A database of whole-body action videos for the study of action, emotion, and untrustworthiness

We present a database of high-definition (HD) videos for the study of traits inferred from whole-body actions. Twenty-nine actors (19 female) were filmed performing different actions—walking, picking up a box, putting down a box, jumping, sitting down, and standing and acting—while conveying different traits, including four emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness), untrustworthiness, and neutral, where no specific trait was conveyed. For the actions conveying the four emotions and untrustworthiness, the actions were filmed multiple times, with the actor conveying the traits with different levels of intensity. In total, we made 2,783 action videos (in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional format), each lasting 7 s with a frame rate of 50 fps. All videos were filmed in a green-screen studio in order to isolate the action information from all contextual detail and to provide a flexible stimulus set for future use. In order to validate the traits conveyed by each action, we asked participants to rate each of the actions corresponding to the trait that the actor portrayed in the two-dimensional videos. To provide a useful database of stimuli of multiple actions conveying multiple traits, each video name contains information on the gender of the actor, the action executed, the trait conveyed, and the rating of its perceived intensity. All videos can be downloaded free at the following address: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~neb506/databases.html. We discuss potential uses for the database in the analysis of the perception of whole-body actions

A Simple Iterative Model Accurately Captures Complex Trapline Formation by Bumblebees Across Spatial Scales and Flower Arrangements

PMCID: PMC3591286This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Later is Better: Optimal Timing for Walked Activity Surveys for a European Bat Guild

Bat activity surveys (walked surveys combining transect and point counts) are extremely important for collecting data throughout Europe in conservation and planning contexts. To ensure optimal data, it is vital to ensure synchronicity between survey time and peak bat activity. However, although protocols for two-hour dusk activity surveys are well accepted, recommended start time in relation to sunset is a ‘best guess’ rather than based on empirical evidence. Accepted practice differs widely with recommended start times varying from 30 min pre-sunset (finishing 90 min post-sunset) to 30 min post-sunset (finishing 2.5 h after sunset). We provide the first empirical test of optimal start times for dusk activity surveys by comparing bat activity at the same sites on the same nights. Four sites were surveyed, viz. two high-quality woodland sites and two low-quality agricultural sites. At each site, surveyors walked the same route and stopped at the same pre-defined listening points for three repeat surveys per night: 1) starting 30 min pre-sunset; 2) starting at sunset; and 3) starting 30 min post-sunset. In total, 240 hours' of data were collected. Four species, all widespread and common throughout Europe, were recorded: common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus, soprano pipistrelle P. pygmaeus, Natterer's Myotis natterai and noctule Nyctalus noctule. Recorded bat activity was highest on sunset and post-sunset surveys both generally (overall bat activity) and for all specific species encountered. Findings were generally consistent for both low- and high-quality habitats. The same species were generally represented in both point and transect data but point data yielded higher estimates of overall activity in low-quality habitat and higher bat species richness in both high- and low-quality habitat relative to transect data. We recommend that: 1) two-hour dusk bat activity surveys start at/after sunset not before sunset and 2) both transect and point data are collected and analysed

Wider Access to Genotypic Space Facilitates Loss of Cooperation in a Bacterial Mutator

Understanding the ecological, evolutionary and genetic factors that affect the expression of cooperative behaviours is a topic of wide biological significance. On a practical level, this field of research is useful because many pathogenic microbes rely on the cooperative production of public goods (such as nutrient scavenging molecules, toxins and biofilm matrix components) in order to exploit their hosts. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation is particularly relevant when considering long-term, chronic infections where there is significant potential for intra-host evolution. The impact of responses to non-social selection pressures on social evolution is arguably an under-examined area. In this paper, we consider how the evolution of a non-social trait – hypermutability – affects the cooperative production of iron-scavenging siderophores by the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We confirm an earlier prediction that hypermutability accelerates the breakdown of cooperation due to increased sampling of genotypic space, allowing mutator lineages to generate non-cooperative genotypes with the ability to persist at high frequency and dominate populations. This may represent a novel cost of hypermutability

The use of sewage treatment works as foraging sites by insectivorous bats

Sewage treatment works with percolating filter beds are known to provide profitable foraging areas for insectivorous birds due to their association with high macroinvertebrate densities. Fly larvae developing on filter beds at sewage treatment works may similarly provide a valuable resource for foraging bats. Over the last two decades, however, there has been a decline in filter beds towards a system of “activated sludge”. Insects and bat activity were surveyed at 30 sites in Scotland employing these two different types of sewage treatment in order to assess the possible implications of these changes for foraging bats. Bat activity (number of passes) recorded from broad-band bat detectors was quantified at three points within each site. The biomass of aerial insects, sampled over the same period as the detector surveys, was measured using a suction trap. The biomass of insects and activity of Pipistrellus spp. was significantly higher at filter beds than at activated sludge sites. In addition, whilst foraging activity of Pipistrellus spp. at filter beds was comparable to that of adjacent “good” foraging habitat, foraging at activated sludge sites was considerably lower. This study indicates the high potential value of an anthropogenic process to foraging bats, particularly in a landscape where their insect prey has undergone a marked decline, and suggests that the current preference for activated sludge systems is likely to reduce the value of treatment works as foraging sites for bats

