HABITAT SELECTION AND PREY ODOR IN THE FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF WESTERN RATTLESNAKES (CROTALUS VIRIDIS)

Behaviour ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Demetri Hilario Theodoratus David ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Trail Following ◽  
Crotalus Viridis ◽  
The Third ◽  
Preferred Habitat ◽  
Search Patterns ◽  
Prey Odor ◽  
Rodent Prey ◽  
Body Patterns

AbstractWe tested the roles of prey odor and other habitat cues in the pre-strike movement patterns of two, ecologically distinct sub-species of the western rattlesnake in naturalistic arenas. In the first experiment, rattlesnakes preferred habitat containing prey odor and cover comprised of rocks, sticks and plants. While searching, rattlesnakes methodically investigated the edges and crevices within rock, areas rodents might frequent in nature. In the second experiment, rattlesnakes investigated sticks more than rocks arranged topographically similar to sticks. In the third experiment, rattlesnakes preferred habitat that included brush foliage and used chemical prey trails in pre-strike behavior via (i) trail-following, (ii) casting search patterns and (iii) scanning search patterns. Several snakes coiled in stereotyped ambush postures that allowed them to face chemical trails while resting against rocks and foliage. These results suggest that rattlesnake foraging exhibits qualities advantageous for hunting rodent prey in addition to providing protection from predators and perhaps promoting thermoregulation. Sub-species did not exhibit geographic variation in foraging behavior despite differences in natural history and morphology. Hence, the microevolutionary pattern suggests that generalized foraging repertoires are successful in numerous environments when coupled with locally specialized body patterns.

The ghost bat in the Pilbara: 100 years on.

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
KN Armstrong ◽  
SD Anstee
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
New Records ◽  
Iron Formation ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
The Third ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Preferred Habitat

This paper summarises the roost habitat and distribution of the ghost bat, Macroderma gigas (Dobson, 1880), in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with particular emphasis on natural habitats. The preferred habitat of M. gigas in the Hamersley Ranges appears to be caves beneath bluffs of low rounded hills composed of Marra Mamba geology. Habitats were also found in the larger hills of Brockman Iron Formation in the Hamersley Range, and other formations beneath bluffs composed of Gorge Creek Group geology to the north east. Granite rockpiles are also used in the eastern Pilbara. A summary of Pilbara records from numerous sources is presented, including anecdotal accounts and other new records. This includes a newly discovered maternity site from the Hamersley Ranges, only the third reported from natural cave formations in the region. Threats to M. gigas in the region are highlighted and include disturbances associated with mining and entanglement in barbed wire fences.

Beyond “No food and drink in the gallery”: Writing a best practices document for food management in museums

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-117
Author(s):  
Rebecca Newberry ◽  
Bethany Palumbo ◽  
Fran Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Step Process ◽  
The Third ◽  
Preservation Methods ◽  
Food Management ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Food And Drink

Abstract In 2015, the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Conservation Committee created a best practices document for food management in collection-holding institutions. This paper discusses the three-step process, devised by the committee, through which this was achieved. The first step was to research existing literature on the subject. Scant results showed that a best practices document on the subject would be of great benefit to the field. The second step was to survey collection professionals. This provided the committee a stronger understanding of current food management challenges and successes, as well as topics to address in the best practices document. The third step was to gain consensus from these professionals. A draft of the document was presented at three international conferences, and feedback was incorporated into the final recommendations. The best practices document is available on the SPNHC wiki and may be updated. It is possible to write a best practice on any subject by replicating this three-step process. The Conservation Committee believes this process can be applied to other areas that are in need of new or revised preservation methods.

Social learning and the significance of mixed-species flocks of chickadees (Parus spp.)

1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1275-1288 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Food Item ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mixed Species ◽  
The Third ◽  
Mixed Species Flocks ◽  
Species Flocks ◽  
Experienced Bird

The experiments described in this paper show that two species of chickadees learn from one another about the location and nature of potential feeding places when they are foraging together in mixed flocks in large aviaries. In the first experiment, I show that when an individual of one species finds a single food item, members of the other species modify their foraging behavior over the next few seconds so that they put more effort into searching near the site of the find. This applies to both species. Further, members of both species modify their foraging behavior when a bird of the other species searches in a place unsuccessfully. This response to an unsuccessful search is similar to, but weaker than, the response to a food find. The second experiment shows that when the two species are trained to forage in different positions in the experimental trees, they converge in their foraging behavior when they are put in mixed flocks, This is a result of copying. The third experiment shows that individuals of both species are more likely to discover a completely new foraging place if they are in the presence of an experienced bird of the other species.I discuss these results in relation to theories on the adaptive significance of flocking, and conclude that learning about potential feeding places from other species is an important function of mixed flocks, at least for some species. This does not exclude the possibility of other functions of mixed flocks.

