Parental care can include two general types of behavior: (1) aggressive behavior, which is used to defend offspring from predators; and (2) nurturing behavior, which is used to provide offspring with environmental conditions or resources necessary for survival. Many studies...
Many populations have intraspecific diversity in phenotype and ecological strategy, but the mechanisms maintaining such diversity are not fully understood. Multiple behaviors can be maintained either as a conditional strategy, where fitness depends on an individual’s phenotype, or as a...
Chemical signalling is widespread across animal taxa. Even birds, once thought to have little or no sense of smell, are now known to possess a fully functional olfactory system and may thus respond to conspecific and heterospecific chemical signals. In...
Larger numbers of colonists can be more likely to establish and spread due to the benefits provided by either more individuals (quantity) or a greater diversity of genotypes or phenotypes (genetic diversity). However, the value of higher colonist quantity or...
Stressed fish have been shown to have higher predator-induced mortality than unstressed conspecifics, suggesting a role for the hypothalamic–pituitary–interrenal axis in modifying risk-taking behaviors. Yet, there is also evidence of behavioral resiliency in the face of chronic stressors. Here, we...
The hypothalamic‐pituitary‐interrenal (HPI) or stress axis in teleost fishes produces their primary glucocorticoid, cortisol. Although generally an adaptive response, prolonged HPI axis stimulation can impair organismal performance. Previous work has shown that stressed teleosts have higher mortality to predation than...
Acute elevation of cortisol via activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis aids the fish in dealing with a stressor. However, chronic elevation of cortisol has detrimental effects and has been studied extensively in lab settings. However, data pertaining to wild...
We compared baseline and maximal cortisol concentrations between predator exposure and prey blood samples in pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus, captured using a standardised fishing event underneath osprey Pandion haliaetus nests and away from osprey nests. We did not detect differences...
Research has identified numerous conservation benefits attributed to the use of marine protected areas (MPAs), yet comparatively less is known about the effectiveness of freshwater protected areas (FPAs).
This study assessed multiple long‐standing (>70 years active) intra‐lake FPAs in...
Individual variation in parasite defences, such as resistance and tolerance, can underlie heterogeneity in fitness and could influence disease transmission dynamics. Glucocorticoid hormone concentrations often change in response to fluctuating environmental conditions and mediate changes in immune function, resource allocation...
Research in a variety of vertebrate taxa has found that cardiac function is a major limiting factor in the ability of animals to cope with physiological challenges, and thus is suggested to play an important role in mediating fitness-related behaviors...
In migratory animals, the degree to which individuals return to the same wintering sites across multiple years can affect fitness and population dynamics, and thus has important implications for conservation. Despite this, long-term evaluations of wintering-site fidelity are rare for...
Various aspects of performance (e.g., speed, strength, endurance) are thought to be important determinants of the success of animals in natural activities such as foraging, mating, and escaping from predators. However, it is generally known that morphological properties enhancing one...
As species shift their ranges and phenology to cope with climate change, many are left without a ready supply of their preferred food source during critical life stages. Food shortages are often assumed to be driven by reduced total food...
1. According to the traditional “Size Advantage” (SA) hypothesis, plant species with larger body size are expected to be more successful when competition is intense, that is, within severely crowded vegetation. Recent studies in old‐field habitats, however, have shown that...
Although many fish are captured and released following hook removal by recreational anglers, some fish break the line and are confronted by the potential impediment of a lure lodged in the jaw, buccal cavity, or throat. We simulated break-off events...
Chemical signaling has been well studied in invertebrates and mammals but less so in birds, due to the longstanding misconception that olfaction is unimportant or even non-existent in this taxon. However, recent findings suggest that olfaction plays an important role...
Reproduction is an energetically demanding life history stage that requires costly physiological and behavioral changes, yet some individuals will invest more into reproduction and breed more successfully than others. To understand variation in reproductive investment, previous studies have evaluated factors...
In vertebrate animals, genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) determine the set of pathogens to which an individual's adaptive immune system can respond. MHC genes are extraordinarily polymorphic, often showing elevated nonsynonymous relative to synonymous sequence variation and sharing...
The immunosuppressive effects of androgens are a key component of the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis (ICHH). Here, we use bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) to test two predictions arising from this hypothesis: (1) natural circulating concentrations of the androgen 11-ketotestosterone...
