The Conservation Behaviorist
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The Conservation Behaviorist Heidi Fisher, student at Boston University, receives E. O. Wilson Conservation Award Animal Behavior Society ABS Conservation Committee The Conservation Behaviorist, an electronic biannual news-update, informs ABS members about the Conservation Committee’s activities, research trends in behavior and conservation, and relevant scientific news in conservation research where behavior plays an important role. The Conservation Behaviorist Vol. 3, No. 1, May 2005 ____________________________________________________________ In this issue The ABS Conservation Committee ..……………………….. 2 Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior........................................ 2 Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf and Mark L. Wildhaber join ABS Conservation Committee…………………………………….. 2 Perspectives: Animal Cognition and its Role in Conservation Behavior, by Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C.……………………... 3 Feature Article: Conservation Behavior in Borneo’s logged forests, by Jason Munshi-South….…………………..……….5 Animal Behavior Society Annual Meeting……………………7 Excerpts From Back Issues …………………...…………….10 © Photo Sherri Michaud Conservation Tips By Daniel T. Blumstein “…As a field biologist, it is difficult not to become a conservationist, particularly when Is there anything a behaviorist can you study animal behavior. An animal’s first do to help conservation? response to a stressor is often a change at Work in an endangered habitat. Even if you the behavioral level. Behavior is a reliable are not focusing on an endangered species, indicator of ecological disturbance…” says by working in an endangered habitat you will Fisher. Her proposal “Communication breakdown illustrate, by example, the value of the habitat and hybridization in Xiphophorus fishes” will be and you may be able to collect additional funded by the ABS Student Research Grant information that will be useful for endangered Program and she will receive the 2005 E. O. Wilson species management. Conservation Award. (see Award page 8) Page 2 of 10 Vol. 3, No. 1, 2005 The ABS Conservation Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior Committee wins “Best Reference Source” Created in 1997, the Conservation Committee aims to encourage ABS members to participate in research award from Library Journal programs addressing the interface between animal behavior and conservation science. By identifying and evaluating the This three-volume “endlessly fascinating set is a areas in which behavioral research has contributed to seminal work in its field and one of the first complete conservation, as well as the fields that need development, resources on animal behavior” (Library Journal review) the Committee seeks to generate discussion and promote studies in behavior and conservation. Greenwood Publications Edited by Marc Bekoff ABS Conservation Committee Foreword by Jane Goodall Members ISBN 0-313-32745-9 Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C., Chair Worcester College Allison C. Alberts Zoological Society of San Diego Daniel T. Blumstein University of California Los Angeles Richard Buchholz University of Mississippi Colleen Cassady St. Clair University of Alberta, Canada Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf Lincoln Park Zoo J. Cully Nordby University of California Berkeley Debra M. Shier University of California Davis Ronald R. Swaisgood Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf and Mark L. Wildhaber Zoological Society of San Diego join ABS Conservation Committee Ilonka von Lippke University of California Los Angeles Mark L. Wildhaber Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf is the Director of Field Conservation at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and a faculty member of the Committee on Columbia Environmental Research Center Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. She administers the zoo's support of and participation in field conservation projects, which include overseeing the zoo's Africa/Asia and Neotropic Field Conservation Interact with the Conservation Funds. Elizabeth works at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where she supervises a health monitoring project for the Gombe chimpanzees Committee (funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Great Ape Conservation Fund). This Send letters, announcements, comments and contributions to project includes the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Jane Goodall Institute, The Conservation Behaviorist University of Minnesota and Tanzania National Parks. Lonsdorf serves on [email protected] the Field Conservation Committee of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) and on the Section on Great Apes of the IUCN Primate Deadlines for articles are the 15th of the month preceding the next Specialist Group. th news update. The next deadline is October 15 . Contributions submitted by members of the Animal Behavior Society and judged Mark L. Wildhaber is a quantitative ecologist and conservation by the Conservation Committee to be appropriate will be published behaviorist at Columbia Environmental Research Center, US Geological in The Conservation Behaviorist. The publication of such Survey. His research includes studies of the reproductive behavior and material does not imply ABS or Conservation Committee physiology and abiotic and biotic requirements for reproductive success of fish species that are federally-listed as threatened or endangered. One of endorsement of the opinions expressed by contributors. Mark's ultimate goals is to use this information, along with information on fish behavior as it relates to thermoregulation, foraging, and bioenergetics, Editor Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C. to develop mathematical models within an individual-based and spatially- Associate Editor Allison C. Alberts explicit framework that describe aquatic community dynamics. Page 3 of 10 Vol. 3, No. 1, 2005 when European settlers introduced the stoat (Mustela erminea) to Perspectives New Zealand6. Animals on islands are extraordinarily tame relative to animals on Animal cognition and its role continents and, when exotic predators arrive, they trigger a shift in in conservation behavior selective forces on the insular fauna. Feral cats (Felis catus) in the Galapagos Islands, for example, are responsible for increased wariness (loss of “unusual tame behavior”) in the lava lizards By Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C.* (Tropidurus spp.) as a result of predation pressure7. Survival of lizards in islands inhabited by cats is attributable to fast development of predator avoidance strategies (i.e., associative learning, aversive Animal cognition includes processes such as events) supported by selection toward phenotypes with effective perception, learning, memory and decision making in fleeing responses. which animals obtain information about the Eliminating inter-specific sexual and social imprinting environment through their senses, process, retain and 1,2 Puppet rearing, a technique aimed to reduce sexual and filial act on it . Here I discuss case-studies that have used imprinting on human caretakers, has been used in bird species. animal-cognition principles in conservation. My goal is Maladaptive imprinting is most likely to occur during early stages in to draw attention to the value of these studies an animal’s behavioral development. Studies indicate that rearing -conducted mostly by non-behaviorists, remark on the common ravens (Corvus corax) with a puppet does not affect social cognitive concepts intrinsic to each case, and behaviors prior to release, dispersal from the release area, or interaction with wild birds after release. Ravens raised with a puppet, encourage discussion and research in the interface however, are more fearful of caretakers and more vigilant prior to animal cognition-conservation behavior. release than ravens reared without a puppet and in full view of humans. These effects on behavior have translated to changes in Animal cognition (=cognitive ethology3) has contributed to survival after release of captive-reared young8. Likewise, aversive conservation in four main areas: i) training animals to avoid predators, conditioning of puppet-reared California Condors in later releases has ii) eliminating inter-specific sexual and social imprinting, iii) identifying reduced initial tendencies to approach humans and human structures inappropriate conservation strategies, and iv) identifying and (i.e., collisions with electric wires and towers) 5, but see 9. minimizing the negative effects of maladaptive behaviors. Enhancing social learning and social facilitation Training animals to avoid predators Animals that live in stable social groups have substantial cognitive Animals that have been isolated from predators, either throughout abilities and usually interact with conspecifics and the environment in their lifetime or over evolutionary time, may no longer express effective complex manners. Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), for example, have anti-predator behavior4. Mortality due to predation is the principal extensive parental care and prolonged infant and juvenile periods in cause of failure in animal reintroduction and translocation programs: It which animals are extremely dependent; their appropriate social and is easier to teach animals to cope with predators if they have sexual responses are learned within the context of the social group10. experienced ontogenetic isolation than if they have undergone The ability to find and prepare food is generally acquired through a evolutionary isolation from predators4. In the absence of predators, combination of observational and experimental learning. Most non- anti-predator behavior may degenerate or be lost. For example, a human primates reared in captivity exhibit behavioral abnormalities significant threat to released California