Animal Behavior Research Articles

Research Progress for the Toxic Effects of Microplastics on Soil Animals and Plants

Terrestrial ecosystems represent the most direct and principal reservoirs of plastic contamination on Earth. The toxic effects of microplastic exposure on terrestrial plants have been analyzed from the perspectives of direct toxicity, indirect toxicity, and combined toxicity with other pollutants. By investigating the impacts on the growth, behavior, and oxidative stress responses of soil animals, the toxicological patterns of microplastics have been elucidated. Moreover, the primary factors influencing the toxicity of microplastics on both fauna and flora have been discussed based on current research. The results indicated that for the majority of terrestrial plants, microplastics could inhibit seed germination, adhere to root surfaces, enter the plant body and induce oxidative stress, inhibit photosynthesis, and cause cellular and genetic toxicity. Soil animals could ingest and accumulate microplastics to varying extents, resulting in toxic effects such as aberrant gene expression, oxidative stress, intestinal toxicity, and alterations of growth and behavior on the genetic, cellular, tissue, and individual levels. Furthermore, these effects were also linked to microplastic additives and the adsorbed pollutants. The impact of microplastics on terrestrial plants and animals at environmentally relevant concentrations cannot be overlooked, with particle size emerging as a critical factor influencing toxic effects. The findings provide a basis for assessing the ecological risks of microplastics in soil environments and offer insights into future research directions.

Personality expression is shaped by the early experienced social context in predatory mites.

Research Highlights: Schausberger, P., & Nguyen, T. H. (2024). Early social isolation disrupts adult personality expression in group-living mites. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14169. Personality traits in animals have been of great interest in the last decades. The number of studies demonstrating the existence of personality in a wide range of taxa is growing rapidly. Although the effect of early experience on later average values of behavioural traits is well documented, very few articles demonstrate the effects of those factors on personality expression itself. One factor in particular received very little, if not no, attention: social isolation. Although social isolation is known to have major impacts on later animal behaviour, it is still unknown whether it may favour or inhibit personality expression. In a recent study, Schausberger and Nguyen (2024) demonstrated that early-life social isolation had strong effects on adults of the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. They show for the first time that early social isolation decreased the expression of personality in the activity of adults when tested in a social context. Interestingly, they observed the opposite effect when the same mites were tested alone:previously isolated mites were highly repeatable but group-reared mites were not. Finally, they also show an indirect effect of early social isolation through mating: mating with a male who experienced social isolation increased the behavioural repeatability of females. This study not only reinforces the established understanding of personality but also paves the way for future research in the field.

Evaluation of a user-friendly CSDS cage apparatus for studying depressive-like behaviors in rodents.

Previously, a chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model has been widely-adopted for assessing depressive-like behaviors in animals. However, there is still room for improvement in the CSDS model to safeguard study accuracy and the welfare of lab rodents. Our study team developed a novel, standardized apparatus to induce CSDS in rodents and assessed the model's practical adaptability. An innovative CSDS cage apparatus and water bottle was designed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the newly developed tools, a variety of animal models, including the tail suspension test (TST), sucrose preference test, forced swimming test (FST), novelty-suppressed feeding test, female urine sniffing test, and open field test (OFT), were adopted to assess depressive-like behaviors in mice. Fluoxetine treatment was also administered to observe the reversal effect, as part of the validation. The CSDS cage apparatus resulted in the manifestation of depressive-like behaviors in the model mice. Significant reductions in sucrose preference and urine sniffing time were observed, while the OFT revealed decreased central zone total distance, residence time, and frequency of entry. Moreover, increased immobility was found in the FST and TST. Fluoxetine treatment was found to successfully reverse the modeling effect. The CSDS cage apparatus was validated for enhanced usability and addressed the previous challenges of water bottle leakage and lab rodent welfare issues. The consistent results from multiple behavioral tests also supported real-world application of the apparatus, offering researchers a promising alternative to conventional rodent cages.

Tangeretin exerts and modulates the anxiolytic effects of the GABAkine drugs diazepam and flumazenil in mice: Molecular interventions through animal behavior and molecular dynamic simulations

Tangeretin exerts and modulates the anxiolytic effects of the GABAkine drugs diazepam and flumazenil in mice: Molecular interventions through animal behavior and molecular dynamic simulations

"Broadening Perspectives Activities" Improve LGBTQ+ Student Experiences and Religious Students' Content Comprehension.

