Life Sciences Commons^™

Environmental Drivers Of Stress In Red Pandas (Ailurus Fulgens) : Behavior And Space Use Changes In Response To Redesigned Naturalistic Enclosures, Alexis Michelle Lawson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Animal welfare encompasses the physical and mental state of an animal, as well as how that animal is cared for. Recently, zoological settings have shifted from strictly housing animals to improving the welfare of the animal such that the goal of captivity is for residents to thrive. This is especially crucial as global wildlife numbers and biodiversity continues to decrease due to anthropogenic impacts such as poaching, mining, habitat destruction, fragmentation. Further confounding this issue is climate change, air pollution, invasive species, ocean acidification, and more. In particular, the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is an endangered species whose declined 50% …

Rapid Growth In Late Cretaceous Sea Turtles Reveals Life History Strategies Similar To Extant Leatherbacks, Laura E. Wilson

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Modern sea turtle long bone osteohistology has been surprisingly well-studied, as it is used to understand sea turtle growth and the timing of life history events, thus informing conservation decisions. Previous histologic studies reveal two distinct bone growth patterns in extant sea turtle taxa, with Dermochelys (leatherbacks) growing faster than the cheloniids (all other living sea turtles). Dermochelys also has a unique life history compared to other sea turtles (large size, elevated metabolism, broad biogeographic distribution, etc.) that is likely linked to bone growth strategies. Despite the abundance of data on modern sea turtle bone growth, extinct sea turtle osteohistology …

Stepping-Stones And Mediators Of Pandemic Expansion: A Context For Humans As Ecological Super-Spreaders, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, Daniel R. Brooks, Valeria Trivellone, Salvatore J. Agosta

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Humans represent ecological super-spreaders in the dissemination and introduction of pathogens. These processes, consistent with the dynamics of the Stockholm paradigm, are exemplified in the origin and globalized distributions of SARS-CoV-2 since initial recognition in central Asia during 2019 and 2020. SARS-like viruses are not widespread in mammals but appear widespread in chiropterans. Bats are isolated ecologically from most other assemblages of mammals in terrestrial systems. Humans may be the stepping-stone hosts for broad global dissemination and wider infection (given the opportunity) among diverse assemblages of mammals in which host and viral capacity are compatible. Human globalization mediated insertion in …

Sentience As Part Of Emotional Lives, Frans B. M. De Waal

Animal Sentience

It is high time to explore the sentience of invertebrate animals, but this topic cannot be discussed without also exploring their emotional lives, including positive emotions. Sentience probably evolved to allow the regulation of emotions by endowing them with feelings.

Frugivory And Seed Dispersal By Carnivorans, John P. Draper, Julie K. Young, Eugene W. Schupp, Noelle G. Beckman, Trisha B. Atwood

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Seed dispersal is critical to the ecological performance of sexually reproducing plant species and the communities that they form. The Mammalian order Carnivora provide valuable and effective seed dispersal services but tend to be overlooked in much of the seed dispersal literature. Here we review the literature on the role of Carnivorans in seed dispersal, with a literature search in the Scopus reference database. Overall, we found that Carnivorans are prolific seed dispersers. Carnivorans’ diverse and plastic diets allow them to consume large volumes of over a hundred families of fruit and disperse large quantities of seeds across landscapes. Gut …

Structure Of Chimpanzee Gut Microbiomes Across Tropical Africa, Clifton P. Bueno De Mesquita, Lauren M. Nichols, Matthew J. Gebert, Caihong Vanderburgh, Gaëlle Bocksberger, Jack D. Lester, Ammie K. Kalan, Paula Dieguez, Maureen S. Mccarthy, Anthony Agbor, Paula Álvarez Varona, Ayuk Emmanuel Ayimisin, Mattia Bessone, Rebecca Chancellor, Heather Cohen, Charlotte Coupland, Tobias Deschner, Villard Ebot Egbe, Annemarie Goedmakers, Anne-Céline Granjon, Cyril C. Grueter, Josephine Head, R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Sorrel Jones, Parag Kadam, Michael Kaiser, Juan Lapuente, Bradley Larson, Sergio Marrocoli, David Morgan, Badru Mugerwa, Felix Mulindahabi, Emily Neil, Protais Niyigaba, Liliana Pacheco, Alex K. Piel, Martha M. Robbins, Aaron S. Rundus, Crickette M. Sanz, Lilah Sciaky, Douglas Sheil, Volker Sommer, Fiona A. Stewart, Els Ton, Joost Van Schijndel, Virginie Vergnes, Erin G. Wessling, Roman M. Wittig, Yisa Ginath Yuh, Kyle Yurkiw, Klaus Zuberbühler, Jan F. Gogarten, Anna Heintz-Buschart, Alexandra N. Muellner-Riehl, Christophe Boesch, Hjalmar S. Kühl, Noah Fierer, Mimi Arandjelovic, Robert R. Dunn

