Open-ended song learning in a hummingbird.

abstract：:Does a dysfunction in the mirror neuron system (MNS) underlie the social symptoms defining autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Research suggests that the MNS matches observed actions to motor plans for similar actions, and that these motor plans include directions for predictive eye movements when observing goal-directed ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Falck-Ytter T

更新日期：2010-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Many species exhibit prosocial behaviour, in which one individual's actions benefit another individual, often without an immediate benefit to itself. The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important hormonal mechanism influencing prosociality in mammals, but it is unclear whether the avian homologue mesotocin plays a similar...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Duque JF,Leichner W,Ahmann H,Stevens JR

更新日期：2018-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The movement and dietary history of individuals can be studied using stable isotope records in archival keratinous tissues. Here, we present a chronology of temporally fine-scale data on the trophic niche of otariid seals by measuring the isotopic signature of serially sampled whiskers. Whiskers of male Antarctic fur ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Cherel Y,Kernaléguen L,Richard P,Guinet C

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Somatic deterioration in ageing animals may arise from allocation of resources to reproduction at the expense of repair and maintenance. Thus, accumulated reproductive effort is likely to progressively limit the expression of sexual ornaments at older ages. We analysed the effect of age and reproductive effort on the ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Velando A,Drummond H,Torres R

更新日期：2010-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Coral-associated invertebrates are the most significant contributors to the diversity of reef ecosystems, but no studies have examined how larvae manage to settle and grow in their coral hosts. Video recordings were used to document this process in the coral barnacle Darwiniella angularis associated with the coral Cyp...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Liu JC,Høeg JT,Chan BK

更新日期：2016-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Nutritional ecological theory predicts that predators should adjust prey capture and consumption rates depending on the prey's nutritional composition. This would affect the predator's functional response, at least at high prey densities, i.e. near predator satiation. Using a simple fruitfly-wolf spider laboratory sys...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bressendorff BB,Toft S

更新日期：2011-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Due to the costs of antipredator behaviour, prey have the ability to finely modulate their response according to the risk they have experienced, and adjust it over different scales of ecological time. Information on which to base their responses can be obtained from direct experience, but also indirectly from nearby c...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Lucon-Xiccato T,Chivers DP,Mitchell MD,Ferrari MC

更新日期：2016-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Predictions of future species' ranges under climate change are needed for conservation planning, for which species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used. However, global climate model-based (GCM) output grids can bias the area identified as suitable when these are used as SDM predictor variables, because GCM outp...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seo C,Thorne JH,Hannah L,Thuiller W

更新日期：2009-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Vegetated habitats contain a variety of fine-scale features that can ameliorate temperate extremes. These buffered microhabitats may be used by species to evade extreme weather and novel climates in the future. Yet, the magnitude and extent of this buffering on a global scale remains unknown. Across all tropical conti...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Scheffers BR,Evans TA,Williams SE,Edwards DP

更新日期：2014-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Two non-coding DNA classes, introns and intergenic regions, of Drosophila melanogaster exhibit contrasting evolutionary patterns. GC content is significantly higher in intergenic regions and affects their degree of nucleotide variability. Divergence is positively correlated with recombination rate in intergenic region...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ometto L,De Lorenzo D,Stephan W

更新日期：2006-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Species response to environmental change may vary from adaptation to the new conditions, to dispersal towards territories with better ecological settings (known as habitat tracking), and to extinction. A phylogenetically explicit analysis of habitat tracking in Caenozoic large mammals shows that species moving over lo...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Raia P,Passaro F,Fulgione D,Carotenuto F

更新日期：2012-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:It is well established that grooming underpins sociality in group-living primates, and a number of studies have documented the stress-reducing effects of being groomed. In this study, we quantified grooming behaviour and physiological stress (assessed by faecal glucocorticoid analysis) in free-ranging Barbary macaques...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Shutt K,MacLarnon A,Heistermann M,Semple S

更新日期：2007-06-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Most songbirds learn their songs from adult tutors, who can be their father or other male conspecifics. However, the variables that control song learning in a natural social context are largely unknown. We investigated whether the time of hatching of male domesticated canaries has an impact on their song development a...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Leitner S,Teichel J,Ter Maat A,Voigt C

更新日期：2015-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:In a warming climate, higher temperatures are likely to modulate positively or negatively the effect of other environmental factors on biota, although such interactions are poorly documented. Here, we explore under controlled conditions the combined effects of two common stressors in freshwater ecosystems, higher temp...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mari L,Garaud L,Evanno G,Lasne E

更新日期：2016-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is associated with social dominance in human and non-human primates, which may reflect the effects of testosterone on facial morphology and behaviour. Given that testosterone facilitates status-seeking motivation, the association between fWHR and behaviour should be contingent on th...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Martin JS,Staes N,Weiss A,Stevens JMG,Jaeggi AV

