The Condition and Survival Affer Release of Captive-reared Fox Cubs
In Britain large numbers of animals are taken into captivity for treatment or care and then subsequently returned to the wild, but there are few data on the effectiveness of these rehabilitation programmes. In this study, over a period of four years 251 fox cubs that had been captive-reared were tagged and released; 90 were […]
Rapid Growth of Atlantic Salmon Juveniles in Captivity May Indicate Poor Performance in Nature
The hatchery environment often favours completely different traits than natural selection in the wild. Consequently, hatchery-reared fish are usually larger and more aggressive than their wild counterparts. Increased growth rate and aggression are predicted to be beneficial in feeding competition in hatcheries, but not necessarily in nature, where food resources are spatially and temporally more […]
Phenotypic plasticity of avian social-learning strategies
Social learning, whereby animals learn from others, mediates the spread of information through social networks. To make this process adaptive, animals should be selective with respect to when and whom to copy. The cost of decision making can be curbed by cognitive biases favouring particular categories of individuals. Such model biases are well documented, but […]
Reproductive success in the Lusitanian toadfish: Influence of calling activity, male quality and experimental design
Acoustic signals are sexual ornaments with an established role on mate choice in several taxa, but not in fish. Recent studies have suggested that fish vocal activity may signal male quality and influence male’s reproductive success but experimental evidence is lacking. Here we made two experiments to test the hypothesis that vocal activity is essential […]