Psychology Faculty Publications

Understanding variation in host-associated microbial communities is important given the relevance of microbiomes to host physiology and health. Using 560 fecal samples collected from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) across their range, we assessed how geography, genetics, climate, vegetation, and diet relate to gut microbial community structure (prokaryotes, eukaryotic parasites) at multiple spatial scales. We observed a high degree of regional specificity in the microbiome composition, which was associated with host genetics, available plant foods, and potentially with cultural differences in tool use, which affect diet. Genetic differences drove community composition at large scales, while vegetation and potentially tool use drove …

Degree Of Genetic Admixture In Hybrid Populations Between Macaca Fascicularis Fascicularis And M. F. Aurea In Association With Stone Tool-Use Behavior, Poompat Phadphon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Burmese long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis aurea) is the only Old World monkey that habitually uses stones as tools to access encased food. The natural range of M. f. aurea closely contacts to the common long-tailed macaque (M. f. fascicularis) in southern Thailand at 8°10'-12°24'N, where the intraspecific hybridization between the two subspecies was reported. While M. f. aurea x M. f. fascicularis hybrids were expressed a stone-tool use behavior, the behavior has never been seen in the wild or captive M. f. fascicularis. It is interesting to understand if the genetic factor plays a role on the emergence of this …

Ontogenetic And Adult Shape Variation In The Endocast Of Tapirus: Implications For T. Polkensis From The Gray Fossil Site, Thomas M. Gaetano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Endocranial morphology provides evidence of sensory ecology and sociality of extinct vertebrates. The Earliest Pliocene Gray Fossil Site (GFS) of NE Tennessee features a conspicuous dominance of skeletal elements belonging to the dwarf tapir, Tapirus polkensis. Numerous individuals in one fossil locality often suggests gregarious behavior, but sociality in T. polkensis contradicts behavior documented for extant Tapirus species. I test T. polkensis for variation in sensory and social ecology using computed tomography and 3D digital endocasts from an ontogenetic sequence. I compare the T. polkensis endocasts with extant Tapirus species using Encephalization Quotients (EQs) and 3D geometric morphometrics. Results …

Rewilding And Domestication: Clarifying Terminology, Catia Correia-Caeiro

Animal Sentience

Baker & Winkler (B&W) describe the state of Asian elephant conservation, raising unique issues, and proposing a direction based on rewilding. The long history and socio-biology of elephants and humans has some parallels with the domestication of dogs (and other species). However, markers of domestication seem absent from elephants. The proper use of terms such as “wild” and “domestic” is crucial in defining the best conservation strategies, and, more important, in attending to the welfare needs of individuals, which can differ between wild and domestic animals. B&W’s target article represents an important starting point for discussion around elephant conservation, but …

Investigation On The Human Coronaviruses Origin (Bats And Pangolins): A Review, James Blackar Mawolo, Caselia Akiti, Harris Kollie Momo

Turkish Journal of Zoology

A coronavirus related to SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated from Malayan pangolins illegally imported into Guangdong Province. It is not the precursor of SARS-CoV-2, but a comparison of viral genome sequences provides further evidence that the virus currently infecting humans. Bats and pangolins have been suggested as the natural reservoirs of a large variety of viruses. Some researchers have given attention to other species as the origin of coronaviruses and none have referred to bats and pangolins as the two emerging coronaviruses origin, which have caused unexpected human disease outbreaks recently. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East …

Of Elephants And Men, Helen Kopnina

Animal Sentience

Baker & Winkler’s target article is well-researched and thought-provoking, but I do have four points of contention: (1) The proposal to entrust elephants to traditional mahout culture has restricted elephants’ freedom of movement and reproduction and (ab)used them. (2) The concept of “indigenous” simultaneously reifies and denigrates the “noble savages”, privileging only human indigenous groups, ignoring nonhuman indigenes. (3) Most lifestyles have been globalized under consumer-economic and anthropocentric worldviews. (4) The fact that people (including mahouts) are part of nature does not mean they are benevolent, any more than cities, monocultures, or roads are.

Thinking About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

This response focuses on three major conceptual threads that run through the peer commentary on my target article: (1) how the use of chickens influences our views of them, (2) whether education is effective, and (3) what components of chicken psychology are most relevant to understanding who chickens are.

