Ubiquitous Animal Research Articles

Himalayan birds that show the greatest elevational shifts remain within the narrowest thermal regimes

AbstractAimElevational migration is a globally ubiquitous animal behaviour. Understanding the mechanisms that drive variation in elevational movement can help explain the evolution of this widespread animal behaviour and its role in shaping montane life history. We examine the role of thermal regime (the intra‐annual variation in temperature experienced by a species), dispersal ability and diet in explaining the extent of elevational movements.LocationEastern and Western Himalayas.Time Period2011–2022.Major Taxa StudiedBirds.MethodsWe used community science data from eBird to acquire checklist‐based observations of birds and used comprehensive data cleaning procedures and randomization tests to produce estimates of seasonal elevational shifts for 302 species of Himalayan birds. Using these data, we ran phylogenetic least squares regressions (PGLS) to test if the extent of elevational shift is driven by thermal regime, dispersal ability and diet.ResultsMost Himalayan birds (up to 65%) showed downslope shifts in the winter, although some (5%‐10%) low elevation species shifted upslope. Elevational shift was negatively associated with a species' thermal regime. Species that showed the greatest elevational shifts in both eastern and western Himalayas moved within the narrowest intra‐annual temperature regimes, but did not match their breeding range temperatures as closely as possible. Diet influenced elevational shift in both eastern and western Himalayas, while dispersal ability did not drive elevational shifts.Main ConclusionsSpecies that show the biggest elevational shifts track thermal regimes most closely. However, in addition to tracking thermal regimes, diet and potentially habitat availability/preferences may drive seasonal elevational shifts. Our results show convergent evolution of elevational shifts across clades. Low elevation habitats are important not only for conserving low elevation birds but also for conserving wintering sites of most high elevation breeders.

An Authentic Demonstration of the Mark–Recapture Technique Using Ant Colonies

The mark–recapture technique paired with the Lincoln–Peterson index is a commonly used method of estimating the size of animal populations in ecological research. However, this technique is difficult to emulate in an educational setting due to the logistical constraints inherent to the process of capturing and marking live animals. As a result, most lessons on mark–recapture use captive animals or inanimate objects as the focal population. This approach may give students an inaccurate understanding of the potential applications and limitations of the mark–recapture technique. Here, we describe an authentic application of the mark–recapture technique that allows students to gain hands-on experience with the method on naturally occurring ant colonies, a ubiquitous animal system. By participating in this lesson, students will directly engage with the mark–recapture technique to estimate the number of individuals within ant colonies and will learn about the natural history of ants in the process.

High-throughput phenotyping of infection by diverse microsporidia species reveals a wild C. elegans strain with opposing resistance and susceptibility traits.

Animals are under constant selective pressure from a myriad of diverse pathogens. Microsporidia are ubiquitous animal parasites, but the influence they exert on shaping animal genomes is mostly unknown. Using multiplexed competition assays, we measured the impact of four different species of microsporidia on 22 wild isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans. This resulted in the identification and confirmation of 13 strains with significantly altered population fitness profiles under infection conditions. One of these identified strains, JU1400, is sensitive to an epidermal-infecting species by lacking tolerance to infection. JU1400 is also resistant to an intestinal-infecting species and can specifically recognize and destroy this pathogen. Genetic mapping of JU1400 demonstrates that these two opposing phenotypes are caused by separate loci. Transcriptional analysis reveals the JU1400 sensitivity to epidermal microsporidia infection results in a response pattern that shares similarity to toxin-induced responses. In contrast, we do not observe JU1400 intestinal resistance being regulated at the transcriptional level. The transcriptional response to these four microsporidia species is conserved, with C. elegans strain-specific differences in potential immune genes. Together, our results show that phenotypic differences to microsporidia infection amongst C. elegans are common and that animals can evolve species-specific genetic interactions.

Computer-Aided Drug Design Boosts RAS Inhibitor Discovery.

