Current Zoology最新文献

{"title":"Quantifying costs and benefits of alternative overwintering strategies in a southeastern population of timber rattlesnakes (<i>Crotalus horridus</i>).","authors":"John R Powers, Amber A Stubbs, Alfred J Mead, Amy E Wagler, Dominic L DeSantis","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf042","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Temperate nonavian reptiles are under selective pressure to minimize the costs of low winter temperatures. For high-latitude or high-elevation snake populations, this has often favored communal overwintering behavior, whereas lower latitude populations typically overwinter solitarily. Timber rattlesnakes (<i>Crotalus horridus</i>) are distributed across a wide latitudinal gradient in North America and represent ideal models for exploring how variable winter selective regimes might favor different overwintering strategies. We studied a unique population of <i>C. horridus</i> from central Georgia, United States of America, that maintains both communal and solitary overwintering behavior. Through time-lapse videography, temperature datalogging, radio telemetry, and accelerometry, we quantified the potential costs and benefits of communal and solitary overwintering while assessing variation in individual plasticity in strategy. Migration distance (mean ± standard error [<i>SE</i>]) among communal rattlesnakes (561.41 ± 86.74 m) was significantly greater than solitary rattlesnakes (334.71 ± 50.48 m). Communal individuals might trade-off this cost for increased winter basking opportunities, as they exhibited greater activity levels and a reduced dependency on ambient temperature for activity relative to solitary snakes. However, there were no differences in basking frequency, body temperatures, and environmental temperatures between communal and solitary sites. We documented individual plasticity in overwintering strategy, with several males and females shifting between communal and solitary sites across years. Our results only partially explain the simultaneous maintenance of both overwintering strategies in this population. We suspect that multiple lurking variables related to individual condition are at play, such as disease (Ophidiomycosis) status and inclusive fitness benefits to communal snakes.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 2","pages":"153-165"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13202316/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seasonal life stage changes contribute to gut bacterial community profiles of high-altitude birds.","authors":"Na Zhao, Gang Song, Meiting Liu, Tingbei Bo, Fumin Lei","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf040","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the impact of life stages in avian gut microbiota diversity and community assembly in high-altitude habitats is an innovative viewpoint for comprehending adaptation strategies of birds to extreme environments. This study investigates the difference of gut microbiota composition, co-occurrence network and community assembly between breeding and overwintering life stages in high-altitude avian species, Bar-headed geese (<i>Anser indicus</i>) and Ruddy shelducks (<i>Tadorna ferruginea</i>). Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we found striking seasonal convergence in core phyla: Proteobacteria (~35%) and Firmicutes (~21%) dominated overwintering communities in both species, contrasting with divergent breeding-stage profiles (e.g., <i>A. indicus</i>: 64.87% Proteobacteria <i>vs. T. ferruginea</i>: 66.29% Cyanobacteria). Alpha diversity surged in overwintering stage, with overwintering populations harboring 24.5% unique amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) versus 2.5% in breeding groups. Beta diversity differed significantly between stages, driven by shifts in Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Co-occurrence networks exhibited higher complexity (nodes/edges) and competition (15.9-16.4% negative edges) in winter. The phylogenetic bin-based null modeling results suggested that stochastic processes dominated assembly (90-99% contribution), yet dispersal limitation intensified in winter, reflecting environmental constraints. Functional profiling highlighted winter-enriched energy metabolism (3.62-6.40% relative abundance, RA), xenobiotic degradation (1.16-2.76% RA), and immune pathways (0.12-0.22% RA), aligning with cold adaptation. Species differences diminished in winter (e.g., Actinobacteria: 14.17% vs. 23.24%), while altitude-controlled linear model analysis confirmed seasonal effects as primary drivers. These results demonstrate that seasonal life stages reconfigure gut microbiomes toward energy efficiency, stress resilience, and stochastic assembly, overriding species-specific traits in high-altitude birds. These findings highlight that life stages may play an important role in shaping gut microbiota patterns in high-altitude habitats, with tailoring microbial profiles to meet specific physiological and ecological needs for crucial seasonal environmental adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 2","pages":"248-262"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13202320/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elevational patterns of sexual size dimorphism in a Mediterranean lizard.","authors":"Mar Comas, Senda Reguera, Francisco J Zamora-Camacho, Gregorio Moreno-Rueda","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sexual size dimorphism (SSD), typically the result of different optimal body sizes for males and females, shows an enormous inter- and intraspecific variation. Lizards have become a model in the study of SSD, as they show either monomorphism, male- or female-biased SSD. Variations in the strength of intrasexual selection (assumed to favor larger body size in males) and fecundity selection (assumed to favor larger body size in females) are usually considered the main reasons for variation in SSD. Here, we take advantage of a 2,200 m elevational gradient for studying the elevational variation in SSD in the Mediterranean lizard <i>Psammodromus algirus</i>. Previous studies on this species suggest that the strength of sexual selection decreases with ascending elevation, while the strength of fecundity selection on females increases with ascending altitude. Accordingly, we predicted that SSD bias to males should increase at low elevations, while female-biased SSD should increase at high altitudes. We found that both males and females were larger with ascending elevation, but the magnitude of variation in body size with altitude differed between sexes. Females were slightly larger than males (1.1%), although SSD bias toward females increased with elevation. SSD was male-biased only in one locality, at the lowest elevation. Nevertheless, elevational differences in SSD resulted from a concomitant sexual variation in age structure, as females were older than males in every locality except at the lowest elevation, where males were older than females. Since this species shows post-maturational growth, sexual differences in age structure could explain the elevational pattern in SSD.