The Inconvenient Truth About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

Original Abstract: Domestic chickens are members of an order, Aves, which has been the focus of a revolution in our understanding of neuroanatomical, cognitive, and social complexity. Some birds are now known to be on a par with many mammals in their intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction. Yet views of chickens have largely remained unrevised in light of this new evidence. In this paper, I examine the data on cognition, emotions, personality, and sociality in chickens, exploring such areas as self-awareness, cognitive bias, social learning and self-control, and comparing their abilities with other birds and other vertebrates, particularly …

Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Lori Marino, PhD

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use. They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk producers, and used extensively in scientific research. The popular stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social.

Guided Alligator Tours Or Raccoon Schooling (Gators), Paul List

Senior Theses

In my two main internships during college, I worked closely with two very different animals: raccoons and alligators. Additionally, I gained experience in presenting educational programs during my internship at Fripp Island, where my most common program was our Gator Walk. For my thesis project, I built upon my experience in interpretive programming, drawing on my experience with alligators and raccoons to develop a unique educational program to present at Congaree National Park. This report will describe the process of developing this program as well as it’s implementation and outcomes. In addition, it includes a review of scholarly literature on …

Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Animal Sentience

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use. They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk producers, and used extensively in scientific research. The popular stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social.

Sacrificial Lambs, Clive Phillips

Animal Sentience

Sheep evolved from the mouflon as mountain animals, able to escape predation by leaping between rock ledges. Their defense was their agility. Humans brought them to the plains, where the agility was less useful, but their lack of aggression, speed or weaponry against predators made them a prime target to become one of man’s meat providers. A perfect animal in many ways, with extraordinary perceptive powers and some remarkable cognitive skills, they are often treated with complete disregard for their welfare. Yet sheep themselves won’t tell us this, for a sheep that alerted others to its weakness really would be …

Animal Cognition: Quantity Has A Quality Of Its Own, Ivaylo Borislavov Iotchev, Kauê Machado Costa

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman’s moral analysis fails to prove that the exploitation of animals or the environment is causally connected to beliefs about human capacities. Their exposition of the philosophical interpretations of animal cognition ignores historical context and confounds different levels of analysis. Their analysis of the scientific literature, from which they conclude that humans should not be considered as different from other animals, does not take into account many recent psychological and neuroscientific developments and rests upon a flawed understanding of the relationship between gradual and categorical differences, misrepresenting the two as mutually exclusive concepts.

Saving Species, One Individual At A Time: Zoo Veterinarians Between Welfare And Conservation, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The role of zoo veterinarians has changed significantly in the last several decades, reflecting and revealing broader transformations in zoo culture, especially among North American accredited zoos. This article draws on several interviews with prominent zoo vets, as well as on regulations that pertain to their work, to highlight their current position at the nexus of animal health and welfare, on the one hand, and of species conservation, on the other hand. The transformation of zoos into conservation institutions in particular has resulted in the vets’ novel focus on the sustainability of populations and their intensified involvement in in situ …

Whence And Whither: Acoustic Variability And Biogeography Of Tarsiers In North Sulawesi, Olivia Clare Kulander

Dissertations and Theses

The morning duet calls of eastern tarsiers (Tarsius spp.) in North Sulawesi were recorded and analyzed to examine the effects of geography and geologic history on their call structure. Tarsius species exhibit interspecifically variable duet calls shown to correlate with species differentiation and distribution. They are distributed across Sulawesi, a biogeographically complex island in the Indonesian archipelago, where tectonic activity and multiple glaciations during the Pleistocene generated and modified barriers to their dispersal and gene flow.

Recordings were made at ten locations from November of 2012 through June of 2014. Two locations were categorized as mainland, while eight island …

Roots Of Self-Preservation Failure In Animal Behavior, Denys Decatanzaro

Animal Sentience

Affective variation from euphoria to dysphoria, best understood in humans, is also found in the behavior and neurochemistry of many other mammals. Suicide in humans typically occurs in highly dysphoric and despondent individuals. Self-injurious behavior has been observed in dysphoric and despondent nonhuman primates. In humans, suicide is facilitated by a highly-evolved neocortex giving rise to behavioral flexibility and culture. As Peña-Guzmán indicates, some other mammals also have elaborate neocortices and the capacity for cognitive insight, particularly apes, delphinids, and whales. Suicide is most likely to occur in species where individuals live in stable groups of highly interdependent kin.

Thinking About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

This response focuses on three major conceptual threads that run through the peer commentary on my target article: (1) how the use of chickens influences our views of them, (2) whether education is effective, and (3) what components of chicken psychology are most relevant to understanding who chickens are.

