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Biology

Bonobos are more aggressive than previously thought – EurekAlert

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Bonobos

Credit: Maud Mouginot

Chimpanzees and bonobos are often thought to reflect two different sides of human naturethe conflict-ready chimpanzee versus the peaceful bonobobut a new study publishing April 12 in the journal Current Biology shows that, within their own communities, male bonobos are more frequently aggressive than male chimpanzees. For both species, more aggressive males had more mating opportunities.

Chimpanzees and bonobos use aggression in different ways for specific reasons, says anthropologist and lead author Maud Mouginot of Boston University. The idea is not to invalidate the image of bonobos being peacefulthe idea is that there is a lot more complexity in both species.

Though previous studies have investigated aggression in bonobos and chimpanzees, this is the first study to directly compare the species behavior using the same field methods. The researchers focused on male aggression, which is often tied to reproduction, but they note that female bonobos and chimpanzees are not passive, and their aggression warrants its own future research.

To compare bonobo and chimpanzee aggression, the team scrutinized rates of male aggression in three bonobo communities at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve (Democratic Republic of Congo) and two chimpanzee communities at Gombe National Park (Tanzania). Overall, they examined the behavior of 12 bonobos and 14 chimpanzees by conducting focal follows, which involved tracking one individuals behavior for an entire day and taking note of how often they engaged in aggressive interactions, who these interactions were with, and whether they were physical or not (e.g., whether the aggressor engaged in pushing and biting or simply chased their adversary).

You go to their nests and wait for them to wake up and then you just follow them the entire day from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep at nightand record everything they do, says Mouginot.

To their surprise, the researchers found that male bonobos were more frequently aggressive than chimpanzees. Overall, bonobos engaged in 2.8 times more aggressive interactions and 3 times as many physical aggressions.

While male bonobos were almost exclusively aggressive toward other males, chimpanzees were more likely to act aggressively toward females. Chimpanzee aggression was also more likely to involve coalitions of males (13.2% vs. 1% of bonobo aggressions). The researchers think that these coalitions might be one reason why aggression is less frequent among chimpanzees. Altercations involving groups of males have the potential to cause more injuries, and within-community fighting could also weaken the groups ability to fight off other groups of chimpanzees. Bonobos dont have this issue because most of their disputes are one on one, they have never been observed to kill one another, and they are not thought to be territorial, which leaves their communities free to bicker among themselves.

For both chimpanzees and bonobos, more aggressive males had greater mating success. The researchers were surprised to find this in bonobos, which have a co-dominant social dynamic in which females often outrank males, compared to chimpanzees, which have male-dominated hierarchies in which male coalitions coerce females into mating.

Male bonobos that are more aggressive obtain more copulations with females, which is something that we would not expect, said Mouginot. It means that females do not necessarily go for nicer males.

These findings partially contradict a prevailing hypothesis in primate and anthropological behaviorthe self-domesticating hypothesiswhich posits that aggression has been selected against in bonobos and humans but not chimpanzees.

The researchers were not able to assess the severity of aggressive interactions in terms of whether they resulted in wounds or injuries, but this is data that they hope to collect in future. They also want to compare aggressive behavior in other groups of chimpanzees and bonobos as its possible that behavior varies between communities and subspecies.

I'd love to have the study complemented with comparable data from other field sites so we can get a broader understanding of variation within and between species, says Mouginot.

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This research was supported by Harvard University, Duke University, Franklin and Marshall College, George Washington University, the University of Minnesota, the Max Planck Society, the Institute for Advanced Study Toulouse, the Leakey Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Arcus Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, the Leo S. Guthman Foundation, Margo Marsh, Mazuri, the Morris Animal Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Harris Steel Group, the Waitt Foundation, the William T. Grant Q12 Foundation, the Windibrow Foundation, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Current Biology, Mouginot et al., Differences in expression of male aggression between wild bonobos and chimpanzees https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00253-7

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Observational study

Animals

Differences in expression of male aggression between wild bonobos and chimpanzees

12-Apr-2024

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Biology

Debating sex and gender: Whose ‘biological reality’ is it anyway? – The Boston Globe

Marie Caradonna

Ashland

Alan Sokal and Richard Dawkins are creating their own anxiety over dogma. We have sat through countless medical meetings and trainings of health care professionals, and everyone wants to deepen our understanding of how sex and gender affect people every day. Failing to do so means that doctors make medical mistakes and public health professionals overlook health disparities. Medicine and public health cannot rely on just asking sex or just asking gender.

Patients like us, our friends, and our families in the LGBTQ community have a lifetime of mistrust and fear built up around the health care system. Much of this mistrust stems from a denial that sex and gender are different for some people.

We are professionals who can handle the nuance of real peoples lives. No one denies the role of biology or the role of anatomy or the existence of categories of sex and gender. We just know that simple categories arent accurate, and we aim for accuracy. Anyone who does not want to ask someone about their sex assigned at birth or their current gender identity should not go into the helping professions. Over here we care about real people.

