AnimalBehaviorist.us

22/06/2024

"As he says, it’s clear that when wolves emit howls they elicit a response, but unclear is what they are saying in reply. Is it: “Hello, stranger, we’ve not heard your voice before. Who are you?” or perhaps, “This is a warning: you’re entering out territory and it’s best you move on.” Or, maybe, “Your voice sounds sexy. Maybe we ought to hook up.” In this short video, Reed discusses how three wolves from different packs were engaged in vocal courtship in Yellowstone during the 2024 winter breeding season.

Divining insights is different from scientists being able to claim they can read the minds of their subjects, Stahler notes. Regarding wolves and other animals he’s studied, like cougars, they are always sending out clues and the challenge for humans is trying to decipher their meaning.

In Mech’s forthcoming book, The Ellesmere Wolves: Behavior and Ecology in the High Arctic, he highlights how howling female wolves on Ellesmere Island use vocalizations get a male partner to come join on a hunt. “It’s a howl of persuasion,” he says. “I don’t doubt that the kind of high tech analysis coming out of Yellowstone will be able to identify distinguishable differences in howling that happen, for example, during the breeding season.” Reed showed me an example of what he thinks might be a young wolf actually trying to learn such a “sexy” howl.

Literally, the audio recordings in Yellowstone already have enabled researchers to bear witness to young wolves coming of age, finding their voice in the pack. And, in many ways, it was no different from the exuberant racket that human kids make on a playground. They’re in a phase of hyper-learning, getting prepared for life in the real world. Central to their education is knowing how to speak the language tethered inseparably from their survival.

Beyond dispute, based upon his thousands of hours of AI processing, is that if you’ve heard one wolf howl you’ve not heard them all, Reed says. Vocalizations that sound the same to our ear probably have nuanced subtleties not only in pitch and timbre but context in which they are delivered. Do wolves have dialects that vary from region to region? Are there lilts and accents? Is there a pecking order for who howls when, and what? If two pups are wrestling over an elk bone and if one sibling says the playful equivalent of “get lost” to the other, does that same bark have a very different connotation when it’s an adult pack member patrolling the boundary of the territory and intersects with a trespasser?"

Using Artificial Intelligence and bioacoustics, America's first national park stands at the forefront of global efforts to translate the sonorous communication of wolves and other large terrestrial species

19/06/2024

Somebody had a GOOD time

12/06/2024

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Behavior matters are in the top reasons for surrender to shelters and to consult animal service professionals. Do more than bring them home. Keep them there.

08/06/2024

Sleep - enough and force free make all the difference "The results showed that "controlling" training induced greater stress in the dogs. They sought the proximity of their owners more and slept more after training, confirming previous research that sleep plays an important role in emotion processing. Interestingly, their learning was more successful the first time (compared to the second occasion) regardless of training style, and permissive or controlling styles had no effect per se. The reason for the order effect may be the well-known phenomenon in the literature that information learned first is often easier to remember than what is learned later in a similar context.

Dr. Márta Gácsi, Senior Research Fellow of the Comparative Ethology Research Group of HUN-REN-ELTE, points out, "The most exciting result is that sleep improved the dogs' learning performance only in one specific case, when the group that received 'controlling' training for the first time expected to receive similar training for the second time, but then we trained them in a 'permissive' style. We believe the combined effect of positive surprise and sleep improved their learning success."

Dogs' learning success is enhanced when they are not only rewarded with food, but also praised and petted for their good performance, according to a new study by researchers from the Department of Ethology at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, published in Scientific Reports. The etholo...

05/06/2024

My worst critics. Seriously, that feedback is a gift was the topic of one of the best lectures in planning school. Am grateful for that. And all the feedback. Listen. (Link for book in Bio!)

04/06/2024

To fight the cruel meat industry, veterinarians have to fight their own profession.

24/05/2024

"Adding to that, if you can ride, hug, or have a selfie with the wild animal, the chances are it’s a cruel venue and one that should be avoided as well, according to WAP.

The behind the scenes realities of many of these venues is that the animals have been taken from the wild and have undergone traumatic training so that they’re able to be around people. Facilities that showcase big cats, for instance, often drug the animals in order to force them to cooperate.