Curricular content in undergraduate biology courses has been historically hetero and cisnormative due to various cultural stigmas, biases, and discrimination. Such curricula may be partially responsible for why LGBTQ+ students in STEM are less likely to complete their degrees than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. We developed Broadening Perspective Activities (BPAs) to expand the representation of marginalized perspectives in the curriculum of an online, upper-division, undergraduate animal behavior course, focusing on topics relating to sex, gender, and sexuality. We used a quasiexperimental design to assess the impact of the BPAs on student perceptions of course concepts and on their sense of belonging in biology. We found that LGBTQ+ students entered the course with a better understanding of many animal behavior concepts that are influenced by cultural biases associated with sex, gender, and sexuality. However, LGBTQ+ students who took the course with the BPAs demonstrated a greater sense of belonging in biology at the end of the term compared with LGBTQ+ students in the course without BPAs. We also show that religious students demonstrated improved comprehension of many concepts related to sex, gender, and sexuality after taking the course with BPAs, with no negative impacts on their sense of belonging.

Animal Behaviour Best Paper Prizes 2024

Animal Behaviour Best Paper Prizes 2024

Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust.

Behavioural avoidance of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the 'landscape of disgust' (analogous to the predator-induced 'landscape of fear'). Despite the potential for improving our inference of host-parasite dynamics, three limitations of the landscape of disgust restrict the insight that is gained from current research: (i) many host-parasite systems will not be appropriate for invoking the landscape of disgust framework; (ii) existing research has primarily focused on immediate choices made by hosts on small scales, limiting predictive power, generalizability, and the value of the insight obtained; and (iii) relevant ecological and evolutionary theory has yet to be integrated into the framework, challenging our ability to interpret the landscape of disgust within the context of most host-parasite systems. In this review, we explore the specific requirements for implementing a landscape of disgust framework in empirical systems. We also propose greater integration of habitat selection and evolutionary theories, aiming to generate novel insight, by exploring how the landscape of disgust varies within and across generations, presenting opportunities for future research. Despite interest in the impacts of parasitism on animal movement and behaviour, many unanswered questions remain.

Plastic Behaviour Buffers Climate Variability in the Wandering Albatross.

Climate change has marked effects on global weather patterns and oceanic systems, impacting animal behaviour and fitness in potentially profound ways. Despite this, we lack detailed information about species' responses to climatic variation. Using an 11-year tracking dataset of over 300 individual birds, we explore the consequences of variation in the southern annular mode (SAM) and southern oscillation index (SOI) for individual behaviour and fitness in wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans breeding in the Southern Indian Ocean. Our results reveal distinct responses between males and females to climatic variation that align with the impacts of each climatic index on the distinct foraging ranges of each sex. In positive SAM phases, linked to poorer foraging conditions in female ranges and better conditions in male ranges, females exhibited behaviour consistent with reduced foraging success: that is, fewer prey capture attempts and more movement between feeding patches. Males, on the other hand, showed no behavioural change. During positive SOI phases, associated with good foraging conditions in both male and female foraging ranges, both sexes showed evidence of more successful foraging, with birds engaging in more search behaviour, and taking shorter trips with fewer prey capture attempts, together indicating increased food intake per unit time. We found limited evidence for a role of individual variation, as measured through differences in personality, suggesting that plastic responses to climate are sufficiently important so as to obscure inter-individual variation. Supporting this was the finding that individual breeding success was unaffected by climatic variation, suggesting that plastic foraging behaviour allows albatrosses to mitigate climate impacts and maintain reproductive output.

