A behavioural comparison of domestic and mallard ducks. Habituation and flight reactions

Desforges, Martin; Wood-Gush, D.G.M.

doi:10.1016/0003-3472(75)90145-1

Cited by 52 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Sex differences in habituation have previously been found in the domestic Aylesbury duck, where females habituated faster to a novel stimulus in their pen than males (Desforges and Wood-Gush, 1975), and in yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes), where females showed a higher habituation potential to repeated approaches by a single person (Ellenberg et al, 2009). More generally, sex differences in learning are not unusual, and are often explained by motivational differences between the sexes because of different requirements for reproductive success (Reader and Laland, 2000;Lonsdorf et al, 2004;Lonsdorf, 2005).…”

Section: Sex Differences In Habituationmentioning

confidence: 87%

Habituation under natural conditions: model predators are distinguished by approach direction

Raderschall

Magrath

Hemmi

2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYHabituation is an active process that allows animals to learn to identify repeated, harmless events, and so could help individuals deal with the trade-off between reducing the risk of predation and minimizing escape costs. Safe habituation requires an accurate distinction between dangerous and harmless events, but in natural environments such an assessment is challenging because sensory information is often noisy and limited. What, then, comprises the information animals use to recognize objects that they have previously learned to be harmless? We tested whether the fiddler crab Uca vomeris distinguishes objects purely by their sensory signature or whether identification also involves more complex attributes such as the direction from which an object approaches. We found that crabs habituated their escape responses after repeated presentations of a dummy predator consistently approaching from the same compass direction. Females habituated both movement towards the burrow and descent into the burrow, whereas males only habituated descent into the burrow. The crabs were more likely to respond again when a physically identical dummy approached them from a new compass direction. The crabs distinguished between the two dummies even though both dummies were visible for the entire duration of the experiment and there was no difference in the timing of the dummiesʼ movements. Thus, the position or approach direction of a dummy encodes important information that allows animals to identify an event and habituate to it. These results argue against the traditional notion that habituation is a simple, nonassociative learning process, and instead suggest that habituation is very selective and uses information to distinguish between objects that is not available from the sensory signature of the object itself.

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Section: Sex Differences In Habituationmentioning

confidence: 87%

Habituation under natural conditions: model predators are distinguished by approach direction

Raderschall

Magrath

Hemmi

2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…In addition, a change in genetic structure over time in farmed mallards is consistent with Lynch and O'Hely (2001), who argued that adaptation to captivity together with anthropogenic selection at breeding facilities will inevitably lead to a genetic alteration of the captive population. Such differences in genetics may, at least partly, explain discrepancies documented in captive ducks regarding morphology, e.g., brain volume (Guay and Iwaniuk 2008), digestive organs (Champagnon et al 2012b;Moore and Battley 2006), feeding apparatus Söderquist et al 2014), sexual behavior (Desforges and Wood-Gush 1976), mate preferences (Cheng et al 1978;Cheng et al 1979), and habituation to humans (Desforges and Wood-Gush 1975).…”

Section: Genetic Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Admixture between released and wild game birds: a changing genetic landscape in European mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

et al. 2017

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Disruption of naturally evolved spatial patterns of genetic variation and local adaptations is a growing concern in wildlife management and conservation. During the last decade, releases of native taxa with potentially non-native genotypes have received increased attention. This has mostly concerned conservation programs, but releases are also widely carried out to boost harvest opportunities. The mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, is one of few terrestrial migratory vertebrates subjected to large-scale releases for hunting purposes. It is the most numerous and widespread duck in the world, yet each year more than three million farmed mallard ducklings are released into the wild in the European Union alone to increase the harvestable population. This study aimed to determine the genetic effects of such large-scale releases of a native species, specifically if wild and released farmed mallards differ genetically among subpopulations in Europe, if there are signs of admixture between the two groups, if the genetic structure of the wild mallard population has changed since large-scale releases began in the 1970s, and if the current data matches global patterns across the Northern hemisphere. We used Bayesian clustering (STRUCTURE software) and Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) to analyze the genetic structure of historical and present-day wild (n = 171 and n = 209, respectively) as well as farmed (n = 211) mallards from six European countries as inferred by 360 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Both methods showed a clear genetic differentiation between wild and farmed mallards. Admixed individuals were found in the present-day wild population, implicating introgression of farmed genotypes into wild mallards despite low survival among released farmed mallards. Such cryptic introgression would alter the genetic composition of wild populations and may have unknown long-term consequences for conservation.

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“…Thus, we hypothesize that more social individuals are more proactive than reactive, and hence less prone to habituation according to the predictions of the proactivity -reactivity gradient. Finally, previous research in birds [17,30] showed that females habituate faster than males. Thus, we also assessed this sex effect in our lizard study system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual variation in behavioural plasticity: direct and indirect effects of boldness, exploration and sociability on habituation to predators in lizards

2010

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Little is known about the factors causing variation in behavioural plasticity and the interplay between personality and plasticity. Habituation to predators is a special case of behavioural plasticity. We investigated the direct and indirect effects of boldness, exploration and sociability traits on the habituation ability of Iberian wall lizards, considering exposure and sex effects. Individual boldness was consistent across several nonhabituation contexts, but it did not significantly affect habituation. Exploration had a strong direct effect on habituation, with more exploratory individuals being able to habituate faster than less exploratory ones, probably because of their ability to assess risk better. Individual variation in habituation was also affected by sociability, but this was an indirect effect mediated by exposure to the predator. Less social individuals avoided refuges with conspecific cues, increasing exposure to the predator and eventually habituation. Finally, the direct effects of sex (females habituated faster than males) were opposite to its indirect effects through exposure. We conclude that risk assessment, instead of the proactivity-reactivity gradient usually considered in the literature, can affect behavioural plasticity through complex interactions between direct and indirect effects, including exploratory behaviour, degree of exposure to the predator and sex, which represent novel mechanisms generating inter-individual variation in plasticity.

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A behavioural comparison of domestic and mallard ducks. Habituation and flight reactions

Cited by 52 publications

References 3 publications

Habituation under natural conditions: model predators are distinguished by approach direction

Habituation under natural conditions: model predators are distinguished by approach direction

Admixture between released and wild game birds: a changing genetic landscape in European mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Individual variation in behavioural plasticity: direct and indirect effects of boldness, exploration and sociability on habituation to predators in lizards

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