Behaviour and Social Organization of the Wild Bison of Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada

Reports observations made incidentally to a biological study of the herd in this preserve south of Great Slave Lake during 1950-1956. Senses, locomotion (including swimming), vocalization, as well as anatomical peculiarities influencing behavior are dealt with. Care-giving (grooming, nursing), agonistic and sexual behaviors are outlined. Social organization is illustrated by accounts of herd composition, intermingling of herds, interspecific relations (wolves), and reactions to man

Of Conservatism and Mysticism, Democracy and Things

Reviews Canadian environmental research of the last decade including the International Biological Program, Man and the Biosphere Program, and the Arctic Land Use Research Program. Discusses the role of the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee and the Berger Inquiry in the proposed development of Canadian Arctic resources

Samuel Hearne's Track: Some Obscurities Clarified

In 1770-72, Samuel Hearne walked from the present-day Churchill, Manitoba, to the lower Coppermine River and back in the company of a band of northern Indians (Chipewyans) and their leader, Matonabbee. Hearne's map is sketchy, to say the least; nevertheless, J.B. Tyrrell (1911) identified the main features along his route from Churchill to Wholdaia Lake. The key to the rest of the journey is identification of Lake Thelewey-aza-yeth, which is the next lake that Hearne mentioned by name and the point at which his homeward track crossed his outbound track. My conclusion that Thelewey-aza-yeth is named Spearfish Lake on modern maps leads to identification of Clowey Lake (McArthur), Peshew or Catt Lake (Lynx), Thoy-noy-kyed Lake (Ptarmigan), Thoy-kye(coy)-lyned Lake (Aylmer), Cogead Lake (Contwoyto), Buffalo or Muskox Lake (Takijuaq), and Thaye chuk gyed (Lac de Gras). There are two candidates for Hearne's Point Lake. One is MacKay Lake, in which case Camsell Lake would be Hearne's No Name Lake. The alternative is Courageous Lake, in which case Warburton Bay on MacKay Lake is No Name Lake. It is certain that Hearne's Point Lake is not either Franklin's Point Lake or the modern Point Lake. Evidence shows that the route followed was well known to the Chipewyan Indians (and probably to other Dene). Segments of the journey scarcely depart from the most direct route (a straight line on a map), even though at least two segments are well over 100 miles (160 km) in length.Entre 1770 et 1772, Samuel Hearne a effectué à pied le voyage aller-retour entre ce qui est aujourd'hui Churchill au Manitoba et le cours inférieur de la rivière Coppermine, en compagnie d'une bande d'Indiens du Nord (Chippewyans) et de leur chef, Matonabbee. Le moins qu'on puisse dire, c'est que la carte de Hearne est peu détaillée; J. B. Tyrrell (1911) a cependant identifié les caractéristiques principales le long de son parcours de Churchill à Wholdaia Lake. La clé du reste du voyage se trouve dans l'identification du lac Thelewey-aza-yeth, qui est le prochain lac dont Hearne mentionne le nom et le point où sa piste de retour recoupe celle de l'aller. Ma conclusion que Thelewey-aza-yeth est le lac Spearfish sur les cartes modernes mène à l'identification des lacs Clowey (McArthur), Peshew ou Catt (Lynx), Thoy-noy-kyed (Ptarmigan), Thoy-kye(coy)-lyned (Aylmer), Cogead (Contwoyto), Buffalo ou Muskox (Takijuaq), et Thaye chuk gyed (Lac de Gras). Il y a deux possibilités pour le lac Point mentionné par Hearne. L'une est le lac MacKay, auquel cas le lac Camsell d'aujourd'hui serait le lac No Name de Hearne. L'autre possibilité est le lac Courageous, auquel cas la baie Warburton actuelle du lac MacKay est le lac No Name. Il est certain que le lac Point de Hearne n'est pas le lac Point (qui est aussi le nom moderne) de Franklin. Les preuves montrent que le trajet parcouru était bien connu des Indiens Chippewyans (et probablement d'autres Dénés). Des tronçons du trajet s'écartent à peine de la route la plus directe (une ligne droite sur la carte), malgré qu'au moins deux tronçons fassent bien au-delà de 100 milles (160 km) de long