Modified neuroimmune processes and emotional behaviour in weaned and late adolescent male and female mice born via caesarean section

Elective and emergency Caesarean section (C-section) procedures are on the rise, exceeding the recommended guidelines by the World Health Organization. Higher morbidities and long-term health conditions are correlated to C-section deliveries, including neurodevelopmental disorders. During C-section delivery, newborns are not exposed to the vaginal commensal flora, which impedes the early establishment of the gut microbiota. The latter is essential for adequate neuro-immune processes to take place during infancy. In this study, we used a validated model of mice born by C-section (CSD), which mimics clinical observations of dysregulated gut microbiota. Animals were either born naturally or by CSD, before being adopted by dams who underwent delivery within the 12 preceding hours. Behavioural analyses were conducted at post-natal day (PND) 21 and 55. Our results indicate that animals born by C-section present significantly higher body weight in late (PND40-P53) but not early adolescence (PND21-P27), compared to animals born by vaginal delivery (VD). Male animals delivered by C-section presented significantly lower exploration time of the novel arm in the Y Maze test at PND55. However, at PND21, abnormal social interaction was witnessed in male and female animals born by CSD, with significantly decreased time spent interacting during the social interaction test. At both PND21 and PND55, animals from both sexes born by C-section presented significantly decreased time spent in the open arm of the Elevated Plus Maze test, compared to control animals. We then measured the expression of genes associated to neuroimmune interactions (microglia phenotype), inflammatory mediators and lipids in several brain structures of VD and CSD mice at PND21 and PND55. At weaning, animals born by CSD presented altered microglia, inflammatory and lipid metabolism signatures, with increased expression of Cd36, Csf1r and Tnfα in different brain regions of males, but not in females. At PND64, Csf1r, Tmem119 as well as C3ar1 were significantly increased in males born by C-section, but not in females. In males born by vaginal delivery, the expression of Cd36 at PND64 was correlated to anxiety at PND55, whilst a correlation between the expression of Clec7a and the number of head dippings in the elevated plus maze was also noted in males born by CSD. Altogether, our study shows altered emotional behaviour in animals delivered by CSD, which is likely explained by underlying neuro-inflammatory processes in different brain regions. Our work further supports the long-term consequences of CSD on brain health.

Depression-like effects induced by chronic unpredictable mild stress in mice are rapidly reversed by a partial negative allosteric modulator of mGlu5 receptor, M-5MPEP.

Due to the numerous limitations of ketamine as a rapid-acting antidepressant drug (RAAD), research is still being conducted to find an effective and safe alternative to this drug. Recent studies indicate that the partial mGlu5 receptor negative allosteric modulator (NAM), 2-(2-(3-methoxyphenyl)ethynyl)-5-methylpyridine (M-5MPEP), has therapeutic potential as an antidepressant. The study aimed to investigate the potential rapid antidepressant-like effect of M-5MPEP in a mouse model of depression and to determine the mechanism of this action. Chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) was used as an animal model of depression. The effects of single and four-day administration of M-5MPEP on CUMS-induced animal behaviors reflecting anhedonia, apathy, and helplessness were studied. Western blot was applied to measure the levels of proteins potentially involved in a rapid antidepressant effect, including mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2), tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), and serotonin transporter (SERT), both in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Furthermore, excitatory synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation (LTP) were measured in the medial PFC (mPFC). We showed that M-5MPEP administration for four consecutive days abolished CUMS-induced apathy- and anhedonia-like symptoms in a mouse model of depression. We also found that these effects were accompanied by changes in hippocampal TrkB levels and mTOR and eEF2 levels in the PFC. Using electrophysiological techniques, we showed that the four-day M-5MPEP treatment reversed chronic stress-induced increases in excitatory synaptic potential and CUMS-impaired LTP in the mPFC. Partial mGlu5 receptor NAM, M-5MPEP, appears to be a potentially effective new RAAD and deserves further study.

Unsupervised classification of Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) behavioural states from multi-sensor biologger data.

Classifying animal behaviors in their natural environments is both challenging and ecologically important, but the use of biologgers with multiple sensors has significantly advanced this research beyond the capabilities of traditional methods alone. Here, we show how biologgers containing an integrated tri-axial accelerometer, GPS logger and immersion sensor were used to infer behavioural states of a cryptic, freshwater turtle, the Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). Biologgers were attached to three males and five females that reside in two undisturbed coastal marshes in northeastern Georgian Bay (Ontario, Canada) between May and July 2023. Raw acceleration values were separated into static and dynamic acceleration and subsequently used to calculate overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) and pitch. The unsupervised Hidden Markov Model (HMM) successfully differentiated five behavioural states as follows: active in water, resting in water, active out of water, resting in water, and nesting. Overall accuracy of the classification was 93.8%, and except for nesting (79%), all other behaviours were above 92%. There were significant differences in daily activity budgets between male and female turtles, with females spending a greater proportion of time active out of water, and inactive out of the water, while males spent a greater proportion of time active in water. These differences were likely a result of large seasonal life-history requirements such as nesting and mate finding. Accurate classification of behavioural states is important for researchers to understand fine-scale activities carried out during the active season and how environmental variables may influence the behaviours of turtles in their natural habitats.

