A spherical-plot solution to linking acceleration metrics with animal performance, state, behaviour and lifestyle.

Background: We are increasingly using recording devices with multiple sensors operating at high frequencies to produce large volumes of data which are problematic to interpret. A particularly challenging example comes from studies on animals and humans where researchers use animal-attached accelerometers on moving subjects to attempt to quantify behaviour, energy expenditure and condition.

Results: The approach taken effectively concatinated three complex lines of acceleration into one visualization that highlighted patterns that were otherwise not obvious.

Squirrelpox virus: assessing prevalence, transmission and environmental degradation.

Red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) declined in Great Britain and Ireland during the last century, due to habitat loss and the introduction of grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), which competitively exclude the red squirrel and act as a reservoir for squirrelpox virus (SQPV). The disease is generally fatal to red squirrels and their ecological replacement by grey squirrels is up to 25 times faster where the virus is present. We aimed to determine: (1) the seropositivity and prevalence of SQPV DNA in the invasive and native species at a regional scale; (2) possible SQPV transmission routes; and, (3) virus degradation rates under differing environmental conditions.

Jettisoning ballast or fuel? Caudal autotomy and locomotory energetics of the Cape dwarf gecko Lygodactylus capensis (Gekkonidae).

Many lizard species will shed their tail as a defensive response (e.g., to escape a putative predator or aggressive conspecific).