do not know of any species which has some innate mechanism for controlling population density whether it by dispersing, breeding less or cannibalism. 'Cannibalism' in growing pigs is generally associated with barren, overcrowded environments where food is mostly available ad libitum. The most suitable soil types for outdoor pigs are sandy, free-draining ones. Pigs in Roman times would have been kept at densities far below those kept in todays systems mainly because of a lack of concentrate feed. And as far as I'm aware the modern pig is just as interested in food as it has always been. Dale > Robin Walker wrote: > I must say that although I do not work with pigs (anymore) I have kept a file > of the posts on pig matters. I am moved to wonder in the light of discussion > on cannibalism and foraging, whether there is a natural mechanism among > pigs to control population density by dispersing or breeding less or killing > offspring or "something". > > Could there be some vestiges of such an adaptive propensity? Could a tendency > to prefer not to live in its ordure be ticking in the porcine mind? Does giving them > limited access to a field which they can over-root, lead to a "density" unease > about availability of food in the territory which could trigger cannibalism? > > In addition the most interesting observations from Switzerland about suitable > soils for outdoor pig rearing have raised the question (for me) of the historical > popularity of Cis and Trans Alpine Gaul (In Roman Times) for famous > pig production! Does that area indeed have unusually suitable soil for pigs? > > Or, of course, is the modern pig now free of such motivations (if they existed) and > snug in its concrete "thicket" with no worries about food whatsoever? > > Robin Walker > > Dale Arey Animal and Feed Technology SAC Craibstone Estate Bucksburn Aberdeen, AB21 9YA UK AB21 9YA Tel: 01224 711058 From: IN%"h.erhard@mluri.sari.ac.uk" "Hans Erhard" 8-SEP-1997 05:24:27.54 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Odour as a welfare problem Dear Moira et al. Like Mike Appleby, I found it relatively easy to get used to the 'smell of pigs'. In higher concentrations, however, ammonia can have rather serious effects on people, and, I assume, pigs as well. Symptoms (in humans) include a sore throat, dried-up nose, spontaneous nose bleeding, headaches, loss of concentration, and in very severe cases ammonia can lead to oedema in the lungs. I cannot give you any references, but I seem to remember from animal science lectures, that a large proportion of pigs' lungs are not fit for human consumption. I would not be surprised if that had something to do with the air they have to breath. Ever since I experienced some of the symptoms of ammonia poisoning, I've considered fresh air a major welfare requirement of pigs. Hans Erhard Macaulay Land Use Research Institute Craigiebuckler Aberdeen AB15 8QH Tel.: 01224 - 318611 Fax.: 01224 - 311556 email: h.erhard@mluri.sari.ac.uk From: IN%"pln1@clermont.inra.fr" "Pierre LE NEINDRE" 8-SEP-1997 06:47:05.82 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Job announcement A job for a postdoc is open in Lyon, a one million people town, 400 km South East of Paris. It will be half time for lectures and half time for research. Lectures will be in French. =20 Pierre Le Neindre RECRUTEMENT D=92UN MAITRE DE CONFERENCES ASSOCIE =E0 l=92ECOLE NATIONALE VETERINAIRE DE LYON Pour assurer : 1=B0) un enseignement d=92ETHOLOGIE en 2=E8me cycle et participer =E0= l=92enseignement de 3=E8me cycle des =E9tudes v=E9t=E9rinaires (190 H de cours et travaux= pratiques dans l=92ann=E9e scolaire) PROGRAMME : A) Ethologie g=E9n=E9rale : Aa) Neurobiologie ; Ab) Domestication et g=E9n=E9tique du comportement B) Ethologie sp=E9ciale Ba) Types de comportement Bb) Relations homme-animal Bc) Adaptation et bien-=EAtre des animaux domestiques Bd) Manipulation, transport et abattage Be) Animal d=92exp=E9rimentation 2=B0) une recherche appliqu=E9e sur le porc avec mise au point de protocoles destin=E9s =E0 clarifier le comportement de la truie en =E9levage intensif= ou extensif, en relation avec son bien-=EAtre. Temps destin=E9 =E0 la recherche : 1 mi-temps Dur=E9e de l=92emploi : 1 an =E0 compter du 15 octobre 1997 Possibilit=E9 de renouvellement du poste : 2 fois 1 an Salaire annuel approximatif : 120 KF net Langue officielle pour l=92enseignement : le fran=E7ais Contacter, pour de plus amples renseignements : Professeur Michel FRANCK ECOLE NATIONALE VETERINAIRE DE LYON 69280 MARCY L=92ETOILE FRANCE TEL : (33) 4 78 87 26 65 FAX : (33) 4 78 87 26 67 From: IN%"anjjm@TTACS.TTU.EDU" "John J. McGlone" 8-SEP-1997 07:03:47.70 To: IN%"harrism@sask.usask.ca" "Moira Harris" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Odour as a welfare problem Moira, First of all your premise is wrong. Pig farms do not always smell bad. We have over 200,000 indoor sows in this region and they do not have any odor that is perceivable standing near the building. Second, the outdoor pig systems of the UK and similar units modeled around the world do not have an offensive odor. It is more the odor of straw than of manure. Fresh pig manure does not smell bad. In a few minutes or hours and especially under anaerobic metabolism, it creates an offensive odor with a mixture of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other gases. When your dog defecates in the back yard, does it make the back yard smell? The same lack of odor is expected in modern indoor and outdoor units. For the large numbers of pig units that have an offensive odor, I expect the pigs are affected in some way. But these units will decrease in proportion very rapidly. Maybe it is different in Saskatchewan where the climate is cold, pigs must be indoors and farmers are encouraged to get into pork production without the added expense of modern-day waste management systems. Do the Saskatchewan pigs really need to be indoors? We should ask the outdoor pig producers in Denmark and Sweden. John McGlone Texas Tech University From: IN%"harrism@sask.usask.ca" 8-SEP-1997 11:20:14.54 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: IN%"HARRISM@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Odour as a welfare problem (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 15:02:51 +0200 (METDST) From: signoret@langeais.tours.inra.fr To: Moira Harris Subject: Re: Odour as a welfare problem Dear all, I think that pig odour in itself is not a nuisance for pigs. As any mammals living in groups, they are rather attracted by the odour of conspecific animals. The odour of pig faeces is another type of "oig odour" for humans. In fact, pig do not rest in the place where they have defecated, when possible. Howevern this does not necessitates that the odour of faeces is a welfare problem. The last problem is ammonia, as resulting from inadequate ventilation. I agree that a relatively hogh level of ammonia could be detrimental to health and welfare of pigs. This is for me a true problem but it could be treated by improvement of ventilation. I have myself made numerous measures of ammonia in pig houses, with a wide range of variation. Even in the most intensive systems there are pig barns with very low levels of ammonia, and other where they are very high. Anyway, high level of ammonia has been reported as often present where cannibalism is observed. To conclude, for me, "pig odour", as considered as objectionable for human nose is complex, and cannot be considered globally as a welfare problem for the pig, However, ammonia is a potential problem in the pig house certainly for the stockpersons and possibly for the pigs, as dust is too.. Best wishes, J.P. Signoret INRA/CNRS URA 1291 Comportement Animal F 37380 NOUZILLY Tel (33).02.47.42.79.62 Fax (33).02.47.42.77.43 e-mail : signoret@tours.tours.inra.fr >Dear all, >Pig farms smell. Some smell more than others, and things can be done to >reduce the smell of pig 'waste' at various stages, in order to increase the >welfare of humans. In pig areas, however, the smell is fairly constant and, >particularly in intensive, fully confined operations, often objectionable -- >at least to the human nose. >What are the welfare implications for pigs of living almost their entire >lives smelling such a smell? Does anybody know of any research, ongoing or >published, about this issue, or have any thoughts? > >- Moira Harris > > > J.P. Signoret INRA/CNRS URA 1291 Comportement Animal F 37380 NOUZILLY Tel (33).02.47.42.79.62 Fax (33).02.47.42.77.43 e-mail : signoret@tours.tours.inra.fr From: IN%"Mike@m-tay.demon.co.uk" "--Mike Taylor --" 8-SEP-1997 17:25:05.28 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: out of print book I have been trying to obtain a copy of the following book but have been told it is out of print. If anyone has a copy they no longer require I would be prepared to offer a fair price. Readings in Companion Animal Behaviour. By Voith and Borchelt. thanks --Mike Taylor -- From: IN%"Mike@m-tay.demon.co.uk" "--Mike Taylor --" 8-SEP-1997 18:07:10.90 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Canine behaviour A friend of mine (yes it really was) has asked me a question about a canine behaviour that I am at a lose to put a convincing answer too. He has a middle aged neutered black labrador bitch, overweight. This dog is the most harmless free from vices animal you could imagine, completely disobedient but harmless. She is always exercised in safe areas, of the lead, these areas are also usually mainly frequented with other people exercising dogs, with these people and dogs she socialises with normally. However on odd occasions there is sometimes a person walking alone or a couple without a dog, to this she takes great exception and will bark and bark at them, even if they are a considerable distance away, and she always seems to be able to sense that they do not have a dog with them. This can be a little embarassing for the owner, fortunately she does only bark. The only suggestion I could offer was that it was the norm for her to see people and dogs, as this was the greatest majority that she met and that a human on their own or without a dog was not the norm and she was afraid of something different to what she was used too. This doesnt seem too convincing to me. Maybe someone out there can offer something a bit more plausible. It does seem to be a fairly common occurence with variations on the theme. thanks --Mike Taylor -- From: IN%"richards@hula.net" 9-SEP-1997 01:27:48.89 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Porcine population "densitystat" Dale wrote: >Pigs in Roman times would have been kept at >densities far below those kept in todays systems mainly because of a >lack of concentrate feed. I recall reading somewhere that pigs in Saxon England were left to run loose around the small cities and larger hamlets so that they would eat the garbage. A sort of precursor to sanitation engineers.... >There is evidence that intensively housed pigs do have problems with >ammonia (Jones et al, 1997 BSAS Proceedings) and air quality in >general (Robertson, 1994 Pig Journal, 33:113-125). This is true with horses, as I imagine it would be with all stalled animals, at least potentially. Some horse owners use lime to counteract the ammonia. Perhaps concern with the lungs is more prevalent in horse owners, who can ride them, as opposed to pig and cattle owners. Dawn From: IN%"robin@coape.win-uk.net" "Robin Walker" 9-SEP-1997 02:14:41.91 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Canine behaviour Mike Taylor wrote:- A friend of mine (yes it really was) has asked me a question about a canine behaviour that I am at a lose to put a convincing answer too. He has a middle aged neutered black Labrador bitch, overweight. This dog is the most harmless free from vices animal you could imagine, completely disobedient but harmless. She is always exercised in safe areas, of the lead, these areas are also usually mainly frequented with other people exercising dogs, with these people and dogs she socialises with normally. However on odd occasions there is sometimes a person walking alone or a couple without a dog, to this she takes great exception and will bark and bark at them, even if they are a considerable distance away, and she always seems to be able to sense that they do not have a dog with them. This can be a little embarrassing for the owner, fortunately she does only bark. The only suggestion I could offer was that it was the norm for her to see people and dogs, as this was the greatest majority that she met and that a human on their own or without a dog was not the norm and she was afraid of something different to what she was used too. This doesn't seem too convincing to me. Maybe someone out there can offer something a bit more plausible. It does seem to be a fairly common occurrence with variations on the theme. thanks --Mike Taylor -- Dear Mike, I think you have largely explained this correctly. Here in the Practice premises we have two(Black) Labradors, a neutered 9 year old bitch and a 17 month old male. They will suddenly bark at clients entering the building. For a time it was not obvious to any of us exactly why a particular individual should elicit this response. It is now quite apparent that the dogs have worked out that when people and animals enter the main door they should turn right into the waiting room. They then enter the consulting areas and exit past the till. They then go down the corridor to the entrance completing a circular progress. It is any tendency to come around the "wrong" way which elicits the warning bark.The dogs have decided to "police" any contra-flow. Robin Walker From: IN%"appleby@petbcent.demon.co.uk" "David Appleby" 9-SEP-1997 03:57:54.66 To: IN%"Mike@m-tay.demon.co.uk" "--Mike Taylor --" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Canine behaviour In message <5t6dVNASwGF0EwkE@m-tay.demon.co.uk>, --Mike Taylor -- writes > >A friend of mine (yes it really was) has asked me a question about a >canine behaviour that I am at a lose to put a convincing answer