Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The raccoon's adaptability and heightened success in cities is often attributed to their cleverness. Yet, little is known about the cognition of raccoons, especially in wild populations. Stanton et al. (jeb243726) employed advanced techniques to study the behavior and cognitive abilities of raccoons in the field using automated operant-conditioning devices. They found that although most raccoons excelled at tests of learning, they varied in their behavior and performance, probably as a result of multiple factors including age and personality. Photo credit: Melissa Groo.
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INSIDE JEB
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Behavioural temperature regulation is a low priority in a coral reef fish (Plectropomus leopardus): insights from a novel behavioural thermoregulation system
Summary: A novel system suitable for examining behavioural thermoregulation in large aquatic ectotherms maintains static thermal refuges in an otherwise sub-optimal thermal environment.
Juvenile Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) use a time-compensated sun compass for orientation
Highlighted Article: An orientation experiment shows that juvenile herring use a time-compensated sun compass; the impaired, but still present, orientation in overcast conditions suggests alternative mechanisms are also used.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Evaluating the ‘cost of generating force’ hypothesis across frequency in human running and hopping
Summary: Active muscle volume decreases with step frequency during human running and hopping. Accounting for these changes improves the ‘cost of generating force’ hypothesis application across step frequencies in bouncing gaits.
Behavior and neural activation patterns of non-redundant visual and acoustic signaling during courtship in an African cichlid fish
Summary: Male cichlids produce non-redundant visual and acoustic courtship displays and females show differential neural activation patterns in response to different received sensory information from males.
Locomotor resilience through load-dependent modulation of muscle co-contraction
Summary: Stick insects compensate for different types of transient changes in load distribution by graded adjustment of muscle co-contraction rather than by a sudden switch in coordinated motor activity.
Worker-like behavioral and physiological phenotype in queens with removed wings in a ponerine ant
Editor's choice: Ant queens with experimentally removed or naturally shed wings express worker-like behaviors and physiology in a group setting that includes the display of dominance behavior during hierarchy establishment, which is normally a worker-only behavior in this species.
Freshwater adaptation in prickly sculpin (Pisces: Cottidae): intraspecific comparisons reveal evidence for water pH and Na+ concentration driving diversity in gill H+-ATPase and ion regulation
Summary: Variation in habitat Na+ and pH may be an important driver of differences in gill H+-ATPase activity and ion regulation across populations of prickly sculpin, Cottus asper, from marine and freshwater environments.
High duty cycle moth sounds jam bat echolocation: bats counter with compensatory changes in buzz duration
Highlighted Article: Video recordings and acoustic stimulation show that bat foraging success decreases in the presence of high duty cycle moth signals; bats alter their echolocation to compensate.
Individual variation in heat substitution: is activity in the cold energetically cheaper for some individuals than others?
Highlighted Article: White-footed mice show consistent individual differences in heat substitution, an important yet overlooked mechanism that allows endotherms that are active in the cold to reduce the total energetic cost of activity and thermoregulation.
Plasticity of salmonfly (Pteronarcys californica) respiratory phenotypes in response to changes in temperature and oxygen
Summary:Pteronarcys californica nymphs exhibit plasticity in a coordinated set of respiratory phenotypes (critical thermal maxima, gill morphology and metabolic rates) during acclimation to different levels of oxygen and temperature.
Biomechanical energetics of terrestrial locomotion in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus)
Summary: Quadrupedal galloping in California sea lions shows intermediate energetic efficiency compared with more aquatic and fully terrestrial species during terrestrial locomotion.
Environmental, individual and social traits of free-ranging raccoons influence performance in cognitive testing
Highlighted Article: Raccoons are a highly adaptive species anecdotally known for their intelligence. Advanced technologies used to test wild raccoon cognition found new insights into their behavior and cognitive abilities.
The Integrative Biology of the Heart

We are pleased to welcome submissions to be considered for our upcoming special issue: The Integrative Biology of the Heart, guest edited by William Joyce and Holly Shiels. This issue will consider the biology of the heart at all levels of organisation, across animal groups and scientific fields.
JEB@100: an interview with Monitoring Editor John Terblanche

John Terblanche reveals how he narrowly avoided becoming a sports scientist and why he thinks phenotypic plasticity is the big question currently facing comparative physiologists. Find out more about the series on our Interviews page.
Vision 2024: Building Bridges in Visual Ecology

Early-career researchers can apply for funded places at our Vision 2024: Building Bridges in Visual Ecology. The event is organised by Eleanor Caves, Sonke Johnsen and Lorain Schweikert and being held at Buxted park 10-13 June 2023. Deadline 1 December 2023.
Reconciling the variability in the biological response of marine invertebrates to climate change

Drawing on work in reef-building corals, Zoe Dellaert and Hollie Putnam provide historical context to some of the long-standing challenges in global change biology that constrain our capacity for eco-evolutionary forecasting, as well as considering unresolved questions and future research approaches. Read the full Centenary Review Article here.
Sipping takes no effort for hovering hawkmoths

Hovering takes the most effort so how much energy does sipping require when hawkmoths hover? Next to nothing, apparently. Alexandre Palaoro & colleagues have discovered that the insects’ proboscises are incredibly wettable, drawing nectar along the length with no effort, giving them a free drink on the wing.