Attractions that showcase elephants, meanwhile, often engage in a form of torture known as “phajan” or “the crush,” which involves physical and psychological torture in order to break the elephant’s spirit and make them submissive enough to interact with tourists, according to WAP...
If you’re trying to figure out whether an activity is one that’s best avoided, here’s a quick checklist of questions that can easily be run through:

Are wild animals kept in conditions that restrict their food, health, behavior, or comfort?
Are wild animals forced to perform tricks in shows?
Are you able to ride, walk, or swim with wild animals?
Are you able to touch, hold, or interact with wild animals?
Does the tour guide chase or lure wild animals closer with food?
Does the tourist attraction sell parts or products made from wild animals?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then it’s not an animal-friendly attraction, says WAP."

Word Animal Protection experts talk with TravelPulse about identifying ethical wildlife activities when traveling.

19/05/2024

From BEHAVIOR MATTERS FOR CATS AND DOGS: "When Olivier brought home Daisy, as a surprise three-month-old puppy, I was of so many minds in response. “Not welcome” and “SO cute” and “a little funny looking” sat right there together in my head. A dog!? Who was going to take care of a dog!?! Don’t get me wrong, In the past I had volunteered to walk shelter dogs, pined for the ones I became attached to but would not take home, loved all my childhood and my sister’s current dogs. But we had cats, easier to care for, don’t need walking three to four times a day, can leave them overnight, cats. Then, there was the very first thing I said to Olivier about Daisy: “You have just changed our lives forever.” And they were.

Not just us, dogs changed all our lives. Dogs, our proverbial best friends, in our conquering of the natural world, without them, we would have gone slower, longer, or not at all. Such partners, giving so much and asking so little in return. Cultivating the planet, herding flocks, keeping watch, heralding danger, exploring new continents. Dogs, who carried our burdens, kept us safe, hunted better than we could and left the catch to us, shepherded flocks -who listened more to us than we have ever listened to them."

Behavior Matters for Cats and Dogs

16/05/2024

Suspect they don't think there's anything funny about it. "Scientists suggest it could be because the orcas feel threatened, are protecting their food supply, or are simply playing around....Since 2020, a small pod of orcas in the strait of Gibraltar has been ramming vessels with their heads and biting rudders.

The movement, which was nicknamed and inspired plenty of memes, reportedly has occurred hundreds of times. Other instances were recorded in different locations, like when an orca rammed a boat near Shetland last year.

According to research from GT Atlantic Orca, a group that tracks whale populations, there have been nearly 700 interactions of orca attacks on ships near the strait of Gibraltar since the first report in May 2020."

A pod of killer whales attacked and sank a yacht over the weekend between Spain and Morocco in the Strait of Gibraltar—and it's not the first time.

12/05/2024

There is a careful language of science speak when it comes to behavior. Stemming from the avoidance of imparting goals or thoughts to another. Makes sense, to a point, even as we tend to give humans more of implied thoughts and goals and stay farther from such where animals are the topic. But surely there is the same safety in saying greeting behaviors are important as there would be in saying the behaviors they use that are important are also meaningful:
"The researchers found that elephants place importance on greeting one another. When two elephants who have not seen each other for a while meet, they both engage in apparently meaningful behavior. Gestures included swinging the trunk or using it to touch, ear-flapping and ear-spreading. Vocalizations tended to be rumbles of different sorts."

A team of animal behaviorists from the University of Vienna, the University of Portsmouth, Elephant CREW, Jafuta Reserve and the University of St Andrews has found that elephants use gestures and vocal cues when they greet one another.

11/05/2024

"Direction and duration of gaze figures prominently. For the cat as hunter or prey, surveillance and vigilance are locked together. Releasing gaze from another cat, signals affiliation in blinking and alternating the direction of gaze allows for an antagonist to move away. Barriers to sight lines, are security sought in the cats’ seeking dens and resting spaces with raised sides. Relying on the safety of sight lines, when vulnerable, can be seen in preferred elimination with uncovered litter boxes and why removing box coverings can be effective with unacceptable elimination in the home." From "Cat Behavior, Domestication and Sociality" in BEHAVIOR MATTERS
https://amzn.to/3WAi7QY

Behavior Matters for Cats and Dogs

07/05/2024

From the intro of BEHAVIOR MATTERS: "Punishment and force, as cruel, inhumane and trust destroying as they are, persist and endure because they have immediate effect. Might may not make right but it will make you do something. And it continues to have its advocates, for the results and for the ego. Even from those we might believe due to education and training to be more impartial. It is easy to find science writers and veterinarians who are still publishing and advising spraying water or sounding air horns on cats to control behavior. (Horwitz & Landsberg, nd), (Fauzia, M. (2023). Scruffing too, multiple professional organizations have released positions against the practice as inhumane but the quick and easy result of an immobilized cat often takes precedence over welfare concerns and/or learning alternate approaches as seen and routinely demonstrated by multiple professionals and influencers on viral videos and more.

