同胞侵犯对猞猁幼仔行为的影响

研究了非自由生活的4窝11只猞猁幼仔的玩耍行为、亲和及入侵关系的变化.观察到36-57日龄幼仔的同胞打斗行为,这些打斗减少了这些幼仔之间游戏性接触的频次.这个"打斗期"与游戏行为和食性的变化同步发生.打斗后,幼仔游戏性接触的非对称性以及同胞之间的偏爱更加清楚.这些打斗导致了不同窝的幼仔之间等级结构的建立.     

Habitat affects escape behaviour and alarm calling in Common Starlings Sturnus vulgaris

Animals should adapt their escape behaviour to both physical and social surroundings in order to maximize their probability of survival. Cover can be both obstructive, reducing the visibility of the surroundings and hindering escape, and protective, providing refuge. We investigated how the provision of cover (long grass) affected (1) the escape behaviour and (2) the alarm call behaviour of Common Starlings Sturnus vulgaris responding to a model hawk during a simulated attack. Starlings always retreated away from the predator and sometimes alarm-called. Their escape trajectory was close to the ground when escaping in long grass, which could be explained by either tall swards hindering take-off or such swards being used as protective cover. On short grass their escape trajectory was much steeper (> 45°). We also investigated the use of alarm calls in Starlings according to predictions arising from the costs and benefits to callers and receivers. Callers could benefit from using alarm calls through dilution or confusion if their use initiates flock departures, thus reducing their probability of being targeted. If there is no cost to the producer of alarm calls we predicted that detectors should call at all times to gain these benefits (i.e. irrespective of grass length), but if their use is costly we predicted that they would be used only when the benefits outstrip the costs. In this case we would predict that alarm calls would be given when other (visual) signals were impaired on long grass but not when they were effective on short grass. Starlings used alarm calls on long grass when visibility was reduced more frequently than on short grass, suggesting that calling has a cost to the producer. The contrasting escape strategies of Starlings in relation to a relatively small (10 cm) change in grass height demonstrates the potential importance of habitat structure in determining predation risk.     

云南拉市海灰鹤的越冬行为初步观察

2004年10月～2005年3月初步观察了云南拉市海保护区灰鹤(Grus grus)的越冬行为.灰鹤在拉市海的越冬期为175～180 d.10月初至11月下旬为灰鹤在拉市海的"迁入期",11月底至12月底为"过境停留期",1月初至3月中旬为"稳定越冬期",3月中下旬为"迁出期".越冬期日间活动以取食为主,占据了75.53%左右的时间,其次为警戒14.66%、护理5.05%、休息4.49%,4种行为的时间分配在各时间段之间差异极显著.在越冬个体中,家庭单位中的成鹤和幼鹤都是比集群中的个体利用更少的时间取食和更多时间警戒,说明较大的群体规模可以降低个体面临的捕食风险.     

Increased vigilance of paired males in sexually dimorphic species: distinguishing between alternative explanations in wintering Eurasian wigeon

In animal pairs, males are often more vigilant than females.This is generally assumed to result from mate guarding (eitheragainst predators or other males). However, when males haveconspicuous secondary sexual characteristics, they could beconstrained to be more vigilant because of a higher predationrisk than females. We attempted to distinguish between the "maleconstraint hypothesis" and two variations of the mate-guardinghypothesis by studying the vigilance behavior of the sexuallydimorphic wigeon during early winter, when some males are inbreeding plumage and some are not and when not all males arepaired. The proportion of time spent vigilant by paired malesin breeding plumage was five times higher than any other categoryof males or females. We found no significant differences betweenthe vigilance levels of unpaired male wigeon in cryptic andin breeding plumage and therefore rejected the male constrainthypothesis. As vigilance levels of paired and unpaired femalesdid not differ either, we rejected the hypothesis that pairedmales invest in vigilance to reduce their mate's need to bevigilant to predation risks. Paired females interacted lessfrequently with other wigeon than unpaired ones, and it is probablyto protect their female from other males that paired male wigeonincrease their vigilance times.     

Reproductive biology of captive female Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx

Studies on wild Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) have revealed variation in reproduction between areas, years and individuals. In order to explore potential causes for this variation other than food supply, we analysed data from captive lynx, which provide conditions with minimal environmental variation as all were fed ad libitum. Data from 37 individual female lynx were available from 20 zoos in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Data on 177 reproductive events (where a male was available to the female at mating time) are presented. Of these events, 85% resulted in litters being born. Average litter size was 1.95, with a variation from 1 to 4. The mean birth date was 26th May, and sex ratio was not significantly different from parity. The probability of reproduction was related to age, with fewer litters produced by the very young (2–3-year old), and no sign of a senescence effect. However, a clear effect of senescence on litter size was evident. The captive lynx did not have higher reproductive rates than wild lynx, indicating that either factors other than food supply are driving the variation in wild lynx reproduction, or that a factor such as stress may be causing additional variation in the captive population.     

