Zoology Commons^™

Refining Thoughts About Human/Nonhuman Differences, Colin A. Chapman, Michael A. Huffman

Animal Sentience

Our commentators come from many fields and disciplines and express highly divergent views, illustrating broad interest in the question. From the breadth of comments, we have identified two recurring themes, which we focus on here. The first is a preponderance of cautionary remarks about evaluating the differences between humans and nonhuman animals. The second concerns whether considering animals as worthy of moral consideration is one of many useful tools for conservationists trying to prevent extinction, habitat destruction, and climate change.

Diversity On Human Difference: Unanimity On Human Responsibility, Colin A. Chapman, Michael A. Huffman

Animal Sentience

Further commentaries on our original target article add important new points and expand our understanding of the differences between animals, particularly between non-human and human primates. But whether they affirm or deny that humans are unique, all commentators agree that our special abilities mean we should be taking responsibility for the care of nature and the plants and animals it supports. We ask: is humankind doing this?

On Neglected Taxa: Protostomes And The Evolution Of Myelination, Michaella P. Andrade, Charles Morphy D. Santos

Animal Sentience

Understanding the evolution of nervous and sensory systems in animals is key to understanding the distribution of animal sentience. However, the use of model organisms – mostly vertebrates, and especially mammals – often biases comparative analyses. Sneddon et al. (2018a,b) point out that using nonhuman animals as models helps us better understand the multifaceted aspects of animal pain and sentience. Several concerns need to be considered in dealing with model organisms. Here we discuss how models that are unrepresentative phylogenetically influence hypotheses about the evolution of the myelination in animals. Greater effort is needed to escape “vertebrate-centrism” in evolutionary research.

Spatiotemporal Variability In Winter Severity: Consequences For White-Tailed Deer Populations And Habitat Sustainability, Grace Parikh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Winter in the northern Great Lakes presents a suite of challenging conditions for animals, in terms of limited food availability and increased energetic cost of locomotion and thermoregulation. Variable winter severity is liable to cause interannual fluctuations in habitat viability and use by animals, in addition to modulating physiological responses in animals to conserve energy. For example, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) congregate at high densities under eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) or northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) stands, which provide forage, thermal cover, reduced snow depth, and enhanced vigilance. However, a suite of climatic, edaphic, and …

Expression Of Alternative Oxidase In The Copepod T. Californicus When Exposed To Environmental Stressors, Carly Tward

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In addition to the typical electron transport system in animal mitochondria responsible for oxidative phosphorylation, some species possess an alternative oxidase (AOX) pathway, which causes electrons to bypass proton pumping complexes. Although AOX appears to be energetically wasteful, studies have revealed its wide taxonomic distribution, and indicate it plays a role in environmental stress tolerance. AOX discovery in animals is recent, and further research into its expression, regulation, and physiological role has been impeded by the lack of an experimental model organism. DNA database searches using bioinformatics revealed an AOX sequence present in the arthropod Tigriopus californicus. Multiple sequence …

Happy Or Hangry Families: Does Kinship Mediate Cooperation And Cannibalism In Drosophila Melanogaster Larvae?, Lucas Khodaei

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has a long history as a research model for studies on behaviour and group dynamics. When individuals are grouped in an environment and resources decrease, then they may behave co-operatively with one another or antagonistically compete. Hamilton’s Law states that if the benefit of helping a related individual out-weighs the cost to its direct fitness, then the individual’s indirect fitness will increase when they help their kin compared to helping an unrelated stranger. Yet it is unknown whether kinship mediates larval behaviour to encourage co-operation and/or lessen antagonistic behaviours between consanguineous individuals. In this thesis …

Relationship Between Habitat And Barn Owl Prey Delivery Rate And Composition In A Napa Valley Vineyard Agroecosystem, Dane A. R. St. George

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The provision of habitat for natural enemies of agricultural pests is common in integrated pest management approaches globally but has rarely been examined for vertebrate predators controlling vertebrate pests. To mitigate the economic and environmental costs of treating for rodent pests, winegrape producers in Napa Valley, California, have installed nest boxes to attract barn owls (Tyto alba) to their properties, but their effectiveness to control rodent pests in vineyards has not been thoroughly tested. A rigorous estimate of the number of rodents barn owls remove from the landscape is a necessary first step, and this study aimed to …

