过大耳猬(Hemiechinus auritus)消化道对刺山柑(Capparis spinosa)种子吸水及萌发的影响

动植物相互作用关系是近年来研究的热点问题,动物对植物种子的扩散作用是其中一个重要的研究内容。食果动物促进植物种子萌发的一个主要机制是过消化道提高种子对水和气体的渗透性。本文通过试验分析大耳猬(Hemiechinus auritus)消化道是否影响刺山柑(Capparis spinosa)种子的吸水及萌发,探究大耳猬对刺山柑种子的扩散机制。结果表明:过大耳猬消化道增加了刺山柑种子的吸水量(0~12 h),提高了吸水速度(0~12 h),增加了吸水率(0~2 h、10 h)与分段吸水率(0~2 h);过大耳猬消化道的刺山柑种子萌发率与对照无显著差异,但过大耳猬消化道的刺山柑种子再经GA3溶液浸泡后萌发率显著高于对照组和单纯GA3处理组,并延长了萌发天数;TTC测定结果表明,所有试验组刺山柑种子的生活力均没有显著差异。上述结果说明,大耳猬消化道的作用是提高刺山柑种子对水的渗透性并破坏种子的机械阻碍,有助于种子萌发,同时对活力没有影响。大耳猬对刺山柑的种子扩散有一定的潜在意义。     

大耳猬血液、尿无机离子等指标测定及肾脏水通道蛋白1、2的表达

测定了大耳猬血清及尿中多种无机离子和尿素氮等指标,并应用免疫组织化学方法观察了AQP1、AQP2在肾脏的表达.大耳猬血清钠、氯含量较高;而尿液中以钾、钠、氯及尿素氮含量较高.尿液中主要离子浓度高于血清,较为浓缩,尿素氮、钾排泄能力较强.AQP1免疫反应阳性表达于近曲小管上皮和髓袢细段,AQP2主要表达于集合管上皮细胞.因此,AQP1、AQP2可能在大耳猬肾脏水重吸收及尿液浓缩过程中具有重要作用.     

安徽省兽类一属和种新纪录——侯氏猬

正林猬属(Mesechinus)隶属于劳亚食虫目(Eulipotyphla)猬科(Erinaceidae)猬亚科(Erinaceinae),包含达乌尔猬(M. dauuricus)、侯氏猬(M. hughi)、小齿猬(M. miodon)和高黎贡林猬(M. wangi) 4种(Ai et al.,2018)。该属曾被归入刺猬属(Erinaceus)(Pavlinov and Rossolimo,1987)或大耳猬属(Hemiechinus)(Corbet,1988)。     

被动式电子标签用于花鼠种群动态研究的可行性

在野生动物研究过程中经常需要对动物个体进行标记。传统的标记方法存在着标记物易脱落、可能影响被标记动物的生理和行为、难于进行个体识别等缺点。被动式电子标签(passive integrated transponder, PIT)是基于射频识别技术的电子标签,可用于体内标记,具有不易脱落消失且能够进行个体识别的优点。我们在凉水国家级自然保护区以PIT标签为标记物,采用标志重捕技术开展花鼠(Eutamias sibiricus)的种群动态研究,同时对应用PIT标签的可靠性进行了研究。2011年秋季至2012年春季共标记花鼠个体140只,其中86只被重捕至少1次。2011年秋季标记的72只个体中有38只在2012年春季被重捕。重捕的花鼠个体注射口愈合完好,体重无明显降低。结果表明PIT标签是一种安全可靠、识别迅速、数据准确、不易丢失、可循环使用的体内标记电子标签,适用于基于个体识别的小型哺乳动物生态学研究。     

Anitrack星追踪器捕捉到黑颈鹤最新迁徙路线

<正>天津市浙海科技有限责任公司研发的Anit-G2001卫星追踪器在动物追踪领域又获新进展。以下是该设备在1号黑颈鹤迁飞过程中捕捉到的定位信息,所有数据均真实可靠。目前该系列产品数据传回率非常高,为广大科研人员及动物保护人士提供了极具价值的科学数据。     

