Weeks In Captivity Research Articles

PSXIV-6 Feeding Frogs: A Path for Commercial Production without the Need of Live Food

Abstract The United States has had a trade deficit in frog products for almost a century. Most of U.S. supply is imported. In 1971 the U.S. imported 1 million kg of frozen frog legs worth $3.8 million. It imported >2.1 M kg annually in the 1980s. 1990s imports ranged from 500,000 – 1,500,000 kg/yr at $67/kg (Lutz and Avery 1999) (= $8.67 – 10.11 2016$US). This excludes the millions of dollars in animals delivered via laboratory supply houses and the pet trade. The challenge has been how to feed these animals without the need for live foods. No real progress has been made in this arena since the 1960s. We constructed two experiments using freeze-dried insects and pelleted diets. One used individually-housed juvenile American Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) and the other, group-housed Northern Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens). We did not attempt group housing with bullfrogs due to their availability at that time. Frogs were conditioned to feeding on live foods in captivity and then we attempted to transition them to alternate foods. Although individually-housed bullfrogs adapted to eating live foods within one week in captivity, we were unable to transition them to non-living foods during this investigation. However, we were able to transition 100% of Northern Leopard frogs tested to rehydrated freeze-dried crickets within a few days. Northern Leopard Frogs maintained body condition (body mass/snout-vent length) feeding entirely on rehydrated freeze-dried crickets throughout the study period (25 days) (r2 = 0.003, s = 0.105, P = 0.743). Transition to pelleted diets was unsuccessful. Frogs only occasionally accepted dry pellets and more regularly took them after soaking in water that was previously used to rehydrate dried crickets. This suggests our pellets lacked taste or odor traits attractive to Northern Leopard Frogs. Ultimately, the use of rehydrated, freeze-dried prey may prove an economically viable alternative to live foods.

No Guts About It: Captivity, But Not Neophobia Phenotype, Influences the Cloacal Microbiome of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus).

SynopsisBehavioral traits such as anxiety and depression have been linked to diversity of the gut microbiome in humans, domesticated animals, and lab-bred model species, but the extent to which this link exists in wild animals, and thus its ecological relevance, is poorly understood. We examined the relationship between a behavioral trait (neophobia) and the cloacal microbiome in wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus,n = 22) to determine whether gut microbial diversity is related to personality in a wild animal. We swabbed the cloaca immediately upon capture, assessed neophobia phenotypes in the lab, and then swabbed the cloaca again after several weeks in captivity to additionally test whether the microbiome of different personality types is affected disparately by captivity, and characterized gut microbiomes using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We did not detect differences in cloacal alpha or beta microbial diversity between neophobic and non-neophobic house sparrows, and diversity for both phenotypes was negatively impacted by captivity. Although our results suggest that the adult cloacal microbiome and neophobia are not strongly linked in wild sparrows, we did detect specific OTUs that appeared more frequently and at higher abundances in neophobic sparrows, suggesting that links between the gut microbiome and behavior may occur at the level of specific taxa. Further investigations of personality and the gut microbiome are needed in more wild species to reveal how the microbiome-gut-brain axis and behavior interact in an ecological context.

The mitochondrial activity of leukocytes from Artibeus jamaicensis bats remains unaltered after several weeks of flying restriction

Bats are the only flying mammals known. They have longer lifespan than other mammals of similar size and weight and can resist high loads of many pathogens, mostly viruses, with no signs of disease. These distinctive characteristics have been attributed to their metabolic rate that is thought to be the result of their flying lifestyle. Compared with non-flying mammals, bats have lower production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and high levels of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase. This anti-oxidative vs. oxidative profile may help to explain bat's longer than expected lifespans.The aim of this study was to assess the effect that a significant reduction in flying has on bats leukocytes mitochondrial activity. This was assessed using samples of lymphoid and myeloid cells from peripheral blood from Artibeus jamaicensis bats shortly after capture and up to six weeks after flying deprivation. Mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm), mitochondrial calcium (mCa2+), and mitochondrial ROS (mROS) were used as key indicators of mitochondrial activity, while total ROS and glucose uptake were used as additional indicators of cell metabolism.Results showed that total ROS and glucose uptake were statistically significantly lower at six weeks of flying deprivation (p < 0.05), in both lymphoid and myeloid cells, however no significant changes in mitochondrial activity associated with flying deprivation was observed (p > 0.05).These results suggest that bat mitochondria are stable to sudden changes in physical activity, at least up to six weeks of flying deprivation. However, decrease in total ROS and glucose uptake in myeloid cells after six weeks of captivity suggest a compensatory mechanism due to the lack of the highly metabolic demands associated with flying.

