Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:37:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CarolinaCA_DISSERT.pdf: 2842733 bytes, checksum: 3e54d35218351983a82f9dd10743303b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-12 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / One of the main environmental cues for the adjustment of temporal organization of the animals is the light-dark cycle (LD), which undergoes changes in phase duration throughout the seasons. Photoperiod signaling by melatonin in mammals allows behavioral changes along the year, as in the activity-rest cycle, in mood states and in cognitive performance. The aim of this study was to investigate if common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) exhibits behavioral changes under short and long photoperiods in a 24h cycle, assessing their individual behaviors, vocal repertoire, exploratory activity (EA), recognition memory (RM) and the circadian rhythm of locomotor activity (CRA). Eight adult marmosets were exposed to a light-dark cycle of 12:12; LD 08:16; LD 12:12 and LD 16:08, sequentially, for four weeks in each condition. Locomotor activity was recorded 24h/day by passive infrared motion detectors above the individual cages. A video camera system was programmed to record each animal, twice a week, on the first two light hours. From the videos, frequency of behaviors was registered as anxiety-like, grooming, alert, hanging position, staying in nest box and feeding using continuous focal animal sampling method. Simultaneously, the calls emitted in the experimental room were recorded by a single microphone centrally located and categorized as affiliative (whirr, chirp), contact (phee), long distance (loud shrill), agonistic (twitter) and alarm (tsik, seep, see). EA was assessed on the third hour after lights onset on the last week of each condition. In a first session, marmosets were exposed to one unfamiliar object during 15 min and 24h later, on the second session, a novel object was added to evaluate RM. Results showed that long days caused a decreased of amplitude and period variance of the CRA, but not short days. Short days decreased the total daily activity and active phase duration. On long days, active phase duration increased due to an advance of activity onset in relation to symmetric days. However, not all subjects started the activity earlier on long days. The activity offset was similar to symmetric days for the majority of marmosets. Results of EA showed that RM was not affected by short or long days, and that the marmosets exhibited a decreased in duration of EA on long days. Frequency and type of calls and frequency of anxiety-like behaviors, staying in nest box and grooming were lower on the first two light hours on long days. Considering the whole active phase of marmosets as we elucidate the results of vocalizations and behaviors, it is possible that these changes in the first two light hours are due to the shifting of temporal distribution of marmoset activities, since some animals did not advance the activity onset on long days. Consequently, the marmosets mean decreased because the sampling was not possible. In conclusion, marmosets synchronized the CRA to the tested photoperiods and as the phase angle varied a lot among marmosets it is suggested that they can use different strategies. Also, long days had an effect on activity-rest cycle and exploratory behaviors / Uma das principais pistas ambientais para o ajuste da organiza??o temporal dos animais ? o ciclo claro-escuro (CE), que sofre altera??o na dura??o das fases no decorrer das esta??es do ano. A sinaliza??o do fotoper?odo pelo horm?nio melatonina possibilita que os mam?feros se comportem de forma diferenciada ao longo do ano, como no ritmo de atividade-repouso, nos estados de humor e no desempenho cognitivo. Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar se o sagui (Callithrix jacchus) exibe altera??es comportamentais em fotofases de diferentes dura??es em ciclo CE de 24h por meio da avalia??o dos repert?rios comportamental e vocal, da atividade explorat?ria (AE), da mem?ria de reconhecimento (MR) e do ritmo circadiano de atividade locomotora (RCA) em ambiente laboratorial. Oito saguis adultos, alojados individualmente, passaram 28 dias em cada etapa: dias sim?tricos (DS1 - CE 12h:12h), dias curtos (DC - CE 8h:16h), DS2 (CE 12h:12h) e dias longos (DL - CE 16h:8h). A atividade locomotora foi registrada continuamente por sensores de movimento acima das gaiolas. Um sistema de c?meras registrou os comportamentos individuais por 2 horas ap?s o in?cio do claro, duas vezes por semana. A partir das filmagens, foi amostrada a frequ?ncia dos comportamentos ansiosos, cata??o, alerta, pendurado, ficar na caixa ninho e comer pelo m?todo Animal Focal Cont?nuo. Ao mesmo tempo, um microfone registrou as vocaliza??es emitidas na sala de experimenta??o, categorizadas em afiliativa (whirr, chirp), contato (phee), longa dist?ncia (loud shrill), agon?stica (twitter) e alarme (tsik, seep, see). A AE foi avaliada na terceira hora ap?s o in?cio do claro em 2 sess?es de 15 min na ?ltima semana de cada ciclo. Na primeira apresenta??o, foi utilizado um objeto n?o familiar e 24 h depois, na segunda apresenta??o, foi adicionado um novo objeto para avaliar a MR. Os resultados mostraram que os DL diminu?ram a amplitude e a vari?ncia do per?odo do RCA, mas n?o os DC. Os DC causaram uma diminui??o do total di?rio de atividade e da dura??o da fase ativa. Nos DL, a dura??o da fase ativa aumentou devido a um avan?o no in?cio da atividade em rela??o aos dias sim?tricos. Contudo, nem todos os sujeitos iniciaram a atividade mais cedo nos dias longos. O hor?rio de t?rmino da atividade nos DL foi similar aos DS para a maioria dos sujeitos. Os resultados da AE mostrou que os DL e DC n?o afetaram a MR dos saguis e que os DL reduziram a dura??o da AE. Tamb?m foi observado nos DL uma redu??o da frequ?ncia e da diversidade das vocaliza??es, bem como da frequ?ncia dos comportamentos ansiosos, ficar na caixa ninho e cata??o nas duas horas ap?s in?cio do claro. Considerando toda a fase ativa na interpreta??o dos resultados dos comportamentos e vocaliza??es, ? poss?vel que essas altera??es nas duas horas iniciais tenham sido pelo deslocamento da distribui??o temporal da atividade do sagui e n?o um efeito genu?no dos DL, pois alguns animais n?o avan?aram o in?cio da atividade nos DL, causando a redu??o na m?dia do grupo por impossibilitar a amostragem. Em conclus?o, os saguis sincronizaram o RCA aos fotoper?odos e, pela varia??o individual nas rela??es de fase, parecem fazer uso de diferentes estrat?gias. Al?m disso, os DL afetaram o ciclo de atividade e repouso e as respostas explorat?rias

Quantificar e qualificar o bem-estar de animais de produção, ainda é um desafio. Em qualquer avaliação de bem-estar, deve-se analisar, principalmente, a ausência de sentimentos negativos fortes, como o sofrimento, e a presença de sentimentos positivos, como o prazer. O objetivo principal dessa pesquisa foi quantificar a vocalização de suínos em grupos sob diferentes condições térmicas. Em termos de objetivos específicos foram avaliar a existência de padrões vocálicos de comunicação entre animais alojados em grupo e extrair as características acústicas dos espectros sonoros das vocalizações relacionando com as diferentes condições do micro-clima da instalação. O experimento foi realizado em uma unidade de experimentação com suínos, junto à University of Illinois (EUA), com ambiente controlado. Quatro grupos de seis leitões foram utilizados para a coleta dos dados. Foram instalados dataloggers para registrar as variáveis ambientais (T, °C e UR, %) e posterior cálculo dos índices de conforto (ITU e Entalpia do ar). Foram instalados microfones do tipo cardióide no centro geométrico de cada baia que abrigava os leitões, para registro das vocalizações. Os microfones foram conectados a um amplificador de sinais, e este a uma placa de captura dos sinais de áudio e vídeo, instalados em um computador. Para as edições dos arquivos de áudio contendo as vocalizações dos leitões, o programa Goldwave® foi utilizado na separação, e aplicação de filtros para a retirada de ruídos. Na sequência, os áudios foram analisados com auxílio do programa Sounds Analysis Pro 2011, onde foram extraídos as características acústicas. A amplitude (dB), frequência fundamental (Hz), frequência média (Hz), frequência de pico (Hz) e entropia foram utilizados para caracterização do espectro sonoro das vocalizações do grupo de leitões nas diferentes condições térmicas. O delineamento do experimento foi em blocos casualizados, com dois tratamentos, e três repetições na semana, sendo executado em duas semanas. Os dados foram amostrados para uma análise do comportamento do banco de dados de vocalização em relação