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 1","pages":"138-146"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13045821/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147624706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"No change over three decades in the realized spatial niche of a salamander population living in a subterranean habitat.","authors":"Sebastiano Salvidio, Andrea Costa, Fabrizio Oneto, Giacomo Rosa, Mauro Valerio Pastorino","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaf016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"71 5","pages":"678-681"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12547083/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145379788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seasonal dietary shifts in an invasive snail <i>Pomacea canaliculata</i> revealed by 18S rRNA metabarcoding.","authors":"Xinni He, Zijin Qian, Ying Huang, Congcong Wang, Xuexia Li, Hong Li, Lian Chen","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf038","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf038","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Pomacea canaliculata,</i> an invasive species, has caused severe damage to ecosystems due to its omnivorous diet and strong invasive capabilities. However, information about how its diet changes across seasons is limited. In the present study, 18S rRNA metabarcoding was used to analyze the seasonal variation in diet of <i>P. canaliculata</i> from 3 habitats (pond, river, and ditch). The results indicated that the dietary diversity of <i>P. canaliculata</i> in the ditch significantly decreased in summer, while dietary richness diminished in winter, likely reflecting seasonal differences in temperature and the availability of edible resources. <i>P. canaliculata</i> exhibited a preference for Streptophyta during summer, Chlorophyta in river and ditch during autumn, and Arthropoda during winter. Additionally, <i>P. canaliculata</i> in the pond and ditch consumed more molluscs, which may negatively impact the density and diversity of native molluscs. Female and male <i>P. canaliculata</i> exhibited differences in dietary diversity in summer and autumn, which may be related to meeting reproductive demands and increasing cold hardiness, respectively. The flexible diet of <i>P. canaliculata</i> across different seasons and habitats enables its survival in a broader range of environments. This study reveals the feeding strategies of <i>P. canaliculata</i> in different seasons, helping us understand the adaptation mechanisms of invasive <i>P. canaliculata</i> to environmental alteration.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 3","pages":"321-332"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13290396/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148334064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deer fear bear? A test of nonconsumptive effects on sika deer by an omnivorous Asiatic black bear.","authors":"Hiroshi Tsunoda, Hiroto Enari, Haruka S Enari","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf039","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf039","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) on prey animals by predators have received considerable interest in wildlife ecology and conservation. However, NCEs by large carnivore species with omnivorous diet still remain unclear. The Asiatic black bear (<i>Ursus thibetanus</i>) is widely found in eastern parts of the Eurasian Continent, including Honshu and Shikoku Islands of Japan. At present, this bear species is the only large carnivore in the region as a typical omnivore that occasionally predates sika deer (<i>Cervus nippon</i>). If sika deer recognize predation threats from black bears, then the NCEs by bears will provoke antipredator behavioral responses by the deer. In testing this hypothesis, we evaluated the spatial and temporal overlaps between bears and deer as well as compared the vigilance level and spatiotemporal avoidance observed in sika deer between bear-active and -inactive years, using camera trapping in an agroforest landscape in Fukushima, eastern Japan. Consequently, we found little changes in deer behaviors between bear-active and -inactive years, indicating that sika deer neither exhibited spatial partitioning and spatiotemporal avoidances from black bears nor increased their vigilance even in bear-active year. We concluded that our study showed no significant NCE of omnivorous Asiatic black bears on sika deer.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 2","pages":"237-247"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13202315/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cariprazine modulates affective and social behaviors through ventral striatal islands of Calleja neurons.","authors":"Zhangwei Song, Wenqiang Wang, Haiping Wang, Yanbiao Zhong, Guanqing Li, Ruiyi Tan, Yun-Feng Zhang","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf034","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf034","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cariprazine, a dopamine D2/D3 receptor partial agonist with high affinity for D3 receptors, is effective in treating bipolar disorder and depression; however, the precise neural mechanisms underlying its actions remain incompletely understood. This study investigates how cariprazine modulates affective and social behaviors through D3 neurons in the olfactory tubercle (OT). Local