bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Feeding behaviour of the termite‐eating planarian Microplana termitophaga (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria: Tricladida: Terricola) in Zimbabwe
Authors: Jones H. D. , Cumming M. S. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe predatory behaviour of the terrestrial planarian Microplana termitophaga has been studied by a series of long‐term observations, video records and photographs. The planarians feed by ‘fishing’ for termites at the open vent of the mound of Odontotermes transvaalensis, mainly for 2 or 3 hours after dawn. Locomotion (primarily by ciliary gliding) is described and a full account is given of feeding behaviour, including the stalking and selection of prey, the method of capture (termites are bodily lifted out of the vent by the adhesive front end of the planarian) and the time course of feeding and digestion (typically about 6 min). The largest meal observed by one individual was of 13 termites consecutively consumed over 3 h 14 min. Large numbers of soldiers at the rim reduce the predation rate, though planarians can capture soldiers.
Geographic variation in growth of polar bears (Ursus maritimus)
Authors: Derocher A. E. , Stirling I. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe growth patterns of body length and head size in female and male polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in western Hudson Bay were compared with those of five other populations using the von Bertalanffy equation. Our objective was to determine if differences in growth patterns could account for higher reproductive rates reported in female polar bears from western Hudson Bay compared to the other populations. Significant differences in asymptotic size and growth rate were found in body length and head size. At age of first breeding in western Hudson Bay (4.1 years old), females reached 97% of asymptotic body length, while females in other populations took between 4.5 and 5.5 years to attain the same proportion. Body length of three‐ and four‐year‐old females in western Hudson Bay declined between the 1960s and 1990s and temporal variation in growth rates makes cross‐population studies uncertain. Zygomatic breadth and head length may provide the most useful measures to compare populations because they are simple to measure, non‐varying, and growth in head length is almost complete (97–98%) by the age of first breeding in females. We conclude that higher reproductive rates in western Hudson Bay were associated with higher growth rates. However, the reason for the higher growth rates remain unknown.
Individuality in the groans of fallow deer (Dama dama) bucks
Authors: Reby D. , Joachim J. , Lauga J. , Lek S. , Aulagnier S. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractVocal signatures and individual recognition are documented in a wide range of avian and mammalian species, but little is known about cervids. However, the existence of individual characteristics in cervid vocalizations is highly probable, as the individual morphology of their vocal organ determines the spectral structure of the uttered signal. Here, we report the presence of individual characteristics in the spectral structure of fallow deer groans recorded during the rutting period. We digitized 147 vocalizations from four adult males and transformed each of them into a power spectrum of 32 values in order to represent the frequency distribution of the sound power. A neural network discrimination with cross validation performed on the resulting variables allowed us correctly to identify 87.9 % of the tested vocalizations. The spectrum characteristics of an individual remained stable over the rutting period, and probably over several consecutive ruts (the vocalizations of one male recorded during a previous rutting period were also correctly classified). We therefore conclude that the groan may constitute a vocal signature. The individually structured groan may provide a valuable basis for individual recognition during the breeding season and therefore may play an important role in the social interactions observed during this period.
Sperm fertility and skewed paternity during sperm competition in the Australian long‐eared bat Nyctophilus geoffroyi (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
Authors: Hosken David J. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractProlonged sperm storage, rare among mammals, is widespread among bats and may promote sperm competition, assuming stored sperm are fertile. However, while sperm storage has been documented in many bat species, there have been few investigations of the fertility of stored sperm. Related to this, and a fundamental question in the study of competition at the gametic level, is the effect of mating order on success during sperm competition. For mammals there are no clear mating order effects, in part because females do not store sperm for prolonged periods, but there have been no investigations of mating order effects during sperm competition in sperm‐storing bats. I report here on a study designed to investigate the fertility of stored sperm and the effects of mating order on success during sperm competition in a captive colony of Australian long‐eared bats Nyctophilus geoffroyi (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Bats were housed in outdoor flight‐cages, under natural light and temperature regimes. Females were housed serially with two males and were separated from them at intervals throughout the year.Blood plasma progesterone concentrations, measured using double antibody radioimmunoassay, were monitored to assess the duration of sperm storage. Paternity of offspring was assessed using genetic markers identified using gel electrophoresis of blood enzymes. Blood plasma progesterone concentrations were basal from early autumn till mid‐late winter, increased markedly during pregnancy, and generally fell back to basal 5–6 weeks post‐partum. Data indicated that females could store fertile sperm for more than 90 days, while sperm stored by males were fertile after 4–5 months' storage. Paternity was significantly biased toward one male which fathered all offspring. Results are discussed in the context of sperm competition.