aos tratamentos que foram aplicados. Os dados foram submetidos a uma análise de variância utilizando o proc GLM do SAS. Dentre os parâmetros acústicos analisados, a amplitude (dB), frequência fundamental e entropia. Os tratamentos, condição de conforto e condição de calor, apresentaram diferenças significativas, pelo teste de Tukey (p<0,05). A análise de variância mostrou diferenças no formato da onda para cada condição térmica nos diferentes períodos do dia. É possível quantificar a vocalização em grupos de suínos em diferentes condições térmicas, por intermédio da extração das características acústicas das amostras sonoras. O espectro sonoro foi extraído, indicando possíveis variações do comportamento dos leitões nas diferentes condições térmicas dentro dos períodos do dia. No entanto, a etapa de reconhecimento de padrão, ainda necessita de um banco de dados maior e mais consistente para o reconhecimento do espectro em cada condição térmica, seja por análise das imagens ou pela extração das características acústicas. Dentre as características acústicas analisadas, a amplitude (dB), frequência fundamental (Hz) e entropia das vocalizações em grupo de suínos foram significativas para expressar a condição dos animais quando em diferentes condições térmicas. / To quantify and to qualify animal well-being in livestock farms is still a challenge. To assess animal well-being, it must be analyzed, mainly, the absence of strong negative feelings, like pain, and the presence of positive feelings, like pleasure. The main objective was to quantify vocalization in a group of pigs under different thermal conditions. The specific objectives were to assess the existence of vocal pattern of communication between housing groups of pigs, and get the acoustic characteristics of the sound spectrum from the vocalizations related to the different microclimate conditions. The trial was carried out in a controlled environment experimental unit for pigs, at the University of Illinois (USA). Four groups of six pigs were used in the data collection. Dataloggers were installed to record environmental variables (T, °C and RH, %). These environmental variable were used to calculate two thermal comfort index: Enthalpy and THI. Cardioid microphones were installed to record continuous vocalizations in the geometric center of each pen where the pigs were housing. Microphones were connected to an amplifier, and this was connected to a dvr card installed in a computer to record audio and video information. For doing the sound edition in a pig vocalization database, the Goldwave® software was used to separate, and filter the files excluding background noise. In the sequence, the sounds were analyzed using the software Sounds Analysis Pro 2011, and the acoustic characteristics were extracted. Amplitude (dB), pitch (Hz), mean frequency (Hz), peak frequency (Hz) and entropy were used to characterize the sound spectrum of vocalizations of the groups of piglets in the different thermal conditions. A randomized block design was used, composed by two treatments and three repetitions in a week and executed in two weeks. Data were sampled to analyze the behavior of the databank of vocalization as a relation to the applied treatments. Data were submitted to an analysis of variance using the proc GLM of SAS. Among the studied acoustic parameters, the amplitude (dB), pitch and entropy. The treatments (comfort and heat stress conditions) presented significative differences, through Tukey\'s test (p<0,05). The analysis of variance showed differences to the wave format to each thermal condition in the different periods of the day. The quantification of vocalization of swine in groups under different thermal conditions is possible, using the extraction of acoustic characteristics from the sound samples. The sound spectrum was extracted, which indicated possible alterations in the piglets behavior in the different thermal conditions during the periods of the day. However, the stage of pattern\'s recognition still needs a larger and more consistent database to the recognition of the spectrum in each thermal condition, through image analysis or by the extraction of the acoustic characteristics. Among he analyzed acoustic characteristics, the amplitude (dB), pitch (Hz) and entropy of the vocalizations of groups of swine were significative to express the condition of the animals in different thermal conditions.

