Animal Studies Commons^™

Ecological And Social Drivers Of Mexican Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus Baileyi) Home Range Patterns Across Spatiotemporal Scales, Evelyn M. Lichwa

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Elucidating factors influencing home range size are fundamental relationships that can be described for any wildlife species, particularly those of conservation concern. The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is an endangered sub-species of the gray wolf whose home range patterns have not yet been studied. I estimated home range sizes for 22 Mexican wolf packs using Brownian Bridge Movement Models (95% UD). Generalized linear mixed effect models were used to evaluate environmental and social variables across four timeframes. Annual home range size was inversely related to human density and tree cover. During the denning period, home range …

The Human—Long-Tailed Macaque (Macaca Fascicularis) Interface At Don Chao Poo Forest, Phana, Thailand, Ashton M. Asbury

All Master's Theses

When provisioned food is available, human-macaque coexistence may result in altered macaque behaviors and the possibility of bidirectional disease transmission through interspecies contact. Don Chao Poo forest in Thailand is a conservation site where ~ 1,000 long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) live and interact with people, which includes being provisioned by volunteers and visitors. Phana macaques are habituated to human presence as a result of their frequent interactions with people. I tested whether 1) men and women are equally likely to have contact interactions with macaques, 2) adult and immature macaques are equally likely to have contact interactions with …

Evaluating Compassion Satisfaction And The Risk Of Compassion Fatigue Among Those Working At Non-Human Primate Sanctuaries And Wildlife Centers, Madalyn Rantala

All Master's Theses

Compassion fatigue, an occupational risk commonly associated with caregiving professions, can have adverse effects for individual employee wellbeing, organizational productivity, and the quality of care that patients receive. Within animal-care worker samples, previous research suggests that around 25 percent of employees are at a high risk of developing compassion fatigue (i.e., experiencing burnout and secondary traumatic stress concurrently). To my knowledge, this thesis is the first study to explore compassion fatigue within the primate sanctuary field. Thirty-nine eligible participants completed an online survey that probed professional quality of life via the ProQOL 5, perceived workplace support via the Trauma-Informed Organizational …

Playing With Relatives: Genetic Kinship And Play Behavior In Juvenile Tibetan Macaques, Riley Derby

All Master's Theses

This thesis is composed of a journal-ready article and an accompanying appendix containing data and figures. In this thesis, I statistically analyzed the relationship between player age, player sex, genetic kinship and social play duration in juvenile Tibetan macaques.

Chapter I provides a general introduction and addresses current and past literature on the behavior, ecology and play among macaque genera and Tibetan macaques within this study. I review the fitness benefits of play behavior and the influence of kin selection on macaque social life. Additionally, I review the existing literature on Tibetan macaque play and how the current study will …

Patterning And Quality Of Male-Male Interactions In Hamadryas Baboons (Papio Hamadryas), John Calcitrai

All Master's Theses

The social structure of a primate group is defined as the content, quality, and patterning of interactions and relationships among the members of the social group. Ecological variables, stress physiology, and phylogenetic inertia play a role in regulating measures of interactions and relationships between non-human primates. To examine social dynamics among male hamadryas baboons, video recordings of focal follows of this species were coded for three behavioral categories: self-directed behaviors (SDB), socio-positive behaviors, and agonistic behaviors. The analysis of self-directed behaviors revealed no differences in SDB across males of differing sex classes (i.e., Leader Male, Follower Male, or Solitary Male), …

Extirpation Risk Of The Endangered Golden Langur (Trachypithecus Geei) Inside And Outside Biological Corridors, Langthel Sub-District, Trongsa, Central District Bhutan, Kuenzang Dorji

All Master's Theses

I assessed extirpation risks of the golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) in two landscapes (inside and outside the biological corridor). Working with a team of trained scientists, I collected data on group size, feeding range, sleeping sites, and predation on golden langurs from Langthel sub-districts, Trongsa district, central Bhutan. I used scan sampling to follow 24 groups of golden langurs (15 groups outside and 9 groups inside the biological corridor) to estimate average group sizes in the two landscapes. I confirmed their sleeping sites and recorded the physiognomies of sleep sites and dimensions of the trees used as sleeping …

