Validating the use of pen scores to capture behaviors expressed by cattle unrestrained in a pen1.

Many subjective methods exist to assist producers in evaluating temperament. Use of a pen test, which allows behavior to be observed in a non-restrained setting, may be an effective method to evaluate temperament by allowing more variation among animals to be expressed as compared to a restrained test. The objective of this study was to analyze video recordings of penned calves to determine whether the repertoire of behaviors they expressed were adequately captured by their individual (IPS) and group (GPS) pen scores.

Harbour Porpoises Are Flexible Predators Displaying Context-Dependent Foraging Behaviours.

Opportunistic mobile predators can adapt their behaviour to specific foraging scenarios, allowing them to target diverse prey resources. An interesting example is the harbour porpoise (), a marine mammal with a huge energy demand feeding on a large variety of fish, squid and shrimps. Little is known about the foraging behaviour of harbour porpoises, as observations of wild specimens are notoriously difficult to obtain.

Integration of variant annotations using deep set networks boosts rare variant association testing.

Rare genetic variants can have strong effects on phenotypes, yet accounting for rare variants in genetic analyses is statistically challenging due to the limited number of allele carriers and the burden of multiple testing. While rich variant annotations promise to enable well-powered rare variant association tests, methods integrating variant annotations in a data-driven manner are lacking. Here we propose deep rare variant association testing (DeepRVAT), a model based on set neural networks that learns a trait-agnostic gene impairment score from rare variant annotations and phenotypes, enabling both gene discovery and trait prediction.

Harbour porpoises respond to recreational boats by speeding up and moving away from the boat path.

Recreational boats are common in many coastal waters, yet their effects on cetaceans and other sensitive marine species remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we used drone video footage recorded from a recreational boat to quantify how harbour porpoises () responded to the boat approaching at different speeds (10 or 20 knots). Furthermore, we used a hydrophone to record boat noise levels at full bandwidth (0.

Response of Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) to underwater acoustic harassment device sounds.

Seal scarers (or acoustic harassment devices, AHDs) are designed to deter seals from fishing gear and aquaculture operations, as well as to prevent seals from entering rivers to avoid predation on valuable fish. Our study investigated the potential effects of AHDs on non-target species, specifically the Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra), by testing the reaction of two rehabilitated otters to simulated AHDs sounds at 1 and 14 kHz, with a received sound intensity of 105-145 dB re 1 µPa rms. The 1 kHz sounds were used to investigate alternative frequencies for scaring seals without scaring otters.