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2018

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Articles 2341 - 2370 of 2551

Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences

Consequences Of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception To Feral Horses, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez Jan 2018

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

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The Three Creeks Allotment Consolidation: Changing Western Federal Grazing Paradigms, Taylor Payne Jan 2018

The Three Creeks Allotment Consolidation: Changing Western Federal Grazing Paradigms, Taylor Payne

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The federal government owns approximately 47% of all land in the western United States. In the state of Utah, about 64% of the land base is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The government has historically issued permits to owners of private lands to allow the owners to graze their livestock on public lands. The permits (allotments) are generally of 10-year duration and allow for an annual season of use. In some cases, continued and repeated historical annual grazing practices may not be ideal for permit holders and their communities nor …

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Sentience, The Final Frontier...., Shelley Adamo Jan 2018

Sentience, The Final Frontier...., Shelley Adamo

Animal Sentience

Arguments for fish sentience have difficulty with the philosophical zombie problem. Progress in AI has shown that complex learning, pain behavior, and pain as a motivational drive can be emulated by robots without any internal subjective experience. Therefore, demonstrating these abilities in fish does not necessarily demonstrate that fish are sentient. Further evidence for fish sentience may come from optogenetic studies of neural networks in zebrafish. Such studies may show that zebrafish have neural network patterns similar to those that correlate with sentience in humans. Given the present uncertainty regarding sentience in fish, caution should be applied regarding the precautionary …

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Sentience: All Or None Or Matter Of Degree?, Loren Martin, Robert Gerlai Jan 2018

Sentience: All Or None Or Matter Of Degree?, Loren Martin, Robert Gerlai

Animal Sentience

The question of whether fish feel pain is muddied by anthropomorphic thinking. Comparing biological phenomena in two species should be informed by the criteria for good animal models: face validity, construct validity and predictive validity. Viewed through this lens, we argue that fish do feel pain and may possess some level of sentience. Evolutionary relatedness, hence similarities and differences between species (fish and humans in this case), are not about black vs. white but about shades of grey.

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Fish Sentience, Consciousness, And Ai, Ila France Porcher Jan 2018

Fish Sentience, Consciousness, And Ai, Ila France Porcher

Animal Sentience

The systematic criticism of articles providing evidence that fish and invertebrates can feel pain is discussed. Beliefs are known to be stronger than evidence in the human mind, and could generate this outcry, while from another perspective, the criticisms appear as a territorial move by fishermen against a perceived threat to their domain. The scientific inconsistency in which consciousness is granted to machines but not to fish and invertebrates, purely due to political bias, is pointed out. No basis exists for denying sentience to any life form as long as science is ignorant of the nature and source of consciousness.

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The Human Nervous System Is Not The Gold Standard For Pain, Riccardo Manzotti Jan 2018

The Human Nervous System Is Not The Gold Standard For Pain, Riccardo Manzotti

Animal Sentience

The basis of pain could be the causal nexus between one’s phylogenetic/ontogenetic history and one’s behavior. It might turn out that the neural implementation is immaterial to the instantiation of pain. Widely different neural structures may token the same pain-type, and nearly identical neural structures may token different types.

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Time To (Finally) Acknowledge That Fish Have Emotionality And Pain, Konstantin A. Demin, Anton M. Lakstygal, Allan V. Kalueff Jan 2018

Time To (Finally) Acknowledge That Fish Have Emotionality And Pain, Konstantin A. Demin, Anton M. Lakstygal, Allan V. Kalueff

Animal Sentience

The increasing work using fish as a model organism calls for a better understanding of their sentience. While growing evidence suggests that pain and emotionality exist in zebrafish, many deniers continue to ignore the evidence. Here we revisit the main conceptual breakthroughs in the field that argue clearly for pain and emotionality. We call for an end to denial and a focus on studying the mechanisms of fish pain and emotionality, and their translational relevance to human conditions.

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Human And Nonhuman Animals: Equals In Uniqueness, Uta Maria Juergens Jan 2018

Human And Nonhuman Animals: Equals In Uniqueness, Uta Maria Juergens

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman attack the idea that humans are unique and therefore superior to nonhuman beings. They call on humankind to use their “intellect to change [their] actions.” I am in full accord with their line of thought, which differentiates uniqueness from superiority and enjoins humans to take responsible action. I suggest, however, that humans are unique with regard to cognitive fluidity. The same conclusions can be reached via another argument based on human uniqueness.

