Animal Studies Commons^™

Finding Identity In The Intersections: Transnational Feminism And The Non-Human Primate, Kailyn Carr

Honors Theses

This project examines how the conversations among feminism and primatology offers a unique critical lens into how “man” dominates other identities, whether that be woman or non-human primate, specifically within the rigid colonial structures of Western society. Donna Haraway’s landmark post-humanist work joins these conversations, especially with her earlier work Primate Visions and Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. While Haraway has changed the narrative surrounding feminist theory within the biological sciences – what has now become recognized as feminist science and technology studies –, this shift in perspective continues to emphasize Western ideological practices and their attention to primatology. My …

Winner And Loser Effects In Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina Portentosa), Casey Mack

Honors Theses

Winner and loser effects have been documented in many species throughout the animal kingdom, but have yet to be investigated in Madagascar hissing cockroaches. This study seeks to determine if winner or loser effects are present in Madagascar hissing cockroaches. In Experiment 1, three subjects won a training contest and three subjects lost a training contest. Training contest winner and training contest loser subjects were then paired up in test contests. Four of the 6 subjects showed test contest outcomes consistent with their training contest outcomes, but the overall conclusions were ambiguous due to the small sample size. Whether the …

Conditioned Territory Defense In Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina Portentosa), Macy R. Albaitis

Honors Theses

In male blue gourami fish (Trichogaster trichopterus), signaled presentation of a male rival produces an aggressive conditioned response that results in an increased likelihood of the male winning the contest (Hollis, 1984). I replicated this classic study in a species that also shows territorial aggression: the Madagascar hissing cockroach (MHC; Gromphadorhina portentosa). During training, four adult male MHCs were designated as “CS+” animals and received a light (NS) followed by visual access to a rival male (US). Simultaneously, another group of four adult male MHCs designated as “UNC” animals received the light (NS) and visual access to a …

Activity Levels Of Bat Species At Interstate Highway Sites With And Without Wildlife Underpasses In The Washington Cascades, Jenna Chapman

All Master's Theses

Roads force wildlife to navigate degraded and fragmented habitats across the globe, creating barriers to movement and increasing the risk of mortality. This includes bats, whose movements between foraging and roosting habitats may be impeded by roads. Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) are a common mitigation strategy to increase connectivity, but investigation into bat activity in and around these structures is limited. I investigated bat species presence and activity along Interstate-90 in the Cascade Range of Washington State. My goal was to test whether all bat species found in the nearby forest were also active along the highway, and whether bat …

Impact Of Early Life Stress And Cannabidiol On Behavior And Corticosterone Levels In Male And Female Rats, Marina Yacoub

Capstone Showcase

Organisms must maintain homeostasis that is regulated internally and externally. Fluctuation in homeostasis causes stress. Corticosterone, the main stress hormone in rodents, increases following exposure to acute stressors, such as being placed in a restrainer. However, early developmental experiences including maternal separation shape the development of the stress response into adulthood and impact the expression of depressive and anxiety-like behaviors. Many factors can shape the body's response to stress, for example, a rodent's previous exposure to a past stressor can affect their present behavior. Several studies have shown that female rats have lower or no changes in corticosterone levels compared …

Motivated Science: What Humans Gain From Denying Animal Sentience, Uri Lifshin

Animal Sentience

Resistance to the idea that non-human animals are sentient resembles erstwhile resistance to the theory that the earth is not the centre of the universe, or that humans evolved from “apes”. All these notions are psychologically threatening. They can remind people of their own creatureliness and mortality and might make them feel guilty or uncertain about their way of life. An honest debate over animal sentience, welfare and rights should consider the human motivation to deprive animals of these things in the first place. I briefly review empirical evidence on the psychological function of denying animal minds.

