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Zoology

2003

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During House Sparrow Copulations, Karen B. Nyland, Michael P. Lombardo, Patrick A. Thorpe Dec 2003

Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During House Sparrow Copulations, Karen B. Nyland, Michael P. Lombardo, Patrick A. Thorpe

Peer Reviewed Publications

Most female birds have only a left ovary and associated oviduct. The entry to the oviduct is on the left side of the urodeum of the cloaca. This arrangement may favor males that mount females from the left during copulation if it results in sperm being placed closer to the opening of the oviduct. Therefore, we predicted a left-sided directional bias of cloacal contacts during House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) copulations. Cloacal contacts from the left outnumbered those from the right 74 to 25 (3:1) during 25 bouts of copulation at 11 House Sparrow nests. While this pattern suggests …

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Breeding Distribution And Habitat Use Of Audubon's Oriole In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas, Steven Gerald Monk Dec 2003

Breeding Distribution And Habitat Use Of Audubon's Oriole In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas, Steven Gerald Monk

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Audubon's Oriole ( Icterus graduacauda ) was known historically throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas, but its breeding range has now declined to mainly riparian habitat in Starr County. Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, and brood parasitism by Bronzed Cowbirds ( Molothrus aeneus ) are likely causes of this decline. Habitat patches where Audubon's Orioles were present were larger, with a larger vertical range of canopy, greater vegetation volume, greater richness of bird and woody plant species, less local deforestation, and less local habitat fragmentation than where Audubon's Orioles were absent. Bronzed Cowbirds showed no numeric correlation …

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Geographic Variation In The Morphology Of Crotalus Horridus (Serpentes: Viperidae), John Robert Allsteadt Jul 2003

Geographic Variation In The Morphology Of Crotalus Horridus (Serpentes: Viperidae), John Robert Allsteadt

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

The Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) occurs in discontinuous populations throughout the eastern and central United States. The species exhibits high levels of polymorphism in morphological traits, especially in coloration and pattern. Previous studies recognized either distinct northern and southern subspecies or three regional morphs (northern, southern, and western), but conflicting data sets and limited geographic sampling of previous studies have left the relationships among those regional variants unclear. In this study, univariate and multivariate statistics, together with a geographic information system, were used to analyze geographic variation in 36 morphological characters recorded from 2,420 specimens of C. horridus …

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Mechanical Properties Of The Integument Of The Common Gartersnake, Thamnophis Sirtalis (Serpentes: Colubridae), Gabriel Rivera Jul 2003

Mechanical Properties Of The Integument Of The Common Gartersnake, Thamnophis Sirtalis (Serpentes: Colubridae), Gabriel Rivera

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

The evolution of the ophidian feeding mechanism has involved substantial morphological restructuring associated with the ability to ingest relatively large prey. Previous studies examining the morphological consequences of macrophagy have concentrated on modifications of the skull and cephalic musculature. Although it is evident that macrophagy requires highly compliant skin, the mechanical properties of the ophidian integument have received limited attention, particularly in the context of feeding. I examined mechanical properties of skin along the body axis in male Thamnophis sirtalis (Colubridae). From each of 11 specimens, I examined nine circumferential strips of skin, each spanning 10 ventral scales, spaced at …

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Ecology Of The Missouri River: Missouri River Creel Survey, Bellevue Bridge To Camp Creek, 30 March Through 11 October 2002. Supplement I, Gerald Mestl Mar 2003

Ecology Of The Missouri River: Missouri River Creel Survey, Bellevue Bridge To Camp Creek, 30 March Through 11 October 2002. Supplement I, Gerald Mestl

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

This report describes Missouri River activities and results related to a channelized Missouri River creel survey conducted from 30 March through 11 October 2002. This is the third of a planned annual creel survey to be conducted on alternating sections of the channelized Missouri River to measure changes in recreational fishing activity, especially those changes due to large scale habitat restoration efforts. Future reports will contain additional analyses of these data. Anglers spent over 42,000 hours fishing the Missouri River from Bellevue (rkm 967.7) to Camp Creek (rkm 883.5) during the survey period. Effort was steady from late spring (4/27 …

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Growth And The Expression Of Alternative Life Cycles In The Salamander Ambystoma Talpoideum (Caudata: Ambystomatidae), Travis J. Ryan, Raymond D. Semlitsch Jan 2003

