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Test of object permanence in primates
Gálik, Michal ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
5 ABSTRACT Object permanence is a cognitive ability to perceive the continuous existence of objects, even if they cannot be directly observed, respectively perceived by other senses (Piaget 1954). In humans object permanence develops in 6 qualitatively different stages. By using a comparative approach, it was found that the last stage 6 of this ability also occurs in great apes, gibbons and some New World monkeys (capuchin, marmoset and tamarin). In this study, we conducted a study with a series of invisible displacements of an object, in which we investigated whether two rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) have fully developed the ability of object permanence and don't rely on simple alternative cognitive strategies, while solving the different tasks. With one test subject, we confirmed that he solved the tasks with stage 6 object permanence abilities. Although the second individual reached significant performance in some sessions, the overall results are ambiguous, because during the testing he had a tendency to use simple alternative strategies. Our study concludes that under certain circumstances macaques have the cognitive capacity for a fully developed ability of object permanence. Key words: Object permanence, rhesus macaque, invisible displacement, cognitive functions
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Vliv sourozenecké kompetice během přítomnosti u struku na mateřské chování u prasete domácího
Leszkowová, Iva ; Illmannová, Gudrun (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
This diploma thesis deal with the neonatal sibling competition during nursing within first day after farrowing, focusing on maternal reaction on neonatal sibling competition during nursing. We predicted that the sow will terminate nursing by a changing posture or by a non- nutritive nursing (i.e. nursing without milk ejection) with increasing number of fights and screams. A total of 19 healthy sows and their litters were directly observed and video recorded during first day after farrowing for 6 h. The behaviour of piglets (fighting, screaming, presence at the udder) in the pre massage and the post massage was scored every 15 seconds. Piglets which missed milk ejection, posture changing of the sow and whether the nursing involve milk ejection were noted. A sum of fighting and screaming piglets in the pre massage and the post massage was calculated. A higher sum of fighting and screaming piglets correlated with a higher proportion of non-nutritive nursing (P<0.001) as well as with a higher proportion of sow posture changing in the pre massage (P<0.01). However, a higher sum of fighting and screaming piglets did not increase the probability of sow posture changing in the post massage. The results show a positive correlation between the litter size and the sum of fighting and screaming piglets in the...
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Individual differences in maternal behavior (maternal style) of mammals
Leszkowová, Iva ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Polák, Jakub (referee)
The expression "maternal style" in the wider sense serves to describe the interspecies interindividual and intraindividual, variability in the maternal care. In the narrow sense it is used only to designate permanent variability in the maternal behaviour among different mothers of the same species. The concept of the maternal style is based on a well-documented fact, that individual parts of maternal behaviour correlate with one another and this mutual bond enables to describe the varied repertoire of the mothers' behaviour by a few dimensions, such as e.g. protectiveness, restrictive, rejection and laissez-faire. Maternal style of primates was described in a wide range (e.g. Berman, 1990; Fairbanks, 1996). Up to today the existence of maternal style has been confirmed also with some rodents (guinea-pig: Albers, 1999; mouse: Benus a Rondigs, 1996), domestic animals (pig: e.g. Špinka et al., 2000; sheep: Dwyer a Lawrence, 2010; goat: O'Brien, 1984) and predators (dog: Wilsson, 1984). KEYWORDS : Maternal style, Maternal behavior, Individual differences, Parent-offspring conflict, Protectiveness, Rejection
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Sociální vztahy a synchronizace ve stádech přežvýkavců - vliv na pastevní chování
Šárová, Radka ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Červený, Jaroslav (referee) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
This thesis addresses the relationships between beef cattle (Bos taurus) group behaviour on pasture, social dominance and individual characteristics such as body weight and age. The thesis is based on three studies performed in a herd of female beef cattle. In the first two studies, GPS collars were used as the main data-collection method, while the third study relied on an extensive dataset of cow dominance relationships. The first study focused on activity synchronization. We assessed whether cows similar to each other in body weight or in reproductive status were more synchronized and whether the timing of activity switches was determined by specific leading animals. We found that the body weight difference in a dyad of animals had a negative influence on their mutual synchronization. There were no leading animal initiating switches in activity. The second study focused on the role of dominant animals in group movements of the herd. There were positive correlations between dominance status of an individual and several measures of leadership during movements, namely the position of the animal at the front of the herd, more direct and shorter trajectories and higher alignment with nearest neighbours and with the whole herd. These results show that herd movements on pasture behaviour were...
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Acoustic communication and its variability in selected populations of ground squirrels of the genus Spermophilus
Schneiderová, Irena ; Vohralík, Vladimír (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
The thesis deals with vocalizations produced by Eurasian ground squirrels of the genus Spermophilus. It is mainly focused on inter-species and intra-species variability in acoustic structure of alarm calls which are emitted in presence of predators.The major part of the thesis deals with intra-species variability in acoustic structure of the alarm calls in five Eurasian ground squirrels, Spermophilus citellus, S. taurensis, S. xanthoprymnus, S. suslicus and S. fulvus. It has been confirmed that the alarm calls of these ground squirrels show a high level of species specificity. The thesis further describes another vocalizations produced by three Eurasian ground squirrel species, Spermophilus suslicus, S. citellus and S. fulvus, and shows that with the exception of the alarm calls, vocal repertoires of these three ground squirrels are remarkably similar. The last part of the thesis deals with individual distinctiveness of the alarm calls of three Eurasian ground squirrels, Spermophilus citellus, S. taurensis and S. xanthoprymnus. It has been shown that the alarm calls of these species have a significant potential to encode information about caller identity.
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Characteristics and use of play signals
Palečková, Marie ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Polák, Jakub (referee)
There are many different behavioural elements and patterns in play behaviour. A play sequence may include elements which are unique for play and also elements which are similar to movements from other behavioural contexts such as predation, aggressive behaviour or sexual behaviour. One group of the play-unique elements are play signals. Play signals are highly ritualized movements or gestures and animals use them for communicating their playfull intentions to their play partners. These actions can be used in the beginnig of a play bout for initiation of social play, or during the play bout when they are used to maintain social play in situations when the play could be interrupted by patterns from serious behaviour or could be broken off. Many scientists started to focuse their research on play behaviour and play signals in the past fifty years. However, there is still lack of sequence analysis of play of particular species. More of such analysis could bring out new interesting findings.
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Play behaviour of Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus entellus)
Petrů, Milada ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
2 Summary Play is very interesting part of behaviour. Despite of broad interest it still remains insufficiently well-researched. Researchers try to describe play behaviour and explain the ontogenesis and answer one of the most important questions about function of play behaviour. These are the main topics that I deal with in my Ph.D. thesis, specifically with detail analysis of play behaviour based on data obtained from own video-recording of play behaviour of free- ranging Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) in Bhangarh locality in northwest India. Goal of the Ph.D. thesis is to analyze several aspects of play behaviour. First goal was characteristic of play behaviour and its categories and compiling of play ethogram. Self- handicapping is in the centre of interest of my study of play behaviour. This behaviour is typical and unique for play and has not been satisfactorily explained. In first paper included in my Ph.D. thesis I analysed patterns of ethogram of play behaviour of Hanuman langurs and other monkey species. Results showed that self-handicapping patterns and pattern dissimilar to "serious" behaviour can constitute a major part of play repertoire. Play behaviour is very variable and different parts may have different function. In second publication we analyzed in detail performance and...
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Between Biology and Law, notes to the anthropology of institution
Skripnik, Ondřej ; Sokol, Jan (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee) ; Přibáň, Jiří (referee)
Between Biology and Law, notes to the anthropology of institution The aim of this text is to describe and to understand, how the biology, exactly human ethology works with the term human nature. The question is, if the theory of law could profit from the cooperation with human ethologic thinking, if the human ethology could be used as the background of nature law theories. Answering the question can be essential for the discussions about human rights. The first part describes the paradigms of classical and Neo-Darwinism ethology to compare these with the traditional concept of human nature in philosophy. Using anthropology of law (Hoebel, Pospíšil, Wesel) the explication accents the system of reciprocal obligation as a base of law. This point allows bringing some critical notes to the relevance of ethologic research for the theory of law. In the second part there are discussed four fields of human ethology research - territorial, competitive and anti-competitive, family behaviour, which are relevant for the property law, criminal law and family law. The reader can evaluate by himself the differences between the human ethology and social science perspectives.
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Comparative psychopathology of captive great apes: towards understanding psychological disturbances in captive orangutans
Odzganová Leskovská, Linda ; Špinka, Marek (referee) ; Fraňková, Slávka (advisor)
The purpose of this paper is a qualitative insight into the problem of psychopathological phenomena in captive orangutans. The theoretical part deals with the elementary zoology of genus Pongo, and offers philosophical and ethical considerations of "animal kind", "captivity", "norm and psychopathology" as well as some methodological aspects of animal study. The aim of my empirical research design was to gather as much information as possible about the phenomena in question. This study is meant to provide preliminary ideas for further research and by no means aspires to cover the topic to the full. There are 5 zoos in Czech Republic and Slovakia that have orangutans, and I have visited 4 of them. Each group of orangutans was reported on by at least 2 people in direct contact with these animals (caretakers, veterinarians or curators). I have attempted to objectify my findings by individually interviewing 10 professionals, all of whom have provided their reports independently and confidentially. The caretakers reported on a total of 16 animals in their custody, out of which, there were 7 adult males, 5 adult females, 3 sub-adult males and 1 male infant. Of these, 8 were Sumatran orangutans, 6 Borneans and 2 crossbreeds. Three animals that entered the record were no longer present at the zoo by the time...
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