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Wpa News 89 (2012), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Spring 2012), number 89

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Section Abstracts: Natural History And Biodiversity

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Natural History and Biodiversity Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2012, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Effect Of Light Level On Feeding Behavior In A Lemur Species (Eulemur Rubriventer) With A Color Vision Polymorphism., Ainsley Lockhart

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Understanding the visual capabilities and correlated behavior of prosimians provides vital information regarding the evolution of color vision. Feeding behavior in particular is often modified based on color vision status in various primate taxa. The present study examined feeding behavior under various light conditions in Eulemur rubriventer, a lemur species with a color vision polymorphism in which only females can have trichromatic vision. Behavioral observations were conducted for a single E. rubrventer group over a 13 day study period in April 2012. Results found no significant difference in rates of frugivory or exploitation of green vs. non-green food between male …

4 Inches Of Living Soil: Teaching Biodiversity In The Learning Gardens–A Photo-Essay, Dilafruz R. Williams

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: Bringing Life to Schools and Schools to Life, Williams and Brown (2011) place living soil at the center of the discourse on sustainability education. One of the seven principles that guides their pedagogy of learning gardens is: valuing biocultural diversity. This photo-essay of elementary students in K-8 schools, explores how 4 inches of soil in the learning gardens can teach about life’s diversity. The author urges humble attentiveness to that which is below our feet seemingly hidden and unnoticed yet teeming with life.

The Origin Of Malarial Parasites In Orangutans, M. Andreína Pacheco, Michael J.C. Reid, Michael A. Schillaci, Carl A. Lowenberger, Biruté M. F. Galdikas, Lisa Jones-Engel, Ananias A. Escalante

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Background: Recent findings of Plasmodium in African apes have changed our perspectives on the evolution of malarial parasites in hominids. However, phylogenetic analyses of primate malarias are still missing information from Southeast Asian apes. In this study, we report molecular data for a malaria parasite lineage found in orangutans.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We screened twenty-four blood samples from Pongo pygmaeus (Kalimantan, Indonesia) for Plasmodium parasites by PCR. For all the malaria positive orangutan samples, parasite mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) and two antigens: merozoite surface protein 1 42 kDa (MSP-1₄₂) and circumsporozoite protein gene (CSP) were amplified, cloned, and …

Ecological Studies Of Wolves On Isle Royale, 2011-2012, John A. Vucetich, Rolf O. Peterson

Ecological Studies of Wolves on Isle Royale

Annual Report 2011-2012

Potential For Barn Owl As Rodent Biological Control In Central California Vineyards, Hannah Tillmann

Biological Sciences

The pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) and voles (Microtus spp.) cause significant economic damage to vineyards. In response, many growers have taken steps to attract Barn Owls (Tyto alba) to their properties to help keep these rodent populations in check. This research project investigated Barn Owl consumption of pocket gophers and voles in Central California vineyards in order to assess the efficiency of this integrated pest management strategy. I collected a total of 715 owl pellets from five vineyard locations in Templeton and Paso Robles, California over an eight-month period during nesting and post-fledging seasons. I …

Research, Monitoring, Assessment And Development Plan 2011 – 2012, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Occasional Publications

No abstract provided.

2011 Deer Creek Ranch Wetland Vegetation Survey, Robert F. Steinauer

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

The approximately 75,000 acre Deer Creek Ranch (owned by Ted Turner) lies on the south side of the Niobrara River in northeastern Sheridan County, Nebraska (Figure 1). The majority of the ranch lies within the Sandhills, with Sandhill dune prairie being the predominant vegetation type. Two significant streams, Deer Creek and the Snake River, originate on the ranch. The primary purpose of the Deer Creek Ranch surveys was to document native wetland plant communities and rare plant species occurrences and to provide vegetation management recommendations for plant communities bordering these two stream. Also surveyed were Chokecherry and Hackberry Lakes in …

Slides: Natural Gas: Game Changer Or Runner Left On Base? Working To Get It Right In Co!, Gary Graham

Drawing the Blueprint for a Sustainable Natural Gas Future (January 18)

Presenter: Dr. Gary Graham, Director, Lands Program, Western Resource Advocates

21 slides

Observations Of Oviposition Behavior Among North American Tiger Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae) Species And Notes On Mass Rearing, Mathew L. Brust, C. Barry Knisley, Stephen M. Spomer, Kentaro Miwa

University of Nebraska State Museum: Entomology Papers

Although the larvae of a large number of North American tiger beetle species have been described, little information exists on the oviposition behavior of female tiger beetles at the species level. In this study, we found that the oviposition behavior varied widely among species, with some species utilizing more than one method. We found that, contrary to many references, several tiger beetle species did not oviposit from above the soil surface by inserting the ovipositor into the soil. Instead, several species oviposited by tunneling over 20 mm below the soil surface. In addition, we outline recently used successful protocols for …

Increased Variability Of Microbial Communities In Restored Salt Marshes Nearly 30 Years After Tidal Flow Restoration, Anne E. Bernhard, David Marshall, Lazaros Yiannos

