Philadelphia Zoo

In Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus causes significant calf mortality. Coagulation testing may aid veterinarians in early identification and management of hemostatic disorders. This study sought to establish reference intervals for select coagulation and platelet values. Blood was collected from clinically healthy Asian elephants (n = 63) in juvenile (≤15 yr old, n = 9), adult (>15 to ≤50 yr old, n = 41), and geriatric (>50 yr old, n = 13) age classes at seven institutions in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Activated clotting time (ACT) was immediately assessed with a handheld analyzer, whereas remaining blood was stored at 5°C in sodium citrate and potassium EDTA collection tubes and transported to a central laboratory. Coagulation values were assessed on an automated blood coagulation analyzer, and platelet values were assessed on a hematology analyzer. Reference intervals were established for ACT, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, thrombin time, fibrinogen, platelet count, mean platelet volume, platelet distribution width, and plateletcrit according to the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology guidelines. No significant differences were observed for any value when comparing sex and time to centrifugation. Plasma fibrinogen (P = 0.002) and platelets (P = 0.003) varied significantly by age class, with adults displaying the highest fibrinogen concentrations and geriatric individuals displaying the lowest platelet counts. The ACT kaolin cartridges resulted in high success rates (84.3% feasibility) compared with celite cartridges (4.8% feasibility). Further studies are warranted to stratify reference intervals in accordance with age class trends.

An obstetrician on standby assessed an 18-year-old primiparous captive gorilla with a term singleton fetus with a protracted labor course. After it was determined that an arrest of descent had occurred, a viable, 2,280 g male neonate was delivered through an operative vaginal birth with forceps assistance without major complications. Given the numerous anatomic and biochemical similarities of humans and other great apes, it is possible that the high maternal mortality and stillbirth rates of gorillas could be reduced by using the same principles of obstetric management in a multidisciplinary fashion.

ABSTRACTPlay dates over a three-year study of two bachelor western lowland gorillas at the Philadelphia Zoo offer a critique of the idea of play as essentially a voluntary activity. Through video microanalysis, play emerges as negotiated interaction. The study goes beyond the primate ‘play face’ (PF) to understand the complexity of signaled play sessions and suggests that gorillas, like humans, have the equivalent of pregame ritual, and that play may climax cyclically, rather than begin with the PF. The study raises questions about the framing and coding of play behavior, play initiation, play signaling, and about the use of objects in social play.

One way to gain insights into personality evolution is by comparing the personality structures of related species. We compared the personality structure of 240 wild white-faced capuchin monkeys to the personality structure of 100 captive brown capuchin monkeys. An ancillary goal was to test the degree to which different personality questionnaires yielded similar personality dimensions. Both species were rated on a common set of 26 antonym pairs. The brown capuchin monkeys were also rated on the 54-item Hominoid Personality Questionnaire. Our cross-species comparisons revealed 3 personality dimensions-Assertiveness, Openness, and Neuroticism-shared by brown and white-faced capuchins, suggesting that these dimensions were present in the common ancestor of these species. Our comparison of the dimensions derived from the antonym pairs and the Hominoid Personality Questionnaire revealed that three common dimensions were identified by both questionnaires. In addition, the dimension Attentiveness was only identified using the Hominoid Personality Questionnaire. These results indicate that major features of capuchin personality are conserved and that the structure of some traits, such as those related to focus, persistence, and attention, diverged. Further work is needed to identify the evolutionary bases that led to the conservation of some dimensions but not others. (PsycINFO Database Record

Abstract AimLarge trees (d.b.h. ≥ 70 cm) store large amounts of biomass. Several studies suggest that large trees may be vulnerable to changing climate, potentially leading to declining forest biomass storage. Here we determine the importance of large trees for tropical forest biomass storage and explore which intrinsic (species trait) and extrinsic (environment) variables are associated with the density of large trees and forest biomass at continental and pan‐tropical scales.LocationPan‐tropical.MethodsAboveground biomass (AGB) was calculated for 120 intact lowland moist forest locations. Linear regression was used to calculate variation in AGB explained by the density of large trees. Akaike information criterion weights (AICc‐wi) were used to calculate averaged correlation coefficients for all possible multiple regression models between AGB/density of large trees and environmental and species trait variables correcting for spatial autocorrelation.ResultsDensity of large trees explained c. 70% of the variation in pan‐tropical AGB and was also responsible for significantly lower AGB in Neotropical [287.8 (mean) ± 105.0 (SD) Mg ha−1] versus Palaeotropical forests (Africa 418.3 ± 91.8 Mg ha−1; Asia 393.3 ± 109.3 Mg ha−1). Pan‐tropical variation in density of large trees and AGB was associated with soil coarseness (negative), soil fertility (positive), community wood density (positive) and dominance of wind dispersed species (positive), temperature in the coldest month (negative), temperature in the warmest month (negative) and rainfall in the wettest month (positive), but results were not always consistent among continents.Main conclusionsDensity of large trees and AGB were significantly associated with climatic variables, indicating that climate change will affect tropical forest biomass storage. Species trait composition will interact with these future biomass changes as they are also affected by a warmer climate. Given the importance of large trees for variation in AGB across the tropics, and their sensitivity to climate change, we emphasize the need for in‐depth analyses of the community dynamics of large trees.

Genes of the vertebrate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are crucial to defense against infectious disease, provide an important measure of functional genetic diversity, and have been implicated in mate choice and kin recognition. As a result, MHC loci have been characterized for a number of vertebrate species, especially mammals;however, elephants are a notable exception. Our study is the first to characterize patterns of genetic diversity and natural selection in the elephant MHC. We did so using DNA sequences from a single, expressed DQA locus in elephants.We characterized six alleles in 30 African elephants(Loxodonta africana) and four alleles in three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). In addition, for two of the African alleles and three of the Asian alleles, we characterized complete coding sequences (exons 1-5) and nearly complete non-coding sequences (introns 2-4) for the class II DQA loci. Compared to DQA in other wild mammals, we found moderate polymorphism and allelic diversity and similar patterns of selection; patterns of non-synonymous and synonymous substitutions were consistent with balancing selection acting on the peptides involved in antigen binding in the second exon. In addition, balancing selection has led to strong trans-species allelism that has maintained multiple allelic lineages across both genera of extant elephants for at least 6 million years. We discuss our results in the context of MHC diversity in other mammals and patterns of evolution in elephants.