Seminars in 2019
Horse groups with single and multiple stallions occur simultaneously throughout the world in different feral horses’ populations. However, little is known on why such groups with more than one male exist, considering that stallions naturally fight to monopolize the females. In this progress report, I discuss my past and current research on this topic, which was conducted on the feral Garrano horse population that can be found in Northern Portugal. First, I examined the relationship between body size, sex, group composition and number of females, by measuring individual body length and height with a non-invasive method. Body size is often an important determinant of male fighting ability and reproductive success, thus it’s possible that males in single-stallion groups are larger than males in multi-stallion or bachelor groups, making them better competitors or more dominant. Results showed no significant differences in body length and height for all parameters assessed, suggesting that other factors may be more important to explain the existence of single and multi-stallion groups in horse societies. Currently, I’m focusing on testosterone analysis and I’ll present preliminary results. Testosterone is often linked to aggressive and dominant behavior in males, which provides a mechanism for reproductive competition. In view of that, I explore testosterone levels as a factor differentiating males of multi-stallion groups from single-stallion and bachelor groups and discuss the relationship between testosterone levels of stallions and their reproductive and social behaviors.
15:00- Hanling Chimpanzee reactions to death stimuli
Putrescine is a substance released when bodies decay, and it is used as a chemical signal of death in animals, prompting behaviours such as burial and avoidance. Avoidance of dead and injured conspecifics has been documented in many small animals and may have been selected for to reduce the risks of predation and disease transmission. In humans, putrescine is highly repugnant and has been shown to activate threat management responses, even with subliminal exposure. Despite this, some large mammals have been shown to take an interest in dead conspecifics, with behaviours such as prolonged dead infant carrying being documented despite the strong stench of decay present. We are interested in how this smell of death may affect chimpanzees, and whether it can help us understand their awareness of death and reactions to it. In this study chimpanzees are presented with the smell of putrescine along with a stuffed bird as a visual cue of death, and their behaviour was recorded. Chimpanzees tended to avoid the area when putrescine was present, compared to the ammonia or water control smells – however they did not show any difference in reaction with the visual stimulus. They did not show increased stress or aggressive responses as well.
Amazon is known for the highest freshwater fish fauna in the world. Such biodiversity occurs among rivers that can be classified into black-, white- and clear-water types. This greatest richness has inquired researches about how Amazon can bear such biodiversity. Although many hypothesis concerning evolutionary process in Amazon have been arisen, they were focused on speciation via allopatry and failed to propose the actual mechanism of divergence. Amazon water types quality highly vary in pH, dissolved organic matter, conductivity, turbidity and lighting environment, according to its classification so the sensory system of their biota may differ following environmental characteristics. Sensory systems are pathways to perceive external stimuli and respond accordingly. Transmission of stimuli from the environment to individuals are influenced by physical and chemical properties of the environment. Natural selection often drives evolution of sensory systems to optimally function according to environmental characteristics. Populations living in different environments may diverge in adaptations of the sensorial system, generating diversity. When these differences affect chances of interbreeding between demes, local adaptation result in speciation. Different limnologic characteristics have been shown to influence animal communication in several taxa of many environments around the world, but is sorely lacking in Amazon. Here, I briefly present Amazon limnologic characteristics and basic functionalities of photo-, chemical-, mechano- and eletro-reception and which of their aspects may be affected by Amazon water types. I also suggest potential mechanisms of divergence through different Amazon limnologic, which may finally promote speciation.
