Changing lanes: seasonal differences in cellular metabolism of adipocytes in grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis).

Obesity is among the most prevalent of health conditions in humans leading to a multitude of metabolic pathologies such as type 2 diabetes and hyperglycemia. However, there are many wild animals that have large seasonal cycles of fat accumulation and loss that do not result in the health consequences observed in obese humans. One example is the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) that can have body fat content > 40% that is then used as the energy source for hibernation.

Salinity stress increases the severity of ranavirus epidemics in amphibian populations.

The stress-induced susceptibility hypothesis, which predicts chronic stress weakens immune defences, was proposed to explain increasing infectious disease-related mass mortality and population declines. Previous work characterized wetland salinization as a chronic stressor to larval amphibian populations. Thus, we combined field observations with experimental exposures quantifying epidemiological parameters to test the role of salinity stress in the occurrence of ranavirus-associated mass mortality events.