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Can They Suffer?, Todd K. Shackelford Jan 2018

Can They Suffer?, Todd K. Shackelford

Animal Sentience

We should treat sentient nonhuman animals as worthy of moral consideration, not because we share an evolutionary history with them, but because they can suffer. As Chapman & Huffman (2018) argue, humans are not uniquely disconnected from other species. We should minimize the suffering we inflict on sentient beings — whether human or nonhuman — not because they, too, are tool-makers or have sophisticated communication systems, but because they, too, can suffer, and suffering is bad.

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We Don’T Want To Know What We Know, Judith Benz-Schwarzburg Jan 2018

We Don’T Want To Know What We Know, Judith Benz-Schwarzburg

Animal Sentience

Why are humans so ignorant with regard to the fundamental gap between ethical claims and the status quo of the human-animal relationship? To answer this, we should include more psychological and sociological perspectives in our discussions.

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Is Superiority A Necessary Aspect Of Cruelty?, William H. Edmondson Jan 2018

Is Superiority A Necessary Aspect Of Cruelty?, William H. Edmondson

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman argue that humans inflict cruelty without apparent concern because of their categorization of the victims as inferior. The supposed inferiority of non-human animals can be argued against on the basis of documentation and analysis of behaviour. Humans continue to inflict cruelty on their own and other species. It is not obvious that a sense of superiority is a necessary aspect of cruel behaviour. Nor is it obvious that further enlightenment regarding the cognitive status of non-humans will diminish cruelty.

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Spatial Patterns Of Winter Roadside Gray Wolf Sightability In Yellowstone National Park, Jeremy Sunderraj Jan 2018

Spatial Patterns Of Winter Roadside Gray Wolf Sightability In Yellowstone National Park, Jeremy Sunderraj

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Imperfect detection is ubiquitous among wildlife research and can affect research conclusions and management. Detection probability is often included in observation-based models. We leveraged research of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in northern Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to evaluate how the probability of sighting radio collared wolf packs from ground-based observation locations was affected by the characteristics of each spatial location (i.e., distance from the road, visibility (from a viewshed analysis), habitat openness, carcass presence, and wolf group size). We used two complementary approaches focusing on sightings during early (mid-November to mid-December) and late (March) winter periods between 1995 and 2017. …

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A Comprehensive Phylogenetic Analysis Of Grapsoidea Crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) Based On Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 1 (Co1) Genes, Zhaozhe Xin, Yu Liu, Boping Tang, Chunlin Zhou, Qiuning Liu Jan 2018

A Comprehensive Phylogenetic Analysis Of Grapsoidea Crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) Based On Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 1 (Co1) Genes, Zhaozhe Xin, Yu Liu, Boping Tang, Chunlin Zhou, Qiuning Liu

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO1) genes of eight species crabs of Grapsoidea were determined and analyzed in this paper. The traditional classification is that Grapsidae contains four subfamilies comprising Grapsinae, Varuninae, Sesarminae, and Plagusiinae, which are also treated as families in some studies. There is a lack of clarity in the classification of some species, such as Eriocheir species. In this study, we conducted the first exploration of evolutionary relationships among species based on analysis of the molecular data of CO1 genes of eight species (Sesarmops sinensis, Clistocoeloma sinensis, Perisesarma bidens, Helice latimera, Helice tientsinensis, …

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Spalax Denizliensis Sp. Nov. (Spalacidae, Rodentia) From An Early Pleistocene-Aged Locality In The Denizli Basin (Southwestern Turkey), Hüseyi̇n Erten Jan 2018

Spalax Denizliensis Sp. Nov. (Spalacidae, Rodentia) From An Early Pleistocene-Aged Locality In The Denizli Basin (Southwestern Turkey), Hüseyi̇n Erten

Turkish Journal of Zoology

It is thought that Spalacidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) originated in Anatolia. They are widespread among Neogene-aged faunas in Anatolia and they are used as zonal fossils because of their strong evolutionary dynamics. Only one fossil species (S. odessanus, Middle Pliocene) has been identified from the genus Spalax, which has more than 14 species presently. There are no fossil findings of this genus in Anatolia. Early Pleistocene-aged Spalax denizliensis sp. nov. from the Denizli Basin is the youngest fossil Spalax species and it will be helpful to understand the evolution of recent Spalax species.