更新日期：2019-08-30 00:00:00

abstract：:The Kommandorskiye Islands population of Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was extirpated ca 1768 CE. Until now, Steller's sea cow was thought to be restricted in historic times to Bering and Copper Islands, Russia, with other records in the last millennium from the western Aleutian Islands. However, Steller's se...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Crerar LD,Crerar AP,Domning DP,Parsons EC

更新日期：2014-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Correct decision making is crucial for animals to maximize foraging success and minimize predation risk. Group-living animals can make such decisions by using their own personal information or by pooling information with other group members (i.e. social information). Here, we investigate how individuals might best bal...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： King AJ,Cowlishaw G

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Cognitive bias has become a popular way to access non-human animal mood, though inconsistent results have been found. In humans, mood and personality interact to determine cognitive bias, but to date, this has not been investigated in non-human animals. Here, we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowl...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Asher L,Friel M,Griffin K,Collins LM

更新日期：2016-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:In cooperative animal societies, dominant females typically show higher breeding success than subordinates, and are commonly believed to control the extent of reproductive sharing. However, studies of social insect societies reveal that subordinates too can interfere with the breeding attempts of others, with importan...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Young AJ,Clutton-Brock T

更新日期：2006-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Ejaculate attributes are important factors driving the probability of fertilizing eggs. When females mate with several males, competition between sperm to fertilize eggs should accentuate selection on ejaculate attributes. We tested this hypothesis in the North African houbara bustard ( Chlamydotis undulata undulata) ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Vuarin P,Hingrat Y,Lesobre L,Jalme MS,Lacroix F,Sorci G

更新日期：2019-03-29 00:00:00

abstract：:Parasites commonly manipulate host behaviour, and among the most dramatic examples are diverse fungi that cause insects to die attached to leaves. This death-grip behaviour functions to place insects in an ideal location for spore dispersal from a dead body following host death. Fossil leaves record many aspects of in...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hughes DP,Wappler T,Labandeira CC

更新日期：2011-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Effects of the social environment on age at sexual maturation are assumed to require direct interactions, such as suppression of subordinates through aggression from dominants. Using green swordtails (Xiphophorus helleri), we demonstrate for the first time that females and males adjust their age at maturation in respo...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Walling CA,Royle NJ,Metcalfe NB,Lindström J

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The comb jelly Mertensia ovum, widely distributed in Arctic regions, has recently been discovered in the northern Baltic Sea. We show that M. ovum also exists in the central Baltic but that the population consists solely of small-sized larvae (less than 1.6 mm). Despite the absence of adults, eggs were abundant. Exper...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Jaspers C,Haraldsson M,Bolte S,Reusch TB,Thygesen UH,Kiørboe T

更新日期：2012-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:This study reports the first experimental exploration of possible contagious yawning in monkeys. Twenty-two stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) were presented with video clips of either yawns or control mouth movements by conspecifics. At a group level, monkeys yawned significantly more often during and just after t...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Paukner A,Anderson JR

更新日期：2006-03-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Sexual conflict occurs when selection to maximize fitness in one sex does so at the expense of the other sex. In the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, repeated mating provides assurance of paternity at a direct cost to female reproductive productivity. To reduce this cost, females could choose males with low re...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hopwood PE,Mazué GP,Carter MJ,Head ML,Moore AJ,Royle NJ

更新日期：2016-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Environmental reservoirs of zooxanthellae are essential for coral larvae settlement; understanding where they occur and how they are maintained is important for coral reef ecology. This study investigated the dispersal of Symbiodinium spp. by the stoplight parrotfish Sparisoma viride, which had high mean densities of ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Castro-Sanguino C,Sánchez JA

更新日期：2012-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Fire is the most frequent disturbance in the Ericaceous Belt (ca 3000-4300 m.a.s.l.), one of the most important plant communities of tropical African mountains. Through resprouting after fire, Erica establishes a positive fire feedback under certain burning regimes. However, present-day human activity in the Bale Moun...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gil-Romera G,Adolf C,Benito BM,Bittner L,Johansson MU,Grady DA,Lamb HF,Lemma B,Fekadu M,Glaser B,Mekonnen B,Sevilla-Callejo M,Zech M,Zech W,Miehe G

更新日期：2019-07-26 00:00:00

abstract：:Ecological resilience has become a focal concept in ecosystem management. Palaeoecological records (i.e. the sub-fossil remains preserved in sediments) are useful archives to address ecological resilience since they can be used to reconstruct long-term temporal variations in ecosystem properties. The special feature p...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seddon AWR

更新日期：2021-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The study of social behaviour within groups has relied on fixed definitions of an 'interaction'. Criteria used in these definitions often involve a subjectively defined cut-off value for proximity, orientation and time (e.g. courtship, aggression and social interaction networks) and the same numerical values for these...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Schneider J,Levine JD

更新日期：2014-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Inbreeding causes increases in homozygosity and is commonly associated with reductions in fertility and embryogenesis. Although the mechanisms underlying such effects are unknown, recent work has suggested that inbred males may suffer impaired ejaculate quality, thus providing a functional explanation for reductions i...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Fitzpatrick JL,Evans JP

更新日期：2009-06-23 00:00:00