Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Eight Legged Encounters, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

This program was funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant (DRL–1241482 to EAH). Material was developed in collaboration with Marie- Claire Chelini, Jessie Rose Storz, Cody Storz, and Malcolm Rosenthal. Steven Schwartz, Jason Stafstrom, Kathy French, Priscilla Grew, and Judy Diamond were all extremely helpful in grant writing, facilitating the first live event, and/or discussions. Pawl Tisdale (artist) was phenomenal to work with on all aspects of the project!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CLASSIFICATION & TAXONOMY STATIONS
I. WHAT IS AN ARTHROPOD? page 4 a. The goal of this station is to introduce the audience to some basic information …

Multimodal Sensory Reliance In The Nocturnal Homing Of The Amblypygid Phrynus Pseudoparvulus (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi)?, Eileen A. Hebets, Alfonso Aceves-Aparicio, Samuel Aguilar-Argüello, Verner P. Bingman, Ignacio Escalante, Eben J. Gering, David R. Nelson, Jennifer Rivera, José Ángel Sánchez-Ruiz, Laura Segura-Hernández, Virginia Settepani, Daniel D. Wiegmann, Jay A. Stafstrom

Eileen Hebets Publications

Like many other nocturnal arthropods, the amblypygid Phrynus pseudoparvulus is capable of homing. The environment through which these predators navigate is a dense and heterogeneous tropical forest understory and the mechanism(s) underlying their putatively complex navigational abilities are presently unknown. This study explores the sensory inputs that might facilitate nocturnal navigation in the amblypygid P. pseudoparvulus. Specifically, we use sensory system manipulations in conjunction with field displacements to examine the potential involvement of multimodal—olfactory and visual—stimuli in P. pseudoparvulus’ homing behavior. In a first experiment, we deprived individuals of their olfactory capacity and displaced them to the opposite side of …

Breeding Time In A Migratory Songbird Is Predicted By Drought Severity And Group Size, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Global climate change is altering the breeding phenology of many organisms, and one reported consequence of warmer average temperatures is earlier breeding times in migratory songbirds of north temperate latitudes. Less studied are the potential interactions between earlier breeding and social behavior in colonial species. We investigated how breeding time, as measured by colony initiation dates across the entire summer, in Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) of southwestern Nebraska, USA, changed over a 30-year period and could be predicted by climatic variables, year, and colony size. Mean colony initiation date became earlier over the study, with variation best predicted …

Dangerous Mating Systems: Signal Complexity, Signal Content And Neural Capacity In Spiders, Marie E. Herberstein, Anne E. Wignall, Eileen Hebets, Jutta M. Schneider

Eileen Hebets Publications

Spiders are highly efficient predators in possession of exquisite sensory capacities for ambushing prey, combined with machinery for launching rapid and determined attacks. As a consequence, any sexually motivated approach carries a risk of ending up as prey rather than as a mate. Sexual selection has shaped courtship to effectively communicate the presence, identity, motivation and/or quality of potential mates, which help ameliorate these risks. Spiders communicate this information via several sensory channels, including mechanical (e.g. vibrational), visual and/or chemical, with examples of multimodal signaling beginning to emerge in the literature. The diverse environments that spiders inhabit have further shaped …

The Status Of Fishes In The Missouri River, Nebraska: Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus Albus), Kirk D. Steffensen, Dane A. Shuman, Robert A. Klumb, Sam Stukel

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Anthropogenic alterations to the Missouri River have placed the Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) population in jeopardy and contributed to their listing as an endangered species. Pallid sturgeon were always less common than the sympatric Shovelnose Sturgeon (S. platorynchus); however, Pallid Sturgeon seemed to be more affected by river alterations as the river sturgeon ratio has become more skewed towards Shovelnose Sturgeon. Shortly after listing, population augmentation with hatchery produced Pallid Sturgeon began to supplement the diminishing wild population. Therefore, the objective of this study was to present the current population status of the Pallid Sturgeon in …

The Status Of Fishes In The Missouri River, Nebraska: Shovelnose Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus Platorynchus), Kirk D. Steffensen, Sam Stukel, Dane A. Shuman

