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Chivers BD, Keeler MRD, Burn CC. Ear health and quality of life in pet rabbits of differing ear conformations: A UK survey of owner-reported signalment risk factors and effects on rabbit welfare and behaviour. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0285372. [PMID: 37467190 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The impacts of ear disease on animal welfare and behaviour are little documented. Ear disease may be common in rabbits, but difficult to recognise, and lop-ears have previously been indicated as a risk factor for ear disease. We aimed to better understand the range of ear conditions in pet rabbits, signalment risk factors, and impacts on welfare and behaviour. Through an online questionnaire, we investigated owner-reported signalment, veterinary diagnosis of ear conditions, impaired hearing, and ear pain for UK pet rabbits. Relationships between ear condition measures and ear conformation, quality of life, and behaviour were analysed using logistic regression. Of 551 valid responses, 28.5% of rabbits reportedly had experienced ear conditions; 21.2% diagnosed or mentioned by vets, with otitis and excess cerumen most common. Approximately 25% of lop-eared rabbits had ear conditions indicated by a vet versus 10% of erect-eared rabbits. Lop-eared, half-lop, and older rabbits were most at risk (P<0.050). Rabbits reported as showing ear pain responses had reduced owner-reported quality of life compared with other rabbits (P<0.050). Rabbits with ear problems were less likely to be responsive to relevant sounds, and performed binky behaviour (joy jumps) less frequently, than rabbits without such issues. Understanding prevalence and risk factors for ear conditions is critical to improving welfare standards across this widely owned pet species. The findings suggest that improved recognition and treatment of ear conditions, and avoiding breeding from rabbits with early signs, or a family history, of ear disease are necessary to help combat this animal welfare issue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedict D Chivers
- Animal Welfare Science and Ethics, Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
| | - Melissa R D Keeler
- Animal Welfare Science and Ethics, Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
| | - Charlotte C Burn
- Animal Welfare Science and Ethics, Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
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Celiker E, Woodrow C, Rocha-Sánchez AY, Chivers BD, Barrientos-Lozano L, Montealegre-Z F. Beyond the exponential horn: a bush-cricket with ear canals which function as coupled resonators. R Soc Open Sci 2022; 9:220532. [PMID: 36312569 PMCID: PMC9554516 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Bush-crickets have dual-input, tympanal ears located in the tibia of their forelegs. The sound will first of all reach the external sides of the tympana, before arriving at the internal sides through the bush-cricket's ear canal, the acoustic trachea (AT), with a phase lapse and pressure gain. It has been shown that for many bush-crickets, the AT has an exponential horn-shaped morphology and function, producing a significant pressure gain above a certain cut-off frequency. However, the underlying mechanism of different AT designs remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrate that the AT of the duetting Phaneropterinae bush-cricket Pterodichopetala cieloi function as coupled resonators, producing sound pressure gains at the sex-specific conspecific calling song frequency, and attenuating the remainder-a functioning mechanism significantly different from an exponential horn. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that despite the sexual dimorphism between the P. cieloi AT, both male and female AT have a similar biophysical mechanism. The analysis was carried out using an interdisciplinary approach, where micro-computed tomography was used for the morphological properties of the P. cieloi AT, and a finite-element analysis was applied on the precise tracheal geometry to further justify the experimental results and to go beyond experimental limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emine Celiker
- University of Lincoln, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Charlie Woodrow
- University of Lincoln, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Aurora Y. Rocha-Sánchez
- Tecnológico Nacional de México-I. T. de Ciudad Victoria, Blvd. Emilio Portes Gil No. 1301, Ciudad Victoria, C.P. 87010 Tamaulipas, México
| | - Benedict D. Chivers
- University of Lincoln, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Ludivina Barrientos-Lozano
- Tecnológico Nacional de México-I. T. de Ciudad Victoria, Blvd. Emilio Portes Gil No. 1301, Ciudad Victoria, C.P. 87010 Tamaulipas, México
| | - Fernando Montealegre-Z
- University of Lincoln, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
