Ipek G. Kulahci

Publications (6) View all

• Book: Multisensory Recognition in Vertebrates (Especially Primates)

  I.G. Kulahci, A.A. Ghazanfar
  01/2013; Springer New York.
• Article: Recaching Decisions of Florida Scrub‐Jays are Sensitive to Ecological Conditions

  Ipek G. Kulahci, Reed Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: Food caching animals depend on their caches at times of low food availability. Because stored food is susceptible to being stolen or degraded, many species employ cache protection strategies such as ceasing caching in the presence of others or avoiding storing perishable items for long periods. Several species frequently recover their caches and recache, which may reduce pilferage or degradation of cached items. We studied the food handling decisions of Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) after cache recovery to determine the roles that social and ecological environments play in post-recovery decisions. Instead of reducing recaching in the presence of others, recovering jays flew away from the recovery site, allowing them to eat or recache a recovered item regardless of the social context. Microhabitat type and soil moisture of the recovery sites had a significant influence on whether recoveries were eaten or recached; most items that were recached had been recovered from bare sand sites or sites with low soil moisture. Taken together, our results suggest that food store management of Florida scrub-jays are unaffected by the social context, but are strongly affected by the habitat conditions that influence the quality of caches.
  Ethology 07/2011; 117(8):700 - 707. · 2.01 Impact Factor
• Article: Multimodal signals enhance decision making in foraging bumble-bees.

  Ipek G Kulahci, Anna Dornhaus, Daniel R Papaj
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  ABSTRACT: Multimodal signals are common in nature and have recently attracted considerable attention. Despite this interest, their function is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that multimodal signals improve decision making in receivers by influencing the speed and the accuracy of their decisions. We trained bumble-bees (Bombus impatiens) to discriminate between artificial flowers that differed either in one modality, visual (specifically, shape) or olfactory, or in two modalities, visual plus olfactory. Bees trained on multimodal flowers learned the rewarding flowers faster than those trained on flowers that differed only in the visual modality and, in extinction trials, visited the previously rewarded flowers at a higher rate than bees trained on unimodal flowers. Overall, bees showed a speed-accuracy trade-off; bees that made slower decisions achieved higher accuracy levels. Foraging on multimodal flowers did not affect the slope of the speed-accuracy relationship, but resulted in a higher intercept, indicating that multimodal signals were associated with consistently higher accuracy across range of decision speeds. Our results suggest that bees make more effective decisions when flowers signal in more than one modality, and confirm the importance of studying signal components together rather than separately.
  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 05/2008; 275(1636):797-802. · 5.41 Impact Factor
• Thesis: Cognitive ecology of foraging: Multimodal signals and the speed-accuracy trade-off

  Ipek Gokce Kulahci
  05/2007, Degree: Master of Science, Supervisor: Daniel R. Papaj
• Source

  Available from: Ernest H. Williams

  Article: Delayed population explosion of an introduced butterfly.

  Carol L Boggs, Cheryl E Holdren, Ipek G Kulahci, Timothy C Bonebrake, Brian D Inouye, John P Fay, Ann McMillan, Ernest H Williams, Paul R Ehrlich
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  ABSTRACT: 1. The causes of lagged population and geographical range expansions after species introductions are poorly understood, and there are relatively few detailed case studies. 2. We document the 29-year history of population dynamics and structure for a population of Euphydryas gillettii Barnes that was introduced to the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA in 1977. 3. The population size remained low (< 200 individuals) and confined to a single habitat patch (approximately 2.25 ha) to 1998. These values are similar to those of many other populations within the natural geographical range of the species. 4. However, by 2002 the population increased dramatically to > 3000 individuals and covered approximately 70 ha, nearly all to the south of the original site. The direction of population expansion was the same as that of predominant winds. 5. By 2004, the butterfly's local distribution had retracted mainly to three habitat patches. It thus exhibited a 'surge/contraction' form of population growth. Searches within 15 km of the original site yielded no other new populations. 6. In 2005, butterfly numbers crashed, but all three habitat patches remained occupied. The populations within each patch did not decrease in the same proportions, suggesting independent dynamics that are characteristic of metapopulations. 7. We postulate that this behaviour results, in this species, in establishment of satellite populations and, given appropriate habitat structure, may result in lagged or punctuated expansions of introduced populations.
  Journal of Animal Ecology 03/2006; 75(2):466-75. · 4.94 Impact Factor