The pressures of selection acting on transmission of information by acoustic signals are particularly high in long-distance communication networks. Males of the North African houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata) produce extremely low-frequency vocalizations called 'booms' as a component of their courtship displays. These displays are performed on sites separated by a distance of on a...

Low genetic diversity may be associated with an increase in species' extinction risk (Spielman et al. 2004, Frankham 2005). Still, global conservation assessments do not consider relevant genetic-based estimates for evaluating species threat status. Rather, they rely primarily on changes population abundance and range size, the inherent assumption that intra-specific variability is tightly corr...

A new nematode genus and species, Paraspiralatus sakeri, is described from the stomach of a wild-caught, female saker falcon in Saudi Arabia. This spirurid differs from the nearest genus and species Spiralatus baeri Chabaud, Brygoo & Durette, 1963 in the shape of the pseudolabia, shape of the buccal capsule and absence of a large cephalic vesicle. In addition, third stage spirurid larvae were r...

Migratory birds typically fly long distances in response to large-scale seasonal climate variation. However, most migratory species are partial migrants, and some only short distances, for example take advantage of suitable feeding conditions during the non-breeding season. In spite their distance, such migrations may also be fixed populations as a result evolutionarily adaptive responses local...