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At least 1,225 records · Page 68Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Mice: progesterone and the regulation of strain differences in pregnancy-induced nest building.

Pregnant DBA/2J females built significantly larger and more completely enclosed nests than did pregnant C57BL/6J mice. This strain difference was restricted to the last half of gestation and was not observed during either the virgin state or lactation. Genotype-based differences in pregnancy-induced nest building were not related to circulating levels of progesterone (P), core temperature, or body weight. Exposure to supplemented P during pregnancy elevated nest building exhibited by pregnant C57BL females but did not induce DBA-like levels of the behavior. Also, virgin DBA females built larger nests in response to P than did C57BL females. These findings suggest that differences in the sensitivity of central neural tissue to steroid hormones may account for genotypically determined variation in patterns of pregnancy-induced nest building.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Trophallaxis in forager honeybees (Apis mellifera): resource uncertainty enhances begging contacts?

Trophallaxis among adult worker honeybees is the transfer of liquid food by mouth from one individual to another. Within the colony, nectar foragers perform offering contacts (as food-donors) to transfer the contents of their crops to recipient nest-mates and, in addition, they also perform begging contacts (as food-receivers). The biological relevance of these last interactions remains unknown. Previous evidence suggests that begging may be involved in the exchange of information on food resources that occurs naturally between employed foragers and nest-mates. This work was aimed to reveal possible connections between the information obtained while foraging and the begging behavior displayed inside the nest. Experiments were intended to (1) analyze whether chemosensory information obtained while foraging, i.e., odors and sucrose concentrations, affects begging behavior, and (2) determine whether resource uncertainty enhances begging contacts. Results showed that: (1) most begging contacts lasted less than 1 s, a duration which only allows receiving food samples from nest-mates; (2) the diversity of odors and sucrose concentrations at the feeding place enhances the occurrence of begging contacts; and (3) an increased resource uncertainty enhances the forager begging behavior. In addition, results suggest that foragers may direct their begging contacts frequently to other employed nectar foragers.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed1985

Contribution of nesting experience to progesterone-induced incubation in ring doves (Streptopelia risoria).

Injections of progesterone induce incubation behavior in gonadally intact ring doves only if the doves have had previous experience with at least the nest-building phase of a breeding cycle. The present study was designed to determine whether exposure to progesterone during the nest-building phase is sufficient to account for the ability of progesterone to induce incubation at a later time or whether some other factor provided by experience with this phase of the cycle is needed. Six groups of 10 pairs of doves each were provided with different combinations of experience and progesterone priming. Progesterone priming combined with social isolation or with courtship experience had no significant effect on subsequent progesterone-induced incubation. However, doves that participated in the nesting phase of the cycle during progesterone priming later incubated in response to progesterone treatment. Nesting activity, which may or may not include building the nest, seemed to be the relevant experience.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The impact of community risks and resources on adolescent risky behavior and health care expenditures.

PURPOSE: To examine a nested model that predicts adolescent risky behavior, health care use, and health care expenditures from individual characteristics, such as age and gender, and community characteristics such as social capital and community-level risky behavior rates. METHODS: Claims and encounter data were used to classify adolescents enrolled in Florida's Healthy Kids Program into two groups: those who engaged in risky behavior (ARB) and those who did not (NRB). Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to predict the odds of risky behavior, the odds of health care use, and health care expenditures based on individual and community characteristics. RESULTS: ARB consumed significantly more health care services than NRB, and their higher use and charges were attributable not only to individual level factors (i.e., age, gender, presence of special health care need, metropolitan residence status), but also to community level factors (i.e., social capital, risky behavior rates, violence, and ethnic/racial composition) as well. In particular, community investment in social capital predicted lower levels of risky behavior as well as lower health care expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: This information is important in terms of policy efforts at providing health care for this vulnerable group of individuals, as well as in developing prevention and intervention programs that can be delivered through the health care system and via links to community supports.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Genetic correlation between two types of nesting in Mus musculus: direct and indirect selection.