too. He >has a middle aged neutered black labrador bitch, overweight. This dog is >the most harmless free from vices animal you could imagine, completely >disobedient but harmless. She is always exercised in safe areas, of the >lead, these areas are also usually mainly frequented with other people >exercising dogs, with these people and dogs she socialises with >normally. However on odd occasions there is sometimes a person walking >alone or a couple without a dog, to this she takes great exception and >will bark and bark at them, even if they are a considerable distance >away, and she always seems to be able to sense that they do not have a >dog with them. This can be a little embarassing for the owner, >fortunately she does only bark. > >The only suggestion I could offer was that it was the norm for her to >see people and dogs, as this was the greatest majority that she met and >that a human on their own or without a dog was not the norm and she was >afraid of something different to what she was used too. This doesnt seem >too convincing to me. Maybe someone out there can offer something a bit >more plausible. It does seem to be a fairly common occurence with >variations on the theme. > I do not know if it is applicable in this case but this type of behaviour is sometimes attributed to the fact that the dog has an underlying tendency to be nervous of strangers. The presence of another dog is associated with relaxation and therefor defensive behaviour is not shown. Speak to you soon. David ---------------------------------------- Name:David Appleby Address:The Pet Behaviour Centre, Upper street, Defford, Worcestershire. WR8 9AB.England. Phone:+44(0)1386 750615 Fax:+44(0)1386 750743 E-mail:appleby@petbcent.demon.co.uk WWW: http://webzone1.co.uk/www/apbc/pbc.htm ---------------------------------------- From: IN%"joseph.stookey@sask.usask.ca" 9-SEP-1997 11:42:43.68 To: IN%"'applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca'@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: IN%"joseph.stookey@sask.usask.ca" Subj: Animal Welfare book (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 17:48:00 -0700 (PDT) From: "Tania Fisher (Product Mktg)" To: Joe Stookey Subject: Animal Welfare book Dear Dr Stookey We have just published a new book entitled Animal Welfare which may be=20 suitable for a notice on your applied ethology network. I am attaching the= =20 details below so that you may decide. Please let me know if you do go=20 ahead and post the information up on the network. With many thanks Yours sincerely Tania Fisher Product Manager Human Health & Animal Science CAB INTERNATIONAL Animal Welfare Edited by Michael C Appleby, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethology, Universit= y=20 of Edinburgh, and Barry O Hughes, Principal Veterinary Research Officer,=20 Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK Concern for animal welfare has recently increased and continues to increase= =20 in many countries. The topic is now an established part of the curriculum= =20 for students of agriculture and veterinary medicine, among others. This book is a response to this growing interest and the need for=20 consolidated literature on the subject. It brings together diverse=20 approaches to the subject, from philosophy through scientific study and=20 measurement, to the implementation of practical solutions to real problems. The contents combine selected=20 readings with critical commentaries from experts in different fields. Thus= =20 most chapters are reviews built around key sources, rather than articles=20 with references in support. While more information is available on farm animals than on other groups,= =20 the principles are equally applicable to all animals. Written by leading authors from Europe, North America, Australia and New= =20 Zealand, the book is aimed at a wide readership, including students,=20 research workers and interested professional and lay people in animal=20 science, veterinary medicine and applied zoology and psychology. Readership: Students, research workers and interested professional and lay= =20 people in animal science, veterinary medicine and applied zoology and=20 psychology. Published August 1997 Paperback 336 pages =20 ISBN 0 85199 180 7 =9C24.50 (US$45.00) =20 From: IN%"joseph.stookey@usask.ca" 9-SEP-1997 12:16:23.48 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: IN%"STOOKEY@sask.usask.ca" Subj: Time of parturition for canines and felines? Does anyone know whether the time of parturition (distribution of births within a 24 h period) for cats and dogs is random or skewed towards a certain time of day? A student raised the question in class and I can not find an answer. Are there any scientific references on this topic or has anyone had enough experience with this area to offer a reasonable guess? Sincerely, Joe Stookey ====================== Joseph M. Stookey Department of Herd Medicine and Theriogenology Western College of Veterinary Medicine University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B4 From: IN%"markus@agric.gov.ab.ca" 9-SEP-1997 15:51:26.11 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: New to Discussion Group TO: ETHOLOGE INTERNET General Internet Address FROM: MARKUS AGCOR Markus, Susan - Beef Specialist (Cow/Calf) DATE: SEPTEMBER 9, 1997 SUBJECT: New to Discussion Group I recently joined your applied ethology list and would like to tell you a bit about myself. I currently am working with the Alberta government as a beef specialist doing extension and applied research with cow/calf producers in the eastern part of the province (dry grass prairie with herds of 300 or more breeding cows that typically background their calves). I have a BSAgric. from the University of Saskatchewan, a MSc in Ruminant nutrition from the University of Manitoba and am currently working on a PhD in animal sciences with the University of Alberta. My interest in this group is because my research involves spatial memory of cattle as well as behavior of cattle under aversive stimulation. I am studying behavioral responses of cattle controlled by fenceless electrical stimulation. In other words, these cattle wear a transmitter that produces an electrical shock when they approach a designated boundary. This technology allows cattle access to areas that could not previously be fenced because of the terrain or in the case of fragile habitat like riparian areas. We hope to see cattle grazing along side these areas without harming the environment and without man having to set up fences. I look forward to participating in some of the discussions you have and hope to learn alot more "behavior jargon". Susan Markus From: IN%"bsimpson@pinehurst.net" "Barbara S. Simpson" 9-SEP-1997 19:34:58.88 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "Applied Ethology" CC: IN%"Mike@m-tay.demon.co.uk" Subj: Readings Book Subject: out of print book Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 21:52:50 +0100 From: --Mike Taylor -- To: applied-ethology@skyway.usask.ca I have been trying to obtain a copy of the following book but have been told it is out of print. If anyone has a copy they no longer require I would be prepared to offer a fair price. Readings in Companion Animal Behaviour. By Voith and Borchelt. thanks --Mike Taylor -- Mike; The book READINGS IN COMPANION ANIMAL BEHAVIOR is not out of print. It was published in 1996 by Veterinary Learning Systems and is still available from them. Phone 800-426-9119 or FAX 609-882-6357, address: 425 Phillips Boulevard #100, Trenton NJ 08618 USA. Price $56.00 US. The ISBN number is 1-884254-23-3 Kind Regards, Barbara Simpson ********************************************************************* Barbara S. Simpson, PhD, DVM, DACVB The Veterinary Behavior Clinic 6045 U.S. Highway 1 North Southern Pines, NC 28387 USA PH 910-692-2801 FX 910-692-1860 ISBN 1- From: IN%"robin@coape.win-uk.net" "Robin Walker" 10-SEP-1997 01:50:43.89 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: FW: Time of parturition for canines and felines? -----Original Message----- From: Robin Walker [SMTP:robin@coape.win-uk.net] Sent: 10 September 1997 07:21 To: 'joseph.stookey@usask.ca' Subject: RE: Time of parturition for canines and felines? Dear Joe, The "ballpark" figures for the main events in canine parturition seem to be as follows:- 1. "...18 to 30 hours before parturition begins, the plasma progesterone concentrations decline below 2 ng/ml. 2. ".... 10 to 14 hours after this critical hormone change, the rectal temperature ...falls below 100 F and often below 99 F. 3 " ...The decline in temperature usually precedes labour by 10 to 24 hours. 4. Stage I labour averages 6 to 12 hours. 5. Stage II labour (pup expulsion) can extend from a few hours to 36 hours. A reasonable guess based on my experience (33 years) is that none of this accumulated physiology pivots upon a diurnal target time. Given that the natural bitch does it all underground in solitude and security (and darkness) it would seem that any approximation to these conditions will allow Stage one to proceed without maternal inhibition. The site of the whelping "den", its construction, the routines of the human family, other animals, and the attentions of fiercely concentrated human supervisors clanking forth with chairs, disinfectant, instruments and impatiently rustled magazines, will all have a influence upon the outcome. As for the cat...I suppose it is the hardest to "over interfere" with as it is in most other respects. Details (1 to 5) cribbed from Feldman and Nelson, Canine and Feline, Endocrinology and Reproduction, 1987 Robin -----Original Message----- From: joseph.stookey@usask.ca [SMTP:joseph.stookey@usask.ca] Sent: 09 September 1997 19:16 To: applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca Cc: STOOKEY@sask.usask.ca Subject: Time of parturition for canines and felines? Does anyone know whether the time of parturition (distribution of births within a 24 h period) for cats and dogs is random or skewed towards a certain time of day? A student raised the question in class and I can not find an answer. Are there any scientific references on this topic or has anyone had enough experience with this area to offer a reasonable guess? Sincerely, Joe Stookey ====================== Joseph M. Stookey Department of Herd Medicine and Theriogenology Western College of Veterinary Medicine University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B4 From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 10-SEP-1997 02:22:10.06 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Time of parturition for canines Dear All > Does anyone know whether the time of parturition (distribution of births within a 24 h period) for cats and dogs is random or skewed towards a certain time of day?> Every year or so I put out a question about whether certain well-known animal behaviour stories (well-known to me, anyway) are apocryphal, or whether anyone can provide a reference. This posting reminded me of one for 1997. A family had been out picking mushrooms and cooked them in a pie. They gave the left-overs to the dog and some time later were distraught to see her lying on her side, legs kicking. Distraught for themselves, even more than for the dog. They drove panic-stricken to hospital and had the whole family stomach-pumped. When they arrived home, exhausted and uncomfortable, they found that the dog was fit and well. And so were her new puppies. Reference, anyone? Mike From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 10-SEP-1997 02:59:30.59 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Smiling in dogs Dear All Juliet Clutton-Brock says the following in her 1987 book, A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals, talking about why wolves were domesticated rather than African hunting dogs: The hunting dog is a most highly social carnivore that lives and hunts in packs but the dominance hierarchies in this species are not well developed and the social behaviour is more dependent on the mutual regurgitation of food and less on communication by facial expression and posture than in the wolf. So that if man is not prepared to receive the regurgitated offerings of a hunting dog into his own mouth his powers of communication with the animal are going to be limited. Whereas there can be such a close empathy between man and dog that if a puppy is reared amongst a human family that smiles a lot the dog will actually mimic this expression of pleasure by a sideways grin of the lips and muscles around the mouth. This particular facial expression is never seen in wild wolves. It's nice stuff, but is the part about dogs imitating smiling from humans true? Mike mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk From: IN%"jnm13@cus.cam.ac.uk" 10-SEP-1997 03:13:25.62 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Smiling in dogs >It's nice stuff, but is the part about dogs imitating smiling from >humans true? If they've been in earshot of your jokes, Mike, it's more likely to be grimacing!! ;) Jeremy N. Marchant, BSc, PhD, CBiol, MIBiol, Animal Welfare and Human-Animal Interactions Group University of Cambridge, Dept. of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ES, UK. tel: +44 1223 330843 jnm13@cus.cam.ac.uk fax: +44 1223 330886 www-pdic.vet.cam.ac.uk/Peop_Serv/people.html#Jeremy From: IN%"b.nielsen@ed.sac.ac.uk" "Birte Nielsen" 10-SEP-1997 04:54:02.93 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Pedometers Dear all, Martina Finnerty asked about the purchase and use of pedometers for cattle. I have used Bou-Matic Heatseekers on loose housed dairy cows to monitor activity. The pedometers are sold to commercial farm as an aid for oestrus detection, as cows increase their locomotion significantly at oestrus. However, these pedometers (unlike any others I could find) log the 'activity' (i.e. leg movements) of the cows in 2-hourly bins, and can store information for 10 days at any one time, so that it is possible to get an idea of the circadian rhythm of the animal. They cost approx. 