Identifying factors that create and maintain a hybrid zone is of great interest to ecology, evolution and, more recently, conservation biology. Here, we investigated the role environmental features in shaping spatial dynamics between southern tigrina, Leopardus guttulus, Geoffroy's cat, L. geoffroyi, testing for exogenous selection as main force acting on its maintenance. These Neotropical feli...

The food calling behaviour of the Costa Rican spider monkey, Ateles geoffroyi, was studied to determine if food calls function as conditional signals designed to attract conspecifics and thereby manipulate the size of the feeding subgroups. First, individuals were shown to manipulate the number of conspecifics joining them by altering the frequency of calling, Then, based on the expected levels...

Numerous animal species currently experience habitat loss and fragmentation. This might result in behavioral and dietary adjustments, especially because fruit availability is frequently reduced in fragments. Food scarcity can result in elevated physiological stress levels, and chronic stress often has detrimental effects on individuals. Some animal species exhibit a high degree of fission-fusio...

The Picobirnaviruses (PBVs) have been detected in several species of animals from different countries worldwide, including in South America. The host range of these viruses has increased in recent years; thus, in order to contribute to the knowledge in this topic we analyzed samples from captivity animals from Uruguay. We found the presence of PBVs in four species of animals, Panthera leo, Pant...

Daily patterns of body temperature (T(b)) and energy expenditure in heterothermic endotherms are affected by changes in ambient temperature (T(a)) and selection of suitable microclimates, yet most laboratory studies employ constant T(a) to measure metabolic rates. In particular, exposure to a daily temperature cycle, even within rest shelters, may be important in timing of torpor and arousal an...

Dental microwear analysis is conducted on a community of platyrrhine primates from South America. This analysis focuses on the primate community of Cachoeira Porteira (Para, Brazil), in which seven sympatric species occur: Alouatta seniculus, Ateles paniscus, Cebus apella, Chiropotes satanas, Pithecia Pithecia, Saguinus midas, and Saimiri sciureus. Shearing quotients are also calculated for eac...

Giardia infections in captive nonhuman primates (NHP) housed at a Brazilian zoo were investigated in order to address their zoonotic potential. Fresh fecal samples were collected from the floors of 22 enclosures where 47 primates of 18 different species were housed. The diagnosis of intestinal parasites after concentration by sedimentation and flotation methods revealed the following parasites ...