Growth And The Expression Of Alternative Life Cycles In The Salamander Ambystoma Talpoideum (Caudata: Ambystomatidae), Travis J. Ryan, Raymond D. Semlitsch

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Complex life cycles (CLCs) contain larval and adult phases that are morphologically and ecologically distinct. Simple life cycles (SLCs) have evolved from CLCs repeatedly in a wide variety of lineages but the processes that may underlie the transition have rarely been identified or investigated experimentally. We examined the influence of larval growth rate on the facultative expression of alternative life cycles (metamorphosis or maturation as gill-bearing adults [= paedomorphosis]) in the salamander Ambystoma talpoideum. We manipulated growth rates by altering the amount of food individuals received throughout larval development. The expression of alternative life cycles in A. talpoideum is influenced …

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Incorporating Local Knowledge Into Population And Habitat Viability Assessments: Landowners And Tree Kangaroos In Papua New Guinea, Philip J. Nyhus, J Williams, J Borovansky, O Byers, P Miller Jan 2003

Incorporating Local Knowledge Into Population And Habitat Viability Assessments: Landowners And Tree Kangaroos In Papua New Guinea, Philip J. Nyhus, J Williams, J Borovansky, O Byers, P Miller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Dangerous Animals In Captivity: Ex Situ Tiger Conflict And Implication For Private Ownership Of Exotic Animals, Philip J. Nyhus, Ronald L. Tilson, J L. Tomlinson Jan 2003

Dangerous Animals In Captivity: Ex Situ Tiger Conflict And Implication For Private Ownership Of Exotic Animals, Philip J. Nyhus, Ronald L. Tilson, J L. Tomlinson

Faculty Scholarship

The risks associated with tiger attacks on people in the wild are well documented. There may currently be more tigers in captivity than in the wild, but relatively little is known about the risks of injury or death associated with owning and managing captive tigers and other large carnivores. The purpose of this study was to conduct a global assessment of attacks by captive tigers on people, with particular emphasis on cases in the United States. Our analysis of 30 international media sources and additional documents uncovered 59 unique incidents in 1998-2001 in which people were reportedly injured or killed …

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Bats Of Nevis, Northern Lesser Antilles, Scott C. Pedersen, Hugh H. Genoways, Matthew N. Morton, James W. Johnson, Siân E. Courts Jan 2003

Bats Of Nevis, Northern Lesser Antilles, Scott C. Pedersen, Hugh H. Genoways, Matthew N. Morton, James W. Johnson, Siân E. Courts

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Only one species of bat, Molossus molossus, previously has been documented as occurring on the northern Lesser Antillean island of Nevis. Field research and reviews of existing museum collections have provided documentation based on voucher specimens for an additional seven species occurring on the island — Noctilio leporinus, Brachyphylla cavernarum, Monophyllus plethodon, Ardops nichollsi, Artibeus jamaicensis, Natalus stramineus, and Tadarida brasiliensis. The biological diversity of the chiropteran fauna on Nevis is similar to that found on other islands in the northern Lesser Antilles. Ecologically, this is a simple chiropteran fauna, including one …

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Dangerous Animals In Captivity: Ex Situ Tiger Conflict And Implication For Private Ownership Of Exotic Animals, Philip J. Nyhus, Ronald L. Tilson, J L. Tomlinson Jan 2003

Dangerous Animals In Captivity: Ex Situ Tiger Conflict And Implication For Private Ownership Of Exotic Animals, Philip J. Nyhus, Ronald L. Tilson, J L. Tomlinson

Philip J. Nyhus

The risks associated with tiger attacks on people in the wild are well documented. There may currently be more tigers in captivity than in the wild, but relatively little is known about the risks of injury or death associated with owning and managing captive tigers and other large carnivores. The purpose of this study was to conduct a global assessment of attacks by captive tigers on people, with particular emphasis on cases in the United States. Our analysis of 30 international media sources and additional documents uncovered 59 unique incidents in 1998-2001 in which people were reportedly injured or killed …

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Characterization Of A Piscirickettsiosis-Like Disease In Hawaiian Tilapia., M. J. Mauel, Debra L. Miller, K. Frazier, A. Liggett, E. Styer, D. Montgomery-Brock, J. Brock Jan 2003

Characterization Of A Piscirickettsiosis-Like Disease In Hawaiian Tilapia., M. J. Mauel, Debra L. Miller, K. Frazier, A. Liggett, E. Styer, D. Montgomery-Brock, J. Brock