Calcium levels are declining in eastern North American and western European lakes. This widespread issue is affecting the composition of crustaceanzooplankton communities, as the presence and abundance of several calcium-rich daphniid species are declining, while two other daphniids, D....
Fish sedation facilitates safer handling of fish during scientific research or fisheries assessment practices, thus limiting risk of injury to fish and reducing stress responses. In recent years, there has been growing interest in using electricity to sedate fish; two...
Bird species around the world are threatened with extinction. In North America, aerial insectivores are experiencing particularly severe population declines. To conserve these species, we need to know which life stages have the largest influence on population growth. We monitored...
The hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis is centrally implicated in stressor mitigation in teleost fishes. Sustained HPI axis activation can be detrimental to the physiological functioning of an organism and can result in fitness-related trade-offs. Predator-induced mortality is known to be...
Recreational boating activity has the potential to generate noise pollution that may influence wild fish. Such noise may be particularly relevant to fish engaged in parental care (PC), where alterations in behaviour could influence individual fitness and productivity of fish...
Migratory birds move through multiple habitats and encounter a diverse suite of parasites. This raises concern over migrants’ role in transporting infectious disease between breeding and wintering grounds, and along migratory flyways. Trade‐offs between flight and immune defenses could interfere...
Glucocorticoid hormones allow individuals to rapidly adjust their physiology and behavior to meet the challenges of a variable environment. An individual’s baseline concentration of glucocorticoids can reflect shifts in life history stage and resource demands while mediating a suite of...
Salt, primarily NaCl, is commonly used to de‐ice winter roads. The usage of road salt is steadily increasing as the area of urbanised land expands, and chloride concentrations in many lakes and flowing waters near roads have been steadily increasing...
Increased exposure to parasites and other pathogens is one of the principal costs of group living, and animals have evolved diverse behavioral adaptations to detect and avoid parasitized conspecifics. In mammals, it is well established that parasitic infection can affect...
Biparental care presents an interesting case of cooperation and conflict between unrelated individuals. Several models have been proposed to explain how parents should respond to changes in each other’s parental care to maximize their own fitness, predicting no change, partial...
Testing the full impact of neighbourhood crowding within natural vegetation requires more than just effects incurred by established plants. It must also include measurements that take into account suppressive effects on the earliest plant life stages of resident individuals —...
Variation in immune gene sequences is known to influence resistance to infectious diseases and parasites, and hence survival and mate choice, across animal taxa. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) comprise one essential gene family in the vertebrate innate immune...
Mate choice experiments are essential to further our understanding of sexual selection, but can be challenging to design and conduct with most wild animals. 3D printing technology is creating opportunities to conduct mate choice experiments in the field by facilitating...
Although locomotor performance and behaviour are closely linked to survival in many wild animals, our understanding of the potentially important co-adaptations between locomotor performance and behaviour is still limited. Our objective was to quantify the among-individual correlation (rind...
Fish are commonly sedated to render them immobile and thus easier to handle for research, veterinary, and aquaculture practices. Since sedation itself imposes a significant challenge on the targeted fish, the selection of sedation methods that minimize physiological and behavioral...
After a fish snaps an angler’s line, the hook(s) still embedded in its mouth, the question arises: what will the encounter cost the fish? The consequences of retained gear on the physiology and behaviour of fish is not well understood....
The spatial structure of populations determines the relative importance of reproduction, survival and movement on population dynamics. However, the mechanisms by which local individuals and immigrants interact and the subsequent effects of immigrants on productivity are poorly known. We developed...
The increasing popularity of catch-and-release angling indicates a need to identify best practices that minimize sublethal injuries, impairments, and mortality. One factor impacting the viability of catch and release is the risk of hooking injury, which can impact survival in...
Many species form social groups with dominance hierarchies. Often, individuals possess a status signal that indicates dominance rank. Songbirds produce songs that are used to attract mates or repel rivals, and acoustic features within songs can also indicate an...
Basking is the primary mechanism used by many freshwater turtles to maintain their body temperature (Tb) in a range that maximizes physiological performance. Basking turtles are easily disturbed by motorboats, but the consequences of the increasingly popular...
