Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Stress And Predation Impacts On North American Quail Translocations, Curt A. Vandenberg, Sarah A. Currier, Jeffrey G. Whitt, Kelly S. Reyna

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Translocations have been used in attempts to bolster or restore native quail populations for >150 years, often with little success. However, with some northeastern United States quail populations undetectable or extirpated, and others across the United States on the extreme decline, translocation as a tool for quail population restoration is becoming increasingly popular. Two factors contributing to translocation failure are physiological stress and predation. Chronic stress associated with translocations can result in weight loss, reduced immune system function, suppressed reproduction, and an altered fight-or-flight response. These stress-induced responses increase vulnerability to predation, the primary cause of quail mortality. Here, we …

Diurnal Occurrence Of Great-Horned Owls On Northern Bobwhite Hunting Properties In Southwest Georgia, Justin A. Rectenwald, Philip M. Coppola, Theron M. Terhune Ii, D. Clay Sisson, James A. Martin

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Understanding interactions between prey species and their predators is essential to discerning the ecology and management fundamentals of a species. Great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus) have long been considered an opportunistic predator of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) and recent studies have demonstrated that bobwhite survival is reduced at higher great-horned owl densities (Rectenwald et al. 2021). Managers on quail properties often mechanically remove live oak (Quercus virginiana) hammocks as part of larger predation management plans to reduce the amount of suitable predator habitat. While scattered live oaks are typically left for aesthetic purposes, …

Free-Ranging And Feral Cats, Alex Dutcher, Kyle Pias, Grant Sizemore, Stephen M. Vantassel

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

Domestic cats (Felis catus) are a common household pet in the United States, with an estimated 25.4% of households owning cats (American Veterinary Medical Association 2018). While an increasing number of cat owners keep their pet cats exclusively indoors, a portion of society maintains that domestic cats are entitled to a free-ranging lifestyle and may even consider unowned domestic cats to be wildlife. Although wildlife managers recognize the beliefs of many concerned stakeholders, including advocates who use strong emotional appeals on behalf of cats, it remains that free-ranging and feral domestic cats are an invasive species spread by humans (Lowe …

Density Dependent Growth Of Pseudomonas Fluorescens In The Presence And Absence Of C. Elegans Predation In Liquid Media, Jack Landmann

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand the predator-prey relationship between C. elegans worms and P. fluorescens bacteria in liquid media. We were aiming to create a predation model of the relationship between these two species.

This study was performed through three experiments. Using 96-well plates, we were able to measure the change in optical density (OD) of these wells and calculate the growth rate. This growth rate was then graphed and analyzed. The first experiment contained P. fluorescens and KB liquid media, this study demonstrated that the bacterial population has a carrying capacity. We were also able to …

Common Ravens Disrupt Greater Sage-Grouse Lekking Behavior In The Great Basin, Usa, Joseph L. Atkinson, Peter S. Coates, Brianne E. Brussee, Ian A. Dwight, Mark A. Ricca, Pat J. Jackson

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Expansion of human enterprise has contributed to increased abundance and distribution of common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) across sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems within western North America. Ravens are highly effective nest predators of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse), a species of high conservation concern. Sage-grouse population trends are estimated using count survey data of males attending traditional breeding grounds, known as leks. We sought to investigate associations of ravens to sage-grouse lek sites and document interactions between the sage-grouse and ravens as well as those between sage-grouse and other animals observed around leks. First, we …

Coyotes, Rick Tischaefer

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

The coyote (Canis latrans; Figure 1) is a medium-sized member of the canid family. Once primarily found in western deserts and grasslands, coyotes have expanded their range across North America and into diverse habitats, including urban areas. This expansion occurred during a time of extensive habitat change and efforts by people to suppress coyote populations to prevent damage. Coyotes can cause a variety of conflicts related to agriculture, natural resources, property, and human health and safety. This document highlights a variety of methods for reducing those conflicts. Coyotes are a highly adaptable species and may become habituated to some management …

Temporal Factors Affecting Foraging Patterns Of A Diurnal Orb-Weaving Spider, Micrathena Gracilis (Araneae: Araneidae), Mitchell Davis Long

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Several studies have investigated the ecological factors that affect behavior in Micrathena gracilis, a diurnal orb-weaving spider that forages on flying insects during the day. However, none yet have considered how the temporal distributions of prey and predator occurrences shape their daily behavioral rhythms, especially web construction, which involves a heavy energetic investment well in advance of potential nutritional benefit. Recently, several orb-weaving spider species have been shown to exhibit a variety of abnormal rhythms, suggesting that circadian clock-controlled rhythms may play an unexpected role in behavioral evolution. Despite the appearance of significant insect abundance in the evenings, M. gracilis …

Common Ravens, Luke W. Peebles, Jack O. Spencer Jr.

