Repeated downsweep vocalizations of the Araguaian river dolphin, Inia araguaiaensis

Funding was provided by the Swarosvki Foundation and World Wide Fund for Nature Brazil.Araguaian botos (Inia araguaiaensis) are known to produce pulsed as well as tonal sounds. This study documents the first evidence for repetitive sequences of downsweep whistles in botos that appear to be shared between individuals, and the context of their occurrence is investigated. Boat surveys were conducted along the Tocantins River located in the Eastern Amazon over a period of 42 days between 2012 and 2018. Eighty-two groups of Araguaian botos were observed, and 43 h of sound recordings were acquired. 632 downsweep whistles were recorded in 10 encounters. Four of these encounters contained downsweep bouts (21 bouts with ≥2 whistles) with short inter-call intervals (bout criterion 50 s) and up to 161 whistles. A statistical relationship was not found between downsweep occurrence and any of the contextual parameters that were investigated, including socializing, travelling, feeding, group size, presence of calves, and socio-sexual displays. The rarity of these signals makes them unlikely candidates for individual or group identification. It is more likely that they are associated with very specific contexts, such as nursing or mating, both of which were rarely observed in this study. Further studies are required to investigate context specificity and elucidate the function of these signals.PostprintPeer reviewe

Effectiveness of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for detection of Amazon dolphins

Quantifying abundance of wildlife is key for sound management and conservation. Much effort has been invested into freshwater dolphin surveys in the Amazon basin. However, river dimensions and complex logistics limit replication of such studies across the region. We evaluated the effectiveness of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for surveying two Amazon dolphin species, tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis Gervais & Deville, 1853) and pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis de Blainville, 1835), in tropical rivers. Compared to estimates derived from visual surveys, the use of UAVs could provide a less expensive and more accurate estimate of Amazon River dolphins. The aerial survey provided higher accuracy in counting individuals during the detection of groups

Speech resonance after septoplasty in a patient with bilateral cleft lip and palate

Purpose: The nasal airway is an important regulator of the pressures generated in speech when velopharyngeal function is altered. Patients with cleft palate often have nasal obstruction and increased nasal resistance, which can compensate a possible velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) and mask hypernasality. Clinical report: A 16 yearold patient, male, underwent nasometric and rhinomanometric assessment before and one year after septoplasty and bilateral inferior turbinectomy surgery. Nasometry was used to evaluate the nasalance scores (acoustic correlate of nasality) during the reading of a set of 5 sentences containing predominantly nasal sounds (nasal text) and a set containing exclusively oral sounds (oral text). Rhinomanometry permits the determination of the minimum nasal cross-sectional area (CSA) by the simultaneous measurement of the differential transnasal pressure and nasal air flow during resting breathing. Before surgery, the nasalance values were 40% and 26% in nasal and oral text, respectively, indicating hyponasality. Rhinomanometry showed that the values obtained for nasal area were 0.571cm2 and 0.094cm2 in the right and left sides respectively indicating a reduced nasal CSA of the left side. After surgery, there was an increase in nasalance to 55% in the nasal text and to 40% in the oral text, indicating hypernasality. Rhinomanometry indicated that nasal area were 0.237cm2 and 0.287cm2, in the right and left sides respectively. Conclusion: The surgery resulted in an increase of the nasal area and improving nasal patency. However, hypernasality was demonstrated. These results confirm what has already been reported by Warren et al (1992) in stating that in the presence of VPD "a good nose for breathing is often a bad nose for speech"

Challenges and priorities for river cetacean conservation

River cetaceans are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts due to their constrained ranges in freshwater systems of China, South Asia, and South America. We undertook an exhaustive review of 280 peer-reviewed papers and grey literature reports (1998-2020) to examine the current status of knowledge regarding these cetaceans and their conservation. We aimed to better understand the scale of threats they face, and to identify and propose priority future efforts to better conserve these species. We found that the species have been studied with varying frequency and that most of the research on threats has focused on habitat degradation and fragmentation (43%, mainly driven by dams and extractive activities such as sand mining and deforestation), and fishery interactions (39%, in the form of bycatch and direct take). These threats occur across all species, but more information is needed, primarily on quantifying the population impacts as a basis for designing mitigation measures. Other threats identified include pollution, vessel collisions, traditional use, and poorly managed tourism. Emerging methods such as environmental DNA and unmanned aerial vehicles are described for studying these species. Promising conservation interventions include cetacean-specific protected areas, natural ex situ protection, community-led conservation, and education programmes. However, transnational political will is required for a step change towards broad-scale protection in freshwater environments. In addition, we propose increasing capacity building, developing management plans, working closely with fishing communities, enhancing public awareness, expanding regional collaborations, and diversifying funding

Hemotropic Mycoplasma spp. in Aquatic Mammals, Amazon Basin, Brazil

4 Pág. Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA)Hemotropic Mycoplasma spp. (hemoplasmas) are uncultivable bacteria that infect mammals, including humans. We detected a potentially novel hemoplasma species in blood samples from wild river dolphins in the Amazon River Basin, Brazil. Further investigation could determine pathogenicity and zoonotic potential of the detected hemoplasma.This study was funded by Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (scholarship no. 141868/2019-8 and fellowship no. 304999-18), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (scholarship no. 2016/20956-0 and grant no. 2018/25069-7), and by the Juan de la Cierva incorporación and formación fellowship nos. IJC2020-046019-I and FJC2020-046311-1, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the Small Grant in Aid of Research from the Society for Marine Mammalogy.Peer reviewe

Amazonia Camtrap: a data set of mammal, bird, and reptile species recorded with camera traps in the Amazon forest.

Abstract : The Amazon forest has the highest biodiversity on Earth. However, information on Amazonian vertebrate diversity is still deficient and scatteredacross the published, peer-reviewed, and gray literature and in unpublishedraw data. Camera traps are an effective non-invasive method of surveying vertebrates, applicable to different scales of time and space. In this study, we organized and standardized camera trap records from different Amazonregions to compile the most extensive data set of inventories of mammal,bird, and reptile species ever assembled for the area. The complete data setcomprises 154,123 records of 317 species (185 birds, 119 mammals, and13 reptiles) gathered from surveys from the Amazonian portion of eightcountries (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru,Suriname, and Venezuela). The most frequently recorded species per taxawere: mammals:Cuniculus paca (11,907 records); birds: Pauxi tuberosa (3713 records); and reptiles:Tupinambis teguixin(716 records). The infor-mation detailed in this data paper opens up opportunities for new ecological studies at different spatial and temporal scales, allowing for a moreaccurate evaluation of the effects of habitat loss, fragmentation, climatechange, and other human-mediated defaunation processes in one of themost important and threatened tropical environments in the world. The data set is not copyright restricted; please cite this data paper when usingits data in publications and we also request that researchers and educator sinform us of how they are using these data

Editorial

The contents of Vol. 10, No. 1 are introduced, along with recent news for LAJAM's readership