Getting to the Meat of It: The Effects of a Captive Diet upon the Skull Morphology of the Lion and Tiger
Zoo animals are crucial for conserving and potentially re-introducing species to the wild, yet it is known that the morphology of captive animals differs from that of wild animals. It is important to know how and why zoo and wild animal morphology differs to better care for captive animals and enhance their survival in reintroductions, […]
Phenotypic consequences of incubation environment in the African elapid genus Aspidelaps
Abstract 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2361(1996)15:33.3.CO;2-H Eggs and embryos of the African elapid genus Aspidelaps were tested for phenotypic plasticity in response to incubation temperature and hygration. Fifty-two fertile eggs, representing both A. lubricus and A. scutatus, were utilized over two successive breeding seasons. Interspecific difference in hatchling snout-vent length (SVL) was significant, but the two species were equivalent […]
Persistent effect of incubation temperature on stress-induced behavior in the Yucatan banded gecko (Coleonyx elegans)
Although variability in behavioral traits within animal populations is well documented, the mechanisms maintaining that variability are still insufficiently known. In this study, we examined whether differences in thermal environment during egg incubation can permanently organize nonsocial behavior across different contexts and situations in a lizard species. We incubated eggs of the Yucatan banded gecko, […]
Developmental plasticity of HPA and fear responses in rats: A critical review of the maternal mediation hypothesis
Developmental plasticity of HPA and fear responses in rats has been proposed to be mediated by environment-dependent variation in active maternal care. Here, we review this maternal mediation hypothesis based on the postnatal manipulation literature and on our own recent research in rats. We show that developmental plasticity of HPA and fear responses in rats […]
Personality Traits in Dumpling Squid (Euprymna tasmanica) : Context-Specific Traits and Their Correlation With Biological Characteristics
Personality traits are a major class of behavioral variation often observed within populations of animals. However, little is known of the integration between personality and an individual’s underlying biology. To address this, the authors measured personality traits in squid (Euprymna tasmanica) in 2 contexts while also describing trait correlates with biological parameters. Four traits (shy […]
Foraging plasticity favours adaptation to new habitats in fire salamanders
Predators often show strong plasticity of optimal foraging strategies. A major difference in foraging strategies occurs between sit-and-wait and active predators. Models predict that the efficiency of these strategies is affected by environmental conditions, active predators being favoured when prey are scarce and their detection difficult. The shift between the two strategies may occur through […]
Adaptively flexible polyandry
Mating theory (Hubbell & Johnson 1987, American Naturalist, 130, 91–112; Gowaty & Hubbell 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 106, 10017–10024) says that reproductive decisions of individuals are flexibly expressed and adaptive. It also makes the following five predictions about polyandry. (1) Demography determines within-population, between-female variation in mating rates. That is, […]
Complex cooperative breeders: Using infant care costs to explain variability in callitrichine social and reproductive behavior
The influence of ecology on social behavior and mating strategies is one of the central questions in behavioral ecology and primatology. Callitrichines are New World primates that exhibit high behavioral variability, which is widely acknowledged, but not always systematically researched. Here, I examine the hypothesis that differences in the cost of infant care among genera […]
Effects of captivity on house mice behaviour in a novel environment: Implications for conservation practices
Captive breeding programmes offer a method for preventing the extinction of threatened species, but often have difficulty establishing self-sustaining populations and generating individuals for release. This difficulty can arise because the behaviour of captive-reared animals differs from wild animals. Whilst the effect of captivity on animal behaviour has been widely reported, few studies have explicitly […]
Plasticity of thermoregulatory behaviour in response to the thermal environment by widespread and alpine reptile species
Phenotypic plasticity plays a central role in determining how organisms respond to environmental change over short timescales. Despite this, we know little about how phenotypic plasticity varies between populations or species. We tested the extent of plasticity in basking behaviour in low- and high-altitude populations of two widespread lowland and two highland species of a […]