Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Longevity Of Mineral Supplements Within The Soil And Associated Use By White-Tailed Deer, Brian C. Peterson, Keith D. Koupal, Andrew K. Schissel, Cody M. Siegel

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Humans have baited wildlife such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) for generations with the primary purpose of increasing hunting harvest success. Baiting regulation changes are often considered by state management agencies as they pertain to hunting opportunity, fair chase, and disease risk. Cervids require a variety of minerals to supplement biological processes, especially sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), and phosphorus (P). We developed artificial mineral supplement sites set in front of trail cameras to monitor deer use. Pooled soil samples were collected at mineral sites and compared to the surrounding area to determine the longevity of elevated minerals levels …

Displaying To Females May Lower Male Foraging Time And Vigilance In A Lekking Bird, Sarah A. Cowles, Robert M. Gibson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Males of many species use courtship behavior to attract mates. However, by doing so males may face the associated costs of increased energetic expenditure, reduced foraging time, and elevated predation risk. We investigated the costs of display in lekking male Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). We used lek-wide scan sampling to study how males allocated time among courtship display (‘‘dancing’’), agonism, foraging, and inactivity in relation to female numbers both within and across days. We also addressed the limited attention hypothesis and estimated visual attentiveness by videotaping 13 males and scoring head turns during these different activities. We found that the …

Métodos Cuantitativos Para La Conservación De Los Vertebrados, Michael J. Conroy, John P. Carroll, Juan Carlos Senar, Jeffrey J. Thompson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Este libro es destinado para el uso por biólogos del campo y otras personas, incluso biólogos de campo en el futuro que podrían estar en un curso de la universidad y trabajando en estudios y conservación de animales. Nuestro objetivo es que los biólogos usen este libro como (haciendo apología a nuestro colega Evan Cooch) una “introducción suave” al campo de la ecología cuantitativa. Esperamos convencer a los lectores que los métodos y aproximaciones del libro no son solo para los matemáticos, estadísticos y programadores de computadoras, sino que de hecho son herramientas esenciales para practicar la conservación en el …

A Dual Function Of White Coloration In A Nocturnal Spider Dolomedes Raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae), Tai-Shen Lin, Shichang Zhang, Chen-Pan Liao, Eileen A. Hebets, I-Min Tso

Eileen Hebets Publications

Nocturnal animals frequently possess seemingly conspicuous color patterns that can function in a variety of ways (e.g. prey attraction, camouflage, predator avoidance, etc.). The use of color patterns in intraspecific signaling, especially reproductive activities, in nocturnal animals has received relatively little attention. This study tested for a dual function of color in the nocturnal fishing spider, Dolomedes raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae), whose males develop dimorphic white stripes at sexual maturation. We tested for a role in foraging as well as mate assessment. First, quantifications of the natural variation of male stripes indicated a correlation between stripe area and male body size …

Embracing Multiple Definitions Of Learning, Andrew B. Barron, Eileen A. Hebets, Thomas A. Cleland, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Eileen Hebets Publications

Definitions of learning vary widely across disciplines, driven largely by different approaches used to assess its occurrence. These definitions can be better reconciled with each other if each is recognized as coherent with a common conceptualization of learning, while appreciating the practical utility of different learning definitions in different contexts.

Learning is a major focus of research in psychology, neuro- science, behavioral ecology, evolutionary theory, and computer science, as well as in many other disciplines. Despite its conceptual prevalence, definitions of learning differ enormously both within and between these disciplines, and new definitions continue to be proposed [1]. Ongoing disputes …

Swift Fox Abundance Along The Heartland Expressway Corridor In Nebraska, Marc Albrecht

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Soil Preferences Of Nicrophorus Beetles And The Effects Of Compaction On Burying Behavior, Kelly A. Willemssens

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus Olivier was declared federally endangered in 1989 and many efforts to prevent this species from going extinct are ongoing. The Nicrophorus beetles bury small carcasses for reproductive purposes. They also reside in the soil during times of daily and seasonal inactivity. To better understand why N. americanus is in decline, the importance of soil texture, moisture, vegetation, gravel, the burial depth, and the effect of compaction on their burying behavior was examined.

