Jane M. Packard

Texas A&M University | TAMU · Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences

Some conservation breeding centers provide semi-natural conditions for hoofstock herds, to achieve the goal of maintaining genetic and behavioral resilience suitable for eventual reintroduction of conservation reliant species. Little is known about mixed-species grazing by allopatric herbivores outside their native ranges (ex-situ), although specie...

Sexual selection influences both genital diversity and mating behaviors, yet the integrated coevolution of pre- (behavioral) and postcopulatory (anatomical) traits in both sexes has received little attention. Traits could potentially evolve through an arms race model of escalations in male persistence and female resistance, and/or through a tradeof...

Behavioral flexibility of wolves is linked with many characteristics associated with intelligence, such as subtle communication , problem-solving, and learning in the social context of a family group. To better understand cooperative breeding in wolves, researchers focus on individual behavior within groups (ontogeny, parental and alloparental care...

Sexual selection influences both genital diversity and mating behaviors, yet the integrated coevolution of pre- (behavioral) and postcopulatory (anatomical) traits in both sexes has received little attention. Traits could potentially evolve through an arms race model of escalations in male persistence and female resistance, and/or through a tradeof...

Ungulates show a wide diversity within the basic pattern of "seasonal polyestry". Females are polyestrous, meaning that they cycle several times within one breeding season, providing multiple chances to get pregnant if they do not conceive on the first cycle of a season. The degree of seasonality also influences male reproduction. Seasonal growth a...

Similar to other large-bodied social carnivores, wolves hunt in groups as well as in singles and pairs. However, communicative and reproductive behaviors of grey wolves differ in distinctive ways from cat-like (Feliformia) and other dog-like (Caniformia) species in the taxonomic order Carnivora. For over a half century, researchers have been fascin...

Grazing by multiple species is a potential tool for maintaining biomass and biodiversity in sustainable grassland systems. Although grazing behavior differs between some species, between some breeds of domestic livestock, and between some domestic and native species, little is known about mixed grazing by large herbivores managed for conservation p...

The Guadalupe Bass, Micropterus treculii is endemic to the Hill Country region of central Texas, US, and its entire native distribution is within Texas, including portions of the Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, and San Antonio River basins. Currently, the genetic integrity of Guadalupe Bass populations are threatened by hybridization with introduced,...

Where endangered species occur, recommendations call for conservation education programs that engage local educators; however, few studies have measured the effectiveness of implemented programs. We conducted a multipartner educator workshop for the endangered Houston Toad, Anaxyrus houstonensis, as one local example illustrating the broader issue...

When males engage in scramble competition, are females non-evasive recipients of male coercion or evasive? Small groups of male dusky dolphins ( Lagenorhynchus obscurus) engage in exploitative (non-interference) scramble competition for access to oestrous females near Kaikoura, New Zealand. We conducted behavioural sequence analyses of videos of 48...

Despite logistical challenges that limit direct observations of behavior for some species, physical scars can provide indirect evidence of aggression. Dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus (Gray, 1828)) off Kaikoura, New Zealand, derive most of the notches and scars on their dorsal fins from conspecifics. However, aggressive encounters have rarel...

Introduction: Cave-dwelling nectar-feeding bats (Phyllostomidae: Glossophagini) face greater danger of extinction compared to other bats due to their restricted diet and the limited availability of suitable caves. Recent conservation biology literature suggests that successful conservation strategies should consider both biological and social persp...

The Guadalupe Bass Micropterus treculii is native to the Texas Hill Country of central Texas, and is threatened by hybridization with non-native smallmouth bass, M. dolomieu. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department developed a captive spawning program for Guadalupe Bass to counter the influence of hybridization. To identify potential mechanisms influen...

Best practices for carnivore enrichment encourage the diversity of species‐typical behaviors, increased activity, and reduced stereotypic behavior; ideally considering the life‐history and behavior of each species. African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), or painted dogs, are social carnivores that have large home ranges and complex pack dynamics (e.g.,...