The Rat Sarcoma (RAS) family (NRAS, HRAS, and KRAS) is endowed with GTPase activity to regulate various signaling pathways in ubiquitous animal cells. As proto-oncogenes, RAS mutations can maintain activation, leading to the growth and proliferation of abnormal cells and the development of a variety of human cancers. For the fight against tumors, the discovery of RAS-targeted drugs is of high significance. On the one hand, the structural properties of the RAS protein make it difficult to find inhibitors specifically targeted to it. On the other hand, targeting other molecules in the RAS signaling pathway often leads to severe tissue toxicities due to the lack of disease specificity. However, computer-aided drug design (CADD) can help solve the above problems. As an interdisciplinary approach that combines computational biology with medicinal chemistry, CADD has brought a variety of advances and numerous benefits to drug design, such as the rapid identification of new targets and discovery of new drugs. Based on an overview of RAS features and the history of inhibitor discovery, this review provides insight into the application of mainstream CADD methods to RAS drug design.

Importance of sleep for avian vocal communication.

Sleep is one of the few truly ubiquitous animal behaviours, and though many animals spend enormous periods of time asleep, we have only begun to understand the consequences of sleep disturbances. In humans, sleep is crucial for effective communication. Birds are classic models for understanding the evolution and mechanisms of human language and speech. Bird vocalizations are remarkably diverse, critical, fitness-related behaviours, and the way sleep affects vocalizations is likely similarly varied. However, research on the effects of sleep disturbances on avian vocalizations is shockingly scarce. Consequently, there is a critical gap in our understanding of the extent to which sleep disturbances disrupt communication. Here, we argue that sleep disturbances are likely to affect all birds' vocal performance by interfering with motivation, memory consolidation and vocal maintenance. Further, we suggest that quality sleep is likely essential when learning new vocalizations and that sleep disturbances will have especially strong effects on learned vocalizations. Finally, we advocate for future research to address gaps in our understanding of how sleep influences vocal learning and performance in birds.

Codependence of individuals in the Nephromyces species swarm requires heterospecific bacterial endosymbionts

Symbiosis is one of the most important evolutionary processes shaping the biodiversity on Earth. Symbiotic associations often bring together organisms from different domains of life, which can provide an unparalleled route to evolutionary innovation.1-4 The phylum Apicomplexa encompasses 6,000 ubiquitous animal parasites; however, species in the recently described apicomplexan family, Nephromycidae, are reportedly non-virulent.5,6 The members of the genus Nephromyces live within a specialized organ of tunicates, called the renal sac, in which they use concentrated uric acid as a primary nitrogen source.7,8 Here, we report genomic and transcriptomic data from the diverse genus Nephromyces, as well as the three bacterial symbionts that live within this species complex. We show that the diversity of Nephromyces is unexpectedly high within each renal sac, with as many as 20 different species inhabiting the renal sacs in wild populations. The many species of Nephromyces can host three different types of bacterial endosymbionts; however, FISH microscopy allowed us to demonstrate that each individual Nephromyces cell hosts only a single bacterial type. Through the reconstruction and analyses of the endosymbiont bacterial genomes, we infer that each bacterial type supplies its host with different metabolites. No individual species of Nephromyces, in combination with its endosymbiont, can produce a complete set of essential amino acids, and culture experiments demonstrate that individual Nephromyces species cannot form a viable infection. Therefore, we hypothesize that Nephromyces spp. depend on co-infection with congeners containing different bacterial symbionts in order to exchange metabolites to meet their needs.

Sea Urchin Polyketide Synthase SpPks1 Produces the Naphthalene Precursor to Echinoderm Pigments.

Nearly every animal species on Earth contains a unique polyketide synthase (PKS) encoded in its genome, yet no animal-clade PKS has been biochemically characterized, and even the chemical products of these ubiquitous enzymes are known in only a few cases. The earliest animal genome-encoded PKS gene to be identified was SpPks1 from sea urchins. Previous genetic knockdown experiments implicated SpPks1 in synthesis of the sea urchin pigment echinochrome. Here, we express and purify SpPks1, performing biochemical experiments to demonstrate that the sea urchin protein is responsible for the synthesis of 2-acetyl-1,3,6,8-tetrahydroxynaphthalene (ATHN). Since ATHN is a plausible precursor of echinochromes, this result defines a biosynthetic pathway to the ubiquitous echinoderm pigments and rewrites the previous hypothesis for echinochrome biosynthesis. Truncation experiments showed that, unlike other type I iterative PKSs so far characterized, SpPks1 produces the naphthalene core using solely ketoacylsynthase (KS), acyltransferase, and acyl carrier protein domains, delineating a unique class of animal nonreducing aromatic PKSs (aPKSs). A series of amino acids in the KS domain define the family and are likely crucial in cyclization activity. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that SpPks1 and its homologs are widespread in echinoderms and their closest relatives, the acorn worms, reinforcing their fundamental importance to echinoderm biology. While the animal microbiome is known to produce aromatic polyketides, this work provides biochemical evidence that animals themselves also harbor ancient, convergent, dedicated pathways to carbocyclic aromatic polyketides. More fundamentally, biochemical analysis of SpPks1 begins to define the vast and unexplored biosynthetic space of the ubiquitous animal PKS family.