Debra L Miller

In 1994, tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus and Sarotherodon melanotheron) in wild and farmed populations on Oahu, Hawaii, USA, began to die of an unknown disease that was similar but not identical to piscirickettsiosis in salmonids. Only tilapia were affected. Diseased tilapia often swam erratically and had trouble staying at depth. Scattered cutaneous haemorrhage and exophthalmia were often noted. In many cases, fish were found dead with no clinical signs. Gills exhibited epithelial hyperplasia with severe multifocal consolidation of secondary lamellae. Multiple granulomas were observed in the gills, spleen, kidney, choroid gland and testes, but not in the liver. Tilapia mortalities occurred …

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Distribution, Abundance, And Home Range Of The Whip-Poor-Will (Caprimulgus Vociferus) In A Managed Forest Landscape, Michael Daniel Wilson Jan 2003

Distribution, Abundance, And Home Range Of The Whip-Poor-Will (Caprimulgus Vociferus) In A Managed Forest Landscape, Michael Daniel Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

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Use Of Ponds And Lakes By Resident Canada Geese, Phillip D. West Jan 2003

Use Of Ponds And Lakes By Resident Canada Geese, Phillip D. West

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

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Synalpheus Shrimp From Carrie Bow Cay, Belize. Systematics, Phylogenetics And Biological Observations (Crustacea: Decapoda: ; Alpheidae), Ruben Rios Gonzalez Jan 2003

Synalpheus Shrimp From Carrie Bow Cay, Belize. Systematics, Phylogenetics And Biological Observations (Crustacea: Decapoda: ; Alpheidae), Ruben Rios Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Snapping shrimp in the family Alpheidae are remarkably abundant in coral reef ecosystems worldwide. The second most speciose genus, Synalpheus , includes species usually small and reclusive, and their general morphology is notably uniform, yet the number of species is staggeringly high, as is the intraspecific variability. These features have contributed to a poorly resolved taxonomic status, as evidenced both by recurring lumping and splitting of species and by lack of proper definition of several common species. I examined western Atlantic species of Synalpheus in the large and regionally dominant "Gambarelloides group of species", an informal but widely used guild …

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The Tadpole Of Phrynobatrachus Mababiensis Fitzsimons, 1932 (Anura, Ranidae, Petropedetinae), Rafael O. De Sá, Alan Channing Jan 2003

The Tadpole Of Phrynobatrachus Mababiensis Fitzsimons, 1932 (Anura, Ranidae, Petropedetinae), Rafael O. De Sá, Alan Channing

Biology Faculty Publications

The puddle frog genus Phrynobatrachus Günther, 1862 comprises about 64 currently recognized species (Frost, 1985). Of these, only the tadpoles of P. natalensis (Smith, 1849) (Power, 1927; Channing, 2001), P. guineensis Guibé & Lamotte, 1961(Rödel,1998) and P. alticola Guibé & Lamotte, 1961 (Rödel & Ernst, 2002) have been described. Phrynobatrachus mababiensis FitzSimons, 1932 (Dwarf Puddle frog, Wager, 1986; Mababe River frog, Frank & Ramus, 1996) is a small frog that usually calls from low in thick vegetation on flooded terrains close to the water. Very little has been published about the biology of this species. Passmore & Carruthers (1979) reported …

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Leptodactylus Mystacinus, M. M. Heyer, W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá Jan 2003

Leptodactylus Mystacinus, M. M. Heyer, W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Adult Leptodactylus mystacinus are of moderate size, the head is as wide as long, and the hind limbs are moderately short (see Table; Heyer and Thompson 2000 provided definitions of adult size and leg length categories for Leptodactylus). Male vocal sacs are not visible externally or at best are weakly expanded laterally and slightly darker than female throats. Male snouts are more spatulate than those of females. Male forearms are not hypertrophied. Males lack asperities on the thumbs and chest. One or two pairs of dorsolateral folds (indicated by dark/light outlining in indifferently preserved specimens) are present: one …

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Incorporating Local Knowledge Into Population And Habitat Viability Assessments: Landowners And Tree Kangaroos In Papua New Guinea, Philip J. Nyhus, J Williams, J Borovansky, O Byers, P Miller Dec 2002

Incorporating Local Knowledge Into Population And Habitat Viability Assessments: Landowners And Tree Kangaroos In Papua New Guinea, Philip J. Nyhus, J Williams, J Borovansky, O Byers, P Miller

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

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