background: fasciolosis is a well known parasitic disease of animals with public health importance. in rasht and bandar-an­zali, in gilan province, where experienced two large human fasciolosis outbreaks, no update information is available on ani­mal fasciolosis. paucity of information on animal fasciolosis in these regions and its possible impacts on human fasciolo­sis called us for carrying o...

As a species-typical trait of Homo sapiens, musicality represents a cognitively complex and biologically grounded capacity worthy of intensive empirical investigation. Four principles are suggested here as prerequisites for a successful future discipline of bio-musicology. These involve adopting: (i) a multicomponent approach which recognizes that musicality is built upon a suite of interconnec...

Feeding on food that it has foraged is of great importance to ensure the fitness of an animal. Giving up this food for a conspecific is thus one of the most prominent examples of altruism. Although it may bear immediate costs for the donor, sharing food may however be beneficial on the long term. There are various examples of food sharing in the animal kingdom, most of which can be explained by...

Species spanning the animal kingdom have evolved extravagant and costly ornaments to attract mating partners. Zahavi's handicap principle offers an elegant explanation for this: ornaments signal individual quality, and must be costly to ensure honest signalling, making mate selection more efficient. Here, we incorporate the assumptions of the handicap principle into a mathematical model and sho...

Stockmanship is a term used to describe the management of animals with a good stockperson someone who does this in a in a safe, effective, and low-stress manner for both the stock-keeper and animals involved. Although impacts of unfamiliar zoo visitors on animal behaviour have been extensively studied, the impact of stockmanship i.e familiar zoo keepers is a new area of research; which could re...

A genetic marker is a gene or DNA sequence with known localization on a chromosome. It can be de-scribed as a variation that can be measured or detected by a suitable method, and can be used subsequently to detect the presence of a specific genotype. Such variations occurring at chromosomal or DNA level can serve as genetic markers. The progress in development of molecular markers suggests thei...

Metacognition is thinking about thinking. There is considerable interest in developing animal models of metacognition to provide insight about the evolution of mind and a basis for investigating neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive impairments in people. Formal modeling of low-level (i.e., alternative) mechanisms has recently demonstrated that prevailing standards for documenting metacogniti...