100 pounds (GB) per pedometer, and there will be some software cost as well. In the UK, they are sold through Bou-Matic, Shropshire. The manager is called Derek M. Davies, and the phone number is (01691) 624642. Hope this is useful. Regards Birte _____________________________________________________ Dr Birte L Nielsen Genetics and Behavioural Sciences Department (GABS) SAC Edinburgh Bush Estate Penicuik EH26 0QE Scotland, UK phone (0131) 535 3235 fax (0131) 535 3121 email b.nielsen@ed.sac.ac.uk _____________________________________________________ From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 10-SEP-1997 07:37:24.20 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: (Fwd) Re: Smiling in dogs ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 09:23:56 -0400 From: Chris Redenbach Reply-to: arioncr@mindspring.com, com@mindspring.com To: Mike Appleby Subject: Re: Smiling in dogs Oh my! I don't know if a serious reply to this post is possible...or desireable. Yes, some dogs smile......I doubt they have learned it by imitating people in the strictest sense of the word.....that's another stretch. But they do seem to use it in a contextually similar way...as a greeting/appeasement sign so it could have evolved into an adult communication about welcoming and greeting out of food regurgitation which is done by both males and females and then turned into an intention movement slightly exaggerated in a greeting ceremony. I have also seen mother dogs smile in combination with appeasement body movements just prior to regurgitating food for the babies. I have only owned one male who would regurgitate for pups and he would do it and run away so the rest of the expressive behavior wasn't there; but I have seen male dogs who will smile alot....a particular dalmation comes to mind. The dogs I have known who do the most smiling are ones that started smiling (retracting lips all around an open mouth and simultaneously moving head in a dipping motion with some lateral movement and head turning as well) solely as a greeting and would only do it once during an encounter....at the beginning. But when the behavior was reinforced with praise and affection (possibly read by the dog as a continuation of a greeting ceremony?) they began to do it more frequently, but always in a context that would support appeasement signs...praise during training...reentrance after a brief absence... I would be interested to know if others have seen this in any other context. Chris Redenbach From: IN%"gadagkar@is2.dal.ca" "Sudhindra Gadagkar" 10-SEP-1997 07:42:33.40 To: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Smiling in dogs On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Mike Appleby wrote: > Dear All > > Juliet Clutton-Brock says the following in her 1987 book, A Natural > History of Domesticated Mammals, talking about why wolves were > domesticated rather than African hunting dogs: > > The hunting dog is a most highly social carnivore that lives and > hunts in packs but the dominance hierarchies in this species are not > well developed and the social behaviour is more dependent on the > mutual regurgitation of food and less on communication by facial > expression and posture than in the wolf. So that if man is not > prepared to receive the regurgitated offerings of a hunting dog into > his own mouth his powers of communication with the animal are going > to be limited. Whereas there can be such a close empathy between man > and dog that if a puppy is reared amongst a human family that smiles > a lot the dog will actually mimic this expression of pleasure by a > sideways grin of the lips and muscles around the mouth. This > particular facial expression is never seen in wild wolves. > > It's nice stuff, but is the part about dogs imitating smiling from > humans true? > > Mike > mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk > HAVEN'T YOU EVER WATCHED THE TV SHOW 'WISHBONE'? I RECOMMEND YOU DO, AND PAY ATTENTION TO A CLOSE-UP OF THE DOG AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW (DURING THE CREDITS, I THINK). Sudhindra. From: IN%"jswanson@oz.oznet.ksu.edu" "JANICE SWANSON" 10-SEP-1997 07:47:51.80 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Vibracorders/pedometers Martina, I have used vibracorders to monitor feeding and grazing activity in cattle. They will do the job if you can keep them positioned correctly and properly attached. Same is true for pedometers. I would also alert you to a new technology that has strong possibilities but I have not had any field experience with this device and cattle. Perhaps someone else has. It is called an injected pulse activity transmitter. A graduate student (I sit on her thesis committee) in wildlife biology is using this device to record activity patterns of small predators (coyotes, foxes, bobcat). This device varies the pulse rate of the signal in response to movement of the collar. To me it appears to be the digital equivalent of a vibracorder. These transmitters have a slow base pulse rate of about 55 pulses per minute when the collar is not moving, additional pulse rates are added as the collar is moved (I believe the rate can be increased up to 110 pulses per minute). The collars have been used on white tail deer and wolves. The company offering the device is Advanced Telemetry Systems, Inc. Isanti, Minnesota, USA). If anyone out there has successfully adapted them for use on livestock (or used them with other species) I would like to hear from you too. Janice Swanson From: IN%"rmaurizi@zoo.uvm.edu" "Robert H. Maurizi" 10-SEP-1997 08:27:18.05 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: dogs smiling In regard to the smiling dog discussion, we had a male golden retriever who was neutered (so we couldn't see any of the regurgitation stuff) who would always smile whenever anyone would come home or come to the house. His standard procedure would be to grab the closest rag or dishtowel or napkin he could fine and then jump up on the counter, holding the towel in his mouth. The idea was that he was offering it to you as a welcoming gesture (he was also looking for the cookie he would sometimes get for giving it to you), and then smile profusely, with his entire top lip raised and the corners raised higher. He really seemed to smile when he was happy (when family returned, or when he was playing, that type of stuff) just my $.02 -Rob ======================================== | Rob Maurizi | | (802) KL5-0420 | | rmaurizi@zoo.uvm.edu | | http://www.uvm.edu/~rmaurizi | | STEP INTO SPACE | ======================================== From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 10-SEP-1997 10:26:12.71 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: (Fwd) Re: Smiling in dogs ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: joseph.stookey@usask.ca Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 09:11:29 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: Smiling in dogs To: mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk [My reply follows. Mike] Mike, Our dog Annie greets us, upon our return to our home, with a "smile". She does this more and more frequently since she started this behaviour a couple of years ago. We always laugh and pet her when she does this because it seems so funny, but I suspect she has made the association between her "smiling" and our showering her with praise. However, I must admit that she rarely (if ever) smiles other than when we come home! She seems to be using the fascial expression in conjunction with a greeting behaviour because she normally doesn't do this at other times though we would probably laugh and praise her at other times for the same behaviour. Maybe she has a specific context where she feels it is appropriate. Make no mistake about the expression, a smile is the most accurate description I would use to describe its appearance. The upper lip curls up on the sides, sort of like a growl grimance, but there is no growling and her tail is wagging in an excited manner. Have you never seen this? I hadn't until our dog started this behaviour. I have heard some people say it is breed related. Annie is a Golden Retriever, a breed noted for this behaviour. Good question, you stimulated me to realize I should get this on video and write a little blurb about it on our web page and include the video clip! Maybe with your question to the net, you will assemble a reasonable story about this behaviour. Let me know what you find out. Maybe you can write the article to accompany the video clip! Good luck, Joe Joe et al. Yes, I have certainly seen smiling in dogs (including your Annie!). My mother-in-law has three Golden Retrievers. My question was whether it was really an imitation of human smiling, which seemed unlikely. Your description and that of Chris Redenbach suggest, much more convincingly, that it is part of greeting behaviour and that it is reinforced by other aspects of human behaviour. It is possible that families which encourage greeting in their dog also smile a lot, but Clutton-Brock appears to have made the classic mistake of assuming association meant causation. By the way, Jeremy Marchant's gibe prompts me to mention the one about a dyslexic, agnostic insomniac. He lies awake at night wondering if there is a dog. Mike From: IN%"rushenj@EM.AGR.CA" "Jeff Rushen" 10-SEP-1997 11:06:04.47 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" CC: Subj: Never trust a smiling dog >>> The upper lip curls up on the sides, sort of like a growl grimance, but there is no growling and her tail is wagging in an excited manner. >>> Dogs usually bar their teeth when threatening. I suspect rather than being a "smile", it is some kind of defensive warning embedded in a submissive/greeting ritual i.e. "I am acting submissive but if you attack me I will bite you." There is a way of testing this interpretation: next time your dog smiles, instead of petting and praising it, hit it, and see if it bites! A number of primates also bar their teeth in submissive gestures, whereas you would think the opposite would occur, so some form of defensive threat seems possible. Do dogs or wolves ever greet each other this way? Jeff Rushen From: IN%"gabouryc@EM.AGR.CA" "Chantal Gaboury" 10-SEP-1997 11:44:27.90 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: regurgitation in dogs Rob Mauriz wrote: "In regard to the smiling dog discussion, we had a male golden retriever who was neutered (so we couldn't see any of the regurgitation stuff)" Could you explain this? Chantal Gaboury :-) gabouryc@em.agr.ca From: IN%"KATRINA@NUCMED.BIH.HARVARD.EDU" 10-SEP-1997 12:23:16.97 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Dog smiling Ok, here goes-- hope I do this correctly-- We have two unrelated mutts who not only "smile" at us whenever something pleasurable is going on (belly rubs, etc), but they "smile" at each other when "asking" to play with each other ("I have a stick here at my feet-- do you want to try to take it?"). One is a neutered, 10 year old collie-golden retriever mix, the other is a spayed, 5 year old shepard-basenji-? mix. The older one looks like 1960's TV's Mr. Ed when he "smiles, big pink gums and curled lips and snorty inhales. The female only shows the sides of her teeth, but has big, upward creases at the corners of her mouth when she "smiles." It is distinctly different from her at-rest face. I have seen the two of them often "smile" at one another when they want to play, and I am busy with something else (while watching their actions with each other). As mentioned above, they also do this "smiling" action at us whenever we are doing something pleasurable for them, as well as in the more predictable situation of us arriving home. Neither one of these dogs displayed this behavior within the first two years of adoption (they were adopted separately), but we must certainly reinforce some aspect of it by smiling like happy fools at them all the time. They are both quite gentle and low-key. There is my 2 cents. Regards, Katrina Anderson katrina@nucmed.bidmc.harvard.edu From: IN%"clothier@eclipse.net" "Suzanne Clothier & John Rice" 10-SEP-1997 13:32:32.99 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Smiling Dogs? What Next! ALL: While lacking the academic background most of the list appears to have, I have 25 years of practical, day-to-day experience working with a wide variety of dogs as a trainer, breeder, kennel manager and dog owner. For the last 14 years, my daily life has been shared closely with 5-11 dogs, all of whom live in the house with me and a veritable zoo of other creatures. Based on the postings I've read and chuckled over, it would do some of you a lot of good to get out of the books and into the real world that dogs inhabit. Smiling is just ONE behavior in a vast repertoire of behaviors that dogs offer daily. I can report that I have witnessed the smiling behavior in a huge range of breeds, including even a Pug whose physical characteristics obviously distorted the appearance of the smile. (As for a higher incidence in Goldens, I would first weigh that against the sheer numbers of Goldens in existence before I leapt to any conclusions.) I have not seen it coupled with defensive or warning behaviors, though a fearful grimace/warning snarl can to the untrained eye appear similar (behavior must be always be examined in the full context of other signals/postures). Inevitably, I have seen this to be a sign of affection, or if you prefer to ignore the emotions of animals, "appeasement behavior towards higher ranking individuals of the social group, particularly human members." I have not seen a true smile directed at another dog, though I have seen a fear grimace in that situation. My two cents! Suzanne Clother http://www.flyingdogpress.com From: IN%"robin@coape.win-uk.net" "Robin Walker" 10-SEP-1997 13:38:58.38 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Smiling dogs (and Jackals) Further to the correspondence on the "fear grin", I have just been running a video entitled "The Way of the Jackal" filmed in Africa by Bill Campbell. scripted by Jeremy Bradshaw and shown