Recently added

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Research Articles (Mammal Research Institute): Recent submissions

  • Anthropogenic influences on distance traveled and vigilance behavior and stress-related endocrine correlates in free-roaming giraffes 
    Scheijen, Ciska P.J.; Van der Merwe, Sean; Ganswindt, Andre; Deacon, Francois (MDPI, 2021-04)
    Giraffes are an important tourist attraction, and human presence to wildlife is increasing. This has an impact on an animal’s behavior and its endocrine correlates. Studies on other species show alterations in movement ...
  • Dead-reckoning animal movements in R : a reappraisal using Gundog.Tracks 
    Gunner, Richard M.; Holton, Mark D.; Scantlebury, Mike D.; Van Schalkwyk, Ockert Louis; English, Holly M.; Williams, Hannah J.; Hopkins, Phil; Quintana, Flavio; Gómez‑Laich, Agustina; Borger, Luca; Redcliffe, James; Yoda, Ken; Yamamoto, Takashi; Ferreira, Sam; Govender, Danny; Viljoen, Pauli; Bruns, Angela; Bell, Stephen H.; Marks, Nikki J.; Bennett, Nigel Charles; Tonini, Mariano H.; Duarte, Carlos M.; Van Rooyen, Martin C.; Bertelsen, Mads F.; Tambling, Craig J.; Wilson, Rory P. (BioMed Central, 2021-07)
    BACKGROUND: Fine-scale data on animal position are increasingly enabling us to understand the details of animal movement ecology and dead-reckoning, a technique integrating motion sensor-derived information on heading ...
  • The acceptability of yellow mealworm as chicken feed : a case study of small-scale farmers in South Africa 
    Selaledi, Letlhogonolo Andrew; Maake, Matome; Mabelebele, Monnye (BMC, 2021-05)
    BACKGROUND: Small-scale poultry farming plays a major role as a source of income for farmers through the sale of birds and eggs. Furthermore, in households’ poultry products are a valuable source of protein in the ...
  • Genetic variation between and within two populations of bat-eared foxes (Otocyon megalotis Desmarest, 1822) in South Africa 
    Granell-Ruiz, Maria; Norén, Karin; Kalthoff, Daniela C.; Le Roux, Aliza; Dalerum, Fredrik (Taylor and Francis, 2021)
    Information on genetic variation within and among populations is relevant for a broad range of topics in biology. We use a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear microsatellite markers to evaluate genetic variation ...
  • Distribution of Temminck's pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) in South Africa, with evaluation of questionable historical and contemporary occurrence records 
    Pietersen, Darren William; Fisher, Jolene T.; Glennon, Kelsey L.; Murray, Kimberley A.; Parrini, Francesca (Wiley, 2021-09)
    Temminck's pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) is a threatened mammal found in southern and eastern Africa. It is the most widely distributed African pangolin species yet is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to a ...
  • Demographic consequences of habitat loss and crowding in large carnivores : a natural experiment 
    Kotze, Robynne; Marshal, Jason P.; Winterbach, Christiaan W.; Winterbach, Hanlie Evelyn Kathleen; Keith, Mark (Wiley, 2021-03)
    Habitat loss is one of largest threats to the persistence of large carnivore populations. However, because most large carnivores are long-lived, cryptic and wide-ranging, few studies examine the demographic consequences ...
  • Breeders are less active foragers than non-breeders in wild Damaraland mole-rats 
    Francioli, Yannick; Thorley, Jack; Finn, Kyle T.; Clutton-Brock, Tim H.; Zottl, Markus (Royal Society, 2020-10)
    Eusocial societies are characterized by a clear division of labour between non-breeding workers and breeding queens, and queens often do not contribute to foraging, defence and other maintenance tasks. It has been suggested ...
