Using microphone arrays to investigate microhabitat selection by declining breeding birds

Understanding the microhabitat preferences of animals can help managers to develop better conservation and recovery strategies but this is challenging. Traditional methods are limited by cost, accuracy and human resources. In this study, we investigated avian microhabitat preferences using microphone arrays that are capable of accurately locating vocalizing birds. Our objective was to identify the microhabitat associations of two common species in steep population decline, the Boreal Chickadee Poecile hudsonicus and the Cape May Warbler Setophaga tigrina. We deployed 68 eight‐channel arrays at random locations in Labrador, Canada, during the 2016 avian breeding season. We returned in 2017 to the 18 array locations where the target species had been detected the previous year and characterized the microhabitat at the exact locations where they had been detected. We also characterized the microhabitat at randomly determined control locations. Results show that Boreal Chickadees select trees with greater diameter‐at‐breast‐height that are surrounded by greater stem density. We did not find evidence that Cape May Warblers exhibit microhabitat selection during song production. The study shows that microphone arrays are an effective tool for identifying preferred microhabitat that could be incorporated into future conservation or recovery strategies

Racial discrimination, the superwoman schema, and allostatic load: exploring an integrative stress-coping model among African American women

Racial discrimination has been linked to allostatic load (i.e., cumulative biological stress) among African American women. However, limited attention has been given to psychosocial processes involved in the stress response—critical for understanding biological pathways to health—in studies examining racial discrimination as a social determinant of health. We examined whether the superwoman schema (SWS), a multidimensional culture-specific framework characterizing psychosocial responses to stress among African American women, modifies the association between racial discrimination and allostatic load. We used purposive sampling to recruit a community sample of African American women ages 30–50 from five San Francisco Bay Area counties (n = 208). Path analysis was used to test for interactions while accounting for the covariance among SWS subscales using both linear and quadratic models. Significant interactions were observed between racial discrimination and four of the five SWS subscales. Feeling obligated to present an image of strength and an obligation to suppress emotions were each protective whereas feeling an intense motivation to succeed and feeling an obligation to help others exacerbated the independent health risk associated with experiencing racial discrimination. Our findings affirm the need to consider individual variability in coping and potentially other psychosocial processes involved in the stress response process, and offer several insights that may help elucidate the mechanisms by which racial discrimination gets “under the skin.

Results of wellness examinations of 28 African hunting dog (Lycaon pictus) puppies at the Denver Zoological Foundation

Since 2002 the Denver Zoological Foundation has produced 28 African hunting dog (Lycaon Pictus) puppies in 3 litters (7, 14 and 7 pups) from the same dam and sire. Wellness examinations were performed on each puppy. The wellness examinations spanned the range of 6-14 weeks of age. During the wellness examinations, in addition to physical examinations and vaccinations, blood samples for complete blood counts and sera biochemistry were obtained.Weights, morphometric measurements, rectal cultures for enteric pathogens and dental eruption patterns were recorded. Blood samples from each age group were compared with adult values from the Denver Zoo. It was noted that animals from the 14-pup litter were 63.6 % of the mean weight of the two 7-pup litters, but size differences (in, for example, total bodylength) were less apparent. Two organisms were recovered from rectal cultures, namely Yersinia enterocolitica (n = 2) and Plesiomonas shigelloides (n = 3). The following deciduous eruption patterns were also noted; at 6 weeks, I1-3, i1-3, C1, c1, P1-2 and p1-2 (n=7) were present, at 9-10 weeks, P3 and p3 (n=21) , and finally at 12-14 weeks, P4 (n = 28)