To Share or Not to Share: Food Sharing in Wild Azure-Winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus).

Medieval unease with human animality manifests itself strongly in attitudes toward and proscriptions concerning food sharing. This is particularly true with dogs, the nonhuman animals with whom humans most intimately share both the procurement and consumption of food, and who are routinely figured as embodying many of the best and worst characteristics associated with humans. Through a range of late medieval texts, this paper will probe the precarious boundary between human and nonhuman animals in the medieval imagination by considering the portrait of Chaucer’s Prioress and her lapdogs in The Canterbury Tales; depictions of dogs in the hunt in medieval romance; and the strange tale of Sir Gowther, whose penance is to eat only what he receives from the mouth of a dog. Rather than supporting claims for an essential difference between human and nonhuman animal, such examples further emphasize the fluidity of the two categories.

Cooperative breeding and anti-predator strategies of the azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus Pallas, 1776) in northern Mongolia

Networks of Food Sharing Reveal the Functional Significance of Multilevel Sociality in Two Hunter-Gatherer Groups

It is no doubt that the reciprocal altruism of humans is unparalleled in the animal world. However, how strong altruistic behavior in the non-human animal is still very controversial. Almost all previous researches allowed only one individual in the dyad for action or dyad to accomplish tasks and obtain rewards simultaneously. Here, we designed current study based on the prisoner's dilemma to investigate reciprocal altruism under interactions of Azure-winged Magpies (Cyanopica cyanus), which is direct reciprocity of allowing subjects obtain rewards, respectively. The results suggest that Azure-winged Magpies failed to show continuously altruistic behavior due to the empiricism that stemmed from interactions, that is, avoiding losses. Meanwhile, the resource exchange game paradigm, which is designed in our study, is worthwhile to study the evolution of cooperation in more species in the future.

Simple SummaryCetaceans, including beluga whales, are known for their unique habits and behaviors that they display within their social groups, such as group-specific tactics or vocalizations. One of the questions that has attracted the attention of researchers is whether these behaviors are learned socially, i.e., from other members of their group. In this study, we investigate the ability of a young beluga to learn and reproduce new behaviors by observing another beluga perform them. The beluga was trained to respond to the command “Do this” so that it would imitate what it had observed in another beluga whale. The results show how it was able to copy both familiar behaviors (known and previously performed) and novel behaviors (actions it had never seen or performed before) in response to the “copy” signal. This study is the first evidence of this “true imitation” (copying novel actions) ability in this species and shows that these animals can acquire new skills through this process. This ability, which is quite rare in the animal kingdom, helps us to understand how these marine mammals survive and thrive in their natural habitats and how they pass on vital information about where to live, migrate, and find food.Cetaceans are well known for their unique behavioral habits, such as calls and tactics. The possibility that these are acquired through social learning continues to be explored. This study investigates the ability of a young beluga whale to imitate novel behaviors. Using a do-as-other-does paradigm, the subject observed the performance of a conspecific demonstrator involving familiar and novel behaviors. The subject: (1) learned a specific ‘copy’ command; (2) copied 100% of the demonstrator’s familiar behaviors and accurately reproduced two out of three novel actions; (3) achieved full matches on the first trial for a subset of familiar behaviors; and (4) demonstrated proficiency in coping with each familiar behavior as well as the two novel behaviors. This study provides the first experimental evidence of a beluga whale’s ability to imitate novel intransitive (non-object-oriented) body movements on command. These results contribute to our understanding of the remarkable ability of cetaceans, including dolphins, orcas, and now beluga whales, to engage in multimodal imitation involving sounds and movements. This ability, rarely documented in non-human animals, has significant implications for the development of survival strategies, such as the acquisition of knowledge about natal philopatry, migration routes, and traditional feeding areas, among these marine mammals.

Wild birds are one of the main natural reservoirs for avian influenza viruses, and their migratory behavior significantly influences the transmission of avian influenza. To better describe the migratory behavior of wild birds, a system of reaction-advection-diffusion equations is developed to characterize the interactions among wild birds, poultry, and humans. By the next-generation operator, the basic reproduction number of the model is formulated. Then the threshold dynamic of the model is explored by some techniques including the theory of uniform persistence, internally chain transitive sets, and so on. Subsequently, the sensitivity analysis of parameters associated with the basic reproduction number is implemented. According to the temporal and spatial overlapping relationship between wild blue-winged ducks and poultry in North America, the effect of this relationship on the characteristic of spatial-temporal distribution of the viruses is well studied. Additionally, the risk of virus transmission from wild birds to poultry and humans is evaluated. The main results highlight that the basic reproduction number is more significantly affected by the parameters related to wild birds. Interestingly, the model output regarding the spatial distribution of poultry infections is consistent with the actual findings. Moreover, the risk of virus spillover from wild birds into poultry and humans varies with wild bird behavior and has a more substantial impact on poultry. Throughout this study, the critical risk points in the transmission process are identified, providing a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of avian influenza.

