Recensioni: Sbagliando non si impara. Perché facciamo sempre le scelte sbagliate in amore, sul lavoro e nella vita quotidiana

Le scienze cognitive e l'economia comportamentale nel giro di un decennio si sono trasformate da discipline esoteriche per soli addetti ad argomento comune, quotidianamente dibattuto su quotidiani e social. Il volume di Sara Garofalo ne è un esempio perché offre al lettore una serie di esempi, esercizi e test in cui semplici situazioni di vita quotidiana rivelano l'ormai nota fallibilità della architettura delle scelte della nostra specie, ovvero la nostra 'razionalità limitata' preconizzata dalle ricerche, ogni volta riconosciute con il Nobel, dello psicologo Herbert Simon tra gli anni Cinquanta e Settanta del secolo scorso, poi sviluppata in economia dallo psicologo Daniel Kahneman e dall'economista comportamentale Richard Thaler in anni recenti

Estimation of spatial and temporal overlap in three ungulate species in a Mediterranean environment

AbstractInterspecific interactions are key drivers in structuring animal communities. Sympatric animals may show such behavioural patterns as the differential use of space and/or time to avoid competitive encounters. We took advantage of the ecological conditions of our study area, inhabited by different ungulate species, to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution ofCapreolus capreolus,Dama damaandSus scrofa. We estimated intraspecific interaction arising from the concomitant use of resources by using camera trapping. We collected 2741 videos with the three ungulates, which showed peculiar activity patterns. The three species were observed in all the habitat types of the study area over the four seasons, thus highlighting an evident spatial overlap. Moreover, our analysis demonstrated that the three species did not avoid each other through temporal segregation of their activities, rather showing a high overlap of daily activity rhythms, though with differences among the species and the seasons. Despite the high spatial and temporal overlap, the three species seemed to adopt segregation through fine-scale spatial avoidance: at an hourly level, the proportion of sites where the species were observed together was relatively low. This spatio-temporal segregation revealed complex and alternative behavioural strategies, which likely facilitated intra-guild sympatry among the studied species. Both temporal and spatio-temporal overlap reached the highest values in summer, when environmental conditions were more demanding. Given these results, we may presume that different drivers (e.g. temperature, human disturbance), which are likely stronger than interspecific interactions, affected activity rhythms and fine-scale spatial use of the studied species

Protected areas as refuges for pest species? The case of wild boar

Abstract Protected areas are often blamed for offering refuge to pest species populations, giving rise to the so-called "reserve effect". Nevertheless, this major conservation side effect has seldom been investigated or verified on a local scale. Along the borders of two protected areas of different size, we modelled wild boar individual likelihood of being either inside or outside the protected areas throughout the year, considering their activity rhythms and resource availability. No evidence of reserve effect was found in the small protected area, yet the percentage of wild boar moving across the border was smaller in the large one. Moreover, although wild boar use of the large protected area resulted to increase in autumn, we showed that this was not the consequence of hunting avoidance. Our results clearly highlighted the importance to verify reserve effect on a local scale with studies based on detailed information on animal spatial behaviour and environmental variables

Habitat selection in adult males of Alpine ibex, <i>Capra ibex ibex</i>

Habitat use and selection of 14 Alpine ibex males were studied in the Gran Paradiso National Park. Alpine meadows were always overused and positively selected, because this habitat constituted an important food resource for the ibex. Even if rocks (30%) and stone ravines (22%) were the most frequented habitats in the study area, their use was lower than their availability because they offered few trophic resources. Pastures were used only in spring when the ibexes were looking for those sites just free from snow and with fresh vegetation. Stone ravines, where the ibexes rested in the hottest days, were most used in summer. Rocks were most used in winter: rock-faces are the only sites where the risk of avalanches is low and where it is still possible to find snow-free patches. Larch woods were especially used in winter and spring when it was still possible to find snow-free patches. The home range sizes proved to be influenced by the amount of Alpine meadows and rocks

Knowledge, attitudes and practices about vaccination in Trentino, Italy in 2019

Vaccination is among the most important areas of progress in the worldwide history of public health. However, a crescent wave of anti-vaccine groups has grown in Western countries, especially in Italy, in the last two decades. Our aim was to evaluate adult's hesitancy and knowledge about vaccines and related diseases in Trentino-Alto Adige -the Italian region with the lowest vaccination coverages

Potential of the zebrafish model for the forensic toxicology screening of NPS: A comparative study of the effects of APINAC and methiopropamine on the behavior of zebrafish larvae and mice

Abstract The increased diffusion of the so-called novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and their continuous change in structure andconceivably activity has led to the need of a rapid screening method to detect their biological effects as early as possible after their appearance in the market. This problem is very felt in forensic pathology and toxicology, so the preclinical study is fundamental in the approach to clinical and autopsy cases of difficult interpretation intoxication. Zebrafish is a high-throughput suitable model to rapidly hypothesize potential aversive or beneficial effects of novel molecules. In the present study, we measured and compared the behavioral responses to two novel neuroactive drugs, namely APINAC, a new cannabimimetic drug, and methiopropamine (MPA), a methamphetamine-like compound, on zebrafish larvae (ZL) and adult mice. By using an innovative statistical approach (general additive models), it was found that the spontaneous locomotor activity was impaired by the two drugs in both species: the disruption extent varied in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Sensorimotor function was also altered: i) the visual object response was reduced in mice treated with APINAC, whereas it was not after exposure to MPA; ii) the visual placing responses were reduced after treatment with both NPS in mice. Furthermore, the visual motor response detected in ZL showed a reduction after treatment with APINAC during light-dark and dark-light transition. The same pattern was found in the MPA exposed groups only at the dark-light transition, while at the transition from light to dark, the individuals showed an increased response. In conclusion, the present study highlighted the impairment of spontaneous motor and sensorimotor behavior induced by MPA and APINAC administration in both species, thus confirming the usefulness of ZL as a model for a rapid behavioural-based drug screening

Capture effects in wild boar: a multifaceted behavioural investigation

Although the proliferation of the wild boar in Europe makes capturing and handling necessary for both management and research, the behavioural responses of this species to capture are still unknown. We evaluated how capture affects wild boar behaviour during the first 30 days after the release, focusing on the animals' total activity, mobility and activity rhythms and their variation in response to different drug mixtures used for sedation. Low levels of activity and mobility characterized the first 10 post-capture days. After this period, a gradual restoring of stable levels occurred. Wild boar captured by using different drug mixtures exhibited slightly different patterns of activity depression. We also showed capture to produce a partial effect on wild boar behavioural rhythmicity. Our findings highlight the case study variability of the capture effect and offer useful insights into several conservation and management implications