餌を食べること、そして捕食者に食べられないことは、どちらも生存する上で 極めて重要な要素となります。捕食者と被食者は、これら二つの要素がぶつかり 合う関係にあり、互いに相手に打ち勝つように戦術を構築し、長い共進化の道を 歩んできました。両者の相互作用の記載的研究はこれまで数多くなされており、ま た、どのような行動が捕食や捕食回避に最適かを議論する理論的研究も進んでい ます。しかしながら、戦術と呼ばれるものが実際どの程度機能しているのかにつ いて実証的な知見は十分に得られていませんでした。そこで私は、捕食者と被食 者の戦術の理解を目指し、主に行動学的視点から、昆虫、魚、カエル、ヘビ、コ ウモリなどの分類群を対象に、捕食および捕食回避行動の観察とその戦術性の検 証を進め、また、そのための研究技術の開発を行なってきました。 本講演の前半では、捕食者と被食者の戦術研究の一例として、ヘビとカエルの 間の駆け引きを紹介します。これは、「ヘビににらまれたカエル」と言われる一 種の膠着状態が、実は双方の適応的な意思決定によって生じていることを示すも のです。講演の後半では、捕食者と被食者の動きに着目し、両者の追跡/逃避運動 における戦術性の解明に向けた取り組みを紹介します。全体を通して、捕食者と 被食者の戦術研究が、生態学や工学、心理学などを舞台に、今後一層発展してい くものであることをお伝えできれば幸いです。
Kin selection is a strong driver of social relationships. Thus, the degree to which individuals of the same group are related to each other can have significant implications for the group’s social life. At the same time, the genetic composition of a group or population is also important from a conservation point of view, with inbreeding potential posing potential harm to the population’s survivial. In female-philopatric groups, genetic diversity is majorly influenced through the migration patterns and reproductive performance of males. In primates living in mutlimale groups, the degree to which individual males get the opportunity to reproduce and thus keep their genes in the pool various astonishing between different species. The reason for this difference in male reproductive skew still remains obscure. Furthermore, primates are special in the degree to which females show non-procreative mating and exhibit sexual signals. There is good reason to assume that these traits play an important role for individual male reproductive success in primates. We have studied the occurrence and function of female sexual signals, and potential causes for the variation of male reproductive skew across a number of macaque species. I will present our results in this talk.
Nakano DNAメチル化を用いた野生動物の年齢推定
１）前田（Maeda）
Abstract： A multilevel society, characterized by nested levels of social organization, is important to understand how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system. Their mechanisms are still poorly understood because of the lack of quantitative data. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data to verify the presence of modular structure in feral horse society using drones. We took aerial photos of individuals that appeared in pre-fixed areas and collected positional data. Inter-individual distance distribution showed bimodality, suggesting the presence of small social organizations, or “units.” The inter-unit distances were significantly smaller in units than those in the randomized data, which suggested that units aggregate to form a higher-level social organization, or “herd”. Moreover, this herd had a structure where large mixed-sex units were more likely to occupy the centre than small mixed-sex units and all-male-units, which were in the peripheral. These three pieces of evidence regarding the existence of units, unit aggregation, and stable positioning among units strongly indicated a multilevel structure in horse society. This study may contribute to the understanding of multilevel society functions and mechanisms via comparison with other social indices and models, as well as cross-species comparisons in future studies.
2）中野（Nakano）
多くの野生動物において、年齢を推定することは難しく、特に寿命の長い種では長期的な記録が得られない場合、年齢情報を得ることは困難である。しかし近年、エピジェネティックな修飾であるDNAメチル化が年齢推定のマーカーとして有効であることが分かってきた。DNAメチル化と年齢の関連はヒトで多く報告されているが、ヒト以外の動物での報告例はまだ少ない。 本研究では、まずチンパンジーを対象としてヒトの年齢推定マーカーを用いた年齢推定の可能性を検討した。さらに野生個体への応用可能性を探るため、血液に加えて糞試料由来のDNAでも年齢推定の可能性を検討した。その結果、3遺伝子領域について血液由来DNAにおいて年齢とメチル化の関連がある領域を同定した。これらの領域のうちELOVL2遺伝子は、誤差4.83才と、糞試料由来DNAでも有効なマーカーである可能性が示された。次にチンパンジーにおいて同定された年齢推定マーカーELOVL2遺伝子の汎用性を検討するため、ニホンザルおよびニシゴリラにおいても解析を行った。その結果、両種で年齢とメチル化の関連がみられ、糞由来DNAを用いた年齢推定の誤差は、ニホンザルで5.51才、ニシゴリラで3.84才であった。これらの結果から、霊長類では、野生下への実用化には、さらなるマーカーの同定やデータの蓄積による推定精度の向上が必要であるが、DNAメチル化を用いたある程度の年齢推定が可能であることを示された。一方で鳥類でも同様に、年齢推定マーカーの探索を血液・筋肉由来のDNAを用いて行ったが、鳥類では有効なマーカー領域を同定することはできなかった。
Abstract：A multilevel society, characterized by nested levels of social organization, is important to understand how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system. Their mechanisms are still poorly understood because of the lack of quantitative data. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data to verify the presence of modular structure in feral horse society using drones. We took aerial photos of individuals that appeared in pre-fixed areas and collected positional data. Inter-individual distance distribution showed bimodality, suggesting the presence of small social organizations, or “units.” The inter-unit distances were significantly smaller in units than those in the randomized data, which suggested that units aggregate to form a higher-level social organization, or “herd”. Moreover, this herd had a structure where large mixed-sex units were more likely to occupy the centre than small mixed-sex units and all-male-units, which were in the peripheral. These three pieces of evidence regarding the existence of units, unit aggregation, and stable positioning among units strongly indicated a multilevel structure in horse society. This study may contribute to the understanding of multilevel society functions and mechanisms via comparison with other social indices and models, as well as cross-species comparisons in future studies.