The genetic correlation between maternal nesting (weight of cotton used in the nest built on the day of parturition) and thermoregulatory nesting (total weight of individual nests built on four consecutive days) was estimated from the correlated response of the former to selection for the latter. The best estimate was rA = 0.58 +/- 0.32, indicating a substantial amount of common genetic influence. Indirect selection seems to have produced a greater response in maternal nesting than could have been achieved by direct selection.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Oxytocin and female sexuality.

A search of the literature has been prepared to determine how oxytocin may affect sexual and reproductive in women. Many animal studies suggest that oxytocin induces a variety of reproductive behaviors, including grooming, sexual arousal, orgasm, gamete transport, nesting, birthing, and specific maternal behaviors such as breast-feeding and bonding between mother and infant. These actions are apparently facilitated by the 'priming' effect on certain cells by sex and steroid hormones - as the brief case report would also suggest. However, no adequate double-blind trial has confirmed the observations from this report in women. Only animal studies have been performed, albeit over a wide range of species. A variety of other causes and effects of sexual interest and arousal relating to oxytocin are considered, including some of those in males. More research is needed to clarify the role of oxytocin in human reproductive behaviors, including its potential 'aphrodisiac' or prosexual effect in women in the presence of the sex-steroid hormones.

Female↗
PubMed2002

Social vole parents force their mates to baby-sit.

Parental care has been categorized into direct and indirect investment. The former includes direct contact with the offspring, as in lactation or huddling with the pups, and the latter includes activities such as nest building or hoarding food for the guarding mate. We report here an unfamiliar type of parental behavior in which one parent aggressively forces its mate to stay in the nest with the pups. In this "forced baby-sitting," one parent grasps the fur of its mate and drags it toward the nest. The behavior was observed in 6 of 10 pairs of the social vole (Microtus socilalis guentheri) and was typically executed by the male. Dragging the mate to the nest was not correlated with other parental behaviors; neither could we explain why/when it occurred. However, this behavioral pattern was eye catching, and its goal was obviously to enforce the mate to stay in the nest with the pups.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Burrows of wild and albino rats: effects of domestication, outdoor raising, age, experience, and maternal state.

Burrows dug by albino rats were compared with those of wild Norway rats in an outdoor pen and in observation chambers in the laboratory. Burrows, in terms of measurements, configurations, or sequential development, were indistinguishable in wild and domestic rats. Burrowing for both wild and domestic rats was unaffected by raising in outdoor burrows, by availability of nesting material, or by pregnancy. Prior experience in burrowing did make it more efficient in a second trial, which suggests that learning may have a limited role in what appears to be a behavior with a strong genetic basis. Feralization of domestic rats in the outdoor pen was especially productive in answering claims of degeneracy in these animals: Albino rats were hardy throughout climatic extremes, they maintained a stable population for two years, they constructed and lived in burrows, and they showed a vaiety of wild-type behaviors.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Maternal and littermate deprivation disrupts maternal behavior and social-learning of food preference in adulthood: tactile stimulation, nest odor, and social rearing prevent these effects.

Maternal and littermate (social) separation, through artificial rearing (AR), disrupts the development of subsequent maternal behavior and social learning in rats. The addition of maternal-licking-like stimulation during AR, partially reverses some of these effects. However, little is know about the role of social stimuli from littermates and nest odors during the preweaning period, in the development of the adult maternal behavior and social learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer- and peer-and-odor rearing on the development of maternal behavior and social learning in rats. Female pups were reared with mothers (mother reared-MR) or without mothers (AR) from postnatal day (PND) 3. AR rats received three different treatments: (1) AR-CONTROL group received minimal tactile stimulation, (2) AR-ODOR females received exposure to maternal nest material inside the AR-isolation-cup environment, (3) AR-SOCIAL group was reared in the cup with maternal nest material and a conspecific of the same-age and same-sex and received additional tactile stimulation. MR females were reared by their mothers in the nest and with conspecifics. In adulthood, rats were tested for maternal behavior towards their own pups and in a social learning task. Results confirm our previous report that AR impairs performance of maternal behavior and the development of a social food preference. Furthermore, social cues from a littermate, in combination with tactile stimulation and the nest odor, reversed the negative effects of complete isolation (AR-CONTROL) on some of the above behaviors. Exposure to the odor alone also had effects on some of these olfactory-mediated behaviors. These studies indicate that social stimulation from littermates during the preweaning period, in combination with odor from the nest and tactile stimulation, contributes to the development of affiliative behaviors.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1987

