Indirect interactions driven by livestock and wild herbivores are increasingly recognized as important aspects of community dynamics in savannas and rangelands. Large ungulate herbivores can both directly and indirectly impact the reproductive structures of plants, which in turn can affect the pollinators of those plants. We examined how wild herbivores and cattle each indirectly affect the abu...

BACKGROUND The Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, is at risk of extinction due to devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), a fatal contagious cancer. The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program has established an insurance population, which currently holds over 600 devils in captive facilities across Australia. Microbes are known to play a crucial role in the health and well-being ...

The Bolson tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus) is the first species of extirpated megafauna to be repatriated into the United States. In September 2006, 30 individuals were translocated from Arizona to New Mexico with the long-term objective of restoring wild populations via captive propagation. We evaluated mtDNA sequences and allelic diversity among 11 microsatellite loci from the captive pop...

A large number of laboratory and field based studies are being carried out on mole-rats, both in our research group and others. Several studies have highlighted the development of adverse behaviours in laboratory animals and have emphasised the importance of enrichment for captive animals. Hence we were interested in evaluating how laboratory housing would affect behavioural performance in mole...

BACKGROUND Adverse early-life experience might lead to the expression of abnormal behaviours in animals and the predisposition to psychiatric disorder (e.g. major depressive disorder) in Humans. Common breeding processes employ weaning and housing conditions different from what happens in the wild. METHODS The present study, therefore, investigated whether birth origin impacts the possible ex...

This paper presents a cross-sectional study testing whether dolphins that are born in aquarium pools where they hear trainers' whistles develop whistles that are less frequency modulated than those of wild dolphins. Ten pairs of captive and wild dolphins were matched for age and sex. Twenty whistles were sampled from each dolphin. Several traditional acoustic features (total duration, duration ...

BACKGROUND The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum), one of several venomous lizard species in the world, is found within the United States and Mexico and is recognized as an iconic symbol of the American Southwest. Thus, Gila monsters are of growing interest in the captive reptile trade and within zoological and educational institutions. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to determine resu...

Summit metabolism (M sum), the maximum rate of resting metabolic thermogenesis, has been found to be broadly correlated with climatic variables and the use of heterothermy in some endotherms. Far less is known about M sum and metabolic expansibility [ME, the ratio of M sum to basal metabolic rate (BMR)] in bats compared with many other endotherm taxa. We measured BMR and M sum during winter and...

Introduced mammalian herbivores can negatively affect ecosystem structure and function if they introduce a novel disturbance to an ecosystem. For example, belowground foraging herbivores that bioturbate the soil, may alter process rates and community composition in ecosystems that lack native belowground mammalian foragers. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) disturb the soil system and plant community via ...