Primates, like many other animals, spend more than half of their lifetime sleeping and resting, yet this behavior is almost completely unstudied compared to daytime activities. In their natural habitats it might be difficult or impossible to directly observe nocturnal activities, but in captivity where we are able to closely monitor both day and night activity the opportunity exists to record, study and thus better understand individual and/or group sleeping behavior and patterns. Sleep shows negative changes (i.e. decreasing quality) with advancing age in humans (e.g. Vitiello 1997; Floyd et al. 2000; Shochat et al. 2001; Gulia & Kumar 2018). It is understandably unknown if a similar pattern exists in our closest evolutionary relatives and thus whether this is a phylogenetically conserved pattern or a relatively recent change that developed with modern day lifestyles. I am currently attempting to investigate whether similar sleep-wake cycle changes that occur with increased age in humans also occur among captive chimpanzees living at Kumamoto Sanctuary (KS). Morimura et al. (2012) published sleep data gathered in 2008 on male chimpanzees living in Building 1 at KS; twelve of those males are still alive and have continued to live in the same conditions since 11 years ago. I spent around four months at KS recording these chimpanzees’ nocturnal activity using a custom built apparatus and infrared night vision cameras which I installed and maintained on a daily basis above each individual’s indoor night enclosure. I have collected 123 recorded nights as of May 2019 and require 72 of these to partially replicate Morimura et al. (2012)’s study. The goals of my project are to 1) present a longitudinal investigation of chimpanzee sleeping patterns from middle to old age in collaboration with Morimura-sensei, 2) contribute to our understanding of captive chimpanzee sleep, as very little is known in general, and 3) improve individual welfare by examining their sleep quality and preferences, which has already led to care staff providing additional bedding materials.
Nachi Vocal repertoire and disturbance-associated vocalizations in free-ranging Asian elephants
Conflict and cooperation within and across bonobo groups at Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo In group-living animals, within- and inter-group competition might shape the social relationships between group members. Bonobos and chimpanzees are closely related and have similar basic social organizations (multi-male multi-female group, male philopatry, fission-fusion grouping patterns), but they show largely different social relationships, both within- and inter-group. Chimpanzees have male-dominant and male-centric society, though in bonobos, females have strong cooperative and affiliative relationships, and females have higher or equal social status than males. Groups of chimpanzees are highly hostile to each other, but bonobo groups sometimes mingle to each other and individuals of different groups interact affiliatively. I investigated the patterns of female-female coalition formations and the results suggested that female coalitions in bonobos might have evolved as a counter-strategy against harassment by males. There was a uni-directional relationship that older females agonistically support younger females. Coalitions might enhance gregariousness among females, leading females to develop affiliative interactions that promote for tolerance. Since staying with old females may be beneficial for younger females because of the uni-directional agonistic support, old females might take an important role in their cohesiveness. To confirm this hypothesis, I examined the leadership patterns of bonobos by observing their group movement coordination. Old females initiated departures more frequently than other age and sex categories, suggesting that they have a role of keeping their cohesiveness. The strong female social bonding in societies with high female-dispersal might have been established and reinforced by positive feedbacks among cooperation, cohesiveness, and affiliation. I also compared patterns of within- and inter-group aggressions, and found females of different groups have tolerant and even cooperative relationships, though males compete over mates. Regardless of the ideal male strategy, female tolerant and cooperative relationships across groups and female within-group superiority over males could preserve tolerant inter-group relationships in bonobos.
