BERG

berg@lists.stir.ac.uk

2 participants
944 discussions

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Dear BERGers Laura Hall is doing an excellent job in leading me (no longer kicking and screaming, but calmly!) into engaging with social media. Laura has set up BERG's own Facebook and twitter links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Behaviour-and-Evolution-Research-Group-at-Un… https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling Please do follow, and also send Laura details of your recent publications, research highlights, prizes, awards or other exciting news so that they can be shared. It would also be great to be able to have some photos and/or videos. E-mail: laura.hall(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:laura.hall@stir.ac.uk> Let's promote the excellent work we do.... My best, Hannah Check out: New methods for monitoring and improving welfare of laboratory dogs<http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2014/140918-n-animal-welfate-laboratory-…> Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group Director of Learning and Teaching in SNS Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> Home page: https://rms.stir.ac.uk/converis-stirling/person/11925 http://marmosetcare.com/ http://www.247animalwelfare.eu/index.html

9 years, 6 months

FW: July 1st Living Links Research Forum at Edinburgh Zoo

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Apologies for cross postings, but in case of interest to a wider audience.... From: Amanda Seed [mailto:ams18@st-andrews.ac.uk] Sent: 19 June 2015 10:33 To: Hannah Buchanan-Smith; Andrew Whiten; Lara Wood; Kristin Descovich; 'lhopper(a)lpzoo.org'; Phyllis Lee; Christine Caldwell; 'Research(a)blairdrummond.com'; 'SPearson(a)rzss.org.uk'; 'AMacri(a)rzss.org.uk'; Hayley Ash; 'antoine(a)thgroup.co'; 'L.Robinson(a)ed.ac.uk'; 'd.m.altschul(a)sms.ed.ac.uk'; 'Morton.blake(a)gmail.com'; Erica van de Waal; 'Lucille.bellegarde(a)sruc.ac.uk'; Rachel Harrison; Lizzie Webber; Stuart Watson; Camille Troisi; 'j.wathan(a)sussex.ac.uk'; 'sophia.m.daoudi(a)gmail.com'; 'mariawollnik(a)gmail.com'; 'Sonia.rey.planellas(a)gmail.com'; Jennifer Botting; Lewis Dean; 'S1443883(a)sms.ed.ac.uk'; Emily Cibulka; Sumir Keenan; 'Mairimac3(a)hotmail.com'; 'louisatasker(a)gmail.com'; 'abates(a)rzss.org.uk'; 'sullivan.e13(a)gmail.com'; 'Katie Slocombe'; 'adowling(a)rzss.org.uk'; Emily Messer Subject: July 1st Living Links Research Forum at Edinburgh Zoo Dear all, We are holding a little research forum about some of the recently completed and congoing research at Living Links in the Budongo Trail lecture theatre at Edinburgh zoo, on July 1st, 10.30. You can also hear more about plans for 'Wild Links' for capuchin and squirrel monkeys - which some of you might have heard a bit about at the Burn. Details about the programme can be found here, also pasted below. http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/events/2015/07/monkeys,-apes-me-%E2%80%93-re… It would be lovely to see some of you there. Best wishes, Amanda 10:30 - Welcome and overview to research conducted at Edinburgh Zoo - Prof Andy White and Dr Amanda Seed - University of St Andrews 10.45 - Dr. Lara Wood, University of St Andrews Living Links cubicle research and results from a recent study with capuchin monkeys This talk will give an overview of how Living Links researchers work with the monkeys in the research cubicles. Following this, data will be presented on a recent experiment investigating whether the location of the edible reward within an artificial-fruit puzzle can affect capuchins' success in extracting it and imitation of others' actions. In nature, foraging actions a monkey may copy are typically around the edible goal, like peeling a fruit or shelling a nut, and things we humans copy where there is more separation (e.g. a light switch) may be more difficult for a monkey to grasp. Nineteen monkeys participated in the full experiment. A human demonstrated how to obtain food from a puzzle using one of two actions. The food was either close to (5cm), or far from (20cm), the action. Capuchins were less likely to watch the human demonstrator's action and less successful at retrieving the reward, when the food was far from rather than close to those demonstrated actions. There was tentative evidence of learning from the demonstrator which was affected by food location. The implications of these results will be discussed. 