Species-specific calls evoke asymmetric activity in the monkey's temporal poles

It has often been proposed that the vocal calls of monkeys are precursors of human speech, in part because they provide critical information to other members of the species who rely on them for survival and social interactions. Both behavioural and lesion studies suggest that monkeys, like humans, use the auditory system of the left hemisphere preferentially to process vocalizations. To investigate the pattern of neural activity that might underlie this particular form of functional asymmetry in monkeys, we measured local cerebral metabolic activity while the animals listened passively to species-specific calls compared with a variety of other classes of sound. Within the superior temporal gyrus, significantly greater metabolic activity occurred on the left side than on the right, only in the region of the temporal pole and only in response to monkey calls. This functional asymmetry was absent when these regions were separated by forebrain commissurotomy, suggesting that the perception of vocalizations elicits concurrent interhemispheric interactions that focus the auditory processing within a specialized area of one hemisphere.     

大熊猫阴道角化细胞变化的连续监测

对一只旅居美国的青年雌性大熊猫在休情期和发情期的阴道角化细胞变化作了连续监测．结果表明：休情期间低于35％。发情期间平均高于80％．当角化率上升到70％左右时．提示动物发情期开始;上升至90％左右,表明已进入发情高潮期,是配种良机．其结果与尿激素水平和行为表现相比较,三者具有高度一致性,证明阴道角化细胞变化监测对判定大熊猫的发情及配种时机具有良好的指示意义。     

大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）食物的Fisher判别

1973年开始,我国对大熊猫这一珍贵动物进行了调查研究,野外科学工作者多次观察到大熊猫喜爱吃竹子,但并非挑选竹子中最有营养的部位为食,为了弄清楚野生大熊猫这种,挑食竹子某些特定部位是否与其中的一些化学成份有关,我们采用数理统计的判别分析方法来进行分析。 在全年范围内,把大熊猫爱吃的全部样品作为第一类,共观测了47个样品,把不爱吃或极少光顾的样品作为第二类,共观测了34个样品,用Fisher判别方法得到大熊猫选择食物的判别式。     

Ultrasonic communication in frogs

Among vertebrates, only microchiropteran bats, cetaceans and some rodents are known to produce and detect ultrasounds (frequencies greater than 20 kHz) for the purpose of communication and/or echolocation, suggesting that this capacity might be restricted to mammals. Amphibians, reptiles and most birds generally have limited hearing capacity, with the ability to detect and produce sounds below approximately 12 kHz. Here we report evidence of ultrasonic communication in an amphibian, the concave-eared torrent frog (Amolops tormotus) from Huangshan Hot Springs, China. Males of A. tormotus produce diverse bird-like melodic calls with pronounced frequency modulations that often contain spectral energy in the ultrasonic range. To determine whether A. tormotus communicates using ultrasound to avoid masking by the wideband background noise of local fast-flowing streams, or whether the ultrasound is simply a by-product of the sound-production mechanism, we conducted acoustic playback experiments in the frogs' natural habitat. We found that the audible as well as the ultrasonic components of an A. tormotus call can evoke male vocal responses. Electrophysiological recordings from the auditory midbrain confirmed the ultrasonic hearing capacity of these frogs and that of a sympatric species facing similar environmental constraints. This extraordinary upward extension into the ultrasonic range of both the harmonic content of the advertisement calls and the frog's hearing sensitivity is likely to have co-evolved in response to the intense, predominantly low-frequency ambient noise from local streams. Because amphibians are a distinct evolutionary lineage from microchiropterans and cetaceans (which have evolved ultrasonic hearing to minimize congestion in the frequency bands used for sound communication and to increase hunting efficacy in darkness), ultrasonic perception in these animals represents a new example of independent evolution.     

卧龙圈养雌性大熊猫发情行为观察

通过去年和今年对卧龙圈养雌性大熊猫发情行为观察，总结了大熊猫在发情阶段各个时期的行为特征。在各个年龄存在一定的差异．结果表明：青年大熊猫的发情时间为：14-18d；中年大熊猫的发情时间为：12-16d：高龄大熊猫的发情时间为：9-13d．结合尿中雌酮的变化判断最佳的配种时间，以保证能够配种的雄性大熊猫的精液品质，同时减少了为雌性没有达到发情高潮时期交配的打斗，避免意外发生．     

卧龙圈养大熊猫的周期行为节律

对卧龙大熊猫研究中心圈养的19只大熊猫在5min间隔发生的行为进行了全年统计，我场饲养的大熊猫的多数行为的日变化曲线和年变化曲线呈现双峰现象，文中还描述了性别、年龄的行为差异。     

