Dark Cartographies

‘Dark Cartographies’ is a slowly evolving meditation upon seasonal change, life after light and the occluding shadows of human influence. Through creating experiences of the many ‘times of a night’ the work allows participants to experience deep engagement with rich spectras of hidden place and sound. By amplifying and shining light upon a myriad of lives lived in blackness, ‘Dark Cartographies’ tempts us to re-understand seasonal change as actively-embodied temporality, inflected by our climate-changing disturbances. ‘Dark Cartographies’ uses custom interactive systems, illusionary techniques and real time spatial audio that draw upon a rich array of media, including seasonal, nocturnal field recordings sourced in the Far North Queensland region and detailed observations of foliage & flowering phases. By drawing inspiration from the subtle transitions between what Europeans named ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’, and by including the body and its temporal disturbances within the work, ‘Dark Cartographies’ creates compellingly immersive environments that wrap us in atmospheres beyond sight and hearing. ‘Dark Cartographies’ is a dynamic new installation directed & choreographed by environmental cycles; alluding to a new framework for making works that we call ‘Seasonal’. This powerful, responsive & experiential work draws attention to that which will disappear when biodiverse worlds have descended into an era of permanent darkness – an ‘extinction of human experience’. By tapping into the deeply interlocking seasonal cycles of environments that are themselves intimately linked with social, geographical & political concerns, participating audiences are therefore challenged to see the night, their locality & ecologies in new ways through extending their personal limits of perception, imagery & comprehension.

Night Rage/ Night Fall

A new form of media installation combining image, multi-channel sound and internally lit objects into a mysterious, deep image plane. Staged on the very edge of spectrum blackout, and moving into the deep of night, Version 1 (Night Rage) for ISEA 2013 examined the many shades of 'nocturnal', threats to night biodiversity and the myriad myths and stories that have shaped our cultural understandings of life after light. Barely recognisable images float within landscapes of media, noise and sound as the work asserts a profound resistance to today's all consuming media mesh. Version 2 (Night Fall) for the Queensland State Museum examined contemporary ideas around the ‘night’ and the 'nocturnal'. Beginning with the dark myths and stories that have long shaped our cultural understandings of life after light, NIGHT FALL considers how fearful ideas have often underpinned actions that continue to reduce Australia’s extraordinary night biodiversity. Today’s growing hostility towards Australia’s ancient, iconic flying foxes - who have been quietly pollinating our forests for millennia - hints at just how far we have yet to travel in our thinking. Enter the darkened tunnel to experience mysterious, edge-of-perception 3D forms, enhanced by a range of cinematic, illusionary and animatronic techniques, and become immersed in a strangely familiar sound track based upon seasonal field recordings made after dark, sourced from across the eastern coast of Queensland.

Understanding Heliothine (Lepidoptera: Heliothinae) pests: What is a host plant?

Heliothine moths (Lepidoptera: Heliothinae) include some of the world's most devastating pest species. Whereas the majority of nonpest heliothinae specialize on a single plant family, genus, or species, pest species are highly polyphagous, with populations often escalating in size as they move from one crop species to another. Here, we examine the current literature on heliothine host-selection behavior with the aim of providing a knowledge base for research scientists and pest managers. We review the host relations of pest heliothines, with a particular focus on Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), the most economically damaging of all heliothine species. We then consider the important question of what constitutes a host plant in these moths, and some of the problems that arise when trying to determine host plant status from empirical studies on host use. The top six host plant families in the two main Australian pest species (H. armigera and Helicoverpa punctigera Wallengren) are the same and the top three (Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Malvaceae) are ranked the same (in terms of the number of host species on which eggs or larvae have been identified), suggesting that these species may use similar cues to identify their hosts. In contrast, for the two key pest heliothines in the Americas, the Fabaceae contains approximate to 1/3 of hosts for both. For Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), the remaining hosts are more evenly distributed, with Solanaceae next, followed by Poaceae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae, and Rosaceae. For Heliothis virescens (F.), the next highest five families are Malvaceae, Asteraceae, Solanaceae, Convolvulaceae, and Scrophulariaceae. Again there is considerable overlap in host use at generic and even species level. H. armigera is the most widely distributed and recorded from 68 plant families worldwide, but only 14 families are recorded as a containing a host in all geographic areas. A few crop hosts are used throughout the range as expected, but in some cases there are anomalies, perhaps because host plant relation studies are not comparable. Studies on the attraction of heliothines to plant odors are examined in the context of our current understanding of insect olfaction, with the aim of better understanding the connection between odor perception and host choice. Finally, we discuss research into sustainable management of pest heliothines using knowledge of heliothine behavior and ecology. A coordinated international research effort is needed to advance our knowledge on host relations in widely distributed polyphagous species instead of the localized, piecemeal approaches to understanding these insects that has been the norm to date.