SwaRmverse: An R package for the comparative analysis of collective motion

Abstract Collective motion, that is the coordinated spatial and temporal organisation of individuals, is a core element in the study of collective animal behaviour. The self‐organised properties of how a group moves influence its various behavioural and ecological processes, such as predator–prey dynamics, social foraging and migration. However, little is known about the inter‐ and intra‐specific variation in collective motion. Despite the significant advancement in high‐resolution tracking of multiple individuals within groups, providing collective motion data for animals in the laboratory and the field, a framework to perform quantitative comparisons across species and contexts is lacking. Here, we present the swaRmverse package. Building on two existing R packages, trackdf and swaRm, swaRmverse enables the identification and analysis of collective motion ‘events’, as presented in Papadopoulou et al. (2023), creating a unit of comparison across datasets. We describe the package's structure and showcase its functionality using existing datasets from several species and simulated trajectories from an agent‐based model. From positional time‐series data for multiple individuals (x‐y‐t‐id), swaRmverse identifies events of collective motion based on the distribution of polarisation and group speed. For each event, a suite of validated biologically meaningful metrics are calculated, and events are placed into a ‘swarm space’ through dimensional reduction techniques. Our package provides the first automated pipeline enabling the analysis of data on collective behaviour. The package allows the calculation and use of complex metrics for users without a strong quantitative background and will promote communication and data‐sharing across disciplines, standardising the quantification of collective motion across species and promoting comparative investigations.

Tracking puppy development: automated analysis and qualitative behavioral assessmentin repeated open field tests.

Early puppy development is a crucial period that significantly influences a dog's lifelong health, behavior and personality. In this study, the behavioral development of Kangal puppies was investigated through repeated open-field testing, focusing on exploratory behavior, mobility, and responses to novel stimuli. Thirty-three Kangal puppies (20 males and 13 females) from various breeding centers in Sivas Province, Türkiye, were evaluated. The puppies were tested in a controlled open-field environment at 5, 6, and 8 weeks of age. Tests included a novel environment test at 5 weeks and novel object tests at 6 and 8 weeks. Mobility rate, exploration rate, and total distance parameters were measured using automated tracking software (ToxTrac). Qualitative behavioral assessments (QBAs) were performed to evaluate three distinct behavioral and emotional aspects: curiosity, comfort, and fearfulness. The results of these assessments revealed significant increases in curiosity and comfort scores over the testing weeks, with a concomitant decrease in fearfulness. Additionally, tracking data showed increased mobility and decreased exploration rates throughout the testing weeks. Significant correlations were found between curiosity and exploratory behavior, as well as between mobility and comfort scores. Overall, our findings suggest that Kangal puppies exhibit expected behavioral developments in repeated open field testing, with patterns consistent across multiple analyses. These results provide valuable insights into the behavioral development of Kangal puppies and underscore the importance of considering curiosity and other internal motivations in understanding animal behavior.

Use of Drones for Trough Reading, Animal Counting, and Production Monitoring in Feedlot Systems

In line with the concept of precision agriculture, this study aimed to validate the use of digital aerial images captured using a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for collecting zootechnical data on cattle feedlot systems in a tropical environment. Images were captured on 21 non-consecutive days in 110 pens with up to 150 animals each. Conventional and RPA-based methods were adopted to determine animal behavior, feed trough levels, animal counts, and pen conditions. Data analysis revealed almost perfect agreement (kappa coefficient = 0.901) between trough readings taken by conventional and RPA methods as well as substantial agreement for fecal score (kappa coefficient = 0.785) and surface conditions (kappa coefficient = 0.737). However, animal counts and water quality scores showed only fair agreement, suggesting challenges in using RPA for these specific tasks. The results indicated that RPA represents a viable alternative to conventional methods for monitoring zootechnical indices in feedlots, offering benefits in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. The implementation of RPA-based methods holds potential for improving animal management, welfare, and yield in feedlot systems.