Vocal repertoire and disturbance-associated vocalizations in free-ranging Asian elephants Several group living animals have evolved well-developed acoustic communication for cohesion and coordination in the group. Elephants, in general, live in a complex fission-fusion society with strong social bonds among group members with rich vocal repertoire. Studies have shown that African elephants use a wide range of vocalizations to communicate with conspecifics. However, much needs to be explored about the acoustic communication system in Asian elephants. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to provide insights into context-dependent vocalizations of free-ranging Asian elephants. At first, I examined different types of vocalizations used by elephants in various behavioral contexts. I found that elephants in our study site mainly used four call types (roars, rumbles, trumpets and chirps), two combination calls (roar-rumble and rumble-roars) and four other acoustic signals (bark, snort, trunk-bounce and air-burst). Frequencies of these call-types vary with the age, sex and behavioral (in both disturbed and undisturbed) contexts. As the calls recorded in disturbed contexts was relatively higher compared to undisturbed (social) contexts, I then examined immediate behavioral responses of elephants to different sources of disturbances (humans on foot, humans in vehicle and to other species) in relatively less disturbed habitats. I found that upon encountering humans on foot, elephants showed high vigilance and moved away from the source of disturbance compared to other types of disturbance. However, apart from the initial distance from the source of disturbance, there was no significant difference in vocal activity observed in relation with group size and types of disturbance. Lastly, in the context of disturbance, I examined whether Asian elephants show any modulations in the acoustic properties of calls by comparing vocalizations recorded in disturbed and undisturbed conditions. I found that when disturbed Asian elephants actively modulate both high- and low- frequency sounds and these modulations also appear to depend on the group size. Therefore, findings from this study provides important insights into the acoustic behaviours of free-ranging Asian elephants, particularly context-based communication.
Genetic studies are essential for endangered species, as small population size can lead to loss of genetic diversity, inbreeding, and its consequences (e.g. genetic abnormalities, higher risk of disease, etc.). The Japanese golden eagle (JGE) is one such endangered subspecies, with only 500 individuals remaining in the wild. Building on previous research, I developed new microsatellite markers to increase reliability of genetic diversity estimates. I reanalyzed JGE samples using the best combination of newly and previously developed markers (19 markers). Results support past research, showing that genetic diversity of both wild and captive populations is maintained at an adequate level (inbreeding coefficient F = -0.16, -0.07, respectively). I have been working with functional genes as well, in particular the MHC DRB locus, which influences immunity, adaptation to environments, and mate choice. Preliminary results indicate possibly high genetic variation at this locus (18 SNPs, 6+ alleles in 3 individuals of JGE). It is crucial to survey both neutral and functional genetic diversity to better understand the population genetics, immunogenetics, and reproductive fitness of the JGE. I hope to increase sample size and target loci to further develop this research.
