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Human recreational disturbance of riverine environments may be contributing to population declines of aquatic organisms worldwide. Aquatic turtles that are heavily dependent on basking in sunlight to maintain an optimal body temperature may abandon basking perches because they perceive humans as potential predators. The impact of boat traffic, the availability of basking structures, and various environmental factors on the basking behaviour of the ringed sawback turtle (Graptemys oculifera) was assessed at two sites on the Pearl River, Mississippi, USA. This information was used to model the likely effects of human disturbance on the body temperature of large female turtles. Both the duration of basking and the percentage of turtles in a basking group that abandoned their basking perch were influenced by the availability of alternative basking sites, frequency of boat traffic, boat speed enforcement zones (‘wake’ or ‘no wake’), boat type, air temperature, weather conditions, and Julian day. A simulation model of anthropogenically disturbed and undisturbed adult female ringed sawbacks showed that disturbance probably decreases the mean daily body temperature, especially at higher disturbance probabilities and in May, when the air temperature is low. Management recommendations are provided that minimize the adverse effects of unintentional human disturbance of the ringed sawback to enable more effective conservation of this endangered, endemic species. Such methods are likely to be useful elsewhere as recreational disturbance becomes a greater conservation issue worldwide.

Behavioural traits are thought to be important determinants of the resilience of animal species to a rapidly changing global climate. Although increasing temperature has taken centre stage in the debate over climate change, animals will have to survive more than just extreme heat to persist in the Anthropocene. The aim of this review is to stimulate interest in the opportunities for integrative and applied behavioural study of how animals can survive life-threatening weather events, in order to help achieve the societal goal of maintaining viable wildlife populations under future climate scenarios. First, using the thermoregulatory behaviour of a hypothetical ground squirrel species as an example, we explore how different scenarios of behavioural flexibility, plasticity, adaptation, exaptation and management action can lead to population persistence or extinction. Next, we propose that considering weather events such as heatwaves, storms and floods, wildfire and drought as selective pressures worthy of investigation provides a new research framework for climate-related conservation behaviour. In our review we provide examples of the responses of animals to different types of weather extremes and describe behavioural adaptations to environments with extreme climates. We give methodological recommendations to jump start climate change research by behaviourists. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for using citizen science and a public video repository to foster evidence-based decision making for managing habitats and prioritizing species conservation efforts in light of the threats to biodiversity posed by climate change.

Information on home range size and movements can inform the design of protected areas for bird species of conservation concern. Populations of the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata), a heavily hunted Yucatan endemic, appear to be declining rapidly throughout its small geographic range, despite large protected areas. We radio-tagged adult males during the breeding season in a protected, mixed-use area in Belize to describe individual and annual variation in home range size and use. Our objectives were to (1) determine the minimum reserve area necessary to sustain a population of this species, (2) evaluate use of data from related species for home range parameters in conservation plans, and (3) help design species-specific survey methods suitable for distance sampling and camera trapping. There were no differences in mean minimum convex polygon (969 ha), 95% fixed kernel (692 ha), and 50% fixed kernel (90 ha) due to breeding strategy or habitat disturbance. The core home ranges of some individua...

The ability of organisms to respond adaptively to anthropogenic environmental change is behaviorally mediated, and recent studies indicate that anthropogenic acidification impairs behavioral responses by impacting olfactory abilities of aquatic organisms. The effect on behavior of other stressors, such as plant secondary compounds, in concert with low pH, has not been investigated. In this study we sought to a) determine whether the oviposition site choices of adult female Cope's Gray Treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) correspond with the pH and tannin conditions that maximize tadpole survival and performance in the laboratory and b) investigate the impacts of mildly acidic conditions, with and without the added stress of tannins, on the survival, development, and antipredator behavior of this frog's tadpoles. We conducted a field oviposition experiment to determine adult female site choice and reared tadpoles in acidic and tannic conditions to investigate survival and antipredator behaviors. Female ovipositio...

