Zoology Commons^™

Winter Field Report, December 2015 To February 2016, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

As has been the trend in recent years, many species are lingering later in fall and even arriving earlier in spring. Along with lingering birds, mid-winter and overwintering records have increased. This winter was phenomenal in this respect, especially in that records were across the board in terms of species, suggesting that water conditions have moderated (more open water) and temperatures in general have also (passerines). Unprecedented records included first wintering White-winged Scoter and first Jan or Feb record of Orange-crowned Warbler. Second or third such records were set by Blue-winged Teal, Surf Scoter, Ruddy Duck, Eared Grebe, Greater Yellowlegs, …

Eight Years Of Bird Banding In Nebraska’S Chadron State Park, Josh Lefever

Nebraska Bird Review

Each autumn since 2008, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies has sent a trained biologist to capture, band, and collect data on the birds that make use of the Pine Ridge region on their journey south. Eight years of mist-netting at Chadron State Park, in the heart of the Pine Ridge, has given insights into the unique assemblage of birds found there, and how alteration by fire can affect birds' use of the habitat. The Chadron State Park banding station is located on a hillside near the west edge of the park, with an overstory of Ponderosa Pines and a …

Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Treasurer’S Report, December 31, 2015

Nebraska Bird Review

One-page spreadsheet constituting the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union treasurer's report at year end (December 31) of 2015. The grand total is $59,997.24.

Woodland Birds, Color Photo Section [March 2016, Pp. 25–32]

Nebraska Bird Review

Photographs of Swainson’s Thrush, Prothonotary Warbler, Acadian Flycatcher, and Varied Thrush and Hairy Woodpecker (p. 25); White-eyed Vireo, Long-eared Owl, Great Crested Flycatcher, and Broad-winged Hawk (p. 26); Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Bay-breasted Warbler (p. 27); Blackpoll Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Screech-Owl, and Green Heron (p. 28); quiz (four birds) (p. 29); Caspian Tern, Great Blue Heron, Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and Cattle Egret (p. 30); Mississippi Kite, Snow Buntings, White-winged Dove, and Black-bellied Plover (p. 31); and intermediate Northern Flicker, Dark-eyed (Pink-sided) Junco, Mourning Doves, and Eastern Phoebe (p. 32).

2015–2016 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Fifteen counts were held during the 2015–16 Christmas Bird Count season, which is one more than last season when the Harrison count was canceled. The Grand Island count was held on December 12, two days prior to the start of the officially sanctioned CBC time slot, but its results are included in this discussion.

Ten of the counts were done on or before December 22 under mild conditions with little snow cover and mostly to entirely open water. While the weather became more seasonable toward the end of the period, it was still fairly benign. As a result, most of …

Life Line March 2016, Otterbein Biology And Earth Science Department

Life Line - The Biology Department Newsletter

Department welcomes Dr. Elizabeth Berkeley - Ben Titus '08 - Panama Research - Fracing in Toga County, PA. - Students Intern in China - Faculty Partnerships in Africa

An Animal Victim's Best Chance: Veterinary Legal Duty To Report Cruelty In The U.S., Lora Dunn

Animal Sentience

Legislation throughout the U.S. recognizes animal sentience and the importance of veterinary reporting to combat the ongoing suffering of these animal victims: All 50 states have felony penalties available for animal cruelty crimes, and veterinary reporting is permitted or required in the majority of states. The remaining minority of U.S. states should take action to require veterinarians to report animal cruelty and render veterinarians immune for good faith reporting.

Veterinary Medical Associations Need To Educate Veterinarians For Mandatory Reporting Of Suspected Animal Abuse, Melinda V. Merck

Animal Sentience

When animals are suffering, we have a duty to take action. With appropriate incentive and educational support mandatory veterinary reporting can be a great legal avenue to help ensure their safety and welfare.

Fish Pain's Burden Of Proof, Carl Safina

Animal Sentience

A hypothesis like Key’s, that fish cannot feel pain, should really be stated as a null hypothesis — an assumption that there is no difference in the things being compared. Then evidence — including anecdotal evidence — for and against rejecting the null hypothesis can be examined and weighed. Key (2016a) has proven only that fish lack mammalian brains.

Burden Of Proof Lies With Proposer Of Celestial Teapot Hypothesis, Brian Key

Animal Sentience

Bertrand Russell famously imagined the existence of a celestial teapot to highlight that the burden of proof of a hypothesis lay with its proposer and it was not the responsibility of others to refute it. Those who propose that fish feel pain must bear the burden of proof for their hypothesis. There are several common arguments adopted by those defending the position that fish feel pain. For instance, proponents envisage that pain is so important for human survival that they can’t imagine fish could exist without it. Out of this argument from incredulity emerges the idea that pain must have …

Associations Between Domestic-Dog Morphology And Behaviour Scores In The Dog Mentality Assessment, Holly R. Stone, Paul D. Mcgreevy, Melissa J. Starling, Bjorn Forkman

Morphology Collection

The domestic dog shows a wide range of morphologies, that humans have selected for in the process of creating unique breeds. Recent studies have revealed correlations between changes in morphology and behaviour as reported by owners. For example, as height and weight decrease, many undesirable behaviours (non-social fear, hyperactivity and attention seeking) become more apparent. The current study aimed to explore more of these correlations, but this time used reports from trained observers. Phenotypic measurements were recorded from a range of common dog breeds (n = 45) and included cephalic index (CI: the ratio of skull width to skull length), …

Animal Suffering In China, Peter J. Li

Animal Sentience

Chinese policy has been aimed at maximizing GDP; it is time to focus also on minimizing animal suffering.

Science And Sensibility, Bernard E. Rollin

Animal Sentience

The sentience and suffering of animals is obvious to common sense, even if science and industry claim to be agnostic. Economic incentives to reduce the suffering of animals are welcome, but it is not clear whether animals can turn to science for help.

Can Colour Vision Re-Evolve? Variation In The X-Linked Opsin Locus Of Cathemeral Azara’S Owl Monkeys (Aotus Azarae Azarae), N. I. Mundy, N. C. Morningstar, Andrea L. Baden, E. Fernandez-Duque, V. M. Davalos, B. J. Bradley

Publications and Research

Background: Do evolutionary specializations lead to evolutionary constraint? This appears plausible, particularly when specialization leads to loss of complex adaptations. In the owl monkey lineage, nocturnality clearly arose from a diurnal ancestor. This behavioural shift was accompanied by morphological changes in the eye and orbit and complete loss of colour vision via missense mutations in the gene encoding the short-wave sensitive visual pigment (SWS opsin). Interestingly, at least one subspecies of owl monkey, Azara’s owl monkey (Aotus azarae azarae), has regained activity in daylight. Given that all primate species that are active in daylight, including primarily diurnal species and species …

When The Client Is Not The Abuser, But One Of The Abused, Tania Signal

Animal Sentience

The question of client confidentiality and reporting animal abuse is complicated when the client is not the abuser, and when the abuse (of both people and animals) may escalate precisely because it has been (or may be) reported.

Laelapine Mite (Acari: Laelapidae) Morphometric Analysis Reflects Taxonomic And Geographic Clusters Of South American Oryzomyines (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae), Donald Gettinger, Robert D. Owen

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Ongoing efforts to survey and inventory nonvolant small mammals across the Neotropics are beginning to reveal a highly structured and diverse fauna of rodents and marsupials. By increasing the foundation of specimens in museums around the world, it has become possible, for the first time, to evaluate and quantify the similarities and differences among small mammals collected from a broad range of geographic locali­ties, ecoregions, and habitats. Because ectoparasites were sampled in the process of collecting mammalian voucher specimens, we are able to study the laelapine mites (Acari: Laelapidae) associated with well-iden­tified and verifiable host specimens. Here, we evaluate morphometric …

Two New Scorpions Of The Genus Chaneke Francke, Teruel Et Santibáñez-López, 2014 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Southern Mexico, František Kovařík, Rolando Teruel, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

Herein we describe two new species of the recently discovered buthid scorpion genus Chaneke Francke, Teruel et Santibáñez-López, 2014. Both are from Oaxaca State in southern Mexico: Chaneke hofereki sp. n. based upon adults of both sexes from a single coastal locality, and Chaneke baldazoi sp. n. based upon adult females and juveniles from a mountain site in the Sierra Madre. Additional information is given on their taxonomy, distribution, ecology, and reproductive biology, fully complemented with color photos of live and preserved specimens, and their habitat.

Scorpions Of Ethiopia. Part Iv. Genus Uroplectes Peters, 1861(Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, David Hoferek, Jana Plíšková, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

All data about the distribution of Uroplectes fischeri (Karsch, 1879) in Ethiopia and Somalia are summarized. U. fischeri is fully illustrated with color photos of habitus and locality. Uroplectoides abyssinicus Lourenço, 1998 is discussed and synonymized with U. fischeri. Genus Uroplectoides Lourenço, 1998 is synonymized with Uroplectes Peters, 1861. Hemispermatophore of U. fischeri was extracted and illustrated for the first time. In addition to morphological analysis we also describe the karyotype of male U. fischeri from Ethiopia (2n=28).

Dna Barcoding Indicates Hidden Diversity Of Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) In Turkey, Victor Fet, Matthew R. Graham, Gergin Blagoev, Ayşegül Karataş, Ahmet Karataş

Euscorpius

The Anatolian fauna of the genus Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) is in the process of reassessment. Twelve species of this genus are currently recognized for Anatolia, of which seven have been recently described on the basis of morphology. We demonstrate additional cryptic diversity in Anatolian Euscorpius by applying molecular markers (mitochondrial COI and 16S rDNA genes) from 14 populations, of which 13 were morphologically characterized by “em=3,” a phenotypic marker on the pedipalp patella. All studied Anatolian forms are strongly supported as a single clade compared to the European (from the Alps to the Balkans) taxa of the subgenus …

Editorial: "Euscorpius" Bicentennial Booklet, Victor Fet

Euscorpius

Names and images of Euscorpius authors. Various images of scorpions from around the world.