Dog-human vocal interactions match dogs' sensory-motor tuning.

Within species, vocal and auditory systems presumably coevolved to converge on a critical temporal acoustic structure that can be best produced and perceived. While dogs cannot produce articulated sounds, they respond to speech, raising the question as to whether this heterospecific receptive ability could be shaped by exposure to speech or remains bounded by their own sensorimotor capacity. Using acoustic analyses of dog vocalisations, we show that their main production rhythm is slower than the dominant (syllabic) speech rate, and that human-dog-directed speech falls halfway in between. Comparative exploration of neural (electroencephalography) and behavioural responses to speech reveals that comprehension in dogs relies on a slower speech rhythm tracking (delta) than humans' (theta), even though dogs are equally sensitive to speech content and prosody. Thus, the dog audio-motor tuning differs from humans', and we hypothesise that humans may adjust their speech rate to this shared temporal channel as means to improve communication efficacy.

Glucocorticoid response to naturalistic interactions between children and dogs.

Although research has shown that pets appear to provide certain types of social support to children, little is known about the physiological bases of these effects, especially in naturalistic contexts. In this study, we investigated the effect of free-form interactions between children (ages 8-10 years) and dogs on salivary cortisol concentrations in both species. We further investigated the role of the child-dog relationship by comparing interactions with the child's pet dog to interactions with an unfamiliar dog or a nonsocial control condition, and modeled associations between survey measures of the human-animal bond and children's physiological responses. In both children and dogs, salivary cortisol decreased from pre- to post-interaction; the effect was strongest for children interacting with an unfamiliar dog (compared to their pet dog) and for the pet dogs (compared to the unfamiliar dog). We found minimal evidence for associations between cortisol output and behaviors coded from video, but children scoring higher on survey measures of the human-animal bond exhibited the greatest reductions in cortisol when interacting with dogs. Self-reported loneliness was not related to cortisol or the human-animal bond, but measures of both loneliness and the human-animal bond were higher among children who participated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, relative to those who participated before the pandemic. This study builds on previous work that investigated potential stress-buffering effects of human-animal interaction during explicit stressors and demonstrates important physiological correlates of naturalistic interactions between children and dogs, similar to those that occur in daily life.

Human protection drives the emergence of a new coping style in animals.

Wild animals face novel environmental threats from human activities that may occur along a gradient of interactions with humans. Recent work has shown that merely living close to humans has major implications for a variety of antipredator traits and physiological responses. Here, we hypothesize that when human presence protects prey from their genuine predators (as sometimes seen in urban areas and at some tourist sites), this predator shield, followed by a process of habituation to humans, decouples commonly associated traits related to coping styles, which results in a new range of phenotypes. Such individuals are characterized by low aggressiveness and physiological stress responses, but have enhanced behavioral plasticity, boldness, and cognitive abilities. We refer to these individuals as "preactive," because their physiological and behavioral coping style falls outside the classical proactive/reactive coping styles. While there is some support for this new coping style, formal multivariate studies are required to investigate behavioral and physiological responses to anthropogenic activities.

Remote islands as natural laboratories: human-food association increases attraction to humans and novelty exploration in a seabird.

Increased attraction to humans and their objects often arises after repeated and positive human-wildlife encounters (e.g. food provided in tourist settings). The causes of this 'over-attraction', which may result from a learned association between humans and food, are still poorly studied in wild animals. Understanding the influence of humans on animals' responses is yet crucial to prevent negative effects (e.g. aggression). We presented three novel objects to two groups of free-ranging brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi) in the remote sub-Antarctic, where their habitats show no or minimal human disturbance. Skuas in one group (Verte) had previously participated in repeated food-rewarded behavioural and cognitive tasks with a human experimenter; skuas in the other group (Ratmanoff) had never done so. Objects consisted of (i) one natural-food-resembling object (plastic fish), (ii) one anthropogenic food object (real cake slice), and (iii) one anthropogenic non-food object (yellow glove). Verte group skuas approached the human experimenter and pecked significantly more and sooner at novel objects. Human-food association may have thus resulted in increased attraction to humans and novelty exploration in previously naive brown skuas, making this species a useful model for investigating the consequences of experience with humans on wildlife behaviour.

