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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Tracking The Endangered Northern Black Racer, Coluber Constrictor Constrictor, In Maine To Determine Areas Of Conservation Importance, Josiah Johnson
Tracking The Endangered Northern Black Racer, Coluber Constrictor Constrictor, In Maine To Determine Areas Of Conservation Importance, Josiah Johnson
Honors Theses
The Black Racer (Coluber constrictor) is a large-bodied snake species found across North America. One subspecies, the Northern Black Racer (C. constrictor constrictor) is listed as endangered in Maine because of its restricted range in York County. Racers have generally been found to prefer open habitats and ecotones, but the specific habitat preferences of racers in Maine is unknown, hindering efforts to preserve habitat for racer conservation. To address this knowledge gap, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) has an ongoing project tracking black racer movements in Sanford and Kennebunk, Maine, and I had the opportunity to …
Insects And The Evolution Of Developmental Pathways: Functional Analysis Of Genetic Sex Determination Mechanisms In Oncopeltus Fasciatus, Josefine Just
Honors Theses
Natural selection alters genetic pathways over evolutionary time. However, different pathways have been shown to maintain mutations at varying rates, leading to different levels of conservation across developmental pathways. Sex determination pathways, in particular, show vast diversity across animals despite the fundamental conservation of biological sex itself. Here, I investigated the sex determination pathway of the hemimetabolous insect, Oncopeltus fasciatus. The large milkweed bug, O. fasciatus, is part of the order Hemiptera, which provides a relevant outgroup study to other insects in which sex determination has been studied to date. I studied three sex determination genes, intersex, fruitless …
African Savannah Elephant Group Size And Behavior In The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana, Katherine S. King
African Savannah Elephant Group Size And Behavior In The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana, Katherine S. King
Honors Theses
African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana), the largest elephant species, influence the structure of the environment they inhabit. Elephants exhibit complex patterns of social behavior between individuals within a population. Many behavioral studies focus on interactions among individuals within a population rather than broader trends related to group size. My study seeks to understand how male African savannah elephant group size is influenced by seasonality, age, physical condition and distance to permanent water resources. I examined the interaction of these variables in two ways: (1) a literature review of elephant behavior and conservation, and (2) an analysis of male …