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Human preferences to primate species and their consequences
Zelenková, Michaela ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
One of the most important traits of an individual is the appearance. Though mankind desires to unlock the "beauty code" for centuries, it is very difficult to do so. A lot of papers focuses on the characterization of appearance and preferences towards it. It is now obvious that instead of using just one factor to describe the nature of "beauty", we need to comprehend a lot of factors that put together the puzzle pieces of an attractive individual. Nowadays, a widely accepted fact is that symmetry makes facial and other body features attractive. Other important factors are averageness or so-called baby schema with distinct young features. Similar rules apply for evaluation of preferences towards other, non-human species, especially primates. The most attractive primates have facial features that resemble humans or that are round with big, distinctive eyes (baby-schema). Thus, for humans, the most attractive primates are the ones that are similar to us and that are large in body size, while the unattractive ones have an appearance distinctive to humans. Moreover, humans distinguish two main primate faces: nice and friendly, baby-like faces, and aggressive, dangerous faces.
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Parental behavior and recognition of juveniles in geckos of genus Teratoscincus
Suchomelová, Petra ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Kubička, Lukáš (referee)
4 ANNOTATION The diploma thesis deals with parental behavior and recognition of youngs by two kinds of desert geckos of genus Teratoscincus, specifically T. scincus and T. keyserlingii. The geckos inhabit a very extreme environment where it is not easy to survive, especially for the small hatchlings. Therefore, it is probable that small hatchlings live together with their parents in their territory for some time. If the parents tolerated them inside their territory, they would provide them with an indirect form of parental care. In the first part of the thesis the hypothesis that adults tolerate to the presence of juvenile conspecifics and heterospecifics (Eublepharis macularius) was tested. The main goal was to determine whether adults tolerate juveniles generally or whether they recognize juveniles conspecifics. To support the hypothesis of the adults' tolerance of juveniles the eggs of the adult geckos living in pair were left in their terrarium until the hatching of the juvenile. Further, the reaction of adult geckos to the presence of a E. macularius juvenile (small), admitted into the terrarium, was tested. The aim was to find out whether the two kinds of geckos, preying other geckoes in the nature, show predatory behavior toward the E. macularius. The standard experiment was carried out in the second...
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Human preference to animal species and its impact on species conservation
Marešová, Jana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Komárek, Stanislav (referee) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
The dissertation thesis deals with human aesthetic preference to other species and its anthropological and conservation aspect. The aesthetic preference to animal species has rarely been systematically studied before and quantitative analyses, especially on a fine taxonomic scale did not exist. On the other hand, it was known that attractive species often receive more support for their conservation. From these simple facts rose the idea to test human aesthetic preference to snake species (and consequently to species across major vertebrate taxa) and use this quantified preference to explain the conservation effort devoted to captive breeding worldwide (measured as size of zoo populations). We confirmed that the perceived attractiveness (preference and/or species' body size) succesfully predicts the size of zoo populations across mammal, bird and reptile taxa. On contrary, we found no effect of the IUCN listing of the species. To find out whether we work with Czech students' preference only or we may generalize to other populations, we carried out the same experiment to determine human preference to boas and pythons in eight cultures of five continents. Despite profound differences of the studied ethnics, we revealed a considerable agreement. Moreover, we found an agreement between pre-school...
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Population Structure of African Populations Inferred from Alu Insertions.
Fajkošová, Zuzana ; Černý, Viktor (advisor) ; Frynta, Daniel (referee)
The population genetic study was carried out on 188 unrelated individuals from 5 populations of the Sahel. Relationships of nomadic Fulani to sedentary populations of different linguistic backgrounds and geographic origins were inferred from 16 polymorphic Alu insertions. Bayesian clustering approaches could be applied due to biallelic multilocus nature of the data. Fulani were shown to be divergent from neighbouring sedentary populations (Kassena and Mossi) and similar to Somali of East Africa. In context of already published genetic data, these results could be interpreted as Saharan origin of Fulani diaspora that was caused by Sahara drying out around 6 000 BP. After this initial migration of nomads to West Africa, a primarily female gene flow (integration of females) must have influenced the Fulani population. In contrast to Fulani, Songhai have shown a signal of recent admixture in concordance with historical and linguistic assumptions. KEY WORDS Alu insertions, Fulani, population genetics, Sahel
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Male parental behaviour in rodents
Kopcová, Kateřina ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Pavelková, Věra (referee)
Paternal care is uncommon in mammals where males are more often involved in sexual competition for females than in providing care for their own offspring. Howewer some species present grater form of patertal care than metabolic investment in sex cells, and most of the time, this phenomenon is associated with a monogamous mating system. The direct costs of paternal behaviour are relatively well documented in primates, despite little research has explored these effects in monogamous rodents and even less in some polygynous rodents. The relative rarity of monogamy and associated paternal care has been interpreted in light of the relationship between parental investment and sexual selection. The major drawback of such bias is that most current hypothesis on rodent paternal behaviour are based mostly on data optained from a few species from temperate regions, mainly cricetids and murids, performed in controlled environment and in special conditions.