Without punishment for the quick fix, finesse in handling, training, and behavior modification take skill and time. Carving space out for either, can be a detraction for not just the owners, care takers and guardians. Even more so, time counts for those in the business. For those of us paid to make a difference in behavior matters. I have heard often in the back rooms of the groomers, shelters, doggy daycares, at the lunch and cocktail hours at veterinary behavior conferences, the same phrase repeated, over, and over: “I don’t have time for behavior.”

Whichever professional will not take the time for behavior for a pet, another gets to take up that slack, often at a shelter or a veterinarian’s office that pet does not get to walk out of. Such time is not only begrudged for animal behavior.

Clients can be in the same sights for service providers not taking time for their own very human behavior. There is a growing trend on social media, on the Twitter (now X) and Facebook feeds, to gleefully post disdain, shame, and ridicule clients for their ignorance or high emotions concerning the pets they are devoted to, all from the professionals they have paid to see. Such public derisions are not openly shared seen where clinicians work directly with human patients, yet seem acceptable to providers working with human clients caring enough to bring animal patients for paid services. These behaviors of scorn are themselves shameful and even more so coming from professionals being consulted for help.

That clients who come looking for assistance to veterinarians, trainers, behaviorists, or groomers are the ones to be lauded for seeking out the help of those they perceive as experts not ridiculed. We ask always to rule out the medical before questioning the behavioral or the training. The questions asked are to be better informed to benefit animals, the sick patient brought in hopes of healing, the matted to be shorn and groomed, the stressed, anxious, and reactive to be helped. The scorn we harbor belongs to those persons the professionals never get to meet or see. The ones who never pay us to care because they don't either. We are better to practice all that +R, low-stress, fear-free, force-free and relationship-centered practices with each other first. Treat clients who do care with kindness. It is the ones who never become clients or look for the right answers, the stories of the ones that we will never get to hear, that are to be chastened. A chance we will never get and neither will their animals."
https://amzn.to/3WrxdYX

06/05/2024

Met this perfect little man yesterday. I don't post client photos so he couldn't be one. He could definitely be the one doing the training though; affable, social, composed and collected. Not that he would turn his nose up to a treat mind you.

His person said he was "very chill" - that comes from the individual for sure and also from the home they find themselves in, the security, love and training we give them. Can't help but love seeing it ❤️ #

01/05/2024

Now in Paperback! BEHAVIOR MATTERS FOR CATS AND DOGS
My 2nd book goes deeper into Animal Behavior in the field and at home! More on the science of behavior, optimizing environments, interventions, natural history, behavior plans and more again

Why read a book about behavior matters for cats and dogs? For the dog that cannot be left alone without panicking, turned positively phobic, with full on, anxiety fueled, incessant barking? So much barking, that the neighbors leave well-meaning notes under your door or call the management company...

28/04/2024

BEHAVIOR MATTERS FOR CATS AND DOGS

Soft Release on Kindle!! Paperback to follow!

Behavior Matters for Cats and Dogs can range from: - Unacceptable elimination - Reactivity - Anxiety - Aggression - Separation Anxiety - Resource Guarding -Pica - Integrating new cats - Integrating new dogs - Socialization - And more My first book on behavior was written for those who asked, wond...

27/04/2024

"Everyone here feels they are on the side of the angels. What is being left out of the equation is that any humane conservation or management effort, must by definition, not allow humans to be the agents of direct suffering and death. It is dangerous to accept any less than this. TNR programs run on the volunteer efforts. Most if not all volunteers believe in the good of the work they are doing. Exposing the dangers in current practices can ensure that good work is done."

It's Kitten Season, be careful with them out there...

23/04/2024

We don't get to put the genie back in the bottle "“They have created this juggernaut where we’ve got thousands of bison and the public believes this is the way things always were,” he said. “The bison that are there now have destroyed and degraded their primary ranges. People have to realize there’s something wrong in Yellowstone.”

