2016 Student Independent Projects

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What's All the Chirp About? How Octopamine Affects Male Cricket Aggression During Mate Displays
by: Olivia Hagen, Maeve Kolk
Abstract ::: Poster

Stickleback Personality in Limnetic and Benthic Forms
by: Nadav Mouallem - Edward Zhu Animal Behavior
Abstract ::: Poster

Gut Turnover: An Evolutionary Adaptation to Mouthbrooding in Astatotilapia burtoni
by: Cameron Roberts
Abstract ::: Poster

Feeling the Chill: Decreasing Activity in Squirrels
by: Indra Boving & Tiffany Thio
Abstract ::: Poster

You Can Lead a Fish to Water but You Can't Make Them Swim: Maze Navigation in Black Ghost Knife Fish
by: Ry Dennis and Aurora Solla
Abstract ::: Poster

"I Choose You": Male Guppy Mate Choice in the Face of Competition
by: Matthew Dickinson and Manamaya Peterson
Abstract ::: Poster

Is your memory Shot?: Investigating the Role of Cytoskeletal Proteins in Learning
by: Logan Tibbetts
Abstract ::: Poster

Noise pollution and the longterm effects on the Astatotilapia burtioni fighting behaviors
by Sarah Gross and Nancy McWilliams
Abstract ::: Poster

Beta Splendens Challenge Response to Comparative Size
by: Erin Howell and Morgan Vague
Abstract ::: Poster

A Novel Robitic Device for MeasureingHhunger in Chichlids
by: David Dunn & Oskar Eriksson
Abstract ::: Poster

Egging them on top or bottom: the genetic basis for top or bottom oviposition in Drosophila melanogaster
by: Delenn Solis & Jacques Trautman
Abstract ::: Poster

Brunch battles: Crayfish diets and their influence on aggressive behavior
by Moira Differding and Alicia Uchida
Abstract ::: Poster

How many dry showers does a Cattle Egret take?: Bout criterion interval for "preening" behaviors at the Oregon zoo
by: Krishna Anand
Abstract ::: Poster

Can fish make friends?
by: Alex Gumas and Carolyn Cole
Abstract ::: Poster

BrightNight, Lite Flight: Sonsitent Decisions? They have a Disposition.
by: Keita Yagi, Ryan Kwok, and Sean Burke
Abstract ::: Poster

Can fish make friends?
by: Alex Gumas and Carolyn Cole
Over a period of six weeks, we explored aggression in male African Cichlids under various conditions. Does competition provoke more aggression than threat, and under what circumstances are male cichlids most aggressive? Unlike previous research, our experiment evaluates testosterone levels under more than one condition, allowing us to compare levels of aggression rather than simply the presence of aggressive behavior. We found that familiar males exert more energy to compete with one another for a female than they do to compete with one another when a stranger male is introduced. For our experiment, we paired similar sized familiar males together in tri-partitioned tanks and observed fights when another similar sized stranger male was introduced, when a female was introduced, and when no fish was introduced (control). We collected both behavioral and hormonal data and found that male cichlids are more aggressive in the presence of a female than when faced with another male. These results may suggest larger implications about social interactions between cichlids and the value of reproduction over risk assessment.

BrightNight, Lite Flight: Sonsitent Decisions? They have a Disposition.
by: Keita Yagi, Ryan Kwok, and Sean Burke
Animal personalities or "inter-individual variability in behavioural organisation within a particular population" ([1], [2]) refers to how animals within a population will respond differently to the same stimulus. Our study looks at the evasive behaviour of green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) kept under different light conditions. Studies done on wild populations of animals risk a great deal of inherent bias due to the difference in the difficulty of sampling "bold" and "shy" individuals [3]; a better understanding of animal personality could allow for more robust studies of animal behaviour in the wild. To compare lizard behaviour in different seasons we set up one experimental condition with summer light hours (14 hours a day) and winter light time (10 hours) [4] and compared their behaviour response in the severity of their escape attempts to their color (which is linked to the levels of stress hormones in their blood [5]. We found that the lizards in under our summer light conditions were less likely to try escape than their winter light condition counterparts and that significant differences exist between the lizards escape responses. This indicates that researchers capturing or studying animals in the field must be rigorous in their capture methods, as to not exclude those animals that exhibit greater escape behavior or that generalizations about the behavior of an entire wild population cannot be made from studies that don't undertake more rigorous capture techniques..