Female greater wax moths reduce sexual display behavior in relation to the potential risk of predation by echolocating bats

Female greater wax moths Galleria mellonella display by wing fanning in response to bursts of ultrasonic calls produced by males. The temporal and spectral characteristics of these calls show some similarities with the echolocation calls of bats that emit frequency-modulated (FM) signals. Female G. mellonella therefore need to distinguish between the attractive signals of male conspecifics, which may lead to mating opportunities, and similar sounds made by predatory bats. We therefore predicted that (1) females would display in response to playbacks of male calls; (2) females would not display in response to playbacks of the calls of echolocating bats (we used the calls of Daubenton's bat Myotis daubentonii as representative of a typical FM echolocating bat); and (3) when presented with male calls and bat calls during the same time block, females would display more when perceived predation risk was lower. We manipulated predation risk in two ways. First, we varied the intensity of bat calls to represent a nearby (high risk) or distant (low risk) bat. Second, we played back calls of bats searching for prey (low risk) and attacking prey (high risk). All predictions were supported, suggesting that female G. mellonella are able to distinguish conspecific male mating calls from bat calls, and that they modify display rate in relation to predation risk. The mechanism (s) by which the moths separate the calls of bat and moth must involve temporal cues. Bat and moth signals differ considerably in duration, and differences in duration could be encoded by the moth's nervous system and used in discrimination.

Recording primate vocalizations

Ornithologists have been exploring the possibilities and the methodology of recording and archiving animal sounds for many decades. Primatologists, however, have only relatively recently become aware that recordings of primate sound may be just as valuable as traditional scientific specimens such as skins or skeletons, and should be preserved for posterity (Fig. 16.1). Audio recordings should be fully documented, archived and curated to ensure proper care and accessibility. As natural populations disappear, sound archives will become increasingly important (Bradbury et al., 1999). Studying animal vocal communication is also relevant from the perspective of behavioural ecology. Vocal communication plays a central role in animal societies. Calls are believed to provide various types and amounts of information. These may include, among other things: (1) information about the sender's identity (e.g. species, sex, age class, group membership or individual identity); (2) information about the sender's status andmood (e.g. dominance, fear or aggressive motivation, fitness); and (3) information about relevant events or discoveries in the sender's environment (e.g. predators, food location). When studying acoustic communication, sound recordings are usually required to analyse the spectral and temporal structure of vocalizations or to perform playback experiments (Chapter 11)...

Effects of methyl eugenol feeding on mating compatibility of Asian population of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) with African population and with B. carambolae

Males of some species included in the Bactrocera dorsalis complex are strongly attracted to methyl eugenol (ME) (1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl) benzene), a natural compound occurring in a variety of plant species. ME feeding of males of the B. dorsalis complex is known to enhance their mating competitiveness. Within B. dorsalis, recent studies show that Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis are sexually compatible, while populations of B. dorsalis and Bactrocera carambolae are relatively incompatible. The objectives of this study were to examine whether ME feeding by males affects mating compatibility between Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis and ME feeding reduces male mating incompatibility between B. dorsalis (Asian population) and B. carambolae. The data confirmed that Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis are sexually compatible for mating and showed that ME feeding only increased the number of matings. Though ME feeding also increased the number of matings of B. dorsalis (Asian population) and B. carambolae males but the sexual incompatibility between both species was not reduced by treatment with ME. These results conform to the efforts resolving the biological species limits among B. dorsalis complex and have implications for fruit fly control programs in fields and horticultural trade.

A digital beehive could warn beekeepers when their hives are under attack

Honey bees are in decline, and the current method of keeping them can be disruptive to a colony. But new designs allow beekeepers to monitor a hive remotely, even sniff out disease and pests.

纳帕海黑颈鹤(Grus nigricollis)越冬行为生态研究

2006年10月～2007年5月，我们采用固定路线调查、瞬时扫描行为取样法对云南纳帕海越冬黑颈鹤的行为时间分配、鹤群结构、栖息地利用等方面作了研究。 黑颈鹤越冬期日间行为主要以觅食和警戒为主，分别为76.81±9.1％和11.84±5.6％，两种行为共占了黑颈鹤日间行为时间分配比例的88.65％；其它几种行为除理羽（5.18±4.2％）、走动（3.37±2.25％）和休息（1.32±1.7％）外，其所占比例均在1％以下，它们分别为：飞行0.59±0.89 ％、鸣叫0.41±0.63％、争斗0.22±0.30％和其它0.22±47％。越冬期中黑颈鹤日间行为具有明显节律性，觅食行为呈早晚双峰型节律，且傍晚的觅食高峰较高。黑颈鹤在纳帕海越冬期间从数量变化上可分为4个时期：1 早期的越冬集散期；2 中期的越冬稳定期；3 晚期的迁飞集散期；4 末期的幼鹤滞留期。鹤群结构及行为在不同的时期之间有着显著的变化。在越冬期中期，黑颈鹤特别是带有幼鹤的繁殖家庭更偏向于选择以家庭为单位的活动形式活动。集群鹤和领域鹤间在行为的时间分配上存在显著差异，集群活动有着集体警戒的优势使得集群鹤有了更多的时间用于觅食，但集群中的繁殖家庭并不能有效的利用这种优势，集群密集活动中高的争斗比例给集群中的幼鹤带更多的威胁，增加了繁殖家庭中成鹤的负担。家庭鹤为了维护领域不受侵犯，付出了更高的警戒时间，而减少了觅食的时间分配，但稳定的环境给幼鹤的稳定成长提供了更可靠的保证。鹤群结构组成的研究表明，繁殖家庭倾向于选择在一定的家庭领域中单独活动，非繁殖成鹤则更多的选择活动在集群中。集群中的幼鹤跟家庭中的幼鹤在觅食、警戒、理羽、走动、休息、争斗等主要行为上并无差异，但集群中的幼鹤的躲避攻击的行为要显著高于家庭活动中的幼鹤，说明了家庭活动对幼鹤有着更好的保护作用，集群中的高争斗行为对幼鹤产生了一定的不利影响。幼鹤和成鹤间行为存在明显差异：幼鹤的觅食比例比较高，略高于集群中的成鹤而显著高于家庭中的成鹤，走动和休息两种行为高于成鹤，相反鸣叫、争斗行为低于成鹤。这说明，幼鹤在活动中的警戒作用很少，更多时间是用于觅食和休息中，家庭中的幼鹤也并不更多的承担警戒和维护家庭领域的任务，而同样以觅食和休息为主。 越冬鹤群白天栖息地主要有浅水沼泽、农地、草地、猪拱地和开阔水域5种，其中猪拱地与草甸裸地为浅水沼泽和草地的次生生境。5种栖息地中以浅水沼泽利用比例最大为32.26％，其次是猪拱地（31.49％），然后农地（18.01％）和草地（10.91％）；开阔水域最小，只5.55％（图11）。这5种栖息地中，农地和猪拱地中鹤群的觅食比例最大分别为：78.85％和76.61％，是黑颈鹤越冬季觅食的重要地点之一。草地中鹤群的觅食行为比例（61.63％）相对其它4种栖息地中的觅食比例中最低，相反，移动和休整行为比例最高，是鹤群休息和转换觅食地的场所。鹤群对浅水沼泽的利用率最大，但浅水沼泽中鹤群的觅食比例并不是最高（71.22％），略低于农地和猪拱地中鹤群的觅食比例，这可能是因为沼泽中食物营养比较高，鹤群可以在不高的觅食时间中获取足够的能量造成的。猪拱地和裸泥地的利用率及鹤群在此种栖息地中的觅食比例均较高，仅次于浅水沼泽和农地两种最主要的栖息地类型，说明家畜的影响在一定程度上为越冬鹤群增加了新的觅食地，有利于黑颈鹤的越冬。 纳帕海越冬黑颈鹤春季迁徙时间从3月底开始持续至4月中下旬，2007年春季迁徙共持续时间22天。天气条件和日时间对鹤群的迁徙有着明显的影响，鹤群迁徙主要出现在晴天或多云天气的10:00-12:00段。晴朗的天气有利于形成上升气流，10:00-12:00时间段上升气流最强、最为稳定，能为鹤群迁徙节省最多的能量，有利于鹤群的迁徙。