Biodiversity conservation, human-animal interactions, and zootherapy in ecological knowledge of Indonesian Healers.

We examined the entanglement of biodiversity conservation, human-animal interactions, zootherapy, and local beliefs among Sumatran Healers and their local community by completing an ethnography of 43 Indigenous Healers across 8 tribes in Bengkulu Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Data collection tools were interviews, observations, videos, photographs, and a researcher journal. Of the 43 Healers, 30 used animals and mentioned 62 species. Of the animals identified, the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List lists 34% (n = 21) as endangered, decreasing, or vulnerable, including Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), and Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Of the 30 Healers using animals, 50% (n = 15) practiced healing with at least one endangered, decreasing, or vulnerable animal. We defined 3 personas: Healer self-persona, Healer-imposed persona, and community-imposed persona. A persona represented a group's opinions and sentiments related to Healers killing animals for medicinal purposes. Using an iterative data analysis process, we grouped the data across the 3 personas into 5 themes: ease of killing and preparing animals, emotions related to killing animals, animal value, relationship to religion, and Healers are tricksters. The complexity of merging the identities of Healers and the community within an actor-network embodies the relationality of actions, interactions, and feelings among Healers, between Healers and animals, and between Healers and the community. Conservationists should be cognizant of Healers' medicinal use of animals, views of human-animal interactions, and zootherapy from all social and emotional perspectives. The data led to defining Indigenous Healer ecological knowledge components of zootherapy, human-animal interactions, and biodiversity conservation.

Conservación de la biodiversidad, interacciones humano­fauna y zooterapia dentro del conocimiento ecológico de los curanderos indonesios Resumen Analizamos la complejidad de la conservación de la biodiversidad, las interacciones humano­fauna, la zooterapia y las creencias locales de los curanderos y su comunidad local mediante una etnografía de 43 curanderos indígenas de ocho tribus en la provincia de Bengkulu en Sumatra, Indonesia. Usamos entrevistas, observaciones, videos, fotografías y una bitácora de investigador como herramientas de recolección de datos. De los 43 curanderos, 30 usaban animales y mencionaron 62 especies. El 34% (n = 21) de los animales identificados están catalogados como en peligro, en disminución o vulnerables en la Lista Roja de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, incluidos el tigre de Sumatra (Panthera tigris sumatrae), el elefante de Sumatra (Elephas maximus sumatranus) y el rinoceronte de Sumatra (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). De los 30 curanderos que usan animales, el 50% (n = 15) practica la sanación con al menos una especie en peligro, en disminución o vulnerable. Definimos tres percepciones: autopercepción de curandero, percepción impuesta de curandero y percepción impuesta de comunidad. Cada percepción representó las opiniones y sentimientos de un grupo con respecto a la matanza de animales por cuestiones medicinales. Usamos un proceso de análisis de datos repetitivos para agrupar la información de las tres percepciones en tres temas: facilidad para matar y preparar animales, emociones relacionadas con matar animales, valor del animal, relación con la religión y los curanderos son estafadores. La complejidad de combinar las identidades de los curanderos dentro de una red de actores representa cómo se relacionan las acciones, interacciones y sentimientos dentro de la comunidad de curanderos, entre los curanderos y los animales y entre los curanderos y la comunidad. Los conservacionistas deben ser conscientes desde todas las perspectivas sociales y emocionales del uso medicinal que los curanderos dan a los animales, las percepciones sobre las interacciones humano­fauna y la zooterapia. Esta información nos llevó a definir los componentes del conocimiento ecológico de los curanderos indígenas en materia de zooterapia, interacciones humano­fauna y conservación de la biodiversidad.

Interactions with humans reduce the success of foraging for anthropogenic food by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brasília National Park, Brazil.