无尾两栖类的简易标记法

在动物学、动物生理学和生态学等学科的研究中 ,常常需要对所研究的动物个体进行标记 ,以便于对其个体活动的追踪研究观察。在有关研究工作中 ,目前使用多种标记法 ,如烙印法、同位素示踪法等。在对蛙类的研究实践过程中 ,我们找到了针对蛙类研究的一种简单易行的标记法——划蹼法和切趾 (指 )法。由于蛙类个体小 ,较为脆弱。烙印等方法容易对其造成伤害 ,影响其生存 ,同时也不易进行操作。尤其是在蝌蚪变态期不易进行有效的标记 ,给追踪观察造成极大的困难。我们经过对中国林蛙的标记试验探索 ,找到了一种简单易行的标记方法。即采用划去蛙…     

天津市浙海科技有限责任公司推出双模追踪器

<正>双模追踪器天津市浙海科技有限责任公司(Tianjin Blueoceanix Technology co.,LTD)独立自主研发生产的双模追踪器,通过GPS或LBS定位后将数据信息传送至客户端,电子地图上显示动物坐标等信息,支持数据下载,轨迹回放,设备默认为LBS定位,在搜索不到基站信号的情况下自动启动GPS定位模式,保证设备定位数据的即时性及稳定性。特点在于重量轻,体积小,双模转换,高效节能,具有防水、防震、耐高温特性,     

藉遗传标记评价动物个体近交程度

目的评价动物个体近交程度所需的遗传标记数量。方法通过计算机模拟动物近交系的建立过程,比较不同数量遗传标记估计的个体纯合度与相应世代近交系数的差异。结果 1000次模拟中各世代10个个体不同数量的标记组合计算的纯合度平均值与该世代个体的近交系数都存在差异,使用75个标记所获得的个体纯合度与相应近交系数差异最小的有8个世代,其他组合差异最小的世代为0～3个。随着标记数量的增加,单次模拟所获得标记基因纯合度的最大值和最小值逐渐向真实近交系数接近。结论使用少量的标记评价个体近交程度将存在较大的偏差,标记数量越少,偏差越大,当选用多态性丰富标记数接近75万个时,这种偏差会降到最低,标记数量进一步增大并不能提高评价的准确性。     

远东剌猬和大耳猬的核型分析

远东刺猬和大耳猬的二倍体染色体数目均为2n=48。远东刺猬的核型组成为13m+6sm+3st+1t+XY,NF=92,C带分布于5对近端和亚中着丝粒染色体的长臂,约占整个染色体长臂的1/2至2/3,Ag-NORs位于2—3染色体的长臂端部;大耳猬核型组成为18m+4sm+1st+XY,NF=92,C带分布于17对染色体的着丝粒部位,Ag-NORs位于3—5对染色体上,其中一Ag-NORs位于染色体的长臂中部,两者的核型特征有明显区别。结合前人的工作,作者提出在远东刺猬不同地理居群中至少存在三种不同的核型。本文对普通刺猬属的远东刺猬、东欧刺猬和西欧刺猬的核型以及大耳猬属的大耳猬、达乌尔刺猬和秦岭短棘猬的核型还分别作了比较分析。此外,对远东刺猬联会复合体形态、性染色体的配对行为和SC侧线加厚现象也作了分析讨论。     

陕西省猬亚科(劳亚食虫目)的分类修订

基于92号标本的形态研究,对陕西省猬亚科Erinaceinae进行分类修订。查明陕西榆林市附近的刺猬不是达乌尔猬,而Thomas(1908)将该地刺猬miodon订为独立种的观点是正确的,并按王应祥(2003)的观点取中文名为小齿猬,归入林猬属。经分类整理,陕西省猬亚科有3属5种,即:东北刺猬(Erinaceus amurensis)、达乌尔猬(Mesechinus dauuricus)、大耳猬(Hemiechinus auritus)、林猬(Mesechinus hughi)及小齿猬(Mesechinus miodon)。最后,提供陕西省分布的猬亚科属种检索表。     

