Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Qualitative Behavioural Assessment And Quantitative Physiological Measurement Of Cattle Naïve And Habituated To Road Transport, C. A. Stockman, T. Collins, A. L. Barnes, D. Miller, S. L. Wickham, D. T. Beatty, D. Blache, F. Wemelsfelder, P. A. Fleming

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

The present study examined whether observers could distinguish between cattle that are naïve to road transport and the same cattle after becoming more habituated to transport. The behavioural expression of cattle was assessed through the method of qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA), and these assessments were correlated with various physiological parameters. Fourteen Angus steers were assessed during their first road trip and then again on their ninth trip, 15 days later. Blood samples were collected immediately before and after transport, and heart rate and core body temperature were measured continuously throughout each trip. Video footage recorded during each trip was edited …

Wolves, Canis Lupus, Carry And Cache The Collars Of Radio-Collared White-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus Virginianus, They Killed, Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Wolves (Canis lupus) in northeastern Minnesota cached six radio-collars (four in winter, two in spring-summer) of 202 radio-collared White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) they killed or consumed from 1975 to 2010. A Wolf bedded on top of one collar cached in snow. We found one collar each at a Wolf den and Wolf rendezvous site, 2.5 km and 0.5 km respectively, from each deer’s previous locations.

Use Of Cranial Characters In Taxonomy Of The Minnesota Wolf (Canis Sp.), L. David Mech, Ronald M. Nowak, Sanford Weisberg

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Minnesota wolves (Canis sp.) sometimes are reported to have affinity to a small, narrow-skulled eastern form (Canis lupus lycaon Schreber, 1775) and sometimes to a larger, broader western form (Canis lupus nubilus Say, 1823). We found that pre-1950 Minnesota wolf skulls were similar in size to those of wolves from southeastern Ontario and smaller than those of western wolves. However, Minnesota wolf skulls during 1970–1976 showed a shift to the larger, western form. Although Minnesota skull measurements after 1976 were unavailable, rostral ratios from 1969 through 1999 were consistent with hybridization between the smaller eastern wolf and …

Kin Encounter Rate And Inbreeding Avoidance In Canids, Eli Geffen, Michael Kam, Reuven Hefner, Pall Hersteinsson, Anders Angerbjorn, Love Dalen, Eva Fuglei, Karin Noren, Jennifer R. Adams, John Vucetich, Thomas J. Meier, L. David Mech, Bridgett M. Vonholdt, Daniel R. Stahler, Robert K. Wayne

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Mating with close kin can lead to inbreeding depression through the expression of recessive deleterious alleles and loss of heterozygosity. Mate selection may be affected by kin encounter rate, and inbreeding avoidance may not be uniform but associated with age and social system. Specifically, selection for kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance may be more developed in species that live in family groups or breed cooperatively. To test this hypothesis, we compared kin encounter rate and the proportion of related breeding pairs in noninbred and highly inbred canid populations. The chance of randomly encountering a full sib ranged between 1–8% and …

Parsing Demographic Effects Of Canine Parvovirus On A Minnesota Wolf Population, L. David Mech, Sagar M. Goyal

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

We examined 35 years of relationships among wolf (Canis lupus) pup survival, population change and canine parvovirus (CPV) seroprevalence in northeastern Minnesota to determine when CPV exerted its strongest effects. Using correlation analysis of data from five periods of 7-years each from 1973 through 2007, we learned that the strongest effect of CPV on pup survival (r = -0.73) and on wolf population change (r = -0.92) was during 1987 to 1993. After that, little effect was documented despite a mean CPV seroprevalence from 1994 of 2007 of 70.8% compared with 52.6% during 1987 to 1993. We …

Movements Of Wolves At The Northern Extreme Of The Species’ Range, Including During Four Months Of Darkness, L. David Mech, H. Dean Cluff

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Information about wolf (Canis lupus) movements anywhere near the northern extreme of the species’ range in the High Arctic (.75uN latitude) are lacking. There, wolves prey primarily on muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) and must survive 4 months of 24 hr/day winter darkness and temperatures reaching 253 C. The extent to which wolves remain active and prey on muskoxen during the dark period are unknown, for the closest area where information is available about winter wolf movements is .2,250 km south. We studied a pack of $20 wolves on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada (80°N latitude) from July 2009 …

Buried Clay Pot Irrigation, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Buried clay pot irrigation was first described in Chinese texts from more than 2000 years ago. It uses a porous clay pot to provide demand responsive irrigation. Efficiency is often 3-10 times conventional surface irrigation.