Biogeographic-Stratigraphic-And-Environmental-Distribution-Of-Basilosaurus-Mammalia-Cetacea-In-North-America-With-A-Review-Of-The-Late-Eocene-Shoreline-In-The-Southeastern-Coastal-Plain, Kathlyn M. Smith, Alexander K. Hastings, Ryan M. Bebej, Mark D. Uhen

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

A new specimen of Basilosaurus cetoides was discovered on the banks of the Flint River in Albany, Georgia, USA, in 2010. This fossil, which was the most complete specimen of the species from Georgia to date, consisted of five nearly complete and two partial post-thoracic vertebrae, tentatively identified as S4 through Ca6. During excavation, however, the site was looted and most of the specimen was lost to science. Nonetheless, we use this discovery as an opportunity to update the current state of knowledge on the stratigraphic, biogeographic, and environmental distribution of Basilosaurus in North America, as well as the position …

Animal Sentience: History, Science, And Politics, Andrew N. Rowan, Joyce M. D'Silva, Ian J.H. Duncan, Nicholas Palmer

Animal Sentience

This target article has three parts. The first briefly reviews the thinking about nonhuman animals’ sentience in the Western canon: what we might know about their capacity for feeling, leading up to Bentham’s famous question “can they suffer?” The second part sketches the modern development of animal welfare science and the role that animal-sentience considerations have played therein. The third part describes the launching, by Compassion in World Farming, of efforts to incorporate animal sentience language into public policy and regulations concerning human treatment of animals.

Effects Of Human-Animal Interactions On Affect And Cognition, Elise L. Thayer, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Human-animal interaction has clear positive effects on people’s affect and stress. But less is known about how animal interactions influence cognition. We draw parallels between animal interactions and exposure to natural environments, a research area that shows clear improvements in cognitive performance. The aim of this study is to investigate whether interacting with animals similarly enhances cognitive performance, specifically executive functioning. To test this, we conducted two experiments in which we had participants self-report their affect and complete a series of cognitive tasks (long-term memory, attentional control, and working memory) before and after either a brief interaction with a dog …

Buffalo In The Mountains: Mapping Evidence Of Historical Bison Prescence And Bison Hunting In Glacier National Park, Kyle Langley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explores 10,000+ years of bison presence and bison hunting within Glacier National Park. Despite significant faunal evidence of bison presence in the area, few people today associate bison with Glacier National Park. Previous archaeological studies have found bison faunal remains and evidence of bison hunting throughout the eastern half of the park going back thousands of years. Furthermore, local tribes such as the Kootenai and Blackfeet maintain oral traditions that detail ancestral hunting strategies and practice in the region. This project reviews all of these sources to contextualize the archaeological signatures of bison and tell the story of …

A Comparative Perspective On Three Primate Species’ Responses To A Pictorial Emotional Stroop Task, Lydia M. Hopper, Matthias Allritz, Crystal L. Egelkamp, Sarah M. Huskisson, Sarah L. Jacobson, Jesse G. Leinwand, Stephen R. Ross

Publications and Research

The Stroop effect describes interference in cognitive processing due to competing cognitive demands. Presenting emotionally laden stimuli creates similar Stroop-like effects that result from participants’ attention being drawn to distractor stimuli. Here, we adapted the methods of a pictorial Stroop study for use with chimpanzees (N = 6), gorillas (N = 7), and Japanese macaques (N = 6). We tested all subjects via touchscreens following the same protocol. Ten of the 19 subjects passed pre-test training. Subjects who reached criterion were then tested on a standard color-interference Stroop test, which revealed differential accuracy in the primates’ responses across conditions. Next, …

Corticostriatal Pathway Inactivation And Connections To Associative Learning With Nicotine Stimulus In Rats, Anna Kalinowski

Honors Theses and Capstones

The main concern of this study is looking into the neural mechanisms of associative learning with a nicotine stimulus. The goal of this study was to find out if inactivating the corticostriatal pathway through DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) inhibited goal-tracking behavior in rats. In this experiment, rats underwent two surgeries. One was to inject DREADDs into the infralimbic cortex and the other in the dorsomedial caudate-putamen (dmCPu). Rats were initially trained on levers through water deprivation. Once they reached the criterion, they moved on to the self-administration phase. After the rats were trained in self-administration sessions …

Are Giant Pandas (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca) Averse To Inequity?, Miranda R. Trapani

