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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Effects Of Land-Use Change And Prey Abundance On The Body Condition Of An Obligate Carnivore At The Wildland-Urban Interface, Courtney A. C. Coon, Bradley C. Nichols, Zara Mcdonald, David C. Stoner
Effects Of Land-Use Change And Prey Abundance On The Body Condition Of An Obligate Carnivore At The Wildland-Urban Interface, Courtney A. C. Coon, Bradley C. Nichols, Zara Mcdonald, David C. Stoner
Wildland Resources Faculty Publications
Land-use change represents a primary driver of carnivore population declines, yet some large carnivore species have acclimated and persist within anthropogenically altered landscapes. Previous attention has been focused on the genetic and behavioral implications of land-use changes, but few studies have investigated how human development impacts animal physiology and health. Here we examined how body condition scores of a widely distributed North American carnivore, the puma (Puma concolor), are affected by anthropogenic habitat modification. For this study we collected 252 puma camera trap events across a land-use gradient in the San Francisco Bay Area. We found that pumas …
A Case For Eustress In Grazing Animals, Juan J. Villalba, Xavier Manteca
A Case For Eustress In Grazing Animals, Juan J. Villalba, Xavier Manteca
Wildland Resources Faculty Publications
Herbivores grazing in extensive systems are exposed to a series of challenges, rooted in the inherent spatial and temporal variability of their environment that potentially constrain their health, nutrition, and welfare. Nevertheless, in this review, we argue that challenges induced by some biotic (e.g., vegetation) and abiotic (e.g., terrain) factors may also be viewed as “positive” sources of stress or eustress, since they present complex problems, that when solved successfully elicit a greater degree of behavioral plasticity and adaptability in grazing animals. Chemically and structurally diverse landscapes require animals to display complex behaviors and exhibit adaptive capabilities, like building a …