马边大风顶自然保护区大熊猫觅食行为与营养对策

在马边大风顶自然保护区设立观察站，对大熊猫的营养生态进行了研究，发现大熊猫的垂直移动，在不同季节，选择不同竹种和同一竹种的不同部分择优觅食，这种行为经营养分析并与各山系比较，证明是适应食物基地的一种营养对策并具有其区域性的特征。     

Effect of China’s rapid development on its iconic giant panda

Anthropogenic factors affect biodiversity and have led to the contraction or extinction of animal populations worldwide.Here,we use historical demographic data,spanning the past 300 years,to show that a rapid distributional contraction of giant pandas took place during the 18th and 19th centuries alongside the increase in human population.Land-use also underwent a significant change across the areas where giant pandas were found because of government agricultural policy and the introduction of new crops.The impact of social development on giant pandas includes habitat loss and fragmentation,and range reductions.Our findings would facilitate the design of effective conservation strategies that seek to conserve and increase current habitats of this iconic species,especially in areas that our analysis has identified as places where pandas have suffered from high human pressure.     

Animal behaviour: elephants are capable of vocal learning

There are a few mammalian species that can modify their vocalizations in response to auditory experience--for example, some marine mammals use vocal imitation for reproductive advertisement, as birds sometimes do. Here we describe two examples of vocal imitation by African savannah elephants, Loxodonta africana, a terrestrial mammal that lives in a complex fission-fusion society. Our findings favour a role for vocal imitation that has already been proposed for primates, birds, bats and marine mammals: it is a useful form of acoustic communication that helps to maintain individual-specific bonds within changing social groupings.     

秦岭大熊猫主食竹的分类学研究(Ⅱ)

目的为理清秦岭地区大熊猫最集中分布的陕西佛坪国家级自然保护区及陕西周至县老县城自然保护区大熊猫主食竹的种类和分布区域。方法采用常规的植物分类学研究方法,通过大量的野外调查、室内标本鉴定、查阅有关标本室的标本及文献资料考证,对所采集的标本进行分类学研究。结果这两个保护区内共有野生禾本科竹亚科植物3属、5种,其中巴山木竹Bashaniafargesii和秦岭箭竹Fargesia q inlingensis为该区域内分布面积最大的竹种。结论在这两个保护区内,巴山木竹和秦岭箭竹是大熊猫最主要的主食竹种,龙头竹Fargesia dracocephala和华西箭竹Fargesia nitida次之。为进一步研究大熊猫主食竹种提供了基本的资料依据。     

红外线触发数码相机陷阱技术在大熊猫监测中的应用

为掌握大熊猫的季节活动规律和人为干扰状况，提高大熊猫监测水平。使用红外线触发数码相机陷阱技术，记录大熊猫活动信息。作者于2008年3-6月，对长青自然保护区大熊猫密集分布区进行了红外线数码相机监测。监测表明：平均海拔1614-1871m的区间，大熊猫拍摄率较高，2075米拍摄率很低，这与大熊猫的季节迁移活动规律是符合的。大熊猫的昼夜活动比是3．46：1；73％的样线上有大熊猫分布；0．91％的点上有人为干扰因素；12．68％的照片中出现天敌，成年大熊猫具有应对天敌的能力；交配季节标记行为占18．65％，标记行为较多：其中有2张照片记录到了交配场所。红外线触发数码相机陷阱技术，在大熊猫监测中是切实可行的。     

具有脉冲效应的大熊猫-冷箭竹-拐棍竹三种群系统数学模型研究

讨论了卧龙自然保护区大熊猫栖息地主食竹开花对大熊猫的影响,建立了具有偏食行为的大熊猫-冷箭竹-拐棍竹三维捕食食饵脉冲微分系统,证明了系统大熊猫灭绝周期解的局部和全局渐近稳定性,并进一步给出了系统持续生存的条件.结论表明,在一定的条件下,卧龙自然保护区大熊猫单一主食竹开花并不会影响大熊猫的生存.     

马边大风顶大熊猫的年龄结构及其食物资源初析

通过绝对数量调查表明，在位于小凉山山系的马边大风顶大熊猫野外观察站约２０ｋｍ＾２的研究区域里，共有９只大熊猫，其中幼少组４只，青壮组２只，中年组２只和老年组１只，其年龄结构金字塔属于锥形，显示出略有增长趋势。     

Ultrasonic frogs show hyperacute phonotaxis to female courtship calls

Sound communication plays a vital role in frog reproduction, in which vocal advertisement is generally the domain of males. Females are typically silent, but in a few anuran species they can produce a feeble reciprocal call or rapping sounds during courtship. Males of concave-eared torrent frogs (Odorrana tormota) have demonstrated ultrasonic communication capacity. Although females of O. tormota have an unusually well-developed vocal production system, it is unclear whether or not they produce calls or are only passive partners in a communication system dominated by males. Here we show that before ovulation, gravid females of O. tormota emit calls that are distinct from males' advertisement calls, having higher fundamental frequencies and harmonics and shorter call duration. In the field and in a quiet, darkened indoor arena, these female calls evoke vocalizations and extraordinarily precise positive phonotaxis (a localization error of <1 degrees ), rivalling that of vertebrates with the highest localization acuity (barn owls, dolphins, elephants and humans). The localization accuracy of O. tormota is remarkable in light of their small head size (interaural distance of <1 cm), and suggests an additional selective advantage of high-frequency hearing beyond the ability to avoid masking by low-frequency background noise.     

