Animal Sciences Commons^™

Environmental Influences On Juvenile Fish Abundances In A River-Dominated Coastal System, Laure Carassou, Brian Dzwonkowski, Frank J. Hernandez, Jr., Sean P. Powers, William M. Graham, Kyeong Park, John Mareska

University Faculty and Staff Publications

We investigated the influence of climatic and environmental factors on variations in juvenile abundances of marine fishes in a river-dominated coastal system of the north-central Gulf of Mexico, where an elevated primary productivity sustains fisheries of high economic importance. Fish were collected monthly with an otter trawl at three stations near Mobile Bay from 1982 to 2007. Fish sizes were used to isolate juvenile stages within the data set, and monthly patterns in juvenile fish abundance and size were then used to identify seasonal peaks for each species. The average numbers of juvenile fish collected during these seasonal peaks in …

Herpetofaunal Diversity At Yankee Hill State Lake And Wildlife Management Area, Lancaster County, Nebraska, Shelby Klima

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A survey for amphibians and reptiles was conducted in March through October 2011 at Yankee Hill Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster County, Nebraska. The survey was conducted using several different techniques including: visual and auditory encounters, artificial and natural cover objects, aquatic trappings and road surveys. A total of 145 individuals representing 12 species were identified including seven reptiles and five amphibians. A total of 48% of the species that may potentially occur on the site were encountered, all of which are common, widely distributed generalist species. Neither Graham’s Crayfish Snake nor the Massasauga, both target species for this survey, …

An Evaluation Of Population Estimators And Forage Availability And Nutritional Quality For White-Tailed Deer In Tennessee, Jared Tyler Beaver

Masters Theses

Given the white-tailed deer’s (Odocoileus virginianus; deer) popularity and potentially negative impact on forested systems; Arnold Air Force Base (AAFB) in Tullahoma, Tennessee, USA has made minimizing negative deer impacts on biodiversity a priority. To address these management issues, I initiated a study on AAFB to investigate deer survey techniques and the effects of deer density on forage availability across vegetative communities.

Current use of infrared-triggered cameras (camera) for estimating deer populations does not provide a measure of precision critical for density estimation. I conducted a camera survey for deer in Wildlife Management Area (WMA) Units 1 and …

Historical Biogeography Of Nebraska Pronghorns (Antilocapra Americana), Justin D. Hoffman, Hugh H. Genoways, Rachel R. Jones

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Archeological and paleontological records indicate that the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) have a history of at least 20,000 years of occurrence within the current boundaries of Nebraska. Pronghorns occurred throughout the state for much of its history. With the evidence at hand we concluded that the eastern boundary of the geographic distribution of the pronghorn south of the Niobrara River in Nebraska at the beginning of the 19th century was along the western perimeter of the eastern deciduous forest and tallgrass prairie. This excluded most of the easternmost tier of counties in the state. This geographic arrangement persisted throughout …

Review Of Rare: Portraits Of America's Endangered Species. By Joel Sartore., Jim Mason

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Short of being in the presence of a creature, a really good photograph of one can also make a lasting impression. That is something RARE does compellingly, with exquisite portrait photos of 68 North American species that are dwindling dangerously in numbers or have recently recovered from the brink of extinction. Included are such Great Plains natives as the lesser prairie chicken, the interior least tern, and the black-footed ferret. All creatures were photographed with either a pure white or black background, but unconventional poses surprise the reader with each turn of the page, while creative framing and layout engage …

Factors That Affect Harem Stability In A Feral Horse (Equus Caballus) Population On Shackleford Banks Island, Nc, Jessa Madosky

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mammal species often live in social groups, but the factors that promote group cohesion can be difficult to analyze due to the prevalence of strong group affiliations. Feral horses maintain stable harems of one or two males and several females, and harem stability is strongly related to individual fitness. Anecdotal evidence and an early study in the non-breeding season suggest that management of the Shackleford Banks island horses with immunocontraception reduces harem stability in the population, providing an opportunity to study the factors that influence harem stability. I investigated the effects of the immunocontraceptive PZP on harem stability during the …

Interspecies Comparison Of Αii-Spectrin Abundance Between Chinook Salmon And Steelhead, Brielle D. Kemis, Ann L. Miracle, Katie A. Wagner, Christa M. Woodley

STAR Program Research Presentations

Salmonids, such as Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss), are a staple economic, recreational, tribal, and environmental resource, yet many populations are unsustainable. This study was part of a broad scale effort to monitor the impact of downstream migration obstacles on juvenile salmonid health and survival, which is an essential step towards increasing Smolt-to-Adult Return ratios (SARs). The objective of this study was to determine if juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead exhibit differing quantities of alphaII-Spectrin Breakdown Products (SBDPs) over two consecutive spring migration periods, indicative of neurogenesis rate and/or biological response to head …