Biology Faculty Publications

We analyzed microbial diversity and community composition from four salt marsh sites that were impounded for 40–50 years and subsequently restored and four unimpounded sites in southeastern Connecticut over one growing season. Community composition and diversity were assessed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) and sequence analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Our results indicated diverse communities, with sequences representing 14 different bacterial divisions. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes dominated clone libraries from both restored and unimpounded sites. Multivariate analysis of the TRFLP data suggest significant site, sample date, and restoration status effects, but the exact causes of these …

A Postulate For Tiger Recovery: The Case Of The Caspian Tiger, Carlos A. Driscoll, I Chestin, H Jungius, Y Darman, E Dinerstein, J Seidensticker, J Sanderson, S Christie, S J. Luo, M Shrestha, Y Zhuravlev, O Uphyrkina, Y V. Jhala, S P. Yadav, D G. Pikunov, N Yamaguchi, D E. Wildt, J D. Smith, Marker, Philip J. Nyhus, R Tilson, D W. Macdonald, S J. O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Recent genetic analysis has shown that the extinct Caspian Tiger (P. t. virgata) and the living Amur Tigers (P. t. altaica) of the Russian Far East are actually taxonomically synonymous and that Caspian and Amur groups historically formed a single population, only becoming separated within the last 200 years by human agency. A major conservation implication of this finding is that tigers of Amur stock might be reintroduced, not only back into the Koreas and China as is now proposed, but also through vast areas of Central Asia where the Caspian tiger once lived. However, under the current tiger conservation …

Sharing A Vision For Biodiversity Conservation And Agriculture, John E. Quinn

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Conservation biology and agriculture share a common landscape and a future that demands novel research and practice. Inevitably, limited resources create conflict in the absence of a shared vision forward. Therefore, given the similarities in proximate and even ultimate goals, we must envision a joint path toward renewable and resilient agroecosystems. In this commentary, I highlight the root of past conflicts and share a vision of progress forward that encompasses mutually beneficial outcomes. I include six areas of anticipatory research and inquiry at the intersection of conservation biology and agriculture to better identify shared goals and facilitate more frequent communication …

Partial Depredations On Northern Bobwhite Nests, Susan Ellis-Felege, Anne Miller, Jonathan S. Burnam, Shane D. Wellendorf, D. Clay Sisson, William E. Palmer, John P. Carroll

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Partial clutch loss following a predation event is rarely studied in ground-nesting birds despite predation often being the leading cause of nest failure. Partial nest depredation occurs when predators attack but leave some eggs intact. Using continuous video monitoring, we documented a total of 372 initial predation events at nests of Northern Bobwhites (Colinus virginianus). From these, we observed a sample of partial nest pre-dation events (n=47). Partial predation events resulted in three outcomes: (1) The nest failed due to parental abandonment; (2) adult stayed with the nest, but clutch failed to hatch, usually due to further predation events; or …

Nonlinear Effects Of Group Size On The Success Of Wolves Hunting Elk, Daniel R. Macnulty, Douglas W. Smith, L. David Mech, John A. Vucetich, Craig Packer

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Despite the popular view that social predators live in groups because group hunting facilitates prey capture, the apparent tendency for hunting success to peak at small group sizes suggests that the formation of large groups is unrelated to prey capture. Few empirical studies, however, have tested for nonlinear relationships between hunting success and group size, and none have demonstrated why success trails off after peaking. Here, we use a unique dataset of observations of individually known wolves (Canis lupus) hunting elk (Cervus elaphus) in Yellowstone National Park to show that the relationship between success and group …

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, V. 34, No. 2, Winter 2012, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

American Society of Parasitologists Newsletter, v. 34, no. 2, winter 2012

Despite Losing Its Mittens, A Chinese Mitten Crab Finds Its Way To Connecticut, Nancy C. Balcom

Wrack Lines

A new invasive species for Connecticut: the Chinese mitten crab. Only one of this invasive crustacean species was spotted, but there will be more on the way.

Creation Of A Natural History Information Database With Mobile Device Access For The Pace Campus In Pleasantville, Joshua J. Schwartz, Martina Blackwood

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

A High Density Snp Array For The Domestic Horse And Extant Perissodactyla: Utility For Association Mapping, Genetic Diversity, And Phylogeny Studies, Molly E. Mccue, Danika L. Bannasch, Jessica Lynn Petersen, Jessica Gurr, Ernie Bailey, Matthew M. Binns, Ottmar Distl, Gérard Guérin, Telhisa Hasegawa, Emmeline W. Hill, Tosso Leeb, Gabriella Lindgren, M. Cecilia T. Penedo, Knut H. Røed, Oliver A. Ryder, June E. Swinburne, Teruaki Tozaki, Stephanie J. Valberg, Mark Vaudin, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Claire M. Wade, James R. Mickelson

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

An equine SNP genotyping array was developed and evaluated on a panel of samples representing 14 domestic horse breeds and 18 evolutionarily related species. More than 54,000 polymorphic SNPs provided an average inter-SNP spacing of ~43 kb. The mean minor allele frequency across domestic horse breeds was 0.23, and the number of polymorphic SNPs within breeds ranged from 43,287 to 52,085. Genome-wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) in most breeds declined rapidly over the first 50–100 kb and reached background levels within 1–2 Mb. The extent of LD and the level of inbreeding were highest in the Thoroughbred and lowest in the …