Monkeys eat fats and carbs to keep warm

Golden snub-nosed monkeys adjust nutrient intake in winter

Date:  June 8, 2018

Source:  University of Sydney

University of Sydney researchers have found monkeys living in the wild in cold snowy habitats adjust their nutrient intake to match the elevated costs of thermoregulation.

China's Quinling mountains, high altitude temperate forests where winter temperatures commonly drop below 0 degrees Celsius and approximately 50 cm of snow covers the ground for several weeks in the winter, was the location of the study.

Published in Functional Ecology, the researchers analysed the nutritional content of all foods the monkeys consumed in order to calculate the nutrient composition of the monkeys' diets, and then assessed the additional energy the monkeys used to regulate their temperature in winter compared with spring.

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Hot imagery of wintering bats suggests group behavior for battling white-nose syndrome

Date:  July 5, 2017

Source:  US Geological Survey

Summary:  Hot new imagery from temperature-sensing cameras suggests that bats who warm up from hibernation together throughout the winter may be better at surviving white nose syndrome, a disease caused by a cold-loving fungus ravaging insect-eating bat populations in the United States and Canada.

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Muskoxen hair analysis shows diet suffers during snow-heavy Arctic winters

Hair records reveal dietary chronology in high resolution, enable new way of monitoring for remote tundra animals

Date:April 20, 2016

Source:PLOS

Analysis of hairs from muskoxen in the Arctic tundra indicates they had limited amounts of forage available and relied heavily on body stores during snow-heavy winters, according to a study published April 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jesper Bruun Mosbacher from the Arctic Research Centre at Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues.

Like other northern hooved animals, female muskoxen are more likely to bear calves when they have ample fat and protein stored for the winter, a state that strongly influences population demographics. Continuously growing tissues, like hair, provide a fairly long-term record of animal diets in the form of δ15N, a nitrogen isotope that varies seasonally in many grass-fed animals, and muskoxen guard hairs grow continuously for several years. The authors of this study clipped guard hair samples from the rumps of 10 muskoxen and used isotope analysis to reconstruct their diets in Northeast Greenland over the previous two and a half years, achieving a resolution of about nine days.

The researchers found that the diets of muskoxen were closely linked to changes in the temperature and snow depth. While summer diets were similar from year to year, winter diets varied widely, likely caused by large variations in the snow depth between winters. In particular, increased δ15N values were seen in muskoxen guard hair in winters with heavy snowfall. This indicated that the muskoxen had very limited access to forage and relied more heavily on their body stores to get through these extreme winters.

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Cats found to eat more in the winter

Date:

May 28, 2014

Source:

University of Liverpool

Summary:

Cats eat more during the winter and owners should give their pet more food during this time, research has found. The study found that cats ate approximately 15% less food during summer, and the vets have concluded that the extra effort to keep warm in winter and the temptation to rest during hot summer days contributed to the swing in activity levels during the year.

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Honeybees battered by brutal winter

CINDY NEVITT, THE PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITYPOSTED: Sunday, April 27, 2014, 1:09 AM

DENNIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. - With wind gusts in excess of 30 m.p.h. buffeting him, Gary Schempp struggled to check the health of his honeybee hives. The insects, enduring another day imprisoned in their hives by the uncooperative weather, reacted to Schempp's intrusion with a few well-placed stings.

"We're having a hard time standing here," Schempp said of maintaining an upright position against the howling wind as he visited hives he has at Jalma Farms on Route 9 in Ocean View, Cape May County. "Imagine being a honeybee and trying to fly in this."

Such is the plight of the honeybee, an insect so lightweight, it takes 300 worker bees to equal an ounce.

With one-quarter of the state's honeybee colonies decimated by the brutal winter and starved by a cold spring, and almost half of the colonies killed by weather conditions coupled with a parasite infestation, the situation is getting desperate for the bees that have managed to survive.

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Birds and berries to be surveyed

Gardeners and birdwatchers are being asked to help identify birds' berry-eating habits.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) study is the first large study of how birds use garden berries and fruits.

While it is known that berries attract birds, little is understood about which berries different bird species favour.

Scientists are concerned that by preferring certain berries, birds may be spreading the seeds of invasive plant species, such as cotoneaster.

The bounty of berries that autumn and winter produce can be an important source of food for many birds, such as thrushes, starlings and wintering warblers.

They offer sugars and easily digestible nutrients during a time when food can be scarce.

The plants that produce the berries then rely on the birds to disperse the seeds hidden within this nutritious flesh.

Garden berries are important as they are usually available later in the year and often untouched by other birds.

The mistle thrush will aggressively defend holly berries all winter, for example.

But little is actually known about which garden berries and fruits are being eaten by which birds and when.

"There is no evidence for how important garden berries are compared to those in the wider countryside," said Mike Toms, head of garden ecology at the BTO.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19422637