Theses and Dissertations

Inequity aversion, a negative response to situations of unequal reward distribution, is a cognitive trait usually seen in social species. This capacity is thought to regulate cooperative relationships in intelligent, cognitively flexible animals. Giant pandas are a unique case in that wild populations are characterized as nonsocial, however captive populations are socially housed until sexual maturity. This allows for the study of a nonsocial species in a social context and thus the assessment of socio-cognitive flexibility across evolutionarily distant taxa. Here, we assessed whether the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) displays inequity aversion by testing ten juveniles living at …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Behavioral Differences Among Varyingly-Disturbed Populations Of Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus Giganteus) In New South Wales, Australia, Francesca A. Iacobucci

Theses and Dissertations

Despite their iconic status, kangaroo spp. are often treated as pests in Australia due to perceived abundance and extensive grazing behaviors. With growing suburbanization, animals such as kangaroo spp., are forced to inhabit human-dominated areas. Little research has been done examining how different aspects of human-induced disturbance can varyingly affect the behavior of wild animals. Specifically, this study examined how varyingly-disturbed areas affect behaviors such as vigilance, foraging, joey emergence during the in/out stage of pouch emergence, and play in three eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) populations. Results suggest that acute environmental disturbances (e.g., dogs barking or …

Tools For Thought: Artifacts From The History Of Comparative Psychology, Dylan Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the history of comparative psychology through close readings of apparatuses used in seminal experiments on animal behavior, drawing connections between seemingly disparate areas of human culture—including art, architecture, mythology, and economics—and the development of the science, with a particular focus on behaviorist and cognitive approaches.

Evidence Of Incipient Song Divergence In A Hawaiian Population Of Warbling White-Eyes, Jesse D. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Natural or human-mediated founder events can lead to changes in avian communication signals, potentially impacting the trajectory of evolution. Warbling white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) was introduced from Japan to the Hawaiian Islands between 1929 – ca. 1937. I recorded primary songs in Hawai‘i (O‘ahu, Big Island) and collected archival recordings, then conducted a comparative analysis between introduced and native song types which revealed significant differences in the O‘ahu and Big Island populations. To test for behavioral responses that corresponded to these differences, I presented conspecific playback stimuli (intra-island, inter-island, native) to individuals in Hawai‘i (O‘ahu, Big Island). Big Island individuals increased …

Supporting Farmer Adoption Of Sustainable Bird Management Strategies, Catherine A. Lindell

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Pest birds cause substantial and costly damage to crops. Managing birds is complex because (1) they are highly mobile, (2) they habituate quickly to many deterrents, (3) some species provide benefits to farmers by deterring and consuming pest insects, rodents, and other birds, and (4) birds are highly valued by many people. Thus, farmers have many issues to consider when developing bird management strategies. Here I discuss recent work indicating that farmer adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is more likely when practices are effective, clear guidelines for implementation are available, implementation is relatively easy, and when practices are linked, in …

Repellent Surface Applications For Pest Birds, Shelagh T. Deliberto, James C. Carlson, Hailey E. Mclean, Caroline S. Olson, Scott J. Werner

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Common pest birds in the United States include the non-native European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), and the pigeon (Columba livia domestica), as well as native birds including Canada geese (Branta canadensis) and gull species (Laridae). Large concentrations of pest birds can create human health hazards and monetary losses due to consumption of crops, depredation, and fecal contamination and accumulation. Fecal contamination hazards include the potential spread of zoonotic diseases including antimicrobial-resistant zoonoses and human injury due to the accumulation of fecal material on walking surfaces. Additionally, fecal accumulation causes …

Wildlife Trade And Covid-19: Towards A Criminology Of Anthropogenic Pathogen Spillover, Piers Beirne Phd

Department of Criminology

The general remit of this paper is the role of wildlife trade in pathogen spillover. Its underlying assumption is that, so far from being the exclusive domain of the life sciences, the study of pathogen spillover will be greatly enhanced by multi-perspectival approaches, including One Health and those employed here, namely, non-speciesist green criminology and critical animal studies. The paper moves from discussions of zoonosis, anthroponosis and wildlife trade to the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The paper recommends the abolition of all wildlife trade and the reclamation of wildlife habitat and broaches discussion of the extension of legal …