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Full-Text Articles in Other Animal Sciences

Surveys Of Aphonopelma Hentzi In Missouri: Conservation Efforts Through Population, Genetics, And Habitat Studies, Anderson B. Spencer Mr., Becky Hansis-O'Niell Jan 2024

Surveys Of Aphonopelma Hentzi In Missouri: Conservation Efforts Through Population, Genetics, And Habitat Studies, Anderson B. Spencer Mr., Becky Hansis-O'Niell

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Aphonopelma hentzi and other tarantula species are greatly understudied organisms. In the Missouri regions there is little knowledge on their mating patterns, gene diversity, or population sizes. The focal glades in this experiment display regional fragmentation, which could prevent tarantulas from traveling and mating between regions of their glades. Due to the lack of knowledge surrounding them, methods for determining gene diversity are harmful to the organism. Our recent work has shown that it is possible to extract genetic information from the molts of burrowing tarantulas. This will allow us to safely determine the lineages and interbreeding patterns of the …


Geographic Variability Of Octopus Insularis Diet: From Oceanic Island To Continental Populations, Tatiana S. Leite, Allan T. Batista, Françoise D. Lima, Jaciana C. Barbosa, Jennifer A. Mather Aug 2019

Geographic Variability Of Octopus Insularis Diet: From Oceanic Island To Continental Populations, Tatiana S. Leite, Allan T. Batista, Françoise D. Lima, Jaciana C. Barbosa, Jennifer A. Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

A predator’s choice of prey can be affected by many factors. We evaluated various influences on population dietary composition, individual specialization and size of prey in Octopus insularis populations from 2 continental and 4 insular locations. We expected that habitat diversity would lead to diet heterogeneity. Furthermore, in keeping with MacArthur & Wilson’s (1967) theory of island biogeography, we expected that diet diversity would be lower around islands than on the coast of the mainland. Both predictions were confirmed when prey remains from octopus middens were examined. The 2 continental areas exhibited a richer habitat diversity and a wider variety …


An Historical Overview And Update Of Wolf-Moose Interactions In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech, John Fieberg, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer Jan 2018

An Historical Overview And Update Of Wolf-Moose Interactions In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech, John Fieberg, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Wolf (Canis lupus) and moose (Alces americanus) populations in northeastern Minnesota, USA, have fluctuated for decades and, based on helicopter counts, moose numbers declined to a new low from 2006 to about 2012. Other steep declines were found in 1991 and 1998 during periods when moose counts were done with fixed-wing aircraft; these declines also appeared to be real. Winter wolf numbers, monitored in part of the moose range, had been increasing since about 2002 to the highest population in decades in 2009. However, from 2009 to 2016, wolves decreased precipitously, and the moose- population decline leveled …


Geographic Variability Of Octopus Insularis Diet: From Oceanic Island To Continental Populations, Tatiana S. Leite, Allan T. Batista, Françoise D. Lima, Jaciana C. Barbosa, Jennifer A. Mather Jan 2016

Geographic Variability Of Octopus Insularis Diet: From Oceanic Island To Continental Populations, Tatiana S. Leite, Allan T. Batista, Françoise D. Lima, Jaciana C. Barbosa, Jennifer A. Mather

Habitat and Trophic Ecology Collection

A predator’s choice of prey can be affected by many factors. We evaluated various influences on population dietary composition, individual specialization and size of prey in Octopus insularis populations from 2 continental and 4 insular locations. We expected that habitat diversity would lead to diet heterogeneity. Furthermore, in keeping with MacArthur & Wilson’s (1967) theory of island biogeography, we expected that diet diversity would be lower around islands than on the coast of the mainland. Both predictions were confirmed when prey remains from octopus middens were examined. The 2 continental areas exhibited a richer habitat diversity and a wider variety …


Carnivore Diet Identification Through Scat And Genetic Analysis In Namibia, Africa, Alicia J. Walsh Jan 2015

Carnivore Diet Identification Through Scat And Genetic Analysis In Namibia, Africa, Alicia J. Walsh

Honors Theses and Capstones

Worldwide the cheetah population is declining making them Africa’s most endangered large cat. Namibia, Africa currently has the largest population of cheetahs in the world. During the summer of 2014, I did scat analysis of carnivores on the property of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia in order to better understand the predators that compete with the cheetah and how the ecosystem works as a whole. I worked at CCF for nine weeks to analyze the diets of carnivores in the area through genetic and scat analysis. Analyzing carnivore feces would ultimately identify the diet of various carnivores in …


