Stephanie S. Godfrey’s research while affiliated with University of Otago and other places

Cognition and memory ability is pivotal for animal survival and is believed to be particularly adaptive for long-lived species. Numerosity discrimination, crucial for resource management and social interactions, provides a quantitative framework that allows us to compare the performance and the recovery of previously established concepts after a long-term retention interval. In this research, we investigated the capacity of freshwater turtles to remember the experimental process and gradually recall the abstract concept of “greater than”. Five striped-necked turtles (Mauremys sinensis), trained in 2019 to discriminate between quantities represented by red cubes, were retested after a two-year retention interval with no exposure to stimuli or human interaction. Three turtles remembered the training process to acquire food rewards from the stimuli within the first day of testing. However, regaining the concept of “greater than” required more time: one turtle reached 68% accuracy (P = 0.0669) on Day 1, another achieved 77% (P = 0.0085) on Day 2, and a third reached 82% (P = 0.0022) on Day 3. The latter two individuals retained this high accuracy until the end of the experiment. As the study continued, memory recall for each subject improved with greater efficiency than two years prior. Our study confirms that freshwater turtles retain long-term memory of abstract concepts learned two years earlier and reveals significant individual heterogeneity in their recall and decision-making processes. These findings underscore the need for more comprehensive research into the factors shaping animal cognition and behavior, particularly in understanding the ecological and evolutionary pressures that influence memory retention, individual variability, and decision-making strategies. Significance statement This study provides compelling evidence that freshwater turtles possess the ability to retain and recall abstract cognitive concepts over extended periods without reinforcement, highlighting their advanced cognitive capacities. By demonstrating that striped-necked turtles (Mauremys sinensis) can remember training and discriminate based on the concept of "greater than" after a two-year hiatus, our research not only challenges existing assumptions about reptilian memory capabilities but also enriches our understanding of cognitive evolution in long-lived species. The found individual differences in memory recall and decision-making underscore the complexity of animal cognition and highlight the significance of individual variability in behavioral studies. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that support long-term memory in animals.

Animal gut microbiomes can be very diverse, and enteric bacteria can profoundly affect the physiology of their host. The gut microbiome can be related to host health and digestion, which ultimately contribute to host body condition. However, we have a limited understanding of the co‐occurrence patterns of gut bacteria in their host, and how co‐occurrence and bacterial diversity change over time. This notion is especially important to animals living in groups as bacteria can transmit through social interactions. We investigated the co‐occurrence patterns of gut bacteria in a lizard host. We repeatedly collected cloacal swabs from 87 sleepy lizards ( Tiliqua rugosa ) from two different study sites over their activity season. We determined the richness and prevalence of 82 enteric bacterial strains and used a probabilistic model to investigate their co‐occurrence. At both study sites, richness and prevalence generally increased over time. We suggest that the lizards acquire strains throughout their activity season by moving through the landscape and inspecting conspecific scats. Lizards continuously tongue‐flick while moving, and thereby ingest bacteria when they move through areas where other animals defaecated. Temperature, rainfall and diet change seasonally, influencing lizard activity, and may influence the observed increase in enterobacterial richness and prevalence. Further, albeit with some exceptions, most strain pairs did not occur significantly more often or less often than expected by chance. This finding shows a lack of structured co‐occurrence, which may imply that most bacterial strains did not facilitate or inhibit each other. The absence of a co‐occurrence pattern could also be driven by random encounters of bacteria shed by other lizards within the habitat. Our results suggest that behaviour (movement patterns, tongue‐flicking), activity patterns and environmental factors collectively drive the temporal pattern of the gut bacterial community in sleepy lizards and potentially other wild reptiles.

Social interactions are inevitable in the lives of most animals, since most essential behaviours require interaction with conspecifics, such as mating and competing for resources. Non-avian reptiles are typically viewed as solitary animals that predominantly use their vision and olfaction to communicate with conspecifics. Nevertheless, in recent years, evidence is mounting that some reptiles can produce sounds and have the potential for acoustic communication. Reptiles that can produce sound have an additional communicative channel (in addition to visual/olfactory channels), which could suggest they have a higher communicative complexity, the evolution of which is assumed to be driven by the need of social interactions. Thus, acoustic reptiles may provide an opportunity to unveil the true social complexity of reptiles that are usually thought of as solitary. This review aims to reveal the hidden social interactions behind the use of sounds in non-avian reptiles. Our review suggests that the potential of vocal and acoustic communication and the complexity of social interactions may be underestimated in non-avian reptiles, and that acoustic reptiles may provide a great opportunity to uncover the coevolution between sociality and communication in non-avian reptiles. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics’.