Jessica Halem

Senior director

The Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Dr. Carl G. Streed Jr.

Associate professor of medicine

Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Boston

If the current leadership of organizations and agencies such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention want to provide the best medicine and future for Americans, they should heed the warning and follow the guidance of Alan Sokal and Richard Dawkins in their op-ed, Sex and gender: The medical establishments reluctance to speak honestly about biological reality.

Sokal and Dawkins are spot-on with their caution of the harm that would be done if public health and health care leaders continue to adopt and promote phrasings such as sex assigned at birth. Though perhaps politically well-intended toward promoting greater social justice, this language misleads people into thinking that a persons biological sex is arbitrary, when it never is. As the authors warn, obscuring biological facts has real medical import and can misinform people in ways that validate ignorance, which itself only enables social injustice.

I am the proud parent of two self-described queer children, one a gender nonconforming woman and one transgender nonbinary. However, their biologically determined sex is female, and that determination matters for their health and medical care no matter how they experience and live their lives socially.

Though some may disagree, our world improves as we better understand and embrace male boys, male men, male girls, male women, male nonbinary people, female boys, female men, female girls, female women, and female nonbinary people. We can do this without falsifying or muddying long-established scientific knowledge about the determination of the sex of human beings.

Dr. James L. Sherley

Boston

The writer is a physician scientist.

At 13 years old, my gynecologist dismissed my severe pain. At 18, my insurance denied coverage for stage 3 endometriosis treatment. At 22, I find myself frustrated by debates over inclusive language in medicine.

Regarding the concerns raised by Alan Sokal and Richard Dawkins, the training of future doctors is indeed at risk. However, its not the denial of biological sex that jeopardizes this training. Rather, its the systemic disregard for the needs of individuals with vaginas within our health care system.

I applaud the decision by the American Medical Association and other groups to prioritize human rights. I am more than willing to recognize a lexical revision in the hope of fostering a more inclusive environment. Please, we need to spend less time scrutinizing progress and more time identifying areas where progress is desperately needed.

Sofia Long

Boston

I am very concerned about a society that encourages diversity in every life form but our own. Human nature is more expansive than the binary categories we are limited to. In reality, there are more physiological patterns that disprove binary sex and gender than support it. Approximately 1 out of 2,000 children are born with sex or reproductive anatomy considered atypical, and 1 out of 1,666 people have nonbinary chromosomes (XXY, XO, XYY, XXYY, or mosaic).

The damage such limited thinking does has rallied millions of intersex survivors to speak out about nonconsensual, nonemergent genital surgeries we were subjected to as children to reinforce this binary myth. The United Nations has even linked those medical protocols to forms of torture, and Human Rights Watch has raised concern. As a survivor of such protocols, I wholeheartedly agree.

Esther Leidolf

Jamaica Plain

The writer is president of the MRKH Organization, a patient-run network for women with Mayer-von-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hasers Syndrome.

Despite Alan Sokal and Richard Dawkinss authoritative tone in making pronouncements about sex and gender and their concern over the growing use of the phrase sex assigned at birth, they apparently know little about people born with various intersex syndromes. Sadly, many physicians also know little about this reality and perform medically unnecessary operations on newborns to make their anatomy conform to existing norms. The surgeries performed on intersex newborns inflict lives of pain, repeated surgeries, anguish, and, often, sexual dysfunction.

Susan Jacoby

Jamaica Plain

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Debating sex and gender: Whose 'biological reality' is it anyway? - The Boston Globe

Biology

Why detecting the earliest biological signs of Parkinson’s disease is so crucial – Scope

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, behind Alzheimer's disease, and affects nearly a million people in the United States.

The disease causes dopamine-producing brain cells to die and patients typically experience tremor, stiff muscles and slow movement as well as cognitive deficits. Medications to increase dopamine levels can help alleviate many of the motor symptoms -- but there is no cure.

Kathleen Poston, MD, the Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor II in Neurology and the Neurological Sciences, has dedicated her career to helping patients with Parkinson's and to studying its root causes in the lab.

There were also a lot of unknowns, which piqued the interest of the research part of my brain.

Her interest in Parkinson's developed during her medical training. "As a clinician, it was a rewarding field because, compared to other neurodegenerative diseases, there were many therapies we could offer patients," she said. "But there were also a lot of unknowns, which piqued the interest of the research part of my brain."

Recently, Poston's lab has been part of an international effort supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to develop a diagnostic test that can detect the earliest biological signs of the disease.

They've shown that the new biomarker -- a clumping protein in the brain -- can predict who will go on to develop Parkinson's, giving patients and researchers more time to test experimental treatments.

We asked Poston about the latest advances in the field and how early diagnosis may finally lead to a cure. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

How has our understanding of Parkinson's disease changed in recent years?

The biggest shift recently has to do with our understanding of how to diagnose the disease. With certain types of brain scanning and now with a biological marker, we can be more precise and accurate in our diagnosis earlier.

