Group foraging is observed in many species as a means to increase the ability of members of the group to find and exploit patchy prey. Group foraging can be exhibited in a number of different contexts based on the relationships between the participants, including by-product mutualism. One variant of by-product...
Behavior of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) toward people was
studied by examining hikers' reports of grizzly bear observations
and by intensively observing grizzlies in an area of Glacier National
Park that was heavily used by day-hikers. Of concern were the apparent
habituation of grizzly bears to people in the study...
Workers in colonies of European honey bees Apis mellifera L. clean their
nestmate's body by allogrooming behavior. This behavior may be initiated by
either grooming dancers or by the allogroomers themselves. The first occurs
less frequently (ca. 17 %) than the later (83 %). By using the inner edge of...
To assess the context dependence of kin discriminating
behavior, I examined kin-biased aggregation behavior in tadpoles
of R. cascadae in different ecological conditions. I manipulated food
distribution, predator presence, thermal heterogeneity, and
relatedness in a multifactorial mesocosm experiment. All four
factors interacted to influence tadpole dispersion. My results
suggest that...
Salamander courtship coordinates the exchange of gametes. Plethodontids have evolved an elaborate means by which this is done. Throughout the family Plethodontidae a tail-straddling walk is performed to orchestrate the transfer of sperm. Typically this behavior is linear, however in the genus Aneides there are exceptions. In the genus Aneides...
The data is a JSON format file containing the position, velocity, and fish identifier data for 300 golden shiners in a shallow (depth of 4.5 to 5 cm) rectangular water tank (2.1 by 1.2 meters). There are 5000 individual frames (samples of position and velocity) corresponding to video taken at...
In animals, reproductive behaviors serve to attract individuals together during the
breeding season and to coordinate the behavioral and physiological states of individuals
so that mating can successfully occur. In snakes, the various reproductive behaviors
including courtship, mating, courtship inhibition, male combat and trailing are mediated
primarily by pheromones. Pheromones...
My dissertation focuses on the evolutionary forces that have shaped the chemical signaling system of plethodontid salamanders. Pheromones mediate two phases of plethodontid reproduction: mate attraction prior to courtship and female persuasion during courtship. Substrate-borne chemical signals are believed to play an important role in mate attraction for these animals....
Darwin devised the evolutionary theory of sexual selection to account for the manifold extravagances of courtship behaviors and displays. Mating interactions represent a major evolutionary process driving the elaboration, vibrancy, and peculiarity of these courtship traits. For my dissertation research, I strived to elucidate the dynamics that constitute the complex...