How many dry showers does a Cattle Egret take?: Bout criterion interval for "preening" behaviors at the Oregon zoo
by: Krishna Anand
Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are a species of foragers that typically follow large "grazer" animals to maximize the amount of prey caught with minimal effort. At the Oregon zoo, the two cattle egrets present in the Cascade Stream and Pond exhibit perform foraging related behaviors even in the absence of grazer animals. One such behavior is "preening", the contact made between beak and feathers, that is related to self-grooming and oiling of the egret's body. The behavior "preening" has replaced "oiling" to describe this behavior in related bird species, as the previous term was too specific to be accurate- thus, it is important to study "preening" behavior in egrets without making limiting assumptions. Using data from 5 hours of observation, I collected intervals between preening behaviors to find information on the preening criterion, also called a bout of preening behaviors. Then, these intervals were log transformed and plotted against probability density to determine the bout criterion interval(BCI). The BCI is an estimate of the minimum time between preening bouts, and can also provide an estimate of the number of times a cattle egret performs a preening bout in a day at the Oregon zoo.

Brunch battles: Crayfish diets and their influence on aggressive behavior
by Moira Differding and Alicia Uchida
Previous studies in animal behavior have demonstrated that food type and availability can influence behavior. We investigated the effect that food type has on exhibited aggression in crayfish fights. While studies have shown that food availability influences crayfish aggression, the effect of food type is relatively unknown. We designed a behavioral study to determine if feeding crayfish different food types influenced the frequency and duration of aggressive behaviors. To investigate our research question, we set up two experimental crayfish groups fed two different types of food - frozen bloodworms, and food pellets, and used an ethogram to quantify aggression in 7 minute fights when individual crayfish from each group were fought against each other. We found that crayfish fed pellets exhibited more aggressive behaviors and won more fights on average than crayfish fed bloodworms, and this trend held true even when taking sex, size, weight, and claw length into account. This study highlights the potential importance that food type has on the social hierarchical estimations crayfish make of their neighbors, which could be further investigated by determining which food crayfish prefer and if the crayfish fed bloodworms would become more aggressive toward their neighbor if their food was switched midway through the experiment.

Egging them on top or bottom: the genetic basis for top or bottom oviposition in Drosophila melanogaster
by: Delenn Solis & Jacques Trautman
Drosophila melanogaster flies often have oviposition preferences. Our goal was to determine if geotaxis related D.mel genes affect the right side up or upside down oviposition preferences. Very little research has been done on how genes relate to right side up or upside down oviposition preferences. In our experiment, we quantified the tendency to lay eggs in either a right-side up or upside-down surface in five lines of flies with mutations in one of four geotaxis-related genes: Pdf, Pdfr, Pen, and cry. We did this by setting up fly cages with one apple juice plate on the top of the cage and one on the bottom, placing several male-female pairs inside and counting eggs 1-2 days later. Preliminary analysis strongly suggests the Pdf and Pdfr genes have an effect on the oviposition preferences of Drosophila females, and the effects of cry and Pen genes are inconclusive. The fact that there is a genetic basis for oviposition preferences means that these preferences are subject to selective pressure and therefore the oviposition preferences of wild flies may be adapted to differing environments.

