野外捕捉，翻过去的一页——非洲捕猎记

1973至1976年,北京动物园派人从非洲捉捕近百种,1500多只动物。如今,这段经历已经成为那个还可以从野外获取动物的时代留下的传说。[编者按]     

百年历程,从哪里来,到哪里去?北京动物园背后游(一)

由于人类对自然环境的破坏,地球上物种消失速度为正常的1000倍,12%的鸟类,将近1/4的哺乳动物,以及1/3的两栖动物目前正濒临灭绝……面对这样一幅图景,那些以展示野生动物为业的动物园都受到质问：应当何去何从？[编者按]     

动物园,真正的价值在后台北京动物园背后游(三)

每个城市动物园都留下一代又一代人的记忆,在那里,人们可以回到绚丽多姿的生命之中,离开以人自己为中心的空间,用变换的视角来看待世界。[编者按]     

与野生动物共处--一个永恒的话题

近年在西双版纳野象不断伤害人命,损毁庄稼,面对不断升级的人象冲突,众说纷纭,而专家们的说法是:不是大象多了,是大象栖息地少了要给大象留出起码的生存空间保护大象的代价应当由国家和社会买单人象矛盾不可能完全解决,只可能缓解     

兽舍绿化在松鼠猴馆、环尾狐猴馆的应用

要创建一流水平的动物园,使动物的生活环境趋于生态化、行为自然化、福利提高至关重要。通过对松鼠猴及环尾狐猴馆舍的绿化配置,达到了增加动物活动量、改善动物福利、提高动物繁殖和增强游客观赏性的目的。     

垣曲盆地一新的细齿兽(食肉目,细齿兽科)化石

记述了在山西省垣曲县毫清河右岸火石坡发现的细齿兽一新种──毫清河细齿兽？（Ｍｉａｃｉｓ？ ｂｏｑｉｎｇｈｅｎｓｉｓ　ｓｐ　 ｎｏｖ．）。新种与细齿兽属所有已知种不同在于上臼齿具发育的前、后小尖,且小尖均具明显的前、后棱。     

圈养大熊猫在兽舍与半野外条件下的行为和习性的初步比较

2003年7月8日～2004年7月7日,用聚焦动物法和点取样法对卧龙自然保护区首次进行放归前期野化培训的两岁龄大熊猫双胞胎之一“祥祥”,及其对照个体大熊猫双胞胎之二“福福”(生活在传统兽舍之中)的行为进行观察,并对观察数据进行定性分析。X^2适合度检验表明：1．在不同的环境下,大熊猫的行为存在明显差异。表现在：取食、机械行为、人为干扰和寻食行为所占时间不同;人为活动对大熊猫行为的影响不同。2．行为多样性指数不同。3．在不同环境下,大熊猫的生态习性也是有差异的。表现在以下两个方面：一是对不同竹子的利用;二是对不同区域的利用。培训结果表明,影响将来放归的重要因素是圈养条件下形成的机械行为和对人及人工食物的依赖性。因此,在将圈养出生的大熊猫真正放归野外时,必须考虑这些因素的影响。     

观察野外鸟,兽食性的方法简介

食物对动物的生殖、生长发育、地理分布、季节迁移和死亡等生命活动起着极其重要的影响。各种动物的食性决定其在生物群落中的地位和作用,是人类决定其益害关系的主要依据。作者以多年的经验,总结如下。     

抑郁症,难以回避的话题

<正>美国著名心理学家马丁·塞利曼将抑郁症称为精神病学中的"感冒"。这种提法已被越来越多的人接受,意思是抑郁症就像伤风感冒一样,是一种普通大众的寻常病症。很多人都受到抑郁症的困扰,他们或许就是你的朋友、同事、亲戚甚至家     

山西垣曲盆地中始新世的原翼齿兽(鬣齿兽科,肉齿目,哺乳纲)化石

记述了在山西省垣曲县王茅乡郭家村火石坡地点发现的原翼齿兽属一新种──童氏原翼齿兽(Ｄｒｏｐｔｅｒｏｄｏｎ ｔｏｎｇｉ ｓｐ．ｎｏｖ．)。新种比伊尔丁原翼齿兽(Ｐ．ｉｒｄｉｎｅｎｓｉｓ)个体小、下颌联合部靠前、下前臼齿之间有齿隙、ｍ３跟座小。新材料为垣曲盆地可能存在中始新世伊尔丁曼哈期地层提供了证据。     

