The

unique aspect of this study is that L. goodei is a non-nest building species with no parental care and high levels of iteroparity. Females preferred to lay eggs in areas where eggs were already present but these effects decreased with increasing clutch size. We suggest that females prefer to lay small bouts of eggs in areas already containing eggs of other females, but that in nature, they distribute these eggs across multiple males and locations. By doing so, females may increase the probability of offspring survival via either the dilution effect (reduced individual probability of predation due to increased group size) or the selection of ‘good locations’ for offspring development. “
“Alpacas are increasingly popular as domesticated companion and commercial animals. Their footfall patterns, however, are not well documented. http://www.selleckchem.com/screening/epigenetics-compound-library.html It would be fascinating to know if artificial selection has changed alpacas’ locomotor patterns from the ancestral condition in the vicuña. Some members of the Camelidae pace rather than trot, but the gaits of most species have not been studied quantitatively. Thus, investigating alpacas’

gaits might contribute to understanding the factors influencing gait choice and evolution. We aimed to quantify the temporal footfall patterns of alpacas to determine observed gaits and to describe gait parameters as a function of speed. Kinematic data (3D motion capture) of locomotor patterns over a range of speeds were collected from four alpacas. We quantified the influence of speed on stance time, swing time, stride time (and frequency), duty factor and stride length, MCE and created gait diagrams for PD0325901 nmr symmetrical and asymmetrical gaits. Alpacas moved using lateral sequence walks, mainly lateral couplets walks and runs with some lateral sequence, singlefoot footfall patterns. Remarkably, the alpacas never truly paced or trotted. At faster speeds, they switched to asymmetrical gaits, predominantly transverse gallops. With increasing speed, stance and stride times decreased, and stride frequencies and stride length increased.

Swing times decreased slightly with speed for symmetrical gaits, and a tendency towards an increasing swing time was evident in asymmetrical gaits. It is still uncertain why quadrupeds choose particular gaits and intriguingly, extant camelids (alpacas, dromedary camels) do not trot. The apparent absence of pacing in alpacas deserves further investigation in an experimental and comparative framework. Yet, this absence seems inherited from their vicuña ancestors, indicating that pacing gaits may not be ancestral or common for Camelidae. Future studies should include kinetic and anatomical data to provide insight into whole-body mechanics, and include other unstudied species such as guanacos and vicuñas. “
“Research on terrestrial carnivore ecology frequently relies on scat identification and analysis.