The progressive growth of urban environments has increasingly forced populations of nonhuman primates to coexist with humans in many cities, which has resulted in problems such as behavioral alterations, conflicts with humans, and threats to the health of the monkeys, due to their consumption of anthropogenic foodstuffs. These anthropogenic foods, which are rich in calories, are the principal driver of the proximity between humans and primates, even though the acquisition of these foods tends to be risky for the monkeys and involve a variety of challenges derived from specific features of the urban environment. The present study evaluated the success/risk relationship of foraging for anthropogenic food by tufted capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brasília National Park. The data were analyzed using a binary logistic regression, with the backward-stepwise Wald method, to investigate the factors related to the foraging success of the capuchins, considering variables such as their sex and age, the type of approach and its context, and interactions with humans. The capuchins were influenced by the anthropogenic context, which affected their foraging strategies and diet. Interactions with humans reduced the success of foraging for anthropogenic foods. Conflicts between humans and the capuchins were common, especially in the context of access to food. The capuchins thus preferred to access feeding resources directly, probably due to the reduced human interference, which resulted in greater foraging success for unattended food brought by park visitors and the raiding of trash cans. Based on the observed behavior patterns, a number of measures can be proposed to mitigate these conflicts. These recommendations include not bringing food into areas frequented by the capuchins, not reacting to approaching animals, and removing all trash generated during a visit. A cleaning team dedicated to the maintenance of the visitation area free of anthropogenic waste is also be recommended.

Keeper effect: Animals are more active in the presence of their caretakers.

Zookeepers are the primary caretakers of animals, providing daily care through frequent and close interactions. From the animal's perspective, most of these daily interactions are likely to have positive outcomes. With consistent and reliable interactions, a human-animal relationship is expected to develop. Our aim of this study was to investigate if the presence of the primary keeper in the public viewing area of zoo exhibits impacts the behavior of animals. We observed the behavior of 15 individuals of six species in the presence and absence of their primary keeper. Overall, we observed animals being more active in their keeper's presence than when the keeper was not present. When we considered if the keeper was nearby around times of offered opportunities to animals (e.g., feeding, enrichment, and training), our results showed that animals were equally as active when the keeper was present before an opportunity and when no opportunity was offered. These equal activity levels imply that the keeper is a cue for a forthcoming event to the animals, which reflects anticipatory behavior. Overall, we demonstrate that keeper presence is an environmental context in which animals behave differently than in keeper absence.

What is the risk of a deadly adenovirus pandemic?

Many of us had refresher courses in virology, immunology, and epidemiology in 2020, and we were reminded of the fact that Homo sapiens, the wiliest predator on the planet, has been hunting everything that moves for millennia. These repeated interspecies contacts inherently lead to recurrent zoonosis (nonhuman to human) and anthroponosis (human to nonhuman). Given the accelerating changes in our ecosystems since the neolithic revolution, it was not surprising to see a virus that spreads via aerosolization and liquid droplets cause a pandemic in a few months. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic begs the question-which viruses could cause a global threat? In this Opinion, the characteristics that make adenoviruses a risk, which include efficient intra- and interspecies transmission, thermostable particles, persistent/latent infections in diverse hosts, and the ability to readily recombine and escape herd immunity, are discussed.

Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children.

Recently, research on domestic mammals' sociocognitive skills toward humans has been prolific, allowing us to better understand the human-animal relationship. For example, horses have been shown to distinguish human beings on the basis of photographs and voices and to have cross-modal mental representations of individual humans and human emotions. This leads to questions such as the extent to which horses can differentiate human attributes such as age. Here, we tested whether horses discriminate human adults from children. In a cross-modal paradigm, we presented 31 female horses with two simultaneous muted videos of a child and an adult saying the same neutral sentence, accompanied by the sound of an adult's or child's voice speaking the sentence. The horses looked significantly longer at the videos that were incongruent with the heard voice than at the congruent videos. We conclude that horses can match adults' and children's faces and voices cross-modally. Moreover, their heart rates increased during children's vocalizations but not during adults'. This suggests that in addition to having mental representations of adults and children, horses have a stronger emotional response to children's voices than adults' voices.

"There's Something to Remind You that Everything Is Okay": Australian Trans Young People and the Presence of Animals in Interactions With Healthcare Professionals.