Traditionally we've only been able to diagnose people with Parkinson's disease based on the same standardized exam that's been done for 50, 60 years. We rate someone's motor symptoms -- slowness, stiffness, tremor. But it's hard to identify people early on in the disease. Until somebody really had those symptoms, it was hard to say for certain, "Yes, you have Parkinson's disease." Patients often say it took two years for them to be diagnosed, or they had to see four or five different doctors.

I think it's meaningful to people living with the disease just to get the right diagnosis as early as possible. People can manage once they know what they're dealing with. But when you're in that unknown time, it's very, very hard.

The newer biomarker we can test for now is alpha-synuclein. Does everyone who has this biomarker go on to develop Parkinson's?

Alpha-synuclein is a protein we all have in our brains, but for some reason it's in these clumping forms in people who have Parkinson's disease. We now know it's the primary protein that makes up Lewy bodies, the protein aggregates that form in the brain cells that die in people with Parkinson's disease.

It wasn't until after someone died that a pathologist could look at their brain under a microscope and make a definitive diagnosis. Blood tests and brain scans didn't seem to work.

We've never been able to definitively identify, during a person's lifetime, whether they have these Lewy bodies in their brain, even if they have a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's or a similar clinical disorder called dementia with Lewy bodies. It wasn't until after someone died that a pathologist could look at their brain under a microscope and make a definitive diagnosis. Blood tests and brain scans didn't seem to work.

We now have the first test that accurately identifies clumping alpha-synuclein. Researchers put seeds of alpha-synuclein in a sample of the patient's cerebral spinal fluid, then stress it by putting it through a series of heating, shaking and fragmenting to see if this nucleus clumps together. The test has extraordinary accuracy to the final pathology. It's about 99% accurate in people with a clinical diagnosis and also very accurate in people prior to a clinical diagnosis.

What we don't know -- and the reason this is all still in research -- is whether a person with a positive test will develop Parkinson's disease in a year, or five years, or 10 years. It's just a "yes" or "no" readout, which doesn't tell you anything about how bad the disease is or when it will develop. So there's a lot more work that needs to be done.

You're part of a group that recently published a proposal for a biological definition of Parkinson's based on alpha-synuclein. What does that mean and why is it important?

If we're trying to come up with a therapy that can prevent someone who has the underlying biology of Parkinson's disease from ever developing clinical symptoms, we need a biological definition that's 100% based on biomarkers -- such as clumping alpha-synuclein -- and not dependent on clinical symptoms.

Right now, this biological definition is proposed strictly in research settings so we can identify people with that biology who we would want to enroll in preventative clinical trials.

The earlier we can identify people who we feel confident have Parkinson's disease, the more we can think about slowing or stopping the disease progression. It gives us a window into the disease when there's not as much damage done, when it's easier to test potential therapies.

You have an exciting paper coming up later this year. Can you tell us what that will be about?

Here at Stanford we've been banking cerebral spinal fluid samples for a long time. In the new study, we showed that the alpha-synuclein test was able to predict a future diagnosis of Parkinson's in multiple people.

Also, it turns out, about 10% to 20% of people with Alzheimer's disease at death will also have this Lewy body pathology in their brain -- and now we can detect that earlier. That could change how we think about treating people with Alzheimer's as well.

That could change how we think about treating people with Alzheimer's as well.

This is the big advantage of having the combination of banked samples, longitudinal clinical testing and individuals agreeing to autopsy and having that final diagnosis -- being able to put the whole story together. It's wonderful that all these participants volunteered to give all this information over the past 15 years and we were able to rapidly make use of it.

Looking forward, what are you most excited about?

There are two things that really excite me.

I'm working with other researchers to translate this alpha-synuclein test into a simple blood test or some other test that is readily accessible. Doing this test in the cerebral spinal fluid is quite restrictive and not every person is going to get a lumbar puncture at their annual wellness checkup.

We're doing plasma banking for all the people diagnosed with Parkinson's in our clinic. When one of my collaborators here develops something that takes it from cerebral spinal fluid into plasma, we can then quickly test it on 500 to 600 samples from our clinic.

What also excites me is figuring out how we can really accelerate therapeutic development to get to that preventive therapy. I'm working with researchers here at Stanford who are interested in therapies targeting these clumping proteins.

I hope that, in a couple of years, we're having this conversation and I'm telling you about the first FDA-approved disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson's disease. That would be wonderful.

Image courtesy Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Excerpt from:

Why detecting the earliest biological signs of Parkinson's disease is so crucial - Scope

Biology

Cicada experts and resources available from UWMadison – University of Wisconsin-Madison

A historic double brood of cicadas is expected to emerge this spring, with hatchings centered on the Eastern and Midwestern parts of the United States. Experts from UWMadison are available for interviews about the biology of the deafening insects and their role in culture and art.

