https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 Complex trade-offs in oviposition site selection in a cannibalistic frog https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:46841 Lechriodus fletcheri. We quantified preferences for spawning in pools that were unused by conspecifics, as well as pools with conspecific spawn or tadpoles present, or both. The study included two ecological contexts: a system of naturally occurring breeding pools and a field experiment with 40 artificial pools that controlled for habitat variation. Mothers preferred to oviposit in pools that already contained conspecific spawn, despite the likelihood of intense resource competition upon offspring hatching. This could be due to the potential benefits obtained by providing offspring access to a significant nutrient supply upon hatching via cannibalism of conspecific tadpoles and might be an important adaptation for completing tadpole development in highly ephemeral and resource-limited pools prior to desiccation. In contrast, mothers avoided ovipositing in pools with conspecific tadpoles, a probable adaptation to avoid their own offspring from becoming victims of cannibalism themselves prior to hatching. Such nuances in the effect of conspecific presence on offspring survival highlight the often complex decision-making process that amphibians need to make when selecting oviposition sites, as well as the influence cannibalism can have on the evolution of reproductive behaviour.]]> Wed 22 Mar 2023 17:31:21 AEDT ]]> Revisiting the open-field test: what does it really tell us about animal personality? https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:33573 Wed 21 Nov 2018 14:49:24 AEDT ]]> Does trapping catch sociable, exploratory and innovative mynas preferentially? No, but perhaps less fearful ones https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:52207 Thu 05 Oct 2023 10:16:07 AEDT ]]> Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis, learn about dangerous places by observing the fate of others https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:7543 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:37:43 AEDT ]]> Social learning about places: observers may need to detect both social alarm and its cause to learn https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:9719 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:34:37 AEDT ]]> Observer presence influences the behaviour of the Semaphore crab, Heloecious cordiformis https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:1427 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:28:03 AEDT ]]> Win shifting in nectarivorous birds: selective inhibition of the learned win-stay response https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:15656 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:19:47 AEDT ]]> Learning from watching alarmed demonstrators: does the cause of alarm matter? https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:12363 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:18:32 AEDT ]]> Homosexual behaviour in birds: frequency of expression is related to parental care disparity between the sexes https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:10343 Sat 24 Mar 2018 08:07:03 AEDT ]]> Innovative problem solving in birds: a key role of motor diversity https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:20636 Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:55:47 AEDT ]]> Innovative problem solving in birds: a cross-species comparison of two highly successful passerines https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:27211 Acridotheres tristis, has been linked to its ability to occupy opportunistically an ecological niche that most natives cannot, whereas the native noisy miner, Manorina melanocephala, owes its success to its ability to aggressively outcompete other avian species. Indian mynas were significantly more neophobic than noisy miners. Yet, when tested on a range of innovative foraging tasks, Indian mynas consistently outperformed noisy miners. The ability to use the beak in a greater range of ways, and more flexibly, was highly repeatable in Indian mynas, and underpinned their superior problem-solving performance. We discuss the results in the light of potential methodological influences, but also the idea that necessity may facilitate innovation not only in less competitive individuals, as is documented in the literature, but also in species with less competitive lifestyles.]]> Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:32:26 AEDT ]]> To innovate or not: contrasting effects of social groupings on safe and risky foraging in Indian mynahs https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:27212 Acridotheres tristis, to innovate when alone, in pairs, or in groups of five birds. Although innovators remained consistent in their relative innovation performance ranking (high, medium, low), the presence of one or more conspecifics reduced the likelihood of innovating, and increased innovation latencies, significantly relative to when individuals were tested alone. A neophobia test in which latency to forage was compared in both the absence and the presence of a novel object, in each of two social contexts (solitary versus social), showed that the presence of conspecifics caused mynahs to forage significantly faster in a safe situation (object absent) relative to when alone, but to delay foraging in a risky situation (object present). Together, these findings suggest that sociality can have contrasting effects on foraging in safe and risky situations, and, in some species at least, effects of sociality on innovative foraging may hence be more akin to those observed in the presence of risk. Negotiation over engaging with risks inherent to innovative foraging offered the most likely explanation for socially inhibited innovation behaviour, and may act to constrain the diffusion of innovations under some conditions.]]> Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:32:26 AEDT ]]> Consumer and motor innovation in the common myna: the role of motivation and emotional responses https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:27814 Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:31:11 AEDT ]]> Social learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis: the role of distress calls https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:4893 Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:22:00 AEDT ]]> Scent-marking strategies of a solitary carnivore: boundary and road scent marking in the leopard https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:37359 Mon 15 Apr 2024 10:48:11 AEST ]]>