Naturalistic Exhibits May be More Effective Than Traditional Exhibits at Improving Zoo-Visitor Attitudes toward African Apes

Zoos play a unique role in wildlife conservation, particularly in the area of conservation education. Because of their popularity and flagship status for broader conservation issues, great apes may prove to be one of the most important educational conduits in zoos. In 2002, we surveyed knowledge of and attitudes toward African apes in visitors to the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House (GAH) at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL, USA. In the current study, we replicated the survey to document attitudes to and knowledge of the newly renovated and naturalistic Regenstein Center for African Apes (RCAA) and compared results. We found RCAA was no more effective than GAH in increasing visitor knowledge about apes, although visitors answered more questions correctly upon exit than on entrance in both buildings. We did find, however, that RCAA was more effective than GAH at improving visitor attitudes toward chimpanzees. Specifically, upon exiting, RCAA visitors showed increased naturalistic attitudes and reduced utilitarian attitudes toward chimpanzees. Exhibiting apes in naturalistic settings may therefore be an effective way to increase visitor concern for apes in nature and in zoos. Zoos and aquariums investing in new, naturalistic ape exhibits with the aim to educate about, provide emotional connections to, improve attitudes toward, and ultimately increase conservation of apes, need to then critically evaluate whether the actual effect of the designed environment on visitors—above and beyond intended benefits for the animals—is commensurate with the investment. The broader impacts of even small shifts in visitor attitude in the right direction could be significant. These findings may vary across species and settings, however, and should be assessed accordingly.     

Prostaglandin E2: Making More of Your Marrow

We have recently demonstrated through a chemical screen in the zebrafish embryo that prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) number. These results have further been confirmed by in vitro and in vivo studies in the murine model. Bioactive PGE2 derivatives have potential clinical application to accelerate recovery of the hematopoietic system following chemotherapy or irradiation. Ex vivo expansion of HSCs prior to stem cell transplantation may improve reconstitution of hematopoiesis and immune function. This article aims to summarize current knowledge of PGE2-mediated regulation of blood cell homeostasis as well as to discuss the proposed use of PGE2 to expand hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation in the clinical setting.     

Naturalistic stimuli in touch research

Neural mechanisms of touch are typically studied in laboratory settings using robotic or other types of well-controlled devices. Such stimuli are very different from highly complex naturalistic human-to-human touch interactions. The lack of scientifically useful naturalistic stimuli hampers progress, particularly in social touch research. Vision science, on the other hand, has benefitted from inventions such as virtual reality systems that have provided researchers with precision control of naturalistic stimuli. In the field of touch research, producing and manipulating stimuli is particularly challenging due to the complexity of skin mechanics. Here, we review the history of touch neuroscience focusing on the contrast between strictly controlled and naturalistic stimuli, and compare the field to vision science. We discuss new methods that may overcome obstacles with precision-controlled tactile stimuli, and recent successes in naturalistic texture production. In social touch research, precise tracking and measurement of naturalistic human-to-human touch interactions offer exciting new possibilities.     

Temporal Integration Windows for Naturalistic Visual Sequences

There is increasing evidence that the brain possesses mechanisms to integrate incoming sensory information as it unfolds over time-periods of 2–3 seconds. The ubiquity of this mechanism across modalities, tasks, perception and production has led to the proposal that it may underlie our experience of the subjective present. A critical test of this claim is that this phenomenon should be apparent in naturalistic visual experiences. We tested this using movie-clips as a surrogate for our day-to-day experience, temporally scrambling them to require (re-) integration within and beyond the hypothesized 2–3 second interval. Two independent experiments demonstrate a step-wise increase in the difficulty to follow stimuli at the hypothesized 2–3 second scrambling condition. Moreover, only this difference could not be accounted for by low-level visual properties. This provides the first evidence that this 2–3 second integration window extends to complex, naturalistic visual sequences more consistent with our experience of the subjective present.