Issues

Summary: Measures of oxidative stress in rhesus macaques reveal more DNA oxidative damage in males than females, in mothers raising daughters rather than sons and show enduring costs of aggression for males.

Summary: White-nose syndrome is unlikely to cause death in hibernating bats by interfering with passive gas exchange across wing surfaces.

Summary: As adult locusts age, their hearing becomes less sensitive especially for lower frequencies. Furthermore, females exhibit this decrease with a larger effect, perhaps due to their gravid status.

Highlighted Article: Montane weta species have decreased water loss parameters when compared with lowland weta species and cuticular water loss in the melanic morph of one species was greatly reduced, supporting the melanisation–desiccation resistance hypothesis.

Summary: Ambient calcium is declining in thousands of soft-water lake habitats. Daphnia females provision their offspring with calcium and through that incur a potential allocation trade-off.

Summary: A concentration-dependent switch between the positive and negative effects of nitrite is revealed by studying its metabolism at basal and elevated concentrations under different oxygen regimes in the brown trout.

Summary: Fluid absorption in the isolated midgut of adult female yellow fever mosquitoes is shown to spontaneously proceed at rates expected from in vivo urine excretion, and Na⁺/K⁺ pumps, V-type H⁺ pumps and carbonic anhydrase are shown to be important for the active component of fluid absorption.

Highlighted Article: A custom-built pneumotachometer provides novel data on respiratory physiology and lung mechanics in bottlenose dolphins.

Summary: Internal carbonic anhydrase activity, quantified in three Caribbean coral species using a new approach based on ¹⁸O exchange, is sufficient to support proposed roles in photosynthesis and calcification in reef-building corals.

Summary: Zebra finches do not learn to use polarization cues displayed on modified LCD-screens despite extensive behavioural training in a two-alternative forced choice experiment.

Summary: A broad survey of mantis shrimp reveals variability in ocular UV-filters, suggesting a complex evolutionary history for these pigments, and even greater visual complexity than previously appreciated in this group.

Highlighted Article: Hibernating bears have suppressed bone remodeling, contributing to energy conservation, eucalcemia and the preservation of bone mass and strength, promoting survival during prolonged periods of extreme environmental conditions.

Summary: A novel non-invasive technique allows measurement of muscle force production and ATP use simultaneously. Muscle shortening is most energy costly, and lengthening least costly, a test of the Fenn effect.

Summary: Oxygen does not appear to universally limit thermal tolerance, but instead, oxygen-limited thermal tolerance is context dependent, being related to a species’ capacity to regulate oxygen consumption.

Summary: Isotopes recovered from the exhaled CO₂ of pythons fed on protein- and lipid-labeled mice indicate how and when the snakes oxidize the different types of metabolic fuels in their diet. This novel approach could be used on virtually any air-breathing animal.

Highlighted Article: Chameleons have a unique ability to monocularly track two targets at the same time, one with each eye, with coordination between the eyes at the gross and the fine level.

Summary: Dietary carotenoid availability affects great tit yellow plumage coloration not only during but also outside moult, and flight activity decreases UV brightness after moult.

Summary: A simple model based on patch quality and travel time shows that for Manx shearwaters combining chick feeding and self-maintenance, bimodal foraging trip durations optimise feeding rates.

Summary: Elevated renal ammonia excretion, in acidotic goldfish, is largely a product of elevated ammonia secretion, probably mediated by Rhesus glycoproteins. Ammonia secretion is largely independent of sodium counter-transport.

Summary: Morphological characteristics of worker honeybee (Apis mellifera) wings demonstrate the function of resilin on camber changes during flapping flight.