Intra‐ and interspecific aggregation among dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) in an Alpine pasture
Authors: Palestrini C. , Barbero E. , Ronaldo A. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractSpatial distribution of scarabeoid beetles on dung pats was studied in the Argentera Natural Park (south‐western Italian Alps) from June to September in 1994 and 1995. Artificial dung pats were distributed evenly within the study area (about 1400 m a.s.l.) and sampled at suitable dung ages (1–13 days). Two experimental tests were carried out. In the first test, experimental pats were covered with metallic nets which prevented the largest species from reaching the dung, whilst in the second test a variable number of individuals of large or relatively large species was added to the experimental pats.The community was dominated by Aphodius species (19 out of 25 species), which usually were also the most abundant in the pats. The densities of most species were relatively low most of the time with average abundances lower than two individuals per pat. Even though some interspecific differences were observed, ecological overlap between species was rather high with regard both to seasonality and succession in the dropping. Manipulative tests suggested that small beetles were not excluded by larger beetles. Patterns of spatial distribution showed some degree of intra‐ and interspecific aggregation. Proximate mechanisms of aggregation are probably non‐specific. The ultimate cause of aggregation might be mate‐finding. Alternatively, individuals might aggregate because the very same presence of beetles within a dung pat would modify its chemical status improving its quality. Intraspecific aggregation (measured by means of the J index) was much higher than interspecific aggregation (C index) which suggests, according to the Aggregation Model, that interspecific coexistence might be facilitated. However, the data gave no evidence for intra‐ and interspecific competition between adult beetles.
Behaviour of lambs (Ovis aries) in relation to spatial patterns of defecation on a pasture
Authors: White K. A. J. , Hall S. J. G. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractTwenty lambs (median body weight 37.2 kg) were kept on a paddock of 0.56 ha in England for four weeks in autumn. A 10 m grid was marked out in the paddock and from 10 of the 54 grid squares, all faeces were removed by hand at the start of each week. Faecal abundance was estimated by a point quadrat technique and observations of behaviour were made by scan sampling at intervals of 10 min during 15 h in each week. Each lamb produced on average 0.72 kg wet weight of faeces per day. Removal of faeces had no effect on grazing behaviour and the only correlation between faecal abundance and behaviour was that night lying tended to be on areas where faecal abundance was high. This was probably due to the lambs preferring certain areas for night lying and defecating heavily in these areas before starting to graze in the morning. Faecal encounter during daytime grazing was affected neither by sheep body weight nor by parasite burden. Behavioural mechanisms of avoidance of faeces are probably not detectable when behaviour is studied in the context of grid squares of 100 m2 and further study should include detailed observations on the grazing paths of individual sheep.
Helping Ethiopia's wildlife
Authors: Cotgreave Peter 
Published: February 2006

AbstractIn the Bible, Ethiopia is known as the land of Cush – an exotic and largely unknown territory. It was almost equally unfamiliar to Alfred Russell Wallace when he divided the world's animals into groups according to their geographic origins, but the country so fascinated him that he gave the name ‘Ethiopian Region’ to the whole of Africa. Later, Ethiopia escaped the extended periods of European colonization experienced by its neighbours, and the country remains in our minds one of the more exotic and mysterious areas of the world and a place of great zoological interest.
Territorial behaviour of a rainforest dragonfly Notiothemis robertsi (Odonata: Libellulidae): proposed functions of specific behavioural patterns
Authors: Clausnitzer Viola 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe behaviour of this rainforest dragonfly was studied in the Kakamega Forest, West Kenya. Seven different activities were distinguished: perching, sun‐flights, patrolling, inspection, interspecific, intraspecific, and sexual flights. Two‐act sequences of these behaviours were analysed and quantified to determine significant transition probabilities. Sun‐flights into the tree canopies were the most common flight activity and followed any other behaviour significantly more often than expected. Coming back from a sun‐flight, the males preferentially perched or patrolled; after patrolling males typically perched. Most of the time the males spent perching in their territory (32% of total time in territory). Proposed functions of these territorial behavioural activities in Notiothemis robertsi are deduced from these results.
