Genetic Assessment of a Captive Population of Eurasian Stone-Curlew (), Source for the Reinforcement of Wild Populations.

Although ex situ conservation programs are increasingly valuable support tools for in situ conservation measures, success depends on these captive individuals to be genetically representative of the recipient population. The Eurasian stone-curlew () inhabit steppes that represent some of the most degraded and exploited habitats worldwide. A captive breeding program was implemented in Morocco as a pre-emptive effort for the conservation of the North African subspecies .

infection affects risk-taking behaviour in : adaptive manipulation?

Manipulation of host behaviour by parasites to enhance transmission to the next host is a fascinating phenomenon that has interested scientists since the 1970s. It has been proposed that infection with the cestode produces an impairment of the antipredatory behaviour in the rodent intermediate host common vole, , which may facilitate transmission of the tapeworm to the canid final host. In this study, we observed the behaviour of infected common voles at 12 weeks post-infection, when protoscoleces production and maturation commonly occurs, in order to assess behavioural changes compared to uninfected controls, that might ease predation in the wild.

GPS tracking technology and re-visiting the relationship between the avian visual Wulst and homing pigeon navigation.

Within their familiar areas homing pigeons rely on familiar visual landscape features and landmarks for homing. However, the neural basis of visual landmark-based navigation has been so far investigated mainly in relation to the role of the hippocampal formation. The avian visual Wulst is the telencephalic projection field of the thalamofugal pathway that has been suggested to be involved in processing lateral visual inputs that originate from the far visual field.

Use of the sun compass by monocularly occluded homing pigeons in a food localisation task in an outdoor arena.

Functional asymmetries of the avian visual system can be studied in monocularly occluded birds, as their hemispheres are largely independent. Right and left monocularly occluded homing pigeons and control birds under binocular view have been trained in a food localisation task in an octagonal outdoor arena provided with one coloured beacon on each wall. The three groups were tested after the removal of the visual beacons, so to assess their sun compass learning abilities.

Fecal contamination of urban parks by domestic dogs and tragedy of the commons.

Contamination of public parks by dogs is a potential source of conflict among park users, causing "tragedy of the commons" problems. Besides the social conflict, feces can pose serious health risks to both dogs and humans. In this study we analyzed the extent and patterns of the distribution of dog feces in the urban parks of the City of Calgary.