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Shovelnose Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus remains the most abundant riverine sturgeon species in North American despite the anthropogenic modifications that have occurred throughout their historic range; however, their populations have declined throughout Nebraska since the construction of Fort Randall and Gavins Point Dams. Therefore, the objective of this study was to present the current status of Shovelnose Sturgeon in the Missouri River along Nebraska’s border. Data was acquired from 2003 to 2012 from all reaches of the Missouri River along Nebraska’s eastern border. Catch rates of Shovelnose Sturgeon increased in a downstream trend and were highest in the reach below …

Across-Year Social Stability Shapes Network Structure In Wintering Migrant Sparrows, Daizaburo Shizuka, Alexis S. Chaine, Jennifer Anderson, Oscar Johnson, Inger Marie Laursen, Bruce E. Lyon

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Migratory birds often form flocks on their wintering grounds, but important details of social structure such as the patterns of association between individuals are virtually unknown. We analysed networks of co-membership in short-term flocks for wintering golden-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) across three years and discovered social complexity unsuspected for migratory songbirds. The population was consistently clustered into distinct social communities within a relatively small area (~ 7 ha). Birds returned to the same community across years, with mortality and recruitment leading to some degree of turnover in membership. These spatiotemporal patterns were explained by the combination of space …

Early Song Discrimination By Nestling Sparrows In The Wild, Daizaburo Shizuka

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Songs play an important role in premating isolation in birds. However, when songs are learned, expe- rience with both conspecific and heterospecific songs in early life could lead to the development of both mixed songs and mixed preferences. One way that such learning errors can be prevented is if birds can discriminate between songs of different species prior to learning and preferentially memorize conspe- cific songs. Prior captive studies have shown that white-crowned sparrows, Zonotrichia leucophrys, are able to discriminate songs early in the process of song memorization, after about 10 days since hatching. I studied early song discrimination in …

Obligate Male Death And Sexual Cannibalism In Dark Fishing Spiders, Steven Schwartz, William E. Wagner, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Male dark fishing spiders (Dolomedes tenebrosus Araneae, Pisauridae) always die during their first and only copulation, making all males monogynous. Such obligate male death can be adaptive if it facilitates sexual cannibalism, and if sexual cannibalism results in male reproductive benefits, such as an advantage in sperm competition through reduced female remating. We first conducted an experiment to determine the extent to which D. tenebrosus (1) males are cannibalized by females and (2) females engage in remating, both of which are prerequisites for several adaptive hypotheses of male self-sacrifice. We then conducted an experiment to test the hypothesis that …

A Male Spider’S Ornamentation Polymorphism Maintained By Opposing Selection With Two Niches, Bo Deng, Alex Estes, Brett Grieb, Douglas Richard, Brittney Hinds, Eileen Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

The Levene mechanism to maintain genotypic polymorphism by opposing selection on genotypes in multiple niches was proposed 60 years ago, and yet no systems were found to satisfy the mechanisms rather restrictive conditions. Reported here is such an example that a wolf spider population lives in a habitat of mixed rocks and leafy litter for which the females are phenotypically indistinguishable and the males have two distinct phenotypes subject to opposing selection with respect to the substrates. Census data is best-fitted to a population genetics model of the Levene type. A majority of the best fit support polymorphism, with many …

Tactical Adjustment Of Signaling Leads To Increased Mating Success And Survival, Laura Sullivan-Beckers, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Most sexually reproducing animals overcome the challenge of searching for and attracting mates by utilizing signals that are broadcast through a spatially and temporally varying environment. A diverse suite of behavioral solutions exist for overcoming such environmental variability, including the adjustment of signaling behavior based upon receiver feedback. Few studies have directly examined the relationship between such tactical signaling adjustments and proxies of male fitness; the few that have, failed to find a relationship. Using the wolf spider, Schizocosa rovneri, we set out to first quantify among-male variation in the form and degree of responsiveness to female feedback. Following …

Evolutionary Pressures On Primate Intertemporal Choice, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

From finding food to choosing mates, animals must make intertemporal choices that involve fitness benefits available at different times. Species vary dramatically in their willingness to wait for delayed rewards. Why does this variation across species exist? An adaptive approach to intertemporal choice suggests that time preferences should reflect the temporal problems faced in a species' environment. Here, I use phylogenetic regression to test whether allometric factors (relating to body size), relative brain size, and social group size predict how long 13 primate species will wait in laboratory intertemporal choice tasks. Controlling for phylogeny, a composite allometric factor that includes …