Passive Solar Design, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Passive solar architecture can provide heating, cooling, ventilation and daylighting by using the sun and microclimate resources. Building energy consumption can be cut 80-90% at no increase in building cost by using integrated design principles.

Geologic Constraints On Rain-Fed Qocha Reservoir Agricultural Infrastructure,Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, Nathan Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Catherine Rigsby, Paul Baker, Luis A. Flores

Luis FLORES

This paper reports new data on qocha ponds from the Rio PucaraeAzángaro interfluvial zone, northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Qocha are a little known form of Andean agriculture that developed around 800e500 B.C. and remain in use today. Prior estimates suggested that in the study area, there were more than 25,000 qocha. While most Andean sunken beds are excavated to reach groundwater, qocha are rainfed ponds. How these rain-fed ponds functioned has been an open question, but one that is answered in part by research presented in this paper. We suggest that a thick impermeable stratum of clay that was …

The Survival Of The Conformist: Social Pressure And Renewable Resource Management, Alessandro Tavoni

Alessandro Tavoni

This paper examines the role of other-regarding behavior as a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of cooperation in resource use under variable social and environmental conditions. By coupling resource stock dynamics with social dynamics concerning compliance to a social norm prescribing non-excessive resource extraction in a common 10 pool resource, we show that when reputational considerations matter and a sufficient level of social stigma affects the violators of a norm, sustainable outcomes are achieved. We find large parameter regions where norm-observing and norm-violating types coexist, and analyze to what extent such coexistence depends on the environment.

Monitoring Ecosystem Dynamics In An Arctic Tundra Ecosystem Using Hyperspectral Reflectance And A Robotic Tram System, Santonu Goswami

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Global change, which includes climate change and the impacts of human disturbance, is altering the provision and sustainability of ecosystem goods and services. These changes have the capacity to initiate cascading affects and complex feedbacks through physical, biological and human subsystems and interactions between them. Understanding the future state of the earth system requires improved knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and long term observations of how these are being impacted by global change. Improving remote sensing methods is essential for such advancement because satellite remote sensing is the only means by which landscape to continental-scale change can be observed.

The Arctic …

An Evolutionary Psychology Perspective On Responsibility Attributions For Infidelity And Relationship Dissolution, Kindra Lynn Edmonson

Theses Digitization Project

This study investigated responsibility attributions for a partner's emotional infidelity and for a partner's sexual infidelity, and the likelyhood that the victim or partner would end the relationship. This study found a significant relationship between responsibility attributions for a romantic partner's unfaithfulness and the likelihood the relationship would end: the stronger the attributions of personal responsibility the more likely the relationship would dissolve.

The Scientific Classification Of Wolves: Canis Lupus Soupus, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Gray wolf, timber wolf, red wolf, eastern wolf, brush wolf, arctic wolf, Mexican wolf, maned wolf, Ethiopian wolf, etc., etc. How many kinds of wolves are there? And what are the differences? This is a really good question, and the answer is getting more complicated all the time. Let us start by going back a few years to the way science looked at wolves more traditionally— before the days of the new field of molecular genetics. Molecular genetics examines the actual DNA of animals and tries to classify them according to genetic similarities. ...

What does all this mean in …

Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Movements And Behavior Around A Kill Site And Implications For Gps Collar Studies, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-collars are increasingly used to estimate Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) kill rates. In interpreting results from this technology, researchers make various assumptions about wolf behavior around kills, yet no detailed description of this behavior has been published. This article describes the behavior of six wolves in an area of constant daylight during 30 hours, from when the pack killed a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) calf and yearling on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, to when they abandoned the kill remains. Although this is only a single incident, it demonstrates one possible scenario of pack …

Infectious Diseases In Yellowstone’S Canid Community, Emily S. Almberg, Paul C. Cross, L. David Mech, Doug W. Smith, Jennifer W. Sheldon, Robert L. Crabtree

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Each summer Yellowstone Wolf Project staff visit den sites to monitor the success of wolf reproduction and pup rearing behavior. For the purposes of wolf monitoring, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is divided into two study areas, the northern range and the interior, each distinguished by their ecological and physiographical differences. The 1,000 square kilometer northern range, characterized by lower elevations (1,500–2,200 m), serves as prime winter habitat for ungulates and supports a higher density of wolves than the interior (20–99 wolves/1,000 km² versus 2–11 wolves/1,000 km²). The interior of the park encompasses 7,991 square kilometers, is higher …