Multiple strategies improved spider wasp optimization for engineering optimization problem solving

The Spider Wasp Optimization (SWO) algorithm is a swarm intelligence optimization technique inspired by the collective behaviors of social animals. This algorithm, designed to address optimization challenges, emulates the unique hunting, nesting, and mating behaviors of female spider wasps. It offers several advantages, including rapid search speed and high solution accuracy. However, when tackling complex optimization problems, it can encounter issues such as getting trapped in local optima, slow early convergence, and the need for manual adjustment of the “Trade-off Rate” (TR) parameter for different problems.To improve the performance and versatility of the SWO algorithm, a Multi-strategy Improved Spider Wasp Optimizer (MISWO) is proposed. Firstly, the Grey Wolf Algorithm is integrated into the initialization phase to enhance early convergence and improve the fitness of the initial population, thereby boosting the algorithm’s global optimization capabilities.Secondly, an adaptive step size operator and Gaussian mutation are introduced during the search phase to automatically adjust the search range at different optimization stages. This enhancement increases both the optimization accuracy and the algorithm’s ability to avoid local optima. The Trade-off Rate (TR) is dynamically selected to better accommodate a variety of problems. Finally, a dynamic lens imaging reverse learning strategy is employed to update optimal individuals, further improving the algorithm’s capacity to escape local optima. To validate the effectiveness of MISWO, it was tested on 23 benchmark functions and 7 engineering optimization problems, and compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results show that MISWO outperforms other algorithms in terms of optimization capability, stability, and adaptability across diverse problems.

Building a Nest in Human-Built Spaces

This article seeks to understand how Finnish sows experienced human-built spaces in the first decades of the 1900s, during which commercial and modern swine production methods slowly began to transform their lives and living conditions. I approach the question of sows’ experiences by focusing on a particular behavior of sows (nest building) and how they performed it in modern piggeries. First, I outline the different features of farrowing pens, which were specifically designed for sows and their piglets and which were, consequently, the most common spaces sows experienced during nest building. Second, I analyze sows’ nest-building behavior in pens and how different spatial features and husbandry practices shaped its execution. I suggest that nest-building behavior can be seen as an example of sows’ own place-making processes and how they create meaningful places of their own in given circumstances. At the same time, these processes convey sows’ experiences and their own role in the production of those circumstances. Broadly, this article suggests that the analysis of animal behaviors at the intersection of spaces, materials, and practices creates possibilities to interpret animal experiences and how they have navigated their lives in specific historical circumstances.

Iron Content in Wild Animal Meats: A Systematic Review Comparing Mammals and Birds

This study explores the iron content in wild animal meats, a critical component of the diets of several Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) worldwide. Our research aimed to: (i) characterize the iron content in the muscles and viscera of wild mammals and birds, and (ii) assess whether wild bird muscle contains less iron than wild mammal muscle. Employing a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA standards and utilizing databases such as Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, and Scopus, we analyzed data from eight pertinent studies. No data regarding bird viscera were identified. Our findings indicate a significant disparity in iron content between the viscera and muscle of mammals, with the former exhibiting over six times the iron content (mean of 15.25 mg per 100g) compared to the latter (mean of 2.24 mg per 100g). Contrary to our hypothesis, the iron content in the muscles of birds (mean of 3.75 mg per 100g) and mammals did not significantly differ (p=0.120), with birds, descriptively, demonstrating a nearly 70% higher iron content. This unexpected result may be attributed to the influence of slaughter methods, such as gunshot, which prevents external bleeding, or animal behavior. Our research underscores the necessity of considering slaughter techniques in nutritional assessments of meat. These findings not only contribute to our understanding of nutritional values of wild meat but also prompt further investigation into their role in human diets, especially among IPLC.