Phylogeography Of A Vanishing North American Songbird: The Painted Bunting (Passerina Ciris), Connie Ann Herr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Studies of genetic variation within and between species can provide insights into their evolutionary history as well as important information for conserving biodiversity. An understanding of population processes can assist in the conservation of biodiversity by contrasting current versus historical patterns, and the processes that have generated these patterns. Genetic differentiation often coincides with significant geological or climatic changes that have shaped the sizes and locations of the species geographic range and altered the connectivity between populations over time. Phylogenetic and population genetic analyses can also provide a statistical framework for the investigation of how human processes such as habitat …

Reproductive Success Of Eastern Bluebirds (Siala Sialis) On Suburban Golf Courses, Kerri L. Cornell, Caitlin R. Kight, Ryan B. Burdge, Alex R. Gunderson, Joanna K. Hubbard, Allyson K. Jackson, Joshua E. Leclerc, Marie L. Pitts, John P. Swaddle, Daniel A. Cristol

Arts & Sciences Articles

Understanding the role of green space in urban—suburban landscapes is becoming critical for bird conservation because of rampant habitat loss and conversion. Although not natural habitat, golf courses could play a role in bird conservation if they support breeding populations of some native species, yet scientists remain skeptical. In 2003–2009, we measured reproduction of Eastern Bluebirds (Siala sialis) in Virginia on golf courses and surrounding reference habitats, of the type that would have been present had golf courses not been developed on these sites (e.g., recreational parks, cemeteries, agriculture land, and college campus). We monitored >650 nest boxes …

Patterns Of Transience, Sex Bias, And Body Mass In Open-Habitat Rodent Populations, Stephen Edward Rice

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Rodents are assumed to live their lives in circumscribed (natal) areas with males being more prone to disperse than females and juveniles more prone to disperse than adults. To test these assumptions we examined the initial captures of geographic populations of hispid cotton rat, meadow vole, prairie vole, and marsh rice rat obtained through capture-mark-recapture methods. Capture records were obtained from Kansas and Illinois from long-term studies, and through live-trapping in Chesapeake, Virginia. I evaluated proportions of residents and transients, adults and juveniles, and males and females for significant differences among seasons, years, and geographic locations. The overall body masses …

Determinants Of Local And Migratory Movements Of Great Lakes Double-Crested Cormorants, Alban Guillaumet, Brian S. Dorr, Guiming Wang, Jimmy D. Taylor Ii, Richard B. Chipman, Heidi Scherr, Jeff Bowman, Kenneth F. Abraham, Terry J. Doyle, Elizabeth Cranker

Brian S Dorr

We investigated how individual strategies combine with demographic and ecological factors to determine local and migratory movements in the double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). One hundred and forty-five cormorants were captured from 14 nesting colonies across the Great Lakes area and fitted with satellite transmitters. We first tested the hypotheses that sexual segregation, density-dependent effects, and the intensity of management operations influenced home range size during the breeding season. The influence of these factors appeared to be limited in part due to random variability in foraging and dispersal decisions at individual and colony levels. We also designed a statistical framework to …

Botteri's Sparrow (Peucaea Botterii) Occurs In Northern Coahuila, Mexico, Paul Van Els, Ricardo Canales-Del-Castillo, John Klicka

Ornithology Program (HRC)

Botteri’s Sparrow (Peucaea botterii) occurs widely in the shrub-grasslands of southern North America. We report a breeding population of the species in the Sierra de la Encantada of northern Coahuila, Mexico, ~80 km from the Big Bend area of Texas and >300 km from the nearest previously known breeding range in southern Coahuila and central Chihuahua. We captured three individuals, which show a mostly gray dorsal coloration, suggestive of the texana subspecies, occurring from southern Texas to northern Veracruz. The exact affinity of the northern Coahuila population still needs to be ascertained. The presence of Botteri’s Sparrow in northern Coahuila …

Effects Of Management On Double-Crested Cormorant Nesting Colony Fidelity, Bronson K. Strickland, Brian S. Dorr, Fred Pogmore, Gary Nohrenberg, Scott C. Barras, John E. Mcconnell, John Gobeille

Brian S Dorr

No abstract provided.

