Spite and Altruism in Gulls

No abstract is available for this item

The Morale of Faculty, Students, and Staff Under a Corporate Model: The case of the University of Kansas

In this essay, I describe issues related to morale of faculty, staff and students at the University of Kansas, a major Midwestern research university, after a corporate model was implemented by a new administration in the mid-1990's. I will emphasize three aspects of demoralization. First, I discuss recruitment and retention of minority and female faculty and minority students, both before and after the implementation of the corporate model. Second, I discuss the morale of faculty in one of the university's top ranked research departments, as well as the morale of graduate and undergraduate students who work closely with those faculty. Finally, I discuss the morale of unclassified staff, particularly in a division where the administration was attempting to force mergers between departments in an attempt to "trim fat" and "streamline" administrative structure

Habitat Selection and Its Effect on Reproductive Output in the Herring Gull in Newfoundland

The breeding biology of the Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) was studied on Great Island, Newfoundland for part of the 1976 breeding season, and for two succeeding complete breeding seasons (1977 and 1978). Gulls nesting in three different habitats (designated puffin, rocky, and meadow) were compared with regard to several reproductive parameters. More pairs were found to nest in rocky habitat, and fewer pairs were found to nest in puffin habitat, than would be expected from a random distribution. In 1977, a year of low food availability, pairs in rocky habitat laid and hatched eggs significantly earlier than in the other two habitats. In 1978, when food was more abundant, gulls in rocky habitat laid heavier eggs than their counterparts in the other habitats. In both 1977 and 1978, chicks from rocky habitat grew at the fastest rate and were heavier than chicks in the other habitats. Finally, results of an experiment to test the egg-production capacity of females demonstrated that female gulls in rocky habitat were capable of producing significantly more eggs than their counterparts in meadow and puffin habitats. Despite the apparently better condition of gulls in rocky habitat, however, Herring Gull pairs in puffin habitat fledged as many chicks per nest as pairs in rocky habitat in 1977 and 1978, and even fledged more chicks in 1976. In all 3 yr of study, gulls in meadow habitat fledged the fewest chicks per nest. Within habitats, chick survival was strongly correlated with early laying dates and high rates of growth. However, there was also a large residual effect which was probably due to differences in the habitats. These differences are probably due to crowding and socially induced mortality in rocky habitat, and to the presence of predatory Great Black-backed Gulls in meadow habitat. The results support the theoretical models for habitat selection and dispersion developed by Fretwell and Lucas (1970), which suggest that increasing density in a preferred habitat can create a situation whereby fitness may actually be greater in a less-preferred habitat

Spite, Altruism, and Semantics: A Reply to Waltz

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Learning about Extraordinary Beings: Native Stories and Real Birds

Oral traditions of Indigenous American peoples (as well as those of other Indigenous peoples) have long been discussed with regard to their reliability as metaphorical accounts based upon historical knowledge. I explore this debate using stories to discuss the importance of the role of Corvidae in Indigenous knowledge traditions and how these stories convey information about important socioecological relationships. Contemporary science reveals that Corvids important in cultural traditions were companions to humans and important components of the ecology of the places where these peoples lived. Ravens, Crows, Jays, and Magpies are identified as having special roles as cooperators, agents of change, trickster figures, and important teachers. Canada (or Gray) Jays serve as trickster/Creator of the Woodland Cree people, Wisakyjak. Magpies won the Great Race around the Black Hills to determine whether humans would eat bison or vice versa. I analyze these stories in terms of their ecological meaning, in an effort to illustrate how the stories employ dramatic settings to encourage respect and fix relationships in the sociocultural memory of the people

Individual Variation and the Costs of Reproduction

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3247745?origin=crossref.No abstract is available for this item

Male and Female Parental Roles in the Western Gull under Different Environmental Conditions

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4086120?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.I examined variation in parental care in the Western Gull (Larus occidentalis), spending two seasons on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), where the population was large and competition for breeding space appeared to be high. During the first season (1973), food appeared to be less abundant than usual. During 1973, male gulls spent more time on their territories than did their mates. In 1974, food appeared to be more abundant; male and female gulls spent similar amounts of time on their territories, but females spent more time in incubation. Chick survival also increased in 1974. A third season was spent on Santa Barbara Island, where food appeared to be less abundant than on SEFI in either year; population size and density were low, however, and there did not appear to be much competition for breeding space. In this colony, females spent considerably more time both on their territories and in incubation than did their mates. Male gulls were found to be significantly larger than female gulls in both populations. Male gulls were also more aggressive than females and performed the bulk of territorial defense. Male gulls fed upon larger food items than did females, brought back heavier loads of food, and fed their chicks more often than did their mates. On SEFI, male gulls were monagamous, and nearly all retained the same mate for three consecutive seasons. These males did engage in some promiscuous activity but were rebuffed by females. This activity was more frequent in 1974. On Santa Barbara Island, males participated in considerable promiscuous activity with unmated females and were observed to copulate with females other than their mates. Received 15 May 1980, accepted 19 February 1981

Infanticide Versus Adoption: An Intergenerational Conflict

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org.Considerable attention has been paid to the phenomenon of infanticide in recent years. Five functional categories of infanticide have been defined. Here I concentrate on those that either have been described as the outcome of possible competition for limited resources or have by default been classified as the result of social pathology. Many of the species that show infanticide of this nature also show adoption of unrelated young at fairly high frequencies. I suggest that the possibility of caring for nonfilial offspring creates an intergenerational conflict, or arms race, whereby offspring separated from their parents or receiving parental care of substandard quality (insufficient for their survival) should be selected to solicit care from adults other than their parents and the potential adoptive parents are selected to avoid giving such care. Evidence suggests that most examples of supposedly pathological infanticide, or resource-based infanticide, are the result of potential foster parents killing unrelated offspring when these offspring can clearly be identified as nonrelatives. Support for this idea comes from observations that (1) such infanticide is most common in group-living or colonial species, where chances of encountering wandering offspring are high; (2) infanticidal individuals come almost exclusively from the sex that bears the primary costs of adoption; (3) such infanticide occurs only under conditions where victims can clearly be identified as nonfilial; and (4) in species with little or no cost to adoption, adoption is common, but infanticide is nonexistent