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Changes In Body Mass Of Postweaning Juveniles Of The Edible Dormouse, Glis Glis (L.), In Captivity, Miroslaw Jurczyszyn, Anna Marchewka, Agata Czapracka, Lidia Karminska Jan 2018

Changes In Body Mass Of Postweaning Juveniles Of The Edible Dormouse, Glis Glis (L.), In Captivity, Miroslaw Jurczyszyn, Anna Marchewka, Agata Czapracka, Lidia Karminska

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Edible dormice have to accumulate an adequate amount of body fat before hibernation. Because young dormice are born late in the season, they have a relatively short time for prehibernation fattening. The aim of our study was a) to determine what body mass juveniles reach prior to hibernation, and b) to examine patterns of mass gain in juvenile dormice with unlimited food supply. Dormice were kept in outdoor cages, fitted with wooden boxes and with the floor covered with soil suitable for hibernation. They were provided with water and fed ad libitum. They were weighed every 5-8 days. Of 34 …

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Does The Location Of Coastal Brackish Waters Determine Diversityand Abundance Of Zooplankton Assemblages?, Agnieszka Gutkowska, Ewa Paturej, Jacek Koszalka Jan 2018

Does The Location Of Coastal Brackish Waters Determine Diversityand Abundance Of Zooplankton Assemblages?, Agnieszka Gutkowska, Ewa Paturej, Jacek Koszalka

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Habitat conditions may shape the abundance and community structure of planktonic fauna. In this study, we investigated whether reservoirs with different locations and drainage basins also differed in the structure and abundance of zooplankton. The studies were conducted in 2010-2011 between June and October in the Vistula Lagoon and Lake Lebsko. The zooplankton was dominated mainly by small eurytopic organisms belonging to Rotifera. Plankton crustaceans showed a limited diversity of species. Copepods were predominant, while Cladocera were observed sporadically in more freshwater habitats. In the first experimental season (2010), the Vistula Lagoon and Lake Lebsko showed a comparable taxonomic structure …

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Comparative Diet Of Hedgehogs (Atelerix Algirus) In Two Localities In Kabylia, Algeria, Dalila Djennoune, Faiza Marniche, Mansour Amroun, Raphaël Boulay Jan 2018

Comparative Diet Of Hedgehogs (Atelerix Algirus) In Two Localities In Kabylia, Algeria, Dalila Djennoune, Faiza Marniche, Mansour Amroun, Raphaël Boulay

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The present study is the first qualitative and quantitative analysis of the diet of Algerian hedgehogs (Atelerix algirus) in Kabylia, Algeria. The study was carried out between May and October 2014 and covered two different sites, Yakouren (a forested site) and Tizi-Rached (an agricultural site). In Yakouren, the analysis of droppings allowed us to identify 12,050 items grouped into 16 categories of eaten preys, while in Tizi-Rached, 13,543 items grouped into 13 categories of preys were identified. In both locations, the Hymenoptera category is the most eaten type of prey at a rate of 93% in Yakouren and 98% in …

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The Prevalence And Genetic Diversity Of Feline Immunodeficiency Virusand Feline Leukemia Virus Among Stray Cats In Harbin, China, Mei-Qiao Pan, Jiu-Cheng Wang, Ya-Jun Wang Jan 2018

The Prevalence And Genetic Diversity Of Feline Immunodeficiency Virusand Feline Leukemia Virus Among Stray Cats In Harbin, China, Mei-Qiao Pan, Jiu-Cheng Wang, Ya-Jun Wang

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) are typical retroviruses that are transmitted horizontally among felines. FIV results in symptoms of immunodeficiency such as weight loss, chronic lesions, opportunistic infections, and neurological abnormalities, while FeLV is known to cause a variety of neoplastic and nonneoplastic diseases in cats, such as thymic lymphoma, multicentric lymphoma myelodysplastic syndromes, acute myeloid leukemia, aplastic anemia, and immunodeficiency. The prevalence and genetic diversity of FIV and FeLV in stray cats have not been investigated. In this study, polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to test 198 blood samples from stray …

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The First Annotated Checklist Of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Insecta) Of Georgia With New Distribution Data And A New Record For The Country, Sophio Gabelashvili, Levan Mumladze, Ani Bikashvili, Pavel Sroka, Roman J. Godunko, Bella Japoshvili Jan 2018

The First Annotated Checklist Of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Insecta) Of Georgia With New Distribution Data And A New Record For The Country, Sophio Gabelashvili, Levan Mumladze, Ani Bikashvili, Pavel Sroka, Roman J. Godunko, Bella Japoshvili

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The first comprehensive checklist of mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of Georgia is provided based on literature data supplemented by our unpublished data, including extensive samples in 2013-2017, works with the collections and types, faunistic observations, and taxonomical contributions. Records of 75 species are provided, with one species reported as a new finding for the country. Notes about the taxonomic status of several species are given. The present contribution represents the first publication of this kind for mayflies within the whole Caucasus area.

