Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
952
result(s) for
"Reynolds, Jonathan"
Sort by:
Population dynamics of foxes during restricted-area culling in Britain: Advancing understanding through state-space modelling of culling records
Lethal control is widely employed to suppress the numbers of target wildlife species within restricted management areas. The success of such measures is expected to vary with local circumstances affecting rates of removal and replacement. There is a need both to evaluate success in individual cases and to understand variability and its causes. In Britain, red fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations are culled within the confines of shooting estates to benefit game and wildlife prey species. We developed a Bayesian state-space model for within-year fox population dynamics within such restricted areas and fitted it to data on culling effort and success obtained from gamekeepers on 22 shooting estates of 2 to 36 km2. We used informative priors for key population processes-immigration, cub recruitment and non-culling mortality-that could not be quantified in the field. Using simulated datasets we showed that the model reliably estimated fox density and demographic parameters, and we showed that conclusions drawn from real data were robust to alternative model assumptions. All estates achieved suppression of the fox population, with pre-breeding fox density on average 47% (range 20%-90%) of estimated carrying capacity. As expected, the number of foxes killed was a poor indicator of effectiveness. Estimated rates of immigration were variable among estates, but in most cases indicated rapid replacement of culled foxes so that intensive culling efforts were required to maintain low fox densities. Due to this short-term impact, control effort focussed on the spring and summer period may be essential to achieve management goals for prey species. During the critical March-July breeding period, mean fox densities on all estates were suppressed below carrying capacity, and some maintained consistently low fox densities throughout this period. A similar model will be useful in other situations to quantify the effectiveness of lethal control on restricted areas.
Journal Article
'We Own Kano and Kano Owns Us': Politics, Place, and Identity in Independence-Era Kano
The short period leading up to and following Nigerian independence was one of dramatic political maneuvering and change in Nigeria’s Northern Region. For much of the 1950s, this political contest pitted the conservative Northern People’s Congress against the more radical Northern Elements Progressive Union. Each party sought to create broad political movements that could appeal to the region’s diverse ethnicities as well as the often competing perspectives of the region’s Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya Sufi Brotherhoods. Despite the efforts of the region’s political parties and leadership, events in the early independence period led to the creation of a new breakaway political party (the Kano People’s Party) in Kano, the Northern Region’s largest and most economically important city. This development forced both the Northern People’s Congress and Northern Elements Progressive Union to reframe their stances on a number of religious issues relating to the brotherhoods and also saw dramatic shifts in political allegiance in Kano and its environs. The advent of the Kano People’s Party highlights the complexity of the region’s overlapping systems of identity and the unexpected triumph of local, ethnic, and religious particularism over wider political affiliation during the period of transition from decolonization to independence. La courte période qui a précédé et suivi l’indépendance du Nigéria a été marquée par des manœuvres et des changements politiques spectaculaires dans la région du nord du Nigéria. Pendant une grande partie des années 50, cette lutte politique a opposé le Congrès populaire du Nord conservateur à la plus radicale Union progressiste des éléments du Nord. Chaque parti a cherché à créer de larges mouvements politiques susceptibles d’attirer les diverses ethnies de la région ainsi que les perspectives souvent opposées des confréries soufies Qadiriyya et Tijaniyya de la région. Malgré les efforts des partis politiques et des dirigeants de la région, les événements du début de l’indépendance ont conduit à la création d’un nouveau parti politique séparatiste (le Parti populaire de Kano) à Kano, la ville la plus grande et la plus importante de la région du Nord au niveau de l’économie. Cette évolution a forcé à la fois le Congrès du peuple du Nord et l’Union progressiste des éléments du Nord à recadrer leurs positions sur un certain nombre de questions religieuses liées aux confréries et a également vu des changements dramatiques dans l’allégeance politique à Kano et dans ses environs. L’avènement du Parti populaire de Kano met en lumière la complexité des systèmes d’identité qui se chevauchent dans la région, et le triomphe inattendu du particularisme local, ethnique et religieux sur l’affiliation politique en général pendant la période de transition de la décolonisation à l’indépendance.