The role of unconscious selection in the domestication of sheep and goats
Authors: Zohary D. , Tchernov E. , Horwitz L. Kolska 
Published: February 2006

AbstractIt is proposed that many of the morphological, physiological and behavioural traits that characterize domestic sheep and goats and distinguish them from their wild ancestors (e.g. diminished sexual dimorphism; diminution in brain, body and horn size and changes in shape of the horns; changes in pelage coloration) were shaped, to a large extent, by unconscious selection. It is argued that once founder herds had been assembled and controlled by humans, the very transfer of these animals from their wild environments into the widely different human‐made husbandry system caused automatically drastic changes in selection pressures. Several adaptations, vital for survival in the wild, lost their fitness under the new conditions and broke down. New traits (which characterize domestic caprines) were promptly and unconsciously selected for. Protection from predators, culling of young males, protection from the elements, and changes in land use and in food and water supplies are considered the main ecological factors introduced by humans at the start of caprine domestication.We evaluate the shifts in the selection pressures brought about by each of these changes, and sketch their expected impact on the morphology, physiology and behaviour of the human‐controlled herds. We also indicate which of the domestication traits (expected to be automatically selected for under the new set of conditions) are detectable in animal remains recovered from archaeological excavations.
Growth and food requirement flexibility in captive chicks of the European barn owl (Tyto alba)
Authors: Durant J. M. , Handrich Y. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe growth and the food requirements of the European barn owl (Tyto alba) were studied in three groups of captive chicks. One group of chicks, raised in ad libitum food conditions by their parents, was used to measure body mass and linear growth of a number of structural body components at their characteristic growth rate. A second group of chicks, hand‐raised with food ad libitum until fledging, was used to measure food requirement at the characteristic growth rate. A third group, hand‐raised with restricted feeding, was used to specify the plasticity of growth and food requirements still compatible with a normal development at fledging. Chicks of both sexes of the first two groups experienced an overshoot in body mass (maximum of 391 g) when approximately 40 days old, followed by a decrease (to a mass of 314 g) until fledging at 60 days old, giving a mass distribution with age in the form of a bell‐shaped curve. The daily food intake also showed a bell‐shaped curve with a peak value of 80 ± 10 g of fresh mice/day when the body mass was maximum. The decrease of food intake preceding fledging was spontaneous. The average daily food intake was 67 ± 17 g/day between the ages of 20 and 60 days. In the restricted feeding group, however, the same timing for linear growth and fledging was achieved with a 17% reduction of daily food intake. For the same fledging body mass as the ad libitum fed group, there was a flattening of the body mass curve. The significance of the overshoot in body mass and food intake is discussed in terms of the chick's and brood's advantages and in terms of parental investment in this species with hatching asynchrony.
Do patterns of helminth parasitism differ between groups of wild‐living cats in Scotland?
Authors: Delahay R. J. , Daniels M. J. , Macdonald D. W. , McGuire K. , Balharry D. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractDifferences in the prevalence and abundance of helminth parasites amongst host populations may result from variations in resistance to infection, differences in habitat preferences, diet or social behaviour. The use of helminth parasites as ‘ecological markers’ for determining differences between morphological groups of wild‐living cats in Scotland was investigated, in light of the debate over the definition of a wildcat. The prevalence and abundance of the tapeworm Taenia taeniaeformis did not differ significantly between cats designated as ‘wild’ and ‘feral’ types. The prevalence of both helminths was high (94% and 69%, respectively) and there was significant variation in worm abundance related to season and geographical area. Also, prevalence of infection with Toxocara cati was significantly higher in female cats. Cats which harboured large numbers of one worm species were also likely to harbour large numbers of the other. However, a possible relationship with cat condition was only found for T. taeniaeformis for which there was a significant negative correlation between an index of cat condition and worm abundance amongst ‘wild type’ cats, but not amongst ‘feral type’ cats. Variations in worm burdens could not be attributed to differences in the diet of the cats as there was no significant relationship between the presence of any individual prey type and either the presence or abundance of T. cati or T. taeniaeformis. There was a significant negative correlation between density and biomass of individual worms in infections of T. taeniaeformis, suggestive of a density‐dependent constraint on tapeworm growth.
Morphological differentiation in Mus spicilegus and the taxonomic status of mound‐building mice from the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia
Authors: Krystufek B. , Macholán M. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe systematic status of a mound‐building mouse population from the Adriatic coast at Ulcinj, Montenegro (Yugoslavia), originally reported as M. hortulanus ssp., is assessed using morphological and morphometric analyses. This population was compared to other M. spicilegus samples from Ukraine & Moldavia, Voivodina (Yugoslavia) and Austria, and to M. macedonicus from Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. Character states of selected non‐metric traits, along with the presence of a typical mound‐building behaviour, allowed classification of the study population with M. spicilegus. This was also supported by Canonical Variate Analysis on size‐adjusted dental traits. Uni‐ and multivariate morphometric studies revealed marked differentiation between the Ulcinj sample and the remaining M. spicilegus populations. The great deal of morphological divergence suggests a distinct systematic position of the Adriatic population, here described as Mus spicilegus adriaticus ssp. nova. Hypotheses about the possible origin and evolutionary history of the two eastern aboriginal mouse species are discussed.
