Download or read book Behavioral and Metabolic Responses of the Southern Red backed Salamander Plethodon Serratus to Predatory Stimuli written by Nathan L. Windel and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Behavioral Syndrome in the Southern Red backed Salamander Plethodon Serratus written by Travis West Reeder and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals generally are predicted to behave in ways that are presumed to maximize fitness, such as retreating at the sign of a predator or being aggressive in mating competitions and territorial conflicts. However, responses to specific stimuli can be highly variable, which in part can be explained by individual "personalities" or "behavioral syndromes". There has been little study concerning whether behavioral syndromes are stable or can be modified by personal experience. In this study, I compared behavior of adult southern red-backed salamanders (Plethodon serratus) in two contexts: (1) exploring unfamiliar territory, and (2) learning to adopt a foraging task. A behavioral syndrome was present for females; individuals that excelled in the foraging task also had a tendency to travel greater distances from their territories compared to individuals that were less successful in the foraging task. In contrast, males failed to show any consistency in behaviors between the two contexts. Operant conditioning experiments tested whether negative reinforcement influenced the behavioral syndrome of females. Within-context changes in behavior were weak, but there were significant changes in cross-context behavior suggesting behavioral syndrome instability in these salamanders. These results could help explain why the syndrome is absent in males, and raises questions regarding the evolution of behavioral syndromes.
Download or read book Behavioral Ecology of the Eastern Red backed Salamander written by Robert G. Jaeger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-04 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The small, terrestrial eastern red-backed salamander is abundant on many forest floors of northeastern North America. Dr. Robert Jaeger and many of his graduate students spent over 50 years studying this species in New York and Virginia, using ecological techniques in forests and behavioral experiments in laboratory chambers in an attempt to understand how this species interacts with other species in the forest and the components of its intra- and intersexual social behaviors. The competitive and social behaviors of this species are unusually complex for an amphibian. This species is highly aggressive towards other similar-size species where they cohabit in forests, often leading to very little geographic overlap between the species. The authors examine the fascinating behavioral traits of this species including social monogamy, mutual mate guarding, sexual coercion, inter-species communication, and conflict resolution.
Download or read book Response of Salamanders to Chemical Stimuli from Predators in Natural Habitats written by Caleb R. Hickman and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Salty Compromise written by Randolph Viola and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many amphibians are bound to a nearby freshwater source such as lakes and vernal pools. Often times, this is because they are fully aquatic; if they are partially terrestrial, they still need freshwater bodies to lay their eggs in a suitable environment. With the constant use of road salt as a deicer during snowing periods, the subsequent runoff has negatively altered nearby soil and water sources. Amphibians, with their permeable skin, are at great risk of desiccation if exposed to a hyperosmotic environment caused by this application. However, some plethodontid salamanders deviate from this restrictive norm by living as dedicated terrestrials. Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus), a common plethodontid species, have the capacity to relocate to a less salty region whereas freshwater-bound amphibians are mostly confined. Few studies have examined the increased salinity on soil and the potential for terrestrial amphibians to actually react and relocate to a better setting. In this study, red-backed salamanders were placed on a surface that would vary in salinity from 0 to 0.5 M NaCl and the other with aged tap water of 0 M NaCl. As the salinity of the test side increased, salamanders behaviorally responded by spending less time there with the threshold tolerance of about 0.167 M NaCl. To examine their response to multiple regions with different salinity concentrations, they were placed in an enclosed track with 6 patches of salinity from 0 to 0.25 M NaCl for one hour. Although red- backed salamanders had a bias for the end-patches of the tracks, they were able to move from previously preferred patches to patches that contained lower salinity levels. The threshold of tolerance was 0.148 M NaCl for salamanders in this experiment; it differed from the previous 0.167 M NaCl possibly because of a smaller range among applied concentrations. This suggests that red-backed salamanders have the behavioral aptitude to determine which areas have increased salinity and avoid them when apparent. As a result, red-backed salamanders may be able to determine appropriate sites for individual territories and persist as a population. This study provides more insight on the repercussions of road salt on terrestrial amphibians, and will aid in examining the conservation efforts needed for species that are the most at risk of this anthropogenic consequence.
Download or read book Behavioral and Metabolic Responses of Juvenile Spotted Salamanders Ambystoma Maculatum to Alarm Cues from Damaged Skin and Predator Diet written by Robert L. Hunt and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fitness can be maximized for individuals that are able to assess the level of predation risk and perform appropriate antipredator behaviors when predation risk is high. I investigated the ability of lab-reared juvenile spotted salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum, to assess predation risk via chemical alarm cues and substrate markings from predators fed different diets. In the alarm-cue experiment, salamanders avoided substrates marked with alarm cues but not from noninjured conspecifics or alarm stimuli from heterospecifics. Snakes that had recently consumed salamanders might represent a greater threat than snakes that had consumed other prey, but salamanders did not discriminate between markings of water snake predators fed different diets in any of the three experiments (i.e., no differences in avoidance, foraging or oxygen consumption). However, salamanders tended to avoid (P = 0.054) cues from water snakes regardless of diet and showed longer latencies to feed when exposed to chemical stimuli from snakes. Data for oxygen consumption are only preliminary due to low sample size; additional data are required before definitive conclusions can be made. Overall, chemical cues associated with predation risk are likely to play an important role in the ecology of post-metamorphic spotted salamanders.