Plasticity In Female Mate Choosiness: A Result Of Variation In Perceived Predation Risk And The Interaction Of Female Age And Male Density, Ashley Atwell

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

In many species, female mate choices can be a strong source of sexual selection. Females often prefer a certain male phenotype, and this can be due to benefits females gain from mating with preferred males. However, such benefits can sometimes be outweighed by the cost of searching for a preferred male. These costs and benefits often change concomitantly with changes in environmental (e.g., predator abundance and conspecific density) and internal factors (e.g., female age). Thus, female mate choosiness (the degree to which preferences for certain males are expressed) should often be plastic. Plasticity in female mate choosiness may be complicated …

Visual Search And Attention In Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata): Associative Cuing And Sequential Priming, Kazuhiro Goto, Alan B. Bond, Marianna Burks, Alan C. Kamil

Alan Bond Publications

Visual search for complex natural targets requires focal attention, either cued by predictive stimulus associations or primed by a representation of the most recently detected target. Because both processes can focus visual attention, cuing and priming were compared in an operant search task to evaluate their relative impacts on performance and to determine the nature of their interaction in combined treatments. Blue jays were trained to search for pairs of alternative targets among distractors. Informative or ambiguous color cues were provided before each trial, and targets were presented either in homogeneous blocked sequences or in constrained random order. Initial task …

Costs Of Female Mating Behavior In The Variable Field Cricket, Gryllus Lineaticeps, Cassandra M. Martin

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

Female animals may risk predation by associating with males that have conspicuous mate attraction traits. The mate attraction song of male field crickets also attracts lethal parasitoid flies. Female crickets, which do not sing, may risk parasitism when associating with singing males. If parasitism risk is sufficiently high, it may affect the evolution of female mating behaviors. In this dissertation, I explore the interaction between the female variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, and the parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea. To begin, I investigated whether female parasitism risk resulted from being near singing males. I found that females can become …

The Dynamics Of Animal Social Networks: Analytical, Conceptual, And Theoretical Advances, Noa Pinter-Wollman, Elizabeth A. Hobson, Jennifer E. Smith, Andrew Edelman, Daizaburo Shizuka, Shermin De Silva, James Waters, Steven D. Prager, Takao Sasaki, George Wittemyer, Jennifer Fewell, David B. Mcdonald

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Social network analysis provides a broad and complex perspective on animal sociality that is widely applicable to almost any species. Recent applications demonstrate the utility of network analysis for advancing our understanding of the dynamics, selection pressures, development, and evolution of complex social systems. However, most studies of animal social networks rely primarily on a descriptive approach. To propel the field of animal social networks beyond exploratory analyses and to facilitate the integration of quantitative methods that allow for the testing of ecologically and evolutionarily relevant hypotheses, we review methodological and conceptual advances in network science, which are underutilized in …

Direct And Relational Representation During Transitive List Linking In Pinyon Jays (Gymnorhinus Cyanocephalus), Cynthia Wei, Alan Kamil, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The authors used the list-linking procedure (Treichler & Van Tilburg, 1996) to explore the processes by which animals assemble cognitive structures from fragmentary and often contradictory data. Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) were trained to a high level of accuracy on two implicit transitive lists. They were then given linkage training on the single pair that linked the two lists into a composite, 10-item hierarchy. Following linkage training, the birds were tested on nonadjacent probe pairs drawn both from within (B-D and 2–4) and between (D-1, E-2, B-2, C-3) each original list. Linkage training resulted in a significant transitory disruption in …

Abstracts From Proceedings Of The Twelfth North American Crane Workshop, 13-16 March 2011, Grand Island, Nebraska, Usa. (2014)

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

ASSESSMENT OF THE EASTERN POPULATION GREATER SANDHILL CRANE FALL SURVEY, 1979-2009 Courtney Amundson, Douglas Johnson, Sean Kelly, and Tom Cooper 80

FACTORS INFLUENCING GREATER SANDHILL CRANE NEST SUCCESS IN NEVADA .Chad August, James Sedinger, and Chris Nicolai 80

INFLUENCE OF FOOD AND PREDATOR ABUNDANCE ON STRESS LEVELS OF SANDHILL CRANES WINTERING IN NORTHERN MEXICO Ingrid Barcelo and Felipe Chavez-Ramirez 81

