Understanding the behavioral adaptations and subsistence strategies of Middle Paleolithic humans is critical in the debate over the evolution and manifestations of modern human behavior. The study of faunal remains plays a central role in this context. Until now, the majority of Levantine archaeofaunal evidence was derived from late Middle Paleolithic sites. The discovery of faunal remains from...

The diet choice of large herbivores is influenced by the presence of nutrients and toxins in available plants. It is generally assumed that herbivores ingest food that contains higher amounts of nutrients and lower amounts of toxins than the average of the food available. We studied the effects of quality and relative abundance on food choice in fallow deer, Dama dama. Preferences for and avers...

A population of 110 adult fallow deer kept in an enclosure under very intensive conditions (31.4 deer/ha) was observed for 12 h/d (from 0800 to 2000) for 17 d during the birth season in order to study social and feeding behavior under intensive management. Observations were carried out by a scan sampling technique. The feeding activity of all the deer that were not hidden behind trees or other ...

Individuals can increase their fitness by searching for mates of an appropriate quality. We here report the results of a five-year study on the behaviour of peri-estrous female fallow deer to document examples of apparent mate-searching and the context in which it occurs. Using direct observation of 266 tagged does we collected spatial and behavioural data of does and the bucks with which they ...

The control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is at a critical point in the last stage of eradication in livestock. Wildlife species recently have emerged infected with TB in Europe, particularly ungulates in the Iberian Peninsula. Epidemiological information regarding TB in wild ungulates including affected species, prevalence, associated risk factors and appropriate diagnostic methods need to be o...

A survey of abomasal parasites in cervids from Central Spain was conducted at 3 sites, Quintos de Mora (Toledo), Maluéñez de Arriba (Cáceres), and La Herguijuela (Cáceres). Commonly occurring helminths belonged to 3 polymorphic species of the Ostertagiinae: Spiculopteragia asymmetricalS. quadrispiculata, Ostertagia leptospicularis/O. kolchida, and O. drozdzi/O. ryjikovi. Trichostrongylus axei w...

MOTIVATION Given a protein sequence and a number of potential domains matching it, what are the domain content and the most likely domain architecture for the sequence? This problem is of fundamental importance in protein annotation, constituting one of the main steps of all predictive annotation strategies. On the other hand, when potential domains are several and in conflict because of overla...