SEROLOGICAL SURVEY OF A CAPTIVE MACAQUE COLONY IN CHINA FOR ANTIBODIES TO SIMIAN TYPE-D RETROVIRUSES

Sera from 510 macaques consisting of Macaca mulatta, Macaca assamensis, Macaca fascicularis, Macaca nemestrina, and Macaca arctoides were investigated for antibodies to simian AIDS type D retrovirus (SRV) by ELISA and Western blot with viral antigens purified from supernatants of SRV-1 infected cell cultures. Of these monkeys, 104 were seropositive by ELISA; only 23 were confirmed by Western blot. The true positive reaction to SRV was found in 15 of 463 (3.2%) M. mulatta and eight of eleven (72.7%) M. assamensis.

Bird and mammal conservation in Gaoligongshan Region and Jingdong County, Yunnan, China: patterns of species richness and nature reserves

Elevational and latitudinal patterns of species richness for birds and mammals were compared with human population density in relation to nature reserve designation in two areas of Yunnan Province, China. Results suggest that species richness is not the same for the two areas. In Gaoligongshan Region, species richness is inversely correlated with elevation and altitude, while reserve designation is positively correlated with elevation and latitude. In Jingdong County, reserve designations are positively correlated with elevation, but species richness shows no clear trends. In general, the present situation is strongly influenced by human activities. It appears that reserve designation is mismatched with species richness in Gaoligongshan Region, while there is a better fit between the two in Jingdong County. In both areas, however, it appeared that reserves were located primarily in order to reduce conflict with humans rather than to maximize conservation of biodiversity, probably because humans were responsible for forest-especially primary forest-destruction and degradation in the low-lying areas.

Birth seasonality and interbirth interval of captive Rhinopithecus bieti

This study, which is based on 10 years of birth records, shows that black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) in captivity display marked birth seasonality. The birth season starts in December and ends in June, with a peak from March to May

Simultaneous determination of microcystin contaminations in various vertebrates (fish, turtle, duck and water bird) from a large eutrophic Chinese lake, Lake Taihu, with toxic Microcystis blooms

This is the first to conduct Simultaneous determination of microcystin (MC) contaminations in multi-groups of vertebrates (fish, turtle, duck and water bird) from Lake Taihu with Microcystis blooms. MCs (-RR, -YR, -LR) in Microcystis scum was 328 mu g g(-1) DW. MCs reached 235 mu g g(-1) DW in intestinal contents of phytoplanktivorous silver carp, but never exceeded 0.1 mu g g(-1) DW in intestinal contents of other animals. The highest MC content in liver of fish was in Carassius auratus (150 ng g(-1) DW), followed by silver carp and Culter ilishaeformis, whereas the lowest was in common carp (3 ng g(-1) DW). In livers of turtle, duck and water bird, MC content ranged from 18 to 30 ng g(-1) DW. High MC level was found in the gonad, egg yolk and egg white of Nycticorax nycticorax and Anas platyrhynchos, suggesting the potential effect of MCs on water bird and duck embryos. High MC contents were identified for the first time in the spleens of N. nycticorax and A. platyrhynchos (6.850 and 9.462 ng g(-1) DW, respectively), indicating a different organotropism of MCs in birds. Lakes with deaths of turtles or water birds in the literatures had a considerably higher MC content in both cyanobacteria and wildlife than Lake Taihu, indicating that toxicity of cyanobacteria may determine accumulation level of MCs and consequently fates of aquatic wildlife. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Respiratory pattern of captive Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis)

Cetacean respiration usually happen in bouts. The most widely applied quantitative method used to analyze the structure of these bouts is the log(e)-survivorship analysis, based on the assumption that the respiratory intervals are distributed as negative exponentials. However, for the data collected from three captive Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis), we failed to obtain a convergent result with the application of log,survivorship analysis. However, the two-Gaussian model, which was recently proposed to analyze the feeding behavior of cows, was successfully fitted to the data. According to the fitting results, the overall respiratory pattern of the captive Yangtze finless porpoises can be described as a dive with a mean duration of around 30-40 s, followed by two or three ventilations with a mean interval of approximately 9 s. The average intra-bout intervals during both active and inactive periods are constant at 7.7-9.9 s for all individuals. However, when shifting from active to inactive states, the adult male and female decrease their mean numbers of respirations per bout and average length of inter-bout respiratory intervals, while the estimates of both parameters increase for the juvenile female. It was pointed out that the two-Gaussian model might be more adequate for cetacean respiratory-bout structure analyses than the log(e)-survivorship technique.

Echolocation range of captive and free-ranging baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

The interclick intervals of captive dolphins are known to be longer than the two-way transit time between the dolphin and a target. In the present study, the interclick intervals of free-ranging baiji, finless porpoises, and bottlenose dolphins in the wild and in captivity were compared. The click intervals in open waters ranged up to 100-200 ms, whereas the click intervals in captivity were in the order of 4-28 ms. Echolocation of free-ranging dolphins appears to adapt to various distance in navigation or ranging, sometimes up to 140 m. Additionally, the difference of waveform characteristics of clicks between species was recognized in the frequency of maximum energy and the click duration. (C) 1998 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(98)06609-0].