Kiangs (Equus Kiang, Moorcroft 1841) In Sikkim, India, Natalia V. Paklina, Chris Van Orden Jan 2007

Kiangs (Equus Kiang, Moorcroft 1841) In Sikkim, India, Natalia V. Paklina, Chris Van Orden

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Between the 5th and 10th of March 2001 we completed a 450 km route by car in Northern Sikkim. During the trip along the southern slopes of the Himalayas and Sikkim Plateau we didn’t see a single kiang. According to the local people and military personnel in Sikkim, kiangs are known only in the outer limits of the Sikkim Plateau, where wild animals have a possibility to migrate free over the Chinese-Indian border. In winter only small groups of kiang incidentally come to the Sikkim Plateau from South Tibet. But in May more of them come there and …


Population Assessment Of Khulan (Equus Hemionus) In Mongolia, Badamjav Lkhagvasuren Jan 2007

Population Assessment Of Khulan (Equus Hemionus) In Mongolia, Badamjav Lkhagvasuren

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The data presented here suggest that 18,411 (± 224) khulan inhabit southern Mongolia with a density of 1.4 individuals per 1,000 km2 within the 157,525 km2 territory of its actual distribution. The Dornogobi province contains the highest number of khulan with a mere 67%, while 20% are found in the Ömnögobi province, 12% are in Djungarian Gobi and only 1% in the Gobi-Altay and Bayankhongor provinces. According to the proportion of foals and yearlings within each aimag, the Dornogobi, Ömnögobi east and Khovd populations have an average reproduction rate.


Kulan (Equus Hemionus Pallas 1775) In Turkmenistan, Victor S. Lukarevskiy, Yu. K. Gorelov Jan 2007

Kulan (Equus Hemionus Pallas 1775) In Turkmenistan, Victor S. Lukarevskiy, Yu. K. Gorelov

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The kulan (Equus hemionus kulan) is the only odd-toed ungulate left in the wild in northern Eurasia. In the 1930s, the kulan survived in southern Turkmenistan only. In the 1940s, kulans were found only in an area named Badkhyz in Turkmenistan. To conserve the last natural population of this subspecies of kulan the Badkhyz Natural Reserve was established in 1941. The historical and contemporary distribution, fluctuation in numbers, conservation and sci research of kulan populations in the Badkhyz Natural reserve are reviewed in this paper.


Social Networks In Wild Asses: Comparing Patterns And Processes Among Populations, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Siva Sundaresan, Ilya Fischhoff, David Saltz Jan 2007

Social Networks In Wild Asses: Comparing Patterns And Processes Among Populations, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Siva Sundaresan, Ilya Fischhoff, David Saltz

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Asiatic wild asses inhabit some of the most arid environments in the world. All live in fissionfusion societies, but demography varies and the deserts in which they live often differ in subtle ways. Characterizing details of social structure of wild ass populations has been a challenge and has made it difficult to determine causes and consequences of any differences that might exist. We use network theory to compare the social structures of two populations of Asiatic asses/ onagers inhabiting the Negev desert, Israel and khur of the Little Rann of Kuch, India and show that populations differ in important structural …


Numbers, Distribution And Social Structure Of Kiang (Equus Kiang Moorcroft 1841) Population In The Southwestern Part Of Tibet, China, Natalia V. Paklina, Chris Van Orden Jan 2007

Numbers, Distribution And Social Structure Of Kiang (Equus Kiang Moorcroft 1841) Population In The Southwestern Part Of Tibet, China, Natalia V. Paklina, Chris Van Orden

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

In September - October 1998 we made an extensive survey in southwest Tibet to study numbers, distribution and social structure of the kiang population in this remote part of its range. Kiangs were sighted between 29º 40’ and 32º 50’ N, and 81º- 86º E. They preferred broad flat valleys with lakes at an altitude from 4,000 up to 5,000 m. Small kiang groups and solitary animals were sighted in Transhimalaya. There were no kiangs in Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River valley, in the sand desert near Ali and in the Clay Mountains near Tsada. Seven old kiang corpses were found along …