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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The flamboyantly colored beak of the toco toucan accounts for half of the bird’s body surface and is capable of dissipating up to 4 times the heat produced at rest. Toucans are able to modulate heat exchange through the bill to conserve or dump heat under cold and hot conditions, respectively. Chaves et al. (jeb245268) tested whether this ability minimizes the energetic cost of body temperature regulation, as ambient temperature varies. Comparing birds with intact bills with those who had it thermally insulated, they found that disabling the bill´s heat exchange ability was followed by a considerable increment in energy expenditure at temperatures exceeding 30°C. Photo credit: Ivan Cesar.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
NEWS
REVIEW
The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms
Summary: This Review considers the history of energy expenditure research and highlights work on daily energy expenditure in primates, focusing specifically on measures of total energy expenditure.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Mallard landing behavior on water follows a 
-constant braking strategy
Summary: Mallards use a -constant braking strategy to regulate landing on water, but with less braking than in other animals. This results in mallards impacting the landing substrate at greater velocities than previously seen in pigeons.
An ultrasound-absorbing inflorescence zone enhances echo-acoustic contrast of bat-pollinated cactus flowers
An Ecuadorian cactus acoustically advertises its flowers to bats with a sound-absorbing structure. Sound dampening is achieved by fine hairs on the surface of the cactus.
Crows protect visual working memory against interference
Summary: Crows possess active working memory enabling them to cognitively control and safeguard the memorization of relevant information.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Estradiol regulates voltage-gated potassium currents in corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons
Summary: Chronic estradiol replacement in ovariectomized mice influences voltage-gated potassium channel function.
Thermal performance curve of endurance running at high temperatures in deer mice
Endurance running capacity of deer mice is reduced above ambient temperatures of 35°C, when body temperatures exceed 40°C; this upper threshold for impairment of endurance corresponds to temperatures that induced heat responses at rest.
Thermoregulatory trade-offs underlie the effects of warming summer temperatures on deer mice
Summary: Exposure of deer mice to conditions simulating peak summer disrupts body temperature and reduces activity and body mass; daytime heat exposure may have detrimental impacts that persist at cooler night-time temperatures.
Multiscale flow between the branches and polyps of gorgonians
Summary: Extension and retraction of gorgonian polyps can modify their local environment for more efficient feeding and drag reduction.
Evolutionary trade-offs in osmotic and ionic regulation and expression of gill ion transporter genes in high latitude, cold clime Neotropical crabs from the ‘end of the world’
Summary: Sub-Antarctic crabs may economize on ion regulatory capabilities to apportion energy for metabolic processes. They hyper/hypo-regulate chloride well but osmoconform or hyperosmoregulate weakly; sodium is strongly hyper-regulated. Gill transporter gene expressions diverge markedly.
Lower-level predictors and behavioral correlates of maximal aerobic capacity and sprint speed among individual lizards
Summary: Inter-individual variation in field behavior is related to performance ability, which in turn reflects differences in morphology and physiology, although not parasite load, in a population of lizards.
Energetic costs of bill heat exchange demonstrate contributions to thermoregulation at high temperatures in toco toucans (Ramphastos toco)
Toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) bills play an important role in heat exchange. Insulating the bill leads to higher metabolic rates at high temperatures, as toucans engage in more costly thermolytic mechanisms.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
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.
Beluga metabolic measures could help save species
To help save animals from extinction, it’s important to understand what each species needs to survive. This led Jason John et al. to measure the metabolic rates of captive belugas to develop a ‘fish calculator’ showing that the whales need to eat ~23 salmon per day.
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.
