Contact: Kathie Dibell
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Bucknell Hosts Animal Behavior Society Conference
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Some 320 researchers from around the world will present their studies on creatures ranging from the smooth-billed anis to the orca whale at the 36th annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society June 26-30 at Bucknell University.
"Bucknell is honored and delighted to host this prestigious gathering of the foremost experts in the behavioral study of animal behavior," said Douglas Candland, professor of psychology and director of Bucknell's animal behavior program. "We await the reports of their research with great interest."
Here are a few of the various studies' findings, according to paper abstracts:
oIguanas can recognize individual humans. oBlue jays find it difficult to eat and watch out for predators at the same time. oRing-tailed lemurs make up after fighting. oImitation is not only flattering but part of the courtship strategy for the male budgerigar parrot. oMale mice produce more offspring with females they prefer than with female mice they had previously rejected. oDogs remember the scent of their caretakers for years. oMale fiddler crabs wave their claws to attract females. oGray squirrels band with relatives to get and defend top quality nests. oMost female chimps raised in nurseries away from their mothers make lousy mothers themselves later on. oIt probably is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.
Michael Pereira, assistant professor of biology at Bucknell, is chair of the local organizing committee. "The spectrum of animal species discussed at the Animal Behavior Society's meeting each summer is just exhilarating," Pereira said. "Few if any other annual meetings in the life sciences cover such a wide spectrum of topics."
Some 500 are expected to attend. Registration will start Saturday afternoon with the first formal programming held Saturday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. a showing of competitors in the ABS film contest: "The Way of the Bear in Alaska," "Baboon Tales," and "Ultimate Guide: Dogs." Other films will be shown throughout the conference.
Gail Michener, professor of biological sciences at the University of Lethridge, Alberta, Canada, will give the keynote lecture at 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 27. Her talk is titled: "Into the Underworld with Richardson's Ground Squirrels: Behavioral Ecology of a Ground-Dwelling Hibernator." Michener has been studying the Canadian ground squirrel since 1969 and has found that the much-maligned rodent is a critical component of the prairie ecosystem.
Other featured speakers are Lynne Houck, professor of zoology at Oregon State University, Patricia McConnell of the University of Wisconsin zoology department, Stephen Nowicki, associate professor in the departments of zoology, psychology and neurobiology at Duke University, and Donald A. Dewsbury, professor of psychology at the University of Florida.
Houck will speak at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 29, on "Courtship Pheromones in Plethodontid Salamanders." McConnell will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday on "You Dog, Me Chimp: How We Communicate with Dogs, in Spite of Ourselves." Nowicki will speak at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, "On the Function and Evolution of Bird Song: New Questions to Old Answers." Dewsbury, a 1961 Bucknell graduate, will speak on "Bucknell, the Animal Behavior Society and Me" at the closing dinner Wednesday, June 30.
Animal behavior is often a gateway into science for many people. To address this issue there will be a symposium on "Educating About Animal Behavior: A Broad Perspective," from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday. The symposium will consider the diversity of methods that scientists use to teach about the science of animal behavior. Speakers represent a diverse array of education perspectives, and they will address the different approaches used in teaching including formal higher education, general public education (zoo education programs, educational radio shows), and applied settings (human-animal interactions with pets and working animals).
Individual studies will be presented in sessions under broad general topics that will run concurrently. "Investigators present information on everything from genetic and hormonal bases of behavior and evolutionary relationships on through patterns of learning and how animals see the world around them," Pereira said. "These researchers also apply these approaches to understanding phenomena as diverse as animal communication, migration, courtship behavior, social bonding, competition, predator-prey relations and parental care."
Visitors will also be able to tour Bucknell's animal behavior laboratory and its 30-year-old primate colony that houses some 30 lemurs, baboons and squirrel monkeys. The primate center was the first one located at an undergraduate institution. The animal behavior program also houses and studies a 12-member group of Lewisburg gray squirrels.
For a complete list of the abstracts of the some 320 papers and poster presentations, check the ABS Web site: http://www.animalbehavior.org at:
http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABS/Program/Bucknell_99/Abstracts99.htm.
The detailed program is at: http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABS/Program/Bucknell_99/Program99.htm.
More information about the Animal Behavior Society is available at: http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/ABS/index.html.
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