FINAL EXAM- Conservation Flashcards
purpose of conservation behaviour?
to understand behaviour in order to help in conservation efforts, and visa versa
=multidisciplinary
Ex-situ conservation
=extract animal from wild and work with in captivity
Ex. take eggs to zoo and raise until hatching, keep young until ready to be released
reintroduction
Ex. reintroduction of Canadian wolves in Yellowstone national park
translocation
not taking from environment where going to go back, take from one place and transplant into totally new one
can interfere with genetic diversity
examples of issues dealing with conservation behavior (4)
- ex-situ conservation
- reintroduction
- translocation
- anthropogenic impact and urban/ suburban issues
examples of application of ‘active adaptive management’ (4)
- soft release pens (transitions)
- pre-release predator training (train to hunt on own)
- predator harassment (hunters are trying to reduce predators as seen as competition, so we try and protect predators)
- hazing (aversive control)
- predators are target as becoming a problem themselves)
examples of application of ‘passive adaptive management’
- from historical data or from uncontrolled experiments
- qualitative research, sometimes may influence policy
considerations in terms of management vs. ethical issues
- Colorado lynx- starved on release as not sustainable
2. anthropogenic impacts: boats and whales, howling at wolves in national parks
what are invasive species, and how do you deal with them?
-control of invasive species is growing problem, becomes a conservation issue
- Pest= brown spruce longhorn beetle from Europe, emerald ash borer from Asia
- sometimes create, other times just occur naturally
-dealing with them: repelling animals or attracting animals (e.g. using pheromone traps)
describe proximate/ proximal questions
=how?
mechanisms and development
physiological mechanisms/ things don’t see
causal mechanisms
close to you/ animals in time and space
describe distal/ ultimate questions
=why?
evolution and adaptation (function)
what is the fifth category of questioning/ research?
=IEC/ICE
integrative and applied ethology
beyond fundamental principles
full integration of proximate and ultimate
Steps of conservation research (9)
- define problem
- define question
- develop focused hypothesis and predictions
- identify IV and DV
- identify and develop sampling and measurement techniques
- select analytic tools
- answer question and apply answers to problem
- explain how new data applies to problem
- apply the results
what are behavioral mechanisms about?
-about causation, physiology, neuroscience, cognition, affective processes, etc.
=drive/ cause a behavior
defined as ‘rules’
proximate (proximal) causation/ ‘how’ questions
examples of behavioral mechanisms (5)
- temperature dependent sex determination
- sex ratio manipulation of female body condition
- mechanisms of predation risk assessment
- mechanisms of food selection
- ethotoxicology/ behavioural ecotoxicology (effect of neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors on conservation relevant behaviours)
within-individual diversity hypothesis vs. among-individual diversity hypothesis
within- individual diversity hypothesis= increase in number of food items to exploit, look at prey not considered before
among-individual diversity hypothesis= specialization in food items in some individuals, don’t adjust/ adapt at all
major perspectives of behavioral ecotoxicology (3)
- behavioral neuro–> neurotoxins
- behavioral endocrinology–> endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC)
- behavioral ecology/ physiological ecology–> adaptation (or lack of) to hostile environments
origins of behavioral ecotoxicology?
- behavioral toxicology (lab oriented, started with study of heavy metals)
- behavioral ecotoxicology= field oriented
- ethotoxicology= like ecotoxicology but more grounded in ethology
early years and findings in regards to DDT
- estrogenic effects of DDT (act like estrogen agonists)
- impact of DDT on Florida bald eagles –> lead poisoning from ingesting carcases with ammunition in them
- behavioral changes from nesting, courtship and reproductions
main contributions of (neuro)ethologists
- knowledge of species and their natural action sequences (i.e. their potential as model systems)
- knowledge of techniques and tools for:
- the detailed description of behaviors (ethograms)
- the detailed analysis of behavior patterns - knowledge of relevant neurophysiological and endocrinological mechanisms
what are the two levels of analysis?
