The Spatial Ecology of Nuisance Crocodiles: Movement Patterns of Relocated American Crocodiles () in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Anthropogenic alterations of the environment have increased, highlighting the need for human-wildlife coexistence and conflict mitigation. Spatial ecology, and the use of passive satellite movement technology in particular, has been used to identify patterns in human-wildlife conflict as a function of shared resources that present potential for dangerous situations. Here, we aim to remotely identify patterns indicative of human-crocodile conflict in Guanacaste, Costa Rica by exploring site fidelity and diverse modes of movement (i.

Detection of a synthetic sex steroid in the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus): Evidence for a novel environmental androgen.

Endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDC's) are well known to alter sexual differentiation among vertebrates via estrogenic effects during development, particularly in organisms characterized by temperature-dependent sex determination. However, substances producing androgenic effects typically lack potency when tested in laboratory settings and are virtually unstudied in field settings. Here, we assay levels of a synthetic androgen, 17α-methyltestosterone (MT), in a heavily male-biased population of American crocodiles in the Tempisque River Basin of Costa Rica based on the recent hypothesis that this chemical is an EDC in developing crocodilian embryos.

Regional warming and the thermal regimes of American crocodile nests in the Tempisque Basin, Costa Rica.

Spatial variation in global climate change makes population-specific responses to this enigmatic threat pertinent on a regional scale. Organisms with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) potentially possess a unique physiological susceptibility that threatens population viability if rapid environmental effects on sex ratios render populations non-viable. A heavily male-biased sex ratio for hatchling American crocodiles of the Tempisque Basin, Costa Rica requires assessment of how nest temperature affects sex determination at this site, how females might compensate for these effects when creating nests, and how current patterns of climate change might alter future sex ratios and survival in hatchling cohorts.

Methyltestosterone alters sex determination in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).

Effects of xenobiotics can be organizational, permanently affecting anatomy during embryonic development, and/or activational, influencing transitory actions during adulthood. The organizational influence of endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDC's) produces a wide variety of reproductive abnormalities among vertebrates that exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Typically, such influences result in subsequent activational malfunction, some of which are beneficial in aquaculture.

Evidence of maternal provisioning of alkaloid-based chemical defenses in the strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio.

Many organisms use chemical defenses to reduce predation risk. Aposematic dendrobatid frogs sequester alkaloid-based chemical defenses from a diet of arthropods, but research on these defenses has been limited to adults. Herein, we investigate chemical defense across development in a dendrobatid frog, Oophaga pumilio.