Behavioural assays for taxon-specific groups aid in assessing individual welfare and in population planning important to ensure sustainability (e.g. choice of enclosures, age/sex structure of groups, candidates for breeding and reintroduction). Personality approaches to measuring individual variation include ethological coding and subjective rating...

In fission–fusion social systems with scramble competition between males, multiple males join mating groups while surrounding an oestrous female. If male decisions to join a mating group have been shaped by natural selection, then there should be an optimal group size resulting from the trade-offs between the benefits of monopolizing a female in sm...

To achieve benchmarks of success for captive population planning, managers need reliable measures of animal personalities (i.e. heritable temperament and learned coping styles). Although researchers have identified best practices for measuring behavioral types suitable for specific roles in zoo environments, the approach needs to expand to include...

To achieve benchmarks of success for captive population planning, managers need reliable measures of animal personalities (i.e. heritable temperament and learned coping styles). Although researchers have identified best practices for measuring behavioral types suitable for specific roles in zoo environments, the approach needs to expand to include...

In this paper, we present a cultural model of farmer land conservation. Based on interviews with farmers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we identified a set of interrelated knowledge and values that cognitively frames farmer understanding of how best to conserve rural lands. The knowledge represented by this cultural model includes many beliefs a...

In this paper, we examine the extent to which three conservation organisations (one local, one national and one international), working in East Texas, variously integrate local cultural models of conservation and scientific theories into their programmes. We hypothesised that the local level organisation, whose members were primarily from East Texa...

By whatever measures scientists choose for social intelligence, behavioral resilience of wolves illustrates their adaptations to changing aspects of their environments in the wild and captivity. Intriguing questions about wolves have emerged from studies of life history traits in social carnivores, such as large body size, delayed reproduction, and...

Few studies of monogamous canids have addressed regurgitation in the context of extended parental care and alloparental care within family groups. We studied food transfer by regurgitation in a pack of wolves on Ellesmere Island, North West Territories, Canada, during 6 summers from 1988 through 1996. All adult wolves, including yearlings and a pos...

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ABSTRACT  In many research projects, reliability of collected data is dependent on reliability of field observers. However, it is uncommon for observer reliability to be either measured or reported in wildlife research. We tested whether observer skill affected outcomes of a northern river otter (Lontra canadensis) track survey conducted by the Tex...

Background / Purpose: The goal of this mixed-mode study was a deeper understanding of the diverse ways that stakeholders use cultural knowledge to understand approaches to protect working landscapes, e.g. a mosaic of private and public properties.We applied principal components analysis to data from a survey instrument designed to measure validit...

Invasive species have been identified as an international conservation crisis. Federal land managers have been mandated to control invasive species on their lands and to restore native species. Such action can have consequences for local communities that have incorporated the non-native species into their culture and economy. Previously managed by...

Invasive species are often implicated in population declines of native species because of predation. The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) has been documented to prey on songbird nests. We conducted a replicated manipulative experiment to determine the decrease in nest survival caused by S. invicta. In 2006 and 2007 we monitored 71 nests,...

What might be the ancestral roots of behaviors that predisposed canines to adapt so well to the living conditions of modern human families? This central question has been explored in diverse ways since the early writings of the classical ethologists and still remains an enigma that stimulates healthy debate. Since Konrad Lorenz published “Man Meets...

Al turismo rural familiar, se le considera como alternativa de bienestar local y regional. Es un mecanismo de difusión de la riqueza natural y cultural del municipio a través de actividades cotidianas y fuente de ingresos a través de la prestación de servicios. Permite a los habitantes de la comunidad mejorar su nivel y calidad de vida, fortalecien...

Based on optimality models, lekking males holding higher quality territories should spend more effort on territory maintenance and less effort on body maintenance. We tested the hypothesis that benefits are correlated with costs for male sea otters, Enhydra lutris (L., 1758). Activity state was recorded during focal follows of 10 individuals (n = 1...

Occurrence of 130 species of decapod crustaceans was compared between the continental slope (200–2500 m) and the abyssal plain (2500–3840 m) of the Gulf of Mexico. We compiled records of these species from published literature and from the crustacean catalogue of the Marine Invertebrate Collection of Texas A&M University. Each species was scored as...