Kinship, parentage and temporal stability in nursery colonies of Leisler’s bat (Nyctalus leisleri)

Levels of genetic relatedness within bat colonies are often unknown, and consequently the reasons for group formation and social organization are unclear. The Leisler's bat (Nyctalus leisleri), like most temperate bat species, forms nursery colonies in summer. We used microsatellite markers to examine identity and to attempt to estimate relatedness among females within a nursery colony, over 2 consecutive years, to ascertain whether females show kinship and natal philopatry, testing the hypothesis that this is the basis of colony formation. Parentage and relatedness of young born within a colony was assessed to investigate mating patterns via male reproductive skew and whether males achieve mating success within their natal colony. While there was evidence for female philopatry, levels of genetic relatedness within colonies were low. This suggests that kinship is not a major determinant in group formation, as roosts also comprise a large number of distant relatives or non-kin. Roost switching and gene flow are likely to be high. Both sexes reproduced in their first year, whereas males appear to be the more dispersive sex. We argue that the physical environment as well as information sharing provided by communal roosting are likely to be important factors for the formation of these large natal colonies in N. leisleri and possibly other lineages of bats. © 2012 The Author.

Trade-offs between personal immunity and reproduction in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

How are resources split between caring for offspring and self-maintenance? Is the timing of immune challenge important? In burying beetles challenging the immune system prior to breeding does not affect the total number and quality of offspring produced during the individual's lifetime. However, the immune system is suppressed during breeding and if an immune challenge is presented during this time the beetle will upregulate its immune system, but at the detriment to the number of offspring produced during that breeding opportunity.We know that parental investment and immune investment are costly processes, but it is unclear which trait will be prioritized when both may be required. Here, we address this question using the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, carrion breeders that exhibit biparental care of young. Our results show that immunosuppression occurs during provision of parental care. We measured phenoloxidase (PO) on Days 1-8 of the breeding bout and results show a clear decrease in PO immediately from presentation of the breeding resource onward. Having established baseline immune investment during breeding we then manipulated immune investment at different times by applying a wounding challenge. Beetles were wounded prior to and during the parental care period and reproductive investment quantified. Different effects on reproductive output occur depending on the timing of wounding. Challenging the immune system with wounding prior to breeding does not affect reproductive output and subsequent lifetime reproductive success (LRS). LRS is also unaffected by applying an immune elicitor prior to breeding, though different arms of the immune system are up/downregulated, perhaps indicating a trade-off between cellular and humoral immunity. In contrast, wounding during breeding reduces reproductive output and to the greatest extent if the challenge is applied early in the breeding bout. Despite being immunosuppressed, breeding beetles can still respond to wounding by increasing PO, albeit not to prebreeding levels. This upregulation of PO during breeding may affect parental investment, resulting in a reduction in reproductive output. The potential role of juvenile hormone in controlling this trade-off is discussed.

Epistémologie historique de l'étude du comportement animal

Projet réalisé dans le cadre d'une cotutelle avec l'Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France)

Mortality of Migratory Birds from Marine Commercial Fisheries and Offshore Oil and Gas Production in Canada

There is an imminent need for conservation and best-practice management efforts in marine ecosystems where global-scale declines in the biodiversity and biomass of large vertebrate predators are increasing and marine communities are being altered. We examine two marine-based industries that incidentally take migratory birds in Canada: (1) commercial fisheries, through bycatch, and (2) offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production. We summarize information from the scientific literature and technical reports and also present new information from recently analyzed data to assess the magnitude and scope of mortality. Fisheries bycatch was responsible for the highest levels of incidental take of migratory bird species; estimated combined take in the longline, gillnet, and bottom otter trawl fisheries within the Atlantic, including the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Pacific regions was 2679 to 45,586 birds per year. For the offshore oil and gas sector, mortality estimates ranged from 188 to 4494 deaths per year due to the discharge of produced waters resulting in oil sheens and collisions with platforms and vessels; however these estimates for the oil and gas sector are based on many untested assumptions. In spite of the uncertainties, we feel levels of mortality from these two industries are unlikely to affect the marine bird community in Canada, but some effects on local populations from bycatch are likely. Further research and monitoring will be required to: (1) better estimate fisheries-related mortality for vulnerable species and populations that may be impacted by local fisheries, (2) determine the effects of oil sheens from produced waters, and attraction to platforms and associated mortality from collisions, sheens, and flaring, so that better estimates of mortality from the offshore oil and gas sector can be obtained, and (3) determine impacts associated with accidental spills, which are not included in our current assessment. With a better understanding of the direct mortality of marine birds from industry, appropriate mitigation and management actions can be implemented. Cooperation from industry for data collection, research to fill knowledge gaps, and implementation of mitigation approaches will all be needed to conserve marine birds in Canada.

