Consistency of temperament in bighorn ewes and correlates with behaviour and life history
Individual differences in temperament may affect how animals react to novel situations, avoid predation, invest in reproduction and behave in a variety of social contexts. Little information is available, however, about individual differences in temperament for wild animals. For bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis, ewes captured as part of a long-term study, we compared behaviour during […]
Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) Life History and Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate
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State-dependent decisions in long-term fasting king penguins, Aptenodytes patagonicus, during courtship and incubation
Using an automatic identification and weighing system, we investigated changes in adult body mass in relation to reproductive behaviour during courtship and incubation in free-living king penguins. Despite stressful nutritional conditions and variability of fast length, the majority of pairs incubated successfully by accumulating large body reserves before fasting, which provided flexibility in fasting strategies. […]
Individuals and populations: the role of long-term, individual-based studies of animals in ecology and evolutionary biology
Many important questions in ecology and evolutionary biology can only be answered with data that extend over several decades and answering a substantial proportion of questions requires records of the life histories of recognisable individuals. We identify six advantages that long-term, individual based studies afford in ecology and evolution: (i) analysis of age structure; (ii) […]
Terminal investment and senescence in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago
Long-lived iteroparous species often show aging-related changes in reproduction that may be explained by 2 non-mutually exclusive hypotheses. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts increased female reproductive effort toward the end of the life span, as individuals have little to gain by reserving effort for the future. The senescence hypothesis predicts decreased female reproductive output toward […]
Actions of glucocorticoids at a seasonal baseline as compared to stress-related levels in the regulation of periodic life processes
For decades, demands associated with the predictable life-history cycle have been considered stressful and have not been distinguished from stress that occurs in association with unpredictable and life-threatening perturbations in the environment. The recent emergence of the concept of allostasis distinguishes behavioral and physiological responses to predictable routines as opposed to unpredictable perturbations, and allows […]
Learning from nature: bottlenose dolphin care and husbandry
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20252.abs The world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population, operated by the Chicago Zoological Society since 1989, has focused on the multi-generational resident community of about 160 bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, since 1970. Observational and capture-release research on the biology, behavior, life history, ecology, and health of individually identifiable bay residents […]
Sexual recruitment of the corals Favia fragum and Agaricia humilis in a 30-m3 exhibit aquarium: species-specific limitations and implications on reproductive ecology
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20120.abs We studied the recruitment of the Caribbean reef building corals Favia fragum (F. fragum) and Agaricia humilis(A. humilis) in captivity. Thirty colonies of each species collected in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, reproduced sexually during a temporary stay in a 30-m3 closed system from November 2001–January 2002. Twelve months later, the F1 generation of F. […]
Pathogenicity of Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis in Larval Ambystomatid Salamanders
Abstract.—Chytridiomycosis is a disease of amphibians caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which colonizes keratinized tissues in adult and larval amphibians. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the host-pathogen ecology of Bd in larval anurans, yet little is known about how Bd affects larval salamanders. Because the structure of keratinized jaw sheaths in […]
Mate acquisition by females in a butterfly: the effects of mating status and age on female mate-locating behaviour
In most species, female reproductive success is determined by realized fecundity, which depends on the amount of female reproductive reserves and the availability of time for oviposition. Consequently, selection is likely to favour behaviour in virgin females that increases the likelihood of encountering males and thereby minimizing time without sperm. We used the speckled wood […]