Man-induced habitat changes and sensitive species: a GIS approach to the Eurasian Bittern (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Botaurus stellaris</Emphasis>) distribution in a Mediterranean wetland

Modifications to the Massaciuccoli wetland (Central Italy) caused by various human activities were examined in relation to the distribution of the local Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) population. From 1993 to1998 we documented the changing distribution pattern of booming males within the marsh, while at the same time gathering information on human utilisation of the habitat. The evolution of the marsh’s layout overtime has been accurately delineated by developing a Geographical Information System. Local customs of marsh utilisation, in particular the illegal setting of fires and the enlarging of hunting pools, had major impacts on its features. The vegetation beds, dominated by Cladium mariscus, proved to be a patchwork mosaic of different-aged plants (from the last fire or cutting), whose densities therefore increased over time. Booming male distribution was uneven within the marsh and varied from one year to the next. The youngest vegetation beds covered more than 50% of the 50 m-buffer zones defined around booming males. A logistic regression model showed that Bitterns favoured unfragmented young vegetation beds (1–3 years). Consideration of the current state of affairs suggests that the necessary renewal of the vegetation could be best achieved through co-ordinated actions carried out in rotation on predetermined plots, covering at least 20 ha in extent and managed at least every 4 years.     

Risk taking by Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in a human-dominated landscape: effects of sex and reproductive status

This study aimed to test how the sex and reproductive status of Eurasian lynx influenced their use of 'attractive sinks'– habitats with high prey density and high mortality risks. Locations of 24 Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx were obtained by radio-telemetry in a mixed forest and agricultural habitat in south-eastern Norway. Roe deer, the major food source of lynx in the study area, occurred at higher densities closer to areas of human activity and infrastructure. Proximity of lynx locations to human activity and infrastructure was used as a risk index because the most common causes of death among Scandinavian lynx were of anthropogenic origin. This study shows that distances from lynx locations to human activity were significantly greater for females with newborn kittens than for males, but this decreased with kitten age. The data suggest that this response to human activity is influenced by the reproductive strategies of males and females, and might explain male-biased human-induced mortality in this study and in carnivores more generally.     

Toward the phylogeny of the family Lacertidae–Why 4708 base pairs of mtDNA sequences cannot draw the picture

A phylogeny of the family Lacertidae was derived from DNA sequences of six mitochondrial genes. Only a few nodes were confidently resolved using maximum parsimony, although the data yielded a total of 1664 phylogenetically informative characters. The lacertids grouped into two subfamilies, the Gallotiinae which includes genera Gallotia and Psammodromus , and the Lacertinae which includes the remaining lacertids. The Lacertinae split into two additional groups. The African group included all African and Arabian lacertids and two Eurasian genera, Eremias and Ophisops; the remaining Eurasian lacertids were included in the Eurasian group. Most of the relationships within the African and Eurasian groups cannot be confidently resolved. A permutation tail probability test suggested that there is very little character covariance in the data to support these unresolved relationships. A recent explosive speciation hypothesis was invoked to explain the lack of structure of the data. The common ancestor of the Eurasian group, as well as the ancestor of the African group, experienced simultaneous, or almost simultaneous, multiple speciation events, which left none or very few characters fixed on the intcrnodes. The phylogenetic reconstruction at the family level will be very difficult, if not impossible. Future phylogenetic research should focus on lower levels.     

Strategic paternity assurance in the sex-role reversed Eurasian dotterel (Charadrius morinellus): behavioral and genetic evidence

Sex role reversal in birds is usually associated with paternalcare of both eggs and chicks. This pattern of care typicallyleads to the potential rate of reproduction of males being lowerthan that of females. Hence, operational sex-ratio theory predictsthat each male should be under strong selection to avoid beingcuckolded. A male should, therefore, guard his female partner(s)from extrapair copulation attempts by other males. Furthermore,the sexual conflict theory of copulation behavior predicts thatin species with extensive paternal care the male should controlthe temporal pattern of copulations—copulations shouldoccur both frequently and throughout the prelaying period. Wetested these predictions in the Eurasian dotterel (Charadriusmorinsllus), in which the male usually provides all the parentalcare. In accordance with the first prediction, male dotterelsdid "guard" their pair-female prior to egg-laying. Contraryto the second prediction, however, copulations were not frequentand did not occur throughout the pre-laying phase-despite frequentsolicitation by the female, copulations only occurred immediatelyprior to egg-laying. Nevertheless, male-initiated courtshipwas both coincident with the pattern of copulations and morelikely than female-initiated courtship to result in copulation.Our results do, therefore, appear to agree with the centralprediction of the sexual conflict theory that males should controlthe pattern of copulations. We suggest that male dotterels willcopulate only after several days of being paired because theyface a duel risk of cuckoldry from both extrapair copulationand rapid mate switching. We tested the realized incidence ofcuckoldry using DNA fingerprinting. Only 4.6% (2/44) of chickswere not the genetic offspring of the caring male correspondingto 9.1% (2/22) broods affected. The rate of extrapair paternityin the dotterel is, therefore, relatively low compared to thatin many other avian species. We conclude that male dotterelssuccessfully protect their paternity of the brood for whichthey care through a combined strategy of mate guarding and strategictiming of copulations.