A hypothetico-deductive approach to assessing the social function of chemical signalling in a non-territorial solitary carnivore

The function of chemical signalling in non-territorial solitary carnivores is still relatively unclear. Studies on territorial solitary and social carnivores have highlighted odour capability and utility, however the social function of chemical signalling in wild carnivore populations operating dominance hierarchy social systems has received little attention. We monitored scent marking and investigatory behaviour of wild brown bears Ursus arctos, to test multiple hypotheses relating to the social function of chemical signalling. Camera traps were stationed facing bear ‘marking trees’ to document behaviour by different age sex classes in different seasons. We found evidence to support the hypothesis that adult males utilise chemical signalling to communicate dominance to other males throughout the non-denning period. Adult females did not appear to utilise marking trees to advertise oestrous state during the breeding season. The function of marking by subadult bears is somewhat unclear, but may be related to the behaviour of adult males. Subadults investigated trees more often than they scent marked during the breeding season, which could be a result of an increased risk from adult males. Females with young showed an increase in marking and investigation of trees outside of the breeding season. We propose the hypothesis that females engage their dependent young with marking trees from a young age, at a relatively ‘safe’ time of year. Memory, experience, and learning at a young age, may all contribute towards odour capabilities in adult bears

Reintroduction strategy for the Andean Condor Conservation Program, Argentina

The Andean condor Vultur gryphus is the largest bird in the world with flight capacity. For thousands of years the Andean condor has been honoured as a sacred link between space and humans by indigenous communities. In the last 100 years, the range of this emblematic species contracted rapidly and the Andean condor was pronounced extinct at both ends of its endemic South American range, in Venezuela and on the Atlantic coast of Patagonia. The Andean condor appears in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and is listed as in ‘Danger of Extinction’ by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, this species is classified as Near Threatened. In 1991, the Andean Condor Conservation Program (PCCA: Programa Conservación Cóndor Andino) was founded in Argentina. The PCCA started by performing genetic analyses and documenting the condor population in zoological institutions in a Latin American regional studbook. The PCCA then developed artificial-incubation programmes and techniques for hand rearing birds without human contact, and worked to rescue and rehabilitate wild condors. The PCCA has succeeded in rearing 57 chicks and rescuing 197 wild condors. This paper describes the strategy used by the PCCA to reintroduce 160 condors throughout South America.Fil: Astore, Vanesa. Fundación Bioandina Argentina; Argentina. Jardín Zoológico de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Estrada Pacheco, Rayén. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Argentina. Fundación Bioandina Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Jacome, Norberto Luis. Fundación Bioandina Argentina; Argentin

Tracing the origin of the panda's thumb

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. We investigate the relative development of the carnivoran radial sesamoids to untangle the evolution of this iconic structure. In the pandas (both giant and red), this `false thumb¿ is known to perform a grasping role during bamboo feeding in both the red and giant pandas. An original locomotor role has been inferred for ailurids, but this remains to be ascertained for ursids. A large sample of radial sesamoids of Indarctos arctoides from the Miocene of Batallones-3 (Spain) indicates that this early ailuropodine bear displayed a relatively hypertrophied radial sesamoid, with a configuration more similar to that of the red panda and other carnivorans than to that of giant pandas. This false thumb is the first evidence of this feature in the Ursidae, which can be linked to a more herbivorous diet. Moreover, in the two extant pandas, the false thumb should not be interpreted as an anatomical convergence, but as an exaptive convergence regarding its use during the bamboo feeding, which changes the evolutionary view of this singular structure.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2011-25754, CGL2011-28681 and RYC–2009–04533 to D.M.A.). A.V. is a researcher in formation in the CSIC program JAE-PRE_CP2011 (CSIC program‘ Junta para la ampliación de estudios’), co-funded by the European Social Fund and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 226506 (SYNTHESYS; SE-TAF-3637),Peer Reviewe