Grizzly Bear Attractant Policies In Montana: How Regulations, Recommendations, And Resources Differ Among And Between Recovery Areas, Kenneth J. Edmo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Edmo, Kenneth, M.S, Autumn 2022 Resource Conservation

Grizzly bear attractant policies in Montana: how regulations, recommendations, and resources differ among and between recovery areas

Chairperson or Co-Chairperson: Alexander L. Metcalf & Chad J. Bishop

Abstract

Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) are a keystone species and play an important role in their environment. After near extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implemented a recovery plan of six recovery zones to increase grizzly populations. Although these efforts allowed grizzly bear numbers to increase, so too have human-grizzly bear conflicts, significantly challenging agencies in charge of bear management. A concern …

The Effects Of Venlafaxine And Voluntary Exercise On Chronic Unpredictable Stress Induced Anxiety, Marly Mcgowan

Senior Independent Study Theses

Anxiety disorders can impair cognition and emotional control, particularly in the face of novel situations, which is concerning due to the high prevalence of such diagnoses. Exposure to unpredictable chronic stress can provide a way to induce anxiety-like behaviors in rodents by disrupting the stress response systems, including the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system. Pharmacological treatments, including SNRIs like venlafaxine, and voluntary exercise are both anxiolytic treatments that can alleviate the impacts of chronic stress. Using unpredictable chronic stress to mimic the human condition, and exposure to venlafaxine and exercise to mitigate the stress, the open field and elevated …

Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement To Achieve The Sustainable Management Of Free-Roaming Equids, Celeste Carlisle, Dan Adams

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Wild horse (Equus caballus) and burro (E. asinus; WHB) stakeholders in the American West are divergent in their views of free-roaming equids on public lands. Management authority for free-roaming equids on designated public lands was given to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in 1971 by U.S. Congress with the passing of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA). In 1976, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) mandated the BLM to manage public lands for multiple-uses, which included livestock grazing, energy development, recreation, and timber harvest. …

Symbiotic Relationship Between Local People And Asiatic Black Bears, Jangchuk Gyeltshen

Human–Wildlife Interactions

There are 8 species of bears (Ursidae) in the world; of these, 6 species are known to occur in Asia. However, in Bhutan, there are only 2 species: the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and the sloth bear (Melursus ursinus). The Asiatic black bear is legally protected by the Forest and Nature Conservation Act of Bhutan 1995. The bear is categorized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and also included under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Human–bear conflicts are prevalent in Bhutan, especially at the village …

A Monte Carlo Simulation Of Rat Choice Behavior With Interdependent Outcomes, Michelle A. Frankot

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Preclinical behavioral neuroscience often uses choice paradigms to capture psychiatric symptoms. In particular, the subfield of operant research produces nested datasets with many discrete choices in a session. The standard analytic practice is to aggregate choice into a continuous variable and analyze using ANOVA or linear regression. However, choice data often have multiple interdependent outcomes of interest, violating an assumption of general linear models. The aim of the current study was to quantify the accuracy of linear mixed-effects regression (LMER) for analyzing data from a 4-choice operant task called the Rodent Gambling Task (RGT), which measures decision-making in the context …

Examining The Function Of Stone Wrapping Behavioral Pattern In Balinese Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca Fascicularis), Patricia Mitchell

All Master's Theses

Long-tailed macaques (LTMs, Macaca fascicularis) have multiple stone handling (SH) patterns that vary in form and complexity across different populations, but little is known about the group of Balinese LTM’s motivation to wrap stones in the Monkey Forest of Ubud, Indonesia. This study focuses on whether the SH pattern, wrap (WRP), is an object play behavior with the potential of becoming a more functionally complex behavior (e.g., tool use). SH sequences were collected using all-occurrence and focal sampling and examined using the program Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS). In total, 322 minutes of footage were reviewed for both stones …

