scholarly journals Methods for Monitoring Large Terrestrial Animals in the Wild

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 808
Author(s):  
Alexander Prosekov ◽  
Alexander Kuznetsov ◽  
Artem Rada ◽  
Svetlana Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Control ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Wildlife Ecology ◽  
Joint Application ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Specialized Equipment ◽  
Control And Management

Reliable information about wildlife is absolutely important for making informed management decisions. The issues with the effectiveness of the control and monitoring of both large and small wild animals are relevant to assess and protect the world’s biodiversity. Monitoring becomes part of the methods in wildlife ecology for observation, assessment, and forecasting of the human environment. World practice reveals the potential of the joint application of both proven traditional and modern technologies using specialized equipment to organize environmental control and management processes. Monitoring large terrestrial animals require an individual approach due to their low density and larger habitat. Elk/moose are such animals. This work aims to evaluate the methods for monitoring large wild animals, suitable for controlling the number of elk/moose in the framework of nature conservation activities. Using different models allows determining the population size without affecting the animals and without significant financial costs. Although, the accuracy of each model is determined by its postulates implementation and initial conditions that need statistical data. Depending on the geographical, climatic, and economic conditions in each territory, it is possible to use different tools and equipment (e.g., cameras, GPS sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles), a flexible variation of which will allow reaching the golden mean between the desires and capabilities of researchers.

scholarly journals Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1740) ◽  
pp. 20160508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Benson-Amram ◽  
Geoff Gilfillan ◽  
Karen McComb
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Playback Experiments ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Numerical Assessment ◽  
Individual Discrimination ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Assessment Skills ◽  
In The Wild

Playback experiments have proved to be a useful tool to investigate the extent to which wild animals understand numerical concepts and the factors that play into their decisions to respond to different numbers of vocalizing conspecifics. In particular, playback experiments have broadened our understanding of the cognitive abilities of historically understudied species that are challenging to test in the traditional laboratory, such as members of the Order Carnivora. Additionally, playback experiments allow us to assess the importance of numerical information versus other ecologically important variables when animals are making adaptive decisions in their natural habitats. Here, we begin by reviewing what we know about quantity discrimination in carnivores from studies conducted in captivity. We then review a series of playback experiments conducted with wild social carnivores, including African lions, spotted hyenas and wolves, which demonstrate that these animals can assess the number of conspecifics calling and respond based on numerical advantage. We discuss how the wild studies complement those conducted in captivity and allow us to gain insights into why wild animals may not always respond based solely on differences in quantity. We then consider the key roles that individual discrimination and cross-modal recognition play in the ability of animals to assess the number of conspecifics vocalizing nearby. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in this area, highlighting in particular the need for further work on the cognitive basis of numerical assessment skills and experimental paradigms that can be effective in both captive and wild settings. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The origins of numerical abilities’.

No Room for Wild Animals

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-77
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Lekan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Walt Disney ◽  
Zoological Society ◽  
Control Right ◽  
Belgian Congo

This chapter shows that Bernhard and his son Michael Grzimek’s quest to save African wildlife began on a simple collecting trip to bring a specimen of the rare Okapia from the former Belgian Congo back to the Frankfurt Zoo. The pair documented this journey in the bestselling book No Room for Wild Animals (1954), which they released as a conservationist documentary by the same name in 1956. In these works, the Grzimeks broke with colonialist images of “exotic” Africa and with Walt Disney studio’s lighthearted animal adventures popular at this time. They presented Central Africa as a region destined to repeat the tragedy of Europe’s urbanization, overpopulation, and “racial degeneration”—which threatened to destroy tropical forests and the integrityof indigenous peoples such as the Mbuti (pygmies). For the Grzimeks, the main goal of the Frankfurt Zoological Society had shifted from specimen maintenance at home to scientific conservation abroad: the protection of wildlife sanctuaries off limits to economic development and local peoples. Such images of “saving” Africa unwittingly repeated old imperialist myths, however, and omitted the Congolese’s own hopes for political autonomy and environmental control right on the brink of decolonization.

