This paper reports on the design of a nest box consisting of two compartments for the breeding in cages of wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The first compartment was a chamber measuring on the inside 17 × 23 × 20 cm (base and height), conforming to the small body size of the wild rabbit and similar to its breeding burrows. A plastic tray was placed inside the chamber, in which the doe coul...

During colony relocation, the selection of a new nest involves exploration and assessment of potential sites followed by colony movement on the basis of a collective decision making process. Hygiene and pathogen load of the potential nest sites are factors worker scouts might evaluate, given the high risk of epidemics in group-living animals. Choosing nest sites free of pathogens is hypothesize...

We investigated population dynamics, breeding pairs, breeding habitat selection, nest density, distance between neighboring nests, nest survival, reproductive success, and recruitment rate for Black-necked Cranes (BNC, Grus nigricollis) during 2013-2015 in Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve (YCW), Gansu, China. Numbers of BNC and breeding pairs remained relatively stable at around 140 individual...

Ants use both terrestrial landmarks and celestial cues to navigate to and from their nest location. These cues persist even as light levels drop during the twilight/night. Here, we determined the compass cues used by a nocturnal bull ant, Myrmecia midas, in which the majority of individuals begin foraging during the evening twilight period. Myrmecia midas foragers with vectors of ≤5 m when disp...

A crucial step in adapting to urban habitat is switching to novel, often man-made, resources. Switching to a novel resource can influence the dynamics of species coexistence, particularly if it alters trade-offs in performance. While such switches are frequently documented, their influence on species coexistence has been difficult to assess because it requires knowledge of performance trade-off...

Background: The effect of electromagnetic field (EMF) as an environmental factor on different organs including female reproductive system is of critical concern. In view of the fact that embryo fetuses and young, growing animals are more susceptible to any xenobiotic during gestational and lactation stages of gonadal development may it lead to permanent damage to the gonads. The early phases of...

INTRODUCTION Several studies evaluated the relation between colorectal cancer prognosis and various factors such as: depth of tumor invasion, involved lymph nodes size, counts and locations, metastatic nest expansion. We assessed the prognostic significance of the ratio between metastatic nest and involved lymph node diameter in colorectal cancer cases. METHODS A historical cohort study was c...

Gunnison Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus minimus) is a species of concern for which little demographic information exists. To help fill this information gap, we investigated factors affecting nest success in two populations of Gunnison Sage-Grouse. We assessed the relative effects of (1) vegetation characteristics (e.g., shrub height, shrub cover, grass cover, and grass height), (2) temporal factors ...

Traits that converge in appearance under similar environmental conditions among phylogenetically independent lineages are thought to represent adaptations to local environments. We tested for convergence in nest morphology and composition of birds breeding in two ecologically different locations in Canada: Churchill in northern Manitoba and Elgin in southeastern Ontario. We examined nests from ...