The Inconvenient Truth About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

Original Abstract: Domestic chickens are members of an order, Aves, which has been the focus of a revolution in our understanding of neuroanatomical, cognitive, and social complexity. Some birds are now known to be on a par with many mammals in their intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction. Yet views of chickens have largely remained unrevised in light of this new evidence. In this paper, I examine the data on cognition, emotions, personality, and sociality in chickens, exploring such areas as self-awareness, cognitive bias, social learning and self-control, and comparing their abilities with other birds and other vertebrates, particularly …

Evolutionary Genetic Aspects Of Host Association In Generalist Ectoparasites, Benoit Talbot

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the use of the host for dispersal by most parasite species, the extremely loose relationship typical between highly mobile hosts and generalist ectoparasites may lead to very different gene flow patterns between the two, leading in turn to different spatial genetic structure, and potentially different demographic history. I examined how similar gene flow patterns are between Cimex adjunctus, a generalist ectoparasite of bats present throughout North America, and two of its key bat hosts. I first analyzed the continent-scale genetic structure and demographic history of C. adjunctus and compared it to that of two of its hosts, the …

Menageries Multiple: An Introduction To Zoological Multiplicity In The Modern American Zoo, Emily D. Gratke

Scripps Senior Theses

American zoological parks have been sites of intense consumer and scholar interest since their origination in the 20th century. Today, zoos reside at a tenacious hub of ideologies, practices, and priorities contributed to by various stakeholder groups. I propose that the foundational cause of this tension is zoological multiplicity: the theory that through human practices and perceptions, animals can embody multiple identities. Via an exploration of zoological multiplicity in American zoos with specific focus on zoo management, zoogoer, and animal activist stakeholder groups, this project proposes the widespread acknowledgment and understanding of zoological multiplicity as a method to improve animal …

Consciousness In Teleosts: There Is Something It Feels Like To Be A Fish, Michael L. Woodruff

Animal Sentience

Ray-finned fish are often excluded from the group of non-human animals considered to have phenomenal consciousness. This is generally done on the grounds that the fish pallium lacks a sufficiently expansive gross parcellation, as well as even minimally sufficient neuronal organization, intrinsic connectivity, and reciprocal extrinsic connections with the thalamus to support the subjective experience of qualia. It is also argued that fish do not exhibit the level of behavioral flexibility indicative of consciousness. A review of neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and behavioral studies is presented which leads to the conclusion that fish do have neurobiological correlates and behavioral flexibility of sufficient …

Consciousness, Evidence, And Moral Standing, Irina Mikhalevich

Animal Sentience

Woodruff (2017) claims to have identified the neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness (“p-consciousness”) in fishes, and argues that these neurological data, along with behavioral evidence, suggest that teleost fishes are in all probability sentient organisms. Woodruff’s case may be strengthened by challenging key assumptions behind a common criticism of accounts such as his: that fishes cannot be p-conscious because they lack the cortical structures necessary for p-consciousness. A more serious objection to Woodruff’s proposal would be that his evidence for p-consciousness establishes only that fishes are “access-conscious” (“a-conscious”), where a-conscious states are cognitive representations that are made available to cognitive …

High-Level Systematics And Phylogeny Of The Extant Scorpions (Scorpiones: Orthosterni), Michael E. Soleglad, Victor Fet

Victor Fet

A number of authors (e. g. Birula, 1917a, 1917b; Mello-Leitão, 1945; Stockwell, 1989) addressed above-level systematics of extant scorpions, and accepted the grouping of scorpion families in several superfamilies. At the same time, Kjellesvig-Waering (1986) classified all extant scorpions under the same superfamily, Scorpionoidea. Sissom (1990) and Fet et al. (2000) did not list any superfamilies, considering the systematic situation above family (and often at the family level as well) unresolved. Most recently, Lourenço (2000a) listed six superfamilies, largely following the unpublished but important study of Stockwell (1989). The goal of this paper is to address scorpion systematics and phylogeny …

Insect Consciousness: Fine-Tuning The Hypothesis, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg

Animal Sentience

Although we are mostly supportive, we point out the strengths and weaknesses of Klein & Barron’s (2016) hypothesis that insects have the most basic form of consciousness. The strengths are in their application of Bjorn Merker’s vertebrate-derived ideas to arthropods, using their deep knowledge of insect brains. The weaknesses involve the controversial aspects of some of Merker’s ideas. We describe how the latter can be modified to strengthen the authors’ case for insect consciousness.

Utilitarianism Generalized To Include Animals, Yew-Kwang Ng

Animal Sentience

In response to the seventeen commentaries to date on my target article on reducing animal suffering, I propose that the term “welfarism” (when used pejoratively by animal advocates) should be qualified as “anthropocentric welfarism” so as to leave “welfarism” simpliciter to be used in its generic sense of efforts to improve conditions for those who need it. Welfarism in this benign sense — even in its specific utilitarian form (maximizing the sum total of net welfare) with long-term future effects and effects on others (including animals) appropriately taken into account — should be unobjectionable (even if not considered sufficient by …