The effect of ‘flavour imprinting’ on the acceptability of solid food in weanling rats

1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 ◽  
pp. 225-225
Author(s):  
J. E. L. Day ◽  
E. A. J. Randall ◽  
R. M. Sibly
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Maternal Diet ◽  
Diet Selection ◽  
Solid Food ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Weanling Rats ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Normal Trajectory ◽  
Commercial Environment

Weaning is associated with a dramatic change in the nutritional status of young animals, and many neonates experience a lag in their normal trajectory of growth post-weaning because they have little experience of ingesting solid food. In the wild, animals are able to learn which foods are ‘safe’ through the mammary transfer of volatile flavours present in the maternal diet. This mechanism could be harnessed in a commercial environment by the use of flavour imprinting, a technique where a characteristic flavour is included both in the maternal and weanling's diet (for pilot data see Campbell, 1976). The use of this method could be associated with considerable increases in the profitability of animal production, however, the whole area is poorly understood. The objective of this experiment was to enhance our understanding of the effect of flavour imprinting on the acceptability of solid food, and hence our ability to predict the diet selection and food intake of newly weaned animals.

scholarly journals Accelerometry predicts daily energy expenditure in a bird with high activity levels

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20120919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle H. Elliott ◽  
Maryline Le Vaillant ◽  
Akiko Kato ◽  
John R. Speakman ◽  
Yan Ropert-Coudert
Keyword(s):  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Energy Costs ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Daily Energy Expenditure ◽  
Uria Lomvia ◽  
Doubly Labelled Water ◽  
Daily Energy ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Parsimonious Model

Animal ecology is shaped by energy costs, yet it is difficult to measure fine-scale energy expenditure in the wild. Because metabolism is often closely correlated with mechanical work, accelerometers have the potential to provide detailed information on energy expenditure of wild animals over fine temporal scales. Nonetheless, accelerometry needs to be validated on wild animals, especially across different locomotory modes. We merged data collected on 20 thick-billed murres ( Uria lomvia ) from miniature accelerometers with measurements of daily energy expenditure over 24 h using doubly labelled water. Across three different locomotory modes (swimming, flying and movement on land), dynamic body acceleration was a good predictor of daily energy expenditure as measured independently by doubly labelled water ( R 2 = 0.73). The most parsimonious model suggested that different equations were needed to predict energy expenditure from accelerometry for flying than for surface swimming or activity on land ( R 2 = 0.81). Our results demonstrate that accelerometers can provide an accurate integrated measure of energy expenditure in wild animals using many different locomotory modes.

scholarly journals Differences in hoarding behavior between captive and wild sympatric rodent species

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 725-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmao Zhang ◽  
Yu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Ground Surface ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Small Rodents ◽  
Scatter Hoarding ◽  
Chinese White ◽  
Hoarding Behavior ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Field Mice ◽  
Pregnant Mothers

Abstract In hand reared birds and mammals, it is generally considered that the development of hoarding behavior is the result of an interaction between the development and maturation of the nervous system and learning from individual experience. However, few studies have been done on wild animals. We tested differences in hoarding behavior between captive reared and wild individuals of two sympatric small rodents, Korean field mice Apodemus peninsulae and Chinese white-bellied rats Niviventer confucianus. Our aim was to identify if lack of experience from the wild would result in poorly developed hoarding behavior. The Korean field mice perform scatterand larder-hoarding behaviors whereas Chinese white-bellied rats hoard food in larders only. Within outdoor enclosures we compared seed-hoarding behavior in reared juveniles (RJ, 40-50 d old, pregnant mothers were captured in the wild), wild juveniles (WJ, as young as the RJ) and wild adults (WA, over-winter animals). We found that a lack of experience from the wild had significant effects on seed-hoarding behavior for both species. The RJ-group removed and hoarded fewer seeds than the WJand WA-groups. The two latter groups hoarded seeds in a similar way. In the Korean filed mouse the RJ-group placed more seeds on the ground surface than other groups. These findings suggest that wild experience is important for the acquisition of an appropriate food-hoarding behavior (especially for scatter-hoarding) in these species.

scholarly journals Assessment of the floristic composition of sward grazed by various animal species

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Czarnecki ◽  
Teresa Grażyna Wyłupek ◽  
Wanda Harkot
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Floristic Composition ◽  
Fallow Deer ◽  
Wild Animal ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Wiener Diversity Index ◽  
In The Wild