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Chivers BD, Jonsson T, Soulsbury CD, Montealegre-Z F. Structural biomechanics determine spectral purity of bush-cricket calls. Biol Lett 2017; 13:20170573. [PMID: 29187608 PMCID: PMC5719386 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2017] [Accepted: 11/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Bush-crickets (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) generate sound using tegminal stridulation. Signalling effectiveness is affected by the widely varying acoustic parameters of temporal pattern, frequency and spectral purity (tonality). During stridulation, frequency multiplication occurs as a scraper on one wing scrapes across a file of sclerotized teeth on the other. The frequency with which these tooth-scraper interactions occur, along with radiating wing cell resonant properties, dictates both frequency and tonality in the call. Bush-cricket species produce calls ranging from resonant, tonal calls through to non-resonant, broadband signals. The differences are believed to result from differences in file tooth arrangement and wing radiators, but a systematic test of the structural causes of broadband or tonal calls is lacking. Using phylogenetically controlled structural equation models, we show that parameters of file tooth density and file length are the best-fitting predictors of tonality across 40 bush-cricket species. Features of file morphology constrain the production of spectrally pure signals, but systematic distribution of teeth alone does not explain pure-tone sound production in this family.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Thorin Jonsson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Carl D Soulsbury
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
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Goutte S, Mason MJ, Christensen-Dalsgaard J, Montealegre-Z F, Chivers BD, Sarria-S FA, Antoniazzi MM, Jared C, Almeida Sato L, Felipe Toledo L. Evidence of auditory insensitivity to vocalization frequencies in two frogs. Sci Rep 2017; 7:12121. [PMID: 28935936 PMCID: PMC5608807 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12145-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2017] [Accepted: 09/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergence and maintenance of animal communication systems requires the co-evolution of signal and receiver. Frogs and toads rely heavily on acoustic communication for coordinating reproduction and typically have ears tuned to the dominant frequency of their vocalizations, allowing discrimination from background noise and heterospecific calls. However, we present here evidence that two anurans, Brachycephalus ephippium and B. pitanga, are insensitive to the sound of their own calls. Both species produce advertisement calls outside their hearing sensitivity range and their inner ears are partly undeveloped, which accounts for their lack of high-frequency sensitivity. If unheard by the intended receivers, calls are not beneficial to the emitter and should be selected against because of the costs associated with signal production. We suggest that protection against predators conferred by their high toxicity might help to explain why calling has not yet disappeared, and that visual communication may have replaced auditory in these colourful, diurnal frogs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Goutte
- Laboratório de História Natural de Anfíbios Brasileiros (LaHNAB), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, 13083-862, Brazil.
| | - Matthew J Mason
- Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EG, United Kingdom
| | | | - Fernando Montealegre-Z
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, United Kingdom
| | - Benedict D Chivers
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, United Kingdom
| | - Fabio A Sarria-S
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, United Kingdom
| | - Marta M Antoniazzi
- Laboratory of Cell Biology, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, 05503-900, Brazil
| | - Carlos Jared
- Laboratory of Cell Biology, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, 05503-900, Brazil
| | | | - Luís Felipe Toledo
- Laboratório de História Natural de Anfíbios Brasileiros (LaHNAB), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, 13083-862, Brazil
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Jonsson T, Chivers BD, Robson Brown K, Sarria-S FA, Walker M, Montealegre-Z F. Chamber music: an unusual Helmholtz resonator for song amplification in a Neotropical bush-cricket (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae). ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017; 220:2900-2907. [PMID: 28596213 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.160234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 05/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Animals use sound for communication, with high-amplitude signals being selected for attracting mates or deterring rivals. High amplitudes are attained by employing primary resonators in sound-producing structures to amplify the signal (e.g. avian syrinx). Some species actively exploit acoustic properties of natural structures to enhance signal transmission by using these as secondary resonators (e.g. tree-hole frogs). Male bush-crickets produce sound by tegminal stridulation and often use specialised wing areas as primary resonators. Interestingly, Acanthacara acuta, a Neotropical bush-cricket, exhibits an unusual pronotal inflation, forming a chamber covering the wings. It has been suggested that such pronotal chambers enhance amplitude and tuning of the signal by constituting a (secondary) Helmholtz resonator. If true, the intact system - when stimulated sympathetically with broadband sound - should show clear resonance around the song carrier frequency which should be largely independent of pronotum material, and change when the system is destroyed. Using laser Doppler vibrometry on living and preserved specimens, microcomputed tomography, 3D-printed models and finite element modelling, we show that the pronotal chamber not only functions as a Helmholtz resonator owing to its intact morphology but also resonates at frequencies of the calling song on itself, making song production a three-resonator system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thorin Jonsson