- Macrostructure= current trend
- Microstructure (frame-by-frame analysis)= proximate/ physiological factors, how behavior changed by environmental conditions such as neurotoxins
what test can be used in order to analyse the mamichog?
=open pool test (shallow water divided into 5 equal regions)–> middle suggests less fearful
motor activity examined:
-number of line crosses, velocity, space utilization, time spent in center, etc.
what makes a mamichog a good model system and why should it be looked at?
extraordinary physiological and behavioral adaptability/ plasticity
only living fish species found in Sydney tar ponds (Canadas most toxic site)
over-winters in mud of salt marshes: exposed to contaminates accumulated in sediments
contributes to contamination of predatory species as low in food chain
amenable to field experiments (e.g. onsite caging exposure)
easily captured with minnow traps or seines
what is a common model system for ecotoxicology research?
=the mamichog ( common killifish)
- females larger than males
- extremely resistant to neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors
-Estuarine species- transition water
- Eurytopic species -resistant to changes in environment
- Euryhaline- tolerant to changes in salinity
- euryoxin- tolerant to changes in oxygen
- eurythermal- tolerant to changes in temperature
definition of estuarine
species that lives in transition waters
definition of eurytopic
species that is resistant to changes in environment
what is a potential alternative model to a mamichog (advantages and disadvantages)?
=Stickleback (estuarine, brackish water fish)
Advantages:
- know more about its genetics
- more sensitive to environmental disturbances, less resilient (mamichog may be too resilient)
- hundred of relevant behavioral studies
Disadvantages:
-size (half size of mamichog
comparative research
- systematic, study 2 species at the same time and compare
- focus on explicit comparisons of observable traits between species
- between group design and cross correlational are common
- can be correlational, observational, experimental, or hybrid
-usually combine comparative with contrastive approach
meta-analysis
statistical approach that compares different studies
analogy/ homoplasy
similarities from convergent evolution, parallel evolution or environmental factors
monogamous behaviour, no common ancestor, adaptation to environmental constraints
homology
similarities from divergent evolution, linear (serial) evolution, or common ancestor, shared characteristics
allometric analyses
study of the relationship of body size to the phenotype
why perform a comparative study?
knowledge about a rare species may benefit from ‘by proxy’ or ‘surrogate’ species that are closely relation
-can study similar species in similar environment but not endangered
Ex. southern vs. northern flying squirrel
-southern=smaller
Ex. bobcat study to understand Canada lynx
but must understand the whole phenotype
the comparative method can be used for … (2)
- explicit hypothesis testing (experimental)
2. analytic descriptions (observational and often correlational)
Explain the results of this example of a comparative study: The Barash study on the genus Marmota
- comparison between 3 species
- social behavior and dispersal pattern has to do with environment they live in (elevation)
- when less food, young take longer to disperse, colonial system is an advantage
- aggressiveness is key factor for dispersal and food resources will determine the level of aggressiveness
limitations of comparative method
- no species B
- no environment 2
- no species B and environment 2
- no interspecific variation within taxon
5 behavioral trait or neural characteristic…
a. doesn’t characterize the taxonomic unit
b. does not characterize environment
c. both
what is meant by the price elasticity of demand?
-want to assess the value of an item for an animal; look at effort and choices when provided with them (can use choice experiments)
- what is highly valued= more effort
- can also evaluate repellants (give just as much info)
simultaneous choice experiments (pros and cons)
PRO: allows for immediate comparisons
CON: covariation can be infinite. controls are crucial
simultaneous choice experiment (cons)
CON: counterbalancing issues and order effects
what is important when it comes to patch selection?
- association with fitness, reproductive success and survival
- idea that have to be good at choosing patches that are most beneficial (lowest energy output with most optimal energy input)
define a ‘sink’
=low quality habitat, patches where animals do not do well
- areas not optimal from a dietary perspective
- some species fall for sinks, spend a lot of time on food with low energy benefits
- sometimes is just temporary, until patch opens up in source
we as humans create a lot of them
ideal free distribution
=patched with more resources see more animals in these patches
ideal despotic distribution
=typically dominant animals hold the most high quality patches (fitness higher in high quality patches and therefore try to hold onto them)
summer-regulated populations
high numbers in the summer influence numbers the following year (including imposing over population)
winter-regulated populations
high summer numbers are reduced in the water (starvation, hypothermia)
what is a way in which humans disturb patch selection?
create artificial environments whereby an area looks good but may be low in terms of good feeding (ex. suddenly depend on junk food provided by humans)
by what means do humans attract the presence of wildlife?
- direct feeding= on purpose, usually with good intentions, but can cause many species to converge in same area (bad for disease spread)
- indirect feeding= usually bad management of garbage
what two species thrive on the presence of humans?
- raccoons
2. coyotes
what are the effects of crowding?
- increase in competition, conflict an aggression
- increase in social stress
–> leads to reproductive and immune suppression, and suppression of food resources
define a source
source= high quality habitat
patch exploration refers to ____?
gathering knowledge on what is available, then assessment
what factors are taken into consideration while gathering info on a habitat? (3)
- perceived cues
- cues available in patch
- quality of patch, in fitness parameter terms (total reproductive success)
During patch exploration, perceived cues are obtained from… (4)
- from personal info/ exploration
- from public info–> observing behavior of others and following (habitat choice, protection from predators, courtship/mating signals, etc.)
- conspecific attraction: may suggest increased competition
- heterospecific attraction: attraction to members of other species
During patch exploration, cues available in a patch are obtained from… (2)
- ‘habitat signalling’/ environmental cues
2. effect of ‘human habitat’ or human influence on cues (become cues ourselves)–> may mask cues or disrupt food sources
During patch exploration, information regarding habitat quality in fitness terms are obtained from… (3)
fitness in relation to habitat quality may be affected by:
- competitors
- habitat quality: high predation, low food abundance
- emigration/ immigration ratio
what is a pseudo-sink and how are they created?
high immigration–> overcrowding and increased competition–> less food
not irreversible
define an ‘undervalued resource’
=high quality patch that is not recognized as such
cues are either not present or a less preferred cue is more salient
what are ecological traps?
opposite of an undervalued resource
=most preferred cue is present, but habitat is of low quality–> potential to become sink
well documented with birds
- tend to congregate in airfields
- grazed plots in tall grass prairies (many insects but also many predators and less protection)
three triggering factors of an ecological trap?
- low habitat but anthropogenic cue added that may suggest otherwise
- strong ‘natural’ cue but quality reduced by a third factor (e.g. introduced species)
- cue addition + reduction together:
- equal preference trap
- severe trap
describe an ‘equal preference trap’
preferred habitat (source) and ecological trap will look same with added cues –> still low quality
describe a ‘severe trap’
added cue enhanced in comparison to the source habitat. has unfair advantage to trap–> salient cue says it will be good but doesn’t work out this way
Name 4 examples of animal movement
- colonization
- extinction
- immigration
- emigration
why is it important to understand animal movement?
Once know the mechanism, will know the triggers, and can stop or spatially redirect if need be
-also important to understand motivations, accessibility, decisional process, etc.
Methods of movement analysis (4)
- Telemetry (collar and transmitter, use antenna to determine direction of signal)
- GIS-GPS technology (info directly fed to satellite about animals position)
- play-back studies (study obstacles, or gaps)
- translocation experiments (and return latency)
what aspects of landscapes are important to examine?
- fragmentation
- functional connectivity
- movement between habitat/ food patches
- relevance to specialists vs. generalists
- management: manipulating cues?
