William Gannon

University of New Mexico | UNM · Graduate Studies, Department of Biology, and Department of Philosophy

Geography has promoted responsibility in science for decades. However, a monster is on the loose of our own creation and is wreaking havoc. Geocoded/locational data have enormous research potential. However, expectations of privacy and confidentiality norms flux and turn gray. Does graduate training sufficiently prepare students to respond to ethic...

While established ethical norms and core legal principles concerning the protection of privacy may be easily identified, applying these standards to rapidly evolving digital information technologies, markets for digital information and convulsive changes in social understandings of privacy is increasingly challenging. This challenge has been furthe...

To show how the case of Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein brings light to the ethical and moral issues raised in Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols, we nest an imaginary IRB proposal dated August 1790 by Victor Frankenstein within a discussion of the importance and function of the IRB. Considering the world of science as would have appeare...

I was impressed by this series of chapters that exposed an organic side of investigations of bat biology that is also emerging. The study and analysis of odor, description of methods for evaluating milk collection and composition, and the analysis of hormones in bats clearly provide a firm foundation for future study, especially for laboratory-base...

Guidelines for use of wild mammal species are updated from the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) 2007 publication. These revised guidelines cover current professional techniques and regulations involving mammals used in research and teaching. They incorporate additional resources, summaries of procedures, and reporting requirements not contain...

We describe a bundle of skeletal muscle extending between the last caudal vertebrae and the calcar in the distal uropatagium of the fringed myotis, Myotis thysanodes, and we name this muscle M. uropataginalis. This discovery may elucidate the function of the fringe hairs of M. thysanodes and other bats with hairs projecting distally and ventrally a...

P. Sandoe, S. B. Christiansen. 2008. Ethics of Animal Use. Blackwell Publishing Professional (now John Wiley and Sons), Ames, Iowa, 178 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-5120-7, price (paper), $66. Most of us became professionals in the biological sciences because of some love of the natural world. For mammalogists, it was usually a passion to know more abo...

M. J. Lacki, J. P. Hayes, A. Kurta (eds.). 2007. Bats in Forests: Conservation and Management. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 329 pp. ISBN: 0-8018-8499-3, price (hardbound), $85. “We”re not protecting the environment, as some of our critics say, for the sake of the fishes and the birds, we‧re protecting nature because we reco...

M. R. Gannon, A. Kurta, A. Rodriquez-Duran, M. R. Willig. 2005. Bats of Puerto Rico: An Island Focus and a Caribbean Perspective. Texas Tech Press, Lubbock,239 pages. ISBN 13-978-0-89672-551-5 (paper), $25. Designed to be a field guide, reference for the general public, and scientifically provocative for researchers, Bats of Puerto Rico: an island...

The authors developed a novel continuous quality improvement (CQI) process for academic biomedical research compliance administration. A challenge in developing a quality improvement program in a nonbusiness environment is that the terminology and processes are often foreign. Rather than training staff in an existing quality improvement process, th...

Guidelines for use of wild mammal species are updated from the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) 2007 publication. These revised guidelines cover current professional techniques and regulations involving mammals used in research and teaching. They incorporate additional resources, summaries of procedures, and reporting requirements not contain...

Ecomorphological analysis was used to evaluate ecological relationships between 2 species of bats, Myotis auriculus and M. evotis. We imaged jaws and skulls of 242 specimens from 20 localities within the range of both taxa, emphasizing their southwestern regional area of sympatry. Using traditional morphometric and geometric morphometric methods, v...

We report the first documented use of a building as a winter roost by Euderma maculatum. We suggest that sufficient numbers of E. maculatum have been encountered in urban settings that researchers should consider these areas during the course of investigations of species occurrence. We recommend that urban settings in the vicinity of large cliff fe...

In the 1980's, barcode labeling (computer readable symbols) and database management systems (DBMS) were adopted to manage inventory and sales for commercial businesses. The advantages of barcode labels allowed these new DBMSs to be universally accepted. The use of bar codes or other tracking systems is equally advantageous for managing natural hist...

