RD Wildlife Management

08/09/2024

Saccopteryx bilineata , "known for [their] extensive vocal repertoire ... join humans as the only clear examples of mammals who learn to make complex vocalizations through babbling.” In humans, "contingent social feedback, both vocal and non-vocal (e.g. touch, smiling, moving closer to the infant), can positively influence babbling." Similarly, non-vocal behaviors by S. bilineata mothers (e.g., "hovering in front of or landing next to her pup") can significantly "shape the amount of time pups spend vocally practicing," thereby influencing individual pups' learning trajectories.

Learn more @https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.20.594963v1.full.pdf and https://www.sciencenews.org/article/baby-greater-sac-winged-bats-babble-learn-mating-songs #:~:text=At%20least%2065%20million%20years,learning%20how%20to%20speak%3A%20babbling

© Hallie E. Cowan Barrera
Saccopteryx bilineata, greater sac-winged bat

08/06/2024

It’s nature’s way of being cool.

08/01/2024

Maintaining homeothermy (i.e., constant core body temperature) "is essential for survival," and as such, mammals have "two broad types of thermoregulating mechanisms: physiological (or reflex) and behavioral" to ensure homeostasis. Thermoregulatory behaviors "entail goal-oriented actions learned through reinforcement;" e.g., "searching out cold or hot habitats that allow the [animal] to alter its rate of heat loss or gain."
Ursus arctos and U. americanus , for example, mitigate heat stress by "regularly immers[ing] themselves in water, and ... this behaviour steadily increase[s] in frequency as summer progresse[s]." The "availability of pools of cool water" for thermoregulation has important implications for females especially, as "endogenous heat production increases during lactation."

Learn more @ https://phys.org/news/2021-01-lactating-grizzly-cooling-stress.html and https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13727

07/29/2024

Many species naturally accumulate electrostatic charges and for some "flower-visiting animals," these charges can contribute to zoophilous pollination. A 2024 study demonstrates lepidopterans , "when within millimetres of a flower, ... generate an electric field ... sufficient to elicit contactless pollen transfer ... from plant to pollinator" and this "pollen can then be deposited on subsequently visited flowers, either by direct contact, or similarly through electrostatic attraction." Incredibly, "butterflies and moths accumulate so much static electricity when flying, that pollen is literally pulled through the air towards them," suggesting "they don't even need to touch flowers in order to pollinate them."

Learn more @ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/butterflies-use-static-electricity-to-attract-pollen and https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2024.0156

07/24/2024

“Specialization in nectarivory ... is restricted to two subfamilies of neotropical phyllostomids ,” Glossophaginae and Lonchophyllinae. Within subfamily Glossophaginae, nectarivorous Leptonycteris "are the most important pollinators [of] Agave," a genus contributing “over 70 traditional uses … classified under 22 categories;” e.g., alcoholic beverages including and mezcal.

Learn more @ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50059-6 ://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/157376ttps://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10532, https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/157376

© Tom Vezo

07/22/2024

Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) comprises approximately 1,600 species of or . Sphingids possess morphologies ("small, slender wings of high [aspect ratio] that can be moved at high frequencies") facilitating extreme maneuverability and "hovering nectaring behaviour," and "are one of only three groups of specialist nectar-feeders ... [that] have evolved the ability for hovering flight, ... the other two being glossophagine bats and hummingbirds."

Learn more @ https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/135/4/471/2624241 and

07/19/2024

Limnothlypis swainsonii (Swainson's warblers) are diminutive, secretive passerines having "the unfortunate distinction of being the rarest breeding songbird on the mainland of southeastern North America." Contemporary populations preferentially choose landscape characteristics indicative of disturbance; specifically, "regenerating forests left in the wake of destructive winds." Incredibly, "more than 75% of the global population ... breeds in ... 'Dixie Alley,'" "a zone of exceptionally high tornado frequency" extending from east Texas to Alabama. These "dead-leaf foraging specialists ... colonize large disturbance gaps ... when regenerating vegetation attains the necessary structural complexity and understory density," and abandon these territories "when successional canopy closure shades out the understory." A multitude of avian species rely on "'disturbance [gaps] generated by tornadoes and hurricanes,' ... 'but no species appears to be more reliant on catastrophic storm damage than Swainson's warbler.'"

Learn more @ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2024/07/11/tiny-tornado-chasers-why-rare-songbirds-rely-on-destructive-winds/ #:~:text=His%20findings%2C%20published%20in%20March,the%20wake%20of%20destructive%20winds. and https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.11099

© Alicia Ambers
macaulaylibrary.org

07/16/2024

Eptesicus fuscus

07/11/2024

Camponotus floridanus (Florida carpenter ants), of family Formicidae, "are the first known animal to triage wounds and adapt treatments [accordingly]." Specifically, C. floridanus only performs amputations on nestmates with femur injuries, as "the time required for amputations [of the tibia] (> 40 min) would be too long to be effective in preventing pathogen spread." For tibia injuries, "nestmates [instead] resort to extended wound care sessions, ... groom[ing] the wound obsessively with their mouthparts." C. floridanus' capacity to differentiate wounds and "conduct purposeful amputations" accordingly, significantly increases the survival of injured conspecifics - "ants with femur injuries that were not treated only survived about 40 percent of the time, versus success rates of between 90 and 95 percent after amputation."

Learn more @ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/carpenter-ant-amputation-wound-treatment-first and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.06.021

Like battlefield medics, Florida carpenter ants are the first known animal to triage wounds and adapt treatments.

07/08/2024

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis , of monotypic genus Cryptobranchus (from Ancient Greek kryptos meaning "hidden" and branchion meaning "gill"), represents the "largest aquatic salamander species in North America." Endemic to eastern and central United States, these "Vulnerable" (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) amphibians are "a bellweather for [riverine] water quality and habitat quality," and "a symbol [of] the unique biodiversity of the Southern Appalachians."

Learn more @ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/eastern-hellbender

07/05/2024

Iridescence, from Greek ἶρις îris, meaning "rainbow" and Latin suffix -escent, meaning "resemblance," describes "a form of structural colouration" that "[a]rtists and engineers are endeavouring to re-create ... [I]t is in Nature, [however] far from paintbrushes and workbenches, that the most vivid colours come to light." Variously described as "rainbow-like, nacreous, opalescent, shimmering, metallic or sparkling," iridescence "is broadly distributed in the animal kingdom," from bivalvia molluscs to . In mammals, however, "iridescence is very unusual;" only the "blind golden moles" (Mammalia: Chrysochloridae) of sub-Saharan Africa possess iridescence; "their thick fur ... [is] characterized by sheens ranging from purple to green."

Learn more @ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3367760/, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsif.2008.0395.focus, https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/34/5/751/7197468?login=false #408377312 and https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/iridescence-how-the-greatest-special-effect-in-nature-270930

07/02/2024

Subfamily Scalopinae (Eulipotyphla: Talpidae) encompasses 10 species constituting two tribes - Condylurini (condylurine moles, 1 species) and Scalopini (scalopine moles, 9 species). Tribe Condylurini's only representative, Condylura cristata , "is a highly specialized insectivore ... found throughout eastern North America." C. cristata's "eponymous nose" - i.e., the "densely innervated 22-appendage star-like rostrum" - enables individuals to "sample the tactile environment 10-15 times per second while foraging." As such, C. cristata can "locate, identify and ingest prey items within 120 ms, crowning them as one of fastest eaters of the animal kingdom."

Learn more @ https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245127
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/226/3/jeb245127/286944/Thermoconforming-rays-of-the-star-nosed-mole

© Joel Sartore