Does trapping influence decision-making under ambiguity in white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari)?

<p>(A) Schematic drawing of the area used and (B) the experiment timeline in days at LABET. Symbols correspondence: EE- environment enrichment; T-test; M-capture, handling event.</p

Intake and digestion of non-traditional feedstuffs by farmed collared peccary (Mammalia, Tayassuidae)

To assess the ability of the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) to digest dietary fiber, four adult male collared peccaries were randomly assigned to a 4 × 4 Latin square design to determine the effects of feeding non-traditional feed ingredients, taken from palm trees with different levels of dietary fiber, on intake and coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) and mean retention time. Four experimental diets were provided ad libitum: corn and soybean meal-based control diet; corn and palm kernel cake-based diet; corn and peach palm byproduct-based diet; and hay, palm kernel cake, and peach palm byproductbased diet. The CTTAD of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were 0.80±0.09 and 0.61±0.21, respectively. Increasing levels of ADF in diets also linearly decreased the CTTAD of crude protein and gross energy, while increasing non-fiber carbohydrate linearly decreased the CTTAD of ADF. These results confirm the ability of peccaries to digest fiber. However, the intake of a high-moisture and lignified ingredient, as the peach palm byproduct, decreased feed intake of peccaries due to their relatively small forestomach volume, which in turn may decrease their performance when used for prolonged periods. Despite of that, collared peccary gain a significant benefit in digestibility of dietary fiber due to its complex stomach in which fermentation occurs. © 2018 Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia

Chemical Restraining and Electroejaculation Protocols for Semen Collection in White-Lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari)

Background: In order to reverse the White-lipped peccary decline, besides protecting its habitat and controlling hunting, it is necessary a captive breeding program. There are reports, however, on the low fertility of white-lipped peccary, making it difficult its reproduction in captivity, making artificial insemination one of the main tools to prevent the loss of genetic diversity of species kept in captivity. Information on safe methods of anesthesia and the collection of semen should be investigated. Therefore, we aimed to compare the effects of the anesthetic protocols acepromazine/ketamine and xylazine/ketamine, as well as electroejaculation protocols, for semen collection in white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari).Materials, Methods & Results: Twelve adult male white-lipped peccaries were submitted both to the xylazine/ketamine and acepromazine/ketamine anesthetic protocols. The anesthetic induction time and duration, the degree of muscle relaxation, the time for anesthetic recovery and the quality of the animals’ recovery were evaluated. Additionally, the quality of the sedation was evaluated based on the animal’s behavior. We also evaluated the effect of drugs on erectile functions as well as the efficiency of three electroejaculation protocols with increasing or fixed voltages (2 to 4 V; 5 to 12 V; 12 V). The acepromazine/ketamine combination promotes shorter induction time, duration and recovery from anesthesia than the xylazine/ketamine association. There were no differences, however, between the tested anesthetic protocols in relation to heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature. Ejaculate was obtained from only 2 animals when using the xylazine/ketamine protocol and adoption of stimuli between 5 and 12 V, with 10 stimuli at each voltage. In turn, ejaculate was obtained from four animals submitted to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol, three of them with the adoption of stimuli between 5 and 12 V and one with the adoption of fixed 12 V stimuli, with 45 stimuli at this single voltage.Discussion: The animals presented less deep anesthesia and, consequently, worse indicators of well-being during and after the collection procedures when submitted to the xylazine/ketamine protocol compared to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol. When submitted to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol, the animals allowed the observer to approach and handle them, facilitating handling and collection of semen, in addition to promoting better indicators of animal welfare. Also, with this aforementioned protocol, the animals showed better anesthetic return. For both anesthetic protocols, the protocol of increasing stimuli from 5 to 12 V, with 10 stimuli at each voltage, resulted in penile erection and in obtaining ejaculate in a greater number of animals in relation to the other electroejaculation protocols. In turn, the use of the growing protocol 2 V to 4 V did not even cause an erection in any of the 12 animals. From the ejaculates collected from the white-lipped peccary, volumes (0.2 to 1.0 mL) and average sperm concentration (379.1 x 106 sperm/mL) were comparatively higher than those from Pecari tajacu. The white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is considered an aggressive animal, and this characteristic can explain the relatively low success in obtaining ejaculates, as aggressiveness is directly related to stress, which is an antagonist of ejaculation. Thus, we proposed to test chemical restraint with the aid of a blowgun in future studies