Variation of Hematochemical Profile and Vitamin E Status in Feral Giara Horses From Free Grazing in the Wild to Hay Feeding During Captivity

Wildlife protection and management are important priorities for landscape identity and biodiversity preservation. Feeding practices of fauna confined in facilities during temporary captivity are fundamental to support animal health and natural behavior. Appropriate provision of feedstuffs appears to be necessary to support the best practices in respect of animal species-specific natural diet. This investigation explored the variation of the metabolic profile by means of selected metabolite and respective circulating levels in a group feral Giara horses undergoing the change of the diet, moving from natural free grazing in the wild to temporary captivity. Six Giara horses (4 mares and 2 stallions; estimated age: 2.5–3 years; body weight: 163–170 kg) were captured to monitor the serological reaction to equine infectious anemia (EIA; screening at Coggins test). Animals were sheltered in a wildlife rescue center for a duration of 4 weeks, and all received the same hay-based diet (ad libitum). On 0 and 28 days of captivity, blood serum alpha-tocopherol (α-TOH) concentration was determined alongside selected metabolites (liver enzymes, total protein and fractions, cholesterol, triglycerides, and macrominerals and trace elements). Comparative feces quality and composition were also assessed. Both serum samples (0 vs. 28 days) displayed α-TOH levels below (<2 μg/mL) adequacy established for the domestic horse. Initial levels markedly (P = .020) decreased after the 4 weeks of captivity (Δ = −32.5%). Vitamin E status and ALT levels varied significantly, but serum protein fractions did not point to significant variations before and after captivity. All horses tested negative to EIA. Monitoring of vitamin E status of wild and feral herbivores may be recommendable in the context of adequate feeding practices during captivity to prevent potential deficiency or excessive depletion.

Microbiomes in the insectivorous bat species Mops condylurus rapidly converge in captivity.

Bats are well known reservoir hosts for RNA and DNA viruses. The use of captive bats in research has intensified over the past decade as researchers aim to examine the virus-reservoir host interface. In this study, we investigated the effects of captivity on the fecal bacterial microbiome of an insectivorous microbat, Mops condylurus, a species that roosts in close proximity to humans and has likely transmitted viral infections to humans. Using amplicon 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we characterized changes in fecal bacterial community composition for individual bats directly at the time of capture and again after six weeks in captivity. We found that microbial community richness by measure of the number of observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in bat feces increases in captivity. Importantly, we found the similarity of microbial community structures of fecal microbiomes between different bats to converge during captivity. We propose a six week-acclimatization period prior to carrying out infection studies or other research influenced by the microbiome composition, which may be advantageous to reduce variation in microbiome composition and minimize biological variation inherent to in vivo experimental studies.

The effects of daily mitotane or diazepam treatment on the formation of chronic stress symptoms in newly captured wild house sparrows.

Wild animals brought into captivity frequently experience chronic stress and typically need a period of time to adjust to the conditions of captivity (restraint, artificial lighting, altered diet, human presence, etc.), to which they may never fully acclimate. Changes in mass, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and heart rate parameters have been observed over the first week in newly captive house sparrows (Passer domesticus). In this study, we tested the effects of two drugs, diazepam and mitotane, in preventing the chronic stress symptoms caused by captivity, compared with oil-injected control animals. Diazepam is an anxiolytic that is widely prescribed in humans and other animals and has been shown in some cases to reduce physiological stress. Mitotane is an agent that causes chemical adrenalectomy, reducing the body's capacity to produce glucocorticoid hormones. Our mitotane treatment did not cause the expected change in corticosterone concentrations. Baseline corticosterone was higher after a week in captivity regardless of the treatment group, while stress-induced corticosterone did not significantly increase above baseline after a week in captivity in any treatment group. However, mitotane treatment did have some physiological effects, as it reduced the resting heart rate and the duration of the heart rate response to a sudden noise. It also prevented the increase in nighttime activity that we observed in control animals. There was no effect of diazepam on corticosterone, resting heart rate, activity or heart rate response to a sudden noise, and no effect of either treatment on the sympathetic vs parasympathetic control of the resting heart rate. Together, these data suggest that mitotane, but not diazepam, can have a modest impact on helping house sparrows adapt to captive conditions. Easing the transition to captivity will likely make conservation efforts, such as initiating captive breeding programs, more successful.

