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Animal–vehicle collisions cause high levels of vertebrate mortality worldwide, and what goes wrong when animals fail to escape and ultimately collide with vehicles is not well understood. We investigated alert and escape behaviours of captive brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) in response to virtual vehicle approaches of different sizes and at speeds ranging from 60 to 360 km h−1. Alert and flight initiation distances remained similar across vehicle speeds, and accordingly, alert and flight initiation times decreased at higher vehicle speeds. Thus, avoidance behaviours in cowbirds appeared to be based on distance rather than time available for escape, particularly at 60–150 km h−1; however, at higher speeds (more than or equal to 180 km h−1) no trend in response behaviour was discernible. As vehicle speed increased, cowbirds did not have enough time to assess the approaching vehicle, and cowbirds generally did not initiate flight with enough time to avoid collision when vehicle speed exceeded 120 km h−1. Although potentially effective for evading predators, the decision-making process used by cowbirds in our study appears maladaptive in the context of avoiding fast-moving vehicles. Our methodological approach and findings provide a framework to assess how novel management strategies could affect escape rules, and the sensory and cognitive abilities animals use to avoid vehicle collisions.

Abstract The physiological mechanisms underlying variation in aggression in fish remain poorly understood. One possibly confounding variable is the lack of standardization in the type of stimuli used to elicit aggression. The presentation of controlled stimuli in videos, a.k.a. video playback, can provide better control of the fight components. However, this technique has produced conflicting results in animal behavior studies and needs to be carefully validated. For this, a similar response to the video and an equivalent live stimulus needs to be demonstrated. Further, different physiological responses may be triggered by live and video stimuli, and it is important to demonstrate that video images elicit appropriate physiological reactions. Here, the behavioral and endocrine responses of male Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens to a matched-for-size conspecific fighting behind a one-way mirror, presented live or through video playback, were compared. The video playback and live stimulus elicited a strong and similar aggressive response by the focal fish, with a fight structure that started with stereotypical threat displays and progressed to overt attacks. Postfight plasma levels of the androgen 11-ketotestosterone were elevated as compared to controls, regardless of the type of stimuli. Cortisol also increased in response to the video images, as previously described for live fights in this species. These results show that the interactive component of a fight and its resolution are not needed to trigger an endocrine response to aggression in this species. The study also demonstrates for the first time in a fish a robust endocrine response to video stimuli and supports the use of this technique for researching aggressive behavior in B. splendens.

Multimodal courtship signals may compensate for environmental interference or loss of signals in some sensory modes but may also increase detection by eavesdroppers. Studies on the wolf spider Schizocosa ocreata (Hentz) have demonstrated that males eavesdrop on visual courtship cues of other males and subsequently initiate courtship. Since S. ocreata males use multimodal courtship signals, we examined responses of males to playback of signals in different sensory modes (visual, vibration, multimodal) to test their relative importance for eavesdropping on courting male rivals. We used a recently developed technique to present male wolf spiders with video and/or vibratory stimuli: (1) a multimodal courting male stimulus, with synchronous visual and vibratory cues; (2) a visual-only courting male stimulus (minus the vibratory cues); (3) vibratory cues only (minus the visual cues); and (4) a control (visual background, no courtship). In single-presentation (no-choice) tests, males displayed more courtship bouts and longer durations of courtship bouts to the vibratory stimulus compared with either the visual or multimodal stimuli. However, in two-choice tests where isolated vibratory cues were paired against visual or multimodal stimuli, test males responded with more courtship bouts and longer durations of courtship bouts to the multimodal and visual stimuli. Results of these experiments suggest that male wolf spiders may vary eavesdropping courtship behaviors to compensate for missing sensory information concerning the location and other distinguishing characteristics of the rival male and the whereabouts of the female.

Vehicle collisions with birds are financially costly and dangerous to humans and animals. To reduce collisions, it is necessary to understand how birds respond to approaching vehicles. We used simulated ( i.e ., animals exposed to video playback) and real vehicle approaches with mallards ( Anas platyrynchos ) to quantify flight behavior and probability of collision under different vehicle speeds and times of day (day vs . night). Birds exposed to simulated nighttime approaches exhibited reduced probability of attempting escape, but when escape was attempted, fled with more time before collision compared to birds exposed to simulated daytime approaches. The lower probability of flight may indicate that the visual stimulus of vehicle approaches at night ( i.e ., looming headlights) is perceived as less threatening than when the full vehicle is more visible during the day; alternatively, the mallard visual system might be incompatible with vehicle lighting in dark settings. Mallards approached by a real vehicle exhibited a delayed margin of safety (both flight initiation distance and time before collision decreased with speed); they are the first bird species found to exhibit this response to vehicle approach. Our findings suggest mallards are poorly equipped to adequately respond to fast-moving vehicles and demonstrate the need for continued research into methods promoting effective avian avoidance behaviors.

