Play Signaling and the Perception of Social Rules by Juvenile Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Prescriptive social rules are enforced statistical regularities. The authors investigated whether juvenile chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) recognize and use enforced statistical regularities to guide dyadic play behavior. They hypothesized (a) that proximity of adults, especially mothers of younger play partners, to play bouts will increase the play signaling of older partners and (b) that when juvenile-juvenile […]
Giant Panda Scent-Marking Strategies in the Wild: Role of Season, Sex and Marking Surface
Scent marking entails significant energetic and opportunity costs that demand efficiency. Signal detection theory offers a theoretical framework that generates testable hypotheses regarding where animals should place scent signals in the environment in a way that maximizes their probability of detection by target receivers while minimizing costs of production and distribution. Solitary and reliant on […]
Beyond masking: Endangered Stephen’s kangaroo rats respond to traffic noise with footdrumming
On-road vehicles have become a pervasive source of low frequency noise in both urban environments and natural protected areas. Because many species rely on low-frequency signals to communicate with conspecifics, they are likely to be especially vulnerable to signal masking and the concomitant biological effects associated with exposure to traffic noise. Here, we show that […]