A Comparison of Brain-State Dynamics across Common Anesthetic Agents in Male Sprague-Dawley Rats

Anesthesia is a powerful tool in neuroscientific research, especially in sleep research where it has the experimental advantage of allowing surgical interventions that are ethically problematic in natural sleep. Yet, while it is well documented that different anesthetic agents produce a variety of brain states, and consequently have differential effects on a multitude of neurophysiological factors, these outcomes vary based on dosages, the animal species used, and the pharmacological mechanisms specific to each anesthetic agent. Thus, our aim was to conduct a controlled comparison of spontaneous electrophysiological dynamics at a surgical plane of anesthesia under six common research anesthetics using a ubiquitous animal model, the Sprague-Dawley rat. From this direct comparison, we also evaluated which anesthetic agents may serve as pharmacological proxies for the electrophysiological features and dynamics of unconscious states such as sleep and coma. We found that at a surgical plane, pentobarbital, isoflurane and propofol all produced a continuous pattern of burst-suppression activity, which is a neurophysiological state characteristically observed during coma. In contrast, ketamine-xylazine produced synchronized, slow-oscillatory activity, similar to that observed during slow-wave sleep. Notably, both urethane and chloral hydrate produced the spontaneous, cyclical alternations between forebrain activation (REM-like) and deactivation (non-REM-like) that are similar to those observed during natural sleep. Thus, choice of anesthesia, in conjunction with continuous brain state monitoring, are critical considerations in order to avoid brain-state confounds when conducting neurophysiological experiments.

Dietary cardenolides enhance growth and change the direction of the fecundity-longevity trade-off in milkweed bugs (Heteroptera: Lygaeinae).

Sequestration, that is, the accumulation of plant toxins into body tissues for defense, was predicted to incur physiological costs and may require resistance traits different from those of non‐sequestering insects. Alternatively, sequestering species could experience a cost in the absence of toxins due to selection on physiological homeostasis under permanent exposure of sequestered toxins in body tissues. Milkweed bugs (Heteroptera: Lygaeinae) sequester high amounts of plant‐derived cardenolides. Although being potent inhibitors of the ubiquitous animal enzyme Na+/K+‐ATPase, milkweed bugs can tolerate cardenolides by means of resistant Na+/K+‐ATPases. Both adaptations, resistance and sequestration, are ancestral traits of the Lygaeinae. Using four milkweed bug species (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae: Lygaeinae) and the related European firebug (Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae: Pyrrhocoris apterus) showing different combinations of the traits “cardenolide resistance” and “cardenolide sequestration,” we tested how the two traits affect larval growth upon exposure to dietary cardenolides in an artificial diet system. While cardenolides impaired the growth of P. apterus nymphs neither possessing a resistant Na+/K+‐ATPase nor sequestering cardenolides, growth was not affected in the non‐sequestering milkweed bug Arocatus longiceps, which possesses a resistant Na+/K+‐ATPase. Remarkably, cardenolides increased growth in the sequestering dietary specialists Caenocoris nerii and Oncopeltus fasciatus but not in the sequestering dietary generalist Spilostethus pandurus, which all possess a resistant Na+/K+‐ATPase. We furthermore assessed the effect of dietary cardenolides on additional life history parameters, including developmental speed, longevity of adults, and reproductive success in O. fasciatus. Unexpectedly, nymphs under cardenolide exposure developed substantially faster and lived longer as adults. However, fecundity of adults was reduced when maintained on cardenolide‐containing diet for their entire lifetime but not when adults were transferred to non‐toxic sunflower seeds. We speculate that the resistant Na+/K+‐ATPase of milkweed bugs is selected for working optimally in a “toxic environment,” that is, when sequestered cardenolides are stored in the body.

