Donald H. Owings

Donald H. Owings (December 7, 1943 – April 9, 2011) was a professor of psychology and faculty member of the Animal Behavior Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis. His research focused on ground squirrels, in particular, their interactions with predators such as rattlesnakes; and, more generally, on concepts of communication within and between species. In 1994, he was elected as a fellow of the animal behavior society and in 2010 he received the Exemplar Award for mentoring graduate students. In connection with this award, one of his former graduate students wrote:

It was so wonderful working with you - I really could not have asked for a better advisor. I learned so much from you and am grateful for how you broadened my understanding of animal behavior and let me be part of a truly fascinating research system and great research team.

Research

Ground squirrels and snakes His primary animal system for investigating animal behavior, social behavior and communication, and antipredator and counter-antipredator behavior was California ground squirrels and snakes (especially rattlesnakes). Adult California ground squirrels must defend against avian and mammalian predators. They also must defend their pups especially from predation by rattlesnakes and gopher snakes. Owings together with his students and colleagues discovered a number of behavioral and physiological defense mechanisms against snakes. When ground squirrels encounter a predator, their first response is to typically vocalize in distinctly different ways to aerial and ground predators. Encounters with snakes may elicit ground predator vocalization, but ground squirrels then shift to visual signaling by tail flagging. Tail flagging has the advantage of harassing snakes and deterring them from entering burrows with squirrel pups, but it has the disadvantage of requiring close proximity to snakes increasing the likelihood of snake bites. In response to this problem, ground squirrels have evolved the capacity to neutralize rattlesnake venom.

Rattlesnakes have evolved specialized sensory organs (infrared-sensitive pit organs) that enhance their ability to predate small mammals. This ability to sense in the infrared set the stage for ground squirrels to evolve antipredator counter-innovations that take advantage of the specialized sensory organs of rattlesnakes. Owings and colleagues found that ground squirrels shunt blood to their tails when encountering rattlesnakes. This allows ground squirrels to tail flag to rattlesnakes even in the dark with their hot tails that rattlesnakes can detect with infrared-sensitive pit organs. Ground squirrels do not shunt blood to their tails when they encounter gopher snakes, which also feed on their young, but lack infrared-sensitive pit organs.

Assessment/management communication His research on predator-prey interactions between ground squirrels and rattlesnakes led to the formulation of a new theoretical perspective on communication called assessment/management view of communication. From this perspective, communication is dependent on the sensory and action systems of the individuals engaged in communication. Information is not sent or received by individuals but rather it is extracted from what others are doing and their context (i.e., Gibsonian affordances). The extracted information is then assessed and acted upon. What affordances an individual extracts and assesses depend on its sensory systems and, more generally, on the nature of its umwelt (i.e., an animal's sensory-actions systems). Because communication requires the extraction of information from affordances presented to individuals, this creates the opportunity to manipulate or manage the behavior of others by controlling the affordances they perceive. For example, ground squirrels have evolved the ability to shunt blood to their tails, which heats their tails up. They can then tail-flag at rattlesnakes, which can perceive their hot tails in the infrared.

The assessment/management view of communication is very general, allowing for both intra- and inter-species communication. It can also be extended to human communication to encompass a broader understanding of human communication during early development. The first form of human communication occurs via human infant crying. Human infants are helpless and their sensory-action systems are severely limited when compared to the sensory-action systems of their caregivers. They are very limited in assessing their own needs much less managing them. Caregivers can assess and manage the needs of infants, but they lack direct access to emotional needs of infants (e.g., hunger, pain). Human infant crying is highly salient and normally activates the assessment and management systems of caregivers directing them to crying infants. When successful, caregivers assess the needs of crying infants and act in ways that reduce these needs (e.g., feeding a hungry infant). The noxiousness of crying may be a factor some cases of child abuse. The development of robosquirrel has received extensive coverage in both science and popular media, but it also created controversy when Senator Tom Coburn highlighted it in his Wastebook 2012 as a scientific research project that wastes United States federal tax dollars. The researchers involved have responded to these issues.

Selected publications

Journal articles and book chapters

Books