on Channel 4 by Anglia. The observed Silver Backed Jackals show some wonderfully clear dog behaviour. Regurgitating food for the pups. Rough weaning by muzzle grips and pin-downs Body slams in rough play. Paw raising and fear gapes in appeasement. The fear gapes do look like fear grins but with the mouth open. The lack of loose skin facially seems to prevent any wrinkling as a signal and I wonder if the gape compensates for this. Today my Labrador and my secretary's Border Collie (both around 17 months) were play fighting and occasionally both raised paws and waved them at each other and "grinned" when things became a little uncomfortable perhaps. An older Labrador bitch (9 years) with a history of sound phobias and a generally anxious temperament, still "fear grins" in appeasement daily on arrival and if playfully menaced. In the Lab the mouth is closed and the lips seem to do the work. My old (deceased) Labrador "Bosun" disliked puppies and if approached by them would threaten them with a rather different expression. This seemed to be a very intense wrinkling of the whole muzzle and dorsal surface of the nose. More and more wrinkles seemed to appear the closer the pup approached. The semiology seems to be on the cusp between appeasement and fear aggression and is clarified by the addition of voice which is either undeniably threatening or tending to plaintive squealing. Robin From: IN%"richards@hula.net" 10-SEP-1997 15:19:36.07 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Smiling Dogs I felt a sense of deja vu when encountering this thread, as it was recently on Canine-L. According to those dog owners, a large number of different breeds engage in smiling as a greeting ritual. My neighbor's purebred black labrador smiles when someone she recognizes approaches the lanai. Spaying has made no difference in the behavior. The first time I noticed the smile, I thought perhaps she had an injury, as she only lifts one side of her mouth. It looks more like a one-sided grimace (the first time I observed this I asked the owner if she'd been stung by a bee!), but as it's accompanied by excited tail wagging, and only occurs with close acquaintances, I believe it can only be interpreted as a smile. After 30 seconds to a minute, she stops the lip curl and just continues the tail wag. Of course, now that the smile has been pointed out to the neighbors, the dog is greeted with excessive enthusiam in hopes of encouraging the lopsided grin. My dog, a neutered black lab mix, never smiles; rather, he wiggles his entire back end, and tries to brace his snouth between your legs, and stands, waiting to be petted. Unfortunately, as he's quite tall, guests naturally think he's going for the groin - a bit disconcerting for them. I wonder how this behavior would be interpreted in humans? Dawn From: IN%"richards@hula.net" 10-SEP-1997 15:19:58.33 To: IN%"joseph.stookey@sask.usask.ca" CC: IN%"'applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca'@sask.usask.ca" "applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"joseph.stookey@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Animal Welfare book (fwd) Are there any articles dealing with equines? Thanks, Dawn At 11:42 9/9/97, joseph.stookey@skyway.usask.ca wrote: >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 17:48:00 -0700 (PDT) >From: "Tania Fisher (Product Mktg)" >To: Joe Stookey >Subject: Animal Welfare book > > >Dear Dr Stookey > >We have just published a new book entitled Animal Welfare which may be >suitable for a notice on your applied ethology network. I am attaching the >details below so that you may decide. Please let me know if you do go >ahead and post the information up on the network. > >With many thanks > >Yours sincerely >Tania Fisher >Product Manager >Human Health & Animal Science >CAB INTERNATIONAL > >Animal Welfare >Edited by Michael C Appleby, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethology, Universit= y >of Edinburgh, and Barry O Hughes, Principal Veterinary Research Officer, >Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK > >Concern for animal welfare has recently increased and continues to increase >in many countries. The topic is now an established part of the curriculum >for students of agriculture and veterinary medicine, among others. >This book is a response to this growing interest and the need for >consolidated literature on the subject. It brings together diverse >approaches to the subject, from philosophy through scientific study and >measurement, to the implementation of >practical solutions to real problems. The contents combine selected >readings with critical commentaries from experts in different fields. Thus >most chapters are reviews built around key sources, rather than articles >with references in support. >While more information is available on farm animals than on other groups, >the principles are equally applicable to all animals. > >Written by leading authors from Europe, North America, Australia and New >Zealand, the book is aimed at a wide readership, including students, >research workers and interested professional and lay people in animal >science, veterinary medicine and >applied zoology and psychology. > >Readership: Students, research workers and interested professional and lay >people in animal science, veterinary medicine and applied zoology and >psychology. > >Published August 1997 >Paperback >336 pages >ISBN 0 85199 180 7 >=FA24.50 (US$45.00) From: IN%"richards@hula.net" 10-SEP-1997 15:33:01.87 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Canine behavior Robin wrote: >It is any tendency to come around the "wrong" way which elicits the >warning bark.The dogs >have decided to "police" any contra-flow. My dog will bark at the cat or a horse if he hears me scold them, or notices agitated behavior on my part (for example, when my foot is stepped on by a shod horse). This police behavior though is occurring when the dog hears my voice or sees my behavior up close. In Mike's and Robin's case it seems to occur as a result of seeing something at a distance. I wonder to what ultimate distance this can occur? Dawn From: IN%"LennyScott@classic.msn.com" "Lenny Snyderman" 10-SEP-1997 20:44:07.25 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"richards@hula.net" "Dawn A. Richards" CC: Subj: equine INFORMATION ATTACHED Horse Sense, from Earthwatch Magazine Once upon a time it was simple: in the medieval Christian world, humans were the apex of creation and animals were seen as a kind of machine, devoid of thoughts, feelings, intentions, consciousness and, of course, souls. But with the discovery over the past quarter century that an increasing variety of animals besides humans make and use tools and even show some ability to use language, we have had to come to grips with a new relationship. Studies of animal intelligence both fascinate us and make us squirm. We've always wanted to talk to animals; we just don't want them to take over. And that's why we feel a little uncomfortable when we learn that some animals can reason, because that brings them a little closer to us humans than we'd like them to be. It's not so bad when we're talking about chimpanzees and dolphins-we've grown used to thinking of them as the Einsteins of the animal world, but what if I told you that there is evidence now that horses can generalize, reason, and learn the rudiments of language, in fact, perform some of the same kinds of mental tasks that we thought only chimpanzees and dolphins could manage? Perhaps because horses don't live with us-don't follow us into the bathroom or sleep at the foot of the bed- there isn't as much opportunity for us to see them do clever things. Perhaps too, the average horse owner doesn't expect that much from his dumb beast. Whatever the reason, in the public eye, horses don't rate very high on the expected intelligence scale. So what, then , are we to do with the findings coming out of Evelyn Hanggi's work? Evelyn Hanggi, president of the nonproft Equine Research Foundation, is one of the first scientists to explore higher-order horse intelligence, but she's no newcomer to this field. At the Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, she learned the basics working with Ron Schusterman (Sea Lion Language and Behavior, 1990-1992) on similar investigations into the learning abilities of sea lions, and her patient testing of Sprouts, a young harbor seal, was the basis of her doctoral dissertation. She turned to horses as a long time rider who had always wanted to get more involved. "I'm not usually surprised when I read about an animal doing something amazing," Evelyn says, "because I always thought the potential was there. It was just that we hadn't figured out how to investigate it in the right way." Now she's getting her chance. In rural Aptos, near the hills of Santa Cruz, with its redolent blend of eucalyptus, redwoods, and fields, she is working with EarthCorps volunteers to develop a series of experiments that can show just how bright horses really are. Our group of five women was the first of several teams to help her, her laboratory manager Jerry Ingersoll, and her research assistants find out what goes on inside a horses head. Finding that out, however, is not a straightforward as you might think. Intelligence, Evelyn explained, is a slippery concept, with many aspects and no universally accepted definition. Certainly part of intelligence is quantitative: pigeons can keep in mind the correct selections from among 320 random slides and remember selections from among 160 for at least two years. That's impressive visual memory. But there are also qualitative differences in intelligence. Is adaptability-a flexibility of mind that allows an organism to adjust its behavior-the hallmark of higher level intelligence? How about the capacity to learn complex tasks or to solve complicated, novel problems? What roles do good memory, planning, perception, and self-awareness play? And where do play, deceit, manipulation, and empathy fit in? Intelligence, like creativity, remains something you recognize when you see it. But how can you evaluate something you can't even define, especially using the scientific method which demands that tests be controlled, measurable, objective, and repeatable? Getting a scientific handle on the amorphous concept of intelligence requires sneaking in the back door and tackling a piece of it. The aspect of intelligence that best meets the criteria of the scientific method is cognition, the process by which an animal acquires knowledge, basically how it learns. That's something we can control. What, how, and how fast an animal learns offers a window on how its mind works-and how good its memory is, whether it can form rules, generalize from experience, and solve problems. We tend to think of an animal that functions at the higher cognitive levels as more intelligent, because it can learn to do more complex tasks. Cognitive studies do have their limitations, though. For one, we can only ask animals to learn and demonstrate what is in our own sphere of knowledge. We have not yet found out, for instance, how dolphins synchronize their movements underwater to perform complex acrobatics in tandem. Moreover, cognitive studies can only tell us what tested members of a species can do. If one octopus cannot generalize, for example, we cannot assume that octopi across the board cannot form concepts, because the tested subject may have been a particularly stupid or decificient, or unmotivated octopus. Finally, cognitive studies cannot scale intelligence per se, but they can give us insight into particular skills and the amount of mental flexibility an animal has. Take for example, the ability to associate unrelated items. If an animal succeeds at this apparently arcane exercise, then it shows that it might be able to use one object to represent another-a form of symbolism that is a precursor to language, where words stand for objects, actions, directions, and the like. In the "Hierarchy of Learning" Evelyn had outlined earlier, this was a Level 7 task, just below those that focus on reasoning. To test this ability in horses, we helped Evelyn work with Ellie, and elegant 8 year old mare, and Cache a 15 year old gelding. Ellie is the prima donna of the stable that houses her, Cache, and the project's other two horses: Trinket a 7 year old mare, and Coco Bean a 1 1/2 year gelding (the new arrival). Ellie stood in the breezeway, facing a three paneled wooden apparatus in a modified stall. Ellie's job was to learn to watch which of two rubber dog toys - a boomerang and a bulb-appeared in the center panel and then to match it with the appropriate one of two black and white images- a Swiss flat and some splotches, respectively, that appeared in the side panels. Our job was to record the sessions, dispense food rewards, and operate the apparatus-switching stimuli and raising and lowering panels. It wasn't easy for the horse, for she first had to learn the rules of the game- that the rubber toy in the center panel was key to her nuzzling the right black and white image, and then she had to sort out which rubber toy went with which image. Initially, Ellie's choices were erratic, but a tablespoon of sweet feed (corn, oats, molasses) for each correct choice kept Ellie going, and within our stay, she had caught on. This morning, however, Evelyn temporarily halted the testing, because Ellie was listening to Cache and Trinket out in the paddock. Horses are easily distracted, especially Arabians. They can pick up sounds, sights, and smells from almost any quarter, and one of our tasks during testing sessions was to note each time something-for instance a tractor humming in the distance or a coyote prowling nearby-distracted the horse. One of Evelyn's tasks was to make sure that the horses weren't cueing off any smell or noise. When using the sliding plastic panels in the apparatus exercise, for instance, she instructed us to bump on all three panels while setting up each trial, regardless of whether or not we actually switched all the stimuli. Horses' alertness