Using research on self-regulation to understand and tackle the challenges that owners face helping their (overweight) dogs lose weight

The present research sought to (i) understand the challenges that dog owners encounter in helping their pet lose weight, and (ii) develop and test an intervention designed to help dog owners to deal with these challenges. A series of focus groups (N = 79 dog owners, veterinarians, and industry experts) informed the content of an intervention designed to prompt owners to form if-then plans (or “implementation intentions”) identifying challenges (e.g., inclement weather) and specifying how to respond (e.g., play with the dog indoors). This intervention was evaluated in a single-blind, randomized controlled trial (N = 106 owners of overweight dogs) against a control condition who were simply asked to set relevant goals. Changes in the owners’ beliefs, behaviour, and the dog’s weight and body condition were measured around 2 months later. The primary finding was that dogs in the intervention condition lost the same percentage of their body weight on average each week (M = -0.065, SD = 0.65) as dogs in the control condition (M = −0.24, SD = 0.55), F(1, 36) = 0.70, p =  .41, eta2 = .019, although it should be noted that follow-up data was only available for around half of the sample. Analysis of the factors that were associated with changes in weight among the dogs in the trial suggested that owners’ lack of knowledge about appropriate feeding and exercise was associated with poorer outcomes, suggesting that future interventions may need to provide information and help owners to set appropriate goals before encouraging them to make if-then plans to support the implementation of those goals

“Who’s been a good dog?”: owner perceptions and motivations for treat giving

Complex relationships commonly exist between owners and their companion animals, particularly around feeding behaviour with an owner’s affection or love for their animal most pronounced through the provision of food. It is notable that the pet food market is experiencing strong year-on-year growth in sales of dog and cat treats. Recognising the impact of treat giving in pet nutrition, the objective of the study was to investigate owner attitudes and motivations towards feeding treats (shop bought and other) to their dogs. A researcher-mediated questionnaire consisting of both quantitative and qualitative questions was used to interview dog owners (n = 280) at two locations: an out-of-town retail park and a country park in the East Midlands. Owners almost unanimously viewed the word ‘treat’ within a nutritional context, as opposed to a new toy or other pleasure. The majority (96%) of owners interviewed reported feeding treats to their dog, with 69% feeding shop-bought treats on a daily basis. A wide range of treats was reportedly given by owners and the majority of owners interviewed fed multiple treat types. No association was found between owner age and frequency of shop-bought treats fed (P = 0.659) nor between owner age and frequency of food given to the dog from the owner’s plate (P = 0.083). A wide range of foods which would not be considered balanced for the animal’s nutritional requirements was viewed as a treat by some dog owners. A range of positive and negative views around the feeding of treats were expressed by dog owners, with some citing beneficial effects while others were clearly aware of the association between treat feeding and potential weight gain/obesity. Owner views included themes around positive reinforcement and responsibility but also reflected relational aspects of the human-animal bond. The results of the study show that treat giving is commonplace in feeding regimes and that treats are embedded in the feeding behaviour of many dog owners. However, the different views expressed around the motivations for, and feeding of, dog treats, reinforce the need to better understand owner psychology linked to this area, and the role this may play in the growing pet obesity epidemic

Phylogeography of Aegean green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup): continental hybrid swarm vs. insular diversification with discovery of a new island endemic

BACKGROUND: Debated aspects in speciation research concern the amount of gene flow between incipient species under secondary contact and the modes by which post-zygotic isolation accumulates. Secondary contact zones of allopatric lineages, involving varying levels of divergence, provide natural settings for comparative studies, for which the Aegean (Eastern Mediterranean) geography offers unique scenarios. In Palearctic green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup or Bufotes), Plio-Pleistocene (~ 2.6 Mya) diverged species show a sharp transition without contemporary gene flow, while younger lineages, diverged in the Lower-Pleistocene (~ 1.9 Mya), admix over tens of kilometers. Here, we conducted a fine-scale multilocus phylogeographic analysis of continental and insular green toads from the Aegean, where a third pair of taxa, involving Mid-Pleistocene diverged (~ 1.5 Mya) mitochondrial lineages, earlier tentatively named viridis and variabilis, (co-)occurs. RESULTS: We discovered a new lineage, endemic to Naxos (Central Cyclades), while coastal islands and Crete feature weak genetic differentiation from the continent. In continental Greece, both lineages, viridis and variabilis, form a hybrid swarm, involving massive mitochondrial and nuclear admixture over hundreds of kilometers, without obvious selection against hybrids. CONCLUSIONS: The genetic signatures of insular Aegean toads appear governed by bathymetry and Quaternary sea level changes, resulting in long-term isolation (Central Cyclades: Naxos) and recent land-bridges (coastal islands). Conversely, Crete has been isolated since the end of the Messinian salinity crisis (5.3 My) and Cretan populations thus likely result from human-mediated colonization, at least since Antiquity, from Peloponnese and Anatolia. Comparisons of green toad hybrid zones support the idea that post-zygotic hybrid incompatibilities accumulate gradually over the genome. In this radiation, only one million years of divergence separate a scenario of complete reproductive isolation, from a secondary contact resulting in near panmixia