Translation studies in the history of science: the example of Vestiges

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLAAS RUPKE
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
Species Transformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Design In Nature ◽  
1848 Revolution ◽  
Divine Order

The three translations of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation invested the text with new meaning. None of the translations endorsed the book for the author's advocacy of species transformation. The first translation, into German (1846), put forward the text as evincing divine design in nature. The second, into Dutch (1849), also presented Vestiges as proof of divine order in nature and, more specifically, as aiding the stabilization of society under God and king in a process of recovery from the 1848 Revolution. By contrast, the third translation, into German (1851), interpreted the book as furthering the very revolutionary, anti-ecclesiastical and anti- monarchist ideals that the Dutch edition sought to counter.

scholarly journals III.—On some new Phyllopodous Crustaceans from the Palæozoic Rocks

1871 ◽  
Vol 8 (81) ◽  
pp. 104-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Body Segments ◽  
Natural History Society ◽  
The Third ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Public Museum ◽  
Geological Magazine

During last summer I visited the interesting and ancient town of Ludlow, where, under the guidance of Mr. Robert Lightbody, F.G.S., I had the opportunity of seeing the admirable Public Museum, belonging to the Ludlow Natural History Society, and also the rich private collection of Mr. Lightbody and that of Mr. Humphrey Salwey. In the Society's Museum, my attention was directed by Mr. Lightbody to a truly remarkable fossil from the collection of Mr. Henry Pardoe, and obtained by him from the Lower Ludlow, Church Hill, Leintwardine. It consists of seven body-segments and three caudal spines, of the largest example of Ceratiocaris I have ever seen; exceeding in size the C. Bohernicus of Barrande, or C. Murchisoni from the Upper Ludlow Rock, Ludlow and Wenlock Shale, Dudley, figured and described by me in the Geological Magazine, 1866, Vol. III., PI. X., Fig. 8, pp. 203–205. The figure (taken from a sketch made at the time) given on Plate III., Fig. 3, being only one-third the size of the fossil, conveys but a very inadequate idea of this interesting Crustacean remain. The seven body segments together measure eight and a half inches in length, and nearly two inches in breadth; they are nearly quadrangular, and are covered with fine and delicate parallel slightly waved striæ. The first segment is three-quarters of an inch long; the second, half an inch; the third, three-quarters of an inch; the fourth, fifth, and sixth, one inch each in length; and the seventh, two and three-quarter inches long.

scholarly journals Il Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze. Le collezioni antropologiche ed etnologiche / The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence. The Anthropological and Ethnological Collections

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacopo Moggi Cecchi ◽  
Roscoe Stanyon
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
New Technology ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The University ◽  
The Many ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University

This volume is dedicated to the Anthropological and Ethnological section of the Natural History Museum. First the historical journey of the collections is traced from the antique nucleus of the Medici to the foundation of the National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, when Florence was the capitol of Italy, and the discipline of anthropology was born. The second part illustrates the multivariate collections from all over the globe. They are a precious record of the past and present biological and cultural diversity of our species opening wide horizons that rigorously connect science to the many faces of human culture, including art. The third section is dedicated to current research and opens new prospectives on the significance of ethnological and anthropological collections due to new technology and in light of a new appreciation of the museum as a living “zone of contact”.

New records of one of the least known snakes, Telescopus pulcher (Squamata: Colubridae) from the Horn of Africa

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4462 (4) ◽  
pp. 483 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMÁŠ MAZUCH ◽  
JIŘÍ ŠMÍD ◽  
THOMAS PRICE ◽  
PETRA FRÝDLOVÁ ◽  
AHMED IBRAHIM AWALE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
New Records ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
The Third

Telescopus pulcher is an enigmatic colubrid snake only known from the holotype and paratype specimens described from ‘Migiurtinia’ in Puntland (Somalia) in 1935. Herein we recorded the third and fourth-ever known specimens of this species from the Toon village, Woqooyi Galbeed Region, and 15 km southeast of Sheikh, Saahil Region, Somaliland. The species is endemic to Somaliland and adjoining parts of Ethiopia and Puntland. Data on morphology and natural history, as well as the first photographs of live specimens are provided. We also provide a detailed description of the paratype. The coloration of the species resembles that of the vipers of the genus Echis and we hypothesize that T. pulcher mimics these common and sympatric vipers in the Horn of Africa. 

scholarly journals Robert Broom 1866-1951

1952 ◽  
Vol 8 (21) ◽  
pp. 36-70 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
The Public ◽  
Marine Life ◽  
The Third ◽  
Army Officer ◽  
The Family ◽  
Laboratory Assistant ◽  
Marine Station

Robert Broom was born on 30 November 1866 at 66 Back Sneddon Street, Paisley. He was the third child of John Broom and his wife, Agnes Hunter Shearer. The family of Broom is supposed to have originated from a John Broom who came to Scotland in Cromwell’s army in 1650 and settled near Linlithgow, the family remaining in East Stirlingshire until, in about 1820, Broom’s grandfathei settled in Glasgow, and married Ann Hunter of Highland ancestry. They .lad two sons, James, an engraver and lithographer who died young of consumption, and John, who was a designer for calico prints and Paisley shawls. When fashion changed and such work became impossible John went into commerce, eventually settling at Burnbridge near Linlithgow, half-way between Edinburgh and Glasgow. John Broom was a cultured man with a wide knowledge of English literature and of painting. Robert Broom was a sickly child, with adenoids and much bronchitis, and was, when six years old, sent to Millport (where the Marine Station now is) to live with his grandmother. There he met an army officer, John Leavach, aged eighty-three, who had fought in the Peninsular and American wars, but was a keen naturalist, who introduced Broom to marine life and to a microscope. Indeed, Broom used this original instrument for more than sixty years. At Burnbridge, Broom was reunited with his father, then an enthusiastic botanist, and constantly met as a family friend Peter Cameron, who became the great authority on Hymenoptera. To his influence Broom attributed his devotion to natural history. Broom had little schooling until at ten years old he entered Hutcheson’s Grammar School at Glasgow, and in 1883, at seventeen years of age, became a laboratory assistant to Professor J. Ferguson. In this position Broom became much interested in chemistry, and eventually ‘did most of the public analyses sent to the laboratory’.

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