is tied to where they fit in the food chain. They are, after all, a prey species, primed by fear and given to flight. Horses run first, ask questions later. In switching from exploring sea lion and harbor seal cognition to investigating horse minds, then, Evelyn was doing much more than changing venue. Cognition is different for each species, because each is wired differently, and responds differently. Its physiology, senses, drives, and environment are all different so no one experimental set-up and training method will work for multiple species. All must be adapted. Harbor seals, for instance, are often less food motivated than sea lions. "Sea lions do not care for affection or verbal praise," Evelyn said. They are eager, but mercenary pupils: "If you don't give them fish, they don't do much in return." Trained with positive reinforcement, the Foundation's horses were unrestrained during trails and free to work or not as they chose. They worked amazingly well at mental tasks for sweet feed, and the sessions ended before they were ready to quit. Evelyn wants to test horses through Level 8, a task that requires reasoning, and all three horses were training for these mental Olympics. Each of the three older horses was learning a different hierarchical sequence of color pairings. What they were working up to was a test along the lines: if A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A must be greater than C. For this logic test, we used five plastic trays of different colors that could be hung on a white background. The horse would be presented with a pair of trays, say blue and red, and would learn through trail and error that choosing the blue tray would earn her some sweet feed. Once she had that down, the trays would be changed to a blue one and a yellow one. In this pairing, yellow was the correct choice. In other words, yellow was higher on the hierarchical scale than blue and blue higher than red. But to learn that, the horse would have to learn that blue was only right in certain situations, and that meant unlearning most of what it had just worked so hard to learn, mind you, all without the benefit of language. The tests would go on up the hierarchical scale through four pairings to the highest level of color, which might be black for example. The sequence was different for each horse. Then the horse would be presented with the blue and green trays paired (pairing red, because it was always wrong and black because it was always right, would not be an objective test). If the horse truly understood the hierarchical relationships between the colors it would recognize at once that green was to be chosen over blue (the fact that you had to concentrate just to understand the description of this test shows how close to our own level of understanding horses really are!). When Evelyn started this experiment with our team, the popular belief was that horses are colorblind. But during Ellie's third trial on this brand new experiment, when she was learning to choose a blue tote tray over a red one (the first pairing she would have to learn), she proved decisively that not only could she discriminate colors but also that she had understood the task. Midway through the session, Evelyn released Ellie from her station in the middle of the pen, and Ellie, always businesslike, eyed the red tray and started toward it, then uncharacteristically halted, looked at the blue tray and changed her mind. You could see the wheels turning. From then on she was solid on blue. That evening Jerry came upon an anonymous note posted on the stable blackboard: "Ellie's a 10!" The next morning we found a retort: "Ellie peeks at the cheat sheets," signed Cache, the horse whom Ellie had shown up in the session. Training for this experiment was tougher than for the usual discrimination task, because the horse must overcome the impulse to choose the previously correct color and instead think about the relationship with the colors. Trinket, who has progressed furthest with the tray experiment, perhaps because that's the only exercise she's working on, has already learned separately to choose the black tray over the yello one, the red over the black, and the green over the red, and she is now testing above criterion (90% correct in 30 to 40 trials) using all three color pairs in each session. In understanding those relationships, she's showing us she can reason, a capacity that only humans, the great apes-and-pigeons so far have demonstrated beyond a shadow of scientific doubt. After I had returned home, the horses started learning verbal and gestural signals for objects (cone, ball, brush, Frisbee) and actions (fetch, tap) another level 7 task. If they can correctly execute commands such as "Fetch Frisbee," when for example the cone and ball are also present, then the horses will prove they can use a modified language. Evelyn is consciously using a modified language as an investigative tool, not as a test of cognitive abilities per se. "It's not as important to find out if animals have human linguistic abilities, " says Evelyn. "Better to use those abilities to find out if they can learn concepts and categorize, or to see how they think about objects and events." Evelyn wrote me about the new experiment and how fast the horses were catching on. Perhaps the most pervasive phenomenon that cognitive scientists have noted among their subjects in long-term projects is the learning to learn syndrome. We all have struggled through learning our first language. If you start a second one, it's a lot easier because you've learned the principles of learning. In the early stages of her research with horses, this is what Evelyn has noticed most: that her horses are picking up on the procedures-where to position themselves, what to look at, what sort of task it is-much faster and more easily. Not only does the learning-to-learn syndrome enable animals to catch on to new behaviors, procedures, and stimuli progressively faster, it also broadens their overall experience and gives them more opportunity to generalize (that is, for concepts) so they are less likely to overreact when something new happens. As a result of their cognitive work, says Evelyn, her horses are both more adaptable and less easily spooked than they were before they started the cognitive experiments. So exercising a horse's mind does have its pay offs. Perhaps this mental flexibility was in and of itself one of the most telling indicators of horse intelligence. Just how smart is Ellie? We may never know. Was Ellie aware of her dazzling tray performance? Did she consciously decide to show off in front of visitors? Evelyn thinks Ellie had some sense of accomplishment. "My opinions (about cognition and intelligence) are changing every other week," she says. "We're always finding new things with the horses." And one day, cognitive studies like Evelyn's that are slowly, steadily accumulating comparative evidence may show us conclusively whether we alone think about what we are thinking. Related stories: Smart According to Whom: Intelligence, just like any other capacity, is the product of natural selection. Why should an animal eveolve any more brains than it needs to adapt, survive, and multiply? Cockroaches and houseflies, pigeons and rats are all exactly as smart as they need to be, and no one can argue with their all-too stunning success. There are those that argue that if a behavior is genetically programmed or instinctive, then it isn't intelligent. The bee's waggle dance, by which it communicates to its sisters in the hive the direction (based on the sun's angle, no less), distance, and type of food source it has found, is surely an instinctive behavior, but no less marvelous. And if we discount instincts, where does that leave the male bower bird, who weaves an intricate bower of grasses and twigs, whose entrance he then festoons with all manner of found objects, always of one matching color-all to lure a mate? Every bower is a unique masterpiece. Here's a bird who could be your interior decorator: should we dismiss his feat? And by that criterion, what are we to make of a recent Swedish study of identical twins which found that as much 50% of human behavior is hard-wired, that is, instinctive? Discrediting complex actions in the animal world because they are not the spontaneous product of reason may be the defensive stance of a species uncomfortable with the growing evidence that eve a "lowly" wasp uses tools (a pebble to tamp down is underground nest chamber). Most of us are more willing to acknowledge the engineering acumen and precise aim of an orangutan that knows a sampling over to create a bridge it needs over swampy water. Or the tool-making prowess of Gombe's chimpanzees, who fashion termite fishers out of carefully stripped twigs. But some herons also fashion twigs into tools, bait to be precise, dropping pieces of twig in the water and retrieving them to attract unsuspecting minnows. In another engineering feat, a beaver may let water out of its dam in late winter so it can breathe under the ice instead of having to hold its breath underwater. There are all examples of adaptive intelligence, the kind of ingenious problem solving in novel situations that more closely parallels high-level cognitive skills. One of the ultimate expressions of intelligence is knowing when to play dumb to get what you want. Koko, the signing gorilla, has pulled this one during IQ tests when she was bored. It stopped the testing. An innovative puppy may put on the helpless act to halt the training. Often it intentionally loops a paw over the leash or flips on its back, then whimpers piteously as it is dragged around. The ruse often works, and the jokes on us. Self Awareness: the 5th dimension Does a piping plover that feigns a broken wing to draw a coyote away from her nest have a specific plan in her head? Do animals think about thinking? Are they aware of other animals' beliefs and motivations? If so, they are self-aware, possessed of that kind of consciousness that enables human to teach each other, deceive, empathize, and show compassion. For years scientists have wrestled with this problem. One intriguing test involved dabbing paint on the forehead of a sedated chimpanzee. When he awoke, scientists watched his reaction to seeing himself in a mirror. They deemed him self-aware if he touched the spot on his forehead rather than touching the mirror. Thus far, only humans, orangutans, and chimpanzees have passed this self awareness test. In "How Monkeys See the World" Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, two primatologists who have spent years in Africa studying the social lives of vervet monkeys, discuss at length the implications of self-awareness among the haves and have nots. For them, the Rubicon is whether an individual knows what he knows and can attribute mental states to others. This is where vervet monkeys, in their estimation, fall short, with certain implications for most of primate society (with the exception of chimpanzees). Without recognizing what one knows, they say, one cannot know that another monkey's knowledge is different from one's own. That means that active teaching is impossible; infants learn only through observing others with no help from their parents. Although vervets seem to have a good working knowledge of the social relationships within the troop and can predict other's actions, their forms of deception are limited to manipulating the behavior, not the beliefs of other monkeys. Human lies and deceit, based on manipulating the mental states of others, are much more complex and flexible. If monkeys can't manipulate as we do, they also can't empathize or show compassion the way humans can, for that also requires understanding the mental and emotional states of others. Even among chimpanzees, an animal may die of grief, but its companions apparently can show it no solace. However thought-provoking Cheney's and Seyfarth's analysis is, there's at least one bird brain that gives us pause. One time, when Irene Pepperberg had to leave Alex, the English-speaking grey parrot at the vets for lung surgery, the bird clearly expressed his fear that he was being abandoned for something he had done wrong. He called to her "Come here. I love you. I'm sorry. I want to go back." Hierarchy of Learning As a framework to categorize levels of cognition, Evelyn Hanggi is using Roger Thomas' Hierarchy of Learning. All vertebrate classes (except for amphibians, which have not been tested) can learn the first three levels: habituation (to ignore irrelevant stimuli, such as the barn door rattling), classical conditioning (the Pavlovian response), and simple operant conditioning (conditioning via reward for voluntary behavior). If you make like a gun with you hand, point it at your dog, and say "bang!" and he obligingly goes splat on his side in his best imitation of roadkill, then you have taught him how to chain a series of responses (level 4). When he hears bang, he is supposed to drop, then roll over on his side, then lie perfectly still until released; then he gets his cookie. Harder than remembering a chain or related responses is making concurrent associations between unrelated sets of stimuli (Level 5). Say you taught a pigeon to peck at a circle instead of an oval, a triangle instead of a square, and a figure 8 instead of a diamond, then tested your pupil. If your pigeon were able to choose correctly for each pair, then it would have mastered some concurrent discriminations. For the record, an octopus and a lizard can make at least 3 concurrent discriminations, an iguana 5, a trout 6, a mouse and unnamed domestic bird 7, a rat and a zebra 8, a donkey 10, and a horse and an elephant both managed 20. Holding all these items in one's brain, however, becomes very cumbersome, and in real life, having to process so many individual stimuli could overload the system. Just think of the frazzles we work ourselves into trying to make Christmas special for everyone on our list. The way to simplify is for an animal to generalize, to form a concept