Individual Differences in Nonhuman Animals: Examining Boredom, Curiosity, and Creativity

Personality psychology has traditionally focused on the study of individual differences in human cognition and behavior. More recently, the topic of individual differences in nonhuman animal behavior has featured more prominently in biology and psychology research. The study of individual differences in nonhuman animals has important implications for ecology, conservation, comparative psychology, agriculture, and the care of animals in zoological facilities. Individual differences in animal boredom will be examined in this chapter to highlight the importance of studying variation in boredom proneness and coping styles in nonhuman animals. The negative affective state of boredom is adaptive because it serves as motivation for an individual to re-engage with the environment, a process that can involve curiosity and creativity. Future research on animal boredom should investigate the behavioral and physiological correlates of boredom at both a species and an individual level in order to expand the existing literature and contribute to the future of animal welfare

Review of Underwater and In-Air Sounds Emitted by Australian and Antarctic Marine Mammals

The study of marine soundscapes is a growing field of research. Recording hardware is becoming more accessible; there are a number of off-the-shelf autonomous recorders that can be deployed for months at a time; software analysis tools exist as shareware; rawor preprocessed recordings are freely and publicly available. However, what is missing are catalogues of commonly recorded sounds. Sounds related to geophysical events (e.g. earthquakes) and weather (e.g. wind and precipitation), to human activities (e.g. ships) and to marine animals (e.g. crustaceans, fish and marine mammals) commonly occur. Marine mammals are distributed throughout Australia's oceans and significantly contribute to the underwater soundscape. However, due to a lack of concurrent visual and passive acoustic observations, it is often not known which species produces which sounds. To aid in the analysis of Australian and Antarctic marine soundscape recordings, a literature review of the sounds made by marine mammals was undertaken. Frequency, duration and source level measurements are summarised and tabulated. In addition to the literature review, new marine mammal data are presented and include recordings from Australia of Omura's whales (Balaenoptera omurai), dwarf sperm whales (Kogia sima), common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), long-finned pilot whales (G. melas), Fraser's dolphins (Lagenodelphis hosei), false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and spinner dolphins (S. longirostris), as well as the whistles and burst-pulse sounds of Australian pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata). To date, this is the most comprehensive acoustic summary for marine mammal species in Australian waters