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Further New And Little Known Species Of Ptyctimous Mites (Acari, Oribatida) From Cameroon, Wojciech Niedbala, Tomasz Osiejuk Jan 2018

Further New And Little Known Species Of Ptyctimous Mites (Acari, Oribatida) From Cameroon, Wojciech Niedbala, Tomasz Osiejuk

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Nineteen species of ptyctimous mites were found in 20 samples collected in Cameroon: 15 samples from the Southwest region, near the ocean, and 5 samples from the Northwest region, inland. Two new species: Euphthiracarus (Pocsia) inaequatus sp. n. and Steganacarus (Rhacaplacarus) alius sp. n. are described and figured. Six species are new to Cameroon. The so far unknown instars of Mesoplophora (Mesoplophora) invisitata Niedbala, 1983: larva, proto-, deuto-, and tritonymph are described. The deutonymph and tritonymph of M. (M.) invisitata are compared with the corresponding stages of the related species. The tritonymph of the species of both subgenera, Mesoplophora and …

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Three New Records From Phylinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) For The Turkish Fauna, Gülten Yazici, Erol Yildirim Jan 2018

Three New Records From Phylinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) For The Turkish Fauna, Gülten Yazici, Erol Yildirim

Turkish Journal of Zoology

This study was conducted in the Erzurum province of Turkey during 2009-2014. The species Criocoris crassicornis (Hahn, 1834), Europiella artemisiae (Becker, 1864), and Paredrocoris pectoralis Reuter, 1878 were recorded for the first time from Turkey. The important taxonomic characters are described and photographs or illustrations are provided.

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Rediscovered After Half A Century: A New Record Of The Grey Dwarf Hamster,Cricetulus Migratorius (Mammalia: Cricetidae), In Romania, Atti̇la D. Sandor Jan 2018

Rediscovered After Half A Century: A New Record Of The Grey Dwarf Hamster,Cricetulus Migratorius (Mammalia: Cricetidae), In Romania, Atti̇la D. Sandor

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The grey dwarf hamster, Cricetulus migratorius, is the smallest hamster species in Europe, with a highly fragmented distribution in most countries in the south-eastern part of the continent. It is rarely observed, with most records provided by raptor diet studies. Here we report a new observation from extreme north-eastern Romania, based on individuals identified in the diet of owls. The records considerably extend the known geographical range to the north in Romania and these are the first observations from an urban area in the country.

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Population Dynamics Of The Copepod Invader Oithona Davisae In The Black Sea, Leonid Svetlichny, Elena Hubareva, Melek İşi̇ni̇bi̇li̇r Okyar Jan 2018

Population Dynamics Of The Copepod Invader Oithona Davisae In The Black Sea, Leonid Svetlichny, Elena Hubareva, Melek İşi̇ni̇bi̇li̇r Okyar

Turkish Journal of Zoology

During 2013-2016 in Sevastopol Bay, seasonal and interannual dynamics of the population density, age and sex composition, fecundity, and mortality of males and females of Oithona davisae were studied. A maximum population number (up to 554 ind × 10$^{3}$ m$^{-3}$) was registered at the end of summer?end of autumn. In this period, the nauplii and early copepodite stages constituted up to 95% of the Oithona davisae population. During 1-2.5 cold winter?spring months, the population consisted only of females, who were not numerous. The phase of latent population development was recorded from April until July-August, with a high share of ovigerous …

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Apple Pomace Consumption Favorably Alters Hepatic Lipid Metabolism In Young Female Sprague-Dawley Rats Fed A Western Diet, Roy Chris Skinner, Derek C. Warren, Soofie N. Lateef, Vagner A. Benedito, Janet C. Tou Jan 2018