Urgency perception plays a vital role in addressing the issue of climate change. However, little is known about how to promote the perceived urgency of climate change and its potential influence on proenvironmental intention and behavior. This research focuses on a potentially significant but less studied factor in video communication: video playback speed. The current research explores the effectiveness of video playback speed as a subtle behavioral nudge to influence urgency perception and proenvironmental response in the context of climate change. We conducted two survey-embedded experiments in which participants watched a climate change video playing at either normal or fast speed and then completed measurements. Data were collected first in an undergraduate sample (n = 75) and then in a general population sample (n = 300) and analyzed using Mann–Whitney U tests, chi-squared tests, and moderation analysis in SPSS. The results reveal that a fast playback speed of climate change video decreases the perceived urgency of climate change for younger consumers, not for older consumers. However, video playback speed does not influence proenvironmental intention and behavior. These findings enhance understanding of when video playback speed affects urgency perception and proenvironmental tendency, and provide valuable insights for climate change communication.

Video playback provides a promising method to study social interactions, and the number of video playback experiments has been growing in recent years. Using videos has advantages over live individuals as it increases the repeatability of demonstrations, and enables researchers to manipulate the features of the presented stimulus. How observers respond to video playback might, however, differ among species, and the efficacy of video playback should be validated by investigating if individuals’ responses to videos are comparable to their responses to live demonstrators. Here, we use a novel foraging task to compare blue tits’ ( Cyanistes caeruleus ) responses to social information from a live conspecific vs video playback. Birds first received social information about the location of food, and were then presented with a three-choice foraging task where they could search for food from locations marked with different symbols (cross, square, plain white). Two control groups saw only a foraging tray with similar symbols but no information about the location of food. We predicted that socially educated birds would prefer the same location where a demonstrator had foraged, but we found no evidence that birds copied a demonstrator’s choice, regardless of how social information was presented. Social information, however, had an influence on blue tits’ foraging choices, as socially educated birds seemed to form a stronger preference for a square symbol (against two other options, cross and plain white) than the control birds. Our results suggest that blue tits respond to video playback of a conspecific similarly as to a live bird, but how they use this social information in their foraging decisions, remains unclear.

Despite the frequency of videolaryngoscope use, to the authors' knowledge, there are no publications exploring the role of playback video recording in real time to improve patient care.We present a patient with a difficult airway complicated by trauma during GlideScope (Verathon Inc., Bothell,WA, USA) intubation. The injury was not recognised by any of the anaesthetic staff observing the intubation, and was only identified when playback video footage was viewed. This provided the opportunity for early ear, nose and throat surgical review prior to extubation. Airway trauma can be missed by the anaesthetist. Reviewing video playback footage at an appropriate time during the case may enable more timely recognition of airway injuries and, ultimately, improved patient care.

Video playback is becoming a common method for manipulating social stimuli in experiments. Parid tits are one of the most commonly studied groups of wild birds. However, it is not yet clear if tits respond to video playback or how their behavioural responses should be measured. Behaviours may also differ depending on what they observe demonstrators encountering. Here we present blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus ) videos of demonstrators discovering palatable or aversive prey (injected with bitter-tasting Bitrex) from coloured feeding cups. First we quantify variation in demonstrators’ responses to the prey items: aversive prey provoked high rates of beak wiping and head shaking. We then show that focal blue tits respond differently to the presence of a demonstrator on a video screen, depending on whether demonstrators discover palatable or aversive prey. Focal birds faced the video screen more during aversive prey presentations, and made more head turns. Regardless of prey type, focal birds also hopped more frequently during the presence of a demonstrator (compared to a control video of a different coloured feeding cup in an empty cage). Finally, we tested if demonstrators’ behaviour affected focal birds’ food preferences by giving individuals a choice to forage from the same cup as a demonstrator, or from the cup in the control video. We found that only half of the individuals made their choice in accordance to social information in the videos, i.e., their foraging choices were not different from random. Individuals that chose in accordance with a demonstrator, however, made their choice faster than individuals that chose an alternative cup. Together, our results suggest that video playback can provide social cues to blue tits, but individuals vary greatly in how they use this information in their foraging decisions.

Many vertebrates use vocalizations to communicate about the presence of predators, and some encode information about predator type or behavior. A fast-approaching predator typically elicits a \"flee alarm call,\" prompting others to escape to safety. In a field experiment, we presented gliding models of a predatory bird to several species representing four families of passerine, including our model species, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). All families presented with the glider gave a distinct call on at least one occasion, apart from the zebra finch, for which no specific alarm call was recorded. Following on from this unexpected result, we conducted an experiment in which we exposed captive zebra finches to video of a looming raptor. Results of the captive study showed that birds responded to the looming raptor with escape behavior and responded to less threatening stimuli with orienting or startle behavior. Despite this anti-predator response, birds did not give any distinct alarm call, and the distance calls of both males and females did not differ in structure or rate of delivery after exposure to a stimulus. Zebra finches are one of the most studied birds in the world, are gregarious, and have a rich vocal repertoire, yet their alarm communication has not been investigated experimentally. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that zebra finches lack a flee alarm call and appear not to signal about immediate danger through a change in calling rate.