Changes in body mass of postweaning juveniles of the edible dormouse,Glis glis (L.), in captivity

Edible dormice have to accumulate an adequate amount of body fat before hibernation. Because young dormice are born late in the season, they have a relatively short time for prehibernation fattening. The aim of our study was a) to determine what body mass juveniles reach prior to hibernation, and b) to examine patterns of mass gain in juvenile dormice with unlimited food supply. Dormice were kept in outdoor cages, fitted with wooden boxes and with the floor covered with soil suitable for hibernation. They were provided with water and fed ad libitum. They were weighed every 5-8 days. Of 34 juveniles (17 males and 17 females; 26 born in captivity and 8 caught in the wild), 22 began hibernation in underground cavities. The mean body mass of juveniles prior to hibernation was 89.7 $\pm$ 14.8 g. The mean daily mass gain was 0.82 g. The range of mass change varied from -4.00 to 5.71 g/day. Wild-caught juveniles most quickly gained mass during the first week in captivity with a mean rate of 4.54 g/day. We found that prior to hibernation body mass of juvenile dormice was lower than it was expected according to the literature. We show that fluctuations of body mass can be high, even in a short period of time.

Chronic stress and the introduction to captivity: How wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus) adjust to laboratory conditions

The conditions of captivity can cause chronic stress in wild animals. Newly-captured animals may experience weight loss, elevated glucocorticoid hormones, increased heart rate, increased resting adrenomedullary activation, and an altered heart rate response to acute stressors. As captivity conditions persist, chronic stress may decrease as animals adjust to the stressors of captivity. In this study, house sparrows (Passer domesticus) were captured from the wild, fitted with heart rate transmitters in a minor surgical process, and individually housed in an indoor bird facility. Mass, baseline corticosterone, resting heart rate, resting adrenomedullary activation, and the acute heart rate response to a sudden noise were measured over the course of the first 6 weeks of captivity. Birds lost weight during the first weeks of captivity, which was regained by week 5. Baseline corticosterone peaked at day 7, decreased sharply by day 11, and continued to decrease throughout the 6 weeks. Although heart rate in the first 24 h could not be collected, daytime heart rate decreased from day 1 through day 20, where it reached a stable plateau. Daytime heart rate variability decreased through the entire 6 weeks, which may indicate a gradual shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system regulation of heart rate. The acute heart rate response to a sudden noise lasted longer at day 6 than earlier or later in captivity. In conclusion, the data indicate that the different physiological systems associated with chronic stress adjust to captivity over different timelines.

Corticosterone transdermal application in toads (Rhinella icterica): Effects on cellular and humoral immunity and steroid plasma levels.

Previous studies in a variety of vertebrates show stressed animals to exhibit acute increases in glucocorticoid levels, with consequences for immune modulation. Chronically elevated glucocorticoid levels are mostly associated with immunosuppression. However, there is still a paucity of knowledge regarding the amphibian physiological reaction to short- and long-term stress conditions, including glucocorticoid effects on the immune response. In order to better clarify the relationship between glucocorticoids and immune response, newly captured Brazilian toads (Rhinella icterica) (1 week in captivity) were subjected to a daily transdermal application (TA), of corticosterone or vehicle, for 30 consecutive days. Measures were made on the first day (acute stressor) and last day (chronic stressor), at timepoints 1, 6, and 12 hr post TA. A number of variables were analyzed: corticosterone plasma levels (CORT); neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (N:L); testosterone plasma levels (T); innate immune response, as indicated by bacterial killing ability (BKA); and whole blood phagocytosis. The corticosterone TA only simulated hormonal changes associated with the acute stress response, even after 30 consecutive days of the treatment, with the increased CORT in response after corticosterone TA being evident only 1 hr postapplication and not thereafter. The general responses to corticosterone TA included increased CORT and N:L at first day of the treatment, and increased CORT and phagocytosis on the last day of the treatment. A decrease in T and BKA associated with the time in captivity was also evident, suggesting that captivity may be a chronic stressor for these toads.