infusion of cariprazine specifically into the OT, but not the nucleus accumbens (NAc) or hippocampus, induced anxiety-like behaviors, impaired struggling behaviors in depression-related tests, and increased huddling behavior, a measure of thermoregulation and social interaction. These behavioral changes were associated with decreased D3 neuronal activity in the OT, as evidenced by whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. Optogenetic activation of OT D3 neurons normalized cariprazine-induced anxiety-like behaviors and blunted the increase in struggling and huddling behavior. Additionally, cariprazine administration elevated body temperature, likely due to enhanced huddling behavior. These findings underscore the critical role of OT D3 neurons in mediating cariprazine's effects on affective and social behaviors, providing new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying its therapeutic actions and the involvement of ventral striatal D3 neurons in neuropsychiatric disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 2","pages":"198-210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13202335/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating habitat and population dynamics to uncover dispersal-driven persistence in a reintroduced Crested Ibis metapopulation.","authors":"Yilamujiang Tuohetahong, Chunpo Tian, Ruyue Lu, Sheng Ding, Kesheng Niu, Xia Li, Lu Yan, Wenbin Duan, Xinping Ye, Xiaoping Yu","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf037","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Metapopulation theory explains species persistence through dispersal-linked populations. This study links theory and conservation to predict reintroduction success in human-altered landscapes. Using the Crested Ibis (<i>Nipponia nippon</i>) as a model system, we combined spatially explicit habitat modeling with stochastic population viability analysis to assess how dispersal mediates persistence across wild and reintroduced populations in a metapopulation context. Our integrated approach identified 15,216 km^² of potential habitat and a 95.64 km least-cost pathway linking wild population and reintroduced population. Projections over 50-year simulations revealed that dispersal significantly enhanced metapopulation viability, enabling population size to reach 17,846 individuals (92.37 % of carrying capacity). Conversely, population isolation would lead to a 15% decline in reintroduced population. Our simulations demonstrated that environmental stressors (including catastrophic events and predation pressure) reduced overall metapopulation size by 61.8% and 22.7% respectively when dispersal was absent. However, active dispersal effectively mitigated these impacts, maintaining long-term quasi-extinction probabilities at 0.17. The analysis revealed a clear source-sink dynamic, with the wild population serving as a stable source population, while the reintroduced population remained dependent on metapopulation connectivity for persistence.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 2","pages":"223-236"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13202330/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The \"2.0\" prototype of 3D-printed oak gall nests: closely observing the ant colonies inside.","authors":"Daniele Giannetti, Enrico Schifani, Antonio Verolino, Marco Saccomano, Donato A Grasso","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf036","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"71 6","pages":"811-814"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12742385/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145851241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fine-scale habitat heterogeneity affects embryonic development but not female reproduction in a lizard from desert steppes.","authors":"Xiaoqi Pang, Xingzhi Han, Song Liu, Baojun Sun, Weiguo Du, Linna Duan, Ruidong Zhang, Yan Liu, Qiong Zhang, Peng Liu","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoaf029","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cz/zoaf029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reduced vegetation cover, elevated surface temperature, and decreased soil moisture are the main characteristics of desertification. Environmental variables in ectotherms' natural nests may drive their adaptive life-history evolution. To investigate the effect of variations in nest temperature, moisture, and vegetation cover on the reproductive phenotype and embryonic development of <i>Phrynocephalus przewalskii</i>, we selected two populations that inhabit environments with different vegetation cover. We also conducted a reciprocal egg swap experiment to analyze the effects of nest environment and population origin on embryonic and offspring development. Although fine-scale environmental heterogeneity was detected between low- and high-vegetation-cover populations, no significant differences in female reproductive characteristics, including clutch size, average egg mass, clutch mass, and relative clutch mass, were observed between populations. However, we found that egg incubation period and hatching success were influenced by the nesting environment. Specifically, individuals that grew in low-vegetation-cover sites had shorter incubation periods and higher hatching success rates than those in high-vegetation-cover sites. The hatchling growth rate was significantly higher in the high-vegetation-cover population, yet the overwintering survival rate was higher in the low-vegetation-cover population. These results indicated that fine-scale habitat heterogeneity does not significantly affect the reproductive output of female lizards, offspring growth, or survival rates. However, it does affect embryonic development, including the incubation period and hatching success. Our study highlights the effects of fine-scale habitat heterogeneity on female reproduction and embryonic and offspring development and suggests that desert toad-headed agamas may be resilient to variations in environmental conditions associated with desertification.</p>","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":"72 1","pages":"106-115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13045823/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147624184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}