A rallying call for a wilder Scotland

Abstract This 229-paged book discussed the role of zoos in a modern, environmentally conscious society. It does this by offering the reader the opportunity to answer 600 multiple-choice questions on a wide range of topics including zoo history, enclosure design, aquarium management, animal behaviour and welfare, zoo research, conservation breeding, zoo visitor behaviour, conservation medicine, zoo legislation and many more.

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Animal welfare and conservation medicine.

10.1079/9781789249002.0009 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 154-171

Author(s):

Paul A. Rees

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Conservation Medicine ◽

Common Diseases

Abstract This chapter contains questions on the welfare of animals in zoos, the veterinary care of these animals and some common diseases and conditions.

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Infectious Diseases and Wildlife Conservation Medicine: The Case of the Canine Distemper in European Wolf Population

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10122426 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 2426

Author(s):

Cristina E. Di Francesco ◽

Camilla Smoglica ◽

Simone Angelucci

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Canine Distemper Virus ◽

Wildlife Conservation ◽

Wolf Population ◽

Canine Distemper ◽

Wild Carnivores ◽

Conservation Medicine

Canine distemper is a contagious infectious disease, caused by canine distemper virus (CDV) belonging to Morbillivirus genus, Paramyxoviridae family, representing a serious threat for domestic and wild carnivores [...]

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Polymorphism at a mimicry supergene maintained by opposing frequency-dependent selection pressures

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1702482114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (31) ◽

pp. 8325-8329 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Mathieu Chouteau ◽

Violaine Llaurens ◽

Florence Piron-Prunier ◽

Mathieu Joron

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary Biology ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Mate Preferences ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Wing Pattern ◽

Frequency Dependent ◽

Frequency Dependent Selection ◽

Conservation Medicine ◽

Local Diversity ◽

Adaptive Diversity

Explaining the maintenance of adaptive diversity within populations is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology, with important implications for conservation, medicine, and agriculture. Adaptation often leads to the fixation of beneficial alleles, and therefore it erodes local diversity so that understanding the coexistence of multiple adaptive phenotypes requires deciphering the ecological mechanisms that determine their respective benefits. Here, we show how antagonistic frequency-dependent selection (FDS), generated by natural and sexual selection acting on the same trait, maintains mimicry polymorphism in the toxic butterfly Heliconius numata. Positive FDS imposed by predators on mimetic signals favors the fixation of the most abundant and best-protected wing-pattern morph, thereby limiting polymorphism. However, by using mate-choice experiments, we reveal disassortative mate preferences of the different wing-pattern morphs. The resulting negative FDS on wing-pattern alleles is consistent with the excess of heterozygote genotypes at the supergene locus controlling wing-pattern variation in natural populations of H. numata. The combined effect of positive and negative FDS on visual signals is sufficient to maintain a diversity of morphs displaying accurate mimicry with other local prey, although some of the forms only provide moderate protection against predators. Our findings help understand how alternative adaptive phenotypes can be maintained within populations and emphasize the need to investigate interactions between selective pressures in other cases of puzzling adaptive polymorphism.

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