During nest building in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), several regions in the social behaviour network and the dopaminergic reward system, which are two neural circuits involved in social behaviour, appear to be active in male and female nest-building finches. Because the nonapeptides, mesotocin and vasotocin and the neurotransmitter, dopamine, play important roles in avian social behavio...

Center for Information Technology Integration University of Michigan 519 West William Street Ann Arbor, MI 48103-4943 CITI Technical Report 92-8 NESTMOD Simulation of DQDB Metropolitan Networks Gerald A. Winters [email protected] David W. Bachmann [email protected] Toby J. Teorey [email protected] Local area computer networks are well-established, and highly-interconnected, heter...

The Koszul homology of modules of the polynomial ring R is a central object in commutative algebra. It is strongly related with the minimal free resolution of these modules, and thus with regularity, Hilbert functions, etc. Here we consider the case of modules of the form R/I where I is a monomial ideal. So far, some good algorithms have been given in the literature and implemented in different...

Reliably recognizing their own nest provides parents with a necessary skill to invest time and resources efficiently in raising their offspring and thereby maximising their own reproductive success. Studies investigating nest recognition in adult birds have focused mainly on visual cues of the nest or the nest site and acoustic cues of the nestlings. To determine whether adult songbirds also us...

Selecting a nest site is an important decision for waterfowl. Because most nest failure is due to depredation, the primary selective pressure in choosing a nest site should be to reduce depredation risk. This task is dif cult, however, because predators use differing tactics to locate nests, such as olfactory or visual cues. The purpose of this research was to evaluate both the olfactory and vi...

The nest is a key element of avian reproductive fitness. It provides the developmental environment for the embryo and nestling thereby affecting their quality and survival. Nests are often constructed by the male and nest quality, elaboration, and ornamentation vary among males in a species. Therefore, male nest-building behaviour is likely under sexual selection and females may use male nest-b...

We studied 62 greater sandhill crane (Grus canadensis tabida) nests in northwestern Minnesota during 1989-1991 to document nest habitat use and selection, nest success, and factors associated with nest success. We recorded 15 habitat variables at each nest and at a randomly selected site in the same wetland. Nests were in basins 0.01-601 ha (Median = 2.2 ha) and at water depths 0-35.7 cm (Media...

Predation, the most important source of nest mortality in altricial birds, has been a subject of numerous studies during past decades. However, the temporal dynamics between changing predation pressures and parental responses remain poorly understood. We analysed characteristics of 524 nests of European reed warblers monitored during six consecutive breeding seasons in the same area, and found ...

We show for the first time, to our knowledge, that ants can measure the size of potential nest sites. Nest size assessment is by individual scouts. Such scouts always make more than one visit to a potential nest before initiating an emigration of their nest mates and they deploy individual-specific trails within the potential new nest on their first visit. We test three alternative hypotheses f...

Suitability of degraded areas as breeding habitats can be tested through assessment of nest predation rates. In this study we estimated nest success in relation to several potential predictors of nest survival in the Stripe-tailed Yellow-finch (Sicalis citrina) breeding in abandoned mining pits at Brasília National Park. We monitored 73 nests during the 2007-breeding season. Predation was the m...