Centered at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, we are a small group of students, managers and scientists engaged in a collaborative learning project to develop innovative large herd scenarios for exotic hoofstock management.
After our handy dandy computers analyzed our data for us we were able to see the results of our experiment. First I will tell you about what the graduate students found when they compared the behavior of Lucifer in January, before and after the first introduction of Douglas. Then I will tell you a bit about what Renee discovered this year when Douglas was switched out with Lucifer for the second time.
Lucifer was courting the females on average between 5 and 28 percent of the time during our observation periods. The courtship was usually very relaxed, but it did increase in amount and intensity whenever there was a female in ovulation.
Lucifer was not often agonistic towards other animals. All aggressive interactions between him and other animals were low in intensity and did not change even after he was switched out with Douglas for the first 2-month experimental treatment in 2008.
If you want to view some of the pie charts that the graduate students made at the end of their observations in January 2009, take a look at this presentation that they gave to the Fossil Rim staff at the end of their week of fieldwork:
These were the preliminary results that they used to write up the first draft of their paper comparing Lucifers behavior in 2009 with his behavior in the previous year, 2008.
If you are interested in the preliminary results that Renee reported at the end of her internship in spring of 2008, here is the link to her presentation.
Our challenge was to compare Renee's results from 2008 with the results collected by her classmates in 2009. How would you go about answering that question?
The best and easiest way to answer such a question would probably be with graphics. A few pie charts would really help you to see the difference in courtship behavior between the two years. These pie charts are actually in the slideshows, but just to make it easier for you here’s a link to them side by side.
For the waterbuck, the bull switching treatment was successful for synchronizing births of the calves at the best time of year. You may read more about the long-term and short-term results:
long-term: Jones et al. (2010) http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/reports/BS10-01.pdf
short-term: Jones (2010) http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/mypubs/Jones2010.pdf
After our handy dandy computers analyzed our data for us we were able to see the results of our experiment. First I will tell you about what the graduate students found when they compared the behavior of Lucifer in January, before and after the first introduction of Douglas. Then I will tell you a bit about what Renee discovered this year when Douglas was switched out with Lucifer for the second time.
ReplyDeleteLucifer was courting the females on average between 5 and 28 percent of the time during our observation periods. The courtship was usually very relaxed, but it did increase in amount and intensity whenever there was a female in ovulation.
Lucifer was not often agonistic towards other animals. All aggressive interactions between him and other animals were low in intensity and did not change even after he was switched out with Douglas for the first 2-month experimental treatment in 2008.
If you want to view some of the pie charts that the graduate students made at the end of their observations in January 2009, take a look at this presentation that they gave to the Fossil Rim staff at the end of their week of fieldwork:
ReplyDeletehttp://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/scienceinaction/rat2009.pdf
These were the preliminary results that they used to write up the first draft of their paper comparing Lucifers behavior in 2009 with his behavior in the previous year, 2008.
If you are interested in the preliminary results that Renee reported at the end of her internship in spring of 2008, here is the link to her presentation.
ReplyDeletehttp://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/scienceinaction/jones80507.pdf
Our challenge was to compare Renee's results from 2008 with the results collected by her classmates in 2009. How would you go about answering that question?
The best and easiest way to answer such a question would probably be with graphics. A few pie charts would really help you to see the difference in courtship behavior between the two years. These pie charts are actually in the slideshows, but just to make it easier for you here’s a link to them side by side.
ReplyDeletehttp://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/scienceinaction/PieCharts.pdf
For the waterbuck, the bull switching treatment was successful for synchronizing births of the calves at the best time of year. You may read more about the long-term and short-term results:
ReplyDeletelong-term: Jones et al. (2010)
http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/reports/BS10-01.pdf
short-term: Jones (2010)
http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/mypubs/Jones2010.pdf