Surviving in the Dark: The Complexities of Nocturnal Animal Behavior and Adaptation
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Wildlife".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 2653
Image courtesy of 1 Will Hall; 2,3,5 Aconk; 4 Carlos Carrapato; 6 Diogo Oliveira; (1. Nycticebus javanicus, 2. Paradoxurus musanga javanicus, 3. Vivvericula indica, 4. Lynx pardinus, 5. Prionailurus javanensis, 6. Miniopterus schreibersii)
Special Issue Editors
Interests: bats; wildlife; conservation; monitoring; conservation education
Interests: animal welfare; mammal conservation; nocturnal animals; spatial ecology; density and distribution of mammals; feeding ecology; home range; illegal wildlife trade; taxonomy; conservation education; bioacoustics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The field of nocturnal animal behaviour and adaptation is a fascinating, developing area focusing on the ecological and biorhythmic changes in species that need or prefer to be awake during the night.
Recent advances in methodologies have significantly improved the ability to study and understand some of these changes. These include field-based methods, which allow for us to collect more detailed data than ever before; analytical methods, which allow for us to interpret these data; and genetic and taxonomic methods, which allow for us to reveal more cryptic nocturnal animals.
The world, and consequently, all natural values, have been influenced by climate change and anthropogenic changes, posing additional difficulties in understanding some biological adaptations. Scientists have an even more difficult task to distinguish between normal biological adaptations and those influenced by climate- or other human-mediated effects, such as artificial light at night.
Overall, this Special Issue intends to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in nocturnal animal behaviour and adaptation, and new methodologies to study them.
We welcome high-quality and original research or review papers that address new insights on these topics.
Dr. Luísa Rodrigues
Prof. Dr. Anna Nekaris
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- nocturnal species
- nocturnal behaviour
- nocturnal adaptation
- biorhythmic changes
- cryptic species
- climate change
- bats
- amphibians
- marsupials
- primates
- birds
- reptiles
- conservation
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: The unique adaptive profile of lorises is supported by a suite of specializations of the sensory system that are reflected in the morphology of the cranium
Authors: Mary Silcox; Sergi Lopez Torres
Affiliation: University of Toronto
Abstract: This paper seeks to consider the temporal depth of these adaptations based on the orbital and inner ear morphology of the best-preserved skull of a fossil loris from the Miocene, pertaining to Mioeuoticus shipmani.
Title: Evaluating the use of chemical weapons for capturing prey by a venomous mammal, the greater slow loris (Nycticebus coucang)
Authors: Grace Fuller; Wirdateti Wirdateti; K.A.I. Nekaris
Affiliation: Oxford Brookes University, Nocturnal Primate Research Group, School of Social Sciences and Law, United Kingdom
Abstract: Few mammals are venomous, including one group of primates—the slow (Nycticebus spp.) and pygmy (Xanthonycticebus spp.) lorises. Hypotheses for the evolutionary function of venom in these primates include defense from predators or ectoparasites, communication or competition with conspecifics, and capture of prey. We tested the prey capture hypothesis in 75 trials with 22 wild-caught greater slow lorises (N. coucang) housed in a rescue center in Java, Indonesia. We experimentally offered the slow lorises arthropod prey items varying in size, escape potential, and toxicity; and recorded venom-related and predatory behaviors using live and video observations. Slow lorises visually targeted arthropod prey, approached it quickly and efficiently, and captured it with a manual grasping motion. They rarely performed venom-related behaviors and seemed to do so in a defensive context. Slow lorises exhibited little variation in pre-capture behavior as a function of prey size or escape potential. In response to noxious prey, the slow lorises performed tongue-flicking and other investigative behaviors that indicate they are using chemosensory input to assess prey characteristics. These data suggest it is unlikely that slow lorises use chemical weapons to subdue arthropod prey and may support instead a defensive function for slow loris venom.
Title: The two extremes of pygmy loris night time life
Authors: Marina Kenyon
Affiliation: University of Cambridge
Abstract: Information gathered from pygmy loris rehabilitation and post-release tracking has gleamed further insight into the seasonal adaptations of pygmy loris in South Vietnam, in surviving in the extreme dry season and extreme wet. They drastically change their appearance from orange to a beige frosted, the frosted coat difficult to see amongst brown bamboo leaf in the extreme dry, in addition to changing the volume of food eaten. Social behaviour and tolerance of other pygmy loris changes in preparation for the strict breeding season. In the dry season out of mating season social affinities can be any way, in particular same sexed pairings, while in the wet breeding season with enlarged testicles, weapons are out and same sexed pairings are not an option. The seasonal search for mates is shown in the greater distances between sleep sites in the wet season, compared to the more relaxed dry season, when they travel under 100m.
Title: Effect of resource availability on ranging patterns and sleeping site selection of a nocturnal folivore, Avahi meridionalis
Authors: Giuseppe Donati; Marco Campera; Michela Balestri
Affiliation: School of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University