Collective behaviors, including flocking and group vocalizing, are readily observable across a diversity of free-living avian populations, yet we know little about how neural and ecological factors interactively regulate these behaviors. Because of their involvement in mediating a variety of social behaviors, including avian flocking, nonapeptides are likely mediators of collective behaviors. To advance the neuroecological study of collective behaviors in birds, we sought to map the neuroanatomical distributions of nonapeptide receptors in three promising avian models that are found across a diversity of environments and widely ranging ecological conditions: European starlings, house sparrows, and rock doves. We performed receptor autoradiography using the commercially available nonapeptide receptor radioligands, 125I-ornithine vasotocin analog and 125I-linear vasopressin antagonist, on brain tissue sections from wild-caught individuals from each species. Because there is known pharmacological cross-reactivity between nonapeptide receptor subtypes, we also performed a novel, competitive-binding experiment to examine the composition of receptor populations. We detected binding in numerous regions throughout the brains of each species, with several similarities and differences worth noting. Specifically, we report that all three species exhibit binding in the lateral septum, a key brain area known to regulate avian flocking. In addition, sparrows and starlings show dense binding in the dorsal arcopallium, an area that has received scant attention in the study of social grouping. Furthermore, our competitive binding results suggest that receptor populations in sparrows and starlings differ in the lateral septum versus the dorsal arcopallium. By providing the first comprehensive maps of nonapeptide receptors in European starlings, house sparrows, and rock doves, our work supports the future use of these species as avian models for neuroecological studies of collective behaviors in wild birds.

Why do people feed wild birds? It is intuitively clear that humans feel delighted by the presence of birds that they can manage to attract by offering ordinary seeds at a feeder. According to surveys on human motivations for feeding wild birds in Australia, some people may gain experiential knowledge from observing the birds in their gardens, or feed the birds in return for the massive habitat destruction caused by humans ( Howard & Jones, 2004 ; Ishigame & Baxter, 2007 ). However, outside Australia, the largely unstudied motivations of people feeding birds are just one example for our gaps of knowledge with respect to bird feeding ( Jones & Reynolds, 2008 ). It is in sharp contrast to our limited knowledge on the habit that wild bird feeding is probably the most widespread and popular form of human–wildlife interaction throughout the world ( Jones, 2011 ), and, at least in northern temperate regions, the largest wildlife management activity ( Martinson & Flaspohler, 2003 ). In the UK, suffi cient commercial wild bird foods are sold to support a hypothetical number of over 30 million great tits ( Parus major ; Robb et al., 2008a ), which is many more than the 2 million pairs of great tits that are actually present (www.bto.org). Surveys have found that 64% of households provide supplementary food for birds in the UK ( Davies et al., 2012 ), and 43% in the USA ( Martinson & Flaspohler, 2003 ). In suburban and rural environments of Australia, estimated household feeding rates range from 36% to 48% ( Ishigame & Baxter, 2007 ). Although BirdLife Australia does not encourage supplementary feeding of wild birds ( Bird Observation and Conservation Australia, 2010 ), northern organizations such as the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology now recommend feeding birds for promoting nature conservation ( Jones, 2011 ). In Germany, a renowned ornithologist recently wrote a popular book on bird feeding that sold 50,000 copies in the fi rst 1.5 years, in which he advocates feeding the birds year-round and on a massive scale ( Berthold & Mohr, 2008 ). Indeed, wild bird feeding is not only here to stay ( Jones, 2011 ), it also seems to be increasing, at least in the UK ( Chamberlain et al., 2005 ). Today, in many countries, the huge effort in providing supplementary food for birds may be one of the largest human infl uences on bird populations, in addition to habitat loss and change, humaninduced climate change and hunting. As I will show in this chapter, we now have a sound basis of knowledge about the impacts that supplementary feeding can have on birds. However, as I will also show, our knowledge mostly comes from smallscale experiments that researchers did in natural and rural habitats. Surprisingly little is known on the impact of feeding birds in our urban gardens and backyards. However, humans are infl uencing urban food supply for birds not only directly by providing feeders, but also via waste treatment and by creating, changing, or destroying urban or natural habitats and food sources in our cities ( Chace & Walsh, 2006 ). Because such additional human infl uences are usually weaker in rural landscapes, the effects of feeding wild birds are likely

Changes in vocal repertoire of the Hawaiian crow, Corvus hawaiiensis, from past wild to current captive populations

