The question of why receivers accept a selfish signaller's message as reliable or 'honest' has fuelled ample controversy in discussions of communication. The handicap mechanism is now widely accepted as a potent constraint on cheating. Handicap signals are deemed reliable by their costs: signallers must choose between investing in the signal or in other aspects of fitness. Accordingly, resource...

The aim was to study relationships between morbidity, defined through prevalence of diseases of rabbit females, and BCS, and to assess the effect of several risk factors on both morbidity and BCS. Our study was based on individual examinations of 18,510 does in lactation on 103 farms. We evaluated BCS on a linear scale from 1 to 9, with 5 being the optimum. Prevalence of major diseases were 22....

Sexual size dimorphism is widespread throughout seabird taxa and several drivers leading to its evolution have been hypothesised. While the Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator) has previously been considered nominally monomorphic, recent studies have documented sexual segregation in diet and foraging areas, traits often associated with size dimorphism. The present study investigated the sex dif...

Converging evidence indicates that primates have a distinct cortical image of homeostatic afferent activity that reflects all aspects of the physiological condition of all tissues of the body. This interoceptive system, associated with autonomic motor control, is distinct from the exteroceptive system (cutaneous mechanoreception and proprioception) that guides somatic motor activity. The primar...

twenty four primiparous and multiparous holstein cows on early lactation, beginning five weeks postpartum, were used for four weeks to investigate the effects of supplemention of rumen-protected choline (rpc) or vitamin e on milk yield, milk composition, dry matter intake, body condition score and body weight. the cows were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: i)no supplement (...

A total of 60 nulliparous crossbred rabbit females were, a posteriori, divided into 2 experimental groups according to their natural “decision” to conceive or not at day 11 post first parturition (L: solelylactating or LP: lactating-pregnant). This design allowed us to study the evolution of body reserves around first parturition and its influence on the future reproductive success of rabbit fe...

Many factors are known or are thought to increase vulnerability to capture-related mortality in ungulates. I compared body condition of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelson), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) to assess whether those that survived capture differed from those that did not. Fate of ungulates was generally not related to condition (F1,646 =...

We find the evolutionarily stable dispersal behaviour of a population that inhabits a heterogeneous environment where patches differ in safety (the probability that a juvenile individual survives until reproduction) and productivity (the total competitive weight of offspring produced by the local individual), assuming that these characteristics do not change over time. The body condition of clo...

Ecological restoration attempts to recover the structure and function of ecosystems that have been degraded by human activities. A crucial test of ecosystem recovery would be to determine whether individuals in restored environments are as healthy as those in conserved environments. However, the impact of restoration on physiology of terrestrial animals has never been tested. Here, we evaluated...