European Bat Lyssavirus in Scottish Bats

Daubenton bats may roost infrequently in human dwellings, so risk for human contact is low

Sympatric woodland Myotis bats form tight-knit social groups with exclusive roost home ranges

Background: The structuring of wild animal populations can influence population dynamics, disease spread, and information transfer. Social network analysis potentially offers insights into these processes but is rarely, if ever, used to investigate more than one species in a community. We therefore compared the social, temporal and spatial networks of sympatric Myotis bats (M. nattereri (Natterer's bats) and M. daubentonii (Daubenton's bats)), and asked: (1) are there long-lasting social associations within species? (2) do the ranges occupied by roosting social groups overlap within or between species? (3) are M. daubentonii bachelor colonies excluded from roosting in areas used by maternity groups? Results: Using data on 490 ringed M. nattereri and 978 M. daubentonii from 379 colonies, we found that both species formed stable social groups encompassing multiple colonies. M. nattereri formed 11 mixed-sex social groups with few (4.3%) inter-group associations. Approximately half of all M. nattereri were associated with the same individuals when recaptured, with many associations being long-term (>100 days). In contrast, M. daubentonii were sexually segregated; only a quarter of pairs were associated at recapture after a few days, and inter-sex associations were not long-lasting. Social groups of M. nattereri and female M. daubentonii had small roost home ranges (mean 0.2 km2 in each case). Intra-specific overlap was low, but inter-specific overlap was high, suggesting territoriality within but not between species. M. daubentonii bachelor colonies did not appear to be excluded from roosting areas used by females. Conclusions: Our data suggest marked species- and sex-specific patterns of disease and information transmission are likely between bats of the same genus despite sharing a common habitat. The clear partitioning of the woodland amongst social groups, and their apparent reliance on small patches of habitat for roosting, means that localised woodland management may be more important to bat conservation than previously recognised

Mink Farms Predict Aleutian Disease Exposure in Wild American Mink

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases can often be of conservation importance for wildlife. Spillover, when infectious disease is transmitted from a reservoir population to sympatric wildlife, is a particular threat. American mink (Neovison vison) populations across Canada appear to be declining, but factors thus far explored have not fully explained this population trend. Recent research has shown, however, that domestic mink are escaping from mink farms and hybridizing with wild mink. Domestic mink may also be spreading Aleutian disease (AD), a highly pathogenic parvovirus prevalent in mink farms, to wild mink populations. AD could reduce fitness in wild mink by reducing both the productivity of adult females and survivorship of juveniles and adults. METHODS: To assess the seroprevalence and geographic distribution of AD infection in free-ranging mink in relation to the presence of mink farms, we conducted both a large-scale serological survey, across the province of Ontario, and a smaller-scale survey, at the interface between a mink farm and wild mink. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Antibodies to AD were detected in 29% of mink (60 of 208 mink sampled); however, seroprevalence was significantly higher in areas closer to mink farms than in areas farther from farms, at both large and small spatial scales. Our results indicate that mink farms act as sources of AD transmission to the wild. As such, it is likely that wild mink across North America may be experiencing increased exposure to AD, via disease transmission from mink farms, which may be affecting wild mink demographics across their range. In light of declining mink populations, high AD seroprevalence within some mink farms, and the large number of mink farms situated across North America, improved biosecurity measures on farms are warranted to prevent continued disease transmission at the interface between mink farms and wild mink populations

Torpor on Demand: Heterothermy in the Non-Lemur Primate Galago moholi

Hibernation and daily torpor are energy- and water-saving adaptations employed to survive unfavourable periods mostly in temperate and arctic environments, but also in tropical and arid climates. Heterothermy has been found in a number of mammalian orders, but within the primates so far it seems to be restricted to one family of Malagasy lemurs. As currently there is no evidence of heterothermy of a primate outside of Madagascar, the aim of our study was to investigate whether small primates from mainland Africa are indeed always homeothermic despite pronounced seasonal changes in weather and food availability., which inhabits a highly seasonal habitat with a hot wet-season and a cold dry-season with lower food abundance, was investigated to determine whether it is capable of heterothermy. We measured skin temperature of free-ranging individuals throughout the cool dry season using temperature-sensitive collars as well as metabolic rate in captured individuals. Torpor was employed by 15% of 20 animals. Only one of these animals displayed heterothermy in response to natural availability of food and water, whereas the other animals became torpid without access to food and water. are physiologically capable of employing torpor. However they do not use it as a routine behaviour, but only under adverse conditions. This reluctance is presumably a result of conflicting selective pressures for energy savings versus other ecological and evolutionary forces, such as reproduction or territory defence. Our results support the view that heterothermy in primates evolved before the division of African and Malagasy Strepsirhini, with the possible implication that more primate species than previously thought might still have the potential to call upon this possibility, if the situation necessitates it