"Dr. Keigley said the bison population in the park fluctuated in the early years of the park, with about 229 animals in 1967. It has grown steadily since and peaked last year at 5,900."

"“There is a hyperabundant bison population in our first national park,” said Robert Beschta, a professor emeritus of forest ecosystems at Oregon State University who has studied Yellowstone riparian areas for 20 years. He pointed to deteriorating conditions along the Lamar River from bison overgrazing.

“They are hammering it,” Mr. Beschta said. “The Lamar ranks right up there with the worst cattle allotments I’ve seen in the American West. Willows can’t grow. Cottonwoods can’t grow.”

A warmer and drier climate, he said, is making matters worse.

Such opinions, however, are not settled science. Some park experts believe that the presence of thousands of bison enhances park habitats because of something called the Green Wave Hypothesis"

"Several scientists propose allowing the bison to migrate to the buffer zones beyond the park’s borders, where they are naturally inclined to travel. But it remains controversial because of the threat of disease.

“The only solution is to provide suitable winter range outside the park where they should be tolerated,” said Robert Crabtree, a chief scientist for the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, a nonprofit. “When they migrate outside the park now it’s to habitat they evolved to prefer — and instead we kill them and ship them away.”

New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity.

14/04/2024

Because no matter how motivated any applied animal professional is we don't go home with the dog or the cat, the bunny or the bird. And no matter how well crafted the plan, considered the interventions, means little if not in place. How we say it makes the difference:

"I wish he’d listen: Client-centered interviewing approaches are associated with higher compliance with behavioral modification advice in pet dog owners"

"Specifically, believing the plan was right for their dog and having CP (Canine Professional) support throughout to achieve behavior improvement through the implementation of a mutually agreed BMP (Behavior Modification Plan") were important. Qualitative thematic analysis of free text responses regarding motivation for future client BMP compliance echoed these factors. Conversely, a negative consultation experience was created by CPs adopting an authoritarian or ‘telling’ approach with their clients for example, making them feel judged. This was associated with a lack of BMP compliance.

Essentially, CPs who involved their clients in BMP development were perceived as creating a positive experience of the initial behavior consultation and as a result were able to promote client BMP adherence and improvement in unwanted behavior improvement. This CP approach, which adopts a nurturing rather than an authoritarian strategy, has been termed Client-Centered Interviewing (CCI). The main thing about CCI is the client is an equal partner in the process. The core conditions are as per Rogers and Egan of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard. CCI builds on empathy with the client, avoids inappropriately challenging client beliefs by gently exploring options without being judgemental, clearly explains the likely cause of the behavior and the plan to resolve it, and provides a BMP that is bespoke and flexible. Future research is required to validate the findings, for example through a prospective comparison of Client-Centered Interviewing versus an instructional (authoritarian) approach. Crucially, the impact of Client-Centered Interviewing on canine welfare must also be evaluated."

04/04/2024

"Rattlesnakes are among the most feared, misunderstood and abused animals of all," the 62-year-old said as he nodded toward the venomous serpents."Yet, they are not all that different from us. They, too, have fears, emotions and find comfort in companionship."

Discerning what makes rattlesnakes tick is a life's work for researchers like William Hayes. So if he wants to introduce you to the biological complexity that makes them worthy of study, be prepared to follow a deliberately cautious route climbing over boulders and stepping over logs.

27/03/2024

It never was that we had to worry about him being a bird, it was always us he had to worry about. "Blood tests showed Flaco had been exposed to four different rat poisons and had a "severe" case of pigeon herpesvirus"

New York City's celebrity owl Flaco was suffering from a severe pigeon-borne illness and high levels of rat poison when he crashed into a building and died last month, officials at the Bronx Zoo said Monday.

27/03/2024

Easter is coming and lily plants are sure to be around but please NOT with cats. All parts of this plant are fatal for cats. Cats can have cat grass, catnip, silver vine and valerian root instead.

Catnip, valerian root and silver vine are plants some cats just can't get enough of. The case for why you should let your cat indulge.

15/03/2024

"And the fact that we’re not very good at picking up on signs of animal discontentment should not come as a surprise, Dr. Udell suggested. “We’re more likely to perceive our animals as experiencing positive emotions because we want them to,” she said. “When we see the animals, it makes us feel good, and our positive emotional state in response to the animals gives us these rose-colored glasses.”

Even some of the most common cues may be misunderstood.