Design of a GPS backpack to track European hedgehogs <Emphasis Type="Italic">Erinaceus europaeus</Emphasis>

We report on the design and construction of a Global Positioning System (GPS) backpack to collect positional data of European hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. The device consisted of a microGPS unit plus a VHF transmitter to facilitate unit recovery. It was constructed to articulate when the animal rolled up and to prevent snagging on objects or nests. Backpacks were fitted to 28 hedgehogs with eight reattachments at different seasons (N = 36 samples). Units fixed hedgehog positions at high rate for an average of 5 days to address our study on spatial ecology at fine scale. We recorded the normal execution of defensive rolling behaviour, impediments on natural movements across vegetation and nest occupancy, and also changes in body mass. We could not discern any negative effect associated with the backpack for attachments up to 8 days; hence, we consider this design to be appropriate for tracking European hedgehogs over this length of time.     

The Parallel Worm Tracker: a platform for measuring average speed and drug-induced paralysis in nematodes

Background

Caenorhabditis elegans locomotion is a simple behavior that has been widely used to dissect genetic components of behavior, synaptic transmission, and muscle function. Many of the paradigms that have been created to study C. elegans locomotion rely on qualitative experimenter observation. Here we report the implementation of an automated tracking system developed to quantify the locomotion of multiple individual worms in parallel.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Our tracking system generates a consistent measurement of locomotion that allows direct comparison of results across experiments and experimenters and provides a standard method to share data between laboratories. The tracker utilizes a video camera attached to a zoom lens and a software package implemented in MATLAB®. We demonstrate several proof-of-principle applications for the tracker including measuring speed in the absence and presence of food and in the presence of serotonin. We further use the tracker to automatically quantify the time course of paralysis of worms exposed to aldicarb and levamisole and show that tracker performance compares favorably to data generated using a hand-scored metric.

Conclusions/Signficance

Although this is not the first automated tracking system developed to measure C. elegans locomotion, our tracking software package is freely available and provides a simple interface that includes tools for rapid data collection and analysis. By contrast with other tools, it is not dependent on a specific set of hardware. We propose that the tracker may be used for a broad range of additional worm locomotion applications including genetic and chemical screening.     

piggyBac transposon somatic mutagenesis with an activated reporter and tracker (PB-SMART) for genetic screens in mice

Somatic forward genetic screens have the power to interrogate thousands of genes in a single animal. Retroviral and transposon mutagenesis systems in mice have been designed and deployed in somatic tissues for surveying hematopoietic and solid tumor formation. In the context of cancer, the ability to visually mark mutant cells would present tremendous advantages for identifying tumor formation, monitoring tumor growth over time, and tracking tumor infiltrations and metastases into wild-type tissues. Furthermore, locating mutant clones is a prerequisite for screening and analyzing most other somatic phenotypes. For this purpose, we developed a system using the piggyBac (PB) transposon for somatic mutagenesis with an activated reporter and tracker, called PB-SMART. The PB-SMART mouse genetic screening system can simultaneously induce somatic mutations and mark mutated cells using bioluminescence or fluorescence. The marking of mutant cells enable analyses that are not possible with current somatic mutagenesis systems, such as tracking cell proliferation and tumor growth, detecting tumor cell infiltrations, and reporting tissue mutagenesis levels by a simple ex vivo visual readout. We demonstrate that PB-SMART is highly mutagenic, capable of tumor induction with low copy transposons, which facilitates the mapping and identification of causative insertions. We further integrated a conditional transposase with the PB-SMART system, permitting tissue-specific mutagenesis with a single cross to any available Cre line. Targeting the germline, the system could also be used to conduct F1 screens. With these features, PB-SMART provides an integrated platform for individual investigators to harness the power of somatic mutagenesis and phenotypic screens to decipher the genetic basis of mammalian biology and disease.     