Experimentally reducing corticosterone mitigates rapid captivity effects on behavior, but not body composition, in a wild bird

Wild animals and captives display physiological and behavioral differences, and it has been hypothesized, but rarely tested, that these differences are caused by sustained elevation of the hormone corticosterone. We used repeated computed tomography (CT) imaging to examine body composition changes in breeding male and female wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus; n=20) in response to two weeks of captivity, and assessed behavioral changes using video recordings. Half of the birds received the drug mitotane, which significantly decreased stress-induced corticosterone titers compared to controls. Based on the CT images, fat volumes increased, and pectoralis muscle density and heart and testes volumes decreased, over the two weeks of captivity in both groups of birds. However, beak-wiping, a behavior that can indicate anxiety and aggression, showed increased occurrence in controls compared to mitotane-treated birds. While our results do not support the hypothesis that these body composition changes were primarily driven by stress-induced corticosterone, our data suggest that experimentally reducing stress-induced corticosterone may mitigate some captivity-induced behavioral changes. Broadly, our results emphasize that researchers should take behavioral and physiological differences between free-living animals and captives into consideration when designing studies and interpreting results. Further, time in captivity should be minimized when birds will be reintroduced back to the wild.

The use of α- or β-blockers to ameliorate the chronic stress of captivity in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus).

When wild animals are brought into captivity for the first time, they frequently develop chronic stress symptoms. Animals can develop glucocorticoid dysregulation or changes in the sympathetic nervous system over the course of the first week in captivity. By blocking the action of epinephrine and norepinephrine using α- or β-blockers, we hoped to reduce the degree of chronic stress symptoms exhibited by newly captured house sparrows. We measured corticosterone, heart rate and heart rate variability in 24 house sparrows (Passer domesticus) over the first week of captivity. The birds were treated with saline, propranolol (a β-blocker) or phentolamine (an α-blocker) for the first 3days of captivity. We also compared newly captured animals with animals that had been held in captivity for 1month. During the first week of captivity, baseline corticosterone increased, but that increase was blocked by propranolol. Heart rate was not different between the treatment groups, but it was higher during the first week than after 1month in captivity. Sympathetic nervous system activity (as measured by heart rate variability) decreased over the first week of captivity, but was not affected by treatment. β-Blockers, but not α-blockers, might help to improve some symptoms of chronic stress in newly captured animals.

Physiological flexibility in an avian range expansion

The mechanisms that enable animals to colonize new areas are little known, but growing evidence indicates that the regulation of stress hormones is important. Stress hormones probably influence invasions because they enable organisms to adjust their phenotypes depending on environmental context. Often, studies of stress hormones are based on single or a few samples from individuals even though the flexibility in the regulation of such hormones is what enables them to achieve homeostasis and facilitate performance. Here, we asked whether flexibility in the regulation of one stress hormone, corticosterone, was related to colonization success in one of the world’s most successful avian invaders, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). We studied Kenyan house sparrows, as the species was recently introduced there (around 1950) and has since expanded northwestward. Previous work in this system revealed that younger populations released more corticosterone during a restraint stressor than older populations. Our first goal was to discern whether such population differences were fixed or flexible in adulthood; our second goal was to determine whether individual identity explained any variation in corticosterone regulation. As before, we found that corticosterone responses to short-term restraint (i.e., stress responses), but not baseline corticosterone, were larger in younger populations. We also found that both baseline and stress-induced corticosterone measures were flexible; both metrics became similar among sites after one week of captivity. For stress responses, we also found that individual identity was important. Altogether, the present data suggest that the colonization of Kenya by house sparrows might have been facilitated by stress hormone regulatory flexibility.

Henneguya sp. in yellowfin goby Acanthogobius flavimanus from the San Francisco Estuary.