Problems With Studying Wolf Predation On Small Prey In Summer Via Global Positioning System Collars, Vicente Palacios, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

We attempted to study predation on various-sized prey by a male and female wolf (Canis lupus) with global positioning system (GPS) collars programmed to acquire locations every 10 min in the Superior National Forest of Minnesota. During May to August 2007, we investigated 147 clusters of locations (31% of the total) and found evidence of predation on a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn and yearling, a beaver (Castor canadensis), ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), and fisher (Martes pennanti) and scavenging on a road-killed deer and other carrion. However, we missed finding …

Humane Cat Population Management Guidance, International Companion Animal Management Coalition

Stray and Feral Animal Populations Collection

The International Companion Animal Management Coalition has produced this document to provide government bodies and non-governmental organisations with a detailed resource to support them in their development and implementation of effective and humane programmes to manage cat populations.

Population Survey (Census) Of Stray Dog Population In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Rahul Sehgal, Sunil Chawla, Jack Reece

Stray and Feral Animal Populations Collection

Ahmadabad, the biggest city of Gujarat with a human population of approximately, 6 million. The rapidly expanding population of Ahmadabad means that the metropolitan region extends far outside from the confines of the old city. However, the development is rapid but uncontrolled. Therefore, there are a large number of areas that are prone to stray dogs and these areas are constantly increasing. The old methods of population control by strychnine poisoning or electrocution employed by the municipal corporations have not proved effective in controlling street dog populations, as new dogs soon migrate into the areas, where the local dog population …

Microclimate Preferences Of The Grey-Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus Poliocephalus) In The Sydney Region, Stephanie T. Snoyman, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

The population size of the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) has decreased dramatically as a result of a variety of threatening processes. This species spends a great proportion of time in roosting large social aggregations in urban areas, causing conflict between wildlife and humans. Little is known about why these bats choose to roost in some locations in preference to others. Roost selection by cave-dwelling bats can be greatly influenced by microclimatic variables; however, far less is known about microclimate selection in tree-roosting species despite the direct management implications. This study aimed to determine the microclimate characteristics of P. poliocephalus …

A Test Of An Evolutionary Theory Of Adiposity Gain Induced By Long Sleep In Descendants Of European Hunter-Gatherers, Oleksiy Chadyuk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have identified inadequate sleep duration as one of the factors contributing to global obesity. The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis deduced from a new sleep-duration-based evolutionary theory claiming that sleep extension in response to lengthening night duration in early fall evolved into a behavioral marker of an approaching winter; this adaptive trait was theorized to produce adiposity gain in White men in response to sleep extension. The hypothesis was that White Americans would show a greater increase in the age-adjusted fat mass index per unit of sleep duration compared to that of Black Americans. Data …

Mechanisms For Decisions About The Future, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Evolutionary and psychological perspectives on decision making remain largely separate endeavors. The bounded rationality approach integrates these two perspectives by focusing on simple, plausible mechanisms of decision making and the cognitive capacities needed to implement these mechanisms. Decisions about the future provide a class of decisions that lend themselves to a bounded rationality approach. Though many different mechanisms may exist for making decisions about the future, only a subset of these mechanisms actually require a representation of the future. The bounded rationality approach helps focus on the cognitive capacities and decision mechanisms that are necessary for a full understanding of …

Darwin's Other Idea : Sexual Selection, Gender And Violence, Robert Samuel Moschgat

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation provides an empirical exploration of Darwin's theory of sexual selection, which views the male propensity to engage in short term mating strategies--sexual promiscuity and violence--as the result of sexual selection. Within an environmental context, biological father and mother household presence are expected to inhibit the initiation of short-term mating strategies and increase parental investment--paternal and maternal attachments, supervision, and protection. Whereas, structural disadvantage--living in poverty and in dangerous neighborhoods--is predicted to increase the initiation of a short-term mating strategies and compromise the parents' ability to protect their children and by weakening paternal and maternal attachments, thereby increasing the …