A fragment of manatee habitat that crosses the border of Belize and Mexico includes both activity centres and travel routes linking rivers, lagoons, seagrass beds and mangrove islands near Chetumal Bay. Little is known about how geophysical features like coral reefs may inn uence manatee movements within and between habitat fragments like this. In...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of penning and chaining on circus elephant behavior. The behaviors of 10 Asian elephants (Elephas maxi-mus) and three African elephants (Loxodonta africana) were videotaped for at least 24 hours at each of six performance locations. At four of these locations, the elephants were restrained in el...

During 1991-1997, we developed, adapted, and tested a variety of field techniques for the study of Amazona parrots in northeastern Mexico. We describe two of these tech- niques considered novel and employed for nest inspections and sampling crop contents of nestlings. Inspections included modification of nests and use of a video probe. Crop samplin...

During 1991-1997, we developed, adapted, and tested a variety of field techniques for the study of Amazona parrots in northeastern Mexico. We describe two of these techniques considered novel and employed for nest inspections and sampling crop contents of nestlings. Inspections included modification of nests and use of a video probe. Crop sampling...

Few studies of monogamous canids have addressed regurgitation in the context of extended parental care and alloparental care within family groups. We studied food transfer by regurgitation in a pack of wolves on Ellesmere Island, North West Territories, Canada, during 6 summers from 1988 through 1996. All adult wolves, including yearlings and a pos...

List of contributors Preface General acknowledgments Part I. Problems and Issues: 1. Linking conservation and behavior Janine R. Clemmons and Richard Buchholz 2. Integrating behavior into conservation biology: potentials and limitations Steven R. Beissinger 3. Why hire a behaviorist into a conservation or management team? Peter Arcese, Lukas F. Kel...

We explore the reaction of two resource dependent communities, west Texas ranchers and Gulf Coast oyster fishers, to scientific resource management. We examine the criteria these two social groups use to judge scientific claims, and by extension, scientific resource management. Although scientists rely on factors internal to the scientific enterpri...

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in activity patterns and social behavior of two groups of endangered Mexican wolves maintained at two quite different facilities and to determine some of the variables that should be considered when making specific behavioral comparisons among wolves in this binational captive breeding program....

The relative importance of expression and symbolic content in acoustic communication of cetaceans has been debated. These topics may be examined by observing how general rates of vocalizations change with excitatory state and how specific vocalizations vary independently of state and depend upon content. In this study, whistles (0.32 to 22 kHz) of...

The popular demand for encounters with dolphins has resulted in organized encounters around the world involving in-water interactions with both captive and free-ranging dolphins. Many concerns about these interactions have been raised with regard to the well-being of human and dolphin participants (e.g. Capaldo 1989; Iannuzzi and Rowan 1991). In th...

This book fully documents the natural history of "Sirenia", the order of aquatic mammals including manatees of the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Amazon, as well as the Indo-Pacific dugong. As these ill-fated creatures become increasingly extinct due to hunting, boating injuries and other mishaps, "Manatees and Dugongs" presents a study of the nat...

If behavioral mechanisms controlling suckling have been shaped by parent-offspring conflict in the ultimate sense, then proximate behavioral determinants of conflict should occur throughout lactation, with greatest intensity in the terminal phase, and offspring should have tactics for overcoming parental resistance. We observed the weaning process...

Collared peccaries are one of the few native North American ungulates that show very little sexual dimorphism. As they live in large social groups and communal suckling has been observed in the wild, the authors expected intrasexual competition to be low in a large captive group. A group assembled from several capture locations (7:17 adults) was ob...

Although the reproductive behavior of weasels has been studied in captivity and movements have been studied at lower latitudes, little is known about reproduction of weasels in the high arctic. We observed a den near a tundra stream. A litter of four, apparently born in May, was full size by the end of the growing season, Notable behaviors of the a...

