Highlights•Researchers use neophobia tests for many purposes, but produce conflicting
results.•Attention to cognitive mechanisms and ecological context reveals testing issues.•We …

Neophobia, the fear of novel stimuli, plays a major role in animal ecology. Here, we review
studies on predator neophobia and explore its underlying patterns within an ecological …

Behavioral responses to novelty, including fear and subsequent avoidance of novel stimuli,
ie, neophobia, determine how animals interact with their environment. Neophobia aids in …

The recognition that invasive alien species (IAS) are among the greatest threats to
biodiversity has stimulated a growing interest in their impacts on native amphibians. Here …

We argue that pain is not needed to protect the body from damage unless the organism is
able to make free choices in action selection. Then pain (including its affective and …

Uncertainty has long been of interest to economists and psychologists and has more
recently gained attention among ecologists. In the ecological world, animals must regularly …

In aquatic systems, chemical cues are a major source of information through which animals
are able to assess the current state of their environment to gain information about local …

Cognitive ecology integrates cognition, ecology, and neurobiology in one topic and has
recently broadened into an exciting diversity of themes covering the entire range of cognition …

Highlights•Corvids demonstrate higher object neophobia than other species.•Corvids and
other species are less fearful of litter in urban than rural areas.•Urban and rural populations …

Both short-term and long-term variation in predation risk can affect the behaviour of prey,
thus affecting growth, reproduction, survival and population dynamics. Inferences about the …