Environmental Correlates of Prevalence of an Intraerythrocytic Apicomplexan Infecting Caribbean Damselfish

Parasites are an integral part of coral reef ecosystems due to their influences on population dynamics, biodiversity, community structure, and food web connectivity. The Phylum Apicomplexa contains ubiquitous animal associates including the causative agents of globally important human diseases such as malaria and cryptosporidiosis. Despite their ubiquity, little is known about the biology, ecology, or distribution of these microorganisms in natural animal populations. In the US Virgin Islands, the dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus) had a high but variable incidence of a Haemohormidium-like blood apicomplexan among 30 sites sampled. Microscopic analyses of blood smears allowed us to group these fish as infected, having low intensity infections, or uninfected. Regression analyses detected no significant differences in the condition indices (expressed as length–mass ratio). However, infection was clearly associated with potentially extremely high leukocyte counts among infected S. adustus that were not seen in uninfected fish. These results suggested the potential for some impact on the host. Linear mixed effects models indicated that S. adustus population density and meridional flow velocity were the main predictors of apicomplexan prevalence, with presence of other Stegastes species, population distance from watershed, zonal flow velocity, the complexity of the surrounding habitat, and season not showing any significant relationship with fish infection.

HEPATIC HYDATID CYST RUPTURED INTRABILIARY IN A 28-YEAR-OLD HIV POSITIVE PATIENT

Echinococcosis is an endemic disease in countries from the Mediterranean area, Eastern Europe, the Middle and the Far East, Australia, South America and Eastern Africa. However, it has a worldwide distribution because the dog, a definitive host, is a ubiquitous animal. Another important factor that led to a worldwide spread of the disease is population migration, as the number of cases in non-endemic regions has been increasing. We present the case of a 28-year-old HIV positive patient suffering from a liver hydatid cyst that had ruptured inside the biliary pathways. US and CT were the imaging tools used to establish a preoperatory diagnosis and the main therapeutic approach was neutralizing the parasite using 90 degrees alcohol, Lagot deroofing, contents’ evacuation through open surgery and appropriate drainage afterward. ERCP was very useful in unblocking the main biliary pathways after the surgery as well as installing a stent to ensure its further permeability.

Can the Pain of Vystopia Help to Create a More Compassionate World?

Can the Pain of Vystopia Help to Create a More Compassionate World?

Female Social Feedback Reveals Non-imitative Mechanisms of Vocal Learning in Zebra Finches

Learning of song in birds provides a powerful model for human speech development [1-3]. However, the degree to which songbirds and humans share social mechanisms of vocal learning is unknown. Although it has been demonstrated as a vocal learning mechanism in human infants [3-6], learning via active social feedback is considered rare and atypical among non-human animals [7]. We report here the first evidence that song learning in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), the most common model species of vocal learning and development, utilizes socially guided vocal learning. We demonstrate experimentally that the songs of juvenile zebra finches areguided toward mature vocal forms by real-time visual feedback from adult females that is contingent ontheir early, immature vocalizations. Using a video playback paradigm, we found that juvenile birds that received non-vocal female feedback contingently ontheir immature song learned significantly better and more accurate song than did yoked controls that received identical but non-contingent feedback.Both contingent and non-contingent groups sang at similar rates. Thus, we have provided the firstevidence suggesting that non-imitative social learning is a crucial, potentially widespread mechanism of vocal development and have established afoundational parallel between humans and our most ubiquitous animal model of vocal learning: the crucial role of social feedback to immature vocalizations in the development of communication.

Developmental Manipulations of Female Social Feedback Reveal Nonimitative Mechanisms of Vocal Learning in Songbirds

Learning of song in birds provides a powerful model for human speech development. However, the degree to which songbirds and humans share social mechanisms of vocal learning is unknown. Although it has been demonstrated as a vocal learning mechanism in human infants, learning via active social feedback is considered rare and atypical among non-human animals. We report here the first evidence that song learning in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), the most common model species of vocal learning and development, utilizes socially guided vocal learning. We demonstrate experimentally that the songs of juvenile zebra finches are guided towards mature vocal forms by real-time visual feedback from adult females that is contingent on their early, immature vocalizations. Using a video playback paradigm, we found that juvenile birds that received non-vocal female feedback contingently on their immature song learned significantly better and more accurate song than did yoked controls that received identical but non-contingent feedback. Both contingent and non-contingent groups sang at similar rates. Thus we have provided the first evidence suggesting that non-imitative social learning is a crucial, potentially widespread mechanism of vocal development, and have established a foundational parallel between humans and our most ubiquitous animal model of vocal learning – the crucial role of social feedback to immature vocalizations in the development of communication.