While animals have long been a focus in therapeutic spaces for young people via approaches such as animal-assisted therapies, there is a sense in which such approaches overlook the broader contribution that animals play by being present in young people's lives. In this article, we explore how the presence of animals (both physical and psychological) in interactions with healthcare professionals may hold specific meaning for trans young people living in Australia. Participants were recruited through Parents of Gender Diverse Children. Interviews were conducted in November 2021 with 17 trans young people and one of each of their parents living in Australia. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Two main themes were developed: (1) how healthcare professionals respond to conversations about animals and (2) the beneficial role of the presence of animals. The article concludes by discussing the importance of thinking about the presence of animals beyond existing frameworks and recognizing the value placed on the presence of animals by trans young people.

[On the Evolutionary, Bio-Psychological Foundations of the Human-Animal Relationship]. / Zu den evolutionären, bio-psychologischen Grundlagen der Mensch-Tier-Beziehung.

Ever since, people live in contact with nature and animals, even in relatively non-utilitarian ways. Erich Fromm and Edward Wilson termed this human universal "Biophilia". But why different species can live together in a social way, is explained by a "common social toolbox" of neural, psychological and physiologicalmechanisms, which evolved over phylogeny.Major components of this toolbox are found in the vertebrate brain, which evolved over the past 600 million years in a succession of key innovations and conservative preservation.The tegmental and diencephalic brain hosts a 450 million year old, structurally and functionally virtually unchanged "social network" which, in crosstalk with the mammalian prefrontal cortex or the analogous bird forebrain, enables complex social behaviour - within as well as between species. In addition, this toolbox features common principles of behavioural organization, including the expression and reading of emotions, as well as shared emotional, stress and calming systems. Such a common ground for social behaviour also explains the potential effectiveness of animal-assisted interventions in a wide range of pedagogic and therapeutic settings. However, positive effects aremostly revealed by experience and plausibility, whereas studies on animal- assisted activities and interventions according to biomedical scientific standards are still rare.

Cognition and the human-animal relationship: a review of the sociocognitive skills of domestic mammals toward humans.

In the past 20 years, research focusing on interspecific sociocognitive abilities of animals toward humans has been growing, allowing a better understanding of the interactions between humans and animals. This review focuses on five sociocognitive abilities of domestic mammals in relation to humans as follows: discriminating and recognizing individual humans; perceiving human emotions; interpreting our attentional states and goals; using referential communication (perceiving human signals or sending signals to humans); and engaging in social learning with humans (e.g., local enhancement, demonstration and social referencing). We focused on different species of domestic mammals for which literature on the subject is available, namely, cats, cattle, dogs, ferrets, goats, horses, pigs, and sheep. The results show that some species have remarkable abilities to recognize us or to detect and interpret the emotions or signals sent by humans. For example, sheep and horses can recognize the face of their keeper in photographs, dogs can react to our smells of fear, and pigs can follow our pointing gestures. Nevertheless, the studies are unequally distributed across species: there are many studies in animals that live closely with humans, such as dogs, but little is known about livestock animals, such as cattle and pigs. However, on the basis of existing data, no obvious links have emerged between the cognitive abilities of animals toward humans and their ecological characteristics or the history and reasons for their domestication. This review encourages continuing and expanding this type of research to more abilities and species.

Indigenous insights on human-wildlife coexistence in southern India.

As human-wildlife conflicts escalate worldwide, concepts such as tolerance and acceptance of wildlife are becoming increasingly important. Yet, contemporary conservation studies indicate a limited understanding of positive human-wildlife interactions, leading to potentially inaccurate representations of human-animal encounters. Failure to address these limitations contributes to the design and implementation of poor wildlife and landscape management plans and the dismissal of Indigenous ecological knowledge. We examined Indigenous perspectives on human-wildlife coexistence in India by drawing ethnographic evidence from Kattunayakans, a forest-dwelling Adivasi community living in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala. Through qualitative field study that involved interviews and transect walks inside the forests, we found that Kattunayakans displayed tolerance and acceptance of wild animals characterized as forms of deep coexistence that involves three central ideas: wild animals as rational conversing beings; wild animals as gods, teachers, and equals; and wild animals as relatives with shared origins practicing dharmam. We argue that understanding these adequately will support efforts to bring Kattunayakan perspectives into the management of India's forests and contribute to the resolution of the human-wildlife conflict more broadly.

