AS-HOPE report

Number:AS-23-001

Making a research report at the conference 'Behavior 2011' and attending to the meeting at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Report: FUMIHIRO KANO

Date:2011/7/25 - 2010/8/4( 10days)

This integrated conference of Animal Behavior Society and International Ethological Conference was big. The conference was held for five days, which include eight keynote talks and poster and oral sessions each including around400 talks. The main topics were sexual selection, social behavior, communication, parental care, personality, gene and evolution, development, etc. Among the keynote talks, I especially liked the one about the epigenetics in rat parental behavior, although that was not in my specialty. It has been long known that there are some behaviors inherited through generations fairly rigidly, but not via gene mutations, that is, via Lamarckian ways. Researchers begin to understand its mechanism. In this talk, the parental behavior of rats (licking) triggers the expression of certain protein, which blocks certain part of gene. The blocked gene makes the offspring take the similar behavior as thatof parents. I presented about ape eye-tracking, especially about how apes scan others' faces, in the 'communication' session. I regret one thing that there were not so many feedbacks from the audience. However, overall, this conference let me have a broader view about evolution and animal behaviors. That was a good conference. 

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