Infant Nest and Stash Sites of Variegated Lemurs (\u3ci\u3eVarecia rubra\u3c/i\u3e): The Extended Phenotype

Very few primate species give birth to litters and build nests in which to care for them. Those that do are small‐bodied, nocturnal, and solitary. Variegated lemurs are exceptional in that they bear litters in arboreal nests, yet are relatively large‐bodied, day‐active, and gregarious. Furthermore, they raise their young cooperatively and practice absentee parenting; non‐clinging young are transported orally and periodically stashed in arboreal spots that are supportive, sheltered, and usually concealed. Following birth, infant nest and stash trees were mapped, measured, and taxonomically identified in a population of red variegated lemurs in Masoala National Park. About 40 trees were used per litter for nesting and stashing young in adjacent, non‐overlapping core areas within the community. These were the largest trees in the forest, even larger than those used for feeding. Furthermore, most occur in valleys and are laced with lianas, creating sites that buffer young from predation, accidental falls, and to some degree, thermal stress. In combination, the number of nest and stash trees used per litter, their characteristics, and their geo‐spatial arrangement indicate that such sites are both select and limited in the landscape, exposing the dependence of red variegated lemurs on intact forest canopies for raising non‐clinging young within the context of an absentee parenting system. Nest and stash sites are in effect Varecia\u27s extended phenotype. Logging of large trees in Madagascar\u27s eastern rain forests is considered a major factor resulting in local extinctions of variegated lemurs because they rely heavily upon large, mature trees for fruit. However, this study suggests that removal of large trees may more directly precipitate local extinctions by impeding their ability to reproduce. Long‐term survival of red variegated lemurs will depend upon efforts to end harmful timber extraction in its remaining stronghold, the Masoala Peninsula

Modeling and testing the equation of state for (Early) dark energy

A general equation of state is considered for analyzing the possible behaviors for (Early) dark energy that alleviates the Hubble parameter tension problem. By departing from the possible evolution for the (Early) dark energy density and the corresponding dynamical equations, the equation of state is obtained, which allow us to analyze qualitatively the cosmological evolution and the dominance of each term in the equation of state along the cosmic expansion, which show some interesting consequences as the occurrence of (past) future singularities. Then, by considering two general models, their free parameters are fit with different sources of data, showing the goodness of the fits in comparison to more standard models. Results might be considered as a promising starting point to get a better understanding of the cosmological evolution as a whole.This work is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) No. 18K03615 (S.N.). The work by SDO was supported by Ministerio de Economía (Spain), project PID2019-104397GB-I00. DS-CG is funded by the University of Valladolid, Spain. This work was partially supported by the Kazan Federal University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (Russia)