While the use of aquatic protected areas that exclude angling might be considered an evolutionarily enlightened management approach to dealing with fisheries‐induced evolution (FIE), there is little empirical data on the effectiveness of this approach at maintaining the diversity of...
Selectively removing fish based on particular traits, such as body size, may shift trait abundance in the remaining population, resulting in a phenomenon called fisheries-induced evolution. Recently, there is growing interest in evaluating the effects of fisheries-induced evolution on fish...
Electric fish handling gloves (FHGs) have been developed to immobilize fish during handling, with the potential benefit of reducing the time needed for sedation and recovery of fish relative to chemical anaesthetics. We examined the secondary stress responses (i.e., hematocrit,...
The dear enemy effect arises when territorial animals respond more intensely to unfamiliar strangers than to familiar neighbours. This widespread behavioural phenomenon occurs because strangers represent a threat to both an animal's territory and parentage, whereas neighbours represent a...
Identifying key spatio–temporal periods of an organism’s activity is an important focus of many ecological studies. Bat activity, as assessed by passive acoustic monitoring, can be extremely variable and currently there exists no agreed-upon method for identifying periods of high...
Upon hearing a conspecific signal, animals must assess their relationship with the signaller and respond appropriately. Territorial animals usually respond more aggressively to strangers than neighbors in a phenomenon known as the “dear enemy effect”. This phenomenon likely evolved because...
Parental care is an advantageous reproductive behavior, as the fitness of the caregiver is increased through improving the chances of its offspring’s survival. Parental care occurs in a variety of teleost fishes. The body size of parental fish and the...
Breeding site fidelity has evolved in many vertebrate taxa, suggesting both that site selection has an important influence on fitness potential and that the decision to reuse a nesting site is related to the individual’s prior nesting success at that...
In the face of a changing world, there has been increasing interest in the behavioural and physiological responses of wild animals to stressors. Many factors can influence stress responsiveness, but two that have not been extensively studied during the stress-induced...
We examined whether particular years of mast seed production in sugar maple (Acer saccharum) are associated with increased likelihood of cohort recruitment success into the sapling stage over three decades of heavy browsing pressure from white-tailed deer in...
Glucocorticoid hormones facilitate responses to environmental challenges by mediating diverse physiological and behavioral changes, including resource mobilization and altered reproductive effort. Elevated glucocorticoids might indicate that an individual is facing high levels of environmental challenges and thus, elevated concentrations might be associated with...
Colonist quantity, quality, and arrival frequency can all individually drive the dynamics and extinction of new populations. However, we do not understand which has the strongest influence, nor the circumstances under which their relative importance may change. We conducted a...
Aposematism is an evolved, cross-species association between a preys’ unprofitability and the presence of conspicuous signals. Avian predators have been widely employed to understand the evolution of these warning signals However, insect predators are abundant, diverse, and highly visual foragers...
Competitive ability in plants is defined traditionally by a ‘size advantage’ hypothesis – i.e. larger species are generally expected to be more successful under competition because of greater capacity for resource capture, and thus capacity to deny resources to neighbours...
Despite a growing body of literature on the impacts of recreational fisheries on wild populations, surprisingly little is known regarding how individual differences in fish behaviour and their interaction with a baited hook influences hooking injury. We used an underwater ...
Employing science-based best angling practices is important for sustainable catch-and-release fisheries. In situations where fish lose equilibrium (unable to maintain upright posture to swim in a coordinated manner), anglers often provide assisted ventilation by hand, which typically involves maneuvering fish...
The drowning of freshwater turtles following incidental capture in fishing gear has the potential to cause population declines. Fyke nets can be equipped with bycatch reduction devices that enable the escape of turtles before they drown. We employed quantitative and...
The nonconsumptive consequences of predators on prey behavior, survival, and demography have recently garnered significant attention by ecologists. However, the impacts of top predators on free-ranging prey are challenging to evaluate because the most common fright response for prey is...
Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) are one of the classic systems for studying male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) in teleost fishes. In this species, there are two distinct life histories: parental and cuckolder, encompassing three reproductive tactics, parental, satellite,...
Ecological light pollution occurs when artificial lights disrupt the natural regimes of individual organisms or their ecosystems. Increasing development of shoreline habitats leads to increased light pollution (e.g., from cottages, docks, automobile traffic), which could impact the ecology of littoral...