The cicada-verse is yours for the exploration with the new online resource. Here, you can listen to a historic cicada recording from the Library of Congress, get a crash course in cicada biology, and learn about the history and future of periodical cicadas in Wisconsin. The site was built by PJ Liesch, director of the UWMadison Insect Diagnostic Lab. https://cicadas.wisc.edu/

Contact: PJ Liesch, pliesch@wisc.edu

Insect ambassadors is a graduate student-led organization hosted by theDepartment of Entomology. The group exists to share its love of bugs with the wider world.

Contact: Emma Terris, eterris@wisc.edu

PJ Liesch is director of the UWMadison Insect Diagnostic Lab. Liesch can discuss the emergence of periodical cicadas, cicada biology, the timing and distribution of periodical cicadas in Wisconsin and the ecological impacts of these insects. Liesch is tracking the impact of early spring weather on cicada emergence. He says, A key factor for emergence of periodical cicadas is the temperature of the soil at a depth of 8 inches. The soil temperature must reach and exceed 64.5 F, so depending on weather, we could see emergence shifted a bit earlier.

Contact: PJ Liesch, pliesch@wisc.edu

Daniel Young is a professor of entomology and director of the UWMadison Insect Research Collection. Young is an expert on insect classification and natural history and teaches a course called Introductory Entomology that covers brood XIII cicada emergence.

Contact:Daniel Young, young@entomology.wisc.edu

William Brockliss is a classics professor in the College of Letters and Science. Brockless says the music of cicadas is embedded within the poetry of ancient Greece. In The Illiad, says Brockliss, Homer likens the chatter of old men to the sound of cicadas. Another early poet, Hersiod, compares a single cicada to a singer, and possibly the poet himself.

Brockliss says, As a Greek friend of mine once put it, he knows hes home when he hears the sound of the cicadas. While other plant and animal species contribute to the visual environment of Greece and the wider Mediterranean, cicadas are an ever-present constituent of the regions auditory environment, at least in the summer. For this reason, ancient Greek poets were able to draw on the cicada in their creation of similes describing sounds.

Contact: William Brockless, brockliss@wisc.edu

More experts on news and current events can be found on the UWMadison Experts Database.

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Cicada experts and resources available from UWMadison - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Biology

Iconic savanna mammals face genetic problems due to fences and roads – EurekAlert

image:

Map showing the current distribution range of the two wildebeest species, the blue wildebeest and the black wildebeest, based on IUCN distribution data. Map prepared by Laura D. Bertola.

Credit: Laura D. Bertola

Whether by way of Attenborough, Disney or National Geographic, the iconic scene is familiar to many. The ground trembles and clouds of dust swirl as enormous hordes of large animals thunder across the African savanna, cross rivers en masse and are picked off by lions, hyena and crocodiles. The annual migration of 1.3 million wildebeest through Tanzanias Serengeti and Kenyas Masai Mara attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists, and the phenomenon has put the Serengeti on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. Besides its majestic sight, the migration of this emblematic species is important for the ecological functioning of ecosystems.

Unfortunately, epic annual migrations of this scale are only found in a few places on the African continent now. In some areas, roads, fences, farms and urban sprawl have fractured the historic migratory routes of wildebeest herds and prevented them from roaming far and wide in search of fresh grass and water. A new study led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen shows that the genetic health of wildebeest has suffered as a consequence.

"No one ever knew that this affected the genetics of wildebeest. But our results clearly show that wildebeest populations which no longer migrate, but have historically done so, are simply less genetically healthy than those that continue to migrate. And this weakens their chances of long-term survival," says Rasmus Heller, an associate professor at the Department of Biology and one of the new studys lead authors.

The results demonstrate that the genetic decline of non-migratory populations is reflected in several of the parameters by which genetic health is measured in nature conservation.

"Wildebeest that can no longer migrate have lower genetic diversity, are more genetically isolated and are more inbred. We expect this to lead to lower survival, reduced fertility and other negative effects on fitness," says Xiaodong Liu, one of the studys first authors and a postdoc at the Department of Biology.

Overall, this iconic savanna grazer is not currently threatened. But in the long term, wildebeest herds that can no longer migrate will likely be worse off, for example, in the face of climate change.

"The long-term consequence is that populations with low genetic diversity are less equipped to cope with the effects of environmental changes. Their evolutionary potential is reduced. So, if climatic changes continue to occur, there isnt as much genetic variation for them to work with to adapt which could ultimately threaten their survival," says Rasmus Heller.

Researchers analyzed the whole genomes of 121 wildebeest from their entire range, which spans from South Africa to Kenya. This is the first time that scientific researchers have studied the genetic effect of migration in wildebeest.

"Because we studied the genomes of many wildebeest from virtually their entire range, we have been able to make a general genetic comparison of migratory versus non-migratory populations. And because we witness a consistent difference across multiple locations, the conclusion is clear. Indeed, we can say that the overall negative effect is evident in those wildebeest that have been prevented from migrating regardless of where they live on the continent," says Xiaodong Liu.

