The Puerto Rican crested toad (Peltophyrne lemur [P. lemur]) is Puerto Rico's only endemic toad and has undergone rapid population decline within the last 40 years. As a hedge against extinction, captive assurance colonies have been established at several zoological institutions for breeding and reintroduction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSperm cryopreservation and biobanking are emerging as tools for supporting genetic management of small and threatened populations in amphibian conservation programs. However, there is little to no evidence demonstrating reproductive maturity and viability of offspring generated with cryopreserved sperm, potentially limiting widespread integration of these technologies. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate that amphibian sperm can be cryopreserved and thawed to successfully produce individuals of an F1 generation that can reach adulthood and reproductive maturity, to generating viable gametes and an F2 generation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcross species, individuals within a population differ in their level of boldness in social encounters with conspecifics. This boldness phenotype is often stable across both time and social context (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithin populations, some individuals tend to exhibit a bold or shy social behavior phenotype relative to the mean. The neural underpinnings of these differing phenotypes - also described as syndromes, personalities, and coping styles - is an area of ongoing investigation. Although a social decision-making network has been described across vertebrate taxa, most studies examining activity within this network do so in relation to exhibited differences in behavioral expression.
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