of a tree or a person or a horse (Level 6). This allows an animal to categorize unfamiliar stimuli and "to generalize information about that class to new members," says Evelyn. You may have never seen a collie before, but you are sure to recognize it as a dog, because you generalized those characteristics that define "dog" from the animals you have seen. "If an animal is capable of discriminating on the basis of concepts," writes Thomas, "it may be capable of practically an unlimited number of concurrent discriminations." Level 6 is a watershed. Many horse trainers feel that horses don't generalize easily and hence spook needlessly, for instance, at plastic bags floating in the wind. The last two cognitive levels involve juggling concepts that require associating stimuli. At level 7, one variant is the individual concept, where, given a sample (the "if") then one choice only is correct. When Ellie saw the bulb for example, she was supposed to pick the splotches. The final level in Thomas' learning hierarchy-the biconditional concept-allows for a reversible condition, i.e.: if shown the splotches Ellie would pick out the bulb from other choices. Level 8 forms the basis for an exercise in logic: If A is bigger than B, and B is bigger than C, then A is bigger than C. Kids under 7 usually can't grasp this. Dolphins, chimps, one orangutan, Koko the gorilla, and one African grey parrot have shown they can form concepts and can use concepts to label samples as same or different or respond to linguistic cues, such as "pipe fetch hoop" (bring the pipe to the hoop). All these are Level 6 and 7 tasks. Remarkably, an animal most people would hardly consider a bright bulb-the pigeon-has done so well with visual concept formation that, during World War II, B.F. Skinner was involved in Project Pigeon, a plan to train pigeons to guide missiles to targets. Commenting on the project two decades later in the American Psychologist, Skinner wrote, "A pigeon is an extraordinarily subtle and complex mechanism capable of performances which at the moment can be equaled by electronic equipment only of vastly greater weight and size." Only apes and some pigeons have been formally tested on their reasoning ability-and they passed. ---------- From: Dawn A. Richards Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 1997 5:14 PM To: Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca Subject: Re: Smiling Dogs I felt a sense of deja vu when encountering this thread, as it was recently on Canine-L. According to those dog owners, a large number of different breeds engage in smiling as a greeting ritual. My neighbor's purebred black labrador smiles when someone she recognizes approaches the lanai. Spaying has made no difference in the behavior. The first time I noticed the smile, I thought perhaps she had an injury, as she only lifts one side of her mouth. It looks more like a one-sided grimace (the first time I observed this I asked the owner if she'd been stung by a bee!), but as it's accompanied by excited tail wagging, and only occurs with close acquaintances, I believe it can only be interpreted as a smile. After 30 seconds to a minute, she stops the lip curl and just continues the tail wag. Of course, now that the smile has been pointed out to the neighbors, the dog is greeted with excessive enthusiam in hopes of encouraging the lopsided grin. My dog, a neutered black lab mix, never smiles; rather, he wiggles his entire back end, and tries to brace his snouth between your legs, and stands, waiting to be petted. Unfortunately, as he's quite tall, guests naturally think he's going for the groin - a bit disconcerting for them. I wonder how this behavior would be interpreted in humans? Dawn From: IN%"SPINKA@novell.vuzv.cz" "Marek Spinka" 11-SEP-1997 01:47:48.89 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Back to my regular e-mail box Hello everybody, ************************************** * * * Please note that I am back at my * * regulary e-mail box which is * * * * SPINKA@NOVELL.VUZV.CZ * * * ************************************** Best regards, Marek Spinka Group of Ethology Research Institute of Animal Production P.O. Box 1 CZ - 104 01 Prague - Uhrineves Czechia phone: +420 2 67 71 07 13 fax: +420 2 67 71 07 79 e-mail: SPINKA@NOVELL.VUZV.CZ From: IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" "Mike Appleby" 11-SEP-1997 03:03:16.25 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Animal Welfare book Dear Dawn > Subject: Re: Animal Welfare book (fwd) > Are there any articles dealing with equines? > Thanks, > Dawn Not specifically, but references to equines - and most other species of interest - occur throughout. There are 10 entries for horse and one for donkey in the index. A listing of the Contents follows. Mike ANIMAL WELFARE edited by Michael C. Appleby and Barry O. Hughes Part I. Issues 1. Ethics Sandoe, Crisp & Holtug 2. Understanding animal welfare Duncan & Fraser Part II. Problems 3. Environmental challenge Wemelsfelder & Birke 4. Hunger and thirst Kyriazakis & Savory 5. Pain and injury Flecknell & Molony 6. Fear and distress Jones 7. Behavioural restriction Petherick & Rushen Part III. Assessment 8. Health and disease Hughes & Curtis 9. Behaviour Mench & Mason 10. Physiology Terlouw, Schouten & Ladewig 11. Preference and motivation testing Fraser & Matthews Part IV. Solutions 12. Physical conditions Appleby & Waran 13. Social conditions Mendl & Newberry 14. Human contact Hemsworth & Gonyou 15. Genetic selection Mills, Beilharz & Hocking Part V. Implementation 16. Economics Bennett 17. Legislation Knierim & Jackson From: IN%"Natalie.Waran@ed.ac.uk" 11-SEP-1997 05:10:34.20 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Smiling Dogs An interesting discussion, especially because the next door dog 'smiled' at me this morning just before it tried to bite me!! My conclusion? Fear aggression, due to the fact that I was tryin to catch the wretched thing at the time...and it reacted fearfully to my attempts to grab its collar whilst it was trying to make its escape!! I positively rewarded it at the time...so maybe it'll 'smile' at me next time! Wounded pride? Definitely! Natalie Waran Office next door to Mike Appleby University of Edinburgh (No, I am not referring to Mike!) From: IN%"tonygdog@iinet.net.au" "Tony Walker" 11-SEP-1997 06:52:45.70 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "'Applied-ethology@skyway.usask.ca'" CC: Subj: Correspondence Courses Dear All The recently establish Dog Trainers Association of Western Australia = (Inc) is seeking assistance in finding suitable correspondence courses = in Ethology with particular reference to canine behaviour for its = members. Due to our geographical location local courses are somewhat = sparse to put it mildly. Any advice would be much appreciated. Tony Walker =20 From: IN%"rushenj@EM.AGR.CA" "Jeff Rushen" 11-SEP-1997 08:17:34.54 To: IN%"arioncr@mindspring.com", IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: (Fwd) Re: Smiling in dogs -REPONSE >>> Chris Redenbach 10/09/ 14h41 >>> But signs involving the display of weapons accompanied simultaneously by other signs of mood and intention, almost like we use adjectives and subordinate clauses can shift encounters towards any number of directions.>>>. Interesting idea. I recently saw a film about the Yanomani (spelling?) Indians. Apparently tribes are often at war with each other. When two tribes want to make it up they hold a ritual meeting, which among other things, involves impressive displays of weapons and prowess. According to the film, the idea of this is to show to the other tribe that your tribe is a powerful one and could be useful as an ally (as well as dangerous as an enemy). In primate societies many of the signals are used in coalition building, rather than simply to indicate dominance/submission. I wonder if these tooth-showing gestures are meant to show that the dog "has teeth" and could be a useful member of the group. Jeff Rushen From: IN%"arioncr@mindspring.com", IN%"com@mindspring.com" 11-SEP-1997 11:08:10.65 To: IN%"rushenj@EM.AGR.CA" "Jeff Rushen" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"nwaran@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk", IN%"mappleby@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk" Subj: Negotiating with Smiling Dogs and Others Jeff Rushen wrote: > > >>> Chris Redenbach 10/09/ 14h41 >>> > But signs involving the display of weapons accompanied simultaneously > by other signs of mood and intention, almost like we use adjectives and > subordinate clauses can shift encounters towards any number of > directions.>>>. > > Interesting idea. I recently saw a film about the Yanomani (spelling?) > Indians. Apparently tribes are often at war with each other. When two > tribes want to make it up they hold a ritual meeting, which among other > things, involves impressive displays of weapons and prowess. > According to the film, the idea of this is to show to the other tribe that > your tribe is a powerful one and could be useful as an ally (as well as > dangerous as an enemy). Yes and it saves face too! I am excited to learn about documentation of these so concrete and well delineated displays amongst tribal peoples because, in fact, such things also go on in slightly more veiled form in corporate society and suburban neighborhoods as well...and they are not unlike what social animals do at various levels of sophistication. Do you happen to remember the film's name and creators? I think that it is important in any sort of peace negotiation to make sure the victor knows that the vanguished is still dangerous and full of morale, albeit not overtly hostile and challenging. THat would assure that the victor does not try to further harm or humiliate (push past submission into further self-defense is the way dogs would see it). In primate societies many of the signals are > used in coalition building, rather than simply to indicate > dominance/submission. I wonder if these tooth-showing gestures are > meant to show that the dog "has teeth" and could be a useful member of > the group. That is an interesting thought. I am flirting with DeWaal's book Peacemaking Among Primates. I consider the breakthrough observation that other animals make peace intentionally a huge step toward opening the field to a far more subtle level of understanding them. I do feel that too much emphasis in dog behavior research has been focused on dominance and aggression and abnormal fear, while too little has been focused on the more subtle (and therefore difficult to observe) behaviors of negotiation and face saving that are constantly incorporated into daily life......it is just ways of moving and dealing with space around the other animals and other subtle gestures that keep things "simpatico" for the most part until someone behaves rudely....and then the increasingly less subtle mechanisms of setting things right again come into play. Displays amongst dogs who know each other and have a history will be different than displays between dogs who have no joint history, but instead, individual histories. It is possible to go into a whole sequence of body language "negotiations" with dogs with a mind to positioning each other so that further activities can proceed smoothly within the framework of the established roles. Ritualized displays of weapons, tactics, determination, confidence, claims for space, and some other elements denoting power, as well as offers of friendship, play and sharing are all put on display for the other to react to not unlike the tribesmen you described. It is fun to slip into such an exchange with a dog and see how the dog reacts. It is not always easy to get it right. For example, the dog who smiled this am at Natalie Waran just before she grabbed for the collar and it tried to bite her.....more could be happening than just fear of capture or restraint. First, it may not have been a smile, but a submissive (last ditch "I don't even believe in myself but just maybe I can make her stop") threat/grin. Evaluation dependent upon greater detail. It is difficult and time consuming to get an animal that is somewhat afraid to enter into another's space, especially while the person is trying to watch the animal so it doesn't get away and is therefore facing the animal (a threat), then to further reach towards the dorsal side of the animal to grab the collar is very aggressive/dominant/potentially injurious looking to the animal and not enough preliminary signalling of friendly intent has been confirmed prior to such an invasive move. The dog's behavior was not inappropriate under the circumstances if it only showed a ritualized bite willingness display rather than an actual bite...lots of dynamics happened there from the dog's point of view. Future improvement may not occur on just the basis of positive reinforcement after the act since nothing has been done to systematically defuse or reframe the initial sequence of threatening movements that led to the capture. Jeff, I would be interested to know how this all works with cattle....strangely enough, one of the neighbor's cows broke out and tried to get into my house (apparently a former resident of the house gave food to the cows regularly). The effort of trying to herd or entice the cow back through the hole in the fence was very inefficient and I kept thinking there must be a better way....cows can be very frightening when you don't know them and it kept rushing at me (of course, I had food which I almost wanted to throw at it and then run). Lucky for you all that it is now time to turn off the computer and get to work. The talent of Brevity is on my Christmas list. Chris Redenbach From: IN%"richards@hula.net" 11-SEP-1997 13:55:29.99 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Negotiating with Smiling Dogs and Others Jeff (I think) wrote: >> Interesting idea. I recently saw a film about the Yanomani (spelling?) >> Indians. Apparently tribes are often at war with each other. When two >> tribes want to make it up they hold a ritual meeting, which among other >> things, involves