The conservation management of threatened wildlife increasingly relies upon translocations to augment populations. Translocations, however, pose various risks: from the host perspective these include the spread of parasitic disease, whereas from a broader biodiversity perspective translocation may lead to the loss of rare parasites and other dependent fauna. Although Disease Risk Analyses are recommended during translocation planning, knowledge regarding the parasites infecting threatened species or their pathogenicity is often lacking. Between March 2014 and June 2016, woylies (Bettongia penicillata) and sympatric marsupials were screened for the presence of endo- and ectoparasites, during two fauna translocations in south-western Australia. Here, we summarise the parasite taxa identified from B. penicillata, brush-tailed possums (Trichosurus vulpecula hypoleucus) and chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroii), including prevalence data for host, parasite taxon and site. Results from the opportunistic sampling of other species (Isoodon fusciventer, Phascogale tapoatafa wambenger, Tiliqua rugosa and Felis catus) are also presented. New host–parasite records including Hepatozoon spp. from T. v. hypoleucus, Trypanosoma noyesi from T. rugosa, Ixodes australiensis and Ixodes tasmani from D. geoffroii, and I. australiensis and Amblyomma sp. from a P. t. wambenger were identified. This study highlights the importance of monitoring sympatric species, particularly when compiling baseline data of parasite fauna present within translocation sites and enhances our knowledge of parasites infecting terrestrial wildlife within Australia’s south-west, a Global Biodiversity Hotspot.

The advent of online crowd‐sourced nature databases provides an opportunity to yield information about ecological interactions on a scale not previously possible. In particular, such databases provide an opportunity to collate information on host–parasite interactions through screening photographs of hosts. Using photographs from iNaturalist we expanded the known hosts for ectoparasitic mites in New Zealand geckos from 9 to 20 host species, including the first report of ectoparasitic mites on geckos from the genus Toropuku . Additionally, spatial and seasonal variation in mite prevalence was investigated, giving deeper insight in the possibilities of analysing crowd‐sourced datasets.

The miniaturisation of very high frequency transmitters over the last 20 years has allowed researchers to use radio telemetry to study the movements and behaviors of increasingly smaller animals. However, the sensitive skin of many amphibians has continued to make fitting telemetry packages difficult. Here we describe the application of a waist-harness style radio telemetry package for use on two of New Zealand’s native terrestrial frogs (Leiopelma archeyi and L. hamiltoni). To determine if the harness design was suitable for field use, we conducted a laboratory trial on four captive L. hamiltoni. Individuals carried harnesses for up to 22 consecutive days without abrasions or changes in behavior. After confirming the harness would not negatively impact captive individuals, we fitted harnesses to 20 L. hamiltoni in Te Pākeka/Maud Island Scientific Reserve, northern South Island. We tracked individuals for a maximum of 8 days and recaptured L. hamiltoni showed no signs of skin irritation or skin damage at the time of harness removal. We also tested harnesses on four L. archeyi within the Wharekirauponga area of the Coromandel Forest Park, northeastern North Island. We were able to track one L. archeyi for 7 days before locating the transmitter loose in leaf litter. The harness detached from two additional individuals, one within 24 hours of frog release and another 12 hours after release. We were unable to relocate one individual. Although the use of radio telemetry on leiopelmatids is not without difficulties, the observations collected during our field trials provide strong support that a waist-harness design is a suitable and effective method to conduct short-term radio telemetry on leiopelmatid frogs.

A chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; Bd) has been a cause of amphibian declines worldwide. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was first detected in New Zealand on an introduced frog species in 1999 and two years later was associated with morbidity in Leiopelma archeyi, one of the three native New Zealand frog species. In this study, we aimed to document the prevalence of Bd in native frog species in New Zealand from 2014–2021. Skin swabs were collected from six sites in New Zealand: Maud Island/Te Pākeka, Zealandia Ecosanctuary, Auckland Zoo, and University of Otago between 2019–2021, and Whareorino Forest and Pukeokahu between 2014–2020. Swabs were analysed using qPCR to detect Bd from skin swabs. A total of 324 frogs from the six sampling sites were screened for Bd presence. Four percent of the L. hamiltoni and eight percent of the L. archeyi were Bd-positive, and all L. hochstetteri were Bd-negative. The detection of Bd in Leiopelma species confirmed that Bd persists in New Zealand endemic frogs at a low prevalence and intensity.