Elephants form complex fission–fusion societies that are centered on matrilineal groups. Though it is important to reveal the social relationships between females for the better understanding of their society, there is not much information about that. Therefore, the goal of this thesis was to understand the sociality of elephants in captivity, where detailed behavioral observation is possible. At first, I assessed the individual difference in behavior with elephant personality questionnaire by keepers and investigated the factors related to their personality. I found that five personality factors in elephants and they are related with sex, age, captive condition and intraspecific genetic variation. I observed captive Asian elephants that live with mahouts in Thailand to make clear the functions of touching with the trunk tip behavior, which is a common social behavior among them. I found that touch with S-shaped trunk might be a rare behavior in Asian elephants that is similar to visual threat displays in other mammals. However, the touch with U-shaped trunk can be used as an indicator of affiliative relationships. Next, I investigated about social relationships between captive female Asian elephants. The results showed that the individuals that stayed in the group for long time tended to play an important role in affiliative relationships in the group. I also found that elephants that maintained close proximity to their mahouts for longer periods underwent fewer interactions with other elephants. In this study, I showed high sociocognitive ability in elephants that may be comparable with that in great apes or humans from the aspect of personality. I also showed the characteristics of female Asian elephants’ society and important factors for social relationships between them. The knowledge about group members and the relationships between them may be important. The similar observations in wild elephants or African conspecifics will provide better understanding of elephant sociality. This is the first time to show that mahouts can affect the relationships between elephants. This indicates how caretakers make relationship with their elephants is very important for the management of captive elephants. In addition, I found the relationship between personality and genotype in elephants. Increasing sample size and combination with different personality assessment methods will help understand more in detail about their personalities and relationship with genotype and make it possible to apply that for captive management
Organisms often defend themselves against predators by making themselves costly to attack and eat. They advertise this cost to predators with the use of bright and conspicuous colouration, which is called aposematism. Aposematic species often also have unique behaviours that may also contribute to the increased effectiveness of the colour signals. Aposematism reduces predation by increasing that rate at which predators learn and increasing the memorability of the prey. For example, many aposematic species often form aggregations which may also reduce predation. However, much of the evidence for the effectiveness of aposematism comes from laboratory studies. The evidence for the efficacy of aposematism from field studies is scarcer and less convincing. Therefore, I will today outline the results of three experiments that examine some aspects of these assumptions of aposematism. First, I examined what species attack aposematic prey in Kyoto. I found that there were three main species (Japanese bush warblers, Narcissus flycatchers, and Japanese tits) which attack prey, but that they had different prey preferences and handling of aposematic prey. Second, I examined whether aposematic prey suffer lower levels of predation compared with other prey that have varying levels of conspicuousness and chemical defence. I found that the aposematic prey were not attacked at lower rates than cryptic prey with chemical defences. Finally, I examined the effect that aggregation has at reducing predation of aposematic prey. I found that aposematic prey did not suffer lower levels of predation in groups than when they were presented singly. Together, these results show that studying aposematic prey in the field is difficult and that aposematic prey may face different selection pressures in different environments. I will finish by briefly talking about my future research plans using this study system.
Liu Jie The co-existence of endangered primate species and ethnic groups in southwest China
Social structure and relationship between individuals in free-ranging groups of retired racehorses
Since they form long-lasting harem groups, horses (Equus caballus) have been thought to be social animals. In Japan, not like other countries, most horses are reproduced as racing horses, which usually have less experience of group-living with other conspecific individuals than feral ones. Recently, Japan Racing Association started a new project, which aims to support retired horses to spend the rest of their lives. Therefore, it is a certainty that more and more horses that have little social experiences will live in conspecific groups, and it is crucial to study social structures formed in those groups; however there are no studies conducted on such a unique situation. In this study, we used conventional methods and indices (David’s score, Social Network Analysis) to investigate their social structures by comparing with feral horses’ reported in previous studies. As a result, we found social hierarchies, which are milder than in feral groups. Besides that, different from feral individuals, which the relationships between group members strongly rely on social ranks, we also found that most individuals in our field site formed affiliative dyads regardless of social ranks. Considering those results and facts that there have been no serious accidents or fight among the individuals, and no individuals who never have social interaction with others, we indicate that even retired horses can manage to live in conspecific groups. Besides that, it is also indicated that they form milder and more affiliative-relying society than feral horses, which might be because of the less competitive circumstances for food resources and reproductions, or lack of predators.