  • Increasing effects of chronic nutrient enrichment on plant diversity loss and ecosystem productivity over time 
    Seabloom, E.W.; Adler, P.B.; Alberti, J.; Biederman, L.; Buckley, Y.M.; Cadotte, M.W.; Collins, S.L.; Dee, L.; Fay, P.A.; Firn, J.; Hagenah, Nicole; Harpole, W.S.; Hautier, Y.; Hector, A.; Hobbie, S.E.; Isbell, F.; Knops, Johannes M.H.; Komatsu, K.J.; Laungani, R.; MacDougall, A.; McCulley, R.L.; Moore, J.L.; Morgan, J.W.; Ohlert, T.; Prober, S.M.; Risch, A.C.; Schuetz, M.; Stevens, C.J.; Borer, Elizabeth T. (Ecological Society of America, 2021-02)
    Human activities are enriching many of Earth’s ecosystems with biologically limiting mineral nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). In grasslands, this enrichment generally reduces plant diversity and increases ...
  • Global patterns of functional trait variation along aridity gradients in bats 
    Conenna, Irene; Santini, Luca; Rocha, Ricardo; Monadjem, Ara; Cabeza, Mar; Russo, Danilo (Wiley, 2021-05)
    AIM : Our understanding of the biological strategies employed by species to cope with challenges posed by aridity is still limited. Despite being sensitive to water loss, bats successfully inhabit a wide range of arid ...
  • Concentrations of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites in South African mutton merino sheep fed various sources of roughage 
    O’Neill, H.A.; Einkamerer, O.B.; Elago, B.T.; Ganswindt, Andre (South African Journal of Animal Sciences, 2020)
    The objective of this study was to determine whether various sources of roughage in nutritionally balanced feedlot diets would evoke a stress response in sheep. A nutritional stress response test was performed on 20 ewes, ...
  • Heat and dehydration induced oxidative damage and antioxidant defenses following incubator heat stress and a simulated heat wave in wild caught four-striped field mice Rhabdomys dilectus 
    Jacobs, Paul Juan; Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen; Mitchell, C.; Blount, Jonathan D.; Bennett, Nigel Charles (Public Library of Science, 2020-11-13)
    Heat waves are known for their disastrous mass die-off effects due to dehydration and cell damage, but little is known about the non-lethal consequences of surviving severe heat exposure. Severe heat exposure can cause ...
  • Reproductive events and respective faecal androgen metabolite concentrations in captive male roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) 
    Kamgang, Vanessa Wandja; Bennett, Nigel Charles; Hart, Daniel William; Van der Goot, Annemieke C.; Ganswindt, Andre (Public Library of Science, 2020-12-17)
    Understanding the reproductive biology of the roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803) is crucial to optimise breeding success in captive breeding programmes of this threatened species. In this ...
  • Revisiting animal photo-identification using deep metric learning and network analysis 
    Miele, Vincent; Dussert, Gaspard; Spataro, Bruno; Chamaillé-Jammes, Simon; Allaine, Dominique; Bonenfant, Christophe (Wiley, 2021-05)
    An increasing number of ecological monitoring programmes rely on photographic capture–recapture of individuals to study distribution, demography and abundance of species. Photo-identification of individuals can sometimes ...
  • Disentangling the roles of bottom-up and top-down drivers in the trade-off between food acquisition and safety in prey with multiple predators 
    Pays, Olivier; Blanchard, Pierrick; Chamaillé-Jammes, Simon; Valeix, Marion; Loveridge, Andrew J.; Macdonald, David W.; Periquet, Stephanie; Van der Meer, Esther; Duncan, Patrick; Mtare, Godfrey; Fritz, Herve (Wiley, 2021-02)
    Prey face a trade-off between acquiring food and avoiding predation, but food availability, and therefore its effect, is rarely measured in field studies investigating non-lethal effects of predation. The main aim of this ...
  • Degradation of Temminck's pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) scales with a keratinase for extraction of reproductive steroid hormones 
    Blecher, Arantxa Silvia; Scheun, Juan; Ganswindt, Andre (Elsevier, 2021)
    Hormone monitoring in keratinous tissues has become increasingly popular. The insoluble keratin materials are generally pulverised before hormone extraction; however, this is difficult for thicker keratin structures like ...