Death detector: Using vultures as sentinels to detect carcasses by combining bio‐logging and machine learning

Abstract Bio‐logging technologies allow scientists to remotely monitor animal behaviour and the environment. In this study, we used the combination of natural abilities of African white‐backed vultures Gyps africanus and state‐of‐the‐art bio‐logging technology for detecting and locating carcasses in a vast landscape. We used data from two captive and 27 wild vultures to create a reference data set for the training of a support vector machine to distinguish between six behaviour classes based on acceleration data. Next, we combined the classified behaviour of the initial 27 and 7 additional vultures with GPS data and used the ‘Density‐Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise’ algorithm to cluster all GPS data to get a position of potential feeding locations. Finally, we used the clustered data set to train a Random Forest algorithm to distinguish between clusters with and without a carcass. The behaviour classifier was trained on 14,682 samples for all behaviour classes, which were classified with a high performance (overall precision: 0.95, recall: 0.89). This enabled a ground team to examine 1900 clusters between May 2022 and March 2023 in the field, 580 linked to a carcass and 1320 without a carcass. The cluster classifier trained on this data set was able to correctly distinguish between carcass and no carcass clusters with high performance (overall precision: 0.92, recall: 0.89). Synthesis and applications. We showed that a carcass detection system using vultures, loggers and artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to monitor the mortality of numerous species in a vast landscape. This method has broad applications, such as studying the feeding ecology of vultures, detecting and monitoring of disease outbreaks, environmental poisoning or illegal killing of wildlife. Similar to vultures and carcasses, our methodological framework can be applied to other species to locate their respective food resources. It could also be applied to other types of resources like temporary water sources, roosting sites and to other behaviours such as marking to locate marking sites.

Efficient dual-stream neural networks: A modeling approach for inferring wild mammal behavior from video data

Monitoring animal behavior is crucial for protecting ecosystems, maintaining ecological balance, and improving animal welfare. By utilizing various monitoring devices, a wealth of behavioral data can be collected, which machine learning techniques can then analyze to identify specific behaviors. Artificial neural networks are particularly important in movement ecology. However, current research on animal behavior recognition faces several limitations. Many existing datasets are limited by homogeneous species categories, simplistic environmental conditions, restricted video perspectives, and a lack of alignment with the complexity of real-world environments. Consequently, there is significant room for improvement in the robustness and generalization of automatic animal behavior recognition models. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a diverse dataset of wild mammal behaviors. This dataset includes a wide variety of typical wild mammal species, providing a foundation for enhancing the generality and robustness of recognition models. The videos in this dataset capture different environmental contexts where wild mammals reside, across various times of day. Based on this dataset, a novel and highly efficient wild mammal behavior recognition model, EDNN, is proposed. The EDNN model integrates both temporal and spatial scales and achieves an average recognition accuracy of 79.17 % for basic locomotion behaviors, with a Top-1 accuracy of 81.37 % and a Top-5 accuracy of 98.04 %. These results demonstrate the feasibility of automating animal behavior recognition using large datasets collected from modern monitoring devices. The EDNN model is highly effective for behavior recognition and can be readily applied across diverse species and scenarios. It efficiently processes various video data and contributes to a deeper understanding of the movement ecology of species that are challenging to observe.

Development of a VR360 Ecological System for Learning Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Conservation

The cultures and religious beliefs of Taiwanese indigenous peoples are deeply rooted in ecological protection and environmental ethics. Indigenous peoples emphasize reverence for nature, ecological diversity, sustainable living, resource sharing, and sanctity of nature. Integrating environmental education with indigenous culture can promote biodiversity and ecological conservation while preserving indigenous traditions and fostering sustainable development. This study combined Virtual Reality 360-degree (VR360) technology with indigenous culture to develop a virtual ecological system as a learning tool for environmental education in indigenous elementary schools. The VR360 system simulates the ecological environments of Chichiawan Creek and the Atayal Nanshan Tribe in the mountainous regions of northern Taiwan to provide students with immersive experiences that enhance their learning interest and motivation. Through interactive operations, they can observe the appearance, characteristics, and habitual behaviors of Formosan Landlocked Salmon and other conservation animals to understand the relationship between maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance. The VR360 ecological system enhances learning effectiveness and motivation using low-cost cardboard glasses, making it suitable for promoting indigenous culture and environmental education while reducing the digital divide in remote tribal areas.