Based on Trivers' (1974) theory of parent/offspring conflict, we predicted that weaning would be accelerated under poor dietary conditions in an aseasonally breeding, monomorphic ungulate, the collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu). Suckling behavior was observed in 18 captive litters under a dietary treatment of high or low protein formulated to mimic...

Weaning conflict in captive collared peccaries, Tayassu tajacu, was examined to test whether the highest proximate conflict occurs near the termination of lactation or near the mid-lactational decline in milk production. Since the frequency of conflict behaviour might be related to the condition of the nursing female, the subjects were placed on tw...

Radiocarbon dating of bones found at a Wolf den on Ellesmere Island suggest it probably was used by Wolves over 700 years ago.

Housing animals in groups that are typical of the normal social system can be very important to the success of captive husbandry. collared peccaries normally live in mixed-sex territorial groups of 13-40 individuals with little evidence for movement between groups. We recorded 21-30 cases of infanticide in a captive group composed of animals from s...

We demonstrate use of object-oriented programming, dynamic linkages, rule-based decission procedures, and several other concepts from the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for modelling animal movements in a heterogeneous habitat. An object-oriented model of a deer that learns about habitat structure, plans movements, and accommodates to change...

Trichechus manatus latirostris aggregate at warm industrial effluents during winter in Florida, raising concern that cessation could expose individuals to cold stress. Manatees were studied in the Caloosahatchee River system in the winters prior to and during a temporary cessation of the heated effluent at a power plant near Fort Myers, Florida. Ma...

Saarenmaa, H., Stone, N.D., Folse, L.J., Packard, J.M., Grant, W.E., Makela, M.E. and Coulson, R.N., 1988. An artificial intelligence modelling approach to simulating animal/habitat interactions. Ecol. Modelling, 44: 125-141. Ecological modellers have begun to recognize the potential of object-oriented program- ming techniques in structuring models...

Density index and total counts were less suitable than the sight-resight index technique for detecting year-to-year trends in Trichechus manatus abundance along the Orange and Caloosahatchee rivers, SW Florida coast. -P.J.Jarvis

Threats to the survival of West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus) vary throughout their range so that protection of this endangered species requires careful planning on a regional and local basis. The importance and vulnerability of various components of manatee habitats in the Crystal River area of northwestern Florida were assessed, using an o...

To examine the selective pressures influencing evolution of the nuclear family social system in canids, it is important to determine the behavioral and physiological reasons why some adults do not reproduce within a pack. Two captive wolf packs were studied during two breeding seasons. Physiological suppression of gonadal cycles was not a cause of...

Used radiotelemetry to evaluate visibility bias during surveys of a group of Trichechus manatus whose range was restricted by the need to return daily to a warm-water refuge where all individuals could be identified. This study evaluated 1) the general problem of whether visibility varies by survey and by habitat type; and 2) the specific problems...

A large portion of the Florida manatee population winters at coastal warm-water refuges (industrial effluents) whereas seagrasses are an important food resource. The area of seagrass beds disturbed by manatees wintering near a power plant was determined via aerial photographs. In grassbed scars where manatees had foraged 93-96% of the biomass was r...

In an instantaneous sample of animal behavior, an observer must reliably recognize a behavioral unit. Previously, quantitative studies of sea otter behavior have used broadly defined activity states as behavioral units (e.g., feeding, resting, grooming, interaction, locomotion). However, an action pattern observed in an instantaneous sample may occ...

The estrous cycle of 10 intact female wolves, aged 8 months - 8 years at the initiation of the study, was characterized in terms of vaginal smears, behavioral observations and serum concentrations of estradiol-17β, progesterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) from January through June. No estrous cycles occurred in these animals between June and Decem...

The possibility of social regulation of wolf populations has been discussed in the literature for several years. Some of the first ecological studies of wolves indicated that their populations did not increase as rapidly as was theoretically possible, and that they reached a saturation point apparently not set by food. Subsequent captive studies de...

13 14 Abstract: Dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) are a good model species with which to 15 investigate factors that influence prey-herding behaviors. In this study, we examine the role of 16 intra-specific coordination, prey ball size, and multi-species associations in structuring foraging 17 behaviors by relating number of dolphins, prey b...