The biparental care system of the California mouse, Peromyscus californicus.

Most knowledge of parent-offspring relations in mammals is derived from studies of mother-infant interactions. Male parental care has been less well studied. We explored maternal and paternal behavior of the California mouse, Peromyscus californicus. Six pairs of parents and their young were videotaped continuously for 12 hours/day, on alternate days from Days 1 to 31 postpartum. Males exhibit all parental activities and to the same extent as displayed by mothers, except lactation. Male parental behavior begins on the day of birth. Mothers and fathers spend substantial and equivalent amounts of time in the nest and in physical contact with pups throughout lactation. Males devote more time than females to licking pups, although females engage in more pup anogenital licking. Mothers nurse for at least 4 weeks, and fathers and mothers both build nests and carry young. The biparental care system of Peromyscus californicus affords an opportunity to develop a broader, more complete view of parent-offspring relations.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Thermal constraints on maternal behavior during reproduction in dwarf hamsters (Phodopus).

The chronic hyperthermia of lactating dwarf hamster (Phodopus) dams may constrain maternal behavior if contact with the litter further increases their body temperature, forcing the termination of nest bouts to dissipate the heat load. Changes in female body temperature and nest attendance in two species of dwarf hamster (P. campbelli and P. sungorus) were recorded each minute over the reproductive cycle. As the pups develop from naked poikilotherms to well-insulated thermoregulators, they function as heat sinks and heat sources. This role of pup development in maternal thermoregulation interacts with the dam's activity, primarily nocturnal wheel running, to produce a complex pattern of heating and cooling in each species. Contact with the pups is more constrained by maternal temperature during the inactive phase (day), and more constrained in P. campbelli than in P. sungorus. The interspecific difference in pup development or maternal thermoregulation is consistent with predictions based on biparental care, and a thermoregulatory role for the male in P. campbelli, but not in P. sungorus. These data suggest that environmental temperature and water availability are ecological variables that affect maternal thermoregulation, reproductive success, and the need for biparental care.

Acclimatization↗
PubMed1981

Daily biorhythmicity influences, homing behavior, psychopharmacological responsiveness, learning, and retention of suckling rats.

A total of 385 suckling rats were used to investigate the effects of 24-hr biorhythmicity on performance. Nest seeking (homing) in 7-day-old pups and its facilitation by d-amphetamine varied across time of day. Analysis of initial choice revealed that the pups' ability to detect and position themselves in the direction of the nest did not vary across time of day. Homing behavior was not an artifact of random activity level but was related to the pups' motor performance which varied with a daily rhythm. Circadian rhythmic influences on the acquisition and retention of an amphetamine-induced odor aversion were shown by manipulating time of day of conditioning and subsequent retention testing. The time of day effect on conditioning was attributed, in part, to daily rhythmic changes in the effectiveness of the unconditional stimulus. Retention was optimal in pups tested at the time of day corresponding to that of their original training. Time of day may serve as a contextual stimulus that is important for retention in immature as well as adult animals. An appreciation of these 24-hr rhythms is warranted for an accurate assessment of the behavioral competence of developing animals.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Maternal behavior of wild and domestic Rattus norvegicus recorded continuously in dual-chambered cages.