Effect Of Group Size On The Activity Budget Of Two Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Kaeley Sullins

All Master's Theses

Captive facilities housing chimpanzees are required to provide adequate care and provisions such as dietary, social, and environmental enrichment to promote the psychological well-being of the apes in their care. Chimpanzees are social creatures and changes in groups as well as relocation to a facility with new social partners, can impact each individual chimpanzee’s welfare. By tracking each chimpanzee’s activity budgets, managers can assess welfare and make improvements or adjustments if necessary. I looked at the activity budgets of two captive chimpanzees after the death of a group member and the two chimpanzees’ subsequent relocation to a novel, more socially …

Using Physical Contact Heterogeneity And Frequency To Characterize Dynamics Of Human Exposure To Nonhuman Primate Bodily Fluids In Central Africa, Victor Narat, Mamdou Kampo, Thibut Heyer, Stephanie Rupp, Philippe Ambata, Richard Njouom, Tamara Giles-Vernick

Publications and Research

Emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin constitute a recurrent threat to global health. Nonhuman primates (NHPs) occupy an important place in zoonotic spillovers (pathogenic transmissions from animals to humans), serving as reservoirs or amplifiers of multiple neglected tropical diseases, including viral hemorrhagic fevers and arboviruses, parasites and bacteria, as well as retroviruses (simian foamy virus, PTLV) that are pathogenic in human beings. Hunting and butchering studies in Africa characterize at-risk human social groups, but overlook critical factors of contact heterogeneity and frequency, NHP species differences, and meat processing practices. In southeastern Cameroon, a region with a history of zoonotic emergence …

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part Xvii.Revision Of Neobuthus, With Description Of Seven New Species From Ethiopia, Kenya And Somaliland (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, Ahmed Ibrahim Awale, Hassan Sh Abdirahman Elmi, Ali Abdi Hurre

Euscorpius

New information about the taxonomy and distribution of the genus Neobuthus Hirst, 1911 is presented, based on material recently collected mainly from Somaliland, but also Djibouti and Kenya. Emended diagnoses are proposed for N. berberensis Hirst, 1911 and N. ferrugineus (Kraepelin, 1898) sensu stricto. New species described are: N. amoudensis sp. n. from Ethiopia and Somaliland; N. erigavoensis sp. n., N. factorio sp. n., N. gubanensis sp. n., N. maidensis sp. n., and N. montanus sp. n. from Somaliland; and N. kloppersi sp. n. from Kenya. This doubles the number of species in Neobuthus, unearthing a rich diversification …

Revision Of The Central Asian Scorpion Genus Anomalobuthus Kraepelin, 1900, With Descriptions Of Three New Species And A Generic Synonymy (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Rolando Teruel, František Kovařík, Victor Fet

Euscorpius

We revise the Central Asian endemic genus Anomalobuthus Kraepelin, 1900, which was considered monotypic for more than 100 years until the recent addition of a second species from Iran (Teruel et al., 2014). We redefine the generic diagnosis of Anomalobuthus and reveal that it is composed of no less than six species, three of which are described as new: A. krivochatskyi, sp. n. (central Uzbekistan and extreme southern Kazakhstan), A. lowei, sp. n. (southeastern Kazakhstan), and A. pavlovskyi, sp. n. (south-central Kazakhstan and extreme northern Turkmenistan). The monotypic genus Psammobuthus Birula, 1911 (described from the Ferghana Valley …

Employing Natural History Collections In The Aid Of Conservation: Streamlining An Approach To Model Species Distributions En Masse For The Preservation Of Biodiversity, Alice Fornari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Using species distribution models (SDMs) in Natural History Collections (NHCs) can influence how humans implement conservation changes in flora and fauna communities and ecosystems. Through the use of legacy data (old NHCs and their associated locality/collection information), data correction (background data or pseudo absences added to presence-only data), and the SDM software, Maxent (and its associated geographic information systems or GIS projected models), it has been shown that it is feasible to create a low budget protocol/setup to project the past, present and future of species population changes. This has been done in the past few decades as more collections …

