Infectious Diseases In Yellowstone’S Canid Community, 2011 The Pennsylvania State University
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
United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications
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 …
Movements Of Wolves At The Northern Extreme Of The Species’ Range, Including During Four Months Of Darkness, 2011 U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND
Movements Of Wolves At The Northern Extreme Of The Species’ Range, Including During Four Months Of Darkness, L. David Mech, H. Dean Cluff
United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications
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 …
Parsing Demographic Effects Of Canine Parvovirus On A Minnesota Wolf Population, 2011 USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Parsing Demographic Effects Of Canine Parvovirus On A Minnesota Wolf Population, L. David Mech, Sagar M. Goyal
United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications
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 …
Problems With Studying Wolf Predation On Small Prey In Summer Via Global Positioning System Collars, 2011 Universidad de Valencia
Problems With Studying Wolf Predation On Small Prey In Summer Via Global Positioning System Collars, Vicente Palacios, L. David Mech
United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications
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 …
Male Field Crickets Infested By Parasitoid Flies Express Phenotypes That May Benefit The Parasitoids, 2011 Indiana University - Bloomington
Male Field Crickets Infested By Parasitoid Flies Express Phenotypes That May Benefit The Parasitoids, Oliver M. Beckers, William E. Wagner
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
Parasites can cause changes in the phenotypes of their hosts that may benefit the parasite, the host, or both. To understand the evolutionary dynamics of host–parasite interactions it is necessary to first examine the effect of parasitic infestation on the host phenotype and whether the host or parasite benefits from these changes. The fly Ormia ochracea parasitizes the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, and it uses male song to locate hosts for its lethal larvae. Adult flies preferentially orient to male songs with faster and longer chirps. We tested the effect of larval infestation on two types of host traits. …
Do Male Physiological Condition And Territory Quality Affect Female Choice In The Brown Anole, Anolis Sagrei?, 2011 Colby College
Do Male Physiological Condition And Territory Quality Affect Female Choice In The Brown Anole, Anolis Sagrei?, Sarah P. Flanagan
Honors Theses
Female mate choice is an important component of sexual selection because traits that influence male mate preference, such as physiology, and proficiency in acquiring resources, are favored. In lizards, the importance of mate choice remains unclear as reported results from experiments are contradictory. In this study, I investigated whether male physiology and territory quality are important to female mate choice for male Brown Anoles, Anolis sagrei. I tested the hypotheses that female A. sagrei prefer males with greater physiological capacities, and prefer higher quality territories, regardless of male phenotype. To test these, male A. sagrei were first rated for …
Mechanisms For Decisions About The Future, 2011 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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 …
Passing Pains: Revenge, Retaliation, And Redirected Aggression In A New Light, 2011 Central Washington University
Passing Pains: Revenge, Retaliation, And Redirected Aggression In A New Light, Lixing Sun
Biology Faculty Scholarship
A review of David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton, Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge, Oxford University Press: New York, 2011, 209 pp., US$24.95, ISBN 019539514X (hardcover).
