Beiträge zur Ethologie des Hausmeerschweinchens Cavia aperea f. porcellus (L.)

Kunkel, Irene

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1964.tb01209.x

Cited by 33 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This retreat had to occur within 3 s after an agonistic behaviour pattern or an approach (closer than one body length) of either of the individuals. For a detailed description of the agonistic behavioural patterns see Kunkel & Kunkel (), Rood () and Sachser (,b).…”

Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the latency to show sexual or courtship behaviour and the latency to mount were recorded. The behavioural definitions used are derived from previous studies on sexual and courtship behaviour in male domestic guinea pigs (Kunkel & Kunkel ; Rood ; Sachser ). For the first series of MF tests, two females from a colony other than the subjects' home colony were chosen and confronted to all the subjects from that particular series.…”

Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dimensions of Animal Personalities in Guinea Pigs

2013

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Behavioural phenotypes can be studied from a variety of perspectives. Recent developments have focused on the individual, seeking patterns of behaviour that are stable over time and/or across different contexts (animal personalities). This study applied this method of understanding individual behavioural variability to domestic guinea pigs. Two behavioural domains were investigated: emotionality and social behaviour. Additionally, individual cortisol-stress reactivity and dominance status were examined. Adult male domestic guinea pigs living in large mixed-sex colonies were subjected to a series of behavioural and physiological tests twice with an intertest interval of 8 wk. Individual consistency over time was found regarding social behaviour, cortisol reactivity and dominance status, whereas no stability regarding emotional behaviour was detected. Furthermore, no stability over contexts was found. Our results suggest that the concept of animal personality is applicable to domestic guinea pigs. The ecological relevance of these data is underscored by the fact that they were obtained in animals from a very rich, socially complex scenario. Moreover, our study highlights that behaviour alone is not sufficient to describe individual phenotypic consistency. Physiological parameters such as stress reactivity should be included in animal personality research. Furthermore dominance -a relative measure which is not an absolute attribute of individuals -proved to be stable over time and thus also shed light on individuality.

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Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dimensions of Animal Personalities in Guinea Pigs

2013

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“…The homology between human yawning and yawning in birds and even in herbivores is controversial (HEUSNER 1946), but remains unquestioned in rodents, carnivores and non-human primates. Yawning has often been mentioned in the ethograms of many carnivores and rodent species in the 'Comfort movements' section (WILLIAMS & SCOTT 1954;LINDEMANN 1955;KOENIG 1960;KUNKEL & KUNKEL 1964;GUNDLACH 1968), often in association with stretching ('Rakelsyndrom', TEMBROCK 1962). However this association could be considered to be facultative (HEUSNER 1946) and, during evolution, yawning could have become a separate action from stretching (PROVINE et al 1987b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethological Study of Yawning in Primates. I. Quantitative Analysis and Study of Causation in Two Species of Old World Monkeys (Cercocebus albigena and Macaca fascicularis)

1994

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Yawning is a common, species‐typical behaviour in vertebrates, generally associated with transitions from sleep to wakefulness. In primates, yawning occurs within a group in a variety of social contexts, suggesting that it has a communicative role, a hypothesis examined in this study. Yawning has rarely been studied. Quantitative studies have been concerned only with age, sex and social‐status differences in yawning frequency. The causation and function of yawning were examined in a quantitative, 796‐h ethological analysis of observations of two groups of Cercocebus albigena and one group of Macaca fascicularis. In both species, yawns occurred in two main contexts: during transitions from rest to activity (the ‘rest yawn’) and following social interactions (the ‘emotion yawn’). The rest yawn represents 90 % of yawns and is common to every age‐sex group. By contrast, the emotion yawn (10 %) is more frequent in adult males. Regardless of context, yawning was more frequent in males than females. Within males yawning frequency increased with age. Thus, sex hormones may modulate the physiological processes involved. Yawns were usually performed by individuals in seated, lying or standing positions. Yawns were frequently followed by short periods of rest, so that, when triggered by a social interaction, they occurred at its end. The morphology of the yawning act did not vary in regard to context age and/or sex of the yawner.

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“…Light:dark cycle was 14 h:10 h. After birth, all litters were adjusted to three pups. As guinea‐pig females readily accept foster pups (Kunkel & Kunkel 1964) this number could be achieved by fostering surplus pups to lactating females not used in the experiment or by complementing litters with same‐aged pups, if necessary.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Effort is State Dependent: Energetic Limitation or Regulation?

Rehling

Trillmich

2008

Ethology

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Many small altricial rodents have a postpartum oestrus and are often simultaneously pregnant and lactating. Negative influences of concurrent pregnancy and lactation on both lactational performance and the litter in utero are commonly observed and have been interpreted as resulting from high simultaneous energetic demands of gestation and lactation. We studied these effects in the precocial guinea‐pig (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) that, like many altricial rodents, has a postpartum oestrus, but in which the peaks of energy expenditure on lactation and gestation are widely separated. This life history allowed to investigate whether physiological regulation other than by energetic limitations may be responsible for allocation conflicts arising when lactation and gestation overlap. By comparing simultaneously pregnant and lactating females with lactating non‐pregnant females, we show that females in the former group nurse less and wean earlier than females of the latter group. In a comparison of litter size, litter mass, and pup mortality of females that had not been lactating during pregnancy with females that had been simultaneously pregnant and lactating, we show that the latter do not reduce investment in the following litter. In our study, energetic constraints on ad libitum fed females are unlikely and we therefore suggest that the results must be explained by regulatory constraints on lactational effort. We point out that this explanation has not been excluded for the effects observed in altricial small mammals.

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Beiträge zur Ethologie des Hausmeerschweinchens Cavia aperea f. porcellus (L.)

Cited by 33 publications

References 39 publications

Dimensions of Animal Personalities in Guinea Pigs

Dimensions of Animal Personalities in Guinea Pigs

Ethological Study of Yawning in Primates. I. Quantitative Analysis and Study of Causation in Two Species of Old World Monkeys (Cercocebus albigena and Macaca fascicularis)

Maternal Effort is State Dependent: Energetic Limitation or Regulation?

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