Animal Sciences Commons^™

Social Influences On Songbird Behavior: From Song Learning To Motion Coordination, Iva Ljubičić

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social animals learn during development how to integrate successfully into their group. How do social interactions combine to maintain group cohesion? We first review how social environments can influence the development of vocal learners, such as songbirds and humans (Chapter 1). To bypass the complexity of natural social interactions and gain experimental control, we developed Virtual Social Environments, surrounding the bird with videos of manipulated playbacks. This way we were able to design sensory and social scenarios and test how social zebra finches adjust their behavior (Chapters 2 & 3). A serious challenge is that the color output of a …

Social Behavior In A Herd Of Captive Male Giraffes, Patrick Ziarnowski, Kaidi Fenrich

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Giraffes (Giraffa spp.) are a common feature of zoological institutions, where conditions differ from those of the wild, a reality that may cause behavioral changes. A recent management technique has been to house all-male herds in zoos that have not been selected for giraffe breeding, with breeding confined to certain zoos. To date, no studies have looked at social behavior in captive herds comprised exclusively of males. In a herd of one adult (named Emba) and two subadult male giraffes (named Rafiki and Gage), the dominant adult giraffe, Emba, demonstrated sociosexual behavior—apparent courtship, investigation, and flehmen responses—almost exclusively …

Small Mammal Response To The Gunnison's Prairie Dog Reintroduction, Melissa Ariella Paduani

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The Gunnison's Prairie Dog (GPD, Cynomys gunnisoni) is an herbivorous, burrowing rodent that was extirpated from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in the 1930's by ranchers to make land available for grazing livestock. Currently, the GPD is the subject of a long-term reintroduction experiment overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The burrowing and feeding habits of the GPD influences an ecosystem's biotic and abiotic factors significantly, making this species a keystone ecosystem engineer that plays a vital role creating heterogeneous mosaics of habitat. Their presence is correlated with diverse biological communities and maintenance of grassland ecosystems. To better …

Crayfish Harvesting Practices In The Southern Atchafalaya River Basin: Quantitative And Qualitative Assessment Of Harvester Techniques And Hydrologic Connectivity Influence On Harvesting Strategies, Ivan A. Vargas-Lopez

LSU Master's Theses

Fisheries produce important impacts around the world through the exploitation of a wide range of species. In Louisiana, crayfish is the most emblematic crustacean and supports a multi-million industry based on pond culture and harvest from natural habitats. Although the economic value (USD) of wild-harvested crayfish has decreased from 10% to 3% of total crayfish value from 2013 to 2015, wild harvested crayfish are highly desired by many consumers and have a strong socio-cultural importance in Louisiana and other Gulf of Mexico coastal regions. This project evaluated harvesting practices by: 1) field observation and mapping of harvest sites in southwestern …

Status And Distribution Of Amphibians In Tolipir National Park, Pakistan, Abu Ul Hassan Faiz Dr., Mehboob Ul Hassan, Mikhail F, Bagaturov Dr, Ghazal Tariq Ms, Fida Muhammad Khan, Lariab Zahra Faiz

Journal of Bioresource Management

The herpetofauna was surveyed from January to December 2018 along the elevation gradient 1367 m to 2617 m, asl in Tolipir National Park. The whole area was sampled by taking 52 quadrates. Three amphibian species were recorded using the visual encounter method in an area of 52 km². This study provides baseline data for spatial distribution of amphibians in Tolipir National Park and provides previously unavailable baseline information for use in the development of a preliminary conservation schedule.

Daily And Seasonal Trends Of Electricity And Water Use On Pasture-Based Automatic Milking Dairy Farms, John Shortall, Bernadette O'Brien, Roy D. Sleator, J. Upton

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

The objective of this study was to identify the major electricity and water-consuming components of a pasture-based automatic milking (AM) system and to establish the daily and seasonal consumption trends. Electricity and water meters were installed on 7 seasonal calving pasture-based AM farms across Ireland. Electricity-consuming processes and equipment that were metered for consumption included milk cooling components, air compressors, AM unit(s), auxiliary water heaters, water pumps, lights, sockets, automatic manure scrapers, and so on. On-farm direct water-consuming processes and equipment were metered and included AM unit(s), auxiliary water heaters, tubular coolers, wash-down water pumps, livestock drinking water supply, and …