Climate change will accelerate the extinction rate of wildlife species in the Anthropocene. Identifying which species exhibit the capacity to be flexible in their activity patterns to avoid heat stress will help direct conservation effort to those species that lack resilience. We propose a framework for using photo capture data sets from camera trapping surveys to make conservation management decisions based on a combination of population trends and activity pattern shifts. After summarizing the basic design of typical camera trap surveys, we conduct a literature review of camera-trap-based activity pattern studies for select large tropical forest mammals. Based on our literature review we identified problems with data form and availability, data capture and image sampling, and sampling area and period, which may impede the application of camera trap technology to investigate behavioral resilience to climate warming. We conclude with eight important research questions that must be answered before our monitoring and management framework could be adopted to guide conservation efforts for large tropical mammals.

Mimicry, the resemblance of one species by another, is a complex phenomenon where the mimic (Batesian mimicry) or the model and the mimic (Mullerian mimicry) gain an advantage from this phenotypic convergence. Despite the expectation that mimics should closely resemble their models, many mimetic species appear to be poor mimics. This is particularly apparent in some systems in which there are multiple available models. However, the influence of model pattern diversity on the evolution of mimetic systems remains poorly understood. We tested whether the number of model patterns a predator learns to associate with a negative consequence affects their willingness to try imperfect, novel patterns. We exposed week‐old chickens to coral snake (Micrurus) color patterns representative of three South American areas that differ in model pattern richness, and then tested their response to the putative imperfect mimetic pattern of a widespread species of harmless colubrid snake (Oxyrhopus rhombifer) in different social contexts. Our results indicate that chicks have a great hesitation to attack when individually exposed to high model pattern diversity and a greater hesitation to attack when exposed as a group to low model pattern diversity. Individuals with a fast growth trajectory (measured by morphological traits) were also less reluctant to attack. We suggest that the evolution of new patterns could be favored by social learning in areas of low pattern diversity, while individual learning can reduce predation pressure on recently evolved mimics in areas of high model diversity. Our results could aid the development of ecological predictions about the evolution of imperfect mimicry and mimicry in general.

Iridescent colors in feathers are some of the brightest in nature, and are produced by coherent light scattering from periodic arrangements of melanosomes (melanin-containing organelles). Hollow melanosomes, an evolutionary innovation largely restricted to birds, contain an optically powerful combination of high and low refractive indices (from the melanin and air, respectively) that enables production of brighter and more saturated colors than solid melanosomes. However, despite their significance to avian color and potential utility as optical biomaterials, little is known about the ontogeny of either the melanosomes themselves or the nanostructures they comprise. We used light and electron microscopy to characterize nanostructural development in regenerating feathers of wild turkeys, a species with iridescent color produced by a hexagonally close-packed array of hollow melanosomes. We found that melanosomes form as solid bodies in melanocytes. Later in development, largely after placement in developing barbules, their interiors dissolve and leave hollow cores. These now hollow melanosomes are initially disorganized in the barbule, but become close-packed as they are pulled to the edge of the barbule, likely through a combination of forces including depletion–attraction. These data suggest that these structurally colored tissues are self-assembled and represent novel pathways of development. J. Morphol. 276:378–384, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

article i nfo Most birds are able to sense ultraviolet (UV) visual signals. Ultraviolet wavelengths are used for plumage signal- ing and sexual selection among birds. The aim of our study was to determine if UV cues are also used for the pro- cess of food selection in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). We used avoidance conditioning to test the hypothesis that UV feeding cues can be used functionally for foraging behavior in wild turkeys. Female turkeys exhibited no avoidance of untreated food and 75-98% avoidance of food treated with an UV-absorbent, postingestive repellent (0.5-4% anthraquinone; wt./wt.) during repellent exposure. Male turkeys exhibited 78-99% avoidance of food treated with 0.5-4% anthraquinone. Female and male turkeys that consumed more than 200 mg and 100 mg of anthraquinone, respectively, subsequently avoided food treated only with an UV- absorbent cue. In contrast, unconditioned females consumed 58% more food treated with the UV-absorbent cue than untreated food. Thus, wild turkeys do not prefer foods associated with UV wavelengths regardless of feeding experience. Wealso observed 1) a weak negative correlation between body condition and intestinal par- asite infection and 2) moderate,positive correlations betweenconsumption of food treatedwith the conditioned UV cue and intestinal parasite infection among male turkeys. The UV feeding cue was used to maintain food avoidance during the four days subsequent to postingestive conditioning. Moreover, the consequences of con- suming food treated with the postingestive, UV-absorbent repellent were necessary for conditioned avoidance of the UV-absorbent cue. These findings suggest functional significance of UV feeding cues for avian foraging be- havior,the implicationsof which will enablesubsequentinvestigationsregarding thesensory physiologyand be- havioral ecology of wild birds.