A Novel Robitic Device for MeasureingHhunger in Chichlids
by: David Dunn & Oskar Eriksson
Robotics and automated sensory systems have become increasingly pertinent to the study of animal behavior. How can the use of robotics or automated sensors help to quantify hunger in brooding African cichlids? Within current literature, the use of robotics and automated devices as a behavioral research method is present in the study of zebrafish. This approach would be novel in quantifying hunger in brooding A. burtoni. We aimed to build an automated sensory circuit to be used as a novel behavioral method in answering this question. We designed and programmed an Arduino system to control an automated feeder and continuously collect data in operant conditioning trials through use of advanced infrared sensory components. We found that an automated system can accurately locate the focal animal within the experimental area of the fish tank. Drawing on the earlier research conducted with zebrafish, we have designed a system that can more accurately quantify the position of a focal animal in space, and its rate of movement, both of which are factors integral to the quantification of hunger in brooding cichlids.

Beta Splendens Challenge Response to Comparative Size
by: Erin Howell and Morgan Vague
Prior studies have shown that cichlid fish cannot recognize their reflection, and engage in aggressive behavioral displays toward flat mirrors. However, there has been little research into whether this aggressive challenge response is initiated in different fish species, or if the magnitude of the challenge response differs between convex, concave and flat mirrors corresponding to larger, smaller, and same size perceived opponent respectively. We assessed how the challenge response of the highly aggressive Betta Splendens would differ with exposure to flat mirror, concave mirrors showing smaller reflections, and convex mirrors showing larger reflections. The challenge response was quantified by behavioral observations and waterborne testosterone measurements were quantified by ELISA. Results indicate that the challenge response for Betta splendens varies with comparative opponent size, with a heightened aggressive response to smaller opponents. This could reflect the tendency of larger Betta splendens to assert dominance over perceived weaker opponents.

Noise pollution and the longterm effects on the Astatotilapia burtioni fighting behaviors
by Sarah Gross and Nancy McWilliams
Increased noise in marine settings over long periods of time has shown to have a negative impact on the fish species living within the environments, specifically affecting their endocrine stress responses (Codarin, et. al 2009). Our study hoped to determine if the cichlid fish from Lake Tanganyika (Astatotilapia burtioni) would be able to habituate to the noise pollution stress in their environment and resume normal fighting behaviors with increased exposure to the noise. Previous studies of the effects of noise on cichlid behavior have tested the effects of white noise on hearing sensitivity in cichlids, affecting their sound detection and acoustic orientation (Ladich, et. al 2013) or summarized the effects of noise pollution on multiple animals as a way to demonstrate the problem of human made noise pollutants (Kunc, 2016), but these studies did not effectively examine the effects on stress from the environment-specific noises. We studied the effects of motorboat and "human" noises on cichlid fighting behavior to better understand if the noises they would traditionally encounter could be habituated to--contributing to a better understanding of habituation to noise pollution and the noise's effects on cichlid stress, specifically during fighting behaviors. Cichlid fish were observed in fights in noise-polluted environments with both motorboat and human noises playing, with the experimental cichlid fish being treated daily with the noises in their home tanks prior to the fights. There was no statistically significant evidence that cichlid fish were able habituate to the effects of the noise in the experimental fights. Further research should examine this question in a longer experimental study with cichlids and other species that live in environments that have the risk of increased noise pollution.

Is your memory Shot?: Investigating the Role of Cytoskeletal Proteins in Learning
by: Logan Tibbetts
Learning and memory are important processes crucial to survival in most animals, and they are influenced by a wide range of factors from the whole organism down to the cellular level. Increasingly, recent research has demonstrated the importance of the cytoskeleton for normal and healthy neuronal functioning. By knocking down the cytoskeleton cross-linking protein Shot (also known as Kakapo), a major factor in the normal development of neuronal growth cones, I hoped to determine what relevance the healthy expression of single proteins may have in the learning of classical conditioning. There is a strong need to connect molecular and cellular level functioning with whole organism functioning and behavior. To investigate this, behavioral observations were performed on Drosophila mutants to assess the impact of these cellular manipulations on a whole-organism behavioral level. Using the Prospero:Gal4 system, the actin-microtubule crosslinking protein Shot was knocked down in the neurons of these flies, and adults were assessed in a traditional olfactory paired classical conditioning paradigm. Preliminary data early in the experiment had indicated a robust learning effect should be clearly visible, but no learning effect was observed for any groups during the data gathering assay. I was unable to display a clear learning effect in any of the flies, including control groups. Further experimentation should be performed to ascertain the effects of these manipulations on the level of whole organism behavior.