利用宏基因组测序技术对大熊猫阴道菌群的研究

为了阐明大熊猫阴道微生物组成,为合理的进行大熊猫阴道感染治疗提供科学依据,本研究利用宏基因组测序技术对不同地区(组别:WLQ、BFX、DJY)和不同年龄(组别:A1、A2、A3)的14个大熊猫阴道分泌物样品进行微生物菌群分析.结果表明:在物种注释上,占主导地位的微生物为变形菌门、担子菌门、厚壁菌门和放线菌门;在功能注释上,注释为碳水化合物代谢、氨基酸代谢的基因是样品中含有微生物数量最多的功能基因;在抗性基因注释上,变形菌门比厚壁菌门和拟杆菌门更易携带耐药基因,且沙门氏菌耐药基因APH3-lb分布存在于所有样品中.此外,不同年龄组大熊猫阴道菌群差异显著;DJY组衣原体比例最高.耐药基因APH3-lb和衣原体对大熊猫繁育存在一定的威胁,需要持续关注.     

冶勒自然保护区大熊猫摄食行为及营养初探

１９９４年３－１１月在冕宁县冶勒自然保护区设立观察站，对大熊猫摄食行为及营养进行研究，结果表明，大熊猫喜欢选择一定组的峨热竹以及营养质量最好的竹叶和竹笋，是适应食物基地的一种营养对策。     

Learned kin recognition cues in a social bird

In many cooperatively breeding birds, kin selection has an important role in the evolution and maintenance of social behaviour, and 'helpers' can maximize indirect fitness gains by preferentially allocating care to close relatives. Although there is evidence for kin-biased helping behaviour in several species, the mechanism of kin recognition underlying this behaviour is poorly understood. Vocalizations are the most commonly used cues in avian recognition systems, but the effectiveness of vocal signals as reliable recognition cues must depend on how they are acquired. However, there have been no experimental studies of the development of vocal recognition cues in cooperative birds; indeed, the ontogeny of all bird vocalizations other than song is poorly known in any species. Here, we show that cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) can discriminate between kin and non-kin according to the individual-specific characteristics of contact calls, and show experimentally that individuals learn these calls from provisioning adults during the nestling period. Finally, we show that the pattern of cooperative behaviour in this species is consistent with the use of recognition cues learned through association.     

Left hemisphere advantage in the mouse brain for recognizing ultrasonic communication calls

In humans, sound perceived as speech is processed preferentially by the right ear and the left hemisphere of the brain. Among animals, such an advantage of one hemisphere (lateralization) in processing communication sound from other members of the species has so far been demonstrated only in macaque monkeys. I report here that in the house mouse, which has a very much less elaborate forebrain than man or macaque monkey, the ultrasonic calls that are emitted by young mice to evoke maternal caring behavior are preferentially recognized by the left hemisphere. In females with no experience of pups, which have been trained to respond to the same ultrasonic calls by conditioning, no advantage for one hemisphere is detected. The results suggest that lateralization of this function evolved early in mammals and emphasize that an innate predisposition for perceiving communication sounds is connected with a left-hemisphere advantage in processing them. This experimental system is a readily-available animal model for studying lateralized auditory brain functions.     

大熊猫在国外饲养繁殖的历史与进展

1936—1945年国外曾饲养有14只大熊猫,1955—1982年我国又向9个国家提供了24只,1979—1988年墨西哥等4家动物园,共繁殖13胎,产仔17只,存活7只,在10年繁殖中共有10只组成繁殖种群,出生率大于死亡率。目前国外饲养有18只,根据年龄结构推测,将是一个人工繁殖的增长种群。     

秦岭野生大熊猫(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)的觅食行为

首次利用定量图像分析的方法研究野生大熊猫的取食行为,结果显示:其取食行为存在固定的模式,这一模式是在其身体发育的过程中逐步形成的.到了老年,随着年龄的增大、牙齿的磨损和其他生理机能的衰退,这种模式逐渐解体.总的取食时间可以分为准备时间(38.08%)、间歇时间(5.13%)和吃的时间(56.79%),在取食时间总量不变的情况下,大熊猫通过3种途径有效地增加日食量,即提高动作熟练程度、减少准备时间和减少间歇时间.