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

not available

Com o intuito de estudar o efeito de níveis crescentes de alimentos volumosos nas dietas de caitetus adultos sobre a digestibilidade dos nutrientes, foram testados 4 tratamentos com TA=25,25, TB=30,30, TC=35,00 e TD=40,00% de alimentos volumosos. Foi empregado o delineamento em blocos casualizados, utilizando-se de 24 caitetus formando 6 blocos de animais homogêneos. Os animais foram alojados em baias de alvenaria de tijolos e foi utilizado o método de coleta total de fezes. De modo geral níveis de até 35% de alimentos volumosos na dieta do caitetu não afetaram (P>0,05) a digestibilidade dos nutrientes. Foram inversamente correlacionados (P0.05) the digestibility of nutrients. The digestibility coefficient of organic matter, of dry matter, of gross energy, of hemicellulose and nitrogen-free extract were inversely correlated (P<0.01) to the concentration of the components of the cell-wall present in the experimental rations. When the cell wall lignin content was considered, the collared peccary showed cell wall digestibility similar to domestic ruminant animals. A second experiment was carried out to compare the nutrient digestion capacity of two different animal species. The stomach content of an adult male peccary and the rumen content of a cow were collected and used as inoculum to determine"in vitro"true dry matter digestibility. The substrates were the experimental ration with 40.00% of roughage (TD) and hay of Pennisetun purpureum (Schum). The average digestibility coeficients of dry matter of the diet and hay were, respectively: for cow, 75.86 and 74.43%, and for collared peccary, 66.64 and 58.43

not available

Com o intuito de estudar o efeito de níveis crescentes de alimentos volumosos nas dietas de caitetus adultos sobre a digestibilidade dos nutrientes, foram testados 4 tratamentos com TA=25,25, TB=30,30, TC=35,00 e TD=40,00% de alimentos volumosos. Foi empregado o delineamento em blocos casualizados, utilizando-se de 24 caitetus formando 6 blocos de animais homogêneos. Os animais foram alojados em baias de alvenaria de tijolos e foi utilizado o método de coleta total de fezes. De modo geral níveis de até 35% de alimentos volumosos na dieta do caitetu não afetaram (P>0,05) a digestibilidade dos nutrientes. Foram inversamente correlacionados (P0.05) the digestibility of nutrients. The digestibility coefficient of organic matter, of dry matter, of gross energy, of hemicellulose and nitrogen-free extract were inversely correlated (P<0.01) to the concentration of the components of the cell-wall present in the experimental rations. When the cell wall lignin content was considered, the collared peccary showed cell wall digestibility similar to domestic ruminant animals. A second experiment was carried out to compare the nutrient digestion capacity of two different animal species. The stomach content of an adult male peccary and the rumen content of a cow were collected and used as inoculum to determine"in vitro"true dry matter digestibility. The substrates were the experimental ration with 40.00% of roughage (TD) and hay of Pennisetun purpureum (Schum). The average digestibility coeficients of dry matter of the diet and hay were, respectively: for cow, 75.86 and 74.43%, and for collared peccary, 66.64 and 58.43

Comportamento, manejo e bem-estar de mamíferos neotropicais de interesse zootécnico

  A criação de animais não convencionais para atender a crescente demanda por proteína de origem animal de países em desenvolvimento, apesar de ser controversa, é uma realidade mundial. Desta forma, é preciso estabelecer sistemas de produção que promovam o bem-estar desses animais. Neste artigo de revisão, foram descritos alguns dos desafios que animais neotropicais enfrentam ao serem mantidos em cativeiro, tais como os efeitos da ausência de motivação e da previsibilidade no ambiente onde são criados, como horários fixos de alimentação, que comprometem seu bem-estar. Para contrapor, foram mostradas algumas técnicas para detectar problemas e para promover o bem-estar de mamíferos neotropicais com potencial zootécnico. Também foi reforçada a importância do uso de conhecimentos sobre o comportamento social para alcançar o sucesso na sua produção respeitando suas características e necessidades comportamentais. Por outro lado, foi mostrado que a plasticidade comportamental, exibida por algumas espécies, pode ser aproveitada para estabelecer práticas de manejo que viabilizem a atividade, sem comprometer seu bem-estar. Adicionalmente, foram apontadas as lacunas em nosso conhecimento, especialmente os relativos aos comportamentos típicos e/ou anormais. Conclui-se que as técnicas discutidas, como as de manejo alimentar que estimulam a atividade dos animais e de monitoramento do estresse por meio da bioacústica, aqui apresentadas e discutidas, sejam aperfeiçoadas e testadas na produção das diversas espécies de animais neotropicais mantidos em cativeiro mesmo que estejam em cativeiro com diferentes objetivos, tais como em zoológicos, centros de triagem e reabilitação, centros de multiplicação de animais destinados a programa de soltura e, especialmente, nas criações comerciais.