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Very little is known about the temporal or spatial movement patterns of Chinese giant salamanders (Andrias davidianus) due to their rarity, remote habitat and secretive nature. Commercial breeding farms provide a...
Nematodes are an important component of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, but only few nematode species are able to cope to the harsh conditions of the most active vent sites. The genus Oncholaimus is known...
Expansion of brain tissue and development of advanced cognitive skills are characteristic traits of human evolution. Their emergence has been causally linked to the intake of nutrients that promote brain devel...
The Neotropics are considered to represent one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth. Nonetheless, many species are assumed to have widespread distributions and occur in the entire Neotropical range....
Declining amphibian populations around the world necessitate the establishment of captive assurance colonies as a hedge against extinction. For species that are difficult to breed in captivity, assisted reprod...
Ecological immunology proposes that the optimal immune defence, and the costs coming with it, vary across environments. In environments with higher pathogen load, the immune system should experience greater ch...
The animal ecology literature proposes the view that predation risk induces fear in prey animals, but it is also possible that behavioral and physiological changes induced by predation risk are not associated ...
Modifications of the ovipositor appear to have played a prominent role in defining the host range of parasitoid hymenopterans, highlighting an important contributing factor in shaping their oviposition strateg...
Greater complexity of the learned vocal repertoire has been shown to increase mating and territory defence success in songbirds. Vocal learning in some songbird species begins in the egg and these songbird emb...
The red-tailed phascogale is a ‘Near Threatened’ dasyurid marsupial. Males are semelparous and die off shortly after the breeding season in the wild due to a stress-related syndrome, which has many physiologic...
A common life cycle pattern in benthic-dwelling taxa in the ocean is an obligate pre-competent dispersal period of microscopic propagules followed by their entry into a competent period, during which they are cap...
Hibernation allows animals to survive periods of resource scarcity by reducing their energy expenditure through decreased metabolism. However, hibernators become susceptible to psychrophilic pathogens if they ...
Oribatid mites are among the primordial decomposer faunal elements and potential prey organisms in soil. Among their myriad morphological defenses are strong sclerotization and mineralization, cuticular tecta,...
Many intriguing questions about predator-prey interactions can be addressed by using clay models of prey animals. These are placed in the field to test predators’ avoidances or preferences (testing e.g. color ...
In eusocial animal colonies, individuals from different castes often play divergent behavioral roles and confront distinct cognitive demands. Neuroecology theory predicts variation in cognitive demands will co...
Small crustaceans in the order Anostraca that lack a carapace are commonly referred to as fairy shrimps. Eubranchipus is an Anostracan genus distributed across the Holarctic region. E. uchidai has been recorded o...
The Palaearctic butterfly genus Pseudophilotes Beuret, 1958 (Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae), that today occurs in North Africa and in Eurasia, includes ten described species with various distribution ranges, includin...
Retention of genetic diversity and demographic sustainability are the cornerstones of conservation breeding success. In theory, monogamous breeding with equal reproductive output will retain genetic diversity ...
Insect diapause is associated with physiological dormancy, extension of life span and an altered developmental programme. Reactive oxygen species, oxidative damaged products and antioxidants are being increasi...
Tiger populations have declined globally due to poaching, prey depletion, and habitat loss. The westernmost tiger population of Ranthambhore in India is typified by bottlenecks, small size, and isolation; prob...
Small mammals are important reservoirs for pathogens in military conflicts and peacekeeping operations all over the world. This study investigates the rodent communities in three military bases in Northern Afg...
In this study, we report the first case of a male reef manta ray, Mobula alfredi, becoming sexually mature in captivity and present its reproductive characteristics.
Agrochemicals are widely used in many parts of the world posing direct and indirect threats to organisms. Xenobiotic-related disease susceptibility is a common phenomenon and a proposed cause of amphibian decl...
Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife are an increasing threat to global biodiversity. White-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats is one of the most recently emerged infectious diseases in North America, causing mas...
Recent phylogenies of deer mice, genus Peromyscus, have relied heavily on mitochondrial markers. These markers provided resolution at and below the level of species groups, but relationships among species groups ...
Live imaging of whole invertebrates can be accomplished with X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) at 10-100 μm spatial resolution. However, image quality could be compromised by the movement of live subj...
Flexible spatial memory, such as “place” learning, is an important adaptation to assist successful foraging and to avoid predation and is thought to be more adaptive than response learning which requires a con...
The Gharana wetland conservation reserve (GWCR) is a semi-arid wetland adjacent to agricultural areas on the Indo-Pakistani border. Despite being declared an Important Bird Area (IBA) by Birdlife International...
The African wolf, for which we herein recognise Canis lupaster Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832 (Symbolae Physicae quae ex Itinere Africam Borealem er Asoam Occidentalem Decas Secunda. Berlin, 1833) as the valid spec...
Populations of Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferous) appear to be declining range-wide. While this could be associated with habitat loss, declines in populations of many other species of migratory aeria...
The genus Caenorhabditis has been central to our understanding of metazoan biology. The best-known species, Caenorhabditis elegans, is but one member of a genus with around 50 known species, and knowledge of thes...
Long-term research of known individuals is critical for understanding the demographic and evolutionary processes that influence natural populations. Current methods for individual identification of many animal...
For more than a century we have known that a high diversity of arthropod species lives in close relationship with army ant colonies. For instance, several hundred guest species have been described to be associ...
Previous studies have established ovarian cycle characteristics of adult Asian elephants using progestagen analyses, but little work has been done on young elephants to determine age at puberty. Demographic st...
Reproductive strategies and evolutionary pressures differ between males and females. This often results in size differences between the sexes, and also in sex-specific seasonal variation in body mass. Seasonal...
The Bornean banteng (Bos javanicus lowi) is an endangered subspecies that often inhabits logged forest; however very little is known about the effects of logging on their ecology, despite the differing effects th...
This editorial accompanies the launch of BMC Zoology, a new open access, peer-reviewed journal within the BMC series that considers manuscripts on all aspects of zoology. BMC Zoology will increase and disseminate...
We used the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus, one of the largest brooding invertebrates in the Western Atlantic, to test for the presence/absence of active parental care and to explore reproductive perform...
Species of Hirudo are used extensively for medicinal purposes, but are currently listed as endangered due to population declines from economic utilization and environmental pollution. In total, five species of Hi...
One of the biggest challenges in avian taxonomy is the delimitation of allopatric species because their reproductive incompatibility cannot be directly studied in the wild. Instead, reproductive incompatibilit...
The freshwater cnidarian Hydra temporarily binds itself to numerous natural substrates encountered underwater, such as stones, leafs, etc. This adhesion is mediated by secreted material from specialized ectoderma...
Since European settlement more than 10 % of Australia’s native fauna have become extinct and the current picture reflects 46 % are at various vulnerability stages. Australia’s iconic marsupial species, koala (Pha...
Understanding host-parasite interactions requires that the multi-faceted relationships among ecological, behavioral and molecular processes be characterized and integrated. The introduced parasitic fly of birds,
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