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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Gravid Tetragnathid Spiders Show An Increased Functional Response, Mary E. Boswell, John P. Delong
Gravid Tetragnathid Spiders Show An Increased Functional Response, Mary E. Boswell, John P. Delong
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
Spiders in the genus Tetragnatha feed on emerging aquatic insects, including mosquitoes and midges, but there is little known about the foraging behavior of these spiders. We hypothesized that female spiders actively developing egg sacs would increase food consumption to provide more energy to produce and provision their eggs. We tested this hypothesis by measuring foraging rates of Tetragnatha spiders kept in jars and provisioned with different levels of midges. We then tested for a difference in the functional response of spiders that did or did not lay egg sacs in their jars. Egg-laying and non-egg-laying spiders showed significantly different …
Behavioral Plasticity Across Non-Social Contexts In Female Green Swordtails, Xiphophorus Hellerii, Lindsey M. Coit
Behavioral Plasticity Across Non-Social Contexts In Female Green Swordtails, Xiphophorus Hellerii, Lindsey M. Coit
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an individual to alter its phenotype in response to environmental change. Individuals that express plasticity in behavior can quickly respond to changes that occur in the environment. Therefore, individuals that exhibit behavioral plasticity can alter their behavioral expression to best match current environmental conditions. The degree and direction of behavioral plasticity may be influenced by variation in individual characteristics. Understanding how variation in individual traits affects behavioral plasticity, and, whether patterns of behavioral plasticity are consistent across behavioral contexts are important topics to explore as we try to better understand how plasticity evolves and …
Displaying To Females May Lower Male Foraging Time And Vigilance In A Lekking Bird, Sarah A. Cowles, Robert M. Gibson
Displaying To Females May Lower Male Foraging Time And Vigilance In A Lekking Bird, Sarah A. Cowles, Robert M. Gibson
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
Males of many species use courtship behavior to attract mates. However, by doing so males may face the associated costs of increased energetic expenditure, reduced foraging time, and elevated predation risk. We investigated the costs of display in lekking male Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). We used lek-wide scan sampling to study how males allocated time among courtship display (‘‘dancing’’), agonism, foraging, and inactivity in relation to female numbers both within and across days. We also addressed the limited attention hypothesis and estimated visual attentiveness by videotaping 13 males and scoring head turns during these different activities. We found that the …
A Sticky Situation: Solifugids (Arachnida, Solifugae) Use Adhesive Organs On Their Pedipalps For Prey Capture, Rodrigo H. Willemart, Roger D. Santer, Andrew J. Spence, Eileen Hebets
A Sticky Situation: Solifugids (Arachnida, Solifugae) Use Adhesive Organs On Their Pedipalps For Prey Capture, Rodrigo H. Willemart, Roger D. Santer, Andrew J. Spence, Eileen Hebets
Eileen Hebets Publications
Solifugids (Arachnida, Solifugae) have unique evertable adhesive organs on the tips of their pedipalps, named ‘suctorial’ or ‘palpal’ organs. Previous studies have shown that these organs enable solifugids to climb smooth glass-like surfaces and have hypothesized that these structures facilitate prey capture. Here, we use high-speed videography to demonstrate that the suctorial organs of Eremochelis bilobatus are its primary means of capturing insect prey. We also present calculations of the adhesive pressure exerted by these suctorial organs during real prey capture events.
Long Daily Movements Of Wolves, Canis Lupus, During Pup Rearing, L. David Mech, H. Dean Cluff
Long Daily Movements Of Wolves, Canis Lupus, During Pup Rearing, L. David Mech, H. Dean Cluff
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Wolves, Canis lupus, on Ellesmere Island traveled a daily round-trip distance of 40.2 km from their den to a landfill during July 2008, plus an undetermined distance hunting after leaving the landfill. Although long travels by Wolves are well known, this appears to be the first documentation of long daily movements by Wolves rearing pups.
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Use Of Harvested Corn Fields During Fall And Winter In Southwestern Kansas, Gregory C. Salter, Robert J. Robel, Kenneth E. Kemp
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Use Of Harvested Corn Fields During Fall And Winter In Southwestern Kansas, Gregory C. Salter, Robert J. Robel, Kenneth E. Kemp
The Prairie Naturalist
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has declined in numbers in Kansas primarily due to the conversion of sand sagebrush (Artemisia .filifolia) prairie to cropland. The lesser prairie-chicken in Finney County, Kansas exists primarily in large fragments of sand sagebrush prairie, and it forages during fall and winter on waste grain in harvested com (Zea mays) fields adjacent to prairie fragments. We used radio-telemetry to monitor lesser prairie chicken locations and found no significant relationship between numbers of bird locations and amounts of waste grain on the ground in harvested com fields. Even the harvested …
Limited Attention: The Constraint Underlying Search Image, Reuven Dukas, Alan Kamil
Limited Attention: The Constraint Underlying Search Image, Reuven Dukas, Alan Kamil
Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences
Recent models of predator search behavior integrate proximate neurobiological constraints with ultimate economic considerations. These models are based on two assumptions, which we have critically examined in experiments with blue jays searching for artificial prey images presented on a computer monitor. We found, first, that when jays had to switch between searching for two distinct prey types, they showed no reduction in detection rates compared to no-switching to no-switching conditions, and second, that when jays divided attention between searching for two prey types at the same time, they had lower detection rates than when they focused attention on one prey …
Leadership In Wolf, Canis Lupus, Packs, L. David Mech
Leadership In Wolf, Canis Lupus, Packs, L. David Mech
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
I examine leadership in Wolf (Callis lupus) packs based on published observations and data gathered during summers from 1986 to 1998 studying a free-ranging pack of Wolves on Ellesmere Island that were habituated to my presence. The breeding male tended to initiate activities associated with foraging and travel, and the breeding female to initiate, and predominate in, pup care and protection. However, there was considerable overlap and interaction during these activities such that leadership could be considered a joint function. In packs with multiple breeders, quantitative information about leadership is needed.
Food And Energy Intake Rates Of Wintering Whooping Cranes Foraging On Two Selected Food Items, Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, Jay T. Nelson, R. Douglas Slack
Food And Energy Intake Rates Of Wintering Whooping Cranes Foraging On Two Selected Food Items, Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, Jay T. Nelson, R. Douglas Slack
Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
Number, mass, and potential energy of food items consumed by wintering whooping cranes (Grus americana) foraging on blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and woltberry (Lycium carolinianum) fruit were estimated and compared between 2 consecutive winter periods. Mass consumed was determined through field observations by quantifying the number of items taken per unit time and the average, or modal, weight of each food item determined from collections. Gross energy intake was determined by calculating the product of mass consumed times gross energy (kJ/g) of each food item. Potential energy retained was calculated by determining metabolizable energy …