While the total number of wildebeest remains fairly stable, many local populations have experienced steep declines and several have even collapsed in recent decades.

One hundred and fifty years ago, many wildebeest populations made great migrations. However,forty years ago, only two large intact wildebeest migrations remained in Africa: the famed Great Migration of the Serengeti-Mara and one in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa.

"However, in Botswana in particular, fencing to protect cattle from coming into contact with migratory wild animals was put up in recent times. Botswana's Kalahari population declined from roughly 260,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 15,000 in the late 1980s. So today, the only remaining large population is that of the Serengeti-Mara. But the Serengeti-Mara migration is also threatened by plans for roads and rail corridors through the area, which worries many," says Mikkel Sinding from the Department of Biology, another of the study's first authors.

"As a species, wildebeest are dependent on migrations to support their large numbers. They can survive in resident, non-migratory populations, but their numbers simply shrink when they cannotmigrate. For example, we see this in the populations in the other parts of Kenya and Tanzania that have been prevented from migrating and whose numbers have decreased as a result," says co-author Joseph O. Ogutu, a senior statistician in the Biostatistics Unit at the University of Hohenheim, who adds:

"The migrations of wildebeest make them a keystone species in ecosystems, as their grazing keeps vegetation healthy, transports and distributes nutrients, while they themselves serve as prey for predators and carrion for scavengers. Therefore, it isnt just the iconic animal that we threaten when we prevent them from migrating but many other species as well. And to that, we might add the enormous amount of tourism revenue that benefits governments and local communities."

The researchers hope that the new results will inspire investigations into the genetic effects of reduced migration among other species. And they hope that decision-makers keep the consequences in mind:

"The study shows us that wild animal species, for whom migration is an essential part of their biology, struggle to survive in an increasingly human-dominated world, unless special attention is paid to preserving their old and natural migratory routes. As such, we hope that people will be more cautious about continuing to disrupt these routes. This concern is not just with regards to wildebeest, but also for other migratory species in Africa and elsewhere," says Rasmus Heller. He concludes:

"If we want the species to not just exist for, say, the next 50 years, but to thrive and actually survive in the much longer term, we need to halt the genetic decay caused by curtailing their natural migration routes.

The only remaining major wildebeest migration is the "Great Migration" in the Serengeti-Mara. Here, approximately 1.3 million wildebeest, accompanied by about 200,000 zebras and 400,000 gazelles, cover up to 3,000 kilometers annually in a clockwise cycle that follows seasonal rainfall patterns. But only the wildebeest and zebra from the Serengeti cross the Mara river into Kenyas Masai Mara.

Due to limited source material on African wildlife populations prior to the mid-1800s, the total number of historical wildebeest migrations is uncertain. However, it is known that migrations comparable to that of the Serengeti-Masai Mara population have been lost.

An example of this relates to two wildebeest subspecies known as the white-bearded wildebeest the Western white-bearded wildebeest, which makes up the Serengeti-Mara population, and the Eastern white-bearded wildebeest, whose migration was centered around Kenyas Kajiado County. From early European explorers and the first big game hunters, we know that both of these subspecies migrated a great deal historically. And, that they had very large populations, presumably of approximately similar size. While the Western white-bearded wildebeest was protected in the Serengeti-Mara from the early 1950s, increased human presence and activities dating back tothe early 1900s put mounting pressure on the Eastern white-bearded subspecies. Today, only 6,000-8,000 Eastern white-bearded wildebeest remain and are divided into many, small isolated populations.

Nature Communications

Introgression and disruption of migration routes have shaped the genetic integrity of wildebeest populations

12-Apr-2024

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Iconic savanna mammals face genetic problems due to fences and roads - EurekAlert

Biology

Advice to a Young Mathematical Biologist – University of Birmingham

Past and present Presidents of the Society for Mathematical Biology have pooled decades of expertise to help early career researchers get ahead in the field.

Published 10 April 20243 minute read

A group of 10 experts contributed advice on topics ranging from deciding if a career in academia is the right path, to writing grant proposals and giving lectures. Their aim was to help young researchers develop skills which are often not taught in a typical undergraduate degree. The advice is published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.

The Society for Mathematical Biology was founded to support research and education at the interface of mathematical and biological sciences. Following an SMB Presidents session at the 2023 conference, held in Ohio, lead author, Dr Paul Roberts, decided to capture some of these insights in a more formal way, inspired by the inspirational biologist and writer Sir Peter Medawar, who wrote Advice to a Young Scientist in 1979.

The advice we have captured spans a real breadth of topics and challenges that mathematical biologists and indeed early career researchers in many other disciplines will face.

Dr Roberts, a mathematical biologist in the University of Birminghams Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine, said: The advice we have captured spans a real breadth of topics and challenges that mathematical biologists and indeed early career researchers in many other disciplines will face.

The aim is to offer a starting point which researchers can dip into, and explore in more depth as they wish.