Myxozoan spores were observed in yellowfin goby Acanthogobius flavimanus collected from Suisun Marsh, San Francisco Estuary (SFE). Although histopathological changes associated with the parasite were not observed, the spores formed plasmodia that partially blocked the gastric and intestinal mucosa and gut lumen and may affect the perfomance and survival of the yellowfin goby. Morphological features of the spores resembled Henneguya sp. and molecular analysis of the 18S ribosomal DNA (Domain III) confirmed close similarity to H. rhinogobii and H. pseudorhinogobii isolated from the Japanese freshwater goby. The yellowfin goby myxozoan however, is likely an undescribed species based on phylogenetic analysis and morphologic features. Detailed description of vegetative and spore stages are currently lacking for proposal to a new species of Henneguya. A specific PCR test was developed, which confirmed a 100% prevalence of the parasite among randomly collected gobies in group 1 (N = 30) and group 2 (N = 15) at termination of the study at one month in captivity. The myxozoan was also detected from 18 gobies (12%) that died in the first group within two weeks in captivity. Apparently healthy gobies that served as controls did not reveal the presence of the myxozoan by PCR. This study documents the occurrence of a potentially new species of myxozoan in the yellowfin goby and underscores the detection of a parasitic infection in an introduced fish in the SFE. Although the pathogenesis of the myxozoan was not assessed and the prevalence as reported here is restricted to a comparatively small collection site in Suisun slough, the reemergence, identification, and ecological relevance of the parasite on goby populations in the SFE may be investigated in the future using the specific diagnostic tool developed in this study.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-420) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Short-term captivity influences maximal cold-induced metabolic rates and their repeatability in summer-acclimatized American goldfinches Spinus tristis

Abstract Studies of metabolic variation in birds have involved both wild and captive individuals, but few studies have investigated whether captivity directly influences metabolic rates, despite such variation potentially confounding conclusions regarding how metabolic rates respond to the conditions under study. In addition, whether short-term captivity influences metabolic rate repeatability in birds is currently uninvestigated. In this study, we measured Msum (maximal cold-induced metabolic rates) in summer acclimatized American goldfinches Spinus tristis directly after capture from wild populations, after approximately 2 weeks of indoor captivity (Captive 1), and again after an additional 1–2 weeks of captivity (Captive 2). Msum increased significantly (16.9%) following the initial captive period, but remained stable thereafter. Body mass (Mb) also increased significantly (9.2%) during the initial captive period but remained stable thereafter, suggesting that muscle growth and/or remodeling of body composition produced the observed metabolic variation. Mb and Msum were not significantly repeatable between wild and Captive 1 birds, but were significantly repeatable between Captive 1 and Captive 2 groups. These data suggest that caution must be exercised when extrapolating metabolic rates from short-term captive to wild populations. In addition, Msum was a repeatable trait for birds under conditions where mean metabolic rates remained stable, but Msum repeatability disappeared during acclimation to conditions promoting phenotypically flexible metabolic responses. This suggests that the capacity for phenotypic flexibility varies among individuals, and such variation could have fitness consequences.

An Effective Method for Maintaining the African Termite-Raiding AntPachycondyla analisin the Laboratory

Pachycondyla analis Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is a common African Ponerine ant that organizes group raids on termites considered a huge burden to agriculture. This ant has been the subject of various entomological and natural history studies aimed at understanding their group raiding behaviour and impact on the ecosystem as well as the roles they play in regulating field termite populations. However, colony maintenance under laboratory conditions for long-term research purposes has largely been unsuccessful. Herein, we report an effective method for maintaining P. analis in the laboratory for long-term studies that may include behavioural, life history and chemical ecology. Using a simple set-up made up of a Perspex foraging arena and an aluminum nest box in the laboratory, queen right colonies were successfully maintained for an average of 27.0 ± 6.0 weeks and a maximum of 34 weeks before declining. High ant mortality (6–48 %) was observed in the first week of captivity in the laboratory. This declined to a weekly mortality of 4.0 ± 3.6 % (24 ± 22.5 ants per colony) after the ants had settled in their new laboratory nest. Therefore, using our laboratory rearing set-up, and keeping laboratory conditions similar to those in the field, as well as feeding P. analis on its usual diet of termites, could increase colony survival time up to 4.5 times longer than previously reported rearing protocols.

Faecal 11-ketoetiocholanolone measurement in Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus): validation of methodology using HPLC–MS/MS