Continuous measurements of maternal behavior--the amount of time the mother was in contact with the litter and quality of nest--indicated no differences between these 2 stocks of rats. A decrease in both measures was found for both stocks over the 22 days of postnatal observation. The data indicated that the mother was with the litter more during the light portion of the 24-hr light-dark cycle and that wild rat mothers were in contact with their litters more than domestic mothers in the period around light offset.

Animal Population Groups↗
PubMed2003

Nestling discrimination without recognition: a possible defence mechanism for hosts towards cuckoo parasitism?

One of the great evolutionary puzzles is why hosts of parasitic birds discriminate finely against alien eggs, but almost never discriminate against parasitic chicks. A theoretical model has shown that an adaptive host response to alien eggs can be based on learning. However, learned nestling discrimination is too costly to be favoured by selection in hosts of evicting parasites, such as the European cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Indeed, parasitic chick rejection has never been reported for any European cuckoo host species. As learned nestling discrimination is maladaptive, one can expect that a viable alternative for hosts would be to use discrimination mechanisms not involving learning and/or recognition. We suggest that hosts may starve and desert cuckoo chicks that require higher amounts of food than an average host brood at fledging (i.e. feeding rates to a parasite are outside the normal range of host behaviour in unparasitized nests). Our observations of the reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) at parasitized nests indicate that such behaviour could possibly work in this host species.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Starlings as herbalists: countering parasites and pathogens.

The avian nest protection hypothesis explains the widespread behavior of incorporating fresh green plant material into an otherwise dry nest matrix as an evolutionary adaptation. Species that exhibit this behavior tend to breed in previously inhabited nest sites and experience high ectoparasite and pathogen loads. Metabolites in the green plants control parasite and pathogen populations and decrease the effects of these agents on nestlings. The choice of plants is not arbitrary. In the case of European starlings, a nonrandom subset of available vegetation is selected, and it is these plants that have the largest impact on ectoparasite and pathogen populations. Experimental and observational evidence suggests that starlings select plants on the basis of chemosensory cues.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1985

Transition from pup killing to parental behavior in male and virgin female albino rats.

In the first part of this study, the effect of habituation to pups was examined in virgin female and male Sprague-Dawley rats that committed infanticide in a screening test. With repeated exposure to test pups (5-10 days old), the rats ceased to commit infanticide and came to behave parentally. Preexposure to inaccessible pups (confined inside wire-mesh baskets) did not accelerate the rate of disappearance of infanticide during subsequent contact with young, which suggests that pup killing is not a neophobic response to the novelty of young. In the second part of the study, three groups of infanticidal male Wistar rats were mated and tested for their responses towards unrelated pups after different intervals of cohabitation with their mates. The males continued to commit infanticide at the time that their mates were at midpregnancy or 24 hr before parturition, but males that cohabited with their mates till day 9 postpartum no longer attacked the young. Thus, the mother rat, presumably by means of postpartum aggression, renders her mate noninfanticidal, thereby reducing the likelihood of her offspring being harmed when she is away from the nest.

Aggression↗
PubMed2002

Brave new worlds: trophallaxis and the origin of society in the early twentieth century.

Trophallaxis, the process of feeding by mutual regurgitation amongst insects, was named by the North American entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1918. I argue that entomologists, both before and after 1918, saw mutual feeding as an integral part of the behavioral whole of the nest, and moreover related its explanatory power to theories about human society. In particular, feeding behavior was seen as the key to the riddle of the origin of sociality. I show how entomologists' precise interpretations of trophallaxis varied and explore the increasingly functional, sociological, and economic constructions of the phenomenon that they developed-without breaking with earlier tradition-into the early 1930s. The article ends by demonstrating how Aldous Huxley's bleak vision of humanity in the novel Brave New World, and its ambiguous prescription for meaningful life amidst the trappings of modernity, has much in common with metaphors generated by those studying ants.

Animals↗