While the past several decades have brought federal regulations that are designed to make animal research more humane, ethics courses still form only a patchwork across colleges. The amount and types of ethical training available to students vary widely by program and the culture of an institution. Now discussions about animal-research ethics that…

Reptiles and amphibians are a diverse and interesting group of organisms. The four activities described in this article take students' curiosity into the realm of scientific understanding. The activities involve the concepts of species identification; animal adaptations, communication, and habitat; and conservation. (Contains 1 table and 2…

This article examines adaptations in their capacity of preserving literary heritage. It describes how the Middle Dutch beast epic "Reynard the Fox" lost its position in literature for adults and became part of a literary heritage that was no longer read but only studied for its historical value. Versions for children kept the story…

The need for adequate functional English literacy and numeracy instruction for the herdsmen in Osun State in Nigeria arose as a result of the persistent clashes between the herdsmen and their neighbours. In all, 48 participants (22 adults and 26 children and youths) took part in the International Reading Association assisted functional literacy…

This annotated bibliography contains 167 citations of training materials for animal facility personnel that were enbtered in the AGRICOLA database between January 1979 and February 1995. Citations of journal articles, books, and audiovisual materials are included. A wide variety of publication types are represented, including the following:…

Presented is an annotated bibliography of reference materials on the maintenance of plants and animals. (SL)

The 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic effectively closed large parts of the UK countryside for several months. Local firms found their operations disrupted and suffered losses of trade. The individual and collective experiences of affected firms provide vivid insights into how rural businesses and the local economies they constitute…

This experiment assessed the effects of "d"-Amphetamine and ethanol on reinforced variable and repetitive key-peck sequences in pigeons. Pigeons responded on two keys under a multiple schedule of Repeat and Vary components. In the Repeat component, completion of a target sequence of right, right, left, left resulted in food. In the Vary component,…

The article discusses two important influences of B. F. Skinner, and later workers in the behavior-analytic tradition, on the study of animal timing. The first influence is methodological, and is traced from the invention of schedules imposing temporal constraints or periodicities on animals in "The Behavior of Organisms," through the rate…

Philosophers often consider what it is that makes individuals human. For biologists considering the same, the answer is often framed in the context of what are the key differences between humans and other animals. One vestige of human uniqueness still often cited by anthropologists is culture. However, this notion has been challenged in recent…

Pigeons were trained in a matching task with either color (group color-first) or line (group line-first) samples. After asymmetrical training in which each group was initially trained with the same sample on all trials, marked retention asymmetries were obtained. In both groups, accuracy dropped precipitously on trials involving the initially…

In this article we use actual instances of human conduct with animals to reflect on the debates about animal agency in human activities. Where much of psychology, philosophy, and sociology begin with a fundamental scepticism over animal mind as the grounds for its inquiries, we join with a growing body of work that examines the continuities…

Described a project in which students raised goats to help provide a variety of animals to people around the world who were trying to increase quantity and improve strains of livestock. (Author/RK)

This article attempts to illustrate the value of a psychobiological approach to the study of a particular behavior; in this case, vocalization of infant primates following loss of the mother. (PCB)

Provides basic information on the anatomy, physiology, behaviors, and distribution patterns of the box turtle. Offers suggestions for the turtle's care and maintenance in a classroom environment. (ML)