Parental Precaution: Neurobiological Means And Adaptive Ends, 2011 Chapman University
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 …
Lack Of Rhythmicity In The Honey Bee Queen: An Investigation Of Temporal Behavioral Patterns In Apis Mellifera Ligustica., 2010 East Tennessee State University
Lack Of Rhythmicity In The Honey Bee Queen: An Investigation Of Temporal Behavioral Patterns In Apis Mellifera Ligustica., Jennifer N. Johnson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Little is known about the behavioral patterns of honey bee queens. To determine if mated honey bee queens possess diel rhythmicity in behavior, we observed them in glass-sided observation hives using three types of observation regimes: focal studies consisting of 2-hour and 24-hour continuous observations as well as scan-sampling of multiple queens. All behaviors (active: walking, inspecting, egg-laying, begging for food, feeding, and grooming self; inactive: standing) occurred at all times of day and night, but no queen showed consistent diel rhythmicity in any of the individual behaviors. There were no consistent diel differences in active versus inactive behaviors or …
Molecular Evidence Suggests Multiple Evolutionary Origins Of Sociality In The Polyphenic Spider Anelosimus Studiosus (Araneae: Theridiidae)., 2010 East Tennessee State University
Molecular Evidence Suggests Multiple Evolutionary Origins Of Sociality In The Polyphenic Spider Anelosimus Studiosus (Araneae: Theridiidae)., Nathaniel O. Weber
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Anelosimus studiosus exhibits two behavioral phenotypes: subsocial and social. This is the only documented spider inhabiting a temperate climate exhibiting social behavior. While the subsocial phenotype is most common throughout the range, the social behavior occurs in isolated pockets in northern latitudes. This study examines the origins of the social phenotype within a segment of the spider's range. Two hypotheses are tested: 1) pockets of social behavior represent a single origin or 2) pockets of social behavior represent local evolutions, thus leading to multiple origins of evolution. Microsatellite loci were used to determine genetic structure of the population and to …
Distributions Of Sharks Across A Continental Shelf In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, 2010 Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Distributions Of Sharks Across A Continental Shelf In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, J. Marcus Drymon, Sean P. Powers, John Dindo, Brian Dzwonkowski, Terry A. Henwood
University Faculty and Staff Publications
Declines in shark populations have sparked researchers and fishery managers to investigate more prudent approaches to the conservation of these fish. As managers strive to improve data collection for stock assessment, fisheries-independent surveys have expanded to include data-deficient areas such as coastal regions. To that end, a catch series from a nearshore survey off Alabama was combined with data from a concurrent offshore survey with identical methodology to examine the depth use of sharks across the continental shelf (2–366 m). The combined data set contained 22 species of sharks collected from 1995 to 2008: 21 species in the offshore data …
Coaching Efficacy With Academic Leaders: A Phenomenological Investigation, 2010 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Coaching Efficacy With Academic Leaders: A Phenomenological Investigation, Deanna Lee Vansickel-Peterson
College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The purpose of this psychological phenomenological research was to understand the efficacy of life coaching from the perspective of academic leaders. To date, not one investigation or attempt has been made towards the above stated purpose. This study includes a theoretical overview and a review of the coaching literature from Socrates (469-399 BC) to current day Humanistic theory presented in part by Roger (1902-1987).
This process included data collection from five academic leaders who have been coached for at least two years. Levels of analysis of 365 statements, quote and/or comments produced finding of efficacy in life coaching with academic …
Ecological Effects Of Virus-Resistant Transgenic Squash, 2010 University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Ecological Effects Of Virus-Resistant Transgenic Squash, Holly R. Prendeville
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Two ecological risks associated with the use of transgenic crops include the effects of transgene products on non-target organisms and the effects of a transgene after it moves from crops into a wild plant population. In work presented here, we specifically investigate the ecological risks of virus-resistant transgenic squash. We observed pollinator behavior to determine if pollinators are affected by nontarget effects of the virus-resistant transgene. We found that pollinator behavior did differ between conventional and virus-resistant transgenic squash due to pleiotropic effects of the transgene. This difference in pollinator behavior can affect plant mating patterns, thereby affecting crop-wild hybridization …
Stopover Biology Of Migratory Landbirds In A Heavily Urbanized Landscape, The New York Metropolitan Area, 2010 The University of Western Ontario
Stopover Biology Of Migratory Landbirds In A Heavily Urbanized Landscape, The New York Metropolitan Area, Chad L. Seewagen