In order to fairly scrutinize studies regarding the recording and analysis of ultrasonic calls used to investigate the ecological properties of chiropteran systems, we investigated the value of clearly articulating assumptions when using acoustic tools to study habitat use by bats. We evaluated 50 papers published between 1980 and 2001 that used ac...

Variables driving the selection of roosts by Townsend's big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) and the degree of expression of roost fidelity by this species remain largely unknown. Current management and conservation practices assume that Townsend's big-eared bat is a habitat generalist with distribution limited by the availability of roosts. As...

Aspects of sexual dimorphism, reproduction, postnatal development, and seasonality of breeding in a solitary bathyergid rodent, the silvery mole-rat (Heliophobius argenteocinereus), as based on a field study in Malawi and on a study of animals kept in a laboratory, are reported here for the 1st time. Sex ratio in all animals (n = 173) did not diffe...

We measured the shape of pinnae from fluid-preserved, museum specimens of 33 Myotis californicus and 39 M. ciliolabrum and cranial characters from 40 skulls of each species. We also measured 40 specimens of Eptesicus fuscus, which were used as an outgroup. Significant differences were found in aural shape and tragus height between the two species o...

The use of acoustic detectors to investigate differential use of habitat by bats has become increasingly common. However, in many of these studies, authors failed to clearly articulate assumptions a priori. .or example, spatial and temporal scales were rarely defined. True replication is rarely reported, suggesting that authors assume that these sy...

Use of bat detectors to perform inventories, determine activity, and assess differential use of habitats has become a generally accepted method. However, there has been vigorous disagreement as to the level of efficacy, primarily relating to the ability to distinguish certain species and groups of species. The primary explanation suggested for the...

A variety of ultrasonic (bat) detectors have been used over the past 3 decades to identify free-flying bats. Analyses of recorded echolocation calls were slow and typically restricted to few calls and at a resolution obscuring details of call structure. The Anabat II detector and associated zero-crossings analysis system allows an immediate examina...

To evaluate the efficacy of the Anabat II ultrasonic detector and analysis system for use as a tool for conducting inventories, we compared results of acoustic versus capture techniques in the southwestern United States. We sampled 57 locations using standard methods (mist nets and double-frame harp traps) and simultaneously with an ultrasonic dete...

Barclay (1999) criticized the qualitative approach for acoustic identification of species of bats (O'Farrell et al., 1999) on the basis of intraspecific variation due to geography, habitat, and species-assemblage factors. However, variations described to date represent minor variations in specific parameters of call structure and, with experience,...

The distribution and prevalence of antibody reactive with Sin Nombre virus were determined in mammals in biotic communities of the southwestern United States. Small mammals (n = 3,069) of 69 species were trapped in nine communities from lower Sonoran desert to alpine tundra. Antibody was found in rodents from all communities (overall prevalence = 6...

We recently described a novel hantavirus (HMV-1) of the western harvest mouse Reithrodontomys megalotis. Screening of 181 additional specimens of Reithrodontomys from the United States and Mexico, including samples of R. mexicanus, R. sumichrasti, and R. gracilis of Costa Rica, for antibodies to hantavirus nucleocapsid protein revealed a widespread...

ABSTRACT: The accurate identification of a host organism is an important component in the taxonomic recognition of a new species of parasite. Correct identification, curatorial management, and safekeeping of the host specimen from which a parasite type specimen is collected is also desirable. We recommend that the host from which the type of a new...

Calls were recorded from 11 female and nine male Palmer's chipmunks (Tamias palmeri) from Charleston Peak, Nevada. Recorded types of calls of T. palmeri included chucks, chippering, and chips. Characters of the chip vocalization are reported. Palmer's chipmunk had maximum frequencies that ranged from 10.4 to 12.9 kHz. Minimum frequency at onset ran...

Sound spectrographic analysis was used to determine patterns of vocal variation in three species of chipmunks from northern California and Oregon. Recorded alarm-call vocalizations differed in Eutamias ochrogenys, E. senex, and E. siskiyou. The chip vocalization characteristic of E. ochrogenys consisted of paired syllables that varied little geogra...