Habitat disturbance selects against both small and large species across varying climates

Global extinction drivers, including habitat disturbance and climate change, are thought to affect larger species more than smaller species. However, it is unclear if such drivers interact to affect assemblage body size distributions. We asked how these two key global change drivers differentially affect the interspecific size distributions of ants, one of the most abundant and ubiquitous animal groups on earth. We also asked whether there is evidence of synergistic interactions and whether effects are related to species’ trophic roles. We generated a global dataset on ant body size from 333 local ant assemblages collected by the authors across a broad range of climates and in disturbed and undisturbed habitats. We used head length (range: 0.22–4.55 mm) as a surrogate of body size and classified species to trophic groups. We used generalized linear models to test whether body size distributions changed with climate and disturbance, independent of species richness. Our analysis yielded three key results: 1) climate and disturbance showed independent associations with body size; 2) assemblages included more small species in warmer climates and fewer large species in wet climates; and 3) both the largest and smallest species were absent from disturbed ecosystems, with predators most affected in both cases. Our results indicate that temperature, precipitation and disturbance have differing effects on the body size distributions of local communities, with no evidence of synergistic interactions. Further, both large and small predators may be vulnerable to global change, particularly through habitat disturbance.

Dose-response study of topical allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) as a human surrogate model of pain, hyperalgesia, and neurogenic inflammation.

Despite being a ubiquitous animal pain model, the natural TRPA1-agonist allyl isothiocyanate (AITC, also known as "mustard oil") has only been sparsely investigated as a potential human surrogate model of pain, sensitization, and neurogenic inflammation. Its dose-response as an algogenic, sensitizing irritant remains to be elucidated in human skin. Three concentrations of AITC (10%, 50%, and 90%) and vehicle (paraffin) were applied for 5 minutes to 3 × 3 cm areas on the volar forearms in 14 healthy volunteers, and evoked pain intensity (visual analog scale 0-100 mm) and pain quality were assessed. In addition, a comprehensive battery of quantitative sensory tests was conducted, including assessment of mechanical and thermal sensitivity. Neurogenic inflammation was quantified using full-field laser perfusion imaging. Erythema and hyperpigmentation were assessed before, immediately after, and ≈64 hours after AITC exposure. AITC induced significant dose-dependent, moderate-to-severe spontaneous burning pain, mechanical and heat hyperalgesia, and dynamic mechanical allodynia (P < 0.05). No significant differences in induced pain hypersensitivity were observed between the 50% and 90% AITC concentrations. Acute and prolonged inflammation was evoked by all concentrations, and assessments by full-field laser perfusion imaging demonstrated a significant dose-dependent increase with a ceiling effect from 50% to 90%. Topical AITC application produces pain and somatosensory sensitization in a dose-dependent manner with optimal concentrations recommended to be >10% and ≤50%. The model is translatable to humans and could be useful in pharmacological proof-of-concept studies of TRPA1-antagonists, analgesics, and anti-inflammatory compounds or for exploratory clinical purposes, eg, loss- or gain-of-function in peripheral neuropathies.

Dynamic polarization vision in mantis shrimps.

Gaze stabilization is an almost ubiquitous animal behaviour, one that is required to see the world clearly and without blur. Stomatopods, however, only fix their eyes on scenes or objects of interest occasionally. Almost uniquely among animals they explore their visual environment with a series pitch, yaw and torsional (roll) rotations of their eyes, where each eye may also move largely independently of the other. In this work, we demonstrate that the torsional rotations are used to actively enhance their ability to see the polarization of light. Both Gonodactylus smithii and Odontodactylus scyllarus rotate their eyes to align particular photoreceptors relative to the angle of polarization of a linearly polarized visual stimulus, thereby maximizing the polarization contrast between an object of interest and its background. This is the first documented example of any animal displaying dynamic polarization vision, in which the polarization information is actively maximized through rotational eye movements.