A cortisol metabolite, 11-ketoetiocholanolone (11-k), is widely used in monitoring stress in several vertebrates, and can be detected by immunoassay. However, these assays have certain limitations with respect to specificity. Also, differences in the excretion of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) among species and even between sexes make validation necessary in each case. Therefore, our aims were, first, to develop and validate a high-pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) methodology for monitoring 11-k in faeces of Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus), and second, to investigate the capability of our method to determine variations of this FGM in a longitudinal study. Third, and finally, we assessed the correspondence between faecal 11-k concentrations and plasma cortisol. An adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) test was performed on six red deer stags translocated and kept in captivity for a week and faecal samples were collected twice a day. One single blood and faecal sample from another seven stags was also collected after 2 weeks in captivity. The results of the longitudinal study showed a first peak in 11-k 36 h after the ACTH test and handling, and a second peak at 120 h of being kept indoors. Maximum concentrations of 11-k ranged from 22.71 to 375.68 ng/g. In the second stag group, 11-k concentrations of 25.09 ± 20.53 ng/g had a correlation of r2 = 0.88 with the concentration of plasma cortisol, which was 54.6 ± 55.1 ng/mL. This technique is capable of detecting changes in the concentrations of faecal 11-k. The values determined have a good correlation with the cortisol concentration in blood, and we also detected differences in different individuals’ responses to the same stressors.

Up and Down with Mary Rowlandson: Erdrich's and Alexie's Versions of “Captivity”

Up and Down with Mary RowlandsonErdrich’s and Alexie’s Versions of “Captivity” Yael Ben-Zvi (bio) In 1984 following the tercentenary of Mary Rowlandson’s 1682 captivity narrative, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Louise Erdrich published a poem entitled “Captivity,” whose speaker the poem’s epigraph identifies as “Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” The next decade saw the quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s first transatlantic voyage and the publication of Sherman Alexie’s narrative poem “Captivity,” which reproduces the title and epigraph of Erdrich’s earlier work. The poems target the Rowlandson legacy, a construct of national memory that owes its cultural intelligibility to the silencing of potentially subversive readings, contexts, and meanings. Like the memory of Columbus, the Rowlandson legacy is composed of recurrent retrospective impositions of illusory semantic stability on a messy past, and Erdrich and Alexie contribute to it critically by complicating the memory, dimensions, and content of that past. As William Spengemann shows, “Columbus” is an unstable label with various meanings that have “changed continually over the centuries,” and while it “always has a referent,” each citation of that label emphasizes one of multiple “referents [that] differ markedly from case to case” (120–22, emphasis in text). Similarly, in the Rowlandson legacy repeated citations over diverse contexts and periods have detached its subject from her particular historical circumstances and reattached her to presentist national concerns. Thus, the immediate local success of Sovereignty and Goodness pales by comparison to its far wider posthumous appeal, which began in the 1770s when Rowlandson was cast as a protonational heroine.1 Mid-twentieth-century [End Page 21] scholars returned to Rowlandson to honor her as founder of the original genre of American literature, and later, feminist scholars recovered her again, casting Rowlandson as a founding mother of US literature and culture.2 Recovery efforts subsided by the century’s end as exceptionalist national perspectives on the genre, book, and author became outmoded,3 but the Rowlandson legacy hasn’t died. In the wake of 9/11, journalist Susan Faludi urged New York Times readers to remember Rowlandson as “key to our own experience” in the face of “the fear of home-soil terrorism” (“America’s” A29).4 Bringing the conflicts that shaped colonial New England to bear on contemporary geopolitics, Faludi classifies seventeenth-century colonization as “our original wilderness experience,” King Philip’s War as “our original war on terror,” and Rowlandson as the “original female captive” (Terror 13, 213, 219). In this typology Rowlandson becomes a harbinger of US liberties while the Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuck anticolonial campaign that subjected her to eleven weeks of captivity is reduced to a precursor of Al Qaeda’s attack. This historical logic fits what Jean M. O’Brien calls “firsting and lasting,” the imagination of New England as the absolute national origin that obliterates indigenous histories. As “the ‘first’ New Englanders are made to disappear,” O’Brien writes, “the colonial regime is constructed as the ‘first’ to bring . . . authentic history to the region” (xv). Since Sovereignty and Goodness made a particularly significant contribution to this process (33), I treat the Rowlandson legacy as the literary version of the historiographic dynamics that O’Brien studies. As Rowlandson was thought to have “inaugurate[d] a native American genre” (Stern 378),5 her “firsting” helped marginalize early Anglophone Native literature, and historian Jill Lepore locates the “lasting legacy” of Sovereignty and Goodness in “the nearly complete veil it has unwittingly placed over the experiences of bondage endured by Algonquian Indians during King Philip’s War” (126). I argue that Erdrich’s and Alexie’s “Captivity” poems pierce this veil by disrupting the exclusively national functions of the legacy’s affective and mnemonic investments. Dean Rader and Robin Riley Fast agree that Native poetry often emphasizes “hybridization” and [End Page 22] “dialogism” (Rader, “Epic” 128; Fast 13), and I foreground Erdrich’s and Alexie’s respective mobilizations of affect and memory in the service of a dialogic critique of hegemonic firsting that challenges the reproduction of historical identification. The creative power of these poems derives from their intriguing expansions of the intertextual networks that sustain the legacy. In terms of Rader’s analysis, they further...

