All current data on underwater hearing in pinnipeds are based on tests conducted in small tanks, and may not accurately represent the auditory functioning of free-ranging animals, especially if hearing sensitivity changes with water depth. Underwater auditory thresholds were determined for a California sea lion at depths ranging from 10 to 100 meters. The following results were obtained: (1) Fa...

Genetic isolation of populations is a potent force that helps shape the course of evolution. However, small populations in isolation, especially in fragmented landscapes, are known to lose genetic variability, suffer from inbreeding depression and become genetically differentiated among themselves. In this study, we assessed the genetic diversity of lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) inhabit...

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) causes AIDS in the domestic cat (Felis catus) but has not been explicitly associated with AIDS pathology in any of the eight free-ranging species of Felidae that are endemic with circulating FIV strains. African lion (Panthera leo) populations are infected with lion-specific FIV strains (FIVple), yet there remains uncertainty about the degree to which FIV inf...

Mammalian sweet taste is primarily mediated by the type 1 taste receptor Tas1r2/Tas1r3, whereas Tas1r1/Tas1r3 act as the principal umami taste receptor. Bitter taste is mediated by a different group of G protein-coupled receptors, the Tas2rs, numbering 3 to ∼66, depending on the species. We showed previously that the behavioral indifference of cats toward sweet-tasting compounds can be explaine...

Corresponding Author: Satish Chander Waljat College of Applied Sciences, P.O Box 197, P.C. 124, Rusayl, Muscat, Oman Email: [email protected] Abstract: Clustering divides the data available as bulk into meaningful, useful groups (Clusters) without any prior knowledge about the data. Cluster analysis provides an abstraction from individual data objects to the clusters in which those objects ...

Viral hepatitis associated with adenoviral infection has been reported in California sea lions Zalophus californianus admitted to rehabilitation centers along the California coast since the 1970s. Canine adenovirus 1 (CAdV-1) causes viral hepatitis in dogs and infects a number of wildlife species. Attempts to isolate the virus from previous sea lion hepatitis cases were unsuccessful, but as the...

OBJECTIVES   To report about our first short series of laparoscopic implantation of neuroprothesis-LION procedure-to the sacral plexus for treatment of different neurogenic bladder dysfunctions in patients in whom percutaneous sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) failed. MATERIAL AND METHODS   A unilateral sacral LION procedure was performed in four patients with a refractary interstitial cystitis,...

Two seemingly ad hoc properties of kind-referring NPs have often been mentioned in the literature on generic nominals. One is that definite singular NPs that refer to kinds (in examples like The lion is not yet in danger of extinction) denote a so-called "well-established" kind. This does not hold for all types of kind-referring NPs, though. A second issue that has often been mentioned is that ...

Different computed tomography (CT) protocols were tested to optimize imaging of the head of the California sea lion. Transverse mode images were superior to helical mode images. Bone structures were best imaged using 1 mm slice width combined with a high-frequency image reconstruction algorithm and best viewed using a wide window setting. Soft tissue structures were generally difficult to diffe...

Three species of otariids are found in the coastal zone and marine area of Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. Two species, Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki ) and Galápagos fur seal (Arctocephalus galapagoensis), are endemic to the Galápagos. The South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) has been recorded several times on the Ecuadorian coast, and even small semi-permanent or resident m...