Valerius Geist

Deer of the world : their evolution, behavior, and ecology

Tells how the deer family (Cervidae) has evolved over the years and how its adaptations have made it one of the most successful mammals on earth. They flourish in nearly every habitat and have left a fossil record of dramatic earlier forms. This text discusses the characteristics of each species.

Cardiac and Behavioral Responses of Mountain Sheep to Human Disturbance

Telemetered heart rates (HR) and behavioral responses of mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) reacting to human disturbance in the Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary, southwestern Alberta, were recorded. Cardiac and behavioral responses of sheep (4 ewes, 1 ram) to an approaching human were greatest when the person was accompanied by a dog or approached sheep from over a ridge. Reactions to road traffic were minimal as only 8.8% of vehicle passes elicited HR responses. No reactions to helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft were observed at distances exceeding 400 m from sheep. Responses to disturbance were detected using HR telemetry that were not evident from behavioral cues alone. However, mean duration of the HR response (138.6 sec) was not greater (P > 0.05) than mean period of the behavioral reaction when sheep were alert or withdrawing from harassing stimuli (112.4 sec). Use of HR telemetry in harassment research is discussed. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 46(2):351-358 Survival and optimal use of habitat by individuals demand high levels of vigilance so that stimuli indicating presence of predators, conspecifics, food, or shelter do not go undetected (Dimond and Lazarus 1974). Yet if an animal is excessively aroused, as from human disturbance, the added cost of excitement may interfere with health, growth, and reproductive fitness (Geist 1979:5). Recent studies of free-living birds (Kanwisher et al. 1978) and ungulates (Ward et al. 1976, MacArthur et al. 1979) have revealed that heart rate is a sensitive indicator of arousal, the first stage of an alarm reaction to stress (Jenkins and Kruger 1975). These and other investigations (Thompson et al. 1968, Cherkovich and Tatoyan 1973, Moen et al. 1978) have demonstrated consistent HR responses to disturbing visual or auditory stimuli, often in the absence of overt behavioral changes. Expanding upon earlier work (MacArthur et al. 1979), the present paper integrates cardiac and behavioral observations to better understand how individuals in a population of mountain sheep perceive and respond to environmental perturbations. In view of escalating use of alpine areas by hikers, particular attention is focused on the sensitivity of sheep to approaches by humans (Dunaway 1971). The study also addresses relative merits of HR telemetry and overt behavioral observations as methods for detecting and defining harassment responses in ungulates. Preliminary findings (MacArthur et al. 1979) suggested cardiac responses may persist longer than behavioral reactions, and a quantitative comparison of these 2 indices of disturbance is reported here. We acknowledge the field assistance of D. MacArthur, B. Horejsi, G. Lynch, J. Jorgenson, D. Olsen, and D. Nugent. We thank the technical staff of the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Calgary, for constructing transmitters and other electronic equipment essential to this study. Cooperation provided by the Alberta Forest Service and Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division is also appreciated. Financial support was proIPresent address: Department of Zoology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada. J. Wildl. Manage. 46(2):1982 351 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.180 on Mon, 25 Apr 2016 06:15:48 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 352 RESPONSES OF MOUNTAIN SHEEP TO DISTURBANCE* MacArthur et al. vided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and by the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep.

On the evolution of the Caprinae

The evolution of the subfamily Caprinae follows much the same pattern as does that of other families whose species are distributed from the tropics to the Arctic (Geist 1971a,b, 1977, 1978a, 1983, 1985a, 1986b). A similar pattern is found in gallinaceous birds (Geist 1977). This very evolutionary analysis indicates that the segregation of rupicaprids from caprids is an artefact. In recent decades we have learned much about ungulates, yet taxonomic models were developed much earlier on the basis of morphological differences that were little understood. We are now gaining that understanding. I hope to show that caprids are an evolutionary progression out of the rupicaprids, and that their differences are a consequence of exploiting open habitats as opposed to those rich in cover, as well as a result of the colonisation of cold, seasonal climates.

The role of hunting in North American wildlife conservation

Regulated hunting is the foundation of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. This conservation paradigm arose out of a movement, lead by prominent hunters, to stop over-exploitation of wildlife by market hunters and the desire to have wildlife accessible to all people. Since then, hunters have contributed billions of dollars to wildlife management that benefit countless wildlife species. These funds support wildlife management agencies which manage all wildlife species, not just those that are hunted. This unique and successful conservation paradigm is responsible for supporting a wide variety of conservation activities, including law enforcement, research, information and education, habitat management and acquisition, as well as wildlife population restoration and management. Although wildlife conservation activities embrace far more than the hunted species, hunters continue to be the primary agents of financial support, management assistance and organized advocacy.

Defining subspecies, invalid taxonomic tools, and the fate of the woodland caribou

If my argument is valid, then true woodland caribou are only the very few, dark, smallmanned caribou scattered across the south of caribou distribution. They need the most urgent of attention.

Bones of contention revisited: did antlers enlarge with sexual selection as a consequence of neonatal security strategies?