Apple Pomace Consumption Favorably Alters Hepatic Lipid Metabolism In Young Female Sprague-Dawley Rats Fed A Western Diet, Roy Chris Skinner, Derek C. Warren, Soofie N. Lateef, Vagner A. Benedito, Janet C. Tou

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Apple pomace, which is a waste byproduct of processing, is rich in several nutrients, particularly dietary fiber, indicating potential benefits for diseases that are attributed to poor diets, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD affects over 25% of United States population and is increasing in children. Increasing fruit consumption can influence NAFLD. The study objective was to replace calories in standard or Western diets with apple pomace to determine the effects on genes regulating hepatic lipid metabolism and on risk of NAFLD. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned (n = 8 rats/group) to isocaloric diets of AIN-93G and …

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Researchers, Not Dogs, Lack Control In An Experiment On Jealousy, Jennifer Vonk Jan 2018

Researchers, Not Dogs, Lack Control In An Experiment On Jealousy, Jennifer Vonk

Animal Sentience

Cook and colleagues (2018) have developed a clever method to measure fMRI in awake dogs in response to a number of interesting stimuli. As a result, they are able to determine neural correlates of observable behavior. They report that dogs may experience something akin to jealousy because they show greater amygdala activation in response to food being given to a fake dog versus food being placed in a bucket. However, several critical controls are missing which prevent the authors from being able to speak of jealousy.

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Fill-In-The-Blank-Emotion In Dogs? Evidence From Brain Imaging, Alexandra Horowitz, Becca Franks, Jeff Sebo Jan 2018

Fill-In-The-Blank-Emotion In Dogs? Evidence From Brain Imaging, Alexandra Horowitz, Becca Franks, Jeff Sebo

Animal Sentience

What is needed to make meaningful claims about an animal’s capacity for subjective experience? Cook et al. (2018) attempt to study jealousy in dogs by placing them in a particular context and then seeing whether they display a particular brain state. We argue that this approach to studying jealousy falls short for two related reasons. First, the relationship between jealousy and the selected context is unclear. Second, the relationship between jealousy and the selected brain state (indeed, any single brain state) is unclear. These and other issues seriously limit what this study can show. It is important not to see …

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Fish Sentience Denial: Muddy Moral Water, Robert C. Jones Jan 2018

Fish Sentience Denial: Muddy Moral Water, Robert C. Jones

Animal Sentience

Sneddon et al. (2018) authoritatively summarize the compelling and overwhelming evidence for fish sentience, while methodically dismantling one rather emblematic research paper (Diggles et al. 2017) intended to discount solid evidence of fish sentience (Lopez-Luna et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, & 2017d). I explore the larger practical moral contexts within which these debates take place and argue that denials of animal sentience are really moral canards.

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Defining Pain And Painful Sentience In Animals, Edgar T. Walters Jan 2018

Defining Pain And Painful Sentience In Animals, Edgar T. Walters

Animal Sentience

Sentience is essential to most definitions of pain, including a detailed definition invoked by Sneddon et al. to argue that adult and perhaps larval fish feel pain. Because proving painful sentience in non-human animals is not feasible, multiple lines of indirect evidence are needed to implicate pain. This commentary examines the list of 17 criteria used by Sneddon et al. to conclude that fish have conscious pain. The criteria include tests of nociceptive, motivational, and cognitive properties useful for revealing pain-like states that can be understood biologically and be related evolutionarily to human pain. However, additional research is needed to …

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Two Fallacies In Comparisons Between Humans And Non-Humans, Don Ross Jan 2018

Two Fallacies In Comparisons Between Humans And Non-Humans, Don Ross

Animal Sentience

The hypothesis that humans are superior to non-humans by virtue of higher cognitive powers is often supported by two recurrent fallacies: (1) that any competence shown by humans but not by our closest living relatives (apes) must be unique to humans; and (2) that grades of intelligence can be inferred from behavior without regard to motivational structures.

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Fish Consciousness, David Gamez Jan 2018

Fish Consciousness, David Gamez

Animal Sentience

Woodruff makes two arguments to support his claim that ray-finned fish are conscious: (1) Fish neuroanatomy has similarities with the structures in the human brain that support consciousness. (2) The complexity and flexibility of fish behaviour suggest that they are conscious. This commentary will argue that neither the neuroanatomical nor the behavioural argument can provide conclusive evidence for consciousness in fish. We should suspend judgement until we have discovered mathematical theories of consciousness that can reliably map between states of consciousness and states of the physical world.

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