Animal Sciences Commons^™

The Ecology Of Foraging Behavior: Implications For Animal Learning And Memory, Alan Kamil, Herbert L. Roitblat

Avian Cognition Papers

In his recent Annual Review of Psychology article, Snowdon (1983) discussed the synthesis of ethology and comparative psychology. A similar synthesis of behavioral ecology and animal learning is beginning to take place. This article reviews developments in the behavioral ecology and ethology of foraging behavior relevant to psychological research on animal learning. The psychological literature shows that animals possess a wide range of learning abilities, including “simple” classical and operant conditioning; they acquire spatial, nonspatial, and temporal discriminations; they exhibit various forms of rule learning (e.g. matching-to-sample and learning set), and may even in certain senses learn language. Why does …

Simulation Analyses Of Space Use: Home Range Estimates, Variability, And Sample Size, Marc Bekoff, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Simulations of space use by animals were run to determine the relationship among home range area estimates, variability, and sample size (number of locations). As sample size increased, home range size increased asymptotically, whereas variability decreased among mean home range area estimates generated by multiple simulations for the same sample size. Our results suggest that field workers should ascertain between 100 and 200 locations in order to estimate reliably home range area. In some cases, this suggested guideline is higher than values found in the few published studies in which the relationship between home range area and number of locations …

Aspects Of The Nesting Ecology Of Least Terns And Piping Plovers In Central Nebraska, Craig A. Faanes

Papers in Ornithology

Breeding habitat of the least tern is made up primarily of coastal beaches and inland river sandbars. Populations of the interior (Sterna antillarum athalassos) and east coast (S. a. antillarum) subspecies are now declining (Marshall et al. 1975, Duffy 1977, Jernigan et al. 1978) and the western subspecies (S. a. browni) is endangered (Wilbur 1974). Although coastal populations have received considerable attention (Wolk 1974, Atwood et al. 1977, Blodgett 1978), little research has been conducted on the interior race (Hardy 1957, Downing 1975).

The piping plover inhabits river sandbars and sand beaches and, like …

Optimal Foraging Theory And The Psychology Of Learning, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

The development of optimization theory has made important contributions to the study of animal behavior. But the optimization approach needs to be integrated with other methods of ethology and psychology. For example, the ability to learn is an important component of efficient foraging behavior in many species, and the psychology of animal learning could contribute substantially to testing and extending the predictions of optimal foraging theory.

Scaring Of Carrion Crows (Corvus Corone Corone) By Species-Specific Distress Calls And Suspended Bodies Of Dead Crows, Luzia Naef-Daenzer

Bird Control Seminars Proceedings

In Switzerland, carrion crows can cause considerable damage to sprouting corn fields when feeding on the germinated corn. I tried to evaluate a method to prevent these damages. The use of species-specific distress calls, for the first time described by Frings and Jumber (1954), seemed to be the most promising method. Agronomes and biologists have applied it in field studies to several different bird species causing damage in agriculture and on airports (e.g., Gramet, 1962; Brough, 1968). However, the literature either describes single actions or several different scaring devices being used together. To be able to judge the method, quantitative …

An Analysis Of Howling Response Parameters Useful For Wolf Pack Censusing, Fred H. Harrington, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were studied from April 1972 through April 1974 in National Forest in northeastern Minnesota by radio-tracking and simulated howling. Based during 217 of 456 howling sessions, the following recommendations were derived for using howling as a census technique: (1) the best times of day are dusk and night; (2) July, August, and are the best months; (3) precipitation and winds greater than 12 km/hour should be avoided; (of 5 single howls should be used, alternating "flat" and "breaking" howls; (5) trials should 3 times at about 2-minute intervals with the first trial at lower …

Spatial Learning As An Adaptation In Hummingbirds, Susan Cole, F. Reed Hainsworth, Alan Kamil, Terre Mercier, Larry L. Wolf

Avian Cognition Papers

An ecological approach based on food distribution suggests that hummingbirds should more easily learn to visit a flower in a new location than to learn to return to a flower in a position just visited, for a food reward. Experimental results support this hypothesis as well as the general view that differences in learning within and among species represent adaptations.

Dynamics, Movements, And Feeding Ecology Of A Newly Protected Wolf Population In Northwestern Minnesota, Steven H. Fritts, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The gray wolf Canis lupus occupies only about 1 percent of its former range in the lower 48 states (Mech 1974a). Most of the range is in northern Minnesota, where the resident population is classified as "threatened" by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Wolves have been and will continue to be the subject of considerable controversy in Minnesota.

The first scientific study of wolves in Minnesota was conducted by Olson (1938a,b). That and all subsequent re- search was in the Superior National Forest (SNF) of northeastern Minnesota even though wolves inhabit approximately the northern third of the state. Consequently, …

Deer Social Organization And Wolf Predation In Northeastern Minnesota, Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus has been subject to intensive research and management, yet we are just beginning to understand its social organization. Little is known about home range formation, migration, social bonds, and traditions in this deer, what functions they serve, and what selective forces have affected them.

Predation by wolves Canis lupus, in particular, has not been examined as a factor in deer evolution, yet the intimate interactions between deer and wolf through the millennia no doubt strongly influenced major morphological and behavioral adaptations in both species. It is a reasonable assumption that wolf predation has been …

Population Regulation In Wolves, Jane M. Packard, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The possibility of social regulation of wolf populations has been discussed in the literature for several years. Some of the first ecological studies of wolves indicated that their populations did not increase as rapidly as was theoretically possible, and that they reached a saturation point apparently not set by food. Subsequent captive studies demonstrated the existence of social mechanisms possibly capable of regulating population growth. However, the importance of these factors in wild populations has not been established. This paper has four objectives: (1) to evaluate the existing concept of "intrinsic limitation," (2) to propose that wolf population dynamics may …

Wolf Howling And Its Role In Territory Maintenance, Fred H. Harrington, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The wolf (Canis lupus) is a wide-ranging social carnivore with a complex spatial organization (MECH, 1972; 1973). The precise manner in which this organization is maintained is unknown, but territory advertisement using olfactory and acoustic modes seems to be involved.

