Animal Sciences Commons^™

Does Experience With Sagebrush In Utero And Early In Life Influence Use Of Sagebrush By Sheep?, Juan J. Villalba, Fred Provenza, Ashley Longmore

Poisonous Plant Research (PPR)

Learning from mother begins early in the developmental process and can have lifelong effects when it comes to foraging behavior. Pregnancy is not just an incubation period but a starting point for animal well-being and disease later in life. A better understanding of the effects that early exposure to unpalatable feeds impinges on their use later in life may help create management plans that utilize grazing animals to their full potential as landscape manipulators.

Thus, the objective of this research was to explore how experience in utero and early in life with sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata spp. tridentata) -a …

Strike Hazard Posed By Columbids To Military Aircraft, Melanie R. Colón, Ashley M. Long

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Wildlife-aircraft strikes threaten both human and animal safety and result in hundreds of millions of dollars per year in aircraft damage and lost flight hours. Large-bodied birds are especially hazardous to aircraft. However, given high-speed flight at low altitudes, military aircraft may be especially vulnerable to strikes and more susceptible to damage even when encountering small birds. We summarized all wildlife-aircraft strike records from Randolph Air Force Base (San Antonio, Texas) over a 25-year period and compared the number and cost of strikes across avian species and species groups. Because columbids (i.e., pigeons and doves) are among the most frequently …

Ecological Uncertainty Influences Vigilance As A Marker Of Fear, Laurence E. A. Feyten, Grant E. Brown

Animal Sentience

We expand on the factors that may shape the predictability of risk and the potential impacts on the links between vigilance and fear, primarily in aquatic prey communities. Uncertainty in predation risks has been shown to induce increased levels of neophobia among prey. As a result of this phenotypically plastic response, prey are faced with risk assessment cues that may vary widely in their reliability. We argue that decomposing predictability may provide useful insights into the relationship between vigilance and fear.

Competing Activities As Measures Of Fear And Vigilance, Ferenc Mónus

Animal Sentience

In animal behavioural research on vigilance, visual signs of alertness are usually used to estimate perceived risk (an internal “fear” state) of free-ranging animals. Different measures of vigilance and competing activities (e.g., predator vigilance, conspecific vigilance, feeding, food handling) provide clues for better understanding vigilance behaviour. How efficiently does an animal in a vigilant/non-vigilant posture devote attention to threats or invest in other activities, such as searching for or handling food? Several species regularly withdraw to a sheltered spot when feeding in an abundant food patch, spending short periods in complete safety. Frequencies of feeding interruptions or false-alarm flights provide …

Consequences Of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception To Feral Horses, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraception was developed to provide a more humane, effective, and inexpensive method of population regulation for wildlife species. It has been used to regulate populations of several species including white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), elk (Cervus elaphus ), black bear (Ursus americanus ), and the feral horse (Equus ferus caballus) with varying levels of success. Early studies on Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, USA, suggested PZP was as an ideal form of fertility control because it reduced the likelihood of conception to

Canid Vs. Canid: Insights Into Coyote-Dog Encounters From Social Media, Erin E. Boydston, Eric S. Abelson, Ari Kazanjian, Daniel T. Blumstein

Human–Wildlife Interactions

While the relationship between coyotes (Canis latrans) and house cats (Felis catus) may be characterized as one between predators and their prey, coyote interactions with domestic dogs (C. lupus familiaris) appear to be more varied and may include behaviors associated with canid sociality. While encounters between coyotes and dogs are difficult to observe, we capitalized on publically available video recordings of coyote-dog encounters to observe canid behaviors and examined 35 video clips downloaded from YouTube during fall 2014. We identified coyote-dog interactions that were playful, agonistic, or predatory; those that we could not clearly …

Post-Release Activity And Habitat Selection Of Rehabilitated Black Bears, Patrick J. Myers, Julie K. Young

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Despite the long history of wildlife rehabilitation and the abundance of empirical knowledge of the behavior and resource selection of wildlife species, rarely does research bridge these disciplines. Such investigations could be of value to wildlife managers and rehabilitators by revealing the suitability of the habitat at selected release sites, the wild activities, behavior, and fitness of the captive-reared individuals, and ultimately the efficacy of the rehabilitation process. Rehabilitated carnivores warrant specific attention, given that they are wide-ranging and may behave in ways that threaten human safety or interests. We investigated the behavior of orphan, rehabilitated black bear cubs ( …

Description Of A New Sound Produced By Nassau Grouper At Spawning Aggregation Sites, Timothy J. Rowell, Michelle T. Schärer, Richard S. Appeldoorn

Gulf and Caribbean Research

This study identified a new sound produced by Nassau Grouper in association with, although potentially not exclusive to, an agonistic interaction at a spawning aggregation. We have also provided a behavioral and acoustic description for identification of this sound in future studies. The discovery of a third type of sound produced by Nassau Grouper further highlights the importance of acoustic communication coupled with visual displays in fishes. Furthermore, identification of a new sound increases the ability to document the presence of this endangered species at spawning sites. Future efforts may reveal that the sound is produced within additional behavioral contexts …

Resource Selection Of Free-Ranging Horses Influenced By Fire In Northern Canada, Sonja E. R. Leverkus, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Marten Geertsema, Brady W. Allred, Mark Gregory, Alexandre R. Bevington, David M. Engle, J. Derek Scasta

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Free-ranging or feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) were important to the livelihood of First Nations and indigenous communities in Canada. The early inhabitants of the boreal region of British Columbia (BC) capitalized on naturally occurring wildfires and anthropogenic burning to provide forage for free-ranging horses and manage habitat for wildlife. This form of pyric herbivory, or grazing driven by fi re via the attraction to the palatable vegetation in recently burned areas, is an evolutionary disturbance process that occurs globally. However, its application to manage forage availability for free-ranging horses has not been studied in northern Canada. Across Canada, there …