The Ecology and management of the American Bison

This paper outlines in some detail the population dynamics of a large, free-ranging herd of Bison in Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada. That herd increased from a remnant of about 500 in the 1890’s to an estimated 1,500 in 1922. In the late 1920’s 6,600 plains Bison were added to the original population of wood Bison. Since 1930 the increase has been much slower, probably because of increased mortality caused by tuberculosis and reduced fertility caused by brucellosis. Both diseases were probably introduced with the plains Bison. In contrast, the rate of increase of three small, fenced herds of plains Bison is about 25 percent per year. Management of the fenced herds consists mainly of periodic reduction in numbers to keep the population within the carrying capacity of the range. Management of the wild, northern Bison entails mainly an attempt to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis in certain selected portions of the herd. A minor, but still significant management goal is to restore the Bison to the list of game animals by permitting the hunting of trophy bulls in areas outside the Park boundary. The bulk of the herd is being left in as nearly a natural state as possible in order to reap the maximum aesthetic benefits. At present there are about 20,000 Bison under federal government protection in the United States and Canada plus others under State, Provincial or private control. The herds are widely distributed in the western part of the continent and the future of the species seems assured

Airy-like patterns in heavy ion elastic scattering

A semiclassical analysis of an optical potential cross section is presented. The cross section considered is characterized by the appearance of an Airy-like pattern. This pattern is similar to that which is present in many cross sections, which fit the recent measurements of light heavy ion elastic scattering, and is considered as a manifestation of a rainbow phenomenon. The semiclassical analysis shows that, in the case considered, the oscillations arise from the interference between the contributions from two different terms of a multi-reflection expansion of the scattering function, and, therefore, cannot be associated with the rainbow phenomenon.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Multivariate Small Area Estimation of Multidimensional Latent Economic Well-being Indicators

© 2019 The Authors. International Statistical Review © 2019 International Statistical Institute Factor analysis models are used in data dimensionality reduction problems where the variability among observed variables can be described through a smaller number of unobserved latent variables. This approach is often used to estimate the multidimensionality of well-being. We employ factor analysis models and use multivariate empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP) under a unit-level small area estimation approach to predict a vector of means of factor scores representing well-being for small areas. We compare this approach with the standard approach whereby we use small area estimation (univariate and multivariate) to estimate a dashboard of EBLUPs of the means of the original variables and then averaged. Our simulation study shows that the use of factor scores provides estimates with lower variability than weighted and simple averages of standardised multivariate EBLUPs and univariate EBLUPs. Moreover, we find that when the correlation in the observed data is taken into account before small area estimates are computed, multivariate modelling does not provide large improvements in the precision of the estimates over the univariate modelling. We close with an application using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data

Splitting of the Dipole and Spin-Dipole Resonances

Cross sections for the 90,92,94Zr(p,n) reactions were measured at energies of 79.2 and 119.4 MeV. A phenomenological model was developed to describe the variation with bombarding energy of the position of the L=1 peak observed in these and other (p,n) reactions. The model yields the splitting between the giant dipole and giant spin dipole resonances. Values of these splittings are obtained for isotopes of Zr and Sn and for 208Pb.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Asteroseismology of Eclipsing Binary Stars in the Kepler Era

Eclipsing binary stars have long served as benchmark systems to measure fundamental stellar properties. In the past few decades, asteroseismology - the study of stellar pulsations - has emerged as a new powerful tool to study the structure and evolution of stars across the HR diagram. Pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems are particularly valuable since fundamental properties (such as radii and masses) can determined using two independent techniques. Furthermore, independently measured properties from binary orbits can be used to improve asteroseismic modeling for pulsating stars in which mode identifications are not straightforward. This contribution provides a review of asteroseismic detections in eclipsing binary stars, with a focus on space-based missions such as CoRoT and Kepler, and empirical tests of asteroseismic scaling relations for stochastic ("solar-like") oscillations.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables; Proceedings of the AAS topical conference "Giants of Eclipse" (AASTCS-3), July 28 - August 2 2013, Monterey, C