The Small Indian Mongoose (Herpestes Auropunctatus) On Adriatic Islands: Impact, Evolution, And Control, Arijana Barun

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

One cause of declines and extinctions of island species is carnivore introduction. Four carnivores, including the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus), are on the IUCN’s list of 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species. My thesis summarizes global patterns of carnivore introductions and examines ecological, evolutionary, and management impacts of this mongoose. I study abundances of reptiles and amphibians on mongoose-infested and mongoose-free islands in the Adriatic Sea to determine if factors other than mongoose presence can account for abundance differences. For several reptiles and amphibians, the mongoose is implicated as causing differences. Additionally, I …

The Role Of Historical And Contemporary Processes On Phylogeographic Structure And Genetic Diversity In The Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis Cardinalis, Brian T. Smith, Patricia Escalante, Blanca E. Hernandez-Banos, Adolfo G. Navarro-Siguenza, Sievert Rohwer, John Klicka

Ornithology Program (HRC)

Background

Earth history events such as climate change are believed to have played a major role in shaping patterns of genetic structure and diversity in species. However, there is a lag between the time of historical events and the collection of present-day samples that are used to infer contemporary population structure. During this lag phase contemporary processes such as dispersal or non-random mating can erase or reinforce population differences generated by historical events. In this study we evaluate the role of both historical and contemporary processes on the phylogeography of a widespread North American songbird, the Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis …

A Mark–Recapture Technique For Monitoring Feral Swine Populations, Matthew M. Reidy, Tyler A. Campbell, David G. Hewitt

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Techniques to monitor populations of feral swine (Sus scrofa) relative to damage control activities are needed on rangelands. Our objectives were to describe and assess a mark–recapture technique using tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) for monitoring feral swine populations. We established bait stations at study sites in southern and central Texas. During 1 d, we replaced normal soured corn bait with bait containing TH and counted the number of feral swine that consumed bait with observers. We conducted feral swine removal using box-style traps and helicopters, at which time we collected teeth for TH analysis. In southern Texas, we estimated …

Multilocus And Parametric Analyses Of The Evolutionary History Of The Amazonian Peacock Cichlids, The Genus Cichla (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Stuart Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate knowledge of species boundaries and species phylogeny are fundamental to testing hypotheses of recent evolutionary processes, but the estimation of these partitions is challenging due both to inherent confusion about what is being estimated as well as the data available to estimate them. Using multilocus data from mtDNA, microsatellites, and nuclear locus sequences of over 1100 individuals, we delimited eight separately evolving species of Cichla rather than the 15 described. Among species we found evidence of rare but widespread introgressive hybridization, while within these species we observed evidence of long-term gene exchange and constrained evolutionary trajectories. In most cases …

Health And Fertility Implications Related To Seasonal Changes In Kidney Fat Index Of White-Tailed Jackrabbits In South Dakota, Dustin Schaible, Charles D. Dieter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) populations in the Northern Plains have been in a general decline for the past decade or longer. A suggested reason for this population decline was reduced body condition of individual jackrabbits due to habitat changes. In order to evaluate body condition, we determined the kidney fat index of 314 white-tailed jackrabbits harvested in 44 counties throughout South Dakota. We removed and weighed kidneys and all perirenal fat associated with the kidneys from collected jackrabbits. We measured kidney weight to determine times of high metabolic activity as indicated by an increase in mass. Body condition was …

Review Of Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction From The Age Of Jefferson To The Age Of Ecology. By Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Peter A. Bednekoff

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The saving of bison occupies a central place in Nature's Ghosts, but Mark Barrow's chronicle extends over a century both before and after. The story starts with Thomas Jefferson and fossils that came to be recognized as mastodons, mammoths, and giant ground sloths. "Jefferson and most of his contemporaries were certain that the natural world was orderly, static, and new." In such a worldview, extinction was unthinkable. Fossil evidence plus the historical extinctions of dodos, moas, and great auks forced reconsideration.

This book ranges across centuries and continents, and only a few parts of it are explicitly about the Great …

Governance Of The Western Rock Lobster Fishery And Marine Stewardship Council Principle 3 Effective Management, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries occasional publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Affecting Space Use Overlap By White-Tailed Deer In An Urban Landscape, W. David Walter, Jeff Beringer, Lonnie P. Hansen, Justin W. Fischer, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Kurt C. Vercauteren

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Variation in the size and overlap of space use by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has broad implications for managing deer–human conflicts and disease spread and transmission in urban landscapes. Understanding which factors affect overlap of home range by various segments (i.e., age, sex) of an urban deer population has implications to direct contact between deer on disease epidemiology. We assessed size of home range and overlap of space use using the volume of intersection index (VI) for deer in an urban landscape by sex, age, season, and time of day. We found mean space use was larger for …

Factors Affecting Survival And Cause-Specific Mortality Of Saiga Calves (Saiga Tatarica Mongolica) In Mongolia, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Factors affecting juvenile survival are poorly known in the world’s most northern antelope, the endangered saiga (Saiga tatarica), yet they are fundamental for understanding what drives population change. For saiga neonates monitored in Sharga Nature Reserve, western Mongolia, during 2008–2010, male and single calves were heavier than those of female and twins, respectively. However, there was no significant difference in seasonal and annual survival rate between male and female or singletons and twins. Litter size and birth mass varied among years, and there was a negative relationship between these variables. Multiple regression models suggest that summer precipitation in …

Black-Capped Chickadee, Alec R. Lindsay Ph. D.