Bite force is a whole-animal performance measurement that can potentially provide valuable information regarding the biology of an organism. However, there have been few studies that directly measured bite force in sharks. We examined involuntary (obtained using jaw musculature stimulation) and voluntary bite force in Atlantic sharpnose sharks, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, and considered the effects of size, sex, season, gape, and capture method on bite force in that species. Additionally, we considered the relationship between bite force and general head measurements and the position along the jaws used to apply the bite (anterior vs. posterior). We found that there were no significant differences in voluntary or involuntary bite force and no significant differences in bite force between sexes. Atlantic sharpnose sharks, ranging between 55.1 and 105.5 cm total length, had an anterior bite force between 4.4 and 60.2 Newtons (N) and a posterior force between 20.9 and 102.8 N. Anterior bite force was found to be lowest in the summer months and highest in the spring and fall and paralleled seasonal changes in shark condition as evidenced by hepato-somatic index. As gape increased, the anterior bite force increased, with the greatest force found between 60 and 80 % of maximum gape. A best-fit multiple regression using jaw length, mouth width, head length and head width explained 80.9 % of the variation in anterior bite force. Longline-captured Atlantic sharpnose sharks produced significantly lower bite force when compared to hook-and-line-captured animals. Using published data and data from this study, we examined the body size-to-bite force relationship for nine shark species which provided a bite-force estimate of 123,876–179,219 N for the extinct megatooth shark, Carcharodon megalodon.

'Conservation behaviour' is a young discipline that investigates how proximate and ultimate aspects of the behaviour of an animal can be of value in preventing the loss of biodiversity. Rumours of its demise are unfounded. Conservation behaviour is quickly building a capacity to positively influence environmental decision making. The theoretical framework used by animal behaviourists is uniquely valuable to elucidating integrative solutions to human-wildlife conflicts, efforts to reintroduce endangered species and reducing the deleterious effects of ecotourism. Conservation behaviourists must join with other scientists under the multidisciplinary umbrella of conservation biology without giving up on their focus: the mechanisms, development, function and evolutionary history of individual differences in behaviour. Conservation behaviour is an increasingly relevant tool in the preservation of nature.

Wild turkeys, Meleagris gallopavo, are among the most ornamented birds in North America, displaying vividly coloured fleshy ornaments on their heads and bright, iridescent structural coloration in their plumage. We investigated the effect of experimental inoculation with coccidian parasites on the expression of iridescent structural coloration in yearling male turkeys. Prior to moult of ornamental feathers, we assigned turkeys to three experimental groups: we maintained six turkeys free of coccidial infection, inoculated four turkeys with a single species of coccidial oocysts, and inoculated six turkeys with multiple species of coccidial oocysts. We used reflectance spectrometry to quantify the plumage coloration of wing covert and breast feathers in the breeding plumage of males in each treatment protocol. We found significant treatment-based variation in the iridescent plumage coloration of yearling male turkeys such that infected males showed proportionately less UV reflectance in their wing covert and breast feathers and had duller breast feathers. This is the first experimental evidence that parasites can suppress the expression of structural plumage coloration, and our findings suggest that, in wild turkeys, iridescent coloration could serve as a condition-dependent signal of male health.

