Publicaties

The limb skeleton of tapirs (Perissodactyla: Tapirus spp.) was traditionally thought to exhibit morphological variation only as a result of changes in body size. Here, we test whether forelimb variation exhibited by Tapirus is solely an artefact of size fluctuations through the tapir fossil record or whether it is influenced by habitat differences. We investigated the forelimb osteology of 12 species of Tapirus using three-dimensional geometric ...

Background: Throughout life, physiological homeostasis is challenged and the capacity to cope with such challenges declines with increasing age. In many species, sex differences exist in life expectancy. Sex-specific differences have been related to extrinsic factors like mate competition and/or intrinsic proximate mechanisms such as hormonal changes. In humans, an intrinsic factor related to aging is soluble alpha klotho (alpha-Kl). Both sexes ...

Asymmetry in forelimb dorsal hoof wall angles, termed unevenness, is associated with forelimb gait asymmetries, but compensatory mechanisms and out of plane ground reaction forces (GRFs) due to unevenness have yet to be documented. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the effects of fore hoof unevenness on contralateral fore and hind limb force vectors patterns, in both sagittal and frontal planes. A group of n=34 riding horses ...

Data describing segmental masses and moments of inertia (MOI) of limb segments are required for inverse dynamic calculations. In horses, these values are usually calculated using regression equations that have been developed from a limited number of horses representing a small number of breeds. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the performance of a scaling method and a pictorial method for estimating of the values of segmental ...

Evolution of the human hand has undergone a transition from use during locomotion to use primarily for manipulation. Previous comparative morphological and biomechanical studies have focused on potential changes in manipulative abilities during human hand evolution, but few have focused on functional signals for arboreal locomotion. Here, we provide this comparative context though the first analysis of hand loading in captive bonobos during ...

The present study used abundance and habitat variables to design High Conservation Value Forests for wildlife protection. We considered great apes (Gorilla gorilla gorilla and Pan troglodytes troglodytes) as model species, and we used nest surveys, dietary analysis and botanical inventories to evaluate whether the traditional methods that use abundance data alone were consistent with the survival of the species. We assumed that setting a local ...

Measuring hunting sustainability across West/Central African forests remains a challenge. Long-term assessment of trends is crucial. Via hunter-reported surveys we collected offtake data in three villages near the Dja Biosphere Reserve (southeast Cameroon). During four months (March-June) in 2003, 2009 and 2016, we gathered information on hunters, prey species and number of carcasses brought to the three settlements. Because it was not possible ...

The composition of herbaceous vegetation was evaluated with the aim of characterizing forests at various ages of stand development. Herb stems were sampled in 250 4-m² square plots distributed within six habitat types. A total of 36 herb species belonging to 15 families were recorded. Species richness did not significantlydiffer between habitat types. Most herb species occurred in all habitat types andwere therefore generalists. However, a few ...

The quantitative and qualitative aspects of seed dispersal by the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) were investigated in Gabon. Fresh faeces were collected and washed to identify and count the seeds. Seed germinability after gut passage was estimated with trials in a nursery at the study site. To assess the impact of gut passage on germination success and delay, comparative trials were run with four treatments: (i) gut passed ...