Interspecific Asymmetries in Behavioral Plasticity Drive Seasonal Patterns of Temporal Niche Partitioning in an Island Carnivore Community.

Animals vary considerably in the amount of behavioral plasticity they exhibit in daily activity timing and temporal niche switching. It is not well understood how environmental factors drive changes in temporal activity or how interspecific differences in the plasticity of activity timing ultimately manifest in free-living animals. Here, we investigated the temporal structure and organization of activity patterns of two insular mammalian carnivores living in sympatry, the island fox (Urocyon littoralis) and island spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis amphiala).

Responses to terrestrial nest predators by endemic and introduced Hawaiian birds.

Birds free from nest predators for long periods may either lose the ability to recognize and respond to predators or retain antipredator responses if they are not too costly. How these alternate scenarios play out has rarely been investigated in an avian community whose members have different evolutionary histories. We presented models of two nest predators (rat and snake) and a negative control (tree branch) to birds on Hawai'i Island.

Quantifying animal movement for caching foragers: the path identification index (PII) and cougars, .

Background: Many studies of animal movement have focused on directed versus area-restricted movement, which rely on correlations between step-length and turn-angles and on stationarity through time to define behavioral states. Although these approaches might apply well to grazing in patchy landscapes, species that either feed for short periods on large, concentrated food sources or cache food exhibit movements that are difficult to model using the traditional metrics of turn-angle and step-length alone.

Results: We used GPS telemetry collected from a prey-caching predator, the cougar (), to test whether combining metrics of site recursion, spatiotemporal clustering, speed, and turning into an index of movement using partial sums, improves the ability to identify caching behavior.

Bird Feeders as Locations for Skunk Uptake of Oral Rabies Vaccine Baits.

Significantly more (54%, P=0.003) placebo baits placed under 26 bird feeders in Arizona, US were removed by striped skunks ( Mephitis mephitis ) than at paired, nonfeeder locations (19%). Baiting at bird feeders could supplement traditional oral rabies vaccine bait placement in urban-suburban areas while engaging the public in rabies control efforts.

Ecological Potential for Rabies Virus Transmission via Scavenging of Dead Bats by Mesocarnivores.

Multiple species of bats are reservoirs of rabies virus in the Americas and are occasionally the source of spillover infections into mesocarnivore species. Although rabies transmission generally is assumed to occur via bite, laboratory studies have demonstrated the potential for rabies transmission via ingestion of rabid animals. We investigated the ecological potential for this mode of transmission by assessing mesocarnivore scavenging behavior of dead bats in suburban habitats of Flagstaff, Arizona, US.

Disparity in population structuring of Southwestern Willow Flycatchers based on geographic distance, movement patterns, and genetic analyses.

Estimates of population connectivity often are based on demographic analysis of movements among subpopulations, but this approach may fail to detect rare migrants or overestimate the contribution of movements into populations when migrants fail to successfully reproduce. We compared movement data of endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers among isolated populations in Nevada and Arizona from 1997 to 2008 to genetic analyses of samples collected between 2004 and 2008 to determine the degree to which these two methods were concordant in their estimates of population structuring. Given that documented movements of 13 color-banded adults and 23 juveniles over 10 years indicated low rates of long-distance movements, we predicted that genetic analyses would show significant population structuring between a northern (Nevada) deme and a southern (Arizona) deme.

Terrestrial vertebrates alter seedling composition and richness but not diversity in an Australian tropical rain forest.

Although birds and mammals play important roles in several mechanisms hypothesized to maintain plant diversity in species-rich habitats, there have been few long-term, community-level tests of their importance. We excluded terrestrial birds and mammals from fourteen 6 x 7.5 m plots in Australian primary tropical rain forest and compared recruitment and survival of tree seedlings annually over the subsequent seven years to that on nearby open plots.

Nightly and seasonal movements, seasonal home range, and focal location photo-monitoring of urban striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis): implications for rabies transmission.

We followed radio-collared striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) from January 2004-December 2005 in two urban areas of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA to determine seasonal patterns of movement and home-range size. We also used automated cameras to determine the potential for inter- and intraspecific interaction at skunks' diurnal resting sites and nocturnal focal locations. We found no difference between sexes in nightly rates of travel or in size of seasonal home range.

Functional and numerical responses of predators: where do vipers fit in the traditional paradigms?

Snakes typically are not considered top carnivores, yet in many ecosystems they are a major predatory influence. A literature search confirmed that terrestrial ectotherms such as snakes are largely absent in most discussions of predator-prey dynamics. Here, we review classical functional and numerical responses of predator-prey relationships and then assess whether these traditional views are consistent with what we know of one group of snakes (true vipers and pitvipers: Viperidae).

Seed-caching responses to substrate and rock cover by two Peromyscus species: implications for pinyon pine establishment.

We examined whether pinyon mice ( Peromyscus truei) and brush mice ( P. boylii) could act as directed dispersal agents of pinyon pine ( Pinus edulis) through differential responses to soil particle size and rock cover. In field experiments, we allowed mice to either cache pinyon seeds or recover artificially cached seeds (pilfer) from quadrats containing large- or small-particle soils.