Checklist Of Zooplanktons In Different Rivers Of Bajwat Area, Zahid Bhatti, Muhammad Asif Gondal, Asad Ghufran, Andleeb Batool

Journal of Bioresource Management

Zooplanktons are important fish and waterfowl food. Limnological studies of Marala Wetlands, a complex created by three rivers, i.e., Jammu Tawi, Chenab and Manawar Tawi, entering Bajwat area located 25 km from North of Sialkot city from state of Jammu and Kashmir, were carried out between October, 2000 to September 2001. This survey was carried out to create a checklist of zooplanktons existing in the study site which would help in future studies relating to aquatic biodiversity and ecological studies of wetlands. A minimum of 25 species of zooplanktons were present in the wetland area, which can be included into …

Rediscovery Of Red Wolf Ghost Alleles In Canid Population Along The American Gulf Coast, Elizabeth Heppenheimer, Kristin Brzeski, Ron Wooten, William Waddell, Linda Y. Rutledge, Michael J. Chamberlain, Et. Al.

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

Rediscovering species once thought to be extinct or on the edge of extinction is rare. Red wolves have been extinct along the American Gulf Coast since 1980, with their last populations found in coastal Louisiana and Texas. We report the rediscovery of red wolf ghost alleles in a canid population on Galveston Island, Texas. We analyzed over 7000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 60 canid representatives from all legally recognized North American Canis species and two phenotypically ambiguous canids from Galveston Island. We found notably high Bayesian cluster assignments of the Galveston canids to captive red wolves with extensive sharing …

Population Trend Of Herons And Egrets (Family: Ardeidae) In Marala Head From Oct 2000- Sep 2001, Zahid Bhatti, Fakhra Nazir, Safdar Ali Shah

Journal of Bioresource Management

The species cited from Pakistan included Ardea goliath, Ardea cinerea cinerea, Ardea cinerea rectirostris, Ardea purpurea manilensis and Butorides striatus javanicus, Ardeola grrayii grayii and Bubulcus ibis coromandus, Ardea alba alba, Ardea alba modesta, Egretta intermedia intermedia, Egretta garzetta garzetta and Egretta gularis schistacea, Nycticorax nycticorax nycticorax, Ixobrychus minutus minutus, Ixobrychus sinensis and Ixobrychus flavicollis flavicollis. The study was carried out from October 2000 to September 2001, spanning the area from Kikar Post to Head Marala. Point count method was used to record the number of birds observed (Ralph et al., 1995). The birds were further identified using literature. Cattle …

Status And Food Preferences Of Bears In Sub Alpine Scrub Forests, Ajk, Madeeha Manzoor, Safdar Ali Shah, Jibran Haider

Journal of Bioresource Management

Bears belong to the family Ursidae, under the order Carnivora with eight extant species (Grzimek, 2003). Roberts (1997) cite the presence of Himalayan brown bear, Himalayan black bear and Balochistan black bear in Pakistan. Dhirkot National Park (2008), Banjosa Nature Reserve (2009), Tolipir National Park (2008), Pir Chanasi National Park (2010) and Pir Lasura National Park (2009) were surveyed. A broad-spectrum investigation was conducted where the number of bears observed directly; pictures from surveillance cameras (Arc View GIS 3.3, 1992-2002) and at the same time indirect indicators such as bear scats, walking trails, paw prints and fur samples were noted …

Population Genomic Analysis Of North American Eastern Wolves (Canic Lycaon) Support Their Conservation Priority Status, Elizabeth Heppenheimer, Ryan Harrigan, Linda Rutledge, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Alexandra L. Decandia, Kristin Brzeski, Et. Al.

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

The threatened eastern wolf is found predominantly in protected areas of central Ontario and has an evolutionary history obscured by interbreeding with coyotes and gray wolves, which challenges its conservation status and subsequent management. Here, we used a population genomics approach to uncover spatial patterns of variation in 281 canids in central Ontario and the Great Lakes region. This represents the first genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset with substantial sample sizes of representative populations. Although they comprise their own genetic cluster, we found evidence of eastern wolf dispersal outside of the boundaries of protected areas, in that the frequency …

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.

