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Physiological and psychological stress are accompanied by nonverbal behaviour across a wide range of species. The function of this 'stress behaviour' is not well understood but is often assumed to be read by others as a cue to stress. Displaying signs of weakness is, however, difficult to understand from an evolutionary perspective and therefore further investigation into why these behaviours exist is needed. Here, we test whether displacement behaviours (i.e., those known to be associated with stress) are reliable indicators of stress in humans. To do this, we presented raters (N = 133) with videos of individuals (N = 31) undergoing a stress-inducting task. Self-directed displacement behaviours and self-reported stress were both associated with stress ratings given by raters. Therefore, such behaviours can provide reliable information to others and can be considered communicative. Individuals producing more nonverbal stress behaviour were rated as more likeable by raters (perhaps presenting as more honest signallers), indicating a benefit and potential adaptive function of displaying stress. Raters also differed in their accuracy in detecting stress from nonverbal cues. Findings suggest that the accuracy with which individuals were able to detect stress was linked to the number of social connections they reported to have. However, this association was non-linear, with individuals who were most and least accurate reporting the least network connections. This could indicate that the ability to read behaviour is associated with an ability to form and maintain social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this short communication, we describe chewing behaviour in sows with no apparent edible substrate in their mouth as a potential social behaviour. Chewing in sows during interaction with unfamiliar sows was unexpectedly observed in a study assessing social abilities and damaging behaviours in group-housed dry sows. Such chewing was observed frequently and performed by almost all sows. To our knowledge, this behaviour has not been described previously in a social context in pigs, but rather as an oral stereotypic behaviour related to chronic hunger. We describe the behaviour in its social context and speculate on reasons for its occurrence in that context. • Almost all sows performed sham chewing when presented with an unfamiliar sow. • Sham chewing correlated with social interactions. • Sham chewing has previously not been described in such context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practical experience suggests that stealing behaviour of dairy cows may affect the results in feeding trials, when automated feed troughs are used for measuring and controlling the feed intake. The objectives of the present study were to analyse the stealing behaviour from the log data of the feeder, quantify its biasing effects and make a proposal to solve the problem. Twenty dairy cows, ten of which were previously observed to steal roughage, were housed in a loose-housing system with 12 feed troughs (1.66 cows per trough). To induce the stealing behaviour, the animals were offered two kinds of feed, partial mixed ration (PMR) and silage (SIL). In a learning period (P0, three days), all the cows had free access to all the troughs. In periods 1 (P1, seven days) and 2 (P2, 14 days), 10 cows had access only to the SIL troughs and 10 cows only to the PMR troughs. In P2, barriers were built to prevent the stealing behaviour. In period 3 (P3, four days), the structure of the barriers was improved. We analysed two types of stealing behaviour: (1) stealing feed over a closed gate (S-GATE) and (2) stealing feed by displacing a legitimate cow from a trough (S-DISP). S-GATE by the SIL group, as measured by the average daily frequency and the amount of stolen feed (the PMR feed), decreased significantly (frequency: P = 0.001; dry matter: P = 0.001) from P1 (frequency: 8.0 ± 2.54; dry matter: 0.7 ± 0.26 kg; mean ± SEM) to P2 (1.0 ± 0.66; 0.1 ± 0.06 kg) and remained the same in P3 (1.0 ± 0.47; 0.1 ± 0.07 kg) as in P2. The frequencies of S-DISP, where the PMR feeding animals were displaced, was lower ( P = 0.022) in P3 (0.0 ± 0.03 per animal per 24 hours) than in P1 (1.3 ± 0.60) and P2 (1.3 ± 0.53), but the differences were not statistically significant in the post hoc analyses. There were remarkable individual differences in the frequencies of how often a cow was detected to steal over a closed gate or being displaced from a trough. To conclude: stealing occurred frequently enough to bias the feed intake results in the experimental setup where cows clearly preferred one feed (PMR) over the other (SIL). However, appropriate barrier structures alleviated the problem markedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The occurrence of stress has widely been associated with impairments in learning abilities in animals, although the influence of stress appears to differ with the complexity of tasks. Previous research has suggested that some domestic dogs exhibit both physiological (elevated cortisol) and behavioural signs of stress when newly admitted to re-homing centres. In this study we have investigated whether levels of stress as measured by urinary cortisol: creatinine is sufficient to impair the learning of simple associations. On the day following their admission to a re-homing centre, 32 dogs were trained on one classical conditioning task and one operant conditioning task; 6 days later, they were trained on a second operant conditioning task. Their mean urinary cortisol:creatinine ratio (C/C) fell from 27.1×10−6 to 22.3×10−6 (nmol/l:nmol/l) between these 2 days; a substantial proportion (78% on day 1, 