Parental Precaution: Neurobiological Means And Adaptive Ends, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Colin Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans invest precious reproductive resources in just a few offspring, who remain vulnerable for an extended period of their lifetimes relative to other primates. Therefore, it is likely that humans evolved a rich precautionary psychology that assists in the formidable task of protecting offspring. In this review, we integrate precautionary behaviors during pregnancy and postpartum with the adaptive functions they may serve and what is known of their biological mediators, particularly brain systems motivating security and attachment. We highlight the role of reproductive hormones in (i) priming parental affiliation with young to incentivize offspring protection, (ii) focusing parental attention on …

Where Have All The Plant Foods Gone? The Search For Refined Dietary Reconstruction From Chinchorro Mummies, Karl J. Reinhard, Sara Le-Roy-Toren, Bernardo Arriaza

Karl Reinhard Publications

The Chinchorro cemeteries of northern Chile are the first graveyards of the Andes (Arriaza 1995, Schiappacasse & Niemeyer 1984). The excavation and analysis of Chinchorro mummies reveals the 'true character of the people'. The burials themselves are optimal for preservation of corpses, burial furniture, and aspects of ceremonies associated with the dead. The analysis of corporeal remains gradually clarifies the details of daily activities and status. Therefore, we feel that a holistic approach to mummy studies provides enormously fruitful paths to understanding the character of the ancient Chinchorro society.

Paleoepidemiology Of Intestinal Parasites And Lice In Pre-Columbian South America, Adauto Araujo, Karl Reinhard, Daniela Leles, Luciana Sianto, Alena M. Iñiguez, Martin Fugassa, Bernardo Arriaza, Nancy Orellana, Luis Fernando Ferreira

Karl Reinhard Publications

Some human parasites originated in prehominid ancestors in Africa. Nematode species, such as Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm), hookworms and Trichuris trichiura are shared by humans and other close phylogenetic primates (Pan and Gorilla), showing that they infected a common ancestor to this group. When humans migrated from Africa to other continents they carried these parasites wherever climate conditions allowed parasite transmission from host to host. Other parasites, however, were acquired throughout human biological and social evolutive history when new territories were occupied. Paleoparasitology data is a valuable source to recover emergence and disappearance of parasite infections through analysis of …

Variation, Systematics, And Relationships Of The Leptodactylus Bolivianus Complex (Amphibia: Anura: Leptodactylidae), W. Ronald Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Heyer, W. Ronald, and Rafael O. de Sá. Variation, Systematics, and Relationships of the Leptodactylus bolivianus Complex (Amphibia: Anura: Leptodactylidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 635, viii + 58 pages, 21 figures, 20 tables, 2011.—The Leptodactylus bolivianuscomplex has been considered to consist of one or two species, L. bolivianus alone or L. bolivianus and L. insularum. Detailed morphological analyses were undertaken to evaluate variation in the complex, which ranges from Costa Rica through Panama, across northern South America in the river valleys draining to the Caribbean, and throughout much of the Amazon basin with southern limits in Bolivia. Members of …

Adaptation As Process: The Future Of Darwinism And The Legacy Of Theodosius Dobzhansky, David Depew

David J Depew

Conceptions of adaptation have varied in the history of genetic Darwinism depending on whether what is taken to be focal is the process of adaptation, adapted states of populations, or discrete adaptations in individual organisms. I argue that Theodosius Dobzhansky’s view of adaptation as a dynamical process contrasts with so-called “adaptationist” views of natural selection figured as “design-without-a-designer” of relatively discrete, enumerable adaptations. Correlated with these respectively process and product oriented approaches to adaptive natural selection are divergent pictures of organisms themselves as developmental wholes or as “bundles” of adaptations. While even process versions of genetical Darwinism are insufficiently sensitive …

Mariska Leunissen, Explanation And Teleology In Aristotle’S Science Of Nature, David J. Depew

David J Depew

No abstract provided.

Mountain Treelines: A Roadmap For Research Orientation, George P. Malanson

George P Malanson

For over 100 years, mountain treelines have been the subject of varied research endeavors and remain a strong area of investigation. The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of the epistemology of mountain treeline research—that is, to investigate how knowledge on treelines has been acquired and the changes in knowledge acquisition over time, through a review of fundamental questions and approaches. The questions treeline researchers have raised and continue to raise have undoubtedly directed the current state of knowledge. A continuing, fundamental emphasis has centered on seeking the general cause of mountain treelines, thus seeking an answer to …