Animals frequently use metabolites produced by symbiotic bacteria as agents against pathogens and parasites. Secretions from the preen gland of birds are used for this purpose, although its chemicals apparently are produced by the birds themselves. European hoopoes Upupa epops and green woodhoopoes Phoeniculus purpureus harbour symbiotic bacteria in the uropygial gland that might be partly resp...

Understanding the ecology and conservation of bird species often requires accurate sex determination individuals. Species with sexually dimorphic plumage can usually be sexed in hand based on consistent definitive differences between sexes, but there are challenges related to (1) how sexual dimorphism develops age, (2) individuals that show intermediate visible morphological traits, or (3) subt...

The adaptive significance of mechanisms of energy and water conservation among species of desert rodents, which avoid temperature extremes by remaining within a burrow during the day, is well established. Conventional wisdom holds that arid-zone birds, diurnal organisms that endure the brunt of their environment, occupy these desert climates because of the possession of physiological design fea...

Two endemic starlings, both extinct, have been described from the Mascarene Islands of Réunion and Rodrigues: the Hoopoe Starling, Huppe or Réunion Crested Starling Fregilupus varius, which is known from 19 skins and a single Holocene proximal end of a fossil femur, and the Rodrigues Starling Necropsar rodericanus, which is known as specimens only from fossils of most skeletal elements. Both we...

The use of compounds produced by symbiotic bacteria against pathogens in animals is one of the most exciting discoveries in ecological immunology. The study of those antibiotic metabolites will enable an understanding of the defensive strategies against pathogenic infections. Here, we explore the role of bacteriocins explaining the antimicrobial properties of symbiotic bacteria isolated from th...

The 'energy demand' hypothesis for short-term adjustments in basal metabolic rate (BMR) posits that birds adjust the size of their internal organs relative to food intake, a correlate of energy demand. We tested this hypothesis on hoopoe larks (Alaemon alaudipes), inhabitants of the Arabian desert, by acclimating birds for 3 weeks at 15 degrees C and at 36 degrees C, then measuring their BMR an...

Animals live in a bacterial world, and detecting and exploring adaptations favouring mutualistic relationships with antibiotic-producing bacteria as a strategy to fight pathogens are of prime importance for evolutionary ecologists. Uropygial secretion of European hoopoes (Upupa epops, Linnaeus) contains antimicrobials from mutualistic bacteria that may be used to prevent embryo infection. Here,...

This research explains the principles governing major codes of "Hodhod" and "Simorgh" in the Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr, and codes of "The King of Birds" and the "Storyteller Bird" in the Avicenna's Risalat Al-Tayr. The significance of this study lies in its endeavor to abolish ambiguities regarding the meanings of these cods which due to personal and subjective trends of interpretation and comment...