Sandhill Crane Activity In The Central Platte River Valley In Late May And Early June, Jenna M. Malzahn, Andrew J. Caven, Marin Dettweiler, Joshua D. Wiese

Nebraska Bird Review

In this report we discuss observations of Sandhill Cranes remaining in the Central Platte River Valley until early June 2018 and discuss potential explanations for this extended stay into the breeding season.

We detected two pairs of adult Sandhill Cranes in two different locations on 15 May 2018 (Table 1). We then detected three injured adult Sandhill Cranes in a third location on 16 May 2018 (Table 1). Two of the three Sandhill Cranes each had a missing leg and the third crane’s leg was broken above the tibiotarsal joint; however, all were still capable of foraging and flight. Later, …

Fall Field Report, August - November 2018, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

As far as birds go, this was a relatively quiet season, but, as usual, there was much of interest to chew on. Most important in any report are range changes, major changes in expected numbers or early and late dates, all of which relate directly to the status, positive or negative, of a given species.

Waterfowl in general were only average in numbers; new high counts are rare these days compared with numbers 20 or so years ago. Two winter finches, Common Redpoll and Red Crossbill, that normally arrive in late fall, were virtually unreported. Notable range expansions are under …

Northern Saw-Whet Owl (Aegolius Acadicus) Nest Box Project: The First Seven Years, Wayne J. Mollhoff

Nebraska Bird Review

This report summarizes the first seven years of the nest box project for the Northern Saw-whet Owl in Nebraska. The project was initiated with several goals in mind: 1) to document breeding in Nebraska, 2) to get an idea of the breeding range of saw-whet owls, and 3) to establish their breeding phenology. The project started in 2012 with the placement of 29 boxes. Six boxes were added in 2015, four more in 2016, and eight in 2017.

This study, along with an ongoing study in South Dakota (Drilling 2015), makes it appear that we share an isolated breeding population. …

2018 Fall Banding Migration Summary, Chadron State Park, Chris Murray

Nebraska Bird Review

In order to better understand wild birds and their migration, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies conducted bird monitoring for the 11th straight year at our fall migration banding station in Chadron State Park within the Pine Ridge Region of Nebraska. Operated in collaboration with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, this station is open to the public and visited by school groups to serve as an outdoor classroom. Among our goals are to enhance the public’s appreciation of birds as well as their understanding of threats to bird survival and the role of science in bird conservation. Serving as an …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 86 December 2018 Number 4

Nebraska Bird Review

Fall Field Report, August - November 2018, by W. Ross Silcock …146-167

Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadius) Nest Box Project: The First Seven Years, by Wayne J. Mollhoff …168-174

Sandhill Crane Activity in the Central Platte River Valley in Late May and Early June, by Jenna Malzahn, Andrew J. Caven, Marin Dettweiler, Joshua D. Wiese .... 175-180

2018 Fall Banding Migration Summary, Chadron State Park, by Chris Murray …181-185

Ainsworth Fall Field Days, Sept. 14-16, 2018, by Janis Paseka …186-190

Index to Volume 86 …191-206

Subscription and Organization Information … 207

Effect Of Macrograzers (Campostoma Spp. And Faxonius Spp.) On Periphyton In Ozark Streams With Considerations Given To Macrograzer Biomass, Phosphorus, And Season: Mensurative And Manipulative Studies, Kayla R. Sayre

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient and benthic algal biomass relationships can guide numeric nutrient criteria development in lotic systems. However, herbivorous macrograzers may confound this relationship by reducing the slope of the positive relationship between nutrients and periphyton biomass in streams. I conducted a mensurative field study to determine if stoneroller and crayfish abundance related to algal biomass at varying nutrient concentrations and manipulated macrograzer presence with electrical exclosures in streams to examine macrograzer effects on algal biomass and understand whether these effects on periphyton varied with total phosphorus (TP) or season. Macrograzer density was quantified across a TP gradient (n=15 streams; range = …

Vegetation Characteristics And Bird Communities Associated With Singing Painted Buntings In Northwest Arkansas, Lauren Kristina Thead