Comparative Response Of The Hepatic Transcriptomes Of Domesticated And Wild Turkey To Aflatoxin B1, Kent M. Reed, Kristelle M. Mendoza, Juan E. Abrahante, Roger A. Coulombe

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The food-borne mycotoxin aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) poses a significant risk to poultry, which are highly susceptible to its hepatotoxic effects. Domesticated turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are especially sensitive, whereas wild turkeys (M.g. silvestris) are more resistant. AFB₁ toxicity entails bioactivation by hepatic cytochrome P450s to the electrophilic exo-AFB₁-8,9-epoxide (AFBO). Domesticated turkeys lack functional hepatic GST-mediated detoxification of AFBO, and this is largely responsible for the differences in resistance between turkey types. This study was designed to characterize transcriptional changes induced in turkey livers by AFB₁ , and to contrast the …

Update On The Grain And Forage Center Of Excellence, Chad Lee

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Groundbreaking for the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence is scheduled for March 15, 2018 at Princeton, KY.

Putting The Pieces Together: Using Cattle To Build Soil For Crops, John Bell

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Raising livestock AND crops is an important topic to me and perhaps one of the most significant keys to the success of Elmwood Stock Farm.

In some parts of the country either you ride a horse following livestock and are called a rancher or you ride steel, grow crops and are a farmer. Not both. Fortunately, I grew up in central Kentucky where, due to topography and climate, we did some of both. Few people had enough land to run enough cattle alone to make a living. Likewise, few farms laid in a manner that allowed someone to raise only …

Building Strong Nutrient Cycles In Kentucky's Pastures, Christopher D. Teutsch

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Well managed grassland ecosystems are one of the most sustainable forms of agricultural production. Few nutrients are removed from properly managed grazing systems. Instead these nutrients are cycled within the grazing system. In addition, proper grazing management maintains a healthy and vigorous sod that protects the soil from erosion and increases rainfall infiltration. This article will discuss how to build and maintain strong nutrient cycles in Kentucky's pastures.

The Soil Is Alive!, Mark S. Coyne

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Grab a handful of soil. . . . . What does it look like? What does it feel like? It may seem rather ordinary; but look closer. What are you holding in your hand? A mixture of minerals and air with some water and organic matter? Is that all? No. There's so much more to soil than that. For a soil scientist in general and a soil microbiologist in particular the soil is a living thing, a mixture of living and dead organisms in an organic/mineral matrix. Not every organism is identical, or as abundant, or does the same things, …

2017 Long-Term Summary Of Kentucky Forage Variety Trials, Gene L. Olson, S. Ray Smith, Christopher D. Teutsch

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Forage crops occupy approximately 7 million acres in Kentucky. Forages provide a majority of the nutrition for beef, dairy, horse, goat, sheep, and wildlife in the state. In addition, forage crops play an environmentally friendly role in soil conservation, water quality, and air quality. There are over 60 forage species adapted to the climate and soil conditions of Kentucky. Only 10 to 12 of these species occupy the majority of the acreage, but within these species there is a tremendous variation in varieties. This publication was developed to provide a user-friendly guide to choosing the best variety for producers based …

Forages At Kca Foreword [2018], Christopher D. Teutsch, Christi L. Forsythe

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

No abstract provided.

Causation Of Acute Flaccid Paralysis By Myelitis And Myositis In Enterovirus-D68 Infected Mice Deficient In Interferon Αβ/Γ Receptor Deficient Mice., John D. Morrey, Hong Wang, Brett L. Hurst, Katherine Zukor, Venkatraman Siddharthan, Arnaud J. Van Wettere, Donal G. Sinex, E. Bart Tarbet

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) caused a large outbreak in the summer and fall of 2014 in the United States. It causes serious respiratory disease, but causation of associated paralysis is controversial, because the virus is not routinely identified in cerebrospinal fluid. To establish clinical correlates with human disease, we evaluated EV-D68 infection in non-lethal paralysis mouse models. Ten-day-old mice lacking interferon responses were injected intraperitoneally with the virus. Paralysis developed in hindlimbs. After six weeks of paralysis, the motor neurons were depleted due to viral infection. Hindlimb muscles were also infected and degenerating. Even at the earliest stage of paralysis, muscles …

Examination Of Clock And Adcyap1 Gene Variation In A Neotropical Migratory Passerine, Andrea Contina, Eli S. Bridge, Jeremy D. Ross, J. Ryan Shipley, Jeffrey F. Kelly