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

Damage Management Methods for Common Ravens

Type of Control -- Available Management Options

Exclusion -- Often ineffective or impractical

Fertility Control -- None available

Frightening Devices -- Effigies • Pyrotechnics and propane cannons • Lasers and flashing lights

Habitat Modification -- Bale and bury garbage • Install dumpsters with secure lids • Remove or bury dead livestock • Remove abandoned houses, sheds, and barns to eliminate nesting structures

Nest Treatment -- Allowed with proper Federal and State permits; Egg oiling or addling and nest destruction

Repellents -- Methiocarb (EPA Reg. No. 56228-33) • Methyl anthranilate (food-grade grape flavoring agent)

Shooting …

Predator-Based Selection And The Impact Of Edge Sympatry On Components Of Coralsnake Mimicry, Lauren E. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studying warning coloration and mimicry is an effective way to understand predator-driven selection and phenotypic diversity. The presence (sympatry) or absence (allopatry) of a toxic model plays a role in shaping mimetic phenotypes. However, the impact of edge sympatry and allopatry on predation of mimetic phenotypes is not well understood. We studied coralsnake mimicry to test how edge sympatry and allopatry affect predation on mimetic phenotypes. Specifically, we tested 1) if overall attack rates varied with edge sympatry of coralsnakes 2) which color patterns conferred a fitness advantage 3) which specific mimetic signal components are important in driving predatory attacks …

Stable Isotopic Niche Predicts Fitness Of Prey In A Wolf–Deer System, C. T. Darimont, P. C. Paquet, T. E. Reimchen

Chris Darimont, Ph.D.

Interindividual variation in niche presents a potentially central object on which natural selection can act. This may have important evolutionary implications because habitat use governs a suite of selective forces encountered by foragers. In a free‐living native black‐tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus, population from coastal British Columbia, we used stable isotope analysis to identify individual variation in foraging niche and investigated its relationship to fitness. Using an intragenerational comparison of surviving and nonsurviving O. hemionus over 2 years of predation by wolves, Canis lupus, we detected resource‐specific fitness. Individuals with isotopic signatures that suggested they foraged primarily in cedar ( …

Eternal Enemies, Or Incidental Encounters? Structure And Patterns Of Interspecific Killing In Carnivora, Tor G. Bertin

Theses and Dissertations

Lethal interactions between carnivorans (interspecific killing) may influence their population dynamics, behavior, and other important aspects of their ecology. In this study, I expand upon previous research on the broad-scale patterns of interspecific killing in Carnivora (Palomares & Caro 1999, Donadio & Buskirk 2006) with a greatly expanded dataset (inclusion of scat and stomach data and more intensive sampling of the literature), and suggest avenues for future research. While like previous studies, I found a positive effect of relative body size between killer species and killed species on the likelihood of forming a killing interaction, I failed to find evidence …

Competition And Predation: Interactions Between American Eels (Anguilla Rostrata) And Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) In Virginia Mountain Streams, Jonathan Studio

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Competition has played a large role in structuring natural communities, especially with regards to vulnerable organisms. Brook trout and American eel populations have declined in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States as a result of anthropogenic development around freshwater ecosystems, and thus, subsequent conservation efforts of both species have included habitat restoration. Conservation efforts have increased the co-occurrence of these predatory fish species that are known to require similar resources. The main objective of this research was to elucidate the potential for competition between brook trout and American eels through analysis of their preferred prey, diet overlap, and supplementary …

Predator Presence And Size Variation Alters Community Structure Through Multiple Trophic Cascades, Robin Baker, Howard Whiteman Ph.D.

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Predation plays a crucial role in shaping community structure and can initiate trophic cascades that can alter abundances across adjacent trophic levels. Recent research has suggested that variation among individual predators may have stronger effects on ecological dynamics than previously appreciated. Intraspecific variation within predators could lead to differential levels of top-down control with implications for trophic cascade strength. In this experiment, we manipulated the body size variation of predatory mole salamanders (Ambystoma talpoideum) within experimental mesocosms and monitored a suite of abiotic and biotic response variables. We predicted that predator populations with increased body size variation would …

Life On The Edge: Risk Of Predation Drives Selection Of Habitat And Survival Of Neonates In Endangered Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep, Shannon Forshee

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Long-term viability of endangered populations requires development of effective management strategies that target the population vital rate with the highest potential to influence population trajectories. When adult survival is high and stable, juvenile recruitment is the vital rate with the greatest potential to improve population trajectories. For my thesis I examined how lactating Sierra Nevada Bighorn sheep (Ovis Canadensis sierra) balance forage and predation risk during the neonatal period. I first identified resource selection strategies employed by lactating females to promote survival of neonates and then determined the primary factors affecting survival of neonates. I found lactating females selected for …

Humans As Prey: Coping With Large Carnivore Attacks Using A Predator-Prey Interaction Perspective, Vincenzo Penteriani, Giulia Bombieri, José María Fedriani, José Vicente López-Bao, Pedro José Garrote, Luca Francesco Russo, María Del Mar Delgado