A parasite's phospholipid

Lipid Biochemistry![Figure][1] Evolution of a new phospholid led Toxoplasma gondii to parasitism PHOTO: EYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE SOURCE The phospholipid repertoire used in animal cell membranes is surprisingly limited, but another candidate has emerged. During investigations on virulence in the ubiquitous animal and human protist parasite Toxoplasma gondii , Arroyo-Olarte et al. identified phosphatidylthreonine (PtdThr) as an abundant constituent. A small evolutionary accident seems to have allowed T. gondii to become parasitic by shifting from phosphatidylserine- to phosphatidylthreonine-based membranes. Although mutant parasites lacking PtdThr can replicate, they are paralyzed and neither able to enter nor exit host cells. PtdThr mutants provoke strong immune responses and look promising as vaccine candidates. Because the synthetic enzyme PtdThr synthase was also characterized, there is scope for drug interventions too. PLOS Biol. 10.13 71/journal.pbio.1002288 (2015). [1]: pending:yes

The Sticky Temptation of Poetry

AbstractSometime around 1900, a fundamental shift occurred in the way animals were represented in works of Western literature, art, and philosophy. Authors began to write about animals in a way that was unheard-of or even unimaginable in previous epochs. Traditionally, animals had fulfilled a symbolic, allegorical, or satirical function. But in the period around the turn of the twentieth century these animals begin, as it were, to »misbehave« or to »resist« the metaphorical values attributed to them. There is a conspicuous abundance of animals in the literature of this period, and this animal presence is frequently characterised by a profound and troubling ambiguity, which is often more or less explicitly linked to the problem of writing, representation, and language – specifically poetic or metaphorical language.Taking the Austrian literary scholar Oskar Walzel’s 1918 essay »Neue Dichtung vom Tiere« as its starting point, this essay explores the historical and philosophical background of this paradigm shift as well as its implications for the study of animals in literature more generally. Zoopoetics is both an object of study in its own right and a specific methodological and disciplinary problem for literary animal studies: what can the study of animals can contribute to literary studies and vice versa? What can literary animal studies tell us about literature that conventional literary studies might otherwise be blind to? Although animals abound in the literature of almost every geographical area and historical period, traditional literary criticism has been marked by the tendency to disregard this ubiquitous animal presence in literary texts, or else a single-minded determination to read animals exclusively as metaphors and symbols for something else, in short as »animal imagery«, which, as Margot Norris writes, »presupposes the use of the concrete to express the abstract, and indeed, it seem[s] that nowhere in literature [are] animals to be allowed to be themselves« (Norris 1985, 17). But what does it mean for literary theory and criticism to allow animals to »be themselves«? Is it possible to resist the tendency to press animals »into symbolic service« (ibid.) as metaphors and allegories for the human, whilst also avoiding a naïve literalism with respect to the literary animal?The pervasive uneasiness regarding the metaphorical conception of the animal within recent scholarship in animal studies stems from a more general suspicion that such a conception serves ultimately to assimilate the animal to a fundamentally logocentric discourse and hence to reduce »animal problems to a principle that functions within the

Isolation and characterization of 11 microsatellite loci from the ubiquitous temperate octocoral Alcyonium digitatum (Linnaeus, 1758)

We isolated 116 unique microsatellite sequences from an enriched genomic library generated from a single colony of the temperate octocoral Alcyonium digitatum sampled off The Lizard, Cornwall, southwest England. Primer pairs were designed for 54 loci and tested in four individuals from a neighbouring site. Subsequently, 11 polymorphic loci were selected and characterized in 42 individuals sampled from the Isles of Scilly, southwest England. All loci were polymorphic in the Scilly population, with 3–27 alleles per locus and expected heterozygosities of 0.07–0.96. Two loci deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium possibly due to the presence of null alleles. No loci showed significant evidence of linkage disequilibrium following correction for multiple tests. Cross-amplification was assessed in Alcyonium coralloides, Alcyonium acaule and Alcyonium palmatum collected from the French Mediterranean; six loci amplified successfully in at least one other species. These markers should prove useful for future conservation studies of this ubiquitous animal.