Conocimiento Originario sobre la Coexistencia entre Humanos y Fauna en el Sur de la India ResumenConforme el conflicto humano-fauna escala a nivel mundial, los conceptos como la tolerancia y aceptación de la fauna son cada vez más importantes. Aun así, los estudios actuales sobre conservación muestran un conocimiento limitado de las interacciones positivas entre los humanos y la fauna, lo que lleva a representaciones potencialmente erróneas de los encuentros entre estos dos grupos. Las fallas al abordar estas limitaciones contribuyen al diseño e implementación de planes deficientes de manejo de fauna y paisajes y la desestimación del saber ecológico de los pueblos originarios. Analizamos las perspectivas de los pueblos originarios sobre la coexistencia entre las personas y la fauna en la India mediante la toma de evidencia etnográfica de los Kattunayakans, una comunidad Adivasi residente del bosque en el Santuario de Fauna Wayanad en Kerala. Realizamos un estudio cualitativo de campo con entrevistas y caminatas por transectos dentro del bosque. Con el estudio descubrimos que los Kattunayakans demostraron una tolerancia y aceptación por los animales silvestres caracterizada como maneras de coexistencia profunda que involucra tres ideas centrales: los animales silvestres son seres hablantes racionales; los animales como divinidades, maestros e iguales; y los animales silvestres como familiares practicantes del dharmam con orígenes compartidos. Argumentamos que el entendimiento de estas ideas centrales respaldará los esfuerzos por incorporar las perspectivas de los Kattunayakan a la gestión forestal de la India y contribuirá a grandes rasgos a la solución del conflicto humano-fauna.

Visiting Hours: Spacetimes of Human-Animal Interaction in South African Elder Care.

This article examines human-animal interaction in elder care by focusing on an old age home in postapartheid South Africa. Residents admire and desire to be near animals, but staff mostly prohibit pets and service animals due to regulations about hygiene and frailty. Instead, people make meaningful relationships with media representations of animals and wilder animals in the home's yard. This article uses the clinical timescale of visiting hours to interpret these alternative human-animal interactions and their temporal incongruities-to show how people make sense of differences they perceive between their own and animals' mortality and longevity, and how animals enable remembering and articulations of aging selfhood and social relations across the life course. A reinterpretation of visiting hours reveals the making of self-other distinctions in late life and temporal aspects of medical institutionalism that shape multispecies relations.

Leli phepha lihlola ukusebenzisana kwabantu nezilwane lapho kunakekelwa abantu abadala libhekisisa ikhaya eligcina abantu abadala eNingizimu Afrika. Abantu abahlala kuleli hkaya labadala bayazithanda futhi bafuna ukuba duze nezilwane kodwa abaphathi bayenqaba ukuthi izilwane zasekhaya nezilwane zosizo zibe lapho ngenxa yeminthetho-nqubo yohlanzeko nokuvikela ababuthakathaka. Esikhundleni salokho abantu benza ubudlelwane obalulekile nezilwane ezibonakaliswa ngemifanekiso kumaziko awezindaba kanye nezilwane ezihlala egcekeni lekhaya lelo. Leli phepha lisebenzisa isikhathi somtholampilo samahora okuvakashela leli khaya ukuhumusha izindlela ezahlukene zokusebenzisana kwabantu nezilwane nokungahambisani kwazo nesikhathi. Lona libonisa ukuthi abantu bacabanga kanjani ngomehluko abawubonayo phakathi kokufa neminyaka yokuphila kwabo nokwezilwane. Futhi izilwane zibasiza ukukhumbula nokukhuluma ngokuguga kwabo nomlando wempilo yabo phakathi kwabanye abantu emphakathini. Ukubuyela ukuhumusha lomqondo womtholampilo wamahora okuvakashela kuveza indlela ekwenziwa ngayo umehluko phakathi komuntu nabanye lapho abantu sebegugile, kanye nokuphathelene nezikhathi zasezikhungweni zokwelapha okubumba indlela yokuhlangana kwezinhlobo ngezinhlobo.

