Quantitative assessment of pair formation behavior in captive whooping cranes (Grus americana)

Instantaneous scan sampling for mean distance and synchronous action patterns and all-occurrence sampling for unison call, dance, strut, and hoover-up behaviors were conducted for five potential whooping crane pairs at Patuxent Environmental Science Center, Laurel, Maryland. Dance, strut, and hoover-up differed among pairs, as did total frequency of social behaviors. It was unclear whether or not total frequency of social behaviors during pair formation can be used as an index for potential breeding success. The relative importance of different action patterns should be used as indices of pair compatibility in captive whooping cranes. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Food consumption and retention time in captive whooping cranes (Grus americana)

Food consumption, digesta retention time, and food preference were measured for captive whooping cranes fed pelleted diets. The basal commercial diet was compared to four mixtures containing 70% basal and 30% of one of four important winter foods for the whooping crane: blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), wolfberry fruit (Lycium carolinianum), live oak acorn (Quercus virginiana), or common Rangia clam (Rangia cuneata). Because captive birds would not eat whole foods, we were prevented from direct food preference tests. Food passed through the gut rapidly, with almost complete elimination within 7 hr. There was some indication that retention time was shorter for the low fiber and high ash and calcium clam diet. Cranes ate less wolfberry feed (g/day) than the other feeds, and all birds ate less wolfberry feed on the day it was first fed, compared to basal diet the previous day. Birds ate more low energy feed than high energy feed. Due to combined effects of low energy content, lower metabolizable energy coefficients, and reduced feed consumption, less energy was assimilated for study diets than basal diet. Apparent shorter retention times for some diets containing whooping crane foods may partly explain lower digestibilities and metabolizable energy of winter whooping crane foods compared to commercial crane diet. Zoo Biol 16:519–531, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Reduced reproductive success of hatchery coho salmon in the wild: insights into most likely mechanisms

Supplementation of wild salmonids with captive-bred fish is a common practice for both commercial and conservation purposes. However, evidence for lower fitness of captive-reared fish relative to wild fish has accumulated in recent years, diminishing the apparent effectiveness of supplementation as a management tool. To date, the mechanism(s) responsible for these fitness declines remain unknown. In this study, we showed with molecular parentage analysis that hatchery coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) had lower reproductive success than wild fish once they reproduced in the wild. This effect was more pronounced in males than in same-aged females. Hatchery spawned fish that were released as unfed fry (age 0), as well as hatchery fish raised for one year in the hatchery (released as smolts, age 1), both experienced lower lifetime reproductive success (RS) than wild fish. However, the subset of hatchery males that returned as 2-year olds (jacks) did not exhibit the same fitness decrease as males that returned as 3-year olds. Thus, we report three lines of evidence pointing to the absence of sexual selection in the hatchery as a contributing mechanism for fitness declines of hatchery fish in the wild: (i) hatchery fish released as unfed fry that survived to adulthood still had low RS relative to wild fish, (ii) age-3 male hatchery fish consistently showed a lower relative RS than female hatchery fish (suggesting a role for sexual selection), and (iii) age-2 jacks, which use a sneaker mating strategy, did not show the same declines as 3-year olds, which compete differently for females (again, implicating sexual selection).     

基于MAXENT模型的丹顶鹤营巢生境适宜性分析——以扎龙保护区为例

明确物种繁殖栖息地的潜在分布对于受胁物种的保护与科学管理具有十分重要的意义。扎龙保护区是国际濒危物种丹顶鹤西部迁徙种群的主要繁殖地之一,近年来繁殖种群数量波动较大。通过GIS空间技术平台,利用MAXENT模型,结合2012—2013年丹顶鹤(Grus japonensis)营巢分布点和环境特征变量,对扎龙保护区丹顶鹤营巢生境的适宜性进行了分析。结果表明:模型的评价效果达到优秀水平(训练集AUC=0.901);绿度(34.9%)、距道路距离(17.1%)、土壤湿度(16.3%)、海拔(15.7%)是丹顶鹤营巢生境的主要环境特征变量;核心区中部和南部是丹顶鹤主要的适宜营巢分布区,缓冲区和实验区有少量的适宜营巢区分布,丹顶鹤适宜营巢生境面积为35857.35hm~2,占保护区总面积的17.07%。建议在重点管理核心区的同时,对缓冲区和实验区的小面积芦苇沼泽给予更多关注。     

Evaluation of Candidate Gene Effects for Beef Backfat via Bayesian Model Selection

Candidate gene approaches provide tools for exploring and localizing causative genes affecting quantitative traits and the underlying variation may be better understood by determining the relative magnitudes of effects of their polymorphisms. Diacyglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), fatty acid binding protein (heart) 3 (FABP3), growth hormone 1 (GH1), leptin (LEP) and thyroglobulin (TG) have been previously identified as genes contributing to genetic control of subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) in beef cattle. In the present research, Bayesian model selection was used to evaluate effects of these five candidate genes by comparing competing non-nested models and treating candidate gene effects as either random or fixed. The analyses were implemented in SAS to simplify the programming and computation. Phenotypic data were gathered from a F₂ population of Wagyu × Limousin cattle. The five candidate genes had significant but varied effects on SFT in this population. Bayesian model selection identified the DGAT1 model as the one with the greatest model probability, whether candidate gene effects were considered random or fixed, and DGAT1 had the greatest additive effect on SFT. The SAS codes developed in the study are freely available and can be downloaded at: http://www.ansci.wsu.edu/programs/.Mention of a proprietary product does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the product by USDA, Montana AES, or the authors and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable.     

kakusan: a computer program to automate the selection of a nucleotide substitution model and the configuration of a mixed model on multilocus data

The application of different substitution models to each gene (a.k.a. mixed model) should be considered in model‐based phylogenetic analysis of multigene sequences. However, a single molecular evolution model is still usually applied. There are no computer programs able to conduct model selection for multiple loci at the same time, though several recently developed types of software for phylogenetic inference can handle mixed model. Here, I have developed computer software named ‘kakusan’ that enables us to solve the above problems. Major running steps are briefly described, and an analysis of results with kakusan is compared to that obtained with other program.