"I Choose You": Male Guppy Mate Choice in the Face of Competition
by: Matthew Dickinson and Manamaya Peterson
Current research indicates female guppies prefer to the mate with male guppies with either unique patterns or greater amounts of red coloring, but the preference of male guppies is less clear. This experiment set out to test whether male mate choice differs in the presence of other competitive males. Male guppies were tested on mate choice in between female guppies and scored on their number of courting attempts and how much time they spent near each female guppy through continuous observation and Jwatcher recordings. Eight male guppies were tested for female preference between a large and a small female in three consecutive trials. Trials consisted of a preference with only the focal male and the females, a trial with other male guppies present, and a final trial identical to the first trial. Our results did not show a significant difference between male preference when focal males were alone and preference when competitive males were present. With further investigation, this could help to identify the impact of social pressures on sexual selection and with some adjustments demonstrate the active role that males play in the sexual selection of female guppies.

You Can Lead a Fish to Water but You Can't Make Them Swim: Maze Navigation in Black Ghost Knife Fish
by: Ry Dennis and Aurora Solla
We attempted to look into the ability of black ghost knife fish (Apteronotus albifrons) to learn and adapt to introduction to novel stimuli. We chose the particular stimulus of introducing the animals to a maze; could the fish learn to navigate a maze for a food reward? There is literature present on the mechanisms of how black ghost knife fish generate their electrical field, but comparatively little on how that field is used to investigate and navigate new stimuli in the fishes' environment. We attempted to add to this gap by repeatedly introducing young black ghost knife fish into an artificial maze. Fish were removed from their home tank and introduced into the maze containing a food reward at one end; latency to arriving at the food reward was used as the metric for the animal's familiarity with its surroundings. Through this, our data suggests that individual fish have slightly different learning styles from one another when introduced to novel stimuli. This opens up several new questions regarding how and what fish can learn, and how piscine learning can be further studied in a laboratory setting.

Feeling the Chill: Decreasing Activity in Squirrels
by: Indra Boving & Tiffany Thio
The seasonal change in weather, daylight, and temperature may have a large effect on the activity of squirrels in Portland, OR. To research this effect, we asked the question of whether a squirrel's activity level (shown by total time spent foraging, playing, and running) will decrease as the days get shorter and temperatures get lower. While research has been done to look at activity patterns in small mammals, including squirrels, we are interested in looking at the ways in which the activity levels of squirrels change in the transition from autumn to winter specifically. We observed squirrels in two locations bi-weekly over five weeks of shortening day lengths and generally decreasing temperatures. Using timed-focal sampling, we measured the duration of specific squirrel behaviors and analyzed this information for changes over time. Initial results suggest that the time spent active decreases and the time spent inactive increases as the weather gets colder and days get shorter. This research suggests that although squirrels do not hibernate, their activity does depend on the season, which prompts further research into the effects of changing day length and temperature on both squirrels and other non-hibernating small mammals.