Purring, for example, is not always a sign of comfort. “Purring can be exhibited in uncomfortable or stressful conditions,” Dr. de Mouzon said. “When a cat is stressed, or even hurt, they will sometimes purr.”

Such instances are a form of “self-soothing,” said Kristyn Vitale, an assistant professor of animal health and behavior at Unity Environmental University in Maine, who was not involved in the new study.

The same lack of understanding applies to visual cues in dogs.

“People tend to perceive the wag of the tail as this really positive thing,” Dr. Udell said. “Actually, there are so many different, subtle cues that can be given off with the tail. Is the tail wagging more to the left or the right? How fast is the tail wagging? Is it above the midline or below? All of those wags mean entirely different things. Some of them are happy. Some are pre-aggression warning signs. You can see the whole gamut in just the tail wag.”
"You can’t rely on animals to be these effective companions if you’re not mindful of their welfare,” she said. “And animal welfare, human welfare and interactions between the two are intricately linked. If you’re improving the lives of animals, you’re likely providing better outcomes for people, too.”

A study suggests that humans often misinterpret a pet’s signals; even purring doesn’t guarantee a contented cat.

10/03/2024

I really like Lee Asher. I haven't seen behind the scenes but what you do see is mostly what someone does who gets dogs. Nice bringing that energy down. We need more of this and less of "calm submissive" or brutalizing daddy dogs. https://fb.watch/qJz_JWTCix/

07/03/2024

"Bridges said the studies "can't help but fundamentally challenge the idea that cumulative culture is this extremely complex, rare ability that only the very 'smartest' species—e.g. humans—are capable of".

Thornton said the research again showed how "people habitually overestimate their abilities relative to those of other animals".

Bumblebees and chimpanzees can learn skills from their peers so complicated that they could never have mastered them on their own, an ability previously thought to be unique to humans, two studies said on Wednesday.

03/03/2024

Huge turnout for Flaco's memorial. Stories told of the lives he touched. What he meant to some of us. Did we miss some of what we might have meant to him? As subject on display, the constance of our presence, caged or free, spectators lined up, the eyes, ears, lenses, microphones, the poisoned prey. The beneficence of looking back at those few of us through the other side of a glass he could still escape from. We owed him more.

26/02/2024

He navigated a familiar built environment w/ dexterity for a year and then he couldn't? There is much to suggest rodenticide poisoning played its part. We owe and every raptor transparency in the findings of the necropsy -and to address the impacts "As the days passed and he remained free, the question of whether he could survive outside the zoo after a lifetime there turned his plight into an underdog’s story. When he showed that he could endure, he became a feathered feel-good figure in troubled times, with bird watchers, ornithologists and everyday New Yorkers following him in person or, in many cases, tracking his exploits online.

But each day outside captivity was risky — even without the hazards presented by an urban environment. Wild Eurasian eagle-owls can live more than 40 years in captivity, but only 20 on average in their natural habitat.

Striking a building, especially a window, was one of several lethal threats he faced. Others included death by poisoning via the rodenticide in the rats that he ate, and a fatal collision with a vehicle.

For more than a year, though, Flaco proved immune."

Let loose by an act of vandalism, the Eurasian eagle-owl died after apparently striking an Upper West Side building, according to the zoo.

20/02/2024

"Although most researchers are familiar with rubbing and rolling behaviour in predators, such as dogs, cats, and lions, it is currently unknown why they perform the behaviour. There are, however, a variety of theories; in social animals, it is argued that the animals may be motivated to apply an odour to become more attractive to potential mates or to increase their social status. In apes, there are even studies showing that they use odours in the same way as humans, as perfume. For predators, it could be a way to camouflage their scent for hunting. And conversely, for prey animals, it could be a way to mask their scent from predators.

In addition, for pigs, it could be a way to protect themselves against insects, skin infections, or parasites. But it could also be a sign of excitement, play or comfort behaviour.'

It is no secret that pigs have a good sense of smell. But do they smell everything – and how do the smells affect their behaviour?

14/02/2024

"We have to recognize that we're imposing not just political boundaries, but also pretty complicated legal frameworks on wildlife that do whatever they want on a landscape," he said. "It's a problem that we've painted ourselves into."

A Mexican gray wolf called Asha wandered hundreds of miles across Arizona and New Mexico searching for a mate—no easy task for one of the most endangered mammals in the United States.

13/02/2024

Camden. It's a lot of work being him. More in a day in the life of