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Migration routes of many Nearctic-Neotropical landbirds pass through the most urbanized regions of North America. Migrants use urban habitat fragments as stopover sites and commonly occur in cities at exceptional density. Yet, knowledge of migrant stopover biology and refueling opportunities in such places is severely limited. This dissertation examined several aspects of migrant stopover biology in the New York metropolitan area to gain a more holistic understanding of how migratory landbirds utilize urban stopover sites, and ultimately to assess the quality of urban habitats as stopover sites. I first generated morphometric predictive models using salvaged bird specimens to allow me …
On The Evidence For Species Coexistence: A Critique Of The Coexistence Program, 2010 Dartmouth College
On The Evidence For Species Coexistence: A Critique Of The Coexistence Program, Adam M. Siepielski, Mark A. Mcpeek
Dartmouth Scholarship
A major challenge in ecology is to understand how the millions of species on Earth are organized into biological communities. Mechanisms promoting coexistence are one such class of organizing processes, which allow multiple species to persist in the same trophic level of a given web of species interactions. If some mechanism promotes the coexistence of two or more species, each species must be able to increase when it is rare and the others are at their typical abundances; this invasibility criterion is fundamental evidence for species coexistence regardless of the mechanism. In an attempt to evaluate the level of empirical …
Are Unfamiliar Neighbours Considered To Be Dear-Enemies?, 2010 University of Paris-Sud
Are Unfamiliar Neighbours Considered To Be Dear-Enemies?, Elodie Briefer, Fanny Rybak, Thierry Aubin
Sentience Collection
Background: Discriminating threatening individuals from non-threatening ones allow territory owners to modulate their territorial responses according to the threat posed by each intruder. This ability reduces costs associated with territorial defence. Reduced aggression towards familiar adjacent neighbours, termed the dear-enemy effect, has been shown in numerous species. An important question that has never been investigated is whether territory owners perceive distant neighbours established in the same group as strangers because of their unfamiliarity, or as dear-enemies because of their group membership.
Methodology/Principal Findings: To investigate this question, we played back to male skylarks (Alauda arvensis) songs of adjacent neighbours, distant …
Scraping Behavior In Male White-Tailed Deer As A Potential Means Of Transmitting Chronic Wasting Disease, 2010 University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Scraping Behavior In Male White-Tailed Deer As A Potential Means Of Transmitting Chronic Wasting Disease, Travis C. Kinsell
School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has become a concern for wildlife managers and hunters across the United States. High prevalence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in older male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) suggests that sex-specific social behavior may contribute to the spread of the disease among males. Scraping is a marking behavior performed by male white-tailed deer during the rut in which a pawed depression and associated over-hanging branch are marked with saliva, glandular secretions, urine, and feces. We placed 71 and 35 motion-activated cameras on scrapes in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in western Nebraska and eastern Iowa from …
Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During House Sparrow Copulations, 2010 Grand Valley State University
Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During House Sparrow Copulations, Karen Nyland, Michael Lombardo, Patrick Thorpe
Michael P Lombardo
Most female birds have only a left ovary and associated oviduct. The entry to the oviduct is on the left side of the urodeum of the cloaca. This arrangement may favor males that mount females from the left during copulation if it results in sperm being placed closer to the opening of the oviduct. Therefore, we predicted a left-sided directional bias of cloacal contacts during House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) copulations. Cloacal contacts from the left outnumbered those from the right 74 to 25 (3:1) during 25 bouts of copulation at 11 House Sparrow nests. While this pattern suggests that a …
Homosexual Copulations By Male Tree Swallows, 2010 Grand Valley State University
Homosexual Copulations By Male Tree Swallows, Michael P. Lombardo, Ruth M. Bosman, Christine A. Faro, Stephen G. Houtteman, Timothy S. Kluisza
Michael P Lombardo
Homosexual courtship behavior in non-human animals is well known (Ford and Beach 1980) and occurs in a wide variety of taxa. However, homosexual copulations, especially between males, are less well known. In birds, males mounting other males have been observed in the colonially breeding Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) (Fujioka and Yamagishi 1981) and Common Murre (Uria aalge) (Birkhead et al. 1985, Hatchwell 1988). Neither Fujioka and Yamagishi (1981) nor Birkhead et al. (1985) and Hatchwell (1988) reported whether cloacal contact occurred during their observations of male-male mountings. Here we describe homosexual copulations by male Tree Swallows …