- School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Benedict D Chivers
- School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Kate Robson Brown
- Imaging Laboratory, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK
| | - Fabio A Sarria-S
- School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Matthew Walker
- School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
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Sarria-S FA, Chivers BD, Soulsbury CD, Montealegre-Z F. Non-invasive biophysical measurement of travelling waves in the insect inner ear. R Soc Open Sci 2017; 4:170171. [PMID: 28573026 PMCID: PMC5451827 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2017] [Accepted: 04/04/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Frequency analysis in the mammalian cochlea depends on the propagation of frequency information in the form of a travelling wave (TW) across tonotopically arranged auditory sensilla. TWs have been directly observed in the basilar papilla of birds and the ears of bush-crickets (Insecta: Orthoptera) and have also been indirectly inferred in the hearing organs of some reptiles and frogs. Existing experimental approaches to measure TW function in tetrapods and bush-crickets are inherently invasive, compromising the fine-scale mechanics of each system. Located in the forelegs, the bush-cricket ear exhibits outer, middle and inner components; the inner ear containing tonotopically arranged auditory sensilla within a fluid-filled cavity, and externally protected by the leg cuticle. Here, we report bush-crickets with transparent ear cuticles as potential model species for direct, non-invasive measuring of TWs and tonotopy. Using laser Doppler vibrometry and spectroscopy, we show that increased transmittance of light through the ear cuticle allows for effective non-invasive measurements of TWs and frequency mapping. More transparent cuticles allow several properties of TWs to be precisely recovered and measured in vivo from intact specimens. Our approach provides an innovative, non-invasive alternative to measure the natural motion of the sensilla-bearing surface embedded in the intact inner ear fluid.
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Chivers BD, Béthoux O, Sarria-S FA, Jonsson T, Mason AC, Montealegre-Z F. Functional morphology of tegmina-based stridulation in the relict species Cyphoderris monstrosa (Orthoptera: Ensifera: Prophalangopsidae). ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017; 220:1112-1121. [PMID: 28082619 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.153106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2016] [Accepted: 01/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Male grigs, bush crickets and crickets produce mating calls by tegminal stridulation: the scraping together of modified forewings functioning as sound generators. Bush crickets (Tettigoniidae) and crickets (Gryllinae) diverged some 240 million years ago, with each lineage developing unique characteristics in wing morphology and the associated mechanics of stridulation. The grigs (Prophalangopsidae), a relict lineage more closely related to bush crickets than to crickets, are believed to retain plesiomorphic features of wing morphology. The wing cells widely involved in sound production, such as the harp and mirror, are comparatively small, poorly delimited and/or partially filled with cross-veins. Such morphology is similarly observed in the earliest stridulating ensiferans, for which stridulatory mechanics remains poorly understood. The grigs, therefore, are of major importance to investigate the early evolutionary stages of tegminal stridulation, a critical innovation in the evolution of the Orthoptera. The aim of this study is to appreciate the degree of specialization on grig forewings, through identification of sound radiating areas and their properties. For well-grounded comparisons, homologies in wing venation (and associated areas) of grigs and bush crickets are re-evaluated. Then, using direct evidence, this study confirms the mirror cell, in association with two other areas (termed 'neck' and 'pre-mirror'), as the acoustic resonator in the grig Cyphoderris monstrosa Despite the use of largely symmetrical resonators, as found in field crickets, analogous features of stridulatory mechanics are observed between C. monstrosa and bush crickets. Both morphology and function in grigs represents transitional stages between unspecialized forewings and derived conditions observed in modern species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedict D Chivers
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Olivier Béthoux
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, MNHN, CNRS, Centre de recherche sur la paléobiodiversité et les paléoenvironnements (CR2P), 57 Rue Cuvier, CP 38, Paris 75005, France
| | - Fabio A Sarria-S
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Thorin Jonsson
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
| | - Andrew C Mason
- Integrative Behaviour and Neuroscience, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1C 1A4
| | - Fernando Montealegre-Z
- Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK
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Chivers BD, Jonsson T, Jackson JC, Kleinhappel TK, Shivarova N, Windmill JFC, Montealegre-Z F. Distribution of sound pressure around a singing cricket: radiation pattern and asymmetry in the sound field. BIOACOUSTICS 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2015.1124344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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