Human language as a culturally transmitted replicator

Human languages form a distinct and largely independent class of cultural replicators with behaviour and fidelity that can rival that of genes. Parallels between biological and linguistic evolution mean that statistical methods inspired by phylogenetics and comparative biology are being increasingly applied to study language. Phylogenetic trees constructed from linguistic elements chart the history of human cultures, and comparative studies reveal surprising and general features of how languages evolve, including patterns in the rates of evolution of language elements and social factors that influence temporal trends of language evolution. For many comparative questions of anthropology and human behavioural ecology, historical processes estimated from linguistic phylogenies may be more relevant than those estimated from genes.

Predicting how many animals will be where: how to build, calibrate and evaluate individual-based models

Individual-based models (IBMs) can simulate the actions of individual animals as they interact with one another and the landscape in which they live. When used in spatially-explicit landscapes IBMs can show how populations change over time in response to management actions. For instance, IBMs are being used to design strategies of conservation and of the exploitation of fisheries, and for assessing the effects on populations of major construction projects and of novel agricultural chemicals. In such real world contexts, it becomes especially important to build IBMs in a principled fashion, and to approach calibration and evaluation systematically. We argue that insights from physiological and behavioural ecology offer a recipe for building realistic models, and that Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) is a promising technique for the calibration and evaluation of IBMs. IBMs are constructed primarily from knowledge about individuals. In ecological applications the relevant knowledge is found in physiological and behavioural ecology, and we approach these from an evolutionary perspective by taking into account how physiological and behavioural processes contribute to life histories, and how those life histories evolve. Evolutionary life history theory shows that, other things being equal, organisms should grow to sexual maturity as fast as possible, and then reproduce as fast as possible, while minimising per capita death rate. Physiological and behavioural ecology are largely built on these principles together with the laws of conservation of matter and energy. To complete construction of an IBM information is also needed on the effects of competitors, conspecifics and food scarcity; the maximum rates of ingestion, growth and reproduction, and life-history parameters. Using this knowledge about physiological and behavioural processes provides a principled way to build IBMs, but model parameters vary between species and are often difficult to measure. A common solution is to manually compare model outputs with observations from real landscapes and so to obtain parameters which produce acceptable fits of model to data. However, this procedure can be convoluted and lead to over-calibrated and thus inflexible models. Many formal statistical techniques are unsuitable for use with IBMs, but we argue that ABC offers a potential way forward. It can be used to calibrate and compare complex stochastic models and to assess the uncertainty in their predictions. We describe methods used to implement ABC in an accessible way and illustrate them with examples and discussion of recent studies. Although much progress has been made, theoretical issues remain, and some of these are outlined and discussed.

Multiple mating and a low incidence of cuckoldry for nest-holding males in the two-spotted goby, Gobiusculus flavescens

Background: A major question in behavioural ecology concerns the relationship between genetic mating systems and the strength of sexual selection. In this study, we investigated the genetic mating system of the two-spotted goby (Gobiusculus flavescens), a useful fish model for the study of sexual selection whose genetic mating system remains uncharacterized. We developed four polymorphic microsatellite markers and used them to conduct parentage analyses on 21 nests collected during the breeding season to examine the rates of multiple mating by males and to test for evidence of alternative mating strategies.

Results: Results of this study indicate that male G. flavescens mate with multiple females and enjoy confidence of paternity. We detected only one instance of sneaking, so cuckoldry contributed a very small percentage (~0.1%) of the total fertilizations in this population. Nests were nearly full and males that maintain larger nests have higher mating and reproductive success, irrespective of body size.

Conclusion: Overall, our investigation shows that G. flavescens is similar to other, related gobies in that the nests of care-giving males often contain eggs from multiple females. However, G. flavescens differs from other gobies in displaying an extremely low rate of cuckoldry. The study of ecological factors responsible for this important