The study objective was to assess the floristic composition of pastures for wild animals (fallow deer, Manchurian deer and mouflons) at Przytoczno, pastures for horses at Białka, and cow pastures belonging to the Land Community in Tarnogóra. We analyzed the floristic composition of the pastures under study in the growing seasons of 2011 and 2012, carried out 32 phytosociological relevés in the wild animal pastures, 32 in the horse pastures, and 38 in the cow pastures, using the Braun-Blanquet method. We determined the species diversity of the pastures based on the percentage share of species from the botanical families distinguished, the total number of species, and the Shannon–Wiener and Simpson diversity index. Our floristic surveys indicated that the greatest species diversity occurred in the horse pastures, while it was lower in the wild animal and cow pastures. The Shannon–Wiener diversity index for the sward of the pastures grazed by horses was higher (<em>H'</em> = 5.04) than for those grazed by wild animals (<em>H'</em> = 4.32) and cows (<em>H'</em> = 3.53). The Simpson index of species diversity in a community was higher for the pastures grazed by horses (<em>S</em> = 0.96) than for those grazed by wild animals (<em>S </em>= 0.95) and cows (<em>S</em> = 0.90).

Methods and devices of environmental control. Environmental monitoring

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larisa Pustovaya ◽  
Besik Meshi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Qualified Personnel ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
State Educational ◽  
Control And Management

The textbook is designed to meet the need for a highly specialized set of professional knowledge necessary for the training of highly qualified personnel of environmental specialties. The presented material allows us to get an idea of the organization and effective implementation of environmental monitoring, the organization of industrial environmental control and management, the analysis of characteristics and changes of objects of economic activity using the necessary methods and means of such research. The basic principles of sampling and sample preparation, modern methods and means of environmental monitoring, the basics of metrological and laboratory-analytical support for environmental control are described. The training material is accompanied by up-to-date references to the current legislative framework of the Russian Federation. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation and the current bachelor's degree program in the areas of training "Technosphere Safety", "Biotechnical systems and Technologies". It can be useful and interesting for students, undergraduates, postgraduates, as well as teachers specializing in environmental safety.

Numerical Modelling of Air Temperature and Velocity in a Forced and Free Ventilation Piggery

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mossad
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Control ◽  
Outer Wall ◽  
Climatic Variation ◽  
Forced Ventilation ◽  
Ambient Temperatures ◽  
Air Inlet ◽  
Environment Control ◽  
Air Speed ◽  
Control And Management ◽  
Volume Method

Abstract Pigs are subjected to intensive environment control and management for higher productivity due to their sensitivity to climatic variation, which affects their growth. The aim of the current work is to numerically model the air speed and temperature in forced and free ventilation piggeries to achieve optimum environmental control. A steady two-dimensional numerical model including the effect of buoyancy, turbulence and heat generated by the pigs was solved using the computational fluid dynamics software Fluent, which is based on the integral volume method. In the forced ventilation case, air speed and temperature inside the piggery and at the pigs’ level were predicted for three different locations of ventilation opening, variable air inlet velocities (in the range 0.3 m/s – 7 m/s), and insulated or non insulated external walls, for ambient temperatures of 5 °C and 32 °C. In the free ventilation case, temperature and air speed at the pig’s level were predicted for a particular wind speed and direction, and some variations in the design. These variations were adding louvers in the air opening, lowering the outer wall of the piggery and changing the type of pen fence used. These results helped to identify problems in the design and offer suggestions for improvements.

scholarly journals True Numerical Cognition in the Wild

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Jessica F. Cantlon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Numerical Cognition ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Numerical Reasoning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Number Representations ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Numerical Representations ◽  
Robust Evidence ◽  
Wild Baboons

Cognitive and neural research over the past few decades has produced sophisticated models of the representations and algorithms underlying numerical reasoning in humans and other animals. These models make precise predictions for how humans and other animals should behave when faced with quantitative decisions, yet primarily have been tested only in laboratory tasks. We used data from wild baboons’ troop movements recently reported by Strandburg-Peshkin, Farine, Couzin, and Crofoot (2015) to compare a variety of models of quantitative decision making. We found that the decisions made by these naturally behaving wild animals rely specifically on numerical representations that have key homologies with the psychophysics of human number representations. These findings provide important new data on the types of problems human numerical cognition was designed to solve and constitute the first robust evidence of true numerical reasoning in wild animals.

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