All tested species preferred moist soils with N. orbicollis having a significant preference for wet (pN. marginatus had a significant preference for …

Interspecific Egg Rejection As Ecological Collateral Damage From Selection Driven By Conspecific Brood Parasitism, Bruce E. Lyon, Daizaburo Shizuka, John M. Eadie

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Distinguishing between interspecific and intraspecific coevolution as the selective driver of traits can be difficult in some taxa. A previous study of an avian obligate brood parasite, the black-headed duck, Heteronetta atricapilla, suggested that egg rejection by its two main hosts (two species of coot) is an incidental by-product of selection from conspecific brood parasitism within the hosts, not selection imposed by the interspecific parasite. However, although both species of coot can recognize and reject eggs of conspecific brood parasites, which closely resemble their own, they paradoxically also accept a moderate fraction of duck eggs (40–60%), which differ strikingly …

The Network Motif Architecture Of Dominance Hierarchies, Daizaburo Shizuka, David B. Mcdonald

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The widespread existence of dominance hierarchies has been a central puzzle in social evolution, yet we lack a framework for synthesizing the vast empirical data on hierarchy structure in animal groups. We applied network motif analysis to compare the structures of dominance networks from data published over the past 80 years. Overall patterns of dominance relations, including some aspects of non-interactions, were strikingly similar across disparate group types. For example, nearly all groups exhibited high frequencies of transitive triads, whereas cycles were very rare. Moreover, pass-along triads were rare, and double-dominant triads were common in most groups. These patterns did …

Temporal Patterns Of Nutrition Dependence In Secondary Sexual Traits And Their Varying Impacts On Male Mating Success, Malcolm F. Rosenthal, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Variation in the quantity of nutrients ingested over an individual’s lifetime is likely to differentially affect distinct male secondary sexual traits and courtship signals, potentially providing females with information about a male’s past and present foraging history. We hypothesize that female choice is thus influenced by a male’s lifetime foraging history. To test this, we manipulated the quantity of nutrients (i.e. prey items) available to male wolf spiders, Schizocosa stridulans, using a fully crossed 2 × 2 design with low versus high prey quantity across juvenile and adult life stages, and assessed the impact of these diet treatments on male …

Global Warming And Population Responses Among Great Plains Birds, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

Based on an analysis of 47 years (1967–2014) of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), evidence for population changes and shifts in early winter (late December) ranges of nearly 150 species of birds in the Great Plains states is summarized, a region defined as including the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas panhandle. The rationale for this study had its origins in Terry Root’s 1988 Atlas of North American Wintering Birds. Root’s landmark study provided a baseline for evaluating the nationwide winter distributions of 253 North American birds in the mid-20th century, using data from the National Audubon Society’s …

Octopamine Levels Relate To Male Mating Tactic Expression In The Wolf Spider Rabidosa Punctulata, Eileen A. Hebets, Matthew Hansen, Thomas C. Jones, Dustin J. Wilgers

Eileen Hebets Publications

In the wolf spider Rabidosa punctulata, upon encountering a female, males use one of two distinct strategies: (1) they court the female in an attempt to elicit a mating, or (2) they engage in a direct-mount tactic that involves extensive grappling with the female until a mating is achieved. The latter tactic appears more sexually aggressive, and both tactics come with the risk of being cannibalized. We explored the physiological mechanisms underlying this behavioral variation by assessing the relationship between circulating levels of the biogenic amine octopamine (OA), a neuromodulator suggested to play a role in “fight or flight” responses …

Yellowstone Wolf (Canis Lupus) Density Predicted By Elk (Cervus Elaphus) Biomass, L. David Mech, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The Northern Range (NR) of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hosts a higher prey biomass density in the form of elk (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) than any other system of gray wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) and prey reported. Therefore, it is important to determine whether that wolf–prey system fits a long-standing model relating wolf density to prey biomass. Using data from 2005 to 2012 after elk population fluctuations dampened 10 years subsequent to wolf reintroduction, we found that NR prey biomass predicted wolf density. This finding and the trajectory of the regression extend the validity of the model …

Evaluation Of A Formula That Categorizes Female Gray Wolf Breeding Status By Nipple Size, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The proportion by age class of wild Canis lupus (Gray Wolf) females that reproduce in any given year remains unclear; thus, we evaluated the applicability to our long-term (1972–2013) data set of the Mech et al. (1993) formula that categorizes female Gray Wolf breeding status by nipple size and time of year. We used the formula to classify Gray Wolves from 68 capture events into 4 categories (yearling, adult non-breeder, former breeder, current breeder). To address issues with small sample size and variance, we created an ambiguity index to allow some Gray Wolves to be classed into 2 categories. We …