Investigations of parasite-mediated sexual selection have concentrated on the effects of parasites on males. Differences in female susceptibility to parasitic infection may also cause variation in reproductive behavior. I propose two alternative hypotheses to explain how infected females may alter their mate sampling behavior. In the first hypothesis, infected females sample fewer prospective mates because chronic parasitic infection imposes energetic costs that limit the time and calories that a female can expend in mate searching. A novel alternative hypothesis is that females recognize their own susceptibility to infection and thus invest more time searching for a male phenotype that indicates he offers genes complementary to her genome. In recombination, these good genes would allow her offspring to better resist parasites despite their mother's susceptibility. I examined the mate sampling behavior of experimentally infected wild turkey hens when presented with an array of males, and compared them to control hens. Infected females did not invest more time assessing individuals, did not wait longer to choose a male, nor were they less likely to solicit during the trial. They did differ from control females in that they visited more males before soliciting copulation and exhibited different preference functions for snood length. These results suggest that females are not so energetically restricted by latent coccidia infection that they must hurry to find a mate. Instead, it appears that infected females assess a larger set of males as prospective mates, perhaps to increase the opportunity to obtain complementary genes for parasite resistance. Copyright 2004.

Many animal populations are in decline as a result of human activity. Conservation practitioners are attempting to prevent further declines and loss of biodiversity as well as to facilitate recovery of endangered species, and they often rely on interdisciplinary approaches to generate conservation solutions. Two recent interfaces in conservation science involve animal behavior (i.e., conservation behavior) and physiology (i.e., conservation physiology). To date, these interfaces have been considered separate entities, but from both pragmatic and biological perspectives, there is merit in better integrating behavior and physiology to address applied conservation problems and to inform resource management. Although there are some institutional, conceptual, methodological, and communication-oriented challenges to integrating behavior and physiology to inform conservation actions, most of these barriers can be overcome. Through outlining several successful examples that integrate these disciplines, we conclude that physiology and behavior can together generate meaningful data to support animal conservation and management actions. Tangentially, applied conservation and management problems can, in turn, also help advance and reinvigorate the fundamental disciplines of animal physiology and behavior by providing advanced natural experiments that challenge traditional frameworks.

Most birds are able to sense ultraviolet (UV) visual signals. Ultraviolet wavelengths are used for plumage signaling and sexual selection among birds. The aim of our study was to determine if UV cues are also used for the process of food selection in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). We used avoidance conditioning to test the hypothesis that UV feeding cues can be used functionally for foraging behavior in wild turkeys. Female turkeys exhibited no avoidance of untreated food and 75–98% avoidance of food treated with an UV-absorbent, postingestive repellent (0.5–4% anthraquinone; wt./wt.) during repellent exposure. Male turkeys exhibited 78–99% avoidance of food treated with 0.5–4% anthraquinone. Female and male turkeys that consumed more than 200 mg and 100 mg of anthraquinone, respectively, subsequently avoided food treated only with an UV-absorbent cue. In contrast, unconditioned females consumed 58% more food treated with the UV-absorbent cue than untreated food. Thus, wild turkeys do not prefer foods associated with UV wavelengths regardless of feeding experience. We also observed 1) a weak negative correlation between body condition and intestinal parasite infection and 2) moderate, positive correlations between consumption of food treated with the conditioned UV cue and intestinal parasite infection among male turkeys. The UV feeding cue was used to maintain food avoidance during the four days subsequent to postingestive conditioning. Moreover, the consequences of consuming food treated with the postingestive, UV-absorbent repellent were necessary for conditioned avoidance of the UV-absorbent cue. These findings suggest functional significance of UV feeding cues for avian foraging behavior, the implications of which will enable subsequent investigations regarding the sensory physiology and behavioral ecology of wild birds.

ABsTmAcr.-The brightly colored, unfeathered heads and necks of male Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are generally thought to function in sexual selection. However, studies in other bird species have suggested that uninsulated body regions may serve an important role in heat dissipation. I test the heat-dissipation hypothesis in Wild Turkeys by experimentally reinsulating the heads and necks of Wild Turkeys as though they were feathered. The oxygen consumption, thermal conductance, cooling capacity, surface temperatures, and core temperature of control and reinsulated Wild Turkeys were compared at 00, 220 and 35?C. Head insulation resulted in significantly increased rates of oxygen consumption, higher body temperatures, and decreased cooling capacities at 35?C, but had no significant effect at the other temperatures tested. It appears that behavioral changes at low temperatures, such as tucking the head under the back feathers, effectively prevent the heat loss that would otherwise be caused by the absence of feathers. However, if the head were feathered, turkeys at high temperatures would be unable to dissipate sufficient heat to maintain thermeostasis. Thus, given this finding for Wild Turkeys, it can no longer be said that in all cases bare heads in birds have evolved by sexual selection alone. Loss of head and neck feathering in Wild Turkeys and other birds may have allowed these species to take advantage of regions in time and space that previously were unexploitable due to the dangers of hyperthermia. Received 22 June 1994, accepted 27 January 1995.