The co-existence of endangered primate species and ethnic groups in southwest China
China is one of the world's major centers of biodiversity. Twenty-five primate species have been recorded in China living together with fifty-five ethnic minority groups. The overwhelming majority of primate species are found in southern China as well as the ethnic minority groups. There are great differences between different ethnics and regions when it comes to culture, economy, customs, and the natural environment. Many species have a long history of coexistence with the local ethnic minority communities. This study was focusing on the management and conservation planning for different endangered monkey species at southwest part of China under different research background condition (wild group and provisioning group) and encounter rate situation (frequent encounter, moderate encounter and low encounter). And I also try to explore the unlimited potential of ethnoprimatology in China for future conservation and coexistence. Firstly, this study evaluates behavioral differences between provisioned (Ts, 7 individuals) and wild (Tn, 13 individuals) family groups in Mayanghe National Nature Reserve, China. Scan sampling every 5 min for 12 h daily over 9 months (March 2013 to February 2014) was used to record behaviors in seven categories. Tn exhibited three main feeding periods daily, whereas Ts showed more variable behavioral patterns that relied on provisions. The Tn alpha male showed twice the amount of guarding behavior compared with the Ts alpha male. The proportion of each habitat type utilized differed significantly between Tn and Ts (χ2[4] = 17,131.4, p < 0.01). Additionally, dietary diversity differed between the two groups: Tn fed on 61 plant species, whereas Ts fed on 43 plant species. Tn rarely ate sweet potato and corn other than discarded remnants of human food (0.2% of their total food sources), whereas these foods represented 21.8% of Ts food sources. Data for the two troops were comparedto understand this species’ activities under human interference, in particular to determine whether provisioning is a suitable strategy for their conservation. Secondly, this study provide new information on Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) behavioral ecology for contributing to future conservation efforts within the Laojun Mountain National Park. Habitat evaluation procedures are used to quantify the value of land as habitat for a species. Environmental variables were analyzed for hypothesizing to influence habitat suitability for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, and mapped the distribution of suitable habitat across the study area and adjacent areas. Spatial analysis with GPS data was conducted to investigate home range change of these monkeys. Predictor variables were generated using ArcMap and R. 34 environmental variables were prepared at 30 m spatial resolution. Maxent was used to analyze environmental variables that contributed to suitability. The distribution of suitable habitat for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the Jinsichang area of the Laojun Mountains in China was modeled by using satellite remote sensing and GIS. This study did not describe the frequency nor intensity of habitat use. Habitat suitability was affected by several variables, the most influential, as determined by permutation importance, being mean diurnal temperature range (31.6%), precipitation during the wettest quarter of the year (30.4%), average annual precipitation (17%), normalized difference vegetation index (5%), wetness (4.6%), and aspect (4.5%). This habitat suitability model provides information about the current distribution of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, important for appropriate implementation of conservation actions. Lastly, I also explored a conservation process from an ethnoprimatology perspective for nature reserve management. I accumulated attitude and knowledge data on the traditional culture, religion, and current conservation situation from rural and urban groups of Lisu ethnic people who live in and outside Liju village. The data clearly indicate that despite the distance between Lisu people and their hometown or how different their educational backgrounds were, many of the interviewees expressed similar sentiments and attitudes toward the conservation of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys and Laojun Mountain National Park (LMNP). Rural (96.6%) and urban (100%) interviewees showed their ardent love for the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey. The rural (90.3%) and urban (89.0%) groups supported seasonal closing of mountainous areas for conservation. The Lisu people’s culture, history, and traditions were evaluated from the developing trend of environmentalism perspectives, and I found that their advanced attitudes toward environmental protection and utilization exceeded our imagination. This shows the huge value for human–animal conflict optimization and conservation planning not only for LMNP but also for other national parks or nature reserves. I hope this research can be the pioneer to open the gate of the unlimited potential of ethnoprimatology in China, especially in multi-ethnic group area, for future nature reserve management and area planning .
Suzuki 飼育下チーターにおける雌雄間のマーキング行動の違いについて
Dr. David Morgan Behavioral Ecology and Conservation of Great Apes in the Ndoki Forest
Dr. Crickette Sanz Chimpanzee Cultures in the Congo Basin
Dr Rebecca Johnson is a visiting professor with the Kyoto University Wildlife Research Center, and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). Dr Johnson’s science career is as a wildlife forensic scientist, conservation geneticist and chief investigator of the Koala Genome Consortium. In this presentation she will describe the breadth of AMRI research and how the museum utilises their natural science collections to solve applied science problems such as wildlife crime.
Wildlife crime is one of the most lucrative transnational crimes (along with drug, weapon and human trafficking). It is a serious and often confronting crime that can target vulnerable species, driving extinction and is often closely associated with organised crime. Dr Johnson commenced her work in wildlife forensic science soon after joining the Museum in 2003, and has since established the Australian Museum as one of the global leaders in the field. The museum’s Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics laboratory is the only ISO17025 accredited laboratory in Australia and one of only six such laboratories globally.
Dr Johnson will describe the science used in this work through case studies of investigation and prosecution of these crimes. She will also introduce a new collaboration, with WRC Director Murayama-sensei, focusing on understanding the eel (or unagi) trade in Japan. By volume, eel is one of the most highly traded group of species globally making this work highly relevant for Japan.
http://www.wildlife-science.org/en/asura-seminar/20190717.html
Qi Investigation about the teenagers' attitude towards the problem of free-roaming cats in Tokunoshima with the use of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
Plant eating habit of snow leopard: undergraduate work and future plan Scats of snow leopards in the wild frequently contain plant materials in several research areas. Previous studies showed cellulose intake prevent digestion in other felids. Thus, it is considered that snow leopards should avoid eating plant materials. The reason why they eat plants so frequently is still unknown. In this study, we conducted behavioral observation and scat analysis focusing on the effect of plant intake on digestion and hair evacuation. Plant intake increased transit time but, didn’t affect digestibility. As for hair evacuation, they tended to spend longer time for plant eating on the day they spent longer time for grooming. There was no positive correlation between hair and plant, on the other hand, more hair tended to be contained in scat evacuated after plants were excreted. Through master course, I continue studying the relationship between plant intake and hair evacuation. In addition, I will investigate their preference for plant species and relation between plant eating and other behaviors as well.
Investigation about the teenagers' attitude towards the problem of free-roaming cats in Tokunoshima with the use of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) Tokunoshima, one subtropical island in Japan, owns its unique ecosystem with the thriving of many endangered species. It is shown by previous researches that 1. the predation by free-roaming domestic cats is one serious threat to those endangered animals, 2. residents’ feeding is likely to worsen the impact. Aiming to get residents’ understanding and cooperation of the free-roaming cat management, we need to clarify both the characteristics of feeders and also the residents’ attitudes towards the cat management. Self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in all the junior and senior high school in Tokunoshima, including 1162 respondents (total:1255, response rate: 92.6%). We chose structured equation modelling (SEM) to analyze hierarchical structured attitude items. The results showed that teenagers who love cats did not have high contribution to the feeding frequency, while those with cat ownership, and those believing cats are useful in rodent control, tended to have higher feeding frequency. Instead of the recognition of ecosystem damage, those who recognized the cat-caused public health related damage, e.g. zoonoses and rubbish foraging,were more likely to support the free-roaming cat management. Considering that teenagers are being influenced largely by their parents and neighbors, it is implied that in Tokunoshima, enlightenment targeting at cat owners and agricultural workers, paying more attention to the recognition of cat-caused public health damage might be helpful in order to attain residents’ understanding and cooperation of the cat management.
Onishi Brief presentation of the dissertation and the future research plan
Self-domestication, groupmindedness, and cooperation: comparative perspectives from coyotes, bonobos and chimpanzees The evolution of cooperation has long been a topic of intense investigation to researchers. One proposal, the self-domestication hypothesis, suggests that selection for less reactive temperament leads to a suite of cognitive and physiological changes, including both increased tolerance enabling greater cooperation, and juvenilization of morphology and behaviour. Despite the self-domestication hypothesis predicting the possibility of self-domestication in wide-ranging species, no studies have tested the possibility of a wild species currently experiencing self-domestication. In my undergraduate thesis, we used camera traps across the state of North Carolina to test coyotes’ temperament based on reaction to noticing the camera (as a type of novel object task), predicting coyotes in towns and villages (resembling the environment of early dogs) will approach the camera more often. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found a significantly higher proportion of coyotes approached the camera in areas of higher human density. Self-domestication, and many theories on the evolution of cooperation more generally, however, have been based almost entirely on studies of dyadic cooperation. Comparisons of chimpanzees and bonobos reveal that group cooperation might represent a separate cognitive disposition that can evolve separately. Here, I propose a plan of study in both the field and lab to tease apart selection pressures required for “groupmindedness.” I will then describe in more detail 2 particular studies, presenting preliminary results from an experiment recording visual attention following administering intranasal oxytocin to bonobos and chimpanzees, and then presenting planned methods and hypotheses for a playback experiment studying the impact of outgroup threat on ingroup cohesion and tolerance in chimpanzees.