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The number of attacks on humans by large carnivores in North America is increasing. A better understanding the factors triggering such attacks is critical to mitigating the risk of future encounters in landscape where humans and large carnivore co-exist. Since 1955, of the 632 attacks on humans by large carnivores, 106 (17%) involved predation. We draw on concepts and empirical evidence from the Predator-Prey Interaction Theory to provide insights into how to reduce predatory attacks and, thus, improve human-large carnivore co-existence. Because large carnivore-caused mortality risks for humans are comparable to those shown by other mammal species in response to …

The Role Of Habitat Management In Shaping Predation, Animal Color, And Gene Flow In A Metapopulation Of Florida Scrub Lizards (Sceloporus Woodi), Richard William Orton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic disturbance is known to affect biological diversity at the community, species, and genetic levels. Habitat fragmentation, in particular, has been shown to impact predator abundance and distribution, impede dispersal, and augment genetic drift. In small populations, which often result from habitat fragmentation, the effects of human disturbance may be disproportionately expressed. Small populations are more susceptible to selection pressures and random drift because genetic and phenotypic frequencies can become rapidly fixed, in comparison to larger populations. In turn, fixation of maladaptive alleles or morphs can accelerate extinction. For example, cryptic color polymorphism can be maintained by apostatic selection, where …

Mafia Or Farmer? Coevolutionary Consequences Of Retaliation And Farming As Predator Strategies Upon Host Nests By Avian Brood Parasites, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Many host species of avian brood parasites have evolved to recognize and reject foreign eggs and chicks in the nest. Yet, other hosts accept and care for parasitic young, despite the fitness losses associated with raising non-kin. It has been suggested that nest predation upon host nests by brood parasites could select for coevolved acceptance by hosts, even when their cognitive and motor traits allow for the successful rejection of brood parasitism. Using a modeling approach, I analyzed the conditions that favor the evolution of two predatory strategies by parasites and the acceptance of parasitism in the presence of predatory …

No Honor Among Snails: Conspecific Competition Leads To Incomplete Drill Holes In The Naticid Gastropod Neverita Delessertiana (R Cluz), Jack A. Hutchings

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The fossil record of drilling predation has been widely used to study predator-prey interactions and their relative importance on long-term evolutionary processes. Incomplete drill holes have been interpreted as indicators of failed attacks due to well-defended prey. However, this interpretation is based on pair-wise interactions between one predator and one prey, a condition commonly compromised in nature. The hypothesis that interference among drilling predators leads to an increase in the relative frequency of incomplete drill holes was tested in the laboratory using the naticid Neverita delessertiana (R cluz) and a common prey, the bivalve Chione elevata (Say). The experiment consisted …

Ramphotyphlops Braminus (Brahminy Blindsnake): Predation, Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

Ramphotyphlops braminus currently has the most widespread, near worldwide, nonindigenous distribution of any snake. In Florida, USA, R. braminus is rapidly expanding its distribution.

The stomach contents of a necropsied Dasypus novemcinctus (nine-banded armadillo) found on the premises of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in Gaisesville in March 2011 included an intact adult R. braminus. Dasypus novemcinctus is nonindigenous in Florida. It has a primarily insectivorous diet but occasionally preys upon small vertebrates, including reptiles. This is the first record of R. braminus in the diet of D. novemcinctus.

Differential Consumption Of Four Aphid Species By Four Lady Beetle Species, Christy Finlayson, Andrei Alyokhin, Serena Gross, Erin Porter

Andrei Alyokhin

The acceptability of four different aphid species Macrosiphum albifrons (Essig), Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), Macrosiphum pseudorosae Patch, and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), as prey for four lady beetle species, one native species Coccinella trifasciata L, and three non-native Coccinella septempunctata L, Harmonia axyridis Pallas, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata L (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were tested in the laboratory. The relative field abundance of adults of the same lady beetle species on host vegetation, Lupinus polyphyllus Lindley (Fabales: Fabaceae), Solanum tuberosum L (Solanales: Solanaceae), and Rosa multiflora Thunberg (Rosales: Rosaceae), both with and without aphids present was also observed. In the laboratory, H. axyridis generally …

Stable Isotopic Niche Predicts Fitness Of Prey In A Wolf–Deer System, C. T. Darimont, P. C. Paquet, T. E. Reimchen

Evolutionary Biology Collection

Interindividual variation in niche presents a potentially central object on which natural selection can act. This may have important evolutionary implications because habitat use governs a suite of selective forces encountered by foragers. In a free‐living native black‐tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus, population from coastal British Columbia, we used stable isotope analysis to identify individual variation in foraging niche and investigated its relationship to fitness. Using an intragenerational comparison of surviving and nonsurviving O. hemionus over 2 years of predation by wolves, Canis lupus, we detected resource‐specific fitness. Individuals with isotopic signatures that suggested they foraged primarily in cedar ( …