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Complex behavioral traits, such as those making up a migratory phenotype, are regulated by multiple environmental factors and multiple genes. We investigated possible relationships between microsatellite variation at two candidate genes implicated in the control of migratory behavior, Clock and Adcyap1, and several aspects of migratory life-history and evolutionary divergence in the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), a species that shows wide variation in migratory and molting strategies across a disjunct distribution. We focused on Clock and Adcyap1 microsatellite variation across three Painted Bunting populations in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and North Carolina, and for the Oklahoma breeding population we …

The Effect Of Dairy Cow Breed On Milk Production, Cow Traffic And Milking Characteristics In A Pasture-Based Automatic Milking System, John Shortall, Cathriona Foley, Roy D. Sleator, Bernadette O'Brien

Dept. of Biological Sciences Preprints

Despite the increasing frequency of integrated automatic milking (AM) and pasture-based systems, there is limited knowledge available on the suitability of different dairy cow breeds to these systems. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to establish the performance of three breeds in a pasture-based AM system with respect to milk production, cow traffic and milking characteristics. The breeds examined were Holstein Friesian (HF), Jersey x HF (JEX) and Norwegian Red x HF (NRX), all of which have been previously identified as being compatible with conventional milking pasture-based systems. The experiment was conducted in mid-lactation and variables measured included milking …

Precocious Development Of Self-Awareness In Dolphins, Rachel Morrison, Diana Reiss

Publications and Research

Mirror-self recognition (MSR) is a behavioral indicator of self-awareness in young children and only a few other species, including the great apes, dolphins, elephants and magpies. The emergence of self-awareness in children typically occurs during the second year and has been correlated with sensorimotor development and growing social and self-awareness. Comparative studies of MSR in chimpanzees report that the onset of this ability occurs between 2 years 4 months and 3 years 9 months of age. Studies of wild and captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have reported precocious sensorimotor and social awareness during the first weeks of life, but no …

Temporal Migration Patterns Between Natal Locations Of Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus Colubris) And Their Gulf Coast Stopover Site, Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Andrea Contina, Jeffrey F. Kelly, Frank R. Moore

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Autumn latitudinal migrations generally exhibit one of two different temporal migration patterns: type 1 where southern populations migrate south before northern populations, or type 2 where northern populations overtake southern populations en route. The ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) is a species with an expansive breeding range, which allows opportunities to examine variation in the timing of migration. Our objective was to determine a relationship between natal origin of ruby-throated hummingbirds and arrival at a Gulf coast stopover site; and if so, what factors, such as differences in body size across the range as well as the …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

Production Of Genetically Engineered Golden Syrian Hamsters By Pronuclear Injection Of The Crispr/Cas9 Complex, Rong Li, Jinxin Miao, Seokhwan Song, Il-Keun Kong, Yaohe Wang, Zhongde Wang

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The pronuclear (PN) injection technique was first established in mice to introduce foreign genetic materials into the pronuclei of one-cell stage embryos. The introduced genetic material may integrate into the embryonic genome and generate transgenic animals with foreign genetic information following transfer of the injected embryos to foster mothers. Following the success in mice, PN injection has been applied successfully in many other animal species. Recently, PN injection has been successfully employed to introduce reagents with gene-modifying activities, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 system, to achieve site-specific genetic modifications in several laboratory and farm animal species. In addition to mastering the …

Fisheries Science Afs 215, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Is There A Link Between Aging And Microbiome Diversity In Exceptional Mammalian Longevity?, Graham M. Hughes, John Leech, Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Jose V. Lopez, Emma C. Teeling

Biology Faculty Articles

A changing microbiome has been linked to biological aging in mice and humans, suggesting a possible role of gut flora in pathogenic aging phenotypes. Many bat species have exceptional longevity given their body size and some can live up to ten times longer than expected with little signs of aging. This study explores the anal microbiome of the exceptionally long-lived Myotis myotis bat, investigating bacterial composition in both adult and juvenile bats to determine if the microbiome changes with age in a wild, long-lived non-model organism, using non-lethal sampling. The anal microbiome was sequenced using metabarcoding in more than 50 …

Slave To The Rhythm: Variation In The Acoustic Signaling Of Picoides Woodpeckers, Alex Baer

Theses and Dissertations

We explored rhythmic variation in acoustic signals by geography across four species of Picoides woodpeckers. We hypothesized that there would be an effect of geographic location on the cadence of drums and rattle-type calls. No significant effect was observed. However, drum cadence was observed to significantly impact conspecific recognition in playbacks.