Human-Monkey Conflicts in Sri Lanka: A Comment on Dittus et al., 2019.

Dittus et al. [Folia Primatologica 2019;90: 89-108] discuss conflicts in Sri Lanka between people and 4 subspecies of purple-faced langurs, 3 subspecies of toque macaques and a single grey langur subspecies. All of these subspecies are endemic and also listed by the IUCN as endangered or threatened with extinction due to extensive deforestation. Nevertheless, in order to mitigate conflicts with macaques, the above article recommended buffer zones that "should be at least 100-200 m wide, devoid of trees, shrubs and food sources: pasture could serve this purpose" [Dittus et al., 2019, p. 100]. This recommendation is presented without an explicit statement that buffer zones should not be carved out of existing primate habitats. Therefore, it could be misused by corrupt politicians and timber contractors to justify deforestation, even by expanding existing pastures that do not meet the width specifications prescribed by the article. These actions could undermine the survival of both langurs that rely exclusively on a vegetarian diet. Therefore, in my opinion, buffer zones as proposed by Dittus et al. [2019] are not a valid recommendation to mitigate human-monkey conflicts (HMCs) in Sri Lanka. I consider several other statements in the article also to have questionable relevance to mitigating HMCs in Sri Lanka. However, I discuss a commercially viable activity reported by Dittus et al. [2019] that could be used to mitigate HMCs and also promote monkey conservation in Sri Lanka. It derives from a time-tested and, therefore, successful business enterprise based on peaceful coexistence with monkeys that the authors of that article have undertaken at their field site in Polonnaruwa. However, they do not discuss the enterprise's proven ability to promote peaceful coexistence with monkeys.Therefore, I explain how the enterprise could help communities throughout Sri Lanka to accrue financial benefits, by practicing peaceful coexistence with all monkey subspecies and promoting their conservation at the same time. This business model has the potential to strengthen Sri Lanka's efforts to protect its unique contribution to global biological diversity from extinction.

Avian Influenza Human Infections at the Human-Animal Interface.

BACKGROUND: Avian influenza A viruses (AIVs) are among the most concerning emerging and re-emerging pathogens because of the potential risk for causing an influenza pandemic with catastrophic impact. The recent increase in domestic animals and poultry worldwide was followed by an increase of human AIV outbreaks reported. METHODS: We reviewed the epidemiology of human infections with AIV from the literature including reports from the World Health Organization, extracting information on virus subtype, time, location, age, sex, outcome, and exposure. RESULTS: We described the characteristics of more than 2500 laboratory-confirmed human infections with AIVs. Human infections with H5N1 and H7N9 were more frequently reported than other subtypes. Risk of death was highest among reported cases infected with H5N1, H5N6, H7N9, and H10N8 infections. Older people and males tended to have a lower risk of infection with most AIV subtypes, except for H7N9. Visiting live poultry markets was mostly reported by H7N9, H5N6, and H10N8 cases, while exposure to sick or dead bird was mostly reported by H5N1, H7N2, H7N3, H7N4, H7N7, and H10N7 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the profile of human cases of different AIV subtypes would guide control strategies. Continued monitoring of human infections with AIVs is essential for pandemic preparedness.

The role of common ancestry and gene flow in the evolution of human-directed play behaviour in dogs.

Among-population variance of phenotypic traits is of high relevance for understanding evolutionary mechanisms that operate in relatively short timescales, but various sources of nonindependence, such as common ancestry and gene flow, can hamper the interpretations. In this comparative analysis of 138 dog breeds, we demonstrate how such confounders can independently shape the evolution of a behavioural trait (human-directed play behaviour from the Dog Mentality Assessment project). We combined information on genetic relatedness and haplotype sharing to reflect common ancestry and gene flow, respectively, and entered these into a phylogenetic mixed model to partition the among-breed variance of human-directed play behaviour while also accounting for within-breed variance. We found that 75% of the among-breed variance was explained by overall genetic relatedness among breeds, whereas 15% could be attributed to haplotype sharing that arises from gene flow. Therefore, most of the differences in human-directed play behaviour among breeds have likely been caused by constraints of common ancestry as a likely consequence of past selection regimes. On the other hand, gene flow caused by crosses among breeds has played a minor, but not negligible role. Our study serves as an example of an analytical approach that can be applied to comparative situations where the effects of shared origin and gene flow require quantification and appropriate statistical control in a within-species/among-population framework. Altogether, our results suggest that the evolutionary history of dog breeds has left remarkable signatures on the among-breed variation of a behavioural phenotype.