11.15 Dr. Lewis Dean, University of St Andrews A 'micro-culture' study of young children visiting Budongo Trail We are studying what gives us humans the ability to build up complex cultures over time, compared to other primates. To do this we are creating 'micro-cultures' in little groups, including children. For this, Zoo visitors aged 4-6 years were invited to take part in a game to get a series of prizes out of a complex apparatus. Starting with a group of three children, we replaced a child every five minutes until there was a completely new group, echoing cultural generations. By examining how the groups interacted with the apparatus and with one another, we can shed light on the evolution of human culture. 11.45 Zita Polgár, University of Edinburgh Assessing individual differences in squirrel monkeys - Personality and interaction with zoo visitors The goal of this study is to determine whether there are individual differences between squirrel monkeys in how they respond to different groups of visitors at the viewing window. Do some monkeys prefer coming to the window when there are large groups there, while others when there is just a single person? Do some show preferences for interacting with children rather than adults? Answering these questions will help us better understand the relationship between the monkeys and the visitors as well as allowing us to improve individual welfare and design better enclosures. Another goal of this study is to assess how this window approaching behaviour is correlated with the individual personality scores that are given to the monkeys by the keepers. Overall, we expect that there will be a general trend for the monkeys to come to the window more frequently when there are larger visitor groups there - they are quite curious! In addition, we predict that those monkeys who score highest in bold and sociable personality traits will be the most frequent visitors while those monkeys who score lower on these traits will be less frequent visitors and may show a preference for smaller visitor groups. 12.15 Sophia Daoudi and Prof. Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith, University of Stirling The quest to establish a new long-term field station for conservation and primate research in Suriname. Primate researchers value the opportunity to conduct both captive and field studies, to test hypotheses derived from the field under controlled conditions in captivity and from that, generate further hypotheses to be examined in the wild. At Living Links in Edinburgh zoo, we study the behaviour of capuchin and squirrel monkeys living in captivity in mixed-species groups. In this talk we will describe our attempt to find an appropriate 'wild link' for our population of captive monkeys and establish a long-term field station. The Guiana Shield is a biodiversity hotspot containing one of the largest protected tropical areas within the Neotropics and is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. The Raleighvallen Nature Reserve, Suriname forms part of this region and is relatively unaffected by anthropogenic disturbances such as hunting and deforestation, making it an ideal location to conduct baseline biological and ecological research. We shall describe preliminary plans to re-establish the Conservation International (CI) field station to allow us to conduct long-term projects investigating the 8 sympatric primate species in addition to other fauna and flora. The first project will investigate the understudied polyspecific associations between the tufted brown capuchin (Sapajus apella) and the common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). If we can re-establish this site, it might be possible to twin the CI field station with the Living Links to Human Evolution Research Centre, Royal Zoological Society Scotland (RZSS), Edinburgh Zoo. 12.45 - end.