Dr Roberts added: One thing we particularly emphasise is the importance of building a community, and collaborating widely outside your field. If scientists can learn to do this at the start of their careers, the next generation of researchers will truly be a force to be reckoned with.

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Advice to a Young Mathematical Biologist - University of Birmingham

Biology

New project explores warfare in animal societies – EurekAlert

image:

Mongoose warfare

Credit: Harry Marshall

A major new research project will investigate how and why groups of animals from the same species fight one another.

By focussing on warlike species mongooses and termites researchers aim to understand how evolution can lead to extreme aggression between groups, the consequences of this and the factors that can lead to peace.

The results will help to explain why violence between rival groups evolves in some species but not others, or between some groups and not others with implications for our understanding of human evolution.

The research team, led by Professor Michael Cant at the University of Exeter, includes the universities of Cambridge, York, Swansea and Bielefeld, Germany, and a field team based in Uganda.

Professor Cant and his team have been awarded a 3 million Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC).

An outstanding problem in evolutionary biology is to explain how cooperative groups evolve by natural selection, said Professor Cant, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeters Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

Classic research on this question has shown that factors that operate within the group, such as kinship and reciprocity, can select for altruism.

Yet there is now substantial evidence from humans and other social animals that conflict between groups or warfare can also exert a profound influence on social behaviour.

Intergroup conflict could in principle act as a fundamental moulding force in the evolution of animal societies, shaping not just behaviour but also life history and social organisation, but this idea has not been tested.

We will test this hypothesis through an integrated theory, field and lab study using two animal societies as model systems.

The outcome will be a significant advance in our understanding of how social life forms and societies evolve.

The researchers will study a wild population of banded mongooses in Uganda and a lab population of dampwood termites in Cornwall.

This project, entitled Intergroup conflict and the evolution of animal societies, is one of 255 included in new grants awarded by the ERC to outstanding researchers across Europe.

Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: "These grants will not only support leading researchers in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but also create some 2,500 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other research staff across Europe.

This investment nurtures the next generation of brilliant minds.

I look forward to seeing the resulting breakthroughs and fresh advancements in the years ahead.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Biology

Pygmy Slow Lorises Are Born at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute – Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology…

For the first time, the Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) is celebrating the birth of two pygmy slow lorises, an endangered species. Small Mammal House keepers reported for duty the morning of March 21 and observed that 3-year-old mother Naga had given birth overnight and was caring for two infants. She and the babies 2-year-old father, Pabu, received a recommendation to breed from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan (SSP). These babies are the first offspring for both parents. Keepers have observed Naga carrying, grooming and nursing the babies, which appear to be healthy and strong. Animal care staff will determine the babies sexes at their first vet exam, which will take place in a few months. The family is on view at the Small Mammal House, and keepers say the babies are most active in the late morning and early afternoon.

Naga and Pabu arrived at NZCBI in August 2022 from the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois and Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas, respectively.SSP scientists determine which animals to breed by considering their genetic makeup, health and temperament, among other factors. According to keepers, Nagas personality is calm and sweet, though she tends to spook easily. She takes her time when exploring her exhibit and rests often. Pabu, on the other hand, seems to be more high energy. He is inquisitive and always the first to approach keepers and participate in training sessions and feedings. Although pygmy slow lorises reach sexual maturity around 9 months of age for females and 1.5 years of age for males, often they do not successfully reproduce until 2 to 3 years of age. Naga and Pabus howdy introductions took place in September 2023about a year after they arrivedand the pair bred soon after meeting. This species gestation is about six months.

Pygmy slow loris mothers are the primary caregivers of their offspring. In the wild and in zoos, fathers occasionally interact with offspring, depending on their personality and past experience with babies. Pabu has proved to be an attentive and patient father. Keepers have observed him grooming his family and caring for the babies when Naga leaves the nest to forage for food. Visitors may see the babies clinging to Naga as she moves around the exhibit.On occasion, she will leave the babies in their nest or on a branch while she eats or explores. Keepers look forward to watching the babies independently explore their exhibit and play with enrichment items.

Slow lorises are the only known venomous primates. They produce a venom in their brachial glands in their upper arm. Combined with enzymes in their saliva, these primates can produce a painful bite, allergic reaction and a slow-healing wound. Wild slow lorises do not use it against predators because the venom is not fast-acting. Instead, the venom is used in territorial disputes with other slow lorises. They also groom themselves with the venom to ward off parasites and warn predators to stay away.

Native to Cambodia, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic and Vietnam, pygmy slow lorises live in mixed deciduous and evergreen forests. The greatest threats facing this species are deforestation and the illegal pet trade. Much of their habitat has been cleared for the logging industry; they spend the majority of their time from 10 to 40 feet up in the forest canopy.TheInternational Union for Conservation of Natureconsiders pygmy slow lorisesendangered.