  • A report on the housing vervet monkeys adjacent to domestic cats as a means of environmental enrichment 
    Chipangura, John Kudakwashe; Ganswindt, Andre; Naidoo, Vinny (AOSIS OpenJournals, 2020-11-26)
    In current research guidelines, much focus is placed on ethical management of animals and the application of principles of reduction, refinement and replacement. Of these refinements through environmental enrichment is ...
  • The cost and complexity of assessing impact 
    Measey, John; Wagener, Carla; Mohanty, Nitya Prakash; Baxter-Gilbert, James; Pienaar, Elizabeth Frances (Pensoft Publishers, 2020-10-15)
    The environmental and socio-economic impacts of invasive species have long been recognised to be unequal, with some species being benign while others are disastrous. Until recently there was no recognised standard impact ...
  • Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern ocean ecosystems 
    Hindell, Mark A.; Reisinger, Ryan Rudolf; Ropert-Coudert, Yan; Huckstadt, Luis A.; Trathan, Philip N.; Bornemann, Horst; Charrassin, Jean-Benoit; Chown, Steven L.; Costa, Daniel P.; Danis, Bruno; Lea, Mary-Anne; Thompson, David; Torres, Leigh G.; Van de Putte, Anton P.; Alderman, Rachael; Andrews-Goff, Virginia; Arthur, Ben; Ballard, Grant; Bengtson, John; Bester, Marthan Nieuwoudt; Blix, Arnoldus Schytte; Boehme, Lars; Bost, Charles-Andre; Boveng, Peter; Cleeland, Jaimie; Constantine, Rochelle; Corney, Stuart; Crawford, Robert J.M.; Dalla Rosa, Luciano; De Bruyn, P.J. Nico; Delord, Karine; Descamps, Sebastien; Double, Mike; Emmerson, Louise; Fedak, Mike; Friedlaender, Ari; Gales, Nick; Goebel, Michael E.; Goetz, Kimberly T.; Guinet, Christophe; Goldsworthy, Simon D.; Harcourt, Rob; Hinke, Jefferson T.; Jerosch, Kerstin; Kato, Akiko; Kerry, Knowles R.; Kirkwood, Roger; Kooyman, Gerald L.; Kovacs, Kit M.; Lawton, Kieran; Lowther, Andrew D.; Lydersen, Christian; Lyver, Phil O’B.; Makhado, Azwianewi B.; Márquez, Maria E.I.; McDonald, Birgitte I.; McMahon, Clive Reginald; Muelbert, Monica; Nachtsheim, Dominik; Nordøy, Erling S.; Olmastroni, Silvia; Phillips, Richard A.; Pistorius, Pierre Anton; Plotz, Joachim; Putz, Klemens; Ratcliffe, Norman; Ryan, Peter G.; Santos, Mercedes; Southwell, Colin; Staniland, Iain; Takahashi, Akinori; Tarroux, Arnaud; Trivelpiece, Wayne; Wakefield, Ewan; Weimerskirch, Henri; Wienecke, Barbara; Xavier, Jose C.; Wotherspoon, Simon; Jonsen, Ian D.; Raymond, Ben (Nature Research, 2020-04)
    Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change. Mitigation requires the identifcation and protection of Areas of Ecological Signifcance (AESs), which have so far not been ...
  • The effects of tannins in monogastric animals with special reference to alternative feed ingredients 
    Hassan, Zahra Mohammed; Manyelo, Tlou Grace; Selaledi, Letlhogonolo Andrew; Mabelebele, Monnye (MDPI, 2020-10-14)
    Over recent years, the monogastric animal industry has witnessed an increase in feed prices due to several factors, and this trend is likely to continue. The hike in feed prices is mostly due to extreme competition over ...
  • Biotic and abiotic effects on density, body size, sex ratio, and survival in immature stages of the European woodwasp, Sirex Noctilio 
    Garnas, Jeffrey R.; Vann, Katie E.; Hurley, Brett Phillip (Ecology and Evolution, 2020-12)
    Resource quality can have direct or indirect effects on female oviposition choice, offspring growth and survival, and ultimately on body size and sex ratio. We examined these patterns in Sirex noctilio Fabricus, the ...