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Ameliorating The Effects Of The Digenetic Trematode, Bolbophorus Damnificus On The Channel Catfish Industry, Lester Khoo, David J. Wise, Linda M. Pote, Andrew J. Mitchell, Todd S. Byars, Marlena C. Yost, Cynthia M. Doffitt, Brian S. Dorr

Brian S Dorr

No abstract provided.

A Phylogeographic And Population Genetic Analysis Of A Widespread, Sedentary North American Bird: The Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides Villosus), John Klicka, Garth M. Spellman, Kevin Winker, Vivien Chua, Brian T. Smith

Ornithology Program (HRC)

The Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) has one of the broadest breeding distributions of any North American bird and is also one of the most morphologically variable with as many as 21 described subspecies. This wide distribution and high degree of phenotypic diversity suggests the presence of underlying genetic structure. We used ND2 sequence from 296 individuals from 89 localities throughout the Hairy Woodpecker distribution to address this question and to explore this species’ evolutionary history. Phylogenetic analyses identified three main Hairy Woodpecker clades, each ~1.5% divergent from one another. One clade was comprised of birds from boreal and eastern zones …

Variation, Systematics, And Relationships Of The Leptodactylus BolivianusComplex (Amphibia: Anura: Leptodactylidae), W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

A cluster of morphologically similar frogs of the genus Leptodactylus having a pair of distinct dorsolateral folds on the dorsum and well-developed lateral fringes on the toes has never been systematically evaluated by examining materials from throughout its geographic range. The species involved are herein referred to as members of the Leptodactylus bolivianus complex. There have been three names proposed for members of this complex: Leptodactylus bolivianus Boulenger, 1898; Leptodactylus insularum Barbour, 1906; and Leptodactylus romani Melin, 1941. The collective range for the L. bolivianus complex is from Costa Rica southward through Panama, extending across northern South America (east of …

Temperature Increase Effects On Sagebrush Ecosystem Forbs: Exprimental Evidence And Range Manager Perspectives, Hilary Louise Whitcomb

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Prairie Vole Audible And Ultrasonic Pup Calls And Attraction To Them By Adults Of Each Sex, Thomas A. Terleph

Biology Faculty Publications

Rodent pups of many species emit both ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and calls spanning into a lower frequency range, audible to humans (AUDs), yet there has been little systematic comparison of these different call types, or analyses of how they might differ in signal function. Here the spectral and temporal characteristics of USV and AUD pup calls are described for the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), a model used in studies of monogamous mating and biparental care, and a species with an unusually large functional and anatomical representation of auditory cortex. Findings provide a detailed description of each call type, …

Regulated Commercial Harvest To Manage Overabundant White-Tailed Deer: An Idea To Consider?, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Charles W. Anderson, Timothy R. Van Deelen, David Drake, W. David Walter, Stephen Vantassel, Scott E. Hygnstrom

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Declines in hunter recruitment coupled with dramatic growth in numbers of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have challenged our ability to manage deer populations through regulated hunting. We review the efficacy of current regulated hunting methods and explain how they are unable to reduce deer numbers sufficiently in some environments. Regulated commercial harvest would provide an additional tool to help state wildlife agencies manage overabundant populations of white-tailed deer. We outline potential means to govern regulated commercial deer harvest and explain how it is compatible with the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. We identified several benefits, including reduced …

Estimation Of Short-Term Tag-Induced Mortality In Horseshoe Crabs Limulus Polyphemus, Jennifer Mattei, Mark Beekey, H. R. Potter, C. S. Bond, Alyssa Woronik, J. A. Roberts, K. A. Smith

Biology Faculty Publications

Horseshoe crabs Limulus Polyphemus range along the East Coast of the United States and over 150,000 of them have been marked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service disk tags. It has been assumed that the tags do not harm the animals and are similar to common epibionts often found on the shells of the horseshoe crabs. We investigated whether newlv tagged adult female horseshoe crabs would exhibit higher short-term mortality rates than untagged adult females. All crabs were collected from a beach in Connecticut and then were transported to a laboratory for the experiment. Tagging involved drilling a small hole …