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Interspecific hybridization in birds: lessons for conservation
Štěpánková, Klára ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Vokurková, Jana (referee)
Interspecific hybridization is quite common in recent years. Favorable factors are rarity of a species, limited time for partner selection, misdirected preference in mating partner selection of females, preference for males with more pronounced sexually selected traits, greater body size and habitat destruction. Factors which lead to the artificially interspecific hybridization due to habitat destruction include deforestation, fragmentation of the territory, urbanization, abandoning agricultural areas, as well as translocation of species into the regions where they did not originally occur. These species can later interbreed with the native species and if the latter are rare and the former aggressive, it can result in increased threat potentially leading to extinction of indigenous populations. Exceptionally, interbreeding can lead to the emergence of a new species; however, this type of origination of a new species is not common in animals. Hybridization is a natural phenomenon important for the evolution. Nevertheless, anthropogenically induced or assisted hybridization represents a serious problem for the species conservation. Finding a solution to overcome the negative impacts of such interspecific hybridization is difficult and there is no exact and universally applied methodology to date. Key...
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Incubation behaviour of birds in polar regions
Hromádková, Tereza ; Pavel, Václav (advisor) ; Praus, Libor (referee)
The climate in the polar regions is so extreme that it has led to a big number of special adaptations in life and reproduction of local animals. However, the disadvantages are compensated by several important aspects like much lesser activity of preadtors, long sunny polar day and an abundance of nutriments during spring and summer. I tis no wonder that many species of birds have adapted their life cycle and migrate annualy thousands of kilometres to the polar regions in order to increase their chance of successfully leading out their offspring. Birds in these areas nest during the polar summer. Only one species of nesting begins already during the polar winter, i tis an Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) in Antarctica. The broods of birds nesting in polar regions are bigger in quantity in average and they also incubated longer then their conterparts in temperate and tropical. The main difference is the incubation rhythm adjusting mainly the extension of sessions associated with a reduction of recesses. The only exception are songbirds who leaves their nests frequently but only for a short periods of time. The information about the incubation behaviour of the most of the bird species of the polar regions are still very limited and incomplete. Therefore, bachelor thesis contains so far...
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Adaptive evolution of Toll-like receptors in birds
Velová, Hana ; Vinkler, Michal (advisor) ; Elleder, Daniel (referee) ; Novák, Karel (referee)
Adaptive evolution of Toll-like receptors in birds Hana Velová, PhD thesis 6 Abstract Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are one of the key and presumably also evolutionary most original components of animal immune system. As Pattern recognition receptors they form the first line of innate immune defence against various pathogens. The proper receptor binding of pathogenic ligands is crucial for their correct recognition and for subsequent triggering of an appropriate immune response. Because there exists a direct interaction between the receptor surface and the pathogenic ligand, host-pathogen coevolution on molecular level can be predicted. Thus, through variability of their ligands, TLRs are exposed to extensive selective pressures that may be detected on both genetic and protein levels. Surprisingly, the variability we revealed in birds is even higher than previously expected based on the reports from other vertebrates, mainly mammals. In my doctoral thesis I summarise the results of my contribution to the avian TLR research. We were the first who experimentally verify the absence of functional TLR5 in several avian species and duplication of TLR7 in others. We finally resolved the origin of duplication in TLR1 and in TLR2 family. An important part of my research project focused on the prediction of potentially...
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Factors influencing the ecological stability of the Novozamecky rybnik Reserve
Hanzelka, Jan ; Čihař, Martin (advisor) ; Reif, Jiří (referee)
Fishponds and their surroundings are affected by many factors disrupting their ecological stability. In this thesis, influences of selected factors are evaluated. Particularly it is discussed excessive overgrowing of shoreline by plants, pond siltation by allochthonous material from catchment area, eutrophication process and intensive fish farming. It is presented the impact of these factors on local avifauna in Novozámecký fishpond National Nature Reserve and Special Protection Area and compared with Třeboňsko Special Protection Area. Birds use the ponds especially as nesting habitat and food source. Therefore, it is necessary to describe the influences disrupting this habitat. The frugal interference with mentioned processes is needed in terms of dynamics of the ecological stability. Thereby the requested fishpond parameters and ecological and economic values will be maintained. Fisheries management and lack of historical management in the form of reasonably performing mowing and grazing in the vicinity of the ponds has the greatest impact on the habitat of birds upon Třeboň fishponds. Novozámecký pond also suffers from the lack of historical management, but the unsatisfactory state of the pond is rather due to the overall eutrophication of the environment.
