BACKGROUND The species of ectoparasites that live on a specific host in a geographical region form an ectoparasite community. Species abundance distributions describe the number of individuals observed for each different species that is encountered within a community. Based on properties of the species abundance distribution, the expected total number of species present in the community can be ...

In Experiment 1, hooded rats (Rattus norvegicus) were exposed to a novel diet in a food dish or on a conspecific; they were allowed to consume the same diet and then were injected with a toxin LiCl. Later both groups ate more of the novel diet than animals that had not been exposed, and the conspecific-exposed group ate more than the dish-exposed group. Reducing aversion learning by exposure on...

An analytical cross-sectional study of Capillaria hepatica in 307 Norway (brown) rats (Rattus norvegicus) was performed. Rats were trapped in two rural regions in Croatia. The prevalence of adult C. hepatica was 1.95%. The parasite was observed in 6 rats. Of these, 3 out of 189 (1.59%) were male and 3 out of 118 (2.54%) female. The adult parasite was a more common finding in large rats and was ...

A total of 1,618 ticks [420 individual (adults) and pooled (larvae and nymphs) samples], 369 rodents (Apodemus agrarius, Rattus norvegicus, Tscherskia triton, Mus musculus, and Myodes regulus), and 34 shrews (Crocidura lasiura) that were collected in northern Gyeonggi-do near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of Korea during 2004-2005, were assayed by PCR for selected zoonotic pathogens. From a tota...

Spontaneous locomotor activity of opossums and Wistar rats during a two-hour session in the open field has been recorded, assessed and behavior of individuals of the two species compared. Afterwards, groups of highly active (HA) and low active (LA) opossums and rats were selected on the basis of the distance traveled in the test. Differences between the selected groups were evaluated. Opossums ...

From April 1984 to March 1985, a Trypanosoma lewisi prevalence of 21.7% was found in 429 Rattus norvegicus trapped in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The infection rates were higher in male and young rats and could be attributed to ecological and behavioral factors. T. lewisi was observed in rats measuring between 60 and 250 mm. Data about monthly T. lewisi infections throughout ...

We report the detection, isolation and description of Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) lainsoni n. sp. from a caviomorph rodent, Mesomys hispidus (Rodentia: Echimyidae), obtained in the Rio Negro region of the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil. Laboratory-bred white mice (Mus musculus) and rats (Rattus rattus) were inoculated with large numbers of culture forms by intraperitoneal route, and trypo...

The aim of the study was to determine the species richness (S, Chao1 index) and diversity (Shannon–Wiener H’ index, diversity profiles) of small mammal assemblages in woodland reserves in an urban agglomeration and to compare the similarity of assemblages (with the use of Ward’s method) in terms of proportions of small mammals connected to the habitats of different level of naturalness. The wor...

It is widely recognized that trophic interactions structure ecological communities, but their effects are usually only demonstrated on a small scale. As a result, landscape-level documentations of trophic cascades that alter entire communities are scarce. Islands invaded by animals provide natural experiment opportunities both to measure general trophic effects across large spatial scales and t...