A flexible Bayesian hierarchical approach for analyzing spatial and temporal variation in the fecal corticosterone levels in birds when there is imperfect knowledge of individual identity.

Population cycles have long interested biologists. The ruffed grouse, Bonasa umbellus, is one such species whose populations cycle over most of their range. Thus, much effort has been expended to understand the mechanisms that might control cycles in this and other species.

Population and individual elephant response to a catastrophic fire in Pilanesberg National Park.

In predator-free large herbivore populations, where density-dependent feedbacks occur at the limit where forage resources can no longer support the population, environmental catastrophes may play a significant role in population regulation. The potential role of fire as a stochastic mass-mortality event limiting these populations is poorly understood, so too the behavioural and physiological responses of the affected animals to this type of large disturbance event. During September 2005, a wildfire resulted in mortality of 29 (18% population mortality) and injury to 18, African elephants in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa.

Large-scale generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags from porcine ovary.

One method to identify the factors that control ovarian function is to characterize the genes that are expressed in ovary. In the present study, cDNA libraries from fetal, neonatal, and prepubertal porcine ovaries, pubertal ovaries on different days of the estrous cycle (Days 0 [follicle], 5, and 12 [follicle and corpus luteum]), and follicles isolated from weaned sows (diameter, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mm) were constructed and sequenced. A total of 22 176 cDNAs were sequenced, of which 15 613 were of sufficient quality for clustering.