Abstract New insights into anti-predator adaptations and ways of quantifying antler mass in relation to neonatal investment allow a test of the hypothesis that antler size in male deer tracks the inherent reproductive capacity in females. Cursorialism (speedy and enduring running) as an anti-predator strategy maximizes perinatal investment by the female. In deer it leads to maximum antler size in males. In saltatorial hiders (species that avoid detection by hiding and escape by rapid leaping over obstacles and by taking cover), neonates secret themselves away in cover. This reduces the need for perinatal investment, or for large antler size in males. The capacity to spare nutrients from body growth is reflected in females in reproduction and in males in antler growth which permits females to choose males with the best capacity to spare nutrients from growth, or with the best capacity to forage. Female choice is expected to be proportional to the need of neonates to run from predators soon after birth. Courtship, but not dominance displays by male deer, varies interspecifically in proportion to antler size.

Environmentally guided phenotype plasticity in mammals and some of its consequences to theoretical and applied biology

In large mammals extremes in resource availability generate extremes in phenotype development (intraspecific). These are adaptive, and can be related to opportunities inherent in natural situations with high and low resource availability. It is as if the genome and environment were linked via the phenotype into a system of information flow, and the genome explores the environment through the phenotype and shapes it adaptively. No mechanism of gene-environment communication can as yet be defined. This concept applied to mammalian evolution allows one to explain how new body types evolve between latitudes. It explains hypermorphic giants and paedomorphic dwarfs; it links the evolution of new forms to dispersal and correctly predicts the direction of evolution on the basis of latitudinal resource availability; it predicts long species longevity, but low speciation rates for species that specialize in opportunism, but high rates in specialists in competition. Neither the ‘punctuated equilibrium model’ nor the ‘gradualism model’ are tenable. There is no single mode of speciation as at least five different modes can be identified. The phenotype theory, used for decades in a simpler form in agriculture and wildlife management, allows one also to develop a scientific theory of health.

Of reindeer and man, modern and Neanderthal: A creation story founded on a historic perspective on how to conserve wildlife, woodland caribou in particular

A review of successful systems of wildlife conservation, the North American included, suggests that broad public support and determined effort by volunteers is essential for wildlife conservation. Since North American wildlife conservation is the only large-scale system of sustainable natural resource use, and exemplifies the great economic and cultural benefits of a renewable resource held in common, its lessons may be profitably applied to Rangifer conservation. Animals that have value are surrounded by myths that tell of their relationship to humans. In our Anglo-American culture reindeer and caribou are rather deficient in this respect. However, reindeer feature prominently in the rise of modern humans and the demise of Neanderthal man early in the Upper Paleolithic. The colonization by humans of the periglacial environments during the last glaciation depended on the rich periglacial megafauna, Rangifer included. Archeological sites of the European Upper Paleolithic show that reindeer were the most important food source. The Upper Paleolithic, characterized by exceptional physical development and health of people, as well as by the first flowering of art, extended from Spain to Crimea with surprisingly little cultural change for some 25 000 years. While the cave paintings express an infatuation with dangerous game (woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, steppe wisent, giant deer, cave lions, bears etc), the archeological sites indicate that reindeer was the staple food. Reindeer play a minor role in cave art. Neither this art, nor archeological sites, show any evidence of warfare. It is hypothesized that during a mid-glacial interstadial modern people entered Europe having developed a highly successful system of hunting reindeer using interception based on the discovery of chronologic time. This led to a first flowering of culture based on a rich economy, but also to additional hunting mortality of the periglacial mega-herbivores that Neanderthal people depended on. That would explain the slow decline into extinction of the previously invincible Neanderthal people. Therefore, modern humans owe much of what they are to reindeer. We need to reciprocate. What is urgently required is a foundation formed by volunteers for the conservation of caribou, similar to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, focusing on the severely endangered wood¬land caribou.

How Genes Communicate With the Environment—The Biology of Inequality

In this chapter we shall examine an important, but poorly understood, attribute of genetic systems: their ability to communicate with the environment of individuals and to guide an individual’s development in such a fashion as to enhance its reproductive fitness throughout its life. Little is known about how genes communicate, but communicate they do. From the examples to be discussed under the heading Population Quality one can readily deduce that such communication must entail negative feedback loops that control development in accordance with environmental dictates. Genes appear to have at their disposal alternative strategies of development which they switch on or suppress depending on the messages from the individual’s environment. We may call these mechanisms epigenetic mechanisms. It is C. H. Waddington (1957, 1960, 1975) who had a deep insight into their significance to an understanding of evolution. His thoughts are greatly neglected, and invariably misunderstood when mentioned, in the polemics about human evolution; the inadequate neo-Darwinian paradigm is still king, as illustrated, for instance, in discussions by Wilson (1975), Trivers (1974), Alexander (1974), Durham (1976), or Ruyle et al (1977).

Perspectives on The Wildlife Society's Economic Growth Policy Statement and the Development Process

Abstract On 18 September 2004, The Wildlife Society (TWS) published an official policy statement on economic growth and wildlife conservation. We believe this policy statement did not adequately address the issues. Thus, TWS missed an opportunity to lead the natural resource profession in refuting the fallacious rhetoric that “there is no conflict between economic growth and wildlife conservation” through the adoption of a strong policy statement on economic growth. Although we commend TWS Council for adopting a policy statement on economic growth, we believe the final wording contains several weaknesses. Here, we take a closer look at the statement and further evaluate how it might be strengthened in the future.