Jaguars (Panthera onca) often prey on livestock, resulting in conflicts with humans. To date, kill rates and predation patterns by jaguars have not been well documented. We studied the foraging ecology of jaguars in an area with both livestock and native prey and documented kill rates, characteristics of prey killed, patterns of predation, and the influence of prey size on the duration at kill ...

No controlled studies have been conducted to determine the predilection muscles of Trichinella zimbabwensis larvae in Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) or the influence of infection intensity on the distribution of the larvae in crocodiles. The distribution of larvae in muscles of naturally infected Nile crocodiles and experimentally infected caimans (Caiman crocodilus) and varans (Varanus...

Patterns of airflow and pulmonary anatomy were studied in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), the spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), the dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis), the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), and Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii). In addition, anatomy w...

In recent years video based analysis of human motion gained increased interest, which for a large part is due to the ongoing rapid developments of computer and camera hardware, such as increased CPU power, fast and modular interfaces and high quality image digitisation. A similar important role plays the development of powerful approaches for the analysis of visual data from video sources. In c...

The tails of extant crocodilians are anatomically the closest approximation of the tails of non-avian dinosaurs, and therefore a good starting point for any reconstruction of non-avian dinosaur tail muscles. However, we here demonstrate some methodological problems using crocodile tails, firstly regarding the general reconstruction of tail mobility from osteology, secondly for the reconstructio...

The nutria or coypu (Myocastor coypus) is a rodent native to South America that has been introduced almost worldwide since the early 1900’s, originally with the intent of fur farming in many cases. The nutria is a large (over 6 kg), semi-aquatic rodent with a voracious appetite and high reproductive potential. Nutria became established in the Louisiana wetlands in the 1930’s. The habitat proved...