Os animais são expostos a diferentes situações que podem colocar em risco sua sobrevivência. Na natureza estas situações, em geral, eliciam medo e ou ansiedade. A agressão é um conjunto de comportamentos direcionados a um indivíduo co específico, ou não, que tem como objetivo a aquisição de recursos ou proteção em situações de risco à sobrevivência. Considerando a interação entre medo/ansiedade e agressividade, este trabalho teve como objetivo estudar se essas situações podem modificar o comportamento agressivo agressividade em camundongos. O propósito deste estudo foi investigar se a pre-exposição de camundongos a estímulos estressores incondicionados (campo aberto, labirinto em cruz elevado, exposição ao rato, exposição a odor de rato) e condicionados (choque nas patas) podem modular o futuro comportamento agressivo em camundongos. Para atingir esse objetivo, os animais foram previamente expostos a diferentes situações capazes de provocar um estado de ansiedade e/ou medo e posteriormente submetidos ao encontro agonístico (teste residente intruso). As alterações na reatividade emocional induzidas pelas variáveis independentes foram medidas usando a resposta de sobressalto potencializado pelo medo e a análise de vocalizações ultrassônicas. Devido à influência relevante da neurotransmissão de GABA na agressão, as mudanças comportamentais induzidas pelas variáveis utilizadas foram associadas com o benzodiazepínico diazepam. Os dados obtidos no presente estudo após análise mostrou que a pré-exposição de camundongos a situações aversivas que provocam medo e / ou ansiedade alteram o seu comportamento. / Aggression is defined as a behavioral repertoire mainly directed to a conspecific for acquisition of resources and protection. In this context, anxiety and fear-like behaviors is commonly triggered by these survivors situations. Since aggression and fear are highly correlated in the present study we investigated whether previous exposure to environmental unconditioned (rat presence and rat odor, open field and elevated plus-maze tests, foot-shocks) and conditioned aversive stimuli (fear-potentiated startle) can modulate future aggressive behavior in mice. To achieve this goal, the animals were previously exposed to different situations able to elicit a state of anxiety and/or fear and later submitted to the agonistic encounter. Changes on the emotional reactivity induced by the independent variables used were measured using the fear-potentiated startle response and ultrasonic vocalizations analysis. Due to the relevant influence of GABA neurotransmission on aggression, behavioral changes induced by the variables used were challenged with the prototypic benzodiazepine diazepam. In addition, regarding human aggression, the most effective and enduring pharmacological intervention rely on compounds that act as dopaminergic antagonists. Therefore, in our study, in order to verify the influence of dopamine neurotransmission on the modulation of aggression pharmacological manipulation was conducted with the systemic administration of the dopamine D2 agonist apomorphine. Both drugs were administered previously to the resident-intruder test. The data obtained in the present study after analysis show that the pre-exposure to aversive situations that trigger fear and/or anxiety changes mice behavior.