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Photo caption: The Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute welcomed two pygmy slow lorises babies March 21 to mother Naga and father Pabu in the Small Mammal House. Photo credit: Kara Ingraham, Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

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VespAI: a deep learning-based system for the detection of invasive hornets | Communications Biology – Nature.com

Bait station

Bait stations consisted of a Dragon Touch Vision 1 1080p camera, suspended at a height of 210mm above a featureless detection board, shielded by an opaque baffle (Fig.4). This setup minimised background and lighting variability, thus simplifying the computational complexity of hornet detection, while ensuring that only hornets and other insects visiting the station were captured in videos. A sponge cloth impregnated with commercial vespid attractantVespaCatch (Vto-pharma) or Trappit (Agrisense)was placed in a 90mm diameter Petri dish at the centre of the bait station, thus attracting hornets to land directly beneath the camera. We used these bait stations to collect and extract an extensive training dataset, comprising images of V. velutina, V. crabro, and other insects across locations in Jersey, Portugal, France, and the UK.

To ensure dataset fidelity, resultant images of both V. velutina and V. crabro were visually identified via expert assessment of colouration, abdominal markings, and morphology. Additionally, the identity of each hornet species was confirmed through utilisation of the appropriate taxonomic keys65,66.

Data were collected in 2021 and 2022, with selected images being extracted from the raw video footage, and divided into three subsets. All training images were collected in 2021, while the final validation images were collected in 2022, ensuring complete spatiotemporal and biological novelty. Images yielded a maximum simultaneous co-occurrence of six V. velutina, this being observed in Jersey; and five V. crabro, this being recorded in the UK. As a processing step prior to training, images were letterboxedthis being the process of downsampling to 640640 for enhanced throughput performance, while maintaining a 16:9 aspect ratio and filling any residual image space with blank pixels. This then allowed for extensive image augmentation during training, producing three additional variations to supplement each original frame, and thus increasing the total number of images by a factor of four. The specific details of each training data subset are outlined in the following sections.

A collection of 1717 images for training and 430 for initial validation metrics, totalling 8,588 after augmentation. This set contained hornet images with a 50:50 split between V. velutina and V. crabro, while the number of non-target insects was intentionally limited. Data were collected from bait stations at sites in the UK and Portugal.

A collection of 2196 images for training and 549 for initial validation metrics, totalling 10,980 after augmentation. This set contained all hornet images from the HTS, in addition to 598 images of non-target insects. Images of non-target insects included a representative selection of species attracted to the bait station, with a focus on visually similar genera such as Vespula, Dolichovespula, and Polistes. All insects were identified to the genus level, utilising a combination of expert assessment and the relevant taxonomic identification resources65,67. A full list of non-target taxa is provided in (TableS1). These data were collected from bait stations at sites in the UK, Jersey, and Portugal.

A collection of 557 images for final validation only, totalling 2228 after augmentation. Of these, 433 contained instances of V. velutina and V. crabro in a 50:50 split, including multiple co-occurrences of both species and non-target insects. The remaining images contained a combination of non-target species and empty bait stations under different lighting and climatic conditions. Validation data were collected from bait stations at sites in the UK, Jersey, France, and Portugal.

Annotation was performed using the Plainsight AI (Plainsight) software interface. This allowed for expedited labelling via automated polygon selection and AI-assisted predictive annotation. Two classes of annotation were generated, corresponding to V. velutina and V. crabro, and these were then manually applied to a random selection of training frames. Polygonal masks included hornet bodies and wings, and excluded legs and antennaeas we found these to be redundant during testing. Once ~500 frames had been annotated manually, we then used this data to train an automated detection and segmentation model within the labelling interface, allowing us to more rapidly generate further annotations for training. Prior to data export, all annotations were reviewed manually, and corrections made where required. Annotations were exported in COCO format, enabling full segmentation of hornet features from the background68.

To develop a hardware-specific hornet detection and classification model, we combined our extensive image dataset with bespoke augmentations to obtain high predictive confidence. The VespAI detection algorithm is built on the YOLOv5 family of machine vision models, specifically YOLOv5sa variant optimised to run on portable processors such as the Raspberry Pi 448. As a front-end pre-filter to this, we incorporated the lightweight ViBe50 background subtraction algorithm, allowing the system to remain passive in the absence of motion (Fig.2a). Specifically, this pre-filter detects motion from the raw video input, extracts the contours of moving insects, and retains only objects within a reference size range generated from known hornet detections (Fig.2a and S1). Consequently, energy is conserved, as only relevant candidate frames are passed on to the YOLOv5 detection algorithm itself. This then applies a single fully convolutional neural network (F-CNN) to images (Fig.2b), providing superior speed, accuracy, and contextual awareness when compared to traditional regional convolutional neural networks (R-CNN)49,69.

All models were built and optimised using the PyTorch70 machine learning environment, with the aim of generating an end-to-end software package that would run on a Raspberry Pi 4. This was achieved by testing models on a range of YOLOv5 architectures, specifically YOLOv5m, YOLOv5s, and YOLOv5n; thus optimising them to include the minimum number of parametersthis being ~7 millionwhilst maintaining their performance (Fig. S2b).

