The principle of least effort suggests that animals should minimize effort to reinforcement. Thus, not pecking should be preferred over pecking. However, pigeons often peck when it is allowed but not required (e.g., fixed time schedules) but pecking may be adventitiously reinforced. In the present experiment, to better compare a schedule of reinforcement that requires pecking with one that requires the absence of pecking, we compared a fixed-interval (FI) schedule in which reinforcement follows the first peck after the interval has elapsed and a differential-reinforcement-of-other behavior (DRO) schedule which requires pigeons abstain from pecking for a similar interval. The delay to reinforcement was matched on a trial-by-trial basis by extending the duration of the FI to match the DRO schedule that preceded it. Of 12 pigeons, 6 preferred the DRO schedule over the FI schedule and 6 did not show a schedule preference. Those that were indifferent between the schedules had acquired the contingences, as they responded appropriately to the two schedules but had a spatial preference stronger than their schedule preference. Individual differences in the preference of the pigeons may be related to their behavior during the DRO.

The question of animals and performance defines the crossroads of the academic fields of Critical Animals Studies and Performance Studies, giving rise to the proposition of inter-species performance. But are all performances that integrate animals into the production inter-species? Or are there different manners of collaboration? In 2008 and my horse, Katrina, and I rode across Canada. Though this event was not undertaken as a performance endeavour, the production that emerged can be understood as a uniquely collaborative human/equine performance – The Ride. The Ride presented a meeting through the middle of an inter-species partnership that was performance in its foundation of physical communication and learned cooperation between a human and a horse. The Ride was an event that “became” a performance due to its active, reciprocal human/equine exchange, and the experiential interaction of a host of audience/participators throughout the course of the journey. Through embracing the positive, expansive qualities of equine alterity, and recognizing both the human and equine perspectives at play within the event, The Ride presented a performance that was fundamentally inter-species.

Thus far, the novel Naked Lunch has not been discussed from the aspect of critical animal studies, nor has it been connected to the theories of Michel Foucault. This essay however, argues that these diverse fields could be connected through the use of the simians that are frequently employed in Naked Lunch. By analyzing the metaphorical role of the simian, the structure of the normalization process can be revealed. Therefore the simian’s metaphorical role becomes to reveal the different stages character goes through in that process and ultimately revealing its negative effects. They also prove to employ the role of abnormality which normalization wants to subtract from the human in order to render her docile. By applying the power mechanisms such as signals, the concept of panopticism and the theory of the docile body to specific passages where simians are highly prominent, the claim of this paper can be demonstrated. Besides Foucault, the theories of Robin Lydenberg are also used consistently throughout the essay due to her valuable observations such as the struggle between body and mind.

I anslutning till det ökade vetenskapliga intresset för relationen djur – människa ämnar jag här undersöka varför många hästmänniskor söker sig informella kunskapsvägar, vägar som inte sällan står i strid med hegemoniska diskurser och maktstrukturer inom den svenska hästvärlden. Mina frågeställningar är följande: Hur ser den formella kunskapsvägen i Hästsverige ut och varför tycks det finnas ett motstånd mot denna? Hur ser motståndet ut? Vad är det man väljer bort? Vad söker man istället? Materialet består av intervjuer med människor som valt informella sätt att nå kunskap om hästar, författarens egna erfarenheter samt texter som behandlar den svenska hästvärlden i stort. Resultatet kan sammanfattas i att människor dras till de informella kunskapsvägarna därför att dessa i större utsträckning än de formella betraktar hästen som en individ vars vilja och agens förtjänar respekt och förståelse.

Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.

Submitted by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2016-10-11T16:01:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Eveline dos Santos Teixeira Baptistella.pdf: 3463250 bytes, checksum: ba0727f6b085ef96eea4d1c1b7a46ad6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2016-10-11T16:03:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Eveline dos Santos Teixeira Baptistella.pdf: 3463250 bytes, checksum: ba0727f6b085ef96eea4d1c1b7a46ad6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-11T16:03:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Eveline dos Santos Teixeira Baptistella.pdf: 3463250 bytes, checksum: ba0727f6b085ef96eea4d1c1b7a46ad6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-10 / O relacionamento entre animais humanos e não-humanos é tão antigo quanto se pode rastrear pelos registros históricos, mas este é um envolvimento que vai se transformando conforme a própria sociedade se modifica. Do papel de presa na préhistória ao de “pai” de pets nos dias atuais, o ser humano se envolve e convive com os bichos de diversas maneiras e em instâncias variadas. A partir da inserção dos animais não-humanos nas esferas ética, moral e afetiva humanas no panorama derivado da crise ecológica da segunda metade do século XX, o objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar as relações entre pessoas e animais na sociedade contemporânea. Para tal, são enfocados dois aspectos. De um lado, os paradigmas científicos e suas variáveis na construção/destruição de fronteiras entre espécies são estudadas a partir da pesquisa bibliográfica e do relato de caso. De outro, os laços/barreiras desenvolvidos e vividos no cotidiano com base em entrevistas e etnografia realizadas da cidade de Cuiabá, capital de Mato Grosso. / Human and non-humans animals’ relationship is far too old, as remarked in the historical records, but this engagement transforms itself as society changes. From prehistory prey’s role to actual dad’s pet, human beings relate to and live with animals on different ways and moments. From the inclusion of non-human animals in human ethical, moral and affective spheres, due a panorama derived from ecological crisis in the second half of the twentieth century, this research aims at analyzing human and animals’ relationship in contemporary society. To do so, it focuses on two mainly aspects: on one hand, a bibliographical research and a case report investigates the scientific paradigms and their variables in the construction / destruction of boundaries between species; on another hand, the bonds/barriers daily created and experienced, based on interviews and ethnography, held in the Cuiaba city, capital of Mato Grosso.

Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.

Abstract The horse is one of the most important animals both culturally and historically in Finland. During the last 100 years the use of horses has changed as their roles in agricultural and forestry work and warfare have changed to companion in sport, therapy and recreation. In the 1960s the number of horses collapsed with the mechanization and urbanization. And yet their numbers are now rising with their popularity in recreation and sports. This study seeks to explain how the changing roles of the horse are displayed in the concepts of it, its handling and human-horse relationship in Finland. The time span of the research dates from the 1920s to 2000s but some background knowledge of horses from archaeology, history and ethnology are also used. This PhD study falls under the fields of cultural anthropology and human-animal studies. The main research material consists of interviews conducted by the researcher and written horse stories of Finnish people from the archives of the Finnish Literature Society. The theoretical-methodological framework in this study employs cognitive anthropology and narrative research. Those narratives which included personal experiences were analyzed with the interviews in order to find cultural models of human-horse relationship and to find the most common concepts and meanings given to horses. Furthermore, in the research the meaning of childhood experiences, different concepts of horses by different generations and genders, and the differences due to varying horse keeping traditions, such as trotting and riding, were identified. The analysis according to cultural model theory produced five cultural models based on the different concepts of horses and the ways they were handled such as servant, machine, hero, performer and therapist. Of these the servant and machine models were associated with the working horse, and in the servant model the human-horse relationship was described by trust, matching temperaments, and human leadership. Machine model included a mechanical idea of horses and was based on mistrust, disregard and domination towards the animal. The warhorse was seen as a hero that was anthropomorphized and respected more than other horses in the narratives. Of contemporary horses the sport horses were seen as performers and the human-horse relationship was based on practicality, reading the horse and human ambition. A leisure horse was considered a therapist with which the relationship was based on understanding, nurture and adventurous experience. The horse appears as a friend and an object of affection in all other models except the machine model. / Tiivistelmä Hevonen on yksi merkittävimpiä eläimiä Suomessa niin kulttuurisesti kuin historiallisesti. Sen rooli on kuitenkin muuttunut paljon viimeisen sadan vuoden aikana; kun 1960-luvulla hevosten määrä romahti maatalouden murroksen ja kaupungistumisen myötä, nykyään hevosten määrä nousee sen suosion kasvaessa harraste- ja urheilueläimenä. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin, miten muutos näkyy suomalaisten hevoseen, hevosen käsittelyyn sekä ihmisen ja hevosen suhteeseen liittämissä käsityksissä. Ajallisesti tutkimus keskittyi 1920–2000-lukujen väliseen ajanjaksoon, mutta sitä taustoitettiin arkeologisella, historiallisella ja kansatieteellisellä tiedolla hevosesta. Kulttuuriantropologian sekä yhteiskuntatieteellisen ja humanistisen eläintutkimuksen erityisaloihin kuuluvan tutkimuksen pääaineisto koostui tekijän tekemistä haastatteluista sekä Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Hevostarinakeruu-kilpakeruuaineistosta. Tutkimuksen teoreettis-metodologinen viitekehys koostui kognitiivisen antropologian ja narratiivitutkimuksen näkökulmista. Tutkimusaineistoon valituista kokemuskertomuksista etsittiin kulttuurisia malleja hevosesta eli niissä yleisemmin esiintyviä käsityksiä ja merkityksiä. Tutkimuksessa kävivät lisäksi ilmi lapsuuden hevoskokemusten merkityksellisyys, eri sukupolvien ja sukupuolten erilaiset hevoskäsitykset ja eri hevosenkäsittelyperinteistä juontuvat erot esimerkiksi ravi- ja ratsastuskulttuureissa. Kulttuurimalliteorian mukaisen analyysin tuloksena löytyi viisi kulttuurista mallia hevosesta ja hevosen käsittelystä; palvelija-, kone-, sankari-, suorittaja- ja terapeuttimallit. Näistä palvelija- ja konemallit liittyivät työhevoseen. Palvelijamallin mukaan ihmisen ja hevosen suhdetta kuvasivat luottamus, luonteiden yhteen sopiminen ja ihmisen johtajuus. Konemalli perustui epäluuloon ja välinpitämättömyyteen hevosta kohtaan sekä hevosen alistamiseen. Sankarina näyttäytyi sotahevonen, jota inhimillistettiin ja kunnioitettiin kertomuksissa enemmän kuin muita hevosia. Nykyhevosista urheiluhevoset näyttäytyvät suorittajina ja suhteessa siihen korostuivat käytännöllisyys, hevosen lukeminen ja ihmisen kunnianhimo. Harrastehevonen oli monelle kertojalle terapeutti, jonka kanssa suhde perustui ymmärtämiseen, hoivaamiseen ja elämyksellisyyteen. Ystävänä ja kiintymyksen kohteena hevonen näyttäytyi kaikissa paitsi konemallissa.