Orientador: Irenilza de Alencar Nääs / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T11:14:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cordeiro_AlexandraFerreiradaSilva_M.pdf: 2367138 bytes, checksum: 6f75c3d8e468c0ebd6f7bceda2a2889b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Entre os desafios da suinocultura no atual mercado competitivo destaca-se a rastreabilidade do produto que garante entre muitos pontos a questão do bem estar animal. O objetivo dessa pesquisa é estimar o gasto energético da vocalização de leitões em situação de dor e identificar suínos e sua condição de estresse pela sua vocalização. A primeira hipótese é que é possível estimar a energia gasta na vocalização. A segunda é que é possível identificar suínos pela sua vocalização e a terceira é que é possível identificar o estado de bem- estar ou estresse de suínos pela sua vocalização. Para tanto foram realizados três experimentos em granja comercial da cidade de Holambra- SP. No primeiro experimento foi analisada a vocalização de dois grupos de leitões durante a castração, um grupo com anestesia local e outro sem anestesia. A energia emitida no sinal vocal foi processada no software Matlab®. No segundo foi realizado a gravação da vocalização dos animais durante a caudectomia, marcação e castração. No terceiro experimento foi realizada a gravação da vocalização de leitões nas fases de maternidade, creche, crescimento e terminação em diferentes situações de estresse: sem estresse e com estresse térmico, fome, sede e dor. Para análises dos sinais de sons foi utilizado o software Praat®. Foi possível estimar a energia gasta na vocalização dos suínos e identificar condições de estresse pela sua vocalização. Porém, não foi possível identificar os animais pela sua vocalização / Abstract: Among the challenges in today's competitive market hog stands out for the product traceability, that ensures many points between the issue of animal welfare. The objective of this research is to estimate the energy expenditure of the vocalization of piglets in a situation of pain and identify pigs and their stress condition for their vocalization. The first hypothesis is that it is possible to estimate the energy expended in vocalization. The second is that pigs can be identified by their vocalizations, and the third is that it is possible to identify the state of well-being or stress of pigs by their vocalization. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in commercial farm, in the city of Holambra-SP. In the first experiment, we analyzed the vocalizations of two groups of piglets during castration, one group with local anesthesia and the other without anesthesia. The energy emitted in the voice signal was obtained in Matlab ®. In the second experiment we analyzed the vocalizations of piglets during caudectomia, marking and castration. In the third experiment, it was performed recording of the vocalization of piglets in the stages of farrowing, nursery, growing and finishing in different situations of stress: no stress and thermal stress, hunger, thirst and pain. The software Praat® was used for analyzing of sound signals. It was possible to estimate the energy expended in the vocalization of pigs, and identify the stress conditions by using their vocalization as input variable. However, it was not possible to identify animals by their vocalization / Mestrado / Construções Rurais e Ambiencia / Doutora em Engenharia Agrícola

Sound is used as a medium for communication by taxa as varied as insects, fish, amphibians, birds and mammals. In some birds like the suboscines, song is genetically encoded, whereas in parrots, hummingbirds and oscines, it is learnt. The diversity and plasticity of birdsong continues to generate interest amongst ornithologists, and many questions remain unresolved. For instance, why do some species sing hundreds of different songs while others use simple, stereotyped ones for the same purposes? Why do some birds learn not only their own species’ song, but also the songs of heterospecifics? There are several anecdotal reports of such vocal mimicry in wild birds, where a species imitates the song or call of heterospecifics in its natural habitat, but much has yet to be learnt about this intriguing phenomenon. There has been a recent surge of interest and research into avian vocal mimicry. Despite having several species of birds that are known to produce mimicry, there is a dearth of research on this field in India. The Greater Racket-tailed drongo’s loud song and ability to mimic other species of birds with great accuracy has drawn the attention of many birdwatchers, but other than a few phonetic descriptions, no study has focussed on their song. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the structure, contexts and functions of vocal mimicry in this species. In order to understand the functions of vocal mimicry in any species, we require certain fundamental data, which are often overlooked in many studies of bird song. Since this is the first study focusing on the racket-tailed drongo in India, I began with collecting natural history data on the ecology and breeding biology of the species. Then, I attempted to arrive at an objective and quantitative definition and classification of the racket-tailed drongo’s vocal repertoire, especially its mimicry. It is also essential to have information on the contexts in which this mimicry is used. Using a combination of focal animal sampling and sound recordings, I documented the contexts in which the racket-tailed drongo imitates other species in the wild. I also examined the diversity of the species that were mimicked across these contexts. Building on the data from these observations, I used playback experiments to test hypotheses for the functions of mimicry in multiple contexts. Results from these show that greater racket-tailed drongos use mimicry in a flexible manner according to the intended audience. Drongos use two different sets of mimicked calls with distinct syntax directed at conspecifics and heterospecifics respectively, the former in territorial song and the latter to attract members of mixed-species flocks. These results also imply that mimicry may be driven by both sexual and natural selection within the same species, and have implications for the definition of avian vocal mimicry, which remains highly debated.

