King Rail (Rallus elegans) presence in the Midwestern United States is predicted by local‐scale factors and avian community

Abstract The King Rail (Rallus elegans) is a wetland dependent species of conservation concern. Our objective was to gain a better understanding of the breeding habitat associations of King Rails in the Midwestern United States and the relationship of this species to other obligate marsh birds using occupancy and MaxEnt models. To collect data pertaining to occupancy, we placed trail cameras at 50 random points in coastal wetlands in the western Lake Erie basin where calls of King Rails were continuously broadcast at night. Data pertaining to other marsh bird species were collected via call‐broadcast surveys and camera surveys at each sample point. For MaxEnt modeling, we obtained presence data for King Rails and other obligate marsh birds from eBird and habitat data from GIS databases. Trail cameras and call‐broadcast surveys captured 10 detections of King Rails at nine sites, an 18% naive occupancy rate. King Rail occupancy was positively related to amount of interspersion, average water depth, and percent cover of emergent vegetation at local scales within a 5‐m radius. Our MaxEnt models indicated that, at a broader scale, the presence of other rail species such as the Sora (Porzana carolina) may be more important for predicting King Rail presence than other marsh birds or coarse wetland categories such as “emergent vegetation.” Our results could help wetland managers to predict where King Rails occur and to adapt management plans to incorporate King Rail conservation

Implications of Creativity: A New Experiential Paradigm for an Aesthetics of the Extended Mind?

This essay is divided into two parts. In the first one it aims at showing the relationship that exists between narrative mind, performativity and creativity. The core issues are: in what sense and how does the literary mind express its own creativity, that is, what does it mean for a literary mind to be creative? When is it possible to maintain that a literary mind is creative in a sense that is considered as positive? Usually, when attempting to answer these questions, only the isolated and finished product of the creative act is taken into consideration. Contrariwise, we will here maintain that a literary mind\u2019s creativity, or creativity more generally, should be evaluated by considering also the experiential fulfillment of the aesthetic production, and hence narration as bound not to the intentional transparency of cognitive acts but to their material components. From this standpoint, creativity results as a radically aesthetic competence in its performativity, if not even the very basis of that mind\u2019s extension that is typical at least of human beings. What will hence be introduced in the second part of this essay is a particular paradigm of aesthetic experience. The basic reasons for this proposal will be explained through a paradox that we believe thrives in our present conception of the aesthetic. The general coordinates of the paradigm at issue will then be provided by attempting to highlight, at least in principle, its specific connection with the extended mind model

Cognitive Traits as Sexually Selected Fitness Indicators

The evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller has argued that various features of human psychology have been sculpted, at least in part, by the evolutionary process of sexual selection via mate choice. This paper specifically examines the central claim of Miller’s account, namely that certain cognitive traits have evolved to function as good genes fitness indicators. First, I expound on and clarify key foundational concepts comprising the focal hypothesis, especially condition-dependence, mutation target size, and mutation-selection balance. Second, I proceed to highlight some subtle distinctions with respect to the concepts of exaptation and adaptation, as well as Fisherian runaway selection and good genes sexual selection, all of which in turn bear importantly on the overall framework of cognitive traits as fitness indicators. Third and finally, I close out the paper by examining various conceptual and methodological criteria which are integral to identifying sexually selected adaptations, then briefly examine some empirical work that has aimed to test the hypothesis that traits such as humor and creativity function as sexually attractive fitness indicators