User:Elizabeth.dollmont/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cat demonstrating bunting behaviour on a dog.

Bunting is a form of animal behaviour, often found in cats, in which the animal butts or rubs their head against other things, including people. Bunting as a behaviour can be viewed as a variation of scent rubbing.[1] This is when an animal, typically a carnivore, will rub it's back on a scent such as prey or the urine of a conspicific. Evolutionarily speaking, scent rubbing is the oldest form of scent communication and bunting is a derivative of this behaviour. [2] Rolling in the scent of another animal was an adaptation to camouflage the scent of a predator or outside male in order to get closer to mates. [3] Bunting is generally considered to be a form of territorial scent-marking behaviour, where the cat rubs the scent glands on their cheeks and forehead on the object being marked.[4] After a display of aggression, a cat will begin bunting objects in that immediate area as a form of territorial display toward a rival cat.[5] Bunting and allorubbing are also part of feral cat behaviour within colonies. An elaborate ritual which can take several minutes, two cats will rub along the side and tail of the other cat.[6] This behaviour in domestic cats involves a system of hierarchy and may have evolved as a way to channel aggression where the costs of a conflict is too high. [7] Cat's also use bunting as a way to familiarize themselves to their environment and the pheromones secreted work to ease the cat's anxieties about an unfamiliar area. [8] Bunting is a normal animal behaviour, and should be distinguished from head pressing, which is abnormal and typically a sign of illness.[9]

Development[edit]

The practice of bunting stems from the behaviour that arises when kittens are very young and seek stimulation from their mother by rubbing and kneading. [10] This behaviour develops throughout the animals life and is not only found in cats. It has also been found in other carnivorous mammals and some ungulates. [11] Bunting in ungulates has no olfactory function but may have a role in the weaning of young. When a juvenile is nursing from it's mother, it will bunt the udder with it's head. This is to stimulate milk production or "let down" and causes some pain to the mother when the bunting movement is frequently performed. [12] Overtime, there is an increase in the amount of times the udder is bunted by the young. This causes the mother to react in an attempt to prevent further pain. This reaction of the mother can be any form of defensive behaviour from a nipping bite, moving away from the young, or a jab of her horns.[13] Bunting in domesticated and wild cat species has olfactory roots and has a range of uses which include, but are not limited to, mother-young association bonds, greeting/welcoming of kin, diffusing potential aggression in social environments, and distributing scent on areas to cultivate familiarity. [14]

Bunting in other Species[edit]

Cattle[edit]

Bunting behaviour is a display of aggression in cattle. When two cattle are rivaling each other, they will often use bunting as a form of defense.[15] Cattle will attempt to bunt the rival cattle with the goal of bunting their head under the hind legs of the animal. This occurs when one cattle shows submission during the final moments of a feud, and this specific behavior is calling clinching.[16] The behaviour of bunting within cattle is first observable in calves. As a form of play fighting, a young calf will bunt the flank of it's mother. A new born calf will bunt the mother's udder and this stimulates milk flow. It has been found that when calves are taken from their mothers, and raised artificially, the calf will attempt to bunt the artificial teat when milk is not being produced quick enough. [17]

Horses[edit]

Horses will rub the bottom of their jaw onto others as a form of greeting.[18] As seen in cattle, horse foals will bunt the mother's udder in order to stimulate milk production. Another example of bunting is when a dam experiences pain while a foal is suckling. The dam will proceed to bunt the foal with her head, non-aggressively, to prevent further discomfort. Many foals will play fight with one and other; displaying the bunting behaviour. The foal will push it's head against another foal's body in an attempt to knock the other off-balance.[19]

Lions[edit]
Lions display bunting as a form of greeting when met with other pride members.