9 years, 6 months

Environmental Enrichment course

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Dear BERGers Mark Kingston Jones – former Stirling student and former employee at the Safari Park (amongst other things!) is running an excellent Student Environmental Enrichment Course, hosted by Five Sisters Zoo, in West Calder, Scotland from Tuesday 21st to Friday 24th July 2015. Please see attached if interested. Best, Hannah

9 years, 7 months

BERG: Lesley Craig

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Dear BERGers On Wednesday 15th April, we have our last BERG seminar for the semester. Lesley Craig will be presenting on "Can enhancing connection to individual chimpanzees promote conservation strategy?" She will be discussing the importance of how a more personalised experience with a chimpanzee can enhance zoo visitor attitudes to conservation, compared with general educative information - She'll present data collected from Edinburgh Zoo and Blair Drummond. As usual, we will meet in room 3A94 (Psychology common room) at 5:30pm, and will have drinks and nibbles available. I hope to see you all on Wednesday night! Hannah If you wish to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the BERG mailing list please follow instructions here: http://lists.stir.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/berg Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) seminar programme: http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…

9 years, 8 months

Chimpanzee relationships at BERG

by Kristin Descovich

Dear BERGers, This Wednesday, 1st April, we have Joshua Lemin presenting on: "Relationship quality and relationship asymmetry among captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)". He will be discussing measures of relationship quality among captive chimpanzees and how he is using a Social Network Analysis approach to further quantify those measures. He will also discuss emotional contagion within the chimpanzee group and its influence on the way social partners interact. As usual, we will meet in room 3A94 (Psychology common room) at 5:30pm, with drinks and nibbles. For details on upcoming BERG seminars please visit: www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-seminars<http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…>. I hope to see you all on Wednesday night! Kris Dr Kris Descovich Research Fellow in Animal Welfare Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467643 E-mail: kristin.descovich(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:kristin.descovich@stir.ac.uk> Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) seminar programme: http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…

9 years, 8 months

BERG on Wednesday - Sealion training + Research opportunities at Blair Drummond Safari Park

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Dear BERGers, This Wednesday, 1st April, we have the wonderful Sam Clark from Blair Drummond Safari Park presenting on: "Advantages of training sealions in a zoo environment". Additionally, several other keepers from Blair Drummond will be joining us to discuss potential research projects that will be available at the park. No commitment - just come and learn about what might be available as potential research projects. As usual, we will meet in room 3A94 (Psychology common room) at 5:30pm, with drinks and nibbles. For details on upcoming BERG seminars please visit: www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-seminars<http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…>. I hope to see you all on Wednesday night! Best, Hannah To sign up to the BERG mailing list new folk must complete the form available here: http://lists.stir.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/berg You can also use this link to unsubscribe. Check out: New methods for monitoring and improving welfare of laboratory dogs<http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2014/140918-n-animal-welfate-laboratory-…> Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group Director of Learning and Teaching in SNS Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> Home page: https://rms.stir.ac.uk/converis-stirling/person/11925 http://marmosetcare.com/ http://www.247animalwelfare.eu/index.html

9 years, 9 months

BERG: Observational learning in parrots

by Kristin Descovich

Dear BERGers, This Wednesday we will have Deborah Bruce presenting on "Observational learning in African grey parrots". The capacity for vocal imitation in this parrot species is unparalleled, however little is known about their capability for observational learning. Deborah is going to examine recent evidence from a group of African Greys on imitative and emulative forms of observational learning during an artificial fruit paradigm. As usual, we will meet in room 3A94 (Psychology common room) at 5:30pm, and will have drinks and nibbles available. For details on upcoming BERG seminars please visit: www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-seminars<http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…>. I hope to see you all on Wednesday night! Kris Dr Kris Descovich Research Fellow in Animal Welfare Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467643 E-mail: kristin.descovich(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:kristin.descovich@stir.ac.uk> Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) seminar programme: http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/seminars/psychology/berg-se…

9 years, 9 months

FW: SCAB 2015 Programme

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

SCAB pogramme attached – looks great – and details of how to register on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SCAB2015 From: Scab The Conference [mailto:scab.the.conference@gmail.com] Sent: 17 March 2015 17:59 To: Axel Wiberg Subject: SCAB 2015 Programme Hi All, Attached you will find a programme, as it stands, of the upcoming SCAB meeting on the 28th March. Talks will be allocated 15 minutes including questions. Additionally, I have attached a list of the current posters that will be presented at the meeting. The size of the boards for these posters are A0 so that is the maximum size we'll be able to accommodate. Registration for posters and general attendees is still open. Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions. Cheers, The SCAB team

9 years, 9 months

Tonight's BERG is BACK ON: Jim Anderson speaking

by Christine Caldwell

Hello all, As you will know by now, Iain Valentine was unable to come and talk to us about the pandas at the zoo. But as it happens we are really fortunate to have Jim Anderson back with us at the moment (visiting from Kyoto), and Jim has agreed to give us a short talk about some research that he has been working on. So, if you would like to join us, BERG will start at 5.30pm as per usual in the Psychology common room (3A94). Hope to see you there! Christine. Dr Christine A. Caldwell Senior Lecturer in Psychology School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling FK9 4LA Website: https://sites.google.com/site/christineannacaldwell

9 years, 9 months

No BERG tonight

by Kristin Descovich

Dear BERGers, Unfortunately our speaker for tonight is unable to make it. However, this is for very good reasons as the female giant panda has come into season unexpectedly. As you can imagine, this is a significant event that happens only once a year for a very short time and therefore Iain Valentine is in the midst of preparations regarding this. We look forward to welcoming him some time in the near future. My apologies for any inconvenience, Kind Regards, Kris

9 years, 9 months

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