A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION FOR CROP DAMAGE BY CRANES AND OTHER BIRD SPECIES TO PLANTED SEED Jeb Barzen and Anne Lacy 81

MODELLING THE EFFECT OF LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON SANDHILL CRANE DISTRIBUTION IN THE CENTRAL PLATTE RIVER VALLEY OF …

The History And Reintroduction Of Whooping Cranes At White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area, Louisiana, Gay M. Gomez

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

On 16 February 2011, whooping cranes (Grus americana) were reintroduced in the wetlands of southwest Louisiana, after an absence of 61 years. This brief communication provides background on the historical presence of whooping cranes in this region, describes the long road to reintroduction, presents observations from the reintroduction’s first day, and offers thoughts on its future prospects.

On 15 May 1939, biologist John J. Lynch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed 13 whooping cranes in the remote freshwater marsh north of White Lake in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. He not only confirmed what local residents and trappers had long …

Proceedings Of The Twelfth North American Crane Workshop, David A. Aborn, Richard Urbanek

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

CONTENTS

PREFACE iii

RESEARCH PAPERS

DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE, AND MIGRATION TIMING OF GREATER AND LESSER SANDHILL CRANES WINTERING IN THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN RIVER DELTA REGION OF CALIFORNIA - . Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, and Joseph P. Fleskes 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF SANDHILL CRANE ROOSTS IN THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA OF CALIFORNIA - . Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, and Joseph P. Fleskes 12

EFFECTS OF WIND FARMS ON SANDHILL CRANE PLAYA OCCUPANCY ON THE TEXAS HIGH PLAINS - Laura Navarrete and Kerry L. Griffis-Kyle 20

EVALUATION OF …

Nocturnal Homing In The Tropical Amblypygid Phrynus Pseudoparvulus (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi), Eileen Hebets, E.J. Gering, Verner P. Bingman, Daniel D. Wiegmann

Eileen Hebets Publications

Arthropods are renowned for their navigational capabilities, with numerous examples known from insects and crustaceans. Early studies of amblypygids (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi) also suggest complex nocturnal navigation, despite their apparent lack of visual adaptations to the low-light conditions of a tropical understory. In a series of two studies, we use the tropical amblypygid, Phrynus pseudoparvulus, to assess their nocturnal homing ability. Our first experiment displaced and tracked resident and nonresident individuals. Resident individuals, displaced up to 4.5 m from their home refuges and released onto their home tree, were more likely to return to their previously occupied refuge than …

Detection Of Predator Cues Alters Mating Tactics In Male Wolf Spiders, Dustin J. Wilgers, Daniel Wickwire, Eileen Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Males of the wolf spider, Rabidosa punctulata, exhibit condition-dependent alternative mating tactics, whereby small, poor condition males engage in multimodal courtship while large, good condition males adopt a direct mount tactic that forgoes courtship. This study explores the possibility that tactic-specific costs can help explain this unintuitive pattern of mating tactic expression. Specifically, we hypothesize that courtship signaling is costly with respect to eavesdropping by predators and that males can alter their tactic expression based upon the perceived environmental predation risk. We test this by first examining the risk of predation associated with different mating tactics. We use a …

Successes And Challenges From Formation To Implementation Of Eleven Broad-Extent Conservation Programs, Erik A. Beever, Brady J. Mattsson, Matthew J. Germino, Max Post Van Der Burg, John B. Bradford, Mark W. Brunson

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Integration of conservation partnerships across geographic, biological, and administrative boundaries is increasingly relevant because drivers of change, such as climate shifts, transcend these boundaries. We explored successes and challenges of established conservation programs that span multiple watersheds and consider both social and ecological concerns. We asked representatives from a diverse set of 11 broadextent conservation partnerships in 29 countries 17 questions that pertained to launching and maintaining partnerships for broad-extent conservation, specifying ultimate management objectives, and implementation and learning. Partnerships invested more funds in implementing conservation actions than any other aspect of conservation, and a program’s context (geographic extent, United …

A Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Delivers Live Prey To A Pup, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

A two-year-old sibling Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) carefully captured an Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus) leveret alive on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, and delivered it alive to a pup 28–33 days old. This appears to be the first observation of a Gray Wolf delivering live prey to a pup.