Brief presentation of the dissertation and the future research plan Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are well-known for their unique feature of cooperative breeding, which makes them behavioral neighbors to humans. In this study, we observed intragroup interactions of six monogamous breeding pairs of captive common marmosets with varying numbers of offspring. The study aimed to test the hypothesis that as the number of offspring (prospective helpers) increase, the frequency of social interactions between the breeding pairs will decrease. Although the results obtained from this study did not support the hypothesis statistically, we found interesting possible effects of sex, age, and pregnancy on the social relationships of breeding pairs. Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are one of the two living species closest to our last common ancestor. However, comprehensive study on bonobos are still significantly lacking. Mbali is a new field site in the western part of DRC which is the savanna-forest environment where no behavioral research has been conducted. The future research plan will be discussed for the coming departure to Mbali in August.
Japanese macaques are generally less tolerant, have strict rank relationships, and form despotic societies. However, the Japanese macaque population, which lives in Awaji Island, shows a high tolerance specifically for Japanese macaques, and there are also large variations in their social structure. In this presentation, I discuss the unique social structure of Japanese macaques in Awaji Island, focusing on the mode of grooming and the social cohesiveness.
Yunnan is China’s richest biodiversity hotspot and also a most immense ethnic diversity area. It also a place of vast territory and abundant resources, holds the unique geographical location, covering the cold temperate, temperate, warm temperate, subtropical, and the tropical zones ranging from north to south. Overwhelming majority of the primate species occur in the southern parts of the China, especially in Yunnan Province where as many as 13 species. And twenty-six ethnic groups can be find in Yunnan. Many species had a long history coexist with local ethnic minority communities, like Lisu people and Yunnan snub-nosed monkey in Laojun mountains. The conservation project turned out to be success at a certain extent. However, fruitful conservation is accompanied by increasing conflict. As the establishment of natural reserves, the population of the wild animals increasing gradually together with their distribution range. Meanwhile the occurrence rate of animal damages increase together with the wildlife trade and poaching. It brings new challenges to the past wildlife management and conservation. Rangers and researchers are trying their best to explore the new balance among tradition and reality toward the conservation and conflict.
The Ryukyu flying fox is distributed in Nansei islands. Despite the fact that it is listed as VU in IUCN Red List, few genetic analyses have been conducted. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity and differentiation between islands of the Yaeyama flying fox, which is one of the subspecies of the Ryukyu flying fox. We analyzed mtDNA haplotypes of the samples from 8 islands where the subspecies lives. As a result, we found no clear genetic differentiation between the islands, and it is suggested that there might be some gene flow between them. On the other hand, genetic diversity was lower in the islands which were far from the main habitats. In order to investigate the genetic structure by more specific analyses, we have developed 34 microsatellite markers through shotgun sequencing by NGS and primer designing.
Some mammalian species of different taxonomic groups, including humans, have developed social structures with nested levels of organization. This multilevel society is one of the most complex social systems in animals, but their function and evolutional process are still poorly understood because it requires good observation of large numbers of identified individuals. In this study, we aimed to reveal whether domestic horses form multilevel societies. We took aerial photos of feral horse herds in Serra D’Arga Portugal in 30 minutes interval using drones, identified all the individuals and collected their position data. In the field, we observed 21 harems, 2 bachelor groups and several solitary bachelors. Their home range were largely overlapped and the area of convex hull of these groups were significantly smaller than each home range, which suggests harems and bachelors aggregates to form a herd. Moreover, this herd had a structure that large harems were likely to be in the center, while bachelors were in the peripheral zone, and small harems were located somewhere between that. The presence of this stable spatial pattern strongly indicates the multilevel structures of feral horse society.
（Mainly I will talk about what I have done during my stay in Strasbourg University and the future plan.）