Geographic variation of wing morphology in three Eurasian populations of the fruit fly, Drosophila lummei
Authors: Haas Heather L. , Tolley Krystal A. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractDifferences in wing morphology are described for three Eurasian populations of Drosophila lummei. A truss network of wing characters was used to quantify wing size and shape for 149 individuals from Japan, Sweden and Russia. Sexual dimorphism in wing size and shape was not substantial, so the sexes were pooled and multivariate analyses conducted. Both principal components analysis and discriminant analysis of wing morphology revealed significant differences among all geographic groups. These differences indicate that morphometric analysis of wing characters can reliably discriminate between geographic groups and accurately classify individuals of the three Drosophila lummei populations. Principal components analysis also revealed that characters occurring in the same section of the wing formed correlated suites which corresponded to morphologically and functionally distinct areas of the wing. This study is unique because it detects subtle morphological differences within a single species of fruit fly across an intercontinental distribution.The results corroborate genetic studies in which geographic variation was found for inversion polymorphisms among spatially separated populations of Drosophila lummei.
Evidence that minor directional asymmetry is functional in lizard hindlimbs
Authors: Seligmann Hervé 
Published: February 2006

AbstractI examined directional asymmetry (DA) in the number of subdigital lamellae under the fourth toe (MDA) and in injury frequency (IDA) on the hindlimbs of eight Agamidae. In no species were MDA and IDA statistically significant, neither was there significant sexual dimorphism in MDA. But a strong, positive relationship exists between MDA and IDA, contrasting with the weak positive correlation between the side of injury and the morphologically dominant side in individual lizards. Therefore the relationship between MDA and IDA results from an evolutionary process, probably involving higher survival after injury of the morphologically dominant side. This process suggests functional importance of DA in the frame of evolution caused by unsuccessful predation.
A case of snake predation upon bats in northern Morocco: some implications for designing bat grilles
Authors: Hammer M. , Arlettaz R. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractDuring a study of North African mouse‐eared bats in Morocco in August 1993 (Arlettaz et al., 1997) some accidental observations on chiropterophagy by the snake Coluber hippocrepis were made. This adds a new species to the list of bat‐eating serpents documented so far (for a general review see Schätti, 1984). In addition, our observations lead to some recommendations for the construction of bat grilles at underground sites to minimize predation risk by snakes or other predators upon bats.
Longevity in the European free‐tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis)
Authors: Ibáñez C. , Pérez‐Jordá J. L. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractNumerous studies have documented that bats are unusually long‐lived for small mammals (Tuttle & Stevenson, 1982; Jürgens & Prothero, 1987 and references therein). In the absence of data on overall population dynamics, longevity can be an important demographic parameter for interspecific comparisons (Tuttle & Stevenson, 1982). Here, we present the first data on the longevity of a small population of Tadarida teniotis.
Habitat around maternity roosts of the 55 kHz phonic type of pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)
Authors: Oakeley S. F. , Jones G. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractWe quantified the percentage cover of habitats and the extent of linear features within 2 km of 11 maternity roosts of the 55 kHz phonic type of pipistelles Pipistrellus pipistrellus in south‐west England, and compared these with habitats around random points. The dominant habitats around both roosts and random points were improved grassland and built‐up areas. There was significantly more water (especially water edge habitat with woodland or hedgerow on the banks), and continuous hedgerow with emergent trees, around roosts. Preference for freshwater habitats around roosts was shown in comparisons of single habitats, and in compositional analyses with and without the inclusion of urbanized random points. These habitats may be preferred by 55 kHz pipistrelles: riparian habitats support large numbers of flying insects of the types eaten by 55 kHz pipistrelles, and hedgerows may be important linear features used by bats. The conservation of continuous hedgerows and watercourses close to maternity roosts would appear to be very important for 55 kHz pipistrelles.
Ship rats Rattus rattus on the Shiant Islands, Hebrides, Scotland
Authors: Key G. , Fielding A. H. , Goulding M. J. , Holm R. S. , Stevens‐Wood B. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThe ship rat Rattus rattus was once widespread throughout the U.K. It is now an endangered species with an estimated 1000 or fewer individuals present in the U.K. and the species is listed in the red data book for British mammals (Morris, 1993). However, it is listed under schedule 9 of the U.K. Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) as a non‐native species that should not be released into the wild.