Marking through molts: An evaluation of visible implant elastomer to permanently mark individuals in a lower termite species

1. Advances in individual marking methods have facilitated detailed studies of animal populations and behavior as they allow tracking of individuals through time and space. Hemimetabolous insects, representing a wide range of commonly used model organisms, present a unique challenge to individual marking as they are not only generally small‐bodied, but also molt throughout development, meaning that traditional surface marks are not persistent.
2. Visible implant elastomer (VIE) offers a potential solution as small amounts of the inert polymer can be implanted under the skin or cuticle of an animal. VIE has proved useful for individually marking fish, crustaceans, and amphibians in both field and laboratory studies and has recently been successfully trialed in laboratory populations of worms and fly larvae. We trialed VIE in the single‐piece nesting termite Zootermopsis angusticollis, a small hemimetabolous insect.
3. We found that there was no effect of VIE on survival and that marks persisted following molting. However, we found some evidence that marked termites performed less allogrooming and trophallaxis than controls, although effect sizes were very small.
4. Our study suggests that VIE is an effective technique for marking small hemimetabolous insects like termites but we advocate that caution is applied, particularly when behavioral observation is important.

     

BEEtag: A Low-Cost,Image-Based Tracking System for the Study of Animal Behavior and Locomotion

A fundamental challenge common to studies of animal movement, behavior, and ecology is the collection of high-quality datasets on spatial positions of animals as they change through space and time. Recent innovations in tracking technology have allowed researchers to collect large and highly accurate datasets on animal spatiotemporal position while vastly decreasing the time and cost of collecting such data. One technique that is of particular relevance to the study of behavioral ecology involves tracking visual tags that can be uniquely identified in separate images or movie frames. These tags can be located within images that are visually complex, making them particularly well suited for longitudinal studies of animal behavior and movement in naturalistic environments. While several software packages have been developed that use computer vision to identify visual tags, these software packages are either (a) not optimized for identification of single tags, which is generally of the most interest for biologists, or (b) suffer from licensing issues, and therefore their use in the study of animal behavior has been limited. Here, we present BEEtag, an open-source, image-based tracking system in Matlab that allows for unique identification of individual animals or anatomical markers. The primary advantages of this system are that it (a) independently identifies animals or marked points in each frame of a video, limiting error propagation, (b) performs well in images with complex backgrounds, and (c) is low-cost. To validate the use of this tracking system in animal behavior, we mark and track individual bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) and recover individual patterns of space use and activity within the nest. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of this software package and its application to the study of animal movement, behavior, and ecology.     

Studying the movement behavior of benthic macroinvertebrates with automated video tracking

Quantifying and understanding movement is critical for a wide range of questions in basic and applied ecology. Movement ecology is also fostered by technological advances that allow automated tracking for a wide range of animal species. However, for aquatic macroinvertebrates, such detailed methods do not yet exist. We developed a video tracking method for two different species of benthic macroinvertebrates, the crawling isopod Asellus aquaticus and the swimming fresh water amphipod Gammarus pulex. We tested the effects of different light sources and marking techniques on their movement behavior to establish the possibilities and limitations of the experimental protocol and to ensure that the basic handling of test specimens would not bias conclusions drawn from movement path analyses. To demonstrate the versatility of our method, we studied the influence of varying population densities on different movement parameters related to resting behavior, directionality, and step lengths. We found that our method allows studying species with different modes of dispersal and under different conditions. For example, we found that gammarids spend more time moving at higher population densities, while asellids rest more under similar conditions. At the same time, in response to higher densities, gammarids mostly decreased average step lengths, whereas asellids did not. Gammarids, however, were also more sensitive to general handling and marking than asellids. Our protocol for marking and video tracking can be easily adopted for other species of aquatic macroinvertebrates or testing conditions, for example, presence or absence of food sources, shelter, or predator cues. Nevertheless, limitations with regard to the marking protocol, material, and a species’ physical build need to be considered and tested before a wider application, particularly for swimming species. Data obtained with this approach can deepen the understanding of population dynamics on larger spatial scales and of the effects of different management strategies on a species’ dispersal potential.     