6, habitat restoration –> to help animals move
issues surrounding foraging
- costly but continue to do so–>intermittent reinforcement
- detection of food
what applications can be put in place to aid in the limitations surrounding foraging
- change the perception of food
- change habitat selection
- change population future
metabolic cost (MC)
=cost of looking for food until getting calories to compensate for lose when foraging
look at micro-habitat and micro-climat–> dependent on each other
missed opportunity cost (MOC)
=cost of not considering other options for food when foraging
predation cost (PC)
=predatory exposure, cost to move from one environment to another during foraging
giving up density (GUD)
= when some species decide this is not working and move on in terms of foraging
when to leave feeder (foraging)?
H> MC + MOC + PC
H= food energy consumption
what is a fear map and how do you create one?
=measure how animals react to specific events (get measurement in real time)
-created by looking at regular movement and/or GPS collars (get physiological ANS measures- blood flow, heart beat, and can tell about emotional state)
what can be mapped with fear maps?
landscape of fear–> created by just observing where they go and potentially adding physiological measures
METHODS:
- feeding station: location
- mapping, working with grids
- contour maps are created on giving up densities
constraints when trying to understand fear maps?
- cues for food, food patches, etc..
- what signals food availability?
- what sensory modalities are involved?
what is the relevant importance of each? - what are the environmental constraints on the sensory modalities and channels?
Allee effect
=inverse density dependence
-population decrease/ low density leads to decline in reproduction and survival rates
what are a few management implications in regard to animal movement? (3)
- moving animals out or in
- habitat and stimuli manipulation (saliency of cues, manipulating stimulus background contrasts, stress reduction)
- learning or behavioral techniques (e.g. conditioning)
what is anti-predator behavior?
ones ability to deal with predators/ survive
changes in predation can cause habitat disruption, this disruption can lead to …?
- emigration/ immigration, home range shifts
hyper or hypopredation–> population changes
how does the loss of predators effect an animals behavior?
can lead to loss of anti-predator phenotypical characteristics (behavioral or other)
Ex. deer that don’t see humans as predator anymore
how does captive breeding effect an animals behavior?
can lead to tameness of released animals –> in rehabilitation center don’t want to imprint on humans
how does husbandry effect an animals behavior?
can cause a reduction in normal anti-predatory responses
what is a solution to the loss of predators or anti-predatory behavior?
conditioning to modify behaviors–> reinstate fear and recognition
measures and tools to study anti-predatory behavior
- effects of micro-habitat effect on behavior
- habitat selection
- group size effects
- predator recognition
- conditioning (pre-release training)
what does the acoustic adaptation hypothesis refer to?
noise and the consequences of acoustic adaptation
-humans have added noise causing acoustic adaptations in species
attenuation
=loss of amplitude (size of wave)
degradation
=loss of fidelity (transformation of sound)
amplitude fluctuations, creates reverberation (echoes)
Sound environment hypothesis (SEH)
masking by the environment should induce changes in acoustic features and the structure of vocalizations
Ex. Lombard effect= louder vocalizations in noisy environments
–> some species may not be able to compensate enough to be heard
what are 2 detrimental effects of the sound environment hypothesis (SEH)
- co-evolution of all players may get de-synchronized
2. changes may not be possible or occur quick enough
what should be examined in order to measure the impact of sound in the environment?
- can species modify its vocalizations?
- is hearing affected? can they filter the noise?