From Africa to Europe and back: refugia and range shifts cause high genetic differentiation in the Marbled White butterfly Melanargia galathea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The glacial-interglacial oscillations caused severe range modifications of biota. Thermophilic species became extinct in the North and survived in southern retreats, e.g. the Mediterranean Basin. These repeated extinction and (re)colonisation events led to long-term isolation and intermixing of populations and thus resulted in strong genetic imprints in many European species therefore being composed of several genetic lineages. To better understand these cycles of repeated expansion and retraction, we selected the Marbled White butterfly <it>Melanargia galathea</it>. Fourty-one populations scattered over Europe and the Maghreb and one population of the sibling taxon <it>M. lachesis </it>were analysed using allozyme electrophoresis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We obtained seven distinct lineages applying neighbour joining and STRUCTURE analyses: (i) Morocco, (ii) Tunisia, (iii) Sicily, (iv) Italy and southern France, (v) eastern Balkans extending to Central Europe, (vi) western Balkans with western Carpathian Basin as well as (vii) south-western Alps. The hierarchy of these splits is well matching the chronology of glacial and interglacial cycles since the Günz ice age starting with an initial split between the <it>galathea </it>group in North Africa and the <it>lachesis </it>group in Iberia. These genetic structures were compared with past distribution patterns during the last glacial stage calculated with distribution models.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Both methods suggest climatically suitable areas in the Maghreb and the southern European peninsulas with distinct refugia during the last glacial period and underpin strong range expansions to the North during the Postglacial. However, the allozyme patterns reveal biogeographical structures not detected by distribution modelling as two distinct refugia in the Maghreb, two or more distinct refugia at the Balkans and a close link between the eastern Maghreb and Sicily. Furthermore, the genetically highly diverse western Maghreb might have acted as source or speciation centre of this taxon, while the eastern, genetically impoverished Maghreb population might result from a relatively recent recolonisation from Europe via Sicily.</p

Genomic Evidence for Cryptic Speciation in Tree Frogs From the Apennine Peninsula, With Description of Hyla perrini sp. nov

Despite increasing appreciation of the speciation continuum, delimiting and describing new species is a major yet necessary challenge of modern phylogeography to help optimize conservation efforts. In amphibians, the lack of phenotypic differences between closely-related taxa, their complex, sometimes unresolved phylogenetic relationships, and their potential to hybridize all act to blur taxonomic boundaries. Here we implement a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluate the nature of two deeply-diverged mitochondrial lineages previously documented in Italian tree frogs (Hyla intermedia s. l.), distributed north and south of the Northern Apennine Mountains. Based on evidence from mitochondrial phylogenetics, nuclear phylogenomics, hybrid zone population genomics, niche modeling analyses, and biometric assessments, we propose that these lineages be considered distinct, cryptic species. Both mitochondrial and nuclear data affirm that they belong to two monophyletic clades of Pliocene divergence (~3.5 My), only admixing over a relatively narrow contact zone restricted to the southeast of the Po Plain (50–100 km). These characteristics are comparable to similarly-studied parapatric amphibians bearing a specific status. Inferred from their current geographic distribution, the two Italian tree frogs feature distinct ecological niches (&lt;15% of niche overlap), raising questions regarding potential adaptive components contributing to their incipient speciation. However, we found no diagnostic morphological and bioacoustic differences between them. This system illustrates the speciation continuum of Western-Palearctic tree frogs and identifies additional cryptic lineages of similar divergence to be treated as separate species (H. cf. meridionalis). We recommend combined approaches using genomic data as applied here for the future taxonomic assessment of cryptic diversity in alloparapatric radiations of terrestrial vertebrates, especially in controversial taxa. Finally, we formally described the northern Italian tree frogs as a new species, Hyla perrini sp. nov

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants