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The role of commensalism on vertical activity in exploration tests: a comparison of 12 populations of the genus Acomys
Štolhoferová, Iveta ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
The objective of this work was to investigate whether there are differences between commensal and non-commensal populations of spiny mice (Acomys spp.). There is a good evidence that some populations of Acomys cahirinus have been commensal since the time of ancient Egypt, that is for at least 3,500 years. Therefore, it could be expected that some adaptation for a commensal way of life have evolved. To find out, I tested twelve populations of spiny mice in two types of open field test - a vertical test and a hole board test. In the vertical test, a wire mesh was added and offered to spiny mice to climb on. Since human settlements represent an environment with a new predation pressure as well as new hiding opportunities like those in heights above the ground, I hypothesized that commensal populations of A. cahirinus would (1) explore less on the ground and (2) prefer to spend more time on the wire mesh than the non-commensal populations. Results supported the first hypothesis as in both tests commensal spiny mice spent less time exploring on the ground than other populations. The second hypothesis, however, was not supported - all populations showed approximately equal interest in the wire mesh and commensal spiny mice did not spend more time on it compared to the others. Nevertheless, an overall...
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Phylogenetic roots and possible evolutionary functions of smile and laughter in humans
Kersch, Jakub ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Štětovská, Iva (referee)
The bachelor thesis focuses on smile and laughter from the evolutionary point of view. The first chapter briefly describes van Hooff's concept that smile and laughter had different phylogenetic origins and consequently both these facial signals converged. On the contrary, the opposition concept assumes only a difference in intensity between both signals. The second chapter is devoted to the classification of smile (eventually laughter) into different types. The basic classification includes spontaneous and non- spontaneous types. The characteristics of these two kinds of smile (laughter) are described, including perception and functional differences. Further, the thesis includes a more detailed division into 18 species according to Ekman's concept. The third chapter focuses on a fetal smile shown during the prenatal period and a spontaneous (neonatal) smile associated with neonatal and infant age. Connection between smile and an adult-child interaction is also mentioned. The fourth chapter deals with the social dimension of the theme. The different social functions of smile and laughter and the importance of the social context for both of these signals are described here. A relationship between laughter and play is mentioned as well. The research project proposal deals with the spontaneous...
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The influence of physical, social environment and parental views on the quantity and composition of play behaviour in children.
Rzepecká, Michaela ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Kučerová, Andrea (referee)
This bachelor thesis focuses on identifying the main external factors that influence the quantity and diversity of playful behavior of children. The thesis deals with active, outdoor, spontaneous, motional and interactive game, both in individual and social form, i.e. play between children and between children and adults. The work provides an overview of the physical, social and parental views on the children's play on the number of children's outdoor games. It is also possible to link the motivation of a child to a free outdoor game with selected external factors. Last but not least the work demonstrates the methods used to measure these three factors. The research proposal is derived from the findings in the first part of the thesis and seeks a comprehensive view of this issue. It focuses on verifying the impact of the immediate physical environment (forest, street, playground, etc.), the availability of these places, the social influence that includes siblings, friends and parents who normally play with the child and attitudes of parents (letting the child to play alone outside, the importance of free game in general) to motivate the child to a free outdoor game. This is going to be surveyed through a semi-structured interview.
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Interactional dominance
Pařízek, Pavel ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Bahbouh, Radvan (referee)
The thesis describes a biosocial model of status stratification in face to face groups. The model is based on the belief that human status behavior is evolutionary extension of animal status behavior (especially primates). Each person of a group is equipped with a signaling mechanism that signals the status of domination or submision (or the status he ought to have). Status communication is among humans very subtle and primarily occurs at a nonverbal level. Status stratification often takes place automatically without the knowledge of the subjects. The biosocial model criticizes classical authors of social stratification, who explain the mechanism primarily at the cognitive level. In the practical part, the thesis attempts to use new methodology to verify the main assumption of an implicit stratification mechanism that is able to function without the involvement of cognition. The research works with a group of people with 6 probands. To indicate status in a group, playing cards were used. In each group, individuals were artificially assigned positions by playing cards. Subsequently, it was recorded how these artificial positions were reflected in the real position of member of the group. In the second part, the influence of personality trait on the position was measured. The main assumption could...
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Mice and Rats: Space, Smell and Methods of Detection
Kaftanová, Barbora ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
The coexistence of humans and rodents lasts from the beginnings of the history of agriculture. Many rodent populations accepted to synanthropic way of life and as commensals accompany human societies until today. In the first study we wanted to find out, how the evolution of non-commensal rodent species, a Cypriot mouse (Mus cypriacus), was influenced by people. This endemic island species evolved on the Cyprus Island without presence of any mammalian competitors or predators. In last 10.000 years humans arrived on the island, bringing several mammalian species, which affected the environment markedly. A black rat (Rattus rattus) is now dominant species there and presumably it is an important competitor for the Cypriot mouse. We supposed that the mice should avoid its odour. Nevertheless the rats odour was preferred by the mouse, probably as an odour of phylogenetically related species. On the contraty, the odour of domestic cat (species, which is also widespread on the island), was avoided. In conclusion, the long-term isolation from mammalian predators did not affect the antipredatory reactions of the Cypriot mouse. Our next study was focuse on changes in behavioural strategies of different populations of mice: the main question was how the commensal way of life affects their exploratory...
