The ecology and behaviour of pumas (Puma concolor) in northern California, U.S.A.

<p>Large carnivores are important components of many ecosystems and play an integral role in determining the composition and structure of ecological communities. The influences of pumas (Puma concolor) on other species, including prey and competitors, vary across their range and among individuals. I used novel methodologies, including intensive real-time GPS investigations of potential kill sites using ARGOS satellite collars, and motion-triggered video cameras to study the intra- and inter-specific interactions of pumas and understand their influences on ecological communities. Results from my dissertation support previous findings that pumas play an integral role in shaping their respective ecosystem, but that pumas are also influenced substantially by their local environment. Overall, my dissertation highlights the importance of understanding intra- and inter-specific interactions of large carnivores when attempting to understand their influences on ecological communities. I tested whether pumas exhibited sexual variation in their use of communication behaviours at community scrape areas, and what factors influenced their mating strategies. I found that males more frequently exhibited and spent longer durations on ‘producing’ behaviours (scraping and body rubbing), while females more frequently exhibited and spent longer durations on ‘consuming’ behaviours (olfactory investigation and flehmen response behaviours). This suggests that male reproductive strategy is based on advertisement for possible mates, while female reproductive strategy is based on assessment of potential mates. Pumas also exhibited sexual variation in their patterns of visitation. Males were regular visitors, while females were irregular visitors whose visitation cycles were apparently correlated with oestrus. Mate selection by females was complex and based on multiple cues, the two most important of which were the visitation rate and mass of males. The frequency of male visits and the display of some behaviours were influenced most by visits from female pumas, but were also influenced by visits from competing males. I used real-time and fine-scale GPS location data to find prey killed by individual pumas, and analysed seasonal patterns to understand local influences on puma behaviour and feeding ecology. I found that black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) were the main prey of pumas, constituting 98.6% of their diet by mass, and that the elevations at which pumas killed black-tailed deer correlated significantly with seasonal elevations used by black-tailed deer. I found pumas had relatively high ungulate kill rates ( ̅ = 1.07 ungulates/week, and ̅ = 5.78 kg/day), and that kill rates in ungulates/week varied among seasons and were highest in summer and autumn. Importantly, the handling times of black-tailed deer >1 year old showed an inverse seasonal relationship with kill rates in ungulates/week, and the lower handling times may have been due to black bear kleptoparasitism. These findings suggest that puma feeding ecology can be strongly influenced by seasonal behaviour of their prey and dominant scavengers. Given the potential for large carnivores to influence scavengers, I studied the influences of both pumas and black bears on the scavenger community. I found that pumas and black bears were a source of limitation for scavengers, both on the species richness and sum feeding times of the scavenger community, as well as the occurrence, total feeding times, and mean feeding bout durations of scavenger species. However, pumas had some positive influences, for example they facilitated the acquisition of carrion by scavengers, and they apparently initiated a cascading pattern that led to an increase in the acquisition of carrion by small carnivores. In contrast, black bears, as dominant scavengers, monopolized carrion resources and substantially limited the acquisition of carrion by other scavengers, and in fact they had larger limitations for scavengers than pumas as top-level predators. The influences on carrion acquisition suggest that large carnivores have important influences on the scavenger community, and their influences could be a mechanism for the effects large carnivores have on community composition.</p>

The ecology and behaviour of pumas (Puma concolor) in northern California, U.S.A.

<p>Large carnivores are important components of many ecosystems and play an integral role in determining the composition and structure of ecological communities. The influences of pumas (Puma concolor) on other species, including prey and competitors, vary across their range and among individuals. I used novel methodologies, including intensive real-time GPS investigations of potential kill sites using ARGOS satellite collars, and motion-triggered video cameras to study the intra- and inter-specific interactions of pumas and understand their influences on ecological communities. Results from my dissertation support previous findings that pumas play an integral role in shaping their respective ecosystem, but that pumas are also influenced substantially by their local environment. Overall, my dissertation highlights the importance of understanding intra- and inter-specific interactions of large carnivores when attempting to understand their influences on ecological communities. I tested whether pumas exhibited sexual variation in their use of communication behaviours at community scrape areas, and what factors influenced their mating strategies. I found that males more frequently exhibited and spent longer durations on ‘producing’ behaviours (scraping and body rubbing), while females more frequently exhibited and spent longer durations on ‘consuming’ behaviours (olfactory investigation and flehmen response behaviours). This suggests that male reproductive strategy is based on advertisement for possible mates, while female reproductive strategy is based on assessment of potential mates. Pumas also exhibited sexual variation in their patterns of visitation. Males were regular visitors, while females were irregular visitors whose visitation cycles were apparently correlated with oestrus. Mate selection by females was complex and based on multiple cues, the two most important of which were the visitation rate and mass of males. The frequency of male visits and the display of some behaviours were influenced most by visits from female pumas, but were also influenced by visits from competing males. I used real-time and fine-scale GPS location data to find prey killed by individual pumas, and analysed seasonal patterns to understand local influences on puma behaviour and feeding ecology. I found that black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) were the main prey of pumas, constituting 98.6% of their diet by mass, and that the elevations at which pumas killed black-tailed deer correlated significantly with seasonal elevations used by black-tailed deer. I found pumas had relatively high ungulate kill rates ( ̅ = 1.07 ungulates/week, and ̅ = 5.78 kg/day), and that kill rates in ungulates/week varied among seasons and were highest in summer and autumn. Importantly, the handling times of black-tailed deer >1 year old showed an inverse seasonal relationship with kill rates in ungulates/week, and the lower handling times may have been due to black bear kleptoparasitism. These findings suggest that puma feeding ecology can be strongly influenced by seasonal behaviour of their prey and dominant scavengers. Given the potential for large carnivores to influence scavengers, I studied the influences of both pumas and black bears on the scavenger community. I found that pumas and black bears were a source of limitation for scavengers, both on the species richness and sum feeding times of the scavenger community, as well as the occurrence, total feeding times, and mean feeding bout durations of scavenger species. However, pumas had some positive influences, for example they facilitated the acquisition of carrion by scavengers, and they apparently initiated a cascading pattern that led to an increase in the acquisition of carrion by small carnivores. In contrast, black bears, as dominant scavengers, monopolized carrion resources and substantially limited the acquisition of carrion by other scavengers, and in fact they had larger limitations for scavengers than pumas as top-level predators. The influences on carrion acquisition suggest that large carnivores have important influences on the scavenger community, and their influences could be a mechanism for the effects large carnivores have on community composition.</p>