The acoustic mode includes primarily howling. Within a wolf pack, howling may be useful to reassemble separated members (MECH, 1966; THEBERGE & FALLS, 1967), and may communicate information on individual identity, location, and other behavioral and environmental contingencies (THEBERGE & FALLS, 1967). Between packs, however, howling may serve to advertise territory, communicating the locations of packs and thus …

A Mid-Continent Irruption Of Canada Lynx, 1962-63, Harvey L. Gunderson

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

There was a mid-continent irruption of the Canada lynx (Felis lynx) population and subsequent extensive movement into non-lynx habitats during the years 1962-1963. Lynx were found in the prairie provinces of Canada and the prairie areas of Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. They were also found in urban areas such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota: Winnipeg, Manitoba: and Calgary, Saskatchewan, Canada. Causes for the irruption remain unknown but speculations include primarily a change in snowshoe hare population, disease, extensive forest fires and extensive spraying. Unusual behavior seemed to be most often reflected by a lack of …

Relating Wolf Scat Content To Prey Consumed, Theodore J. Floyd, L. David Mech, Peter A. Jordan

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

In 9 trials, captive wolves (Canis lupus) were fed prey varying in size from snowshoe (Lepus americanus) to adult deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and the resulting scats were counted. collectible scats were distinguished from liquid, noncollectible stools. In collectible scats, the small prey occurred in greater proportion relative to the prey's weight, and in lesser proportion to the prey's numbers, than did the remains of larger prey. A regression equation with an excellent the data (r² = 0.97) was derived to estimate the weight of prey eaten per collectible scat for With this information …

Productivity, Mortality, And Population Trends Of Wolves In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Population parameters, mortality causes, and mechanisms of a population decline were studied in wolves (Canis lupus lycaon) from 1968 to 1976 in the Superior National Forest. The main method was aerial radio-tracking of 129 wolves and their packmates. Due to a decline in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the wolf population decreased during most of the study. Average annual productivity varied from 1.5 to 3.3 pups per litter, and annual mortality rates from 7 to 65 percent. Malnutrition and intraspecific strife accounted equally for 58 percent of the mortality; human causes accounted for the remainder. As wolf …

Wolf-Pack Buffer Zones As Prey Reservoirs, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Abstract. In a declining herd, surviving deer inhabited overlapping edges of wolf- pack territories. There, wolves hunted little until desperate, in order to avoid fatal encounters with neighbors. Such encounters reduce wolf numbers and predation pressure and apparently allow surviving deer along territory edges to repopulate the area through dispersal of their prime, less vulnerable offspring into territory cores.

Comparison Of Coyote And Coyote × Dog Hybrid Food Habits In Southeastern Nebraska, Brian R. Mahan

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The recent taxonomic study by Mahan et al. (1978) documented the occurrence of coyote (Canis latrans) x dog (c. familiaris) hybrids in Nebraska. This study, and those by Freeman (1976) in Oklahoma and Gipson et al. (1974) in Arkansas show coyote x dog hybrids, though not abundant, to be numerous in some areas. The purpose of the present study was to compare the stomach contents of coyote x dog hybrids collected by Mahan et al. (1978) from southeastern Nebraska with those of contemporary coyotes.

Stomachs of 12 coyote x dog hybrids and 16 coyotes collected November 1975 …

Visual Detection Of Cryptic Prey By Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Alexandra T. Pietrewicz, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

Blue jays learned to respond differentially to the presence or absence of Catocala moths in slides. This detection of the moths by the jays was affected by the background upon which the moth was placed and its body orientation, thus providing an objective measure of crypticity. These procedures are useful for the study of visual detection of prey.

Canis Lupus., L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Order Carnivora, Family Canidae. The genus Canis includes eight species. Approxi- mately 24 New World and eight Old World subspecies of C. lupus are recognized, the number depending on authorities accepted. For summary, see Mech (1970); for full synonymy, see Pocock (1935), Goldman (1944), Ellerman and Morrison- Scott (1951), Novikov (1956), and Hall and Kelson (1959).

The Role Of Adventitious Reinforcement In Operant Discrimination, Alan Kamil, John W. Davenport

Avian Cognition Papers

Rats were trained in 2 S^D-S^Δ discrimination experiments in which the effects of an S^D-postponement contingency during S^Δ and temporal regularity of S^Δ duration were assessed. Experiment I showed that discrimination is markedly facilitated by the presence of an S^D-postponement contingency of either fixed or variable duration. Experiment II showed that variable-duration S^Δ periods in a noncontingent schedule can also greatly enhance formation of an operant discrimination. These effects were attributed to differences in the probability of adventitious reinforcement of S^Δ behavior by S^D events.

Factors Affecting Nesting Success Of The Canvasback In The Aspen Parklands, Jerome H. Stoudt

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The Minnedosa study area is located in the southwestern portion of Manitoba just south of the town of Minnedosa. It is 90 square miles in size and roughly square in shape. The Aspen Parkland, in which the study area is located, is characterized by gently rolling terrain and black soils. Mixed farming is the rule with emphasis on small grain production consisting of wheat, barley, and oats. Roughly 50 percent of the water areas in the parkland are ringed with aspen, Populus tremuloides, and large blocks of aspen are interspersed throughout the area. The Minnedosa area differs because of …