Do schistosomes grow old? A confocal laser scanning microscopy study

Infected hosts progressively decrease egg output during the chronic phase of Schistosoma mansoni infection. Ageing may be a factor that results in a progressive decrease in the ability to reproduce. This study was performed to gain insight into the effects of ageing on adult schistosomes, using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Adult worms were recovered from experimentally infected Nectomys squamipes (water rat). Viable eggs were voided in the faeces for 65 weeks and, thereafter, only unviable eggs were eliminated. The rat died after 70 weeks in captivity. Recovered worms (six males and one female) were prepared for confocal microscopy and images were obtained with an LSM 510-ZETA laser confocal microscope. The overall morphology of the adult worms (suckers and tegument) and reproductive organs were the focus of this work. The suckers, ovary, vitellaria and oocytes appeared to be apparently normal. The ootype was formed by flattened cells and unclear nuclei, suggesting that the mechanism for eggshell production by the ootype during organogenesis might have been impaired. Testicular lobes showed empty areas around the germinative cells. Male adult worms showed flaccid musculature of the dorsal surface. Taken together, the present results provided several indications of infertility in older male and female schistosomes.

Adult diet affects lifespan and reproduction of the fruit‐feeding butterfly Charaxes fulvescens

Fruit-feeding butterflies are among the longest lived Lepidoptera. While the use of pollen-derived amino acids by Heliconius butterflies has been interpreted as important for the evolution of extended lifespans, very little is known about the life-history consequences of frugivory. This issue is addressed by investigating effects of four adult diets (sugar, sugar with amino acids, banana, and moistened banana) on lifespan and reproduction in the fruit-feeding butterfly Charaxes fulvescens Aurivillius (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Female butterflies were collected from Kibale National Park, Uganda, and kept individually in cages near their natural habitat and data were collected on lifespan, oviposition, and hatching of eggs. Lifespan in captivity was longer for the sugar and the amino acid cohort, than for the banana cohorts. The longitudinal pattern of oviposition was erratic, with many days without oviposition and few periods with high numbers of eggs laid. Butterflies typically did not lay eggs during their 1st week in captivity and the length of the period between capture and first reproduction was significantly shorter for butterflies fed moistened banana. The length of the reproduction period (first reproduction-last reproduction in captivity) and the reproduction rate (total number of eggs/length of the reproduction period) did not differ significantly between the diet treatments. Those fed with amino acid and moistened banana had significantly higher egg hatchability than those fed with sugar and banana. We found no evidence for a lifespan cost of reproduction. Our results show that (1) female C. fulvescens can use amino acids in their diet for laying fertile eggs, (2) more wing-wear does correlate with lower survival in captivity (indicating aging in the wild), but not with intensity of reproduction (providing no evidence for reproductive aging), and (3) fruit-feeding butterflies may be dietary restricted in the field.

Sardine early survival, physical condition and stress after introduction to captivity

The main factors that affect early survival, physical damage and stress reactions of sardine Sardina pilchardus after live capture and introduction to captivity were examined. A total of 2800 sardines were captured alive from commercial purse seiners in five trials off southern Portugal and monitored for 4 weeks in aquaculture tanks. Survival rates varied considerably between trials (from &lt;20 to &gt;80% after a month), with most deaths occurring in the first 5 days. Sardine early survival was affected by factors related to conditions at sea (catch composition, sea temperature and transportation density), during introduction to captivity (magnitude of thermal shock, land transportation duration and use of antibacterial treatment) and, possibly, their interaction. Physical damage was related to the probability of dying, with fish that died during the first week showing significantly higher scale loss and larger caudal fin erosion that those that were alive in the same period. For all stress variables measured (blood haematocrit, cortisol, glucose and ions in the plasma), the most extreme values were attained during introduction to captivity or in the first hours after. After 2 weeks in captivity, most variables had returned to levels close to those observed at the onset of purse‐seine fishing, suggesting that maintenance conditions were adequate to permit a rapid recovery from fishing and transport stress.