Wild turkeys, Meleagris gallopavo, exhibit a particularly striking array of ornamental characters, including a bare, brightly coloured head covered with bumpy caruncles and a distensible snood, a black hair-like beard, tarsal spurs and a large fanned tail. These characters are hypothesized to be maintained by female choice. Good genes models of female choice propose that these ornaments serve as indicators of the bearer's heritable ability to resist parasites, maximize fat deposition or attain greater age. Aesthetic models propose no such ability of ornaments to indicate these correlates of fitness. These models were tested by (1) determining the male characters assessed by captive females, using artificial and live males in mate-choice trials, and (2) examining the correlates of ornamentation in wild-caught males. Females preferred males with longer snoods and wider skullcaps. These traits were negatively correlated with coccidian oocyst loads in the faeces of wild-caught males. Snood length may also be an indicator of male energy reserves. These results are consistent with good genes models of female choice. Other aspects of male ornamentation in wild turkeys were not explained by inter-sexual selection.

Conservation behaviour is an area of conservation biology particularly suited to investigate problems of species endangerment associated with managing animals in fragmented habitats and isolated parks. It employs a theoretical framework that examines the mechanisms, development, function and phylogeny of behavioural variation in order to develop practical tools for preventing extinction. This framework can be used to attract animals to suitable habitat, restore migratory movements, identify individual reproductive strategies affecting conservation and focus protection on species most susceptible to extinction. The future success of conservation behaviour requires that behaviourists link individual variation in behaviour to processes that determine population viability. Key concepts Animal conservation will require active management. Behavioural problems must be examined from four perspectives (mechanisms, ontogeny, adaptive function, phylogeny) simultaneously. Behavioural strategies of individual animals change as habitat and populations are altered, and those changes could harm population viability. Animal behaviourists must participate in conservation planning to protect the future of biodiversity. Keywords: conservation; extinction; wildlife management; ethology

Genetic selection for disease resistance may be facilitated by molecular markers of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of poultry. We describe the first sequence variation documented at the MHC Class II B region of turkeys, and provide specific probe optimization conditions for studying RFLP polymorphisms in this species.

The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis), a nonmigratory, cooperatively breeding species limited to the older-growth pine forests of the southeastern United States, requires living pine trees for cavity excavation. Since the 1950s, alteration and destruction of critical woodpecker habitat have caused a decline in red-cockaded woodpecker populations. The red-cockaded woodpecker now exists mostly in small, scattered populations whose respective members have little opportunity to interbreed. In general, as populations become smaller and more isolated, the frequency of inbreeding increases and genetic diversity and population viability may decrease. The introduction of unrelated individuals into disjunct red-cockaded woodpecker populations may reduce inbreeding, maintain genetic variability, and reduce local extinction. We developed a technique for selecting red-cockaded woodpecker nestlings and transferring them into the nests of unrelated conspecifics. For each translocation, we paired nests by age and exchanged 1 nestling from each, so that 2 introductions were made with 1 reciprocal translocation event. Nest visitation by the parents and fledging success of nestlings were monitored. Fostered nestlings were accepted by their new parents, and the rate of successful fledging by fostered nestlings was not different from that of nonfostered control nestlings. We concluded that reciprocal intraspecific fostering of similarly aged nestlings can be used safely and effectively to translocate red-cockaded woodpeckers and may have advantages over the translocation of adults and juveniles under certain conditions.

Microbes that infect fruit are hypothesized to make fruits unattractive to vertebrate seed dispersers as a mechanism to avoid their own consumption. We tested this hypothesis by presenting captive cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) with pairwise choices between infected and uninfected fruits of five species. As predicted, the birds displayed a strong preference for the uninfected fruits. Not only did they initially pick up uninfected before infected fruits, but they dropped significantly more infected fruits (...)