Download or read book Reptile Biodiversity written by Roy W. McDiarmid and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Authoritative and comprehensive—provides an up-to-date description of the tool box of methods for inventorying and monitoring the diverse spectrum of reptiles. All biodiversity scientists will want to have it during project planning and as study progresses. A must for field biologists, conservation planners, and biodiversity managers.”—Jay M. Savage, San Diego State University “Kudos to the editors and contributors to this book. From the perspective of a non-ecologist such as myself, who only occasionally needs to intensively sample a particular site or habitat, the quality and clarity of this book has been well worth the wait.”—Jack W. Sites, Jr.
Download or read book Biological Adhesives written by Andrew M. Smith and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-01-12 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many creatures use adhesive polymers and structures to attach to inert substrates, to each other, or to other organisms. This is the first major review that brings together research on many of the well-known biological adhesives dealing with bacteria, fungi, algae, and marine and terrestrial animals. As we learn more about their molecular and mechanical properties we begin to understand why they adhere so well and with this comes broad applications in areas such as medicine, dentistry, and biotechnology.
Download or read book Ouachita and Ozark Mountains Symposium written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents 5-year results of silvicultural treatments associated with ecosystem management research in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Results from stand-level treatments include regeneration dynamics of pine and hardwood species, effects of treatment on birds and small mammals, mast production, visual quality, oak decline, and organic matter. Pretreatment landscape findings include measurements of woody vegetation; birds, mammals, and herpetofauna; fish communities and trophic structure; hydrology; and evaluation of susceptibility to gypsy moth outbreaks.
Download or read book A Natural History of Amphibians written by Robert C. Stebbins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1997-01-26 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amphibia, the animal group that includes frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians, contains more than 4,500 known living species and new ones are being discovered continuously. This book focuses on the natural history of amphibians worldwide, how interaction with their environment over time has affected their evolutionary processes and what factors will determine their destinies. 37 photos. 52 line illus.
Download or read book The Science of Speleology written by Trevor David Ford and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Old World Ratsnakes written by Klaus-Dieter Schulz and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Environmental Physiology of the Amphibians written by Martin E. Feder and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-10-15 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through its emphasis on recent research, its many summary tables, and its bibliography of more than 4,000 entries, this first modern, synthetic treatment of comparative amphibian environmental physiology emerges as the definitive reference for the field. Forty internationally respected experts review the primary data, examine current research trends, and identify productive avenues for future research.
Download or read book Behavioral Endocrinology written by Jill B. Becker and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 812 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of a popular introduction to the field of behavioral endocrinology.
Download or read book Migration written by Hugh Dingle and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Migration, broadly defined as directional movement to take advantage of spatially distributed resources, is a dramatic behaviour and an important component of many life histories that can contribute to the fundamental structuring of ecosystems. In recent years, our understanding of migration has advanced radically with respect to both new data and conceptual understanding. It is now almost twenty years since publication of the first edition, and an authoritative and up-to-date sequel that provides a taxonomically comprehensive overview of the latest research is therefore timely. The emphasis throughout this advanced textbook is on the definition and description of migratory behaviour, its ecological outcomes for individuals, populations, and communities, and how these outcomes lead to natural selection acting on the behaviour to cause its evolution. It takes a truly integrative approach, showing how comparisons across a diversity of organisms and biological disciplines can illuminate migratory life cycles, their evolution, and the relation of migration to other movements. Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move focuses on migration as a behavioural phenomenon with important ecological consequences for organisms as diverse as aphids, butterflies, birds and whales. It is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking courses in behaviour, spatial ecology, 'movement ecology', and conservation. It will also be of interest and use to a broader audience of professional ecologists and behaviourists seeking an authoritative overview of this rapidly expanding field.
Download or read book A Structure for Population Education written by Mary Turner Lane and published by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center. This book was released on 1974 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bound Lives written by Rachel Sarah O'Toole and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2012-04-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bound Lives chronicles the lived experience of race relations in northern coastal Peru during the colonial era. Rachel Sarah O'Toole examines how Andeans and Africans negotiated and employed casta, and in doing so, constructed these racial categories. Royal and viceregal authorities separated "Indians" from "blacks" by defining each to specific labor demands. Casta categories did the work of race, yet, not all casta categories did the same type of work since Andeans, Africans, and their descendants were bound by their locations within colonialism and slavery. The secular colonial legal system clearly favored indigenous populations. Andeans were afforded greater protections as "threatened" native vassals. Despite this, in the 1640s during the rise of sugar production, Andeans were driven from their assigned colonial towns and communal property by a land privatization program. Andeans did not disappear, however; they worked as artisans, muleteers, and laborers for hire. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Andeans employed their legal status as Indians to defend their prerogatives to political representation that included the policing of Africans. As rural slaves, Africans often found themselves outside the bounds of secular law and subject to the judgments of local slaveholding authorities. Africans therefore developed a rhetoric of valuation within the market and claimed new kinships to protect themselves in disputes with their captors and in slave-trading negotiations. Africans countered slaveholders' claims on their time, overt supervision of their labor, and control of their rest moments by invoking customary practices. Bound Lives offers an entirely new perspective on racial identities in colonial Peru. It highlights the tenuous interactions of colonial authorities, indigenous communities, and enslaved populations and shows how the interplay between colonial law and daily practice shaped the nature of colonialism and slavery.
