Management of self-sustaining populations of cheetahs has been problematic, as evidenced by continuing poor health and declining numbers. Infectious disease agents, including feline coronavirus (FCoV), continue to be causes of concern for these populations because of potential health problems and restrictions on moving breeding animals. The 2005 international meeting of the Association of Zoos ...

Over thirty years ago anecdotal accounts of the undescribed Larger Pacific Striped Octopus suggested behaviors previously unknown for octopuses. Beak-to-beak mating, dens shared by mating pairs, inking during mating and extended spawning were mentioned in publications, and enticed generations of cephalopod biologists. In 2012-2014 we were able to obtain several live specimens of this species, w...

Complex systems are pervasive in the world around us. Making sense of a complex system should require that a person construct a network of concepts and principles about some domain that represents key (often dynamic) phenomena and their interrelationships. This raises the question of how expert understanding of complex systems differs from novice understanding. In this study we examined individ...

The ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi A. Agassiz, 1865 is known to be eaten by the scyphomedusan Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Desor, 1948), which can control populations of ctenophores in the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay. In the summer of 1995, we videotaped interactions in large aquaria in order to determine whether M. leidyi was always captured after contact with medusae. Surprisingly, M. leidyi esca...

Estradiol and 4-nonylphenol exposure studies in zebrafish. Approximately eighty male zebrafish were divided evenly between three 80 L glass aquaria. Each aquarium was individually heated to maintain a temperature of 26 /29 °C with a light-dark cycle ratio of 14:10 h. Fish were acclimated for one week prior to commencing the experiment. One tank contained only tap water (negative control) and th...

Octopuses can be trained to discriminate between figures seen that differ only in orientation. Thus a rectangle shown with its long axis vertical can readily be distinguished from an exactly similar rectangle shown horizontally (Boycott & Young, 1957; Sutherland, 1957). A wide variety of cues are potentially available to octopuses in the training situation used; the figures might, for example, ...

Hypotheses: Adaptation to different environments can drive the evolution of mating isolation and thereby contribute to ecological speciation. Adaptive divergence in nest characteristics, which could be one avenue to mating isolation, has received little attention. For it to be important, populations adapted to different environments should show genetic differences in nest characteristics. Organ...

Dolphins have widespread contemporary appeal and anthropomorphic social representations of dolphins have fuelled a growing desire in tourist populations to seek interaction with them. This paper is concerned with the staged performance of swim-with dolphin interaction programmes in aquaria. Qualitative interviews with tourists who have swum with captive dolphins identified their immediate recol...

Tetrahymena corlissi, a free-living protozoan, apparently caused the death of large number of guppies (Poecilia reticulatus) and occasionally other fishes, in aquaria and hatcheries at several locations. Apparently the disease occurs when the fish and protozoan populations are both at a high level of density. The signs include white spots and epidermal damage. Histologically, T. corlissi could ...