Behavioral Differences In Urban Sciurus Carolinensis With Varying Human Exposure As A Model For Synanthropic Human-Animal Relationships, Tiffany M. Jordan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Synanthropic animals are considered a halfway point between wild and domestic animals that live in urban environments and depend on humans for their survival. Sciurus carolinensis, the eastern gray squirrel, symbolizes a distinctive coexistence between human and wildlife as they are commonly fed in parks and gardens. They are native to the eastern United States. Where they are invasive, they are found only in urban areas and not in rural or wildlife areas. This study examined how different levels of human exposure impact the behavior of S. carolinensis in its non-native range from two different perspectives by using flight initiation …

Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations

Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …

Jati Kutta: The Street Dog, The Servant, And Me, Lisa Warden Phd

Between the Species

Caste, class, race, and species collide in this narrative nonfiction piece about an injured street dog, his foreign rescuer, and her Dalit housekeeper in Ahmedabad, India.

The Therapeutic And Psychosocial Effects Of Pets On Individuals In The Usa, Ashley Lytle

Honors Projects

The prevalence of animals in people's lives is ever growing. Many pet owners see their pets as members of their family. Animals can improve one's well being both physically and mentally. They have been used in therapeutic practices, both in one-on-one sessions and group settings. While there are several benefits to owning a pet, they can cause barriers to accessing healthcare and housing, and can be a deterrent to leaving abusive situations. The two roles pets play in people's lives creates a dynamic that is prevalent to several professional fields including social work. Social workers have already begun to acknowledge …

Studies Of Avian Nasal Mites (Acari: Rhinonyssidae And Ereynetidae) And Their Interaction With The Brood Parasite Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus Ater: Icteridae) And Phylogenetic Inferences Of The Genus Ptilonyssus (Rhinonyssidae) On Different Passerine Hosts Associated To Three States In The Us, Alexis D. Hilario Perez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nasal mites are endoparasites that spend their entire life cycle inside the nasal cavities and respiratory passages of birds. The Brown-Headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) (BHCO) is an icterid bird that uses brood parasitism as a reproductive strategy in which it lays an egg in the nest of a different bird species and allows the host to raise its young. Interestingly, nasal mites reported from cowbirds represent the same species found infesting other icterids and other common host groups. In the first study, I examined how diversity and host prevalence might change in a large sample size of BHCO associated with …

Pets And Problems: Exploring Community Patterns In Calls For Animal Services, Paige Dejarnett

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pets have historically been viewed as family members, children, property, or economic resources. However, research surrounding animal maltreatment has expressed this issue as an individually-based problem, rather than a community-based phenomenon. Correlations have been found between animal cruelty, antisocial behaviors, and future interpersonal violence, whether this correlation be a predictive relationship, or a resultant relationship. Past research has also found correlations between animal treatment practices and the rural/urban differences of this behavior. However, there are many community-based indicators that have not been explored to understand the distribution of animal maltreatment. This study aims to explore these ideas by analyzing the …

Canine Microwear In Relation To Diet In Sumatran Primates And African Great Apes, Putu Pujiantari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers canine microwear in relation to diet in five Sumatran primates (Pongo abelii, Hylobates lar, Hylobates agilis, Presbytis thomasi, and Macaca fascicularis) and two African great apes (Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) using both microwear texture analysis and microwear feature analysis techniques. Statistical results for texture analysis show that there are significant differences in scale of maximum and heterogeneity. This indicates that some species have large pits on their canine surfaces, having these dominated by deep features at coarse scale yet have a slight microwear heterogeneity. For feature analysis, all variables show statistically significant variation. Variance in …

An Assessment Of The Neurovascular Structures Of The Trigeminal Nerve And Their Relationship To Diet In Primates, Caitlin Yoakum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) enters the mandible via the mental foramen, supplies nervous sensation to the mandibular teeth as it travels through the mandibular canal, and exits the mandibular foramen to send information to the brain to maintain chewing cycles and protect the teeth from damage. Although bony canals and foramina have been shown to form around soft-tissue structures, there are some examples (e.g., the hypoglossal nerve/canal) where the nervous structures do not comprise most of the canal/foramina space. It is important to know the size of nerves because it has been established that larger nerves convey more information …