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.
2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
The JEB Editors are delighted to announce the shortlisted authors for the 2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize. Read the winning paper - Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls - by Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell from Ximena Bernal's lab at Purdue University, USA.
JEB Science Communication Workshop for ECRs
If you’re an early-career researcher interested in science communication and are attending the SEB Annual Conference in Prague this summer, come a day early and join the JEB Editors at a sci comm workshop to learn the key writing skills needed to promote your research to a broad audience beyond your peers (1 July at 14.30-17.30). Places are limited to 24 attendees, and applicants should apply through the SEB registration page by 30 April 2024.
Bridging the gap between controlled conditions and natural habitats in understanding behaviour
Novel technologies enable behavioural experiments with non-model species, in naturalistic habitats and with underexplored behaviours. In their Commentary, Scholz and colleagues discuss how to obtain a deeper understanding of the natural ecology and lifestyle of study animals.
How a macrourid fish remains buoyant at depths it should be unable to reach
Fish with swimbladders should not be capable of descending below 7200m, but when Alan Jamieson and Todd Bond spotted a macrourid fish at 7259m, they knew they had seen something miraculous. Working with Imantes Priede, they reveal that the swimbladder of a 1 kg fish could hold 37.9 g of oxygen, sufficient to offset the weight of the fish's bones, and take 221-440 days to fill, which is plausible because it takes years for the fish to descend to such depths.
ECR Workshop on Positive Peer Review
Are you an ECR looking for tips on how to write concise, astute and useful manuscript reviews? If so, join the JEB Editors at a 2-hour JEB-sponsored Workshop on Positive Peer Review at the Canadian Society of Zoologists annual meeting in Moncton on 9 May 2024 at 13.00-15.00. There are 25 spaces for ECRs and selection is first come, first serve. To sign up, check the ECR Workshop box when you register for the CSZ meeting.