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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Novel Applications Of Multivariate Methods For Exploring Personality In African Elephants, Shilo Kimberly Felton
Novel Applications Of Multivariate Methods For Exploring Personality In African Elephants, Shilo Kimberly Felton
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Investigators have shown that elephants exhibit consistent individual differences in behavior by rating elephants using personality adjectives. These adjectives, however, are not based on pre-defined measurements of the behaviors performed. Instead, they are based on the observers’ interpretations of an animal’s behavioral patterns, therefore making them subject to observer bias. Furthermore, elephants have a capacity for learning; thus, they may alter their behavioral patterns over time. This behavioral plasticity in itself might be a way of measuring consistent behavioral differences among individuals. With this in mind, I approached elephant personality as a multivariate problem. I used behavioral observations collected from …
Landscape Genetics Of The Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma Opacum) At Mammoth Cave National Park, James Kyle Martin
Landscape Genetics Of The Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma Opacum) At Mammoth Cave National Park, James Kyle Martin
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Habitat connectivity is important to maintain in order to prevent loss of genetic diversity, reduce inbreeding depression, and decrease extinction risk in threatened or endangered species. Here I present a landscape genetics study on marbled salamanders (Ambystoma opacum) in highly connected forested habitat at Mammoth Cave National Park. This investigation of gene flow among ponds within a mostly continuous landscape provides data that can be compared with patterns observed in more fragmented landscapes. These comparisons can provide a means of investigating the separate effects of structural and functional habitat connectivity on amphibian genetic population structure. Structural connectivity refers to the …