Energetics at the urban edge: Environmental and individual predictors of urinary C-peptide levels in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus).

As human-modified landscapes encroach into natural habitats, wildlife face a reduction in natural food sources but also gain access to calorie-rich, human-derived foods. However, research into the energetics of wildlife living within and adjacent to urban and rural landscapes is lacking. C-peptide - a proxy for insulin production and a diagnostic tool for assessing pancreatic function in humans and domestic animals - can be quantified non-invasively from urine (uCP) and may provide a way to investigate the energetic correlates of living in human-altered landscapes. UCP is increasingly used in studies of primate energetics, and here we examine predictors of variation in uCP levels in n = 17 wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living at the urban edge on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. We find that uCP was positively associated with food provisioning and negatively with night fasting. UCP levels were comparable between winter and summer but significantly lower during spring, possibly driven by consumption of energy-rich seeds during summer and more human-derived foods during winter. UCP was elevated in pregnant females and similar for lactating and cycling females. We find no effect of dominance rank on uCP. Samples collected with synthetic Salivettes had significantly lower uCP levels than directly pipetted samples. Overall, our results indicate that uCP is a reliable, non-invasive measure of energy balance and intake in baboons, and suggest potential energetic benefits of living at the urban edge. More broadly, studies of uCP may offer unique insight into the environmental control of hormone-behaviour relationships in species crossing natural and urban environments.

Meat-related cognitive dissonance: A conceptual framework for understanding how meat eaters reduce negative arousal from eating animals.

Meat eaters encounter a conflict between their eating behavior and their affections toward animals. Because this "meat paradox" highlights discrepancies between behavior and various ideals, a number of experts have focused on cognitive dissonance theory to explain the psychology of eating meat. The present work presents a framework to understand the phenomenon of meat-related cognitive dissonance (MRCD), herein defined as occurring when the dissonant state involves recognition of one's behavior as a meat eater and a belief, attitude, or value that this behavior contradicts. The proposed framework explains how individuals attempt to prevent this form of dissonance from occurring (e.g., avoidance, willful ignorance, dissociation, perceived behavioral change, and do-gooder derogation) and how they reduce it once it has occurred in the form of motivated cognitions (e.g., denigrating animals, offering pro-meat justifications, or denying responsibility for eating meat). The MRCD framework posits that which of a possible fifteen outlets is chosen to prevent and reduce the moral guilt associated with eating meat depends on (a) the aspect of meat consumption that produces MRCD; (b) the motivation created by MRCD; (c) individual differences in gender, values, affinity toward animals and meat, and exposure to animals; and (d) culture. Implications of the framework for those seeking to curtail meat consumption are discussed and important questions are highlighted for theorists to resolve.

Dissociating meat from its animal origins: A systematic literature review.

Meat eaters often have an ambivalent relationship with the common practice of killing animals for food. They enjoy the taste of meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. This moral conflict, often referred to as the 'meat paradox,' tends to result in cognitive dissonance that meat eaters need to resolve. One of the arguably most basic strategies to deal with this dissonance is to cognitively dissociate meat from its animal origins. Whereas philosophers for long time have theorized about the role of such dissociation for consumer behavior, researchers have only recently started to empirically investigate the phenomenon. Here, we present the first systematic literature review of research on consumers' tendency to dissociate meat from its animal origins. Twenty-one publications comprising eight qualitative, one mixed-methods, four correlational, and twenty experimental/interventional studies were identified, which all provided support for the central psychological role of dissociation for meat consumption. However, the review also revealed the need for further research on moderating variables such as gender, age and generation, dietary styles, and people's place of living, including cross-cultural differences. Strikingly, no study so far seems to have included behavioral outcomes, urging the need for future research on how dissociation might affect behavior.