Glucocorticoid steroids modulate immunocompetence in complex ways with both immunoenhancing and immunosuppressive effects in vertebrates exposed to different stressors. Such bimodal effects have been associated with variation in duration and intensity of the stress response. Given that natural populations have been exposed to a multitude of stressors, a better understanding of the functional as...

School of Environment and Natural Resources Ohio State University Extension Columbus, Ohio, USA Leonardo et al. (2004) obtained 100% ovulation in females of P. fasciatum maintained in ponds in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, following hormonal injections of carp pituitary extract (CPE) or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). In that study, the most detailed thus far, females released between 17 and 20%...

A comparative study on the daily activity budget of sun bear was conducted in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park and Borneon Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) Malaysia. The behaviour 22 individuals recorded using Instantaneous scan sampling method. total 330 hr were collected, with 180 collected at 150 BSBCC. Thirteen behavioural activities Ad-libitum method both captive semi- bears, which then grouped ...

Carotenoid-based plumage coloration of birds has been hypothesized to honestly reflect individual quality, either because carotenoids are difficult to acquire via food or because of a trade-off in allocation of carotenoids between maintenance and signaling functions. We tested whether differential foraging ability is a necessary precondition for maintaining individual differences in carotenoid-...

The aims of this study were to verify the distribution of births of captive maned wolves Chrysocyon brachyurus and the causes of their deaths during the period from 1980 to 1998, based on the registry of births and deaths in the International Studbook for Maned Wolves. To determine birth distribution and average litter size, 361 parturitions were analyzed for the 1989-98 period. To analyze caus...

Animals maintain complex associations with a diverse microbiota living in their guts. Our understanding of the ecology of these associations is extremely limited in reptiles. Here, we report an in-depth study into the microbial ecology of gut communities in three syntopic and viviparous lizard species (two omnivores: Liolaemus parvus and Liolaemus ruibali and an herbivore: Phymaturus williamsi)...

Biological changes occurring as a consequence of domestication and/or captivity are not still deeply known. In Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), endangered (Southern Europe) populations are enhanced by supportive breeding, which involves only 6 months of captive rearing following artificial spawning of wild-collected adults. In this work, we assess whether several fitness-correlated life-history t...

Animals in captive or laboratory settings may outperform wild animals of the same species in both frequency and diversity of tool use, a phenomenon here termed 'captivity bias'. Although speculative at this stage, a logical conclusion from this concept is that animals whose tool-use behaviour is observed solely under natural conditions may be judged cognitively or physically inferior than if th...

Horseshoe crab (HSC) amebocyte cells degranulate to form a gel clot when in contact with endotoxins. This phenomenon is the basis of both horseshoe immune system and detection endotoxin biologicals. captive rearing has been suggested as promising method for continuous cell harvesting. Hence, we aimed investigate quality Tachypleus gigas pre post bleeding under captivity. Wild crabs (5 months ca...

Data from captive animals indicated that browsing (BR) ruminants have larger fecal particles-indicative of lesser chewing efficiency-than grazers (GR). To answer whether this reflects fundamental differences between the animal groups, or different reactions of basically similar organisms to diets fed in captivity, we compared mean fecal particle size (MPS) in a GR and a BR ruminant (aurox Bos p...