Evaluation of a Global Positioning System backpack transmitter for wild turkey research

Radiotelemetry is the standard method for monitoring wild turkey (Meleagris gallapavo) movements and habitat use. Spatial data collected using telemetry-based monitoring are frequently inaccurate due to triangulation error. However, new technology, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) has increased ecologists' ability to accurately evaluate animal movements and habitat selection. We evaluated the efficacy of micro-GPS backpack units for use on wild turkeys. We tested a micro-GPS developed specifically for avian species that incorporated a GPS antenna with a lightweight rechargeable battery and a very high frequency (VHF) transmitter. We conducted a series of static tests to evaluate performance in varying types of vegetative canopy cover and terrain. After static testing, we deployed micro-GPS on 8 adult male Rio Grande wild turkeys (M. g. intermedia) trapped in south Texas and 2 adult females trapped in the Texas panhandle. Micro-GPS units collected 26,439 locations out of 26,506 scheduled attempts (99.7% fix rate) during static testing. Mean distance error across all static tests was 15.5 m (SE = 0.1). In summer 2009, we recovered micro-GPS from 4 tagged males and both females to evaluate data collection. Units on males acquired approximately 2,500 locations over a 65-day test period (94.5% fix rate). We recovered units from the 2 females after 19 days and 53 days; those units acquired 301 and 837 locations, respectively, for a 96% fix rate. Cost analysis indicated that VHF will be cost effective when 1 location per day is required up to 181 days, but micro-GPS becomes less expensive as frequency of daily locations increases. Our results indicate that micro-GPS have the potential to provide increased reliable data on turkey movement ecology and habitat selection at a higher resolution than conventional VHF telemetric methods. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.     

Instance segmentation and tracking of animals in wildlife videos: SWIFT - segmentation with filtering of tracklets

Reliably detecting and tracking animals in wildlife videos is an essential basis for researchers to be able to analyse animal behavior or recognize animal individuals. In order to correctly distinguish individual animals that are standing close to each other, bounding boxes around the animals are not sufficient. Instead, an exact contour of the animal, an instance mask, which is the result of an instance segmentation, is needed. In this paper, we present SWIFT, a novel multi-object tracking and segmentation (MOTS) pipeline that solves this task. We evaluate the functionality of our approach on a self-created wildlife video dataset containing red deer and fallow deer. Our dataset is one of the very few datasets in wildlife monitoring that is annotated with instance masks and tracking IDs. SWIFT significantly improves the quality of the instance masks compared to using a state-of-the-art instance segmentation approach from 0.432 average precision to 0.495 average precision. Our tracking algorithm uses multiple filtering steps to either delete tracks that are found incorrectly or to merge tracks that are not yet connected. This results in an increased multi-object tracking accuracy score in comparison to a state-of-the-art tracking approach from 57.2% to 63.8%, which means that our detected tracking results are less erroneous.     

Remote monitoring of primates using automated GPS technology in open habitats

Automated tracking using a satellite global position system (GPS) has major potential as a research tool in studies of primate ecology. However, implementation has been limited, at least partly because of technological difficulties associated with the dense forest habitat of many primates. In contrast, primates inhabiting relatively open environments may provide ideal subjects for use of GPS collars, yet no empirical tests have evaluated this proposition. Here, we used an automated GPS collar to record the locations, approximate body surface temperature, and activity for an adult female baboon during 90 days in the savannah habitat of Amboseli, Kenya. Given the GPS collar's impressive reliability, high spatial accuracy, other associated measurements, and low impact on the study animal, our results indicate the great potential of applying GPS technology to research on wild primates.