Behavioral studies birds

Colored Pastry to Study Feeding Behavior in Birds... 

The probably universal occurrence of large olfactory mucosae and bulbs in three of the four procellariiform families comprising over 90% of the species compels careful behavioral study. These birds unquestionably are reacting to odors in significant ways. How does such dependence interact with reliance on visual and other sensory cues The prominence of their olfactory equipment implies some degree of functional dominance for smell. Our present understanding of olfactory mechanisms does not tell us what specific advantages reside in more, rather than less, olfactory tissue. 

The best possible outcome of a bioassay is the elicitation of a specific behavior pattern by a defined chemical stimulus (Miiller-Schwarze 1977). This chapter presents methods to assess the role of chemical stimuli in the behavior of birds and mammals. An overview of the chemosensory capacities of birds and mammals to perceive stimuli is provided first, followed by a description of test paradigms that can be incorporated into bioassays. The preponderance of the chapter describes examples of these paradigms incorporated into bioassays to assess the role of chemical signals in inter- and intra-specific behaviors. The examples, like past studies in mammalian and avian chemical ecology, are disproportionately represented by rodents. Most of the described procedures, however, could be modified for other species, provided the apparatuses and the response variables can be altered to accommodate the different subject and stimuli. 

Regardless of the wild species to be considered or the food flavor under study, the chemist involved in animal food flavor research and development should be aware of the numerous factors that ultimately influence and determine food preference behavior of birds and mammals. 

The effects of EDCs on behavior in fish have been more extensively studied than in birds. Examples of the effects of EDCs seen in fish include profound alterations in courtship behavior in male guppies (Poecilia reticulate) exposed to vinclozolin and DDE, including at environmentally relevant concentrations (Baatrup and Junge 2001) and altered courtship behavior in three-spined stickleback exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of EE2 (Bell 2001). In the stickleback studies, exposed males became less aggressive and had a reduced nesting activity, and this was linked with reduced concentrations of the male sex androgen 11-ketotestosterone. Recently,... 

Behavioral effects of OP insecticides have also been shown in birds (see review by Grue et al. 1991). Behavioral effects of OCs, OPs, and methylmercury on birds have been reviewed by Peakall (1985,1996). A remarkably wide range of behavioral tests were used in these studies. Tests employed included the following ... 

Hart (1993) reports a study of behavioral effects of the OP insecticide chlorfenvin-phos on captive starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Birds were dosed with 3-9 mg/kg of the insecticide presented orally in the form of capsules. Behavioral effects were related... 

The vomeronasal system, also known as the accessory olfactory system, consists of chemoreceptors, organized into the VNO, the vomeronasal nerve, its terminal, the accessory olfactory bulb, and more central pathways. First described by Jacobson in 1811, the VNO has been studied intensely. We now know how stimuli reach it and what behaviors it mediates. The VNO occurs in amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Among mammals, it is best developed in marsupials and monotremes. In birds it only appears during embryogenesis. The VNO and its function are best known for squamate reptiles, particularly snakes, and rodents and ungulates among the mammals. 

Birds did not exhibit ataxia or other behavioral signs of delayed neurotoxicity during the more than 30 days they were observed after they returned to Davis. One died of causes not related to the study. 

Featherless chickens treated with DEF under laboratory conditions developed delayed neurotoxicity. Three birds were pretreated with atropine sulfate (20 mg/kg s.c.) 30 minutes before they were injected with DEF (800 mg/kg s.c. technical grade, 94 purity, Mobay Chemical Co.). (A second injection of atropine sulfate was administered 2 hours after treatment with DEF.) Control hens received two injections of atropine sulfate as above. The birds were observed daily for changes in behavior, weighed and blood samples taken 2, 6, 13, and 20 days after treatment. Ataxia developed 12 days after treatment with DEF. CHE decreased to low levels as expected, in both scaleless (Figure 6) and normal birds (not shown), and, in this study, did not return to normal levels by 20 days. CK levels rose after treatment with DEF, but did not rise in the controls. Plasma CK activity also rose in birds treated with TOCP and parathion (11). 

Keeton, W. T. The orientational and navigational basis of homing in birds. In "Recent Advances in the Study of Behavior" Academic Press New York, 1974. 

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