IN a previous paper (Shapiro and Zwarenstein, 1933) it was shown that castration in Xenopus laevis results after 6 months in a persistent fall in serum calcium in males and females. During the course of the investigation it was observed that the serum calcium of the females used as controls, i.e. animals maintained in captivity, was significantly lower than that of animals brought in fresh from...

Aquaculture has been the fastest-growing area of worldwide food production and is becoming a vital component global economy to feed rising world population. Hence, directed toward continuing current level per head consumption, comprehensive aquaculture needs attain eighty million tonnes by 2050. However, some cultured marine fish species, such as salmonids, striped bass, gilthead seabream, well...

Xenopus longipes Loumont and Kobel, 1991 is an aquatic polyploid frog endemic to the high altitude crater lake, Lake Oku in North West region, Cameroon (Loumont & Kobel 1991). The tadpole of X. longipes is currently undescribed. So far, only dead tadpoles have been found at Lake Oku during regular monitoring since 2008 (Doherty-Bone et al. 2013), with specimens too decomposed to make adequate d...

BACKGROUND Adverse early-life experience might lead to the expression of abnormal behaviours in animals and the predisposition to psychiatric disorder (e.g. major depressive disorder) in Humans. Common breeding processes employ weaning and housing conditions different from what happens in the wild. METHODS The present study, therefore, investigated whether birth origin impacts the possible ex...

PROGRESSIVE encephalomyelopathy with cerebellar degeneration has been described in captive cheetahs (Palmer and others 2001) and in young domestic cats (Palmer and Cavanagh 1995). This case report describes the clinical and histopathological findings in a very similar condition affecting a young snow leopard (Uncia uncia) that had been born in a zoological park in eastern England as part of the...

Primates are frequently hunted in Amazonia. Assessing the sustainability of hunting is essential to conservation planning. The most-used sustainability model, the 'Production Model', and more recent spatial models, rely on basic reproductive parameters for accuracy. These parameters are often crudely estimated. To date, parameters used for the Amazon's most-hunted primate, the woolly monkey (La...

This article examines archaeological studies of the cultural heritage and social dynamics of African descendant populations in the United States and Canada from AD 1400 through 1865. European colonial enterprises expanded in Africa and the Americas during that time span, effecting an accompanying movement of free and captive Africans into North America. Archaeological investigations of early Af...

Many declining populations are supplemented with captive-born individuals that are released directly into the wild. Because captive-born individuals can have lower fitness in the wild than their wild-born counterparts, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the reduced fitness of these individuals is required for appropriate conservation and management decisions. Inbree...

Leucocytozoon lovati infections were detected in free-flying rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus), an endangered species that inhabits alpine areas in Japan. Eight of nine adult birds tested positive for L. lovati infection. For comparison, two captive rock ptarmigans hatched in a breeding facility at the foot of the mountains were examined. Both were negative for L. lovati infection. This is the fir...