Effectiveness of acoustic “prey”: Environmental enrichment for a captive African leopard (Panthera pardus)

In the course of developing active naturalistic exercise opportunities for zoo felines at moderate cost, a computer-controlled acoustic prey device was established. Changes in the behavior of a 16-year-old melanistic leopard (Sabrina) were studied as she learned to actively pursue bird sounds and obtained food treats as a function of the activity. By the twenty-ninth day she began to capture all 24 bird parts supplied on the feeder belt and continues to actively use the opportunity on a daily basis. General activity and apparent well-being have been enhanced, while stereotypic behaviors have decreased. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The calling behaviour and spatial distribution of male bushcrickets (Sciarasaga quadrata) and their relationship to parasitism by acoustically orienting tachinid flies

Abstract.

• 1 This paper examines the calling behaviour and spatial distribution of male Sciarasaga quadrata Rentz (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), a bushcricket that is subject to attack by an acoustically orienting parasitoid fly, Homotrixa sp. (Diptera: Tachinidae: Ormiini).
• 2 Checks on calling activity in populations of S.quadrata confirmed that calling began 2–3 h before sunset and continued well beyond midnight. Calling activity was not restricted by temperature with males calling over air temperatures of 10.6–24.2°C.
• 3 Nearest-neighbour analyses, within the sampled areas, revealed that the spacing between calling males was random and the minimum distance between calling males was 3.74 m. Mean distances between calling males varied between 9.2 m and 23.0 m and significantly changed as male density, which peaked at 0.36 calling males per 100 m², declined over the calling season.
• 4 Males showed no preference for any one plant species, with their distribution across bushes not significantly different to the frequency of the plants within the habitat. The perch height of calling males was on average half way up the height of a bush and was significantly influenced by the height of the bush. Perch height was not significantly influenced by proximity to calling males or by whether or not males were parasitized.
• 5 Site fidelity of males was low with only 0–10% of bushes occupied by calling males over successive nights. Males, though flightless, moved on average 6.70 m and up to 26.56 m per night.
• 6 No evidence was found for the use of aggregation in S.quadrata as a primary defence against ormiine attack. Commencing calling prior to sunset, frequent movement, and a lack of association with any particular plant species, although possibly relevant to ormiine attack, could also be explained in terms of other activities such as male-male interactions and mating behaviour.

     

Male-male behavior and sexual dimorphism of the ear of a zaprochiline tettigoniid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

The external anatomy of the auditory system of an undescribed zaprochiline tettigoniid (Genus nov. 22 Sp. 1, Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra) shows sexual dimorphism: the male appears to have no auditory spiracle equivalent to that seen in the female. Nocturnally active males aggregate around female required nectar sources in a random manner with regard to each other. There is limited evidence, either from song interaction or from their behavior in the field, that males respond to each other by acoustic cues. Laboratory trials, testing male phonotaxis, showed that movement was random with respect to a target group of caged calling males. In the field, the only signs of agonistic behavior consisted of an increased calling rate when males were close together. Taken together, these data suggest that the male may not preceive sound in the same way as the female.     

Phonotaxis in flying crickets: Neural correlates

Tethered, flying crickets perform stereotyped steering movements when stimulated with sound. Electrophysiological recordings show that identifiable motoneurones respond to acoustic stimulation in a manner which reflects the phonotactic behaviour of the intact cricket. Both steering behaviour and its neural correlates reflect the fine temporal structure of the acoustic stimulus. Decapitation of the cricket eliminates steering movements in response to sound.     

Pond Acoustic Sampling Scheme: A draft protocol for rapid acoustic data collection in small waterbodies

1. Freshwater conservation is vital to the maintenance of global biodiversity. Ponds are a critical, yet often under‐recognized, part of this, contributing to overall ecosystem functioning and diversity. They provide habitats for a range of aquatic, terrestrial, and amphibious life, often including rare and declining species.
2. Effective, rapid, and accessible survey methods are needed to enable evidence‐based conservation action, but freshwater taxa are often viewed as “difficult”—and few specialist surveyors are available. Datasets on ponds are therefore limited in their spatiotemporal coverage.
3. With the advent of new recording technologies, acoustic survey methods are becoming increasingly available to researchers, citizen scientists, and conservation practitioners. They can be an effective and noninvasive approach for gathering data on target species, assemblages, and environmental variables. However, freshwater applications are lagging behind those in terrestrial and marine spheres, and as an emergent method, research studies have employed a multitude of different sampling protocols.
4. We propose the Pond Acoustic Sampling Scheme (PASS), a simple protocol to allow a standardized minimal sample to be collected rapidly from small waterbodies, alongside environmental and methodological metadata. This sampling scheme can be incorporated into a variety of survey designs and is intended to allow access to a wide range of participants, without requiring complicated or prohibitively expensive equipment.
5. Adoption of this sampling protocol would enable consistent sound recordings to be gathered by researchers and conservation organizations, and allow the development of landscape‐scale surveys, data sharing, and collaboration within an expanding freshwater ecoacoustic community—rather than individual approaches that produce incompatible datasets. The compilation of standardized data would improve the prospects for effective research into the soundscapes of small waterbodies and aid freshwater conservation efforts.

     

TIPE1‐mediated autophagy suppression promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell proliferation via the AMPK/mTOR signalling pathway

Recent studies have shown that tumour necrosis factor‐α–induced protein 8 like‐1(TIPE1) plays distinct roles in different cancers. TIPE1 inhibits tumour proliferation and metastasis in a variety of tumours but acts as an oncogene in cervical cancer. The role of TIPE1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unknown. Interestingly, TIPE1 expression was remarkably increased in NPC tissue samples compared to adjacent normal nasopharyngeal epithelial tissue samples in our study. TIPE1 expression was positively correlated with that of the proliferation marker Ki67 and negatively correlated with patient lifespan. In vitro, TIPE1 inhibited autophagy and induced cell proliferation in TIPE1‐overexpressing CNE‐1 and CNE‐2Z cells. In addition, knocking down TIPE1 expression promoted autophagy and decreased proliferation, whereas overexpressing TIPE1 increased the levels of pmTOR, pS6 and P62 and decreased the level of pAMPK and the LC3B. Furthermore, the decrease in autophagy was remarkably rescued in TIPE1‐overexpressing CNE‐1 and CNE‐2Z cells treated with the AMPK activator AICAR. In addition, TIPE1 promoted tumour growth in BALB/c nude mice. Taken together, results indicate that TIPE1 promotes NPC progression by inhibiting autophagy and inducing cell proliferation via the AMPK/mTOR signalling pathway. Thus, TIPE1 could potentially be used as a valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for NPC.