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Juvenile coloration of lizards
Bauerová, Anna ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Rehák, Ivan (referee)
This work summarizes the current knowledge about the coloration of the lizards - the mechanism of colour creation, to color (pigments and structural colors) and hormonal influence on the body colour. It deals with the possible functions of the coloration (antipredator, social, thermoregulation) and its creation. Further it is an overview of the works about juvenile coloration that deal with hypotheses about the function which the juvenile coloration in lizards performs. There are also mechanisms of juvenile coloration and influencing factors mentioned. The thesis includes an experimental part dealing with various coloration characters of juvenile and adult Eublepharidae. We chose several characters: striped tail of the juveniles, striped body of the juveniles, light stripe on the head of the juveniles, striped tail of the adults, striped body of the adults, light stripe on the head of the adults. On several phylogenetic trees we evaluated whether these are the derived characters. After comparing the trees it turned out that in the case of juvenile coloration it is probably an ancestral character. In the case of adult pattern we have not reached a clear conclusion. Key words: juvenile coloration, ontogenetic color change, lizards
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Phobia and fear evoked by snakes
Průšová, Lucie ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Maresova, Jana (referee)
The fear of snakes is deeply within humans and primates from past times, when snakes were the first predators known to humans and primates. Snake is negative incentive for humans, humans are even able to note this stimul earlier than neutral ones or other kinds of stimuli, and moreover the brain is able to note this stimuli unconsciously (even though this stimuli is masked). The fear of snakes is very interesting topic, which can be investigated in the case of humans as in the case of animals. In the case of humans, there are more methods to be used to investigate it. These are questionnaires, tests with living snakes, furthermore pictures and photographs with snakes. The tests with living snakes serve to find out the intensity of phobia and if it is possible to decrease or suppress this phobia by contact with snakes and change in thoughts. The fear can be gained by a lot of manners. These are classical conditioning, modelling, negative information and non-associative fear acquisition. The specific question to be solved in this paper is the fear of coralsnakes and their mimics as with these the human has the shortest co-evolution. Key words: Fear of snakes, measuring of fear, classical conditioning, modelling, negative information and non- associative fear acquisition, coralsnake, mimic
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Inbreeging and its influence on the fitness of animal bread in captivity
Králová, Michala ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Komárková, Martina (referee)
Habitat loss and fragmentation is now the current problem, which leads to an inevitable reduction in the effective size of populations of many species. The negative effect of reduction further enhance processes such as genetic drift and inbreeding that causes deterioration of fitness (tj.inbreeding depression). Inbreeding and related phenomena may therefore be a threat to the survival of remaining populations of endangered species. Negative effects of inbreeding on population held in captivity that are part of the various emergency programs is even more recent concern (Frankham et al. 2002, O'Grady 2006). The aim of this study was to evaluate the current literature on the effects of inbreeding on populations of fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. Inbreeding affects mainly qualities associated with fitness and sexual selection traits and behavior.
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Rats of the genus Rattus: their biology and food preferences
Voráčková, Petra ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Genus Rattus falls into the most extensive mammalian family Muridae, concretely to subfamily Murinae. The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and black rat (Rattus rattus) are the best known species of genus Rattus. Although the laboratory rat is widely used as model organism, the wild species of genus Rattus cause huge economic losses in agriculture, especially in South East Asia. These commensal rodents are also vectors of zoonotic deseases which can cause human infection. One of the way how to reduce their populations is to study the transmission of food preferences. Well known phenomenon of genus Rattus is the social learning and sharing the experience about food to other individuals. Not only due to this fact is this kind one of the most successful in the animal kingdom.
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Genetic variability in a population of endangered turtle Orlitia borneensis kept in European zoos
Somerová, Barbora ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Hulva, Pavel (referee)
Malaysian Giant Turtle (Orlitia borneensis) in poorly known turtle with rapidly descending numbers in nature. Most animals of this species kept in European zoos and included in captive breeding program are confiscates of illegal trade and their locality of origin and taxonomic status are unknown. This study was aimed to assess genetic variation in founders of this population. We sequenced genes for the mitochondrial cytochrome b and found 23 haplotypes. The maximum sequence divergence was less than 1.5% and the phylogenetic structure of the haplotypes was only poorly supported. A close genetic similarity among sampled turtles was further confirmed by a sequencing of the nuclear R35 gene. Thus, the examined population of O. borneensis may be further treated as a single conservation unit.
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