impressive displays of weapons and prowess. >> According to the film, the idea of this is to show to the other tribe that >> your tribe is a powerful one and could be useful as an ally (as well as >> dangerous as an enemy). Napoleon Chagnon has done quite a bit of work with the Yanamamo and filmed a number of documentaries. As I recall, he observed several levels of violence common among the tribes: side slapping, chest pounding, spear fights and machete duels. These forms of violence are formal methods used to avoid war, and all are governed by stingent forms of protocol, i.e.strict rules about proper ways to deliver and receive blows. For example, opponents may decide to use stones in their hands for the chest pounding duels to deliver a more stunning blow, but avoid allowing the stones to come in direct contact with the opponent. With machetes, the flat side of the blade is used. Chagnon does mention something about warriors coughing up blood for days afterward, so although these duels may serve to avoid full-scale warfare, they are not without consequence. I should point out that one of the primary purposes of village raids is to steal women for wives. Was this Chris who said: >Yes and it saves face too! I am excited to learn about documentation of >these so concrete and well delineated displays amongst tribal peoples >because, in fact, such things also go on in slightly more veiled form in >corporate society and suburban neighborhoods as well...and they are not >unlike what social animals do at various levels of sophistication. Yes, it does serve to save face, and it does resemble (in some forms) the college social science departments I've taught in. (Particularly the posturing and stealing female professors to observe department sex ratio quotas). > I do feel that too much emphasis in dog behavior >research has been focused on dominance and aggression and abnormal fear, >while too little has been focused on the more subtle (and therefore >difficult to observe) behaviors of negotiation and face saving that are >constantly incorporated into daily life......it is just ways of moving >and dealing with space around the other animals and other subtle >gestures that keep things "simpatico" for the most part until someone >behaves rudely....and then the increasingly less subtle mechanisms of >setting things right again come into play. Displays amongst dogs who I have no formal background in ethology, but I agree with Chris on this one. Behaviors of negotiation are probably more difficult to observe and document with any degree of regularity, and perhaps are not as exciting? I know my anthropology students would much rather read about naked dueling Yanomamo men (did I mention they snort a hallucinogenic drug, causing long lengths of green mucous to run down the chest?) than women making baskets and collecting firewood. Smiles, Dawn From: IN%"reedd@cjnetworks.com" 11-SEP-1997 18:40:45.68 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "Ethology" CC: Subj: work To any who can help- My name is Maren Davis, I am 17 and dream about my future career in animal behavior. My ultimate goal is to study in the wild with a PhD in ethology. For now before I have that opportuniy I want to spend time with any and all animals, exotic, or no. I am willing to do any amout of work and soak in all information put before me. I have this year to finish High School, but the minute I am out I am interested in a job or some sort of internship that could that I could do while going to college, or in the summers. (I am willing to travel summers) I want the experence practal for my future job, education, of frankly anything putting me in contact with those skilled in the animal science disaplines or any knowledge involving the same. I am also looking for contacts that could help me with future job searches through college and beyond. My main goal is to be put in contact with those who can help me learn everything that can't be learned in college, some job experence and possibally a contact or two. Thank you all in anticipation Maren Davis MAREN DAVIS email Dept. of personal intrest (my mind) Topeka, KS USA From: IN%"enoyes@zoo.uvm.edu" "Emily M. Noyes" 11-SEP-1997 20:33:22.84 To: IN%"Susanne.Waiblinger@vu-wien.ac.at" "Susanne Waiblinger" CC: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: long term recognition in cattle Just a quick introduction - my name is Emily and I am an animal science major at the University of Vermont. My interest in ethology focuses mainly on domestics and at present I am learning quite a bit about dairy cattle through a program we have here called CREAM (Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management). Also a question - I am looking for a book entitled "The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior". It is a fairly old book and I believe it is also out of print. Someone told me about it but now cannot find their copy. Any help would be appreciated. From: IN%"desmith@picknowl.com.au" "Dennis Smith" 12-SEP-1997 01:14:08.44 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Introduction My name is Dennis Smith. Over the past 30 years I have gained a vast amount of experience with the behaviour of animals. Owning a small property in the country adjacent to natural woodland enabled me study the behaviour of numerous farm, native and feral animals. I have trained and trialed dogs since 1976, the latest being a Utility title in 1995. My professional dog training career commenced some 9 years ago. The clientele has built gradually as Veterinary Surgeons, have referred canine clients experiencing behavioural problems to me. My approach has been mainly to educate the pet owners to understand the needs of their canine and feline companions. In 1995 I commenced my Bachelor of Science Degree, at Flinders University of South Australia, majoring in Animal Behaviour and Psychology. This will formally recognise my experience and abilities as a practising Animal Behaviourist. (To my knowledge the only one in South Australia with these qualifications.) My special interest is the training and assimilation of dogs which are partially or toally deaf, and the training of people with disabilities to be able to communicate with their dogs in a meaningful and authoritive manner. My approach to dog training is that poineered by Dr. J.P. Scott and Dr. J. Fuller and others at Jackson Research Laboratories. I believe in the commencement of behaviour patterning at an early age in order to prevent the intervention at a later age with more severe training. From: IN%"MANNINEN@vetmed.fi" "Manninen Emmi" 12-SEP-1997 01:57:00.50 To: IN%"Applied-Ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: do cows hear ultrasound? Dear all, We are going to use an ultrasound device to register stall use of dairy cows. Does somebody know if cows are able to hear 40 000 Hz sound and is it possible that ultrasound would disturb the cows or affect their stall choice? Emmi Manninen From: IN%"9662198@lewis.sms.ed.ac.uk" "SUSANNA AHLSTROM" 12-SEP-1997 06:05:10.00 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: hearing in cattle Dear Emmi, I found from 'The Behaviour of Cattle' (Albright & Arave, 1997) a reference for you. Heffner, R.S. and Heffner, H.E. (1983). Hearing in large mammals: horses (Equus caballus) and cattle (Bos taurus). Behavioural Neuroscience, 97: 299-309. They found a hearing range in 2 cows from 23 Hz to 35 kHz at an intensity of 60 dB. The hearing was at its best at 8 kHz. Hope that helps and see you soon! Susanna From: IN%"bastet_1@hotmail.com" "leda iconomopoulou" 12-SEP-1997 06:58:06.71 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Hi all I am a zoologist from Greece my name is Leda Ikonomopoulou and we are trying to run a programme of conservation and captive installation of some wolves that were already being captured in the past. These wolves, fifteen in number, are right now being enclosed in an inappropriate area and our aim is to put them in an area of 2 hectares. What i need to know is what methods should we apply so to keep them in this area without being afraid of their possible escape. What i would like to ask you is: What kind of fenses should we use , How many meters deep should the fenses being installed bellow the earth level If we should use electric fenses or not How many series of fenses should we use How many meters up should the fenses should be rised Also these wolves (the 15 in total) have already formed troups, should we put them so separately in this area of 2 hectares or should we leave them free and let them decide their area of dominance? Unfortunately i do not know the exact composition of their troups so that i could give you more informations about the situation. If you could help me i would be really greatful for any requests my e-mail is yours sincerely Leda P.S. If you have any infos about the way that i can find more infos i would be happy if you could let me know. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: IN%"marie.haskell@bbsrc.ac.uk" "marie.haskell" 12-SEP-1997 07:24:51.12 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Pigs kept outdoors Dear Applied Ethologists, I have a couple of questions in regard to the welfare of pigs kept outdoors. Presumably sows about to farrow are kept in groups with access to food, water, farrowing huts etc. Does cross suckling of piglets occur sometimes/never? (I know there was a discussion about this, and as I remember, some said yes, some said no). If cross-suckling does occur, can it be assumed that the smaller/younger piglets suffer because of this? And if so, are there any recommendations about the grouping of sows pre-farrowing to minimize the effect of different piglet ages? I'm sorry if I cover old ground again, but I don't recall any discussion relative to piglet welfare. Thanks, Marie Haskell Roslin Institute marie.haskell@bbsrc.ac.uk From: IN%"jnm13@cus.cam.ac.uk" 12-SEP-1997 07:52:41.52 To: IN%"marie.haskell@bbsrc.ac.uk" "marie.haskell" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: Pigs kept outdoors Hi Marie, Yes cross-suckling certainly does occur in outdoor systems where the piglets are allowed to mix. Most ark designs do incorporate a piglet barrier at the entrance, which will have a varying degree of success in containing the piglets within the home ark up to 10+ days of age. From personal experience in indoor systems, I would not recommend mixing piglets before the youngest litter is 10 days old. No matter how hard you try and plan similar farrowing dates within a group, you will invariably get a 3,4 or 5 day spread in ages. This spread can leave the youngest litter seriously disadvantaged if they mix too early. On the other hand, a spread in ages could be seen as having advantages in minimising fighting between piglets, because of large differences in relative body weight... The consequences on the piglet are greatly reduced if there is a good degree of synchrony between sows during milk let-down. However, if milk let-down is sequential rather than synchronised, the big piglets will do the rounds, leaving the small piglets missing out. I think Sandra Edwards has been looking at the relative merits of individual farrowing paddocks versus group paddocks, but my memory fails me as to where I saw this or heard this! I don't know of any literature off-hand about cross-suckling specifically in outdoor pigs - does anyone else? Jeremy Jeremy N. Marchant, BSc, PhD, CBiol, MIBiol, Animal Welfare and Human-Animal Interactions Group University of Cambridge, Dept. of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ES, UK. tel: +44 1223 330843 jnm13@cus.cam.ac.uk fax: +44 1223 330886 www-pdic.vet.cam.ac.uk/Peop_Serv/people.html#Jeremy From: IN%"gonzalef@sun.ieco.conacyt.mx" 12-SEP-1997 08:12:55.74 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Information Hi all I am an ornithologist from Xalapa, Ver., Mexico. My name is Fernando Gonzalez Garcia and we are starting to run a programme of conservation and captive breeding on Horned Guans (Aves:Cracidae) . This rare bird species is endangered in Mexico and Guatemala. To date, we have 8 Horned Guans in number (four males, four females) and they are in 4 aviaries, one pair each. We would like to know what methods should we apply to study and to observe this birds in captivity?. I want to study the social behavior, including ethogram, diurnal pattern activity, territorialiy, self-maintenace, and vocalisations. Do you know similar work in captivity? Do you know or have information about it?. I would like to receive reprint on social behavior of captive birds. I Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca f you how I cand find more infos, please, tell me. Any information about that topic will be really greatful. Sincerely -- Fernando Gonzalez-Garcia Instituto de Ecologia A.C. Apartado Postal 63 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico 91000 Tel: (28) 42-18-00 ext. 4110, 4111, 4112 Fax: (28) 18-78-09 email: gonzalef@sun.ieco.conacyt.mx http://dell.ieco.conacyt.mx From: IN%"d.arey@ab.sac.ac.uk" 12-SEP-1997 09:26:24.51 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Pigs kept outdoors Marie, Jeremy et al A couple of refs which may be useful... Head et al., 1995. A comparison of singly and group farrowing/lactation paddocks for first parity sows in an outdoor system. Animal Science 60:563. Higgins and Edwards, 1996. The effects on welfare and production of using individual or group paddocks for farrowing sows and litters in an outdoor system. Fourth International Livestock Farming Systems Symposium. Danish Inst. Animal Science, Foulum, Denmark. Dale Dale Arey Animal and Feed Technology SAC Craibstone Estate Bucksburn Aberdeen, AB21 9YA UK AB21 9YA Tel: 01224 711058 From: IN%"FLANNIGAN@admin3.usask.ca" 12-SEP-1997 16:37:32.27 To: IN%"APPLIED-ETHOLOGY@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: PhD thesis Dear Members: I'm looking for a reference that I saw a couple of years ago and can't locate. It is a PhD thesis which I believe was out of Australia on the behaviour of neutered male cats. I don't know what year or the author. I would like to order it through my library. Thank you for any help you can give me. Gerry Flannigan WCVM University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada From: IN%"rnewberry@wsu.edu" 13-SEP-1997 01:14:24.48 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Cross-suckling in pigs kept outdoors Regards, Davide Csermely -- ********************************************************************* Davide Csermely (Assoc. Prof. of Vertebrate Zoology) Dip. Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale Intl.Phone: +39-521-905632 Universita` di Parma Intl. Fax : +39-521-905657 Viale delle Scienze Email: csermely@biol.unipr.it 43100 Parma, Italy URL: http://www.biol.unipr.it ********************************************************************* From: IN%"aladd@zoo.uvm.edu" "Alison E. Ladd" 13-SEP-1997 12:12:38.29 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" "applied ethology network" CC: Subj: Cheetahs... Hello all, Although most of you deal strictly in domestic animal behaviour, I was hoping maybe one or two of you may dabble a little with exotic species. I am writing a technical paper for my Wildlife Management course on cheetahs and was wondering if anyone could tell me the complete taxonomic listing for it, from Class all the way down to Species. If anyone knows or could point me in the right direction, I would be very greatful. Thanks! Alison From: IN%"jwillard@fly.erato.jst.go.jp" "Janice Willard" 14-SEP-1997 00:13:09.36 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Smiling dogs and people I was interested to observe that many of the responses to the smiling in dogs questions seemed to support the hypothesis that this behavior is unique to dogs among canids, that it is a largely learned behavior and it was selected for (both genetically and by reinforcement in the individual) by humans to make the dogs more like us. But I'm not sure that the anecdotes can entirely support this without first finding the answers to some additional questions. Do wolves smile? I seem to recall seeing films of wolves playing with happy expressions on their faces, but I am at a loss now to remember where I have seen this and I am now living abroad with no access to a reference library. Does anyone in the group have actual experience with wolf studies or know someone they can refer this question to? Is smiling observed in dogs raised without human contact? While not mentioning smiling specifically, I found this information in an old book I happened to have with me: " In our laboratory, we wished to find out how much of their behavior was native to dogs and how much was a result of the human environment. We placed groups of adult dogs in large fields where they could be watched apart from human beings and found that they reacted toward each other with the same basic behavior patterns with which they responded to people. They wagged their tails at each other, growled and barked and fawned on any animals which was in possession of food. When all of these behavior patterns were written down and analyzed, they were found to be essentially the same as those exhibited by their wild ancestors, the wolves. Puppies born to these animals and kept out of contact with people showed the same behavior as the adults except that they were extremely wild and fearful toward people." The author goes on to conclude "..no matter how great the change in environment, most of the basic patterns of adaptive behavior do not change. ...No matter how long a deer associates with man, it will never use its hoofs like fingers...." John Paul Scott, Animal Behavior (2nd edition) The University of Chicago Press 1972, p119. Does anyone have some more up-to-date information which mentions smiling in wolves or feral dogs specifically? Could smiling be a genetic trait in all canids but the rate of expression altered by learning? (Note, here either the human *or* the dominant canid could reinforce submission smiling, if this was a desired trait). Thirdly, I noticed that there seemed to be two categories of emotions described that are expressed by smiling, at least in humans. The first is the state of happiness. Certainly all over the world, regardless of culture, relief, happiness, joy are all expressed with smiling. This is a spontaneous expression and appears to take a good deal of learning to suppress it. The second of these is what I would call submissive smiling: appeasement, embarrassment, obsequiousness, desire to please, are also expressed with smiling. Living in Japan as I am now, I often notice the effects of learning on expressions of emotion which has showed me how important it is to learn the cultural norm. For example, when living in America, if one is teaching someone and they are smiling and nodding, it is a good sign that they are following you and understanding your explanation. However, in Japan, smiling and nodding in no way denotes understanding--a point that a teacher friend of mine found to be seriously frustrating. (I, instead rely on watching the eyes--a quick sideways glance usually means you've lost them). Can we assume that similar expressions on the faces of mammals are reflections of the same emotions that they express in humans? (I suspect that they do, that this expression of emotional states is genetic--as is our understanding of it, but this is a totally empirical assumption on my part). (It would be an interesting study, if it has not been already done, to show pictures of animals facial expressions when they are in different emotional states to people from different cultures and see good humans are at determining emotional states from facial expression in animals....). So that brings me back to the initial question, the assertion in the book by Juliet Clutton-Brock that smiling in dogs is not seen in wolves and is a learned behavior that is result of mimicry of humans. I don't believe this to be true, but I don't have enough information yet to accept or reject it. (note to Chris Reddenbach: Brevity is on my Christmas list too...;-) Janice Willard From: IN%"beaugrand.jacques@uqam.ca" "Beaugrand Jacques" 14-SEP-1997 23:02:29.29 To: IN%"lpn-l@brownvm.brown.edu", IN%"ar-disc@anat.umsmed.edu", IN%"rat-talk@nic.surfnet.nl", IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca", IN%"vetmed-1@uga.cc.uga.edu", IN%"ETHOLOGY@SEARN.SUNET.SE", IN%"absnet-post@loris.cisab.indiana.edu", IN%"SOCIOBIO@SJUVM.STJO CC: Subj: (English) I would like to organize a symposium on the the state of Ethology as a= discipline: recent history & relationships with related sciences (psychology, behavioral= ecology, neurosciences, sociobiology, ...), current state (is it true that= it is dying ?) and possible future (including employment). I am looking for possible competent participants (which I might have= overlooked...). Your suggestions of potential contributors on this topic will be greatly= appreciated. (sorry for the multiple copies you might receive of the present message!) -- (french version): J'aimerais organiser un symposium sur l'=E9tat de l'ethologie comme= discipline: son histoire recente et ses relations avec les disciplines= voisines (psychologie, ecologie du comportement, sociobiologie, ...), sont= etat actuel (est-elle en voie de disparaitre?) et ses perspectives d'avenir= (y compris les possibilites d'emploi). Je suis =E0 la recherche de participants int=E9ressants que j'aurais pu= oublier... Toute suggestion a ce propos sera grandement appreciee. (desole pour les multiples copies que vous recevrez du present appel!) 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- Avec les salutations cordiales de /Kind regards from Jacques P. Beaugrand, professeur Unite d'Ethometrie, Dept Psychologie, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, BP 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C-3P8 -- 514-987-4801 (BV/Voix-ce/Bureau) Internet: beaugrand.jacques@uqam.ca=20 514-987-7953 (Fax) _\\|//_ 514-949-1257 (Mobile) ///|\\\ @ =A6 @ ----------------------oOO--(_)--OOo-----------------------------=20 =20 Visitez mon site Web/Visit my Home page: =20 http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r20370/ =20 =20 Site de la SQEBC: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r20370/sqebc.htm =20 Site de l'AFEEE: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r20370/afeee.htm =20 Site de la SQRP: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r20370/sqrp.htm =20 =20 ---------------------oOOO------OOOo-----------------------------=20 =20 From: IN%"Margret.Wulbers-Mindermann@hmh.slu.se" "Margret =?UNKNOWN?Q?W=FClbers-Mindermann?=" 15-SEP-1997 03:22:52.53 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: cross-suckling and pigs kept outdoors Dear Marie, I did a study on characteristics of cross-suckling piglets reared in a group housing system during my final examination. And I can agree with the comments by Jeremy and Ruth. I also found that there were different types of cross-sucklers, those that suckled permanently at another sow and those that suckled opportunistic. This was under conditions were sows and piglets had the opportunity to develpe mother young bonding and to let unused teats to atrophy, since the piglets had no access to the rest of the group until they were about 7 days of age. To prevent "severe cross-suckling" (small piglets starving due to older piglets pushing them beside during suckling) there are a few rules to follow: - to allow the sow and piglets to develope mother young bonding: to establish the teat order and let unused teats to atrophy - grouping pregnant sows in such a way that their predicted farrowing dates spread not more than 5 days - keep smaller groups, since cross-suckling frequency increased with group size - if possible to minimize high litter size variations. Piglets from larger letters tended to go to smaller litters. If you are interessted in further details you are welcome to receive an exemplar of my report. Beside that, I am also working with outdoor pigs nowadays. And thus I can agree that cross-cukling does occur there as well, but to me it does not seem to be a welfare problem as long as you keep in mind the previous named rules. Margret Wülbers-Mindermann Swedish University of Agricultural Science Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Dept. of Animal Environment and Health Box 234 532 23 Skara E-mail: Margret.Wulbers-Mindermann@hmh.slu.se From: IN%"sbarry@zoo.uvm.edu" "Shannon S. Barry" 15-SEP-1997 06:55:31.36 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: I am a college tudent who has to do a research paper on an animal behavior topic. I have enjoyed reading the different postings on this site. I am interested in the drug therapy that is being used to treat dogs with behavioral problems. If anyone has any information about this subject, I would appreciate it if you could email it to me at sbarry@zoo.uvm.edu. Thank you very much. -Shannon ****************************************************************************** Shannon Barry 114 North Willard Street Apt. #1 Burlington, Vermont 05401 sbarry@zoo.uvm.edu (802)864-0836 From: IN%"donlay@iastate.edu" "Don Lay" 15-SEP-1997 08:46:06.58 To: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: A friend of mine wrote with the following inquiry. I know Ed Price would have some ideas based on his research with sheep, and I open this question to others that may have experienced this problem with swine. Has anybody had experience with the problem described below? Thank you for your time. Don Lay >Don, do you have access to any up to date information about how to handle a >"reluctant" boar. This boar has been raised alone and will not mount an >estrous female or extend his penis. Thanks. Donald C. Lay Jr. Applied Ethology Iowa State University donlay@iastate.edu 515-294-2724 From: IN%"katz@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU" "Dr. Larry S. Katz" 15-SEP-1997 10:20:57.69 To: IN%"donlay@iastate.edu" "Don Lay" CC: IN%"applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" Subj: RE: your mail Dear Don, et al. I recommend you read Foote et al's accounting of a reluctant yearling bull. Painting molasses on the back of the teaser in successive approximations of chin resting behavior brought about normal mounting eventually. See Foote, Presicce and Brocket. 1993. Appl Anim. Behav Sci 37: 75-80. Good luck with the boar. I would like to hear if this techniques works. Best wishes, Larry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry S. Katz, Ph.D. Phone: (732) 932-7426 Associate Professor Fax: (732) 932-6996 Department of Animal Sciences Cook College Rutgers, The State University New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903-0231 E-Mail: Katz@aesop.rutgers.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Mon, 15 Sep 1997, Don Lay wrote: > >Don, do you have access to any up to date information about how to handle a > >"reluctant" boar. This boar has been raised alone and will not mount an > >estrous female or extend his penis. Thanks. From: IN%"irene@irene.msk.ru" "Sergey Budaev" 15-SEP-1997 10:41:56.43 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: Dear colleagues, I am studying individual differences in animal behaviour and interested in describing the dimensions of temperament in various species. Psychologists have developed a lot of statistical methods for measurement of intelligence, personality, attitudes etc., that, unfortunately, have not been widely accepted by ethologists. I would appreciate any information about the use of psychometric methods (e.g. classical test theory and generalizability theory) in applied ethology. Can anybody provide any references on this topic? Because measurement of consistent and stable traits is of particular importance in such fields as applied ethology and animal welfare, I think these matters would potentially be interesting to many subscribers of this mailing list. Thank you very much. Sergey Budaev Severtsov Institute of Ecology & Evolution Russian Academy of Sciences Leninsky prospekt 33 117071 Moscow, Russia