Increasing human population size is increasing the demand for resources like timber, oil, tea, coffee, and other crops. Plantation crops mimic some aspects of native habitats, and there are studies that report the presence of some native anuran biodiversity in plantations. I focused on tea plantations in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot and studied the diversity and health of anurans in different habitats found within a tea cultivation area, near Munnar region in the Western Ghats, India. The landscape includes tea bushes, native evergreen shola forest patches, and eucalyptus forest stands. I reviewed 40 studies comparing amphibian species richness in plantations and primary forests. The age of the plantation, type of plantation, presence in a biodiversity hotspot, number of species in the dominant plantation type, number of species in the paired forest habitat, and latitudinal zone of the study, did not correlate with species richness, but plantations that had periodic harvesting had higher species richness than plantations that practiced clear-cut harvesting. I tested different methods of standard amphibian sampling in the field season 2012 in Munnar, and found that Visual Encounter Surveys (VES) in the shola habitat and Stream Transects (ST) were the most efficient. Using the VES and ST methods, I sampled amphibians in three upland habitats (tea, shola, and eucalyptus) at four different sites, and 150m of stream transects at each site, for two consecutive monsoon seasons. Fourteen species were encountered in both years and the community structure was similar across the years. The community structure at the four sites that was driven by the presence of exclusive species at each site and species composition in streams was similar across the landscape and was driven by the presence of similar species in streams across the four sites. Two hundred and sixteen anurans of 17 species, were tested for the presence of the lethal fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The preliminary results from the Polymerase Chain Reactions were negative. My study provides baseline data for anuran diversity, composition, and health in the Munnar region of India and results of this project can be compared with tea plantations around the world.

Human interaction greatly influences the behavior and distribution of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). This project focuses on the distribution and behavior of bottlenose dolphins in the Drowned Cayes, Belize. Prior to the 2000s, the area was relatively undeveloped and undisturbed and had minimal human activity. Since the turn of the millennium, development and ecotourism activity has flourished in the area, increasing by more than 800,000 visitors from 1998-2006. Boat-based surveys were conducted in 2015 and were combined with previous survey data collected from 2005-2012 and compared to behavioral survey results from 1999-2000. Total dolphin observation time as a percent of total survey time and average number of dolphins per sighting were 17.2% and 2.7 in 1999-2000 and 10.8% and 1.6 for 2005-2015. The low number of dolphins and the low observation times suggest that the dolphin population in the Drowned Cayes have decreased since the 1990s. Eighty-nine percent of the total observation time for 2015 occurred on days in which there were zero cruise ships in the area suggesting that this decline may be in relation to increased human activity. Furthermore, foraging was the main behavior observed for both 1999-2000 and 2005-2015 data sets, suggesting that the Drowned Cayes area is used as a foraging ground. However, in 1999-2000 the foraging percentage was significantly higher than the 2005-2015 data set, dropping 28.9% and there was a 23.6% increase in traveling behavior between the two data sets. This could be a result of increased human activity. Additionally, survey photographs and results were used in the creation of the first dolphin photo identification database for the country. The guidelines used for photo analysis for photo quality and fin distinctiveness were tested to determine if they are easy to use and give consistent and reliable results regardless of judge. An intraclass correlation model calculated substantial agreement (ICC = 0.7) between judges’ scores, demonstrating consistent results, regardless of experience level. Therefore, the guideline can be used as a standard among multiple researchers.