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Evolutionary importance of mixed singing in two species of nightingales
Kohoutová, Hana ; Reifová, Radka (advisor) ; Sedláček, Ondřej (referee)
Singing is important for communication in birds. Some species of birds copy singing from other species. This heterospecific copying of singing is common especially in closely related bird species, and is usually called mixed singing in such cases. Mixed singing is often asymmetric, when only one species of the pair copies a song of the congener. The meaning of mixed singing is not well explained yet. The most common mechanism is probably an error during the learning phase of singing, but in some cases mixed singing can be adaptive. In my master's thesis I deal with the evolutionary meaning of mixed singing in two closely related passerine species - Common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) and Thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia). These species co-occur in secondary contact zone in central and eastern part of Europe. Only Thrush nightingale which is larger and probably a more dominant species, exhibits mixed singing. In playback experiments in Common nightingale I studied a possible adaptive meaning of mixed singing in relation to interspecific communication. I tested the differences in behavioural and vocal response of Common nightingales to three types of stimuli: pure singing of Common nightingale, pure singing of Thrush nightingale and mixed singing of Thrush nightingale. The tested males...
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The role of ultraviolet light in communication of birds
Šulc, Michal ; Sedláček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Albrecht, Tomáš (referee)
Recently, it has been found that the visual system of birds and humans differ remarkably, especially in the ability to perceive ultraviolet radiation. This component of the spectrum significantly affects various types of the birds' behaviour. UV reflection may be an indicator of the qualities of males, i.e. females often prefer individuals with expressive UV ornamentation. Likewise, parents can distribute the delivered food unevenly among their nestlings, depending on the nestlings' reflection of ultraviolet radiation. Recent studies also showed that the hosts of brood parasites may use UV spectrum as a key for recognizing the parasitic eggs from their own. The aim of my bachelor thesis is to review the current knowledge of the influence of UV radiation on sexual selection of birds, the interaction between parents and offspring and interactions between brood parasites and their hosts.
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Taxidermy of the birds and mammals
Ouřadová, Petra ; Řezníček, Jan (advisor) ; Mazalová, Jana (referee)
The main subject of this thesis is the taxidermy. The taxidermal mounts will be used as a teaching tools in teaching practice. The thesis is a comprehensive guide for creation of the taxidermal mounts of birds and mammals. There are described both old and modern methods of taxidermy in this thesis. Thesis is enriched with news from contemporary foreign literature. The result of thesis is 8 mounts (6 birds, 2 mammals) which will use as teaching tools during teaching of biology. Key words: taxidermy, preparation, bird, mammal, teaching tool
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Factors influencing flight-initiation distance in reptiles and the comparison with endotherm vertebrates
Fictumová, Tereza ; Frýdlová, Petra (advisor) ; Sedláček, Ondřej (referee)
The fleeing behaviour is one of the most common antipredatory strategy. It is intensively studied in many groups of animals. The flight-initiation distance (FID) is used for quantification of fleeing behaviour. The FID represents the distance between a prey and an approaching predator in which the prey starts fleeing. The FID is also used for quantifying of preys fear. The factors influencing FID in reptiles are: temperature, habitat, refuge availability, foraging strategies, predator behaviour etc. I discovered some factors which are different for mammals and birds. The most important difference is the ectothermy in reptiles vs. the endothermy in mammals and birds. Another difference is parental care, alarm calls and grouping. The factors as an influence of predator, refuge availability or type of habitat seems to have very similar or the same impact on FID for both groups.
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Physiological and hormonal mechanisms influencing ejaculate quality in birds
Mojžišová, Kateřina ; Tomášek, Oldřich (advisor) ; Svobodová, Jana (referee)
Sexual selection is an important mechanism of evolution. In addition to precopulatory sexual selection, arising when males compete for female partners, there is also postcopulatory sexual selection (sperm competition), when females copulate with more males. Even though most avian species are socially monogamous, most of them are also partially promiscuous. In such species, sperm competition is an important factor increasing variability in reproductive success between males. Male's success in sperm competition is primarily determined by sperm concentration, total sperm count and morphology and motility of spermatozoa. My bachelor thesis summarizes knowledge about the hormonal a physiological mechanisms that influence semen quality. This is especially the effect of sex and other hormones, physiological and oxidative stress, environmental conditions, antioxidant mechanism and composition of sperm cell membrane. Besides evaluating their influence on ejaculate quality on intraspecific level, I also describe their differences between avian species with respect to the differences of sperm competition.
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The effect of climate change and land use change on the long-term population trends of birds in the Czech Republic
Koschová, Michaela ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Voříšek, Petr (referee)
There are number of future projections of species' geographic ranges developed under conditions of ongoing climate change. However, only a few studies have assessed what are the characteristics of species explaining interspecific variability in the projected range shifts. Examination of such relationships is important for development of effective conservation strategies mitigating the effects of climatic changes. For this purpose, I calculated the predicted shifts of European ranges in Czech birds based on maps in A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds and explored relationships between these predicted shifts and several ecological traits. We found significant effects of the type of European distribution and habitat requirements. Concerning the type of European distribution, the largest shift is predicted in the central species and the northern species compared to widespread and southern species. According to the habitat type, the largest shift showed forest birds in contrast to the urban species which will shift slightly. The former pattern is probably attributable to spatial constrains different among these specific groups (central species are less limited compared to widespread species). The latter pattern could be explained by higher sensitivity of forest species to climatic changes...
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