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SARS‐CoV‐2 human‐to‐animal transmission can lead to the establishment of novel reservoirs and the evolution of new variants with the potential to start new outbreaks in humans. We tested Norway rats inhabiting the sewer system of Antwerp, Belgium, for the presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 following a local COVID‐19 epidemic peak. In addition, we discuss the use and interpretation of SARS‐CoV‐2 serological tests on non‐human samples. Between November and December 2020, Norway rat oral swabs, faeces and tissues from the sewer system of Antwerp were collected to be tested by RT‐qPCR for the presence of SARS‐CoV‐2. Serum samples were screened for the presence of anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG antibodies using a Luminex microsphere immunoassay (MIA). Samples considered positive were then checked for neutralizing antibodies using a conventional viral neutralization test (cVNT). The serum of 35 rats was tested by MIA showing three potentially positive sera that were later negative by cVNT. All tissue samples of 39 rats analysed tested negative for SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA. This is the first study that evaluates SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in urban rats. We can conclude that the sample of rats analysed had never been infected with SARS‐CoV‐2. However, monitoring activities should continue due to the emergence of new variants prone to infect Muridae rodents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.09.031 Byline: Arne Iserbyt, Hans Van Gossum Abstract: Males are often selected for higher mating rates than females. As a consequence of this sexual conflict, unreceptive females may suffer fitness costs from excessive male sexual harassment. In a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate species, multiple female morphs coexist in natural populations which have been observed to differ in body colour, in behaviour and also in the amount of male harassment received. However, the degree of harassment on a female morph may depend on the frequency and density of males and female morphs in the population. We quantified harassment rate and subsequent refusal behaviour of males and female morphs of the polymorphic damselfly Nehalennia irene. Unexpectedly and contrary to previous work, female morphs received similar amounts of male harassment and showed mostly the same behaviour. We discuss why differences in morph behaviours may be lacking and how this compares to contemporary explanations for the maintenance and evolution of female-limited polymorphisms. Author Affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Belgium Article History: Received 8 June 2009; Revised 30 July 2009; Accepted 22 September 2009 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: 09-00377

Personality (i.e. among-individual variation in average behavior) often covaries with fitness, but how such personality–fitness relationships come about is poorly understood. Here, we explore potential mechanisms by which two female personality traits (female–female aggression and female nest defense as manifested by hissing behavior) were linked with annual reproductive success in a population of great tits (Parus major), a socially monogamous species with biparental care. We hypothesized that personality-related differences in reproductive success result from variation in reproductive decision (lay date, brood size) and/or parental provisioning rates. Relative support for these mechanisms was evaluated using path analysis on data collected in two successive years. We reveal that larger broods were provisioned at a higher rate by both parents and that female, but not male, provisioning rate was involved in the trade-off between offspring number (brood size) and fledgling mass. Among-individual variation in female aggression, via its association with female provisioning rate, was negatively linked to fledgling mass (i.e. indirect effect), yet only in one of the study years. Male provisioning rate did not influence these relationships. In contrast, among-individual variation in hissing behavior was directly and negatively linked with fledgling mass in both years, via an underlying mechanism that remains to be identified (i.e. direct effect). Together, our findings emphasize that personality–fitness relationships may come about via different mechanisms across personality traits and/or years, thereby illustrating additional complexity in how selection might act on and maintain among-individual variation in behavioral phenotypes in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female-limited polymorphism occurs in different animal taxa but is particularly abundant among species of damselflies (Insecta: Odonata), most likely as a consequence of selection to avoid excessive male harassment. Recent work on the damselfly Nehalennia irene indicated that within year spatial variation in female morph frequencies was limited in nearby populations (i.e. intra-regional scale), but large at a continental scale. As anticipated, some of the observed variation in morph frequency was correlated with variation in the estimated degree of male harassment towards female morphs, measured by male density and operational sex ratio. Here, we extended earlier work by quantifying variation in morph frequency over two to three years, allowing us to elucidate how morph frequencies vary temporally at both intra-regional and continental scales (data for 8 populations over three years and for 33 populations over two years, respectively). Annual variation in morph frequencies was relatively high at the intra-regional scale, but was never large enough to obscure the underlying spatial pattern at the continental scale. At both geographic scales, male density and operational sex ratio were highly variable between years. The estimated degree of male harassment correlated with variation in morph frequency within some regions, but not all. Together, the observed natural variation in female morph frequencies may be partly explained by variation in male harassment, but it appears that a complete understanding will require considering the role of other environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long-term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad-scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long-term studies of birds, we have created the SPI-Birds Network and Database (www.spibirds.org)-a large-scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI-Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currently hosts data on almost 1.5 million individual birds collected in 80 populations over 2,000 cumulative years, and counting. SPI-Birds acts as a data hub and a catalogue of studied populations. It prevents data loss, secures easy data finding, use and integration and thus facilitates collaboration and synthesis. We provide community-derived data and meta-data standards and improve data integrity guided by the principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), and aligned with the existing metadata languages (e.g. ecological meta-data language). The encouraging community involvement stems from SPI-Bird's decentralized approach: research groups retain full control over data use and their way of data management, while SPI-Birds creates tailored pipelines to convert each unique data format into a standard format. We outline the lessons learned, so that other communities (e.g. those working on other taxa) can adapt our successful model. Creating community-specific hubs (such as ours, COMADRE for animal demography, etc.) will aid much-needed large-scale ecological data integration., (© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.)