Similarly to domesticated cats, lions also use bunting as a form of greeting and territorial marking. Lions will often greet each other with this head bunting behavior when returning to a pride after a hunt.[20] In the early stages of life, cubs procure stimulation from their mother as she cleans them by rubbing and licking them. This behaviour carries throughout their lives and bunting remains a primal source of interaction between adults as it stimulates a familiar interaction between kin. [21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Englar, Ryane E. (2017). Performing the Small Animal Physical Examination. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119295310.
  2. ^ Reiger, Ingo (1979). "Scent Rubbing in Carnivores" (PDF). Carnivore. 2. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  3. ^ Fendt, Markus; Kiyokawa, Yasushi; Endres, Thomas (2016). Scents that matter - from olfactory stimuli to genes, behaviors and beyond. Frontiers Media SA. p. 34. ISBN 9782889198139.
  4. ^ Elizabeth Wasserman. "It's All Mine! Cat Marking, Explained". Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. ^ Rodan, Ilona; Heath, Sarah (2015). Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare - E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 31. ISBN 9781455774029.
  6. ^ Crowell-Davis, Sharon L.; Curtis, Terry M.; Knowles, Rebecca J. (March 2004). "Social organization in the cat: a modern understanding" (PDF). Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery. 6. doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2003.09.013. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  7. ^ Bos, Ruud van den (1 March 1998). "The function of allogrooming in domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus); a study in a group of cats living in confinement". Journal of Ethology. 16 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1007/BF02896348. ISSN 0289-0771.
  8. ^ Weiss, Emily; Mohan-Gibbons, Heather; Zawistowski, Stephen (2015). Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118922835.
  9. ^ Gregory, Neville G. (2008). Physiology and Behaviour of Animal Suffering. John Wiley & Sons. p. 107. ISBN 9781405173025.
  10. ^ Rosenblatt, Jay (1980). Advances in the Study of Behavior. Academic Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780080582719.
  11. ^ Geist, Valerius (1974). "The Behaviour of Ungulates and Its Relation to Management: The Papers of an International Symposium Held at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2-5 November 1971". International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 1. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
  12. ^ Combellas, Jorge (2003). "Cow-calf relationship during milking and its effect on milk yield and calf live weight gain". Livestock Research for Rural Development. 15 (3).
  13. ^ Keyserlingk, Marina; Weary, Daniel (1 July 2007). "Maternal behavior in cattle". 52. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ Jensen, Per (2017). The Ethology of Domestic Animals: An Introductory Text, 3rd Edition. CABI. ISBN 9781786391650.
  15. ^ Keeling, J. L. (2001). Social Behavior in Farm Animals. CABI. ISBN 9780851997179.
  16. ^ McGlone, John J. (1 April 1986). "Agonistic Behavior in Food Animals: Review of Research and Techniques". Journal of Animal Science. 62 (4): 1130–1139. doi:10.2527/jas1986.6241130x. ISSN 0021-8812.
  17. ^ Houpt, Katherine A. (2018). Domestic Animal Behavior for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119232803. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  18. ^ Mills, D. S.; McDonnell, S. M. (2005). The Domestic Horse: The Origins, Development and Management of Its Behaviour. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780521891134. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  19. ^ McDonnell, Sue M. (2003). The Equid Ethogram: A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior. Eclipse Press. p. 295. ISBN 9781581500905.
  20. ^ Schaller, George B. (2009). The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226736600. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  21. ^ Matoba, Tomoyuki; Kutsukake, Nobuyuki; Hasegawa, Toshikazu (4 September 2013). "Head Rubbing and Licking Reinforce Social Bonds in a Group of Captive African Lions, Panthera leo". PLOS ONE. 8 (9): e73044. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073044. ISSN 1932-6203.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)







Article Evaluation[edit]

Upon reading the wikipedia article about the Waggle dance[1] in bees, I believe that I have a good understanding of how to format my own wikipedia article. The article talks about the specific behavior of bees where they dance in a figure eight motion in order to tell other bees in the colony where flowers, and water sources are. The article does a good job of explaining what the definition is, and it provides many citations. Overall, it is a very nicely flowing article with no distractions, all material is relevant within it. Also, there are no bias statements within it that favors one theory over another. This article is a part of the "Wikimedia Commons" projects. Which brings attention to the images that show examples of the different organisms undergoing aestivation. This is an important addition to the article, however there is an issue with the images/media. When I entered the "Talk" page of the article, there were many people commenting on how one of the images within the article is actually a species of fly using batesian mimicry[2]. The origional content creator of the waggle dance wikipedia page never responded to any of the comments on the talk page. Wikipedia has a good system to ensure that articles are accurate and just. With this peer review system, articles can easily be edited, which can make it easier to fix errors that could have been overlooked by the original creator. All in all, wikipedia is a good public database for information.