Most of the action in linguistic theory under Chomsky’s aegis has focused on questions of how words are put together into sentences rather than on the words themselves. Fair enough: the universal hallmark of human language is its parametrically organized combinatorial structure. In linguistic systems, the individual word classes (for instance, the nouns, the verbs, the complementizers) play par...

Asian elephants in the wild live in complex social societies; in captivity, however, management often occurs in solitary conditions, especially at the temples and private places of India. To investigate the effect of social isolation, this study assessed the social group sizes and the presence of stereotypies among 140 captive Asian elephants managed in 3 captive systems (private, temple, and f...

Elephant populations are in peril everywhere, but forest elephants in Central Africa have sustained alarming losses in the last decade [1]. Large, remote protected areas are thought to best safeguard forest elephants by supporting large populations buffered from habitat fragmentation, edge effects and human pressures. One such area, the Minkébé National Park (MNP), Gabon, was created chiefly fo...

We investigated whether the proportion of remotely sensed arable fields increased along a tsetse eradication gradient in the Sebungwe region. We also investigated whether and to what extent this increase in arable fields affected the distribution of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) between the 1980s and 1990s. Results showed a relatively higher increase in the proportion of arable fiel...

Nephrolithiasis has rarely been reported in marine mammals. During 2004 and 2005, two cases of nephrolithiasis were diagnosed during routine necropsy examination, one in a northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) and one in a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus). Nephroliths were found throughout both kidneys during necropsy examination, varying in size from 1-10 mm in diameter ...

Animals that endure prolonged periods of food deprivation preserve vital organ function by sparing protein from catabolism. Much of this protein sparing is achieved by reducing metabolic rate and suppressing gluconeogenesis while fasting. Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) endure prolonged fasts of up to 3 mo at multiple life stages. During these fasts, elephant seals maintain hi...

Widely ranging marine predators often adopt stereotyped, energy-saving behaviours to minimize the energetic cost of transport while maximizing energy gain. Environmental and anthropogenic disturbances can disrupt energy balance by prompting avoidance behaviours that increase transport costs, thereby decreasing foraging efficiency. We examined the ability of 12 free-ranging, juvenile northern el...

Aerial low-frequency (100-6400 Hz) hearing thresholds were obtained for one California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), one harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), and one northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris). Underwater thresholds over a similar frequency range (75-6300 or 6400 Hz) were obtained for these three animals in addition to another California sea lion. Such data are critical, not...

Statistical aggregate properties (e.g. mean, maximum, mode) have not previously been thought to “inherit” between sets. But they do in a weak sense, and a collection of such “weak” information can be combined in a rule-based architecture to get stronger information. I I Motivation S~~ppose we have conducted a census of all elephants in the world and we can definitely say that all elephants are ...