Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The raccoon's adaptability and heightened success in cities is often attributed to their cleverness. Yet, little is known about the cognition of raccoons, especially in wild populations. Stanton et al. (jeb243726) employed advanced techniques to study the behavior and cognitive abilities of raccoons in the field using automated operant-conditioning devices. They found that although most raccoons excelled at tests of learning, they varied in their behavior and performance, probably as a result of multiple factors including age and personality. Photo credit: Melissa Groo.
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INSIDE JEB
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Behavioural temperature regulation is a low priority in a coral reef fish (Plectropomus leopardus): insights from a novel behavioural thermoregulation system
Summary: A novel system suitable for examining behavioural thermoregulation in large aquatic ectotherms maintains static thermal refuges in an otherwise sub-optimal thermal environment.
Juvenile Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) use a time-compensated sun compass for orientation
Highlighted Article: An orientation experiment shows that juvenile herring use a time-compensated sun compass; the impaired, but still present, orientation in overcast conditions suggests alternative mechanisms are also used.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Evaluating the ‘cost of generating force’ hypothesis across frequency in human running and hopping
Summary: Active muscle volume decreases with step frequency during human running and hopping. Accounting for these changes improves the ‘cost of generating force’ hypothesis application across step frequencies in bouncing gaits.
Behavior and neural activation patterns of non-redundant visual and acoustic signaling during courtship in an African cichlid fish
Summary: Male cichlids produce non-redundant visual and acoustic courtship displays and females show differential neural activation patterns in response to different received sensory information from males.
Locomotor resilience through load-dependent modulation of muscle co-contraction
Summary: Stick insects compensate for different types of transient changes in load distribution by graded adjustment of muscle co-contraction rather than by a sudden switch in coordinated motor activity.
Worker-like behavioral and physiological phenotype in queens with removed wings in a ponerine ant
Editor's choice: Ant queens with experimentally removed or naturally shed wings express worker-like behaviors and physiology in a group setting that includes the display of dominance behavior during hierarchy establishment, which is normally a worker-only behavior in this species.
Freshwater adaptation in prickly sculpin (Pisces: Cottidae): intraspecific comparisons reveal evidence for water pH and Na+ concentration driving diversity in gill H+-ATPase and ion regulation
Summary: Variation in habitat Na+ and pH may be an important driver of differences in gill H+-ATPase activity and ion regulation across populations of prickly sculpin, Cottus asper, from marine and freshwater environments.
High duty cycle moth sounds jam bat echolocation: bats counter with compensatory changes in buzz duration
Highlighted Article: Video recordings and acoustic stimulation show that bat foraging success decreases in the presence of high duty cycle moth signals; bats alter their echolocation to compensate.
Individual variation in heat substitution: is activity in the cold energetically cheaper for some individuals than others?
Highlighted Article: White-footed mice show consistent individual differences in heat substitution, an important yet overlooked mechanism that allows endotherms that are active in the cold to reduce the total energetic cost of activity and thermoregulation.
Plasticity of salmonfly (Pteronarcys californica) respiratory phenotypes in response to changes in temperature and oxygen
Summary:Pteronarcys californica nymphs exhibit plasticity in a coordinated set of respiratory phenotypes (critical thermal maxima, gill morphology and metabolic rates) during acclimation to different levels of oxygen and temperature.
Biomechanical energetics of terrestrial locomotion in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus)
Summary: Quadrupedal galloping in California sea lions shows intermediate energetic efficiency compared with more aquatic and fully terrestrial species during terrestrial locomotion.
Environmental, individual and social traits of free-ranging raccoons influence performance in cognitive testing
Highlighted Article: Raccoons are a highly adaptive species anecdotally known for their intelligence. Advanced technologies used to test wild raccoon cognition found new insights into their behavior and cognitive abilities.
Celebrating 100 years of discovery

We are proud to be celebrating 100 years of discovery in Journal of Experimental Biology. Visit our centenary webpage to find out more about how we are marking this historic milestone.
Craig Franklin launches our centenary celebrations

Editor-in-Chief Craig Franklin reflects on 100 years of JEB and looks forward to our centenary celebrations, including a supplementary special issue, a new early-career researcher interview series and the launch of our latest funding initiatives.
Looking back on the first issue of JEB

Journal of Experimental Biology launched in 1923 as The British Journal of Experimental Biology. As we celebrate our centenary, we look back at that first issue and the zoologists publishing their work in the new journal.
Biology Communication Workshop: Engaging the world in the excitement of research
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We are delighted to be sponsoring a Biology Communication Workshop for early-career researchers as part of JEB’s centenary celebrations. The workshop focuses on how to effectively communicate your science to other researchers and the public and takes place the day before the CSZ annual meeting, on 14 May 2023. Find out more and apply here.
Mexican fruit flies wave for distraction

Dinesh Rao and colleagues have discovered that Mexican fruit flies vanish in a blur in the eyes of predatory spiders when they wave their wings at the arachnids, buying the flies time to make their escape.