–> use audiograms
two dimensions of personality
- temperament: the fixed, innate, genetic, inherited, ‘biological’ dimension of personality
- character: dimension of personality modulated by learning, experience, the environment–> fluid
Dugatkin’s definition of personality
=restrictive and functional
focus on individual strategies or at least the impact of individual differences on behavioral strategies
Reale et al (2007)- 5 level system of personality
- shyness/ boldness: response to risky situations
- REACTIVITY - approach/ avoidance: response to novel situations
- REACTIVITY - activity: in non novel, non risky situations
- aggressiveness (towards conspecifics)
- sociability (towards conspecifics)
what is the shy-bold continuum
-D.S Wilson proposed that animals are on the continuum (high predictability)
-boldness= risk taking, sensation seeking, high sociability, extrovert like =shyness= tame behavior, relaxation seeking, introvert like
Pavlov’s typology of dogs
=typology of dogs based on their activity/ reactivity to stimuli and their conditionability
- WEAK= ‘melancholic’ (sad, depressive)
- STRONG
a. Balanced
- mobile/ ‘sanguine’= hyperactive, extrovert
- slow/ ‘phlegmatic’= shy, introvert
b. unbalanced
- ‘choleric’= anger, rage
hyena personality traits (5)
- assertiveness
- excitability
- agreeableness (human-directed)
- sociability
- curiosity
monomorphic
high aggression, low play
Ex. fox like canids
oligomorphic
medium aggressiveness, medium play
Ex. coyotes, jackals
polymorphic
high play, low aggression
Ex. African wild dog, wolf, bush dog, dhole
when testing personality, what factors should be considered? (3)
- repeatability
- consistency
- heritability (to some extent)
what are 3 ways that personality has been examined while in captivity?
- Mirror image simulation (MIS): use of a mirror to examine
- aggressiveness and sociability (Reale et al 2007)
- shyness-boldness - keeper surveys: personality traits can be associated with breeding success
- comparison with natural behavior in natural environments (comparative research: captivity to natural environment)
what is a behavioral syndrome?
=context independent personality
correlation between behavior x and behavior y
what is a behavior type?
=refers to particular combo of behaviors that an individual expresses and is therefore a property of the individual –> individual with particular combo of behavior x and y
strategies to study behaviour syndromes (4)
- puzzling behavior (strange and emergent behavior)
- candidate behavior (relationship between behaviours that are part of a syndrome in other species)
- proximate or bottom- up approach (genes, hormones, NT, etc.)
- ecological approach (role of environment on personality)
Examples of domain specific individual differences for the candidate behaviour approach
- shy-bold axis
- proactive-reactive
- aggressiveness
- neophobia (fear of new things)
- exploratory behavior
Example of fitness consequences of personality (in regard to bold males)?
-bolder males have increased reproductive success at a survival cost (trade off in fitness consequences)
how does personality affect post-release survival?
-should release the ones that have the appropriate trait for survival, and then release the others when that population is established
what factors are relevant regarding demographics?
- mating systems and social systems
- fitness, direct and indirect
- reproductive skew
- social dynamics and social roles
- cooperative breeding and eusociality
social stress theory
as stress increases, androgens and progesterone’s are supressed–> role and interaction of the HPA axis and HPG axis
advantages of social behavior/ sociality (3)
- can reduce mortality
- living in large groups may favour survival
- ‘group size effects’
disadvantages of social behavior/ sociality
large aggregations can be problematic (large amount of individuals in same place, easily found and wiped out)
Ex. bison, seabirds, passenger pigeons, cod
in order to understand social structure, what 2 main things can be examined?
- association matrices
2. Markov chains (understand sequentially within a group how social dynamic works)
‘direct nongenetic benefits’ theory of sexual selection
initial direct benefit theory
‘Fisherian run-away process’ theory of sexual selection
massive characteristics of males associated with massive preference of females
Ex. males with large antlers preferred by females, more sons with large antlers, more daughters with preference
‘good genes’ theory of sexual selection
ability to detect good genes allows for sexual selection to work
‘Sensory exploitation: sensory bias’ theory of sexual selection
sometimes odd specific characteristics of male favoured by female
Ex. female black ducks in Nova Scotia like male mallards
Issues that have developed due to management of our own environment?
- Habitat fragmentation, destruction and disturbance
- recreational activities, eco-tourism
- urban and suburban expansions (urbanization)
- chemical, light and noise pollution
- human-animal conflicts (real or imagined)
solutions to management of the environment?
- actual behavior modification: conditioning methods
- captive breeding, rehabilitation, etc.
- translocation and reintroduction
- attracting animals, and/or repelling animals
- reducing mortality
- develop predictive models of disturbance
- bio and psych of learning (habituation, sensitization, learning)
- understanding climate changes and impact
- understanding invasive species and impact
