Previous studies have shown that reed warblers, Acrocephalus scirpaceus, are more likely to reject a cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, egg if they have seen a cuckoo at their nest. This suggests that they would benefit from watching out for cuckoos. We tested whether presentations of a cuckoo mount near the nest (to simulate nest inspection) led to increased nest attendance by the warblers. Cuckoo prese...

Colonies of the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, excavate species-typical subterranean nests up the 3 m deep with characteristic vertical distribution of chamber area/shape, spacing between levels and vertical arrangement of the ants by age and brood stage. Colonies excavate and occupy a new nest about once a year, and doing so requires that they have information about the depth belo...

Relocation of eggs is a common strategy for conservation of declining reptilian populations around the world. If individuals exhibit consistency in their nest-site selection and if nest-site selection is a heritable trait, relocating eggs deposited in vulnerable locations may impose artificial selection that would maintain traits favoring unsuccessful nest-site selection. Conversely, if most in...

Parental behavior contributes to the success of a diverse array of taxa, and female-only nest attendance is particularly widespread. Python egg-brooding behavior is an intriguing example of female-only nest attendance because it significantly influences several critical developmental variables, namely embryonic predation, hydration, respiration and temperature. During brooding, females predomin...

Incubation behavior or broodiness in turkey hens is characterized by ovarian regression, hyperprolactinemia, and persistent nesting. Nest-deprivation of incubating turkey hens results in disruption of broodiness accompanied by a precipitous decline in plasma prolactin (PRL) concentrations. The objective of the present study is to examine cellular changes in the pituitary gland associated with n...

particular location for nesting from all possible sites (Burger 1985). The exact location of a nest may have important consequences for breeding success, for example influencing predation risk (Regehr et al. 1998) or probability of flooding (Lauro & Burger 1989). Consequently, birds carefully choose nest-sites in order to maximize their possibilities of a successfully breeding outcome. Nest-sit...

1 Anthropogenic alteration of landscapes can affect avian nest success by influencing the abundance, distribution, and behavior of predators. Understanding avian nest predation risk necessitates understanding how landscapes affect predator distribution and behavior. 2 From a sample of 463 nests of 17 songbird species, we evaluated how landscape features (distance to forest edge, unpaved roads, ...

Substrate type is a key-factor in nest-site selection and nest architecture of burrowing birds. However, little is known about which factors drive nest-site selection for these species, especially in the tropics. We studied the influence of soil attributes on nest-site selection by the campo miner Geositta poeciloptera, an open grassland bird that builds its nests within soil cavities. For all ...

Successful conservation and management of wild animals require reliable estimates of their population size. Ape surveys almost always rely on counts of sleeping nests, as the animals occur at low densities and visibility is low in tropical forests. The reliability of standing-crop nest counts and marked-nest counts, the most widely used methods, has not been tested on populations of known size....

background: fluoxetine (prozactm) is one of the most popular antidepressant that can be released to aquatic systems via sewage-treatment effluents. it is suspected to provoke substantial effects in the aquatic environment. methods: in spawning tanks, specimens were exposed to concentrations of 0 and 0.54 µgl-1 fluoxetine from male introduction until the larvae had hatched. prior to spawning, ne...