To study the occurrence of Chlamydia spp. and their genetic diversity, we analysed 793 cloacal swabs from 12 avian orders, including 76 genera, obtained from 80 species of asymptomatic wild and captive birds that were examined with conventional nested polymerase chain reaction and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Chlamydia spp. were not detected in wild birds; however, four species (Chlamydia psittaci, Chlamydia pecorum, Chlamydia pneumoniae and Chlamydia gallinacea) were identified among captive birds (Passeriformes, n = 20; Psittaciformes, n = 15; Rheiformes, n = 8; Falconiformes n = 2; Piciformes n = 2; Anseriformes n = 1; Galliformes n = 1; Strigiformes n = 1). Two pathogens (C. pneumoniae and C. pecorum) were identified simultaneously in samples obtained from captive birds. Based on nucleotide-sequence variations of the ompA gene, three C. psittaci-positive samples detected were grouped into a cluster with the genotype WC derived from mammalian hosts. A single positive sample was phylogenetically related to a new strain of C. gallinacea. This report contributes to our increasing understanding of the abundance of Chlamydia in the animal kingdom.

Duck Migration and Past Influenza A (H5N1) Outbreak Areas

Dispersal is a major determinant of the dynamics and genetic structure of populations, and its consequences depend not only on average dispersal rates and distances, but also on the characteristics of dispersing and philopatric individuals. We investigated whether natal dispersal correlated with a predisposed behavioural trait: exploratory behaviour in novel environments. Wild great tits were caught in their natural habitat, tested the following morning in the laboratory using an open field test and released at the capture site. Natal dispersal correlated positively with parental and individual exploratory behaviour, using three independent datasets. First, fast-exploring parents had offspring that dispersed furthest. Second, immigrants were faster explorers than locally born birds. Third, post-fledging movements, comprising a major proportion of the variation in natal dispersal distances, were greater for fast females than for slow females. These findings suggest that parental behaviour influenced offspring natal dispersal either via parental behaviour per se (e.g. via post-fledging care) or by affecting the phenotype of their offspring (e.g. via their genes). Because this personality trait has a genetic basis, our results imply that genotypes differ in their dispersal distances. Therefore, the described patterns have profound consequences for the genetic composition of populations.

We studied adult White Ibises (Eudocimus albus) on a South Carolina salt marsh to determine the effects of social grouping on the birds' foraging behavior. White Ibises on our study site fed almost exclusively on fiddler crabs (Uca spp.). Four social categories were recognized: (1) central adults in flocks of ≥ 15 birds, (2) peripheral adults in flocks of ≥ 15 birds, (3) adults in small flocks of five or fewer birds, and (4) solitary adults (singletons). We used a paired sampling scheme to compare the behavior of central birds with the behavior of birds in the other three social groupings. Although peripheral adults did not differ significantly from central adults in number of steps, number of crabs captured, or number of capture attempts, they looked up more often and for longer periods of time than did central adults. Behavior of solitary ibises was similar to that of ibises in small flocks, but both foraged differently than central adults in large flocks. Birds in the center of large flocks took fewer steps, probed more frequently, and scanned the surroundings less often than birds in the other two social groupings; there were no differences in capture rates. Thus, White Ibises used two distinct types of foraging strategies depending on flock size and their position within the flock. Ibises in small flocks, singletons, and, to some extent, ibises on the edges of large flocks, stepped quickly to capture fiddler crabs before the crabs could retreat into burrows. Centrally-located ibises in large flocks were unable to use this foraging technique because the surrounding members of the flock created a disturbance that caused the fiddler crabs to remain in their burrows. These birds, therefore, probed into crab burrows and found their prey by tactile means. Our results support the predator-protection advantage of feeding within a flock independent of the feeding-efficiency hypotheses.

Proactive behavior is considered one of the most important work behaviors for employees in the 21st century and is essential for modern enterprise management. While traditional management models required employees to follow specific instructions and task descriptions, the current organizational management environment has changed significantly. Organizations are becoming increasingly decentralized, facing rapid environmental changes, higher uncertainty, intense competition, and greater demands for innovation. Consequently, the need for proactive behavior among employees has become more prominent in modern enterprise management. However, there is a notable lack of proactive work behavior among employees in contemporary enterprises. In response to this, this paper systematically reviews relevant literature, first providing a comprehensive overview of the concept origin, core connotation, and distinctions and connections between proactive behavior and related concepts. Secondly, the paper analyzes the influencing factors of employee proactive behavior and elaborates on its positive and negative impacts on both employees and organizations. Finally, the paper suggests that future research should utilize both static and dynamic methods to thoroughly analyze the combined effects of individual capabilities, attitudes, values, as well as organizational culture and leadership styles, and how these factors interact to influence the outcomes of proactive behavior. Additionally, cross-cultural research will help us understand the differences in the outcomes of proactive behavior across various cultural contexts.

Endocrine and neuroendocrine regulation of fathering behavior in birds