Gut Turnover: An Evolutionary Adaptation to Mouthbrooding in Astatotilapia burtoni
by: Cameron Roberts (Shannon Bacheller)
Female Astatotilapia burtoni, a species of mouthbrooding cichlid, voluntarily starve themselves for two weeks while their young develop. Little is known about the physiological mechanisms that have evolved to allow them to accomplish this. A. burtoni therefore represent an excellent animal model in which to study the mechanisms that integrate the regulation of feeding and reproduction. Brooders who are starving face different challenges than starving nonbrooders; by comparing brooding and starved females, we aim to identify key evolutionary innovations that allow for mouthbrooding. In addition to the neural regulation of feeding, peripheral changes in physiology are also necessary to allow brooders to conserve energy. Gut cell turnover is an energetically expensive process that is expendable to brooders, who have substantially reduced gut usage for the duration of brooding, in contrast to involuntarily starved females who may resume gut usage at any time. By detecting cell proliferation and apoptosis in the intestines through immunohistochemistry, differences in cell turnover can be compared between starved, brooding, and fed female A. burtoni. Proliferating cells can be quantified using bromodeoxyuridine, a thymidine analog that incorporates into the DNA of new cells. Similarly, apoptosis can be quantified through the TUNEL assay, which labels the ends of fragmented DNA with a unique nucleotide analog. Gut turnover is an excellent starting point to study peripheral adaptations and changes that occur during the brooding period. Potentially a novel evolutionary adaptation for female A. burtoni, gut turnover can allow them to better endure the mouthbrooding process while limiting energetic costs. The TUNEL assay data indicate a trend of fewer apoptotic cells in brooding females compared to starving and fed females, which suggests that mouthbrooding females conserve energy by down regulating intestinal epithelial turnover. Further studies could examine cell turnover with higher resolution and throughout the brooding cycle.

Stickleback Personality in Limnetic and Benthic Forms
by: Nadav Mouallem - Edward Zhu Animal Behavior
Behavioral assays can be very useful in distinguishing variation in behavioral phenotypes for populations of fish. In our experiment, we examined behavioral differences in boldness, or the 'propensity of an animal to engage in risky behavior,' between two distinct populations of limnetic and benthic three spined stickleback, Gasterost eus aculeatus, found in the Reed College Can yon (Sih et al., 2004). While populations of limnetic stickleback commonly inhabit water less than 1m deep, populations of benthic stickleback commonly inhabit water 1-2m deep - these unique populations can be found in Ritmanis Pond and Reed Lake, respectively. Although scientific literature has detailed differences in boldness for many species of fish (such as sunfish) and within populations of anadromous stickleback, there is little literature detailing behavioral differences between limnetic and benthic forms of stickleback. In our research, we used mark and recapture population sampling to quantify the population of stickleback in Reed Lake and Ritmanis Pond. We then used a behavioral assay to quantify boldness in a subset of stickleback from each of the two distinct populations. While we did not find any significant statistical differences for either boldness or population size between the Reed Lake and Ritmanis Pond populations of stickleback, we were able to detect subtle differences in behavior and population size between the two sites. These findings are relevant because they add to the canon of preexisting literature detailing behavioral phenotypic variation in stickleback.

What's All the Chirp About? How Octopamine Affects Male Cricket Aggression During Mate Displays
by: Olivia Hagen, Maeve Kolk
Male crickets have been observed to act more aggressively when a female stimulus is present; interestingly, octopamine, among other biogenic amines, is necessary in mediating these aggression-promoting effects of potentially rewarding situations in invertebrates, such as the potential for reproducing. We hoped to discover whether administering octopamine to the common house cricket increased or prolonged aggressive displays between males when presented with a female stimulus. While the role of octopamine and other biogenic amines has been extensively researched in invertebrates such as crickets, the impact of these neurochemicals in the presentation of sexual displays is largely unresearched. To carry out our experiment, we used focal behavioral observations of male cricket aggression to compare crickets with and without topically applied octopamine. We created a behavioral ethogram via JWatcher and then observed two male crickets for ten minute intervals under four different conditions: two males, two males with female audience, two males with octopamine, and two males with octopamine and female audience. Our findings supported the previously established conclusion that male cricket aggressive behavior is heightened with female audience, but our topical application of octopamine inhibited even normal cricket behaviors and elicited some unusual behaviors from the males. This research builds on the ways in which octopamine and other biogenic amines dictate the behaviors of invertebrates.

Biology 342 Fall 2016

2016 Student Independent Projects

Scroll down for assignement details