Final models were trained and tested utilising a NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core GPU (NVIDIA), with a total of 200300 epochs per model, and a batch size of nine images. Model optimisation was evaluated via three loss functions; bounding box loss, this being the difference between the predicted and manually annotated bounding boxes; objectness loss, defined as the probability that bounding boxes contained target images; and cross-entropy classification loss, encompassing the probability that image classes were correctly classified (Fig. S2). In all cases, training concluded when there was no improvement in these three loss functions for a period of 50 epochs.

The prototype system was developed to provide proof-of-concept for remote detection under field-realistic conditions. The VespAI software was installed on a Raspberry Pi 4, running an Ubuntu desktop 22.04.1 LTS 64-bit operating system. This was then connected via USB to a variety of 1080p cameras, and tested using both mains and battery power supplies. These components were mounted on top of a bait station in the standard camera position, and a remote device was connected to the Pi server via the secure shell command. This allowed the hardware to be controlled remotely, and hornet detections viewed from a corresponding computer.

The setup was validated in Jersey during 2023, testing five candidate camera models and four prototype systems over a total of 55 trials at two field sites, yielding >5500 frames for analysis. Cameras were selected to test system robustness to differing lens and sensor options, while maintaining a standard resolution of 1080p across a range of cost-effective models (Fig. S5 and TableS2). Prior to testing, each camera was calibrated to a specific height, thus ensuring that the relative size of objects in frame remained constant across differences in lens angle and focal length (TableS2). Field sites were situated in Jersey to allow visits from both V. velutina, and V. crabro workers, along with a variety of common non-target insects, thus providing a rigorous test of the system under representative conditions.

Each trial consisted of a100-frame test, with the monitor capturing and analysing frames in real-time at intervals of either 5 or 30sthese being based on known hornet visitation durations (Fig. S4). Specifically, in the first 38 trials, the system was set to collect images at 5s intervals; before optimising to 30s intervals in the final 17 trials (TableS3), thus allowing for maximum power and data storage conservation, in tandem with reliable hornet detection. (Fig. S4). Results were then manually validated, and compared to the corresponding model predictions to calculate evaluation metrics.

Following field testing, the system was configured to integrate a DS3231 Real-Time Clock module, thus ensuring accurate timestamps for detections in the absence of external calibration.

To train the detection models and enable customised image augmentation, we employed the Python packages PyTorch, Torchvision, and Albumentations. Models were then evaluated via k-fold cross-validation, specifically utilising the metrics of precision, recall, box loss, objectness loss, classification loss, mean average precision (mAP), and F1 score (Fig. S2 and Table1). Cross-validation analyses employed a subsample (k) of 5, as this proved sufficient to select an optimised detection classifier that balanced model size with performance. Resultant model rankings were based on mean cross-validation scores, calculated using the Python packages scikit-learn and PaddlePaddle, and the YOLOv5 integrated validation functionality. Additional performance visualisations were generated via the packages Seaborn, Matplotlib, and NumPy. All statistical analyses were performed in SPSS (release v. 28.0.1.1) and Python (release v. 3.9.12).

Cross-validation of polygonal and box annotation techniques utilised precision, recall, box loss, objectness loss, classification loss, and mAP as response variables, and compared models with copy-paste augmentation levels of 0%, 30%, and 90%, with the former of these corresponding to box annotations.

Visualisation of training data subsets to ensure sufficient image novelty utilised frequency distribution analyses of blur, area, brightness, colour, and object density between the HTS, H/NTS, and VS.

Cross-validation of model architectures employed precision, recall, box loss, objectness loss, classification loss, and mAP as response variables, and compared models using the YOLOv5m, YOLOv5s, and YOLOv5n architectures.

Cross-validation of models trained on the hornet training subset and hornet/non-target training subset used F1 score and mAP as response variables, and compared models trained on the HTS and H/NTS, validated against the VS.

The LRP class classification model employed normalised contributions to classification decisions as a response variable, and compared same and opposite class pixel contributions. The LRP training subset classification model used normalised contributions to classification decisions as a response variable, and compared models trained on the HTS and N/HTS.

Precision and recall analyses were utilised to compare camera models, with comparisons based on median performance across test types for each metric.

Model development utilised a sample of 3302 images collected from a total of four countries, each consisting of multiple sampling sites. Data augmentation further expanded this sample to 13,208 images and provided additional variation to enhance model robustness. Analyses of the prototype system employed a sample of >5500 frames, collected across 55 field trials at two sites in Jersey. The source data underlying all figures and analyses are available within the supplementary data. Full details of statistical tests, subset sample sizes, and model selection procedures are provided in the results and statistical analyses sections.

Further information on research design is available in theNature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

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VespAI: a deep learning-based system for the detection of invasive hornets | Communications Biology - Nature.com