An effect size statistical framework for investigating sexual dimorphism in non-avian dinosaurs and other extinct taxa

Despite reports of sexual dimorphism in extinct taxa, such claims in non-avian dinosaurs have been rare over the last decade and have often been criticized. Since dimorphism is widespread in sexually reproducing organisms today, under-reporting in the literature might suggest either methodological shortcomings or that this diverse group exhibited highly unusual reproductive biology. Univariate significance testing, especially for bimodality, is ineffective and prone to false negatives. Species recognition and mutual sexual selection hypotheses, therefore, may not be required to explain supposed absence of sexual dimorphism across the grade (a type II error). Instead, multiple lines of evidence support sexual selection and variation of structures consistent with secondary sexual characteristics, strongly suggesting sexual dimorphism in non-avian dinosaurs. We propose a framework for studying sexual dimorphism in fossils, focusing on likely secondary sexual traits and testing against all alternate hypotheses for variation in them using multiple lines of evidence. We use effect size statistics appropriate for low sample sizes, rather than significance testing, to analyse potential divergence of growth curves in traits and constrain estimates for dimorphism magnitude. In many cases, estimates of sexual variation can be reasonably accurate, and further developments in methods to improve sex assignments and account for intrasexual variation (e.g. mixture modelling) will improve accuracy. It is better to compare estimates for the magnitude of and support for dimorphism between datasets than to dichotomously reject or fail to reject monomorphism in a single species, enabling the study of sexual selection across phylogenies and time. We defend our approach with simulated and empirical data, including dinosaur data, showing that even simple approaches can yield fairly accurate estimates of sexual variation in many cases, allowing for comparison of species with high and low support for sexual variation.

Sexual variation in two species of Helorus Latreille (Hymenoptera, Heloridae) from NW China, with description of female of Helorus caii He & Xu

The intra-specific variation of two species of Helorus Latreille (Hymenoptera, Heloridae) from NW China is studied and for the first time the sexual variation in Chinese Helorus species is described. Both sexes of Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, 2015 (new for Shaanxi) and H. caii He & Xu, 2015 (up to now only known from one male), are described and illustrated. Helorus xinjiangensis He & Xu, [June] 2015, is a new junior synonym of H. alborzicus Izadizadeh, van Achterberg & Talebi, [April] 2015 and H. elgoni Risbec, 1950, is re-instated as valid species. A revised key to the Old World species of Helorus Latreille (except Australian region) is included.

Ontogenetic and sexual variation in the sagitta otolith of Menticirrhus americanus (Teleostei; Sciaenidae) (Linnaeus, 1758) in a subtropical environment

This study aimed to verify variations in the form of the sagitta otolith of Menticirrhus americanus as to their ontogeny, sex and stage of such structure. Ontogenetically were found significant differences (p < 0.05) for all shape indices (aspect ratios, shape factor, rectangularity, ellipticity, relative surface of sulcus acusticus) and also in the wavelet of the otolith. The CVA presented a 98.6% correct reclassification of the otolith between interval class. Sexual variations were found in the wavelet and in the relative surface of sulcus acusticus index. Between adult females and young females, differences were not detected in the wavelet and rectangularity, but significant differences were found in all other shape indices. The CVA presented a 79.6% correct reclassification of the otolith of the sexes and stages of life sampled. Young females and adults females showed highest correct percentage of classification. The results of this study demonstrate for the first time the influence of the ontogenetic variation and sexual in the form of the otoliths.

Appalling Bodies

The letters of Paul are among the most commonly cited biblical texts in ongoing cultural and religious disputes about gender, sexuality, and embodiment. This book reframes these uses of the letters by reaching past Paul toward other, far more fascinating figures that appear before, after, and within the letters: androgynous females, castrated males, enslaved people, and barbaric foreigners. Each of these ancient figures deployed in these letters is situated within a specifically Roman imperial setting, an ambiance that cast them as complicated, debased, and dangerous. While the letters repeat and reinscribe the prevailing perspectives on this constellation of embodied figures, this project repositions them by implementing key insights from queer studies. In juxtaposing them against more recent figures of gender and sexual variation, also subject to vilification and marginalization, this project provides a series of alternative angles on these figures and the assemblies who spark and receive these letters, then or now. In staging a series of “touches across time,” Appalling Bodies defamiliarizes and reorients what can be known about both the historical figures active in these ancient communities and those rhetorical figures that continue to be activated in contemporary settings. The aim is not to claim, anachronistically, that these figures are somehow identical to each other; rather, it is through anachronistic juxtaposition that the book highlights contingent connections—partial, particular, but shared practices of gender, sexuality, and embodiment that depart from prevailing perspectives and demonstrate a range of unexpected impacts for the interpretation of politically and religiously loaded literature.