63% on day 7) of dogs had ratios above the range of 5–20×10−6, which is that defined as clinically normal (), suggesting high levels of stress. The dogs’ average time to reach criterion on either task on day 1 was unrelated to C/C or to behavioural signs of stress; this lack of correspondence may reflect the diverse previous experiences of the dogs. On day 7, the six dogs which failed to reach criterion for the operant association were significantly less active and interactive in their kennels than the others. For the remainder, a high rate of learning the operant association was associated with high C/C (in excess of 40×10−6), and a poor performance was associated with fearful behaviour in the kennel. Dogs appear to have adopted one of two coping strategies: either the display of fearful behaviours and an impaired ability to learn the tasks, which may reflect a ‘reactive’ style of responding, or a higher level of HPA axis activation and an enhanced ability to rapidly learn a new task, which may be indicative of a more ‘proactive’ coping style. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Landslide failures near water can generate impulse waves that can cause fatalities and property damage. These hazards are extremely prevalent in reservoir areas, such as the 1963 Vajont landslide in Italy and the 2003 Qiangjiangping landslide in China. This study introduces the Gapa landslide which has been reactivated by the impoundment of the Jinping reservoir, Southwest China. According to the geological investigation, the movement of the landslide was based on a deep sliding surface with a displaced body of 13 million m3. However, the landslide did not receive much attention until it exhibited huge displacements and extensive cracking in the upper part of the landslide, which was caused by the rapid drawdown of the reservoir water after rising to its highest level (1880 m asl). At present, the landslide has posed significant threats both to the Wali village on the opposite river bank and the downstream dam site during the subsequent reservoir water fluctuations. Therefore, the landslide's deformation behaviour and mechanism, and its failure mode need to be analyzed, Also, the assessment of the landslide-generated impulse waves is of great necessity. The displacement history of the landslide is presented using surface and underground monitoring data pre-, in-impoundment and subsequent five times fluctuations of the reservoir water. The analysis of daily displacement velocity and inter-annual displacement interprets the comprehensive spatio-temporal displacement characteristics between 2007 and 2020. Based on the interpretation of displacement behaviours, the deformation mechanism is revealed mainly using the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces. Additionally, the potential impulse waves have been predicted based on the inferred failure mode of the Gapa landslide. The maximum wave height on the river and the run-up wave height on the opposite bank are estimated to be 45.5 m and 35 m using the empirical and numerical methods. The Wali village below 1915 m asl will be destroyed in a hundred seconds if the landslide collapses overall, thus, a permanent warning line at 1915 m asl is required and residents below the line need to be relocated. The assessment of potential impulse waves related to the Gapa landslide can serve the risk management of the reservoir bank and the hydropower station. We anticipate that this study will provide some important insights into the interpretation of landslide hazard risk in the Jinping Reservoir area and other parts of the world. • The large scale and fully developed Gapa landslide with great threats are introduced. • The valuable monitoring data for 14 years from underground, surface and satellite-based is presented. • The spatiotemporal displacement behaviour is interpreted and the deformation mechanism is revealed. • The impact of landslide-generated impulse waves on the opposite bank and river chancel has been evaluated based on the inferred failure mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In response to over-population, management actions were taken over a 5-year period to reduce group size and slow the population growth rate of hamadryas baboons at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park. Management involved three planned removals of several individuals and implantation of all adult females with Norplant®, a long-acting contraceptive, expected to be effective for 2–3 years. Possible psycho-social effects of these management strategies were monitored in adult males and females using the rate of occurrence of self-directed behaviour (SDB). SDB was more frequent in males than in females, and in both sexes was significantly more frequent in situations where greater social tension was expected. SDB rates were significantly correlated with overall group size, indicating that the managed reduction in group size was beneficial for the welfare of the remaining group members. Female agonistic interactions were significantly more frequent when they or another female in the harem were in oestrus. However, there was no detectable increase in the rate of SDB of males or females as a result of the contraceptive implants. Despite previous work showing that (a) Norplant® does not stop normal physical and behavioural signs of oestrus and (b) that female hamadryas baboons in oestrus tend to become more aggressive, our results suggest that implantation with Norplant® did not cause a substantial increase in social tension in the group as a whole. However, a small effect could have been masked by the simultaneous and greater effects of changing group size. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]