【推荐1】Watching the behaviour and body language of zoo animals could be the key to understanding and improving their welfare, new research suggests. Traditionally, zoos have focused on more straightforward measures such as whether animals are eating and sleeping.

The new review, by the University of Exeter and the University of Winchester, says zoos have made great improvements in recent years, but closer observation of animal behaviour — a method called Qualitative Behavioural Assessment, developed in farming — could show even more about their state of mind.

An animal’s positioning of its body, facial movements and activity levels are among the things that might tell whether it is excited, calm, interested, nervous, relaxed, etc.

“Zookeepers are knowledgeable about their animals, and they will often recognise an animal’s state of mind by its behaviour and body language,” said Dr. Paul Rose, of the University of Exeter.

“What we are suggesting is a more scientific method of this, carried out over time.”

“Certain behaviours will show certain moods (情绪) in an animal, and we should build our knowledge of this for different animals that live in zoos. For example, lions have a lot of facial expressions, and research on these expressions could help zoos understand the animals’ state of mind. This information could then be used to improve welfare by changing diets, feeding times or any number of other aspects of the way animals are kept.”

Dr. Rose carries out much of his research at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, and is now examining how the swans (天鹅) there might show their state of mind through their behavioural expression.

“We’re looking at how much time they spend exploring their habitat, which could show what they’re feeling,” he said. “When they’re unsure, they appear to move less and be more careful, and draw their feathers (羽毛) close to their bodies.”

The study suggests research opportunities for Qualitative Behavioural Assessment and practices that could be used by zoos. “Animal welfare in zoos has improved greatly in the last 10 or 20 years, and this method gives zoos another way to recognise and improve the welfare of animals,” Dr. Rose said.

【推荐2】A team of researchers from the University College London (UCL) has recently found that humans transmit viruses to domestic and wild animals more frequently than they contract them from these animals. This major analysis of viral genomes offers new insights into the dynamics of disease transmission across species.

Through an exhaustive examination of all publicly available viral genome sequences, the experts aimed to trace the cross-species transmission—or host jumps—of viruses.

The team sought to challenge the prevailing view that humans are primarily at the receiving end of zoonotic diseases, which are infections that jump from animals to humans. These diseases have been responsible for outbreaks such as Ebola, flu, and COVID-19.

The research team developed and applied methodological tools to analyze the nearly 12 million viral genomes that have been published on public databases to date, outlining the scale of their investigation into the evolutionary paths and mutations of viruses as they adapt to new hosts.

Contrary to the common perception of humans as mere recipients of animal viruses, the study’s findings suggest a more bidirectional exchange of pathogens (病原体). “We should consider humans just as one node in a vast network of hosts endlessly exchanging pathogens, rather than a sink for zoonotic bugs,” said co-author Francois Balloux, a professor at the UCL Genetics Institute.

“By surveying and monitoring transmission of viruses between animals and humans, in either direction, we can better understand viral evolution and hopefully be more prepared for future outbreaks and epidemics of novel illnesses, while also aiding conservation efforts. ” Study lead author Cedric Tan, a PhD student at the UCL Genetics Institute and Francis Crick Institute, pointed out the broader implications of their findings, especially concerning conservation and food security. “When animals catch viruses from humans, this can not only harm the animal and potentially pose a conservation threat to the species, but it may also cause new problems for humans by impacting food security if large numbers of livestock need to be killed to prevent an epidemic, as has been happening over recent years with the H5N1 bird flu strain.”

【推荐3】In our human-centric view, the ability to shoot ink or change colors may seem odd, but you know what’s really odd? Menopause (更年期). You can count species other than humans known to experience and outlive menopause on one hand. Only Oracs (虎鲸) and some whale populations have females that live long past their reproductive years to become grandmothers. But a new, landmark study confirms that at least one population of chimpanzees can now be added to the list.

The discovery comes as the result of 21 years’ worth of observing the Ngogo community of wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Studying urine from 66 Ngogo females, aged 14 to 67, showed that their hormone levels changed after approaching 50, confirming they were in menopause. Interestingly, 50 is also the age when many people begin to experience menopause. “It’s really cool to finally have that piece of the puzzle come into place,” says Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist who was not part of the new study.

But Catherine points out that the Ngogo community lives in a chimp paradise: the resource-rich, well-protected Kibale National Park that also lacks leopards, their main predator. And because the Noggo community is found in the heart of the park, its only neighbors are other chimps — not humans who can expose chimpanzees to viruses that have devastated other communities. “The Ngogo population may be an outlier (局外人) when it comes to the rest of the species,” she cautions.

And there is a question concerning “the grandmother effect”, according to which a grandmother has a decidedly beneficial effect on her children and grandchildren. Chimpanzees do not form long-term pair-bonds and females leave in search of new communities when they reach maturity, which means grandmother chimpanzees likely don’t know who their grandchildren are in the same way humans or even orcas do. What they do after the menopause remains a question of interest. “And that’s all future work to be done.” said Catherine.

【推荐2】A new study focused on birds examines how the movements of rivers in the Amazon have contributed to that area’s exceptional biological diversity.The research team, led by the American Museum of Natural History, found that as small river systems change over time, they spur the evolution of new species. The findings also reveal previously unknown bird species in the Amazon that are only found in small areas next to these dynamic river systems, putting them at high risk of extinction.

The lowland rainforests of the Amazon River basin harbor(藏匿) more diversity than any other ecosystem on the planet. It is also a globally important biome(生物群落) containing about 18 percent of all trees on Earth and carrying more fresh water than the next seven largest river basins combined. Researchers have long wondered and hotly debated how the Amazon’s rich biodiversity arose and accumulated.

“Early evolutionary biologists like Alfred Russel Wallace noticed that many species of primates and birds differ across opposite riverbanks in the Amazon,”said the study’s lead author Lukas Musher. “Moreover, accumulating geological evidence has suggested that these rivers are highly dynamic, moving around the South American landscape over relatively short time periods, on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of years.”

To investigate how the movement of rivers across the landscape has influenced the accumulation of bird species in the Amazon, the researchers sequenced the genomes(基因组) of six species of Amazonian birds.

Because these rivers move around the landscape at different time scales, their movements can have varying outcomes for bird species: when river rearrangements occur quickly, populations of birds on each side can combine before they’ve had time to differ; when river changes happen slowly, species have a longer time to diverge from one another.