29 Result(s)
within
Nigel C Bennett
Life Sciences
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Article
Open AccessLovers, not fighters: docility influences reproductive fitness, but not survival, in male Cape ground squirrels, Xerus inauris
Over their lifetime, individuals may use different behavioural strategies to maximize their fitness. Some behavioural traits may be consistent among individuals over time (i.e., ‘personality’ traits) resulting...
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Open AccessExamination of head versus body heading may help clarify the extent to which animal movement pathways are structured by environmental cues?
Understanding the processes that determine how animals allocate time to space is a major challenge, although it is acknowledged that summed animal movement pathways over time must define space-time use. The cr...
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Article
Developmental Plasticity in the Ossification of the Proximal Femur of Heterocephalus glaber (Bathyergidae, Rodentia)
The proximal femoral morphology in rodents of different body sizes, locomotor modes, and from the three main rodent lineages (Sciuromorpha, Myomorpha, and Hystricomorpha) exhibit a separated condition of the f...
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Open AccessFossorial adaptations in African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) and the unique appendicular phenotype of naked mole-rats
Life underground has constrained the evolution of subterranean mammals to maximize digging performance. However, the mechanisms modulating morphological change and development of fossorial adaptations in such ...
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Open AccessSpatial population genetic structure and colony dynamics in Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis) from the southern Kalahari
Non-random associations within and among groups of social animals can provide valuable insight into the function of group living and the evolution of social behaviour. Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis) de...
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Open AccessHow often should dead-reckoned animal movement paths be corrected for drift?
Understanding what animals do in time and space is important for a range of ecological questions, however accurate estimates of how animals use space is challenging. Within the use of animal-attached tags, rad...
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Open AccessDead-reckoning animal movements in R: a reappraisal using Gundog.Tracks
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 and...
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Characterization of the reproductive behaviour of the roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus)
Little information exists on the sexual behaviours of the roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus; É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803), a species listed vulnerable in southern Africa. To fill this gap, two adult males an...
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Article
Heat tolerance in desert rodents is correlated with microclimate at inter- and intraspecific levels
Physiological diversity in thermoregulatory traits has been extensively investigated in both endo- and ectothermic vertebrates, with many studies revealing that thermal physiology has evolved in response to se...
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Photoperiodic effects on the male gonads of the Namibian gerbil, Gerbilliscus cf. leucogaster from central Namibia
Photoperiodism has been shown to be an important synchronizer of seasonal reproduction in many rodent species in the wild; it is a reliable cue as in the southern hemisphere it coincides with the onset of rain...
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Article
Changes in prolactin, cortisol and testosterone concentrations during queen succession in a colony of naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber): a case study
Colonies of naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber, NMRs) are characterised by an extreme skew in lifetime reproductive success with only one female and one to three male consorts in a colony. The rest of the ind...
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Article
No evidence for multimodal body mass distributions and body mass-related capture order in wild-caught Damaraland mole-rats
Division of labour among workers is a universal property of eusocial insect societies. For Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis), a eusocial mammal, it was proposed that workers can be divided into morphologi...
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Article
The influence of food restriction and photoperiod on reproduction in male spiny mice (Acomys spinosissimus): Evidence for terminal investment?
Photoperiod and food availability often interact in the regulation of reproductive development in seasonal environments. We tested the effects of a 10% food restriction and short- (SD) and long-day (LD) photop...
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Open AccessIdentification of animal movement patterns using tri-axial magnetometry
Accelerometers are powerful sensors in many bio-logging devices, and are increasingly allowing researchers to investigate the performance, behaviour, energy expenditure and even state, of free-living animals. ...
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Article
Characterization of 14 polymorphic microsatellite loci developed for an Afrotherian species endemic to southern Africa, Elephantulus myurus (Macroscelidea: Macroscelididae)
Fourteen microsatellite loci were developed for the eastern rock sengi, Elephantulus myurus Thomas & Schwann, 1906 by incorporating genetic diversity from across its range in South Africa. Sengis are small mammal...
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Article
Female reproductive activity and its endocrine correlates in the African lesser bushbaby, Galago moholi
Steroid hormones play an important role in female reproductive physiology and behaviour and are often used to monitor important female reproductive events. However, such studies are often attempted on captive ...
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Article
Digging for answers: contributions of density- and frequency-dependent factors on ectoparasite burden in a social mammal
Due to the density-dependent nature of parasite transmission parasites are generally assumed to constrain the evolution of sociality. However, evidence for a correlation between group size and parasite burden ...
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Reproductive photo-responsiveness in male forest shrews (Myosorex varius) from the Eastern Cape of South Africa
A number of environmental factors regulate the reproductive physiology of an organism. Life history traits, such as length of gestation and ovulation patterns of individual species, may result in reproduction ...
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The hustle and bustle of city life: monitoring the effects of urbanisation in the African lesser bushbaby
Urbanisation has become a severe threat to pristine natural areas, causing habitat loss and affecting indigenous animals. Species occurring within an urban fragmented landscape must cope with changes in vegeta...
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The pattern of ovulation in the southern African spiny mouse (Acomys spinosissimus)
The pattern of ovulation in mammals is generally considered to be either spontaneous or induced by coitus. The present study aimed to assess the pattern of ovulation in the southern African spiny mice (Acomys spi...