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Laterality in social and locomotory behaviour of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa f. domestica)
Kunclová, Kristýna ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
The aim of this diploma thesis is to find out whether pigs exhibit laterality in social behavior, especially the laterality of rotational movements in game behavior and social interactions. We aimed also to explore how this laterality is influenced by other factors, especially the possibilities of playful behavior in ontogenesis, personality and others social and non-social factors. Alternatively, whether the degree of laterality determined varies depending on the social situation (game / aggression) and whether is influenced by the litter. I have investigated this behavior for 64 pigs in 16 litters from videotapes of their social behavior. For each pig, I recorded the playing element and the preferential side. For individual game elements I did not find any preference for rotation at the population level and only a slight tendency for individual laterality. For social game elements, I have shown a weak population tendency to prefer left side, but only for a group of more playing pigs. The main contribution of this work is the symmetry found in the implementation of individual game elements and, on the contrary, the observed laterality at the population level for social game behavior. Since the laterality of playful behavior has not yet been investigated, it is possible that this symmetry is...
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Mate choice based on olfactory imprinting-like effect
Kuncová, Lucie ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
Previous studies have shown that women choose partners resembling their fathers in various characteristics. However, none of the studies have focused on woman's father-partner body odour similarity, even though body odour plays an important role in mate choice. The main aim of our study was to test whether the woman's father and partner body odour is similar and whether the rating of this similarity was affected by the body odour's intensity and pleasantness. Further, we wanted to know whether the quality of woman's relationship with her father during her childhood influences the body odour similarity. We also tested the effect of woman's father-partner body odour similarity on sexual and relationship satisfaction. Twenty-five women with their fathers and partners participated in the study. Every respondent completed a set of questionnaires, in addition, fathers and partners provided samples of their body odours. Body odour similarity was rated by independent female raters (N=128). According to the results of our study, body odour of woman's father and partner is significantly similar. The body odour was also similar in intensity and pleasantness. The quality of woman's relationship with her father does not affect woman's father-partner body odour similarity. Nevertheless, this similarity...
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Gender differences in behavioral changes induced by latent toxoplasmosis
Lindová, Jitka ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee) ; Ditrich, Oleg (referee)
Summaryof resultsofpresentedresearch Toxoplasmagondiiis a protozoanparasiteinfectingabout30%ofour population.After a shortphaseof acuteinfection,the parasitosistums into the lifelong latents.tagewhich is usuallyconsideredasymptomatic.However,in thestudiesperformedby our researchteam, latenttoxoplasmosiswasťoundto havespecificeffectson personality,behavior,morphology andphysiotogy.Interestingly'in manyaspects,theseeffectswereclearlygender-dífferent. My thesis was motivatedby results of previous questionnairestudies which found toxoplasmosisto haveoppositeinfluenceon men's and women'spersonalitytraitswarmth, conscíentiousnessandvigilancemeasuredby Cattell's16PersonalityFactorQuestionnaire (Flegretď. L996,1999,2000'FlegrandHavlíček1999'FlegrandHrdý 1994).Bothinfected womenand men werealso foundto score lower in novelryseeking(Skallová et al. 2005' Flegretal.2003). The resultof lowernoveltyseekingwas confirmedby thefirst studyperformedwith my contribution(lt{ovotnáet al. 2005).Moreover,this studyshowedthat regardingnovelty seeking,similar changeswere observedin subjectsinťectedby cytomega|ovirus.This was interprétedasevidenceforthehypothesisthatbehavioral/personalityshifu inducedby latent toxoplasmosiscouldbenonspecificchanges,causedby mildchronicbraininfections.Lower novelty seeking is thought to be associated...
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Acoustic communication of selected mammals and birds: identification of vocal categories and individuals
Policht, Richard ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee) ; Červený, Jaroslav (referee)
2 Summary Identification of vocal categories (e.g. call types, individuals, species) is a key task when we want to classify animal sounds. Same calls, especially broadband acoustic signals with varying frequency and amplitude modulation present problem for classification, because their energy is spread over a wide range of frequencies. In these sounds is difficult to decide which acoustical parameter to measure. To analyse complex vocalizations I applied a multiparametric method with using both temporal and spectral parameters. The most useful variables were variables describing distribution of the spectral energy. Frequency parameters were also useful in the case of tonal calls. I described vocal repertoire of Northern white rhinoceros and Bactrian camel. Both animals have low-frequency calls in their repertoire close to infrasound range, but it is evident that these signals are not used for long-distance communication. It seems that low-frequency components of their sounds are by product of their large body size. Growling sounds of camels are also interesting by their cohesive function, in contrast to growling sounds of rhinos and other mammals where such as calls are produced during aggressive interactions. I examined whether individual identity might be also encoded in very simple song types in...
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Reactions of great tits (Parus major) to a mirror image
Forštová, Tereza ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
Self-recognition is commonlly taken as a higher ability and it was previously considered to be exclusive to spieces who are cognitively more capable, as humans or apes. However during years other animal species with no expectancy of this ability were tested, such as elephants and cetaceans, and even there the signs of self-recognition were found. The most common test for self-recognition is the mark test. The animal is marked with none-olfactoric and none-tactile mark somewhere on the part of its body which can not be seen without mirror. If the subject recognizes itself in the mirror, it will try to wipe out the mark of its body with help of the mirror image. In our experiment we used great tit (Parus major) as a testing species and three types of mirror tests were carried our. Except the fact that great tits are able to succesfully learn to use the mirror image to search hidden food, we found no evidence of self-recognition in mark test. Therefore we believe that this passerine species is not capable of this type of self-recognition.
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