The Complexities Of Female Mate Choice And Male Polymorphisms: Elucidating The Role Of Genetics, Age, And Mate-Choice Copying, Kasey D. Fowler-Finn, Laura Sullivan-Beckers, Amy M. Runck, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Genetic, life history, and environmental factors dictate patterns of variation in sexual traits within and across populations, and thus the action and outcome of sexual selection. This study explores patterns of inheritance, diet, age, and mate-choice copying on the expression of male sexual signals and associated female mate choice in a phenotypically diverse group of Schizocosa wolf spiders. Focal spiders exhibit one of two male phenotypes: ‘ornamented’ males possess large black brushes on their forelegs, and ‘non-ornamented’ males possess no brushes. Using a quantitative genetics breeding design in a mixed population of ornamented/non-ornamented males, we found a strong genetic basis …

Functional Approach To Condition, Dustin J. Wilgers, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Animal signaling is commonly thought to be costly. Signaling costs can arise via a variety of avenues, including energy expenditure, predator attraction, and so on (reviews in Zuk and Kolluru, 1998; Kotiaho, 2001), and are predicted to increase with signal expression (e.g., size, amplitude, and intensity; Johnstone, 1997). Due to these costs, signaler condition, which is hypothesized to be a reflection of a signaler’s genetic quality, is expected to influence the level of signal expression one can afford (Zahavi, 1975), resulting in a positive correlation between signaler condition and signal expression – that is, condition-dependent signaling (Zahavi, 1977; West-Eberhard, 1979; …

Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Dyad Monthly Association Rates By Demographic Group, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Preliminary data from GPS-collared wolves (Canis lupus) in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota indicated wolves had low association rates with packmates during summer. However, aerial-telemetry locations of very high frequency (VHF)-radioed wolves in this same area showed high associations among packmates during winter. We analyzed aerial-telemetry-location data from VHF-collared wolves in several packs (n=18 dyads) in this same area from 1994-2012 by month, and found lowest association rates occurred during June. While other studies have found low association among wolf packmates during summer, information on differences in association patterns depending on the wolf associates’ demographics is …

White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Fawn Risk From Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Predation During Summer, L. David Mech, Aaron Morris, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Little is known about how often various prey animals are at risk of predation by Gray Wolves (Canis lupus). We used a system to monitor the presence during the day of two radio-collared Gray Wolves within 2 km of a radio-collared White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with a fawn or fawns in August 2013 in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota. We concluded that the fawn or fawns were at risk of predation by at least one wolf at least daily.

Multimodal Signalling In The North American Barn Swallow: A Phenotype Network Approach, Daizaburo Shizuka, Matthew R. Wilkins, Maxwell Joseph, Joanna K. Hubbard, Rebecca Safran

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Complex signals, involving multiple components within and across modal- ities, are common in animal communication. However, decomposing complex signals into traits and their interactions remains a fundamental challenge for studies of phenotype evolution. We apply a novel phenotype network approach for studying complex signal evolution in the North American barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster). We integrate model testing with correlation-based phenotype networks to infer the contributions of female mate choice and male–male competition to the evolution of barn swallow communication. Overall, the best predictors of mate choice were distinct from those for competition, while moderate functional overlap suggests …

Females Sample More Males At High Nesting Densities, But Ultimately Obtain Less Attractive Mates, Robin M. Tinghitella, Chelsea Stehle, Janette W. Boughman

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Sexual selection is largely driven by the availability of mates. Theory predicts that male competition and female choice should be density-dependent, with males competing more intensely at relatively high density, and females becoming increasingly discriminating when there are more males from whom to choose. Evidence for flexible mating decisions is growing, but we do not understand how environmental variation is incorporated into mate sampling strategies. We mimicked threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) breeding conditions in pools with high and low densities of nesting males and allowed females to search for mates to determine whether 1) mate search strategies change with …

The Problem Of Low Agreement Among Automated Identification Programs For Acoustical Surveys Of Bats, Cliff Lemen, Patricia W. Freeman, Jeremy A. White, Brett R. Andersen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We compared four programs designed to identify species of bats from their echolocation calls (Bat Call ID, EchoClass, Kaleidoscope Pro, and SonoBat) using field data collected in Nebraska, USA (29,782 files). Although we did not know the true identity of these bats, we could still compare the pairwise agreement between software packages when identifying the same call sequences. If accuracy is high in these software packages, there should be high agreement in identification. Agreement in identification by species averaged approximately 40% and varied by software package, species, and data set. Our results are not consistent with the high accuracy often …