Combatting The Illegal Pet Trade: Using Molecular Techniques To Determine The Provenience Of Illegal Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur Catta) Pets, Jessica Knierim

Theses and Dissertations

One of the biggest threats facing the Endangered ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is the illegal pet trade. This study compares genotypes of 20 pet L. catta to a geographically-referenced allele frequency database of 4 wild populations (n=35) in attempt to determine their source population. This study will have many conservation implications.

Factors Of Annual Reproductive Success In North American Barn Swallows (Hirundo Rustica Erythrogaster) In Shared Greenspace, Joseph Czeisel

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined three metrics related to barn swallow reproductive success in shared greenspace. Earlier nesting dates were positively related to reproductive output and survival rate. Anthropogenic disturbance was not found to influence productivity. The distance of nests inside structures predicted survival rate. The monitoring of additional seasons is recommended.

Antral Follicular Count Is A Tool That May Allow The Selection Of More Precocious Bradford Heifers At Weaning, R. Santa Cruz, R. A. Cushman, C. Viñoles

Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center: Reports

Although antral follicle count is a repeatable parameter across life that is positively associated with fertility, its use at weaning as a tool to discard less fertile heifers has not been extensively evaluated. The hypotheses of this work are: 1) maximum antral follicle count (MAFC) is repeatable between weaning and pre breeding evaluations, allowing selection of more fertile heifers at an early age, 2) heifers with high MAFC have growth and development parameters linked to an earlier puberty and pregnancy, 3) MAFC has a positive correlation with AMH concentrations, so that both could be used inter changeably. In this study, …

Nebraska Invasive Plants Field Guide, Nebraska Invasive Species Program

Nebraska Invasive Species Program

Invasive species are plants, animals or pathogens that are non-native to an ecosystem. They cause harm to the economy, environment or human health. They negatively affect native species and ecosystems and interfere with outdoor recreation opportunities. This guide identifies federal and state-listed noxious weeds. Federal noxious weeds are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; State noxious weeds are regulated by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Protection, Noxious Weed Program. Aquatic invasive species are listed and regulated by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

ABSINTH WORMWOOD • AMUR HONEYSUCKLE • AUTUMN OLIVE • BRITTLE NAIAD • CALLERY …

Using Environmental Dna And Occupancy Modeling To Examine Drivers Of Eastern Hellbender Extirpation And Sampling Method Efficiency In West Virginia, Sean Michael Wineland

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Amphibian population declines and range constrictions are widespread but poorly understood. Effective conservation planning relies on accurate distribution data to develop a fundamental understanding of causal changes in species distributions. However, conventional detection methods for cryptic and elusive amphibians suffer from imperfect detection. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as an innovative and powerful conservation tool for detecting aquatic species presence; however comparative studies aimed at fully understanding eDNA detection probabilities are lacking. In this study, I used environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling methods and detailed historical records to identify drivers of extirpation and sampling method efficiency for an imperiled, long-lived giant …

Southern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus Niger Niger) Translocation, Occupancy, And Foraging Behaviors, Katelyn Marie Amspacher

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Southern fox squirrels (SFSs) are habitat specialists within the longleaf pine ecosystem of the southeastern US whose populations are declining due to habitat fragmentation. Eastern gray squirrels (EGSs) are generalists found throughout the eastern US that have historically avoided competition with SFSs through habitat-partitioning. The purpose of this study was threefold: 1) use translocation as a conservation tool to establish a population of SFSs on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island (MCRDPI), South Carolina and monitor survival, home range size, and habitat use post-translocation, 2) estimate SFS density on Spring Island, SC and examine patterns of SFS and EGS occupancy, …

A Characterization Of West Virginia Coyotes (Canis Latrans) Utilizing Skull Morphology, Katharina E. Scholer

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are now found throughout North and Central America, but before European colonization were restricted to west of the Mississippi. Migration occurred in two major paths to the East; north over the Great Lakes (through Canada) and south below the Great Lakes. The location of these routes is significant because those migrating north interbred with the wolves that reside there. These hybrid animals are larger and behaviorally different from their western counterparts. It is possible to differentiate these hybrids morphologically and genetically. Hybrids are known to be located in Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, but the interest of …