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has been shown that bird communities are affected by the species composition and physical structure of plant communities. Within avian communities, the bird species that are the most localized in distribution tend to be the most affected by habitat changes. My research analyzed plant and bird communities found with the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris Linnaeus), a locally common but declining species throughout much of its range. First, I describe vegetation characteristics associated with singing male Painted Buntings in northwest Arkansas. I categorized field sites with singing male Painted Buntings as either managed for wildlife or unmanaged, based on land-use …

Motivations And Satisfaction Of North Dakota Deer Hunters During A Temporal Decline In Deer Populations, Kristen E. Black, William F. Jensen, Robert Newman, Jason Boulanger

Biology Faculty Publications

Achieving state wildlife agency biological goals for deer (Odocoileus spp.) management may often conflict with hunter desires. Concomitantly, better information is needed to optimize agency deer herd management goals with hunters’ social goals. In 2016, we surveyed 3,000 North Dakota, USA, resident deer hunters using a self-administered mail survey to gain a better understanding of motivations, satisfaction, and hunter demographics that may be used to inform hunter recruitment and retention (HRR) efforts during a period of reduced statewide deer populations. With deer-gun license availability strictly limited, we explored the possibility that some gun hunters may have been engaging …

Painted Ferocity: The Social Behaviors Of African Wild Dogs, Threats To Survival, And Resulting Conservation Initiatives, Alexis Valdes

Senior Honors Theses

African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) are an endangered species of canid from Sub-Saharan Africa. They are very social communal hunters, and are capable of chasing down prey for long stretches of time. Wild dogs benefit a savannah ecosystem by regulating the populations of their prey so that it does not become unhealthy and overgrown. Like many organisms, wild dogs are also in competition with other predators for resources, namely lions and hyenas, who are capable of stealing their kills and occasionally injuring and killing them. Due to the depletion of their wild prey, wild dogs may also prey …

Bats Of Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles, Scott C. Pedersen, Gary G. Kwiecinski, Hugh H. Genoways, Roxanne J. Larsen, Peter A. Larsen, Carleton J. Phillips, Robert J. Baker

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Eight species of bat have been previously recorded from the island of Saint Lucia: Noctilio leporinus, Monophyllus plethodon, Artibeus jamaicensis, Brachyphylla cavernarum, Ardops nichollsi, Sturnira paulsoni, Molossus molossus, and Tadarida brasiliensis. Herein, we add a ninth species to the fauna—Pteronotus davyi. These nine species represent nine genera from four families: Noctilionidae, Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, and Molossidae. This fauna includes four trophic guilds: N. leporinus (piscivore/insectivore), M. plethodon (nectarivore/pollenivore), A. jamaicensis × schwartzi, B. cavernarum, A. nichollsi, and S. paulsoni (frugivores), and P. davyi, M. molossus, and …

Cryptic Diversity In The Mexican Highlands: Thousands Of Uce Loci Help Illuminate Phylogenetic Relationships, Species Limits And Divergence Times Of Montane Rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalus ), Christopher Blair, Robert W. Bryson Jr, Charles W. Linkem, David Lazcano, John Klicka, John E. Mccormack

Publications and Research

With the continued adoption of genome‐scale data in evolutionary biology comes the challenge of adequately harnessing the information to make accurate phylogenetic inferences. Coalescent‐based methods of species tree inference have become common, and concatenation has been shown in simulation to perform well, particularly when levels of incomplete lineage sorting are low. However, simulation conditions are often overly simplistic, leaving empiricists with uncertainty regarding analytical tools. We use a large ultraconserved element data set (>3,000 loci) from rattlesnakes of the Crotalus triseriatus group to delimit lineages and estimate species trees using concatenation and several coalescent‐based methods. Unpartitioned and partitioned maximum …

Courtship Behavior, Communication, And Copulation In Tigrosa Annexa, Samuel White

Scholars Week

The evolution of multimodal communication, where signalers use multiple signal components in multiple sensory modalities, has become the subject of investigation by many researchers. Signaling puts males at risk of predation, so why do males of some species evolve extra signals that may increase this risk? In some wolf spider species, males incorporate many visual and vibrational signals into a display that they use to attract a female for mating. Female spiders are often aggressive toward courting males and so the male display also functions to decrease the odds of cannibalism. Female wandering spiders deposit silk containing pheromones that communicate …