The current study investigated whether point-accompanying characteristics, like vocalizations and hand shape, differentiate infants’ underlying motives of prelinguistic pointing. We elicited imperative (requestive) and declarative (expressive and informative) pointing acts in experimentally controlled situations, and analyzed accompanying characteristics. Experiment 1 revealed that prosodic characteristics of point-accompanying vocalizations distinguished requestive from both expressive and informative pointing acts, with little differences between the latter two. In addition, requestive points were more often realized with the whole hand than the index finger, while this was the opposite for expressive and informative acts. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, revealing distinct prosodic characteristics for requestive pointing also when the referent was distal and when it had an index-finger shape. Findings reveal that beyond the social context, point-accompanying vocalizations give clues to infants’ underlying intentions when pointing.

Relationship between animal signalization and environmental conditions, where these species are living, is one of crucial topics of ecology. Using two complementary statistical approaches (fourth-corner and RLQ analyzes) I investigated geographical variation in parameters of bird vocalization in South Africa (RSA) and Lesotho. Altogether, I used nine quantitative and five qualitative acoustic traits for 472 bird species and nine environmental variables which could significantly influence parameters of their vocalization. My results supported findings of previous studies about the important effect of body size on species-specific vocal characteristics. In passerines, analyzes corrected for body size showed that the number of elements and element types were increasing with variability of natural conditions and were highest in very arid and climatically unpredictable areas. Element and element type rate were positively associated with altitude. Minimal song frequency in passerines and frequency range of vocalization in other birds were negatively correlated with average temperature of warmest and coldest month of the year, respectively. Similarly, environmental variables significantly influenced distribution of several qualitative song traits in passerines. Passerines, where female song and...

In the Czech Republic, as in other parts of Europe (e.g., British Isles), the native European red deer (Cervus elaphus) has been hybridising with sika deer (C. nippon), which was introduced from East Asia. The hybrids are fertile, and, therefore, can backcross with their parental species and threaten their genetic integrity. Offsprings of such multiple crosses are very difficult to identify according to their morphological traits, while more reliable genetic methods are financially and logistically demanding. This work follows the study of Long et al. from 1998, which showed clear differences in vocalization between red deer, sika deer and the first generation of their hybrids, and thus suggested the third way how to identify hybrids - bioacoustic analysis. We decided to test this method in the Czech Republic in a citizen science project, the aim of which was to map the distribution of parent species and their hybrids using audiorecordings of rut vocalisation. To allow more detailed analysis, we also recorded our own recordings on a professional recording device with a directional microphone. In total, 451 recordings were collected, of which only 263 with a vocalization of 162 individuals were selected for further analysis. Recordings from previous studies from Ireland (Long et al. 1998; Wyman et...

The ability to communicate referentially has been historically viewed as being uniquelly human. However, with the increasing amount of studies discussing the communicative faculty of animals in the context of the evolution of human language, there is now growing evidence that this ability is present in many animal species, too. Although we know a lot about mimetic abilities of domesticated African grey parrots' (Psittacus erithacus) and their competence to use human words in a referential way, we know very little about the elements of referentiality in their natural vocalization. Our goal in this work was to find, whether and in which context is functionally referential vocalization in this species of birds present. We were determining its presence by the experiment, in which we have exposed four captured African grey parrot, in the ownership of FHS UK Prague, to stimuli that in other animal species usually elicit functionally referential vocalization: predators and prefered type of food. We analysed the behaviour and vocalizations of the tested birds by analytic softwares Interact, respectively Soundforge 0.8. We find out, that despite the fact that birds reaponded to our experimental objects appropriatelly (i.e. "predators" caused more fear and the like), they give the major amout of...

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