Journal Article
Movement ecology and minimum density estimates of red foxes in wet grassland habitats used by breeding wading birds
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a widely distributed generalist meso-predator implicated in declines of wading bird populations. In the wet grassland habitats where waders breed, wildlife managers work to mitigate fox predation risk to waders during the nesting period through lethal and non-lethal control methods. However, limited knowledge on fox movement ecology in these habitats makes it difficult to design effective management strategies. We used GPS telemetry to understand fox home range size, daily activity and movement patterns, and how these metrics may vary among wet grassland sites with different management. We caught and GPS-tagged 35 foxes in the March–June wader nesting period on two wet grassland sites in central southern England; Britford during 2016/17 and Somerley during 2018/19. We estimated home range areas from location data using local convex hulls, and from these estimates we derived the minimum fox density at each site and year. Daily activity patterns and movement behaviour of each fox were obtained using both telemetry and trail camera data. Mean fox home range area at Britford (0.21 km2, SE = 0.025) was significantly smaller than at Somerley (0.68 km2, SE = 0.067), and estimated minimum densities were around four times higher (Britford = 10.6 foxes/km2, Somerley = 2.4 foxes/km2). Foxes were more active and moved faster during twilight and night hours, but both telemetry and camera data indicate they were also active for one-third of daylight hours. Distances moved per day were variable between foxes but generally smaller at Britford. We also found evidence for dispersal during spring, with movements of up to 19 km per day. Home ranges at both wet grassland sites were smaller than comparable sites elsewhere. These indicated foxes were living at exceptionally high densities at Britford, where there is no fox control, increased food availability and where waders no longer breed. Spatio-temporal movement patterns were closely related to home range metrics, with higher levels of fox activity at Somerley, where home ranges were larger. The movements of itinerant and dispersing foxes during the nesting period suggests that lethal control would need to be very intensive to be effective. The likely anthropogenic food subsidy of fox density at Britford suggests that controlling access to similar food resources would help reduce predation pressure on breeding waders.
Journal Article
The Halloweeners
\"Halloween isn't just Fisher's favorite holiday--it's his obsession. So when he's invited to join the Halloweeners, he couldn't be more thrilled. While trying to help them win the town's annual trick-or-treating competition, the Halloweeners stumble upon a mysterious cauldron at an old haunted house. After eating the irresistible candy inside it, Fisher's new friends are all transformed into the monsters of their costumes! Now it's up to Fisher to help return his friends to their human forms by sunrise or else they'll be doomed to remain monsters...forever.\"--Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Twice Infinity
Photography was once considered the vera icon in modernity, a reputation that it has tried to justify ever since. But the \"world out there\" became increasingly suspect and uncertain as modernity unfolded, with the ultimate result that so-called reality no longer attracted the imagination. At that juncture there was no more use for photographic realism; that is, for capturing external reality. Every technique looks old when its motives look old. Photography no longer shows us what the world is like, but what the world was like at a time when people still believed that they could possess it in the photograph.
Journal Article
The boy who cried werewolf
\"Max Bloodnight can't decide what's more terrifying about his weekend in Wolf County--the fact that he has to stay with grandparents he's never met before or being stuck on a farm without cell service. If only that was all he had to fear. Determined to solve the mystery of his father's death, which occurred years before at the claws of a Determined to solve the mystery of his father's death, which occurred years before at the claws of a legendary werewolf, Max must hunt to uncover the truth before the full moon rises...and the werewolf strikes again\"--Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Establishing Bayesian Priors for Natural Mortality Rate in Carnivore Populations
In managed carnivore populations, natural mortality rate (d) is difficult to estimate directly, and context-specific data are typically weakly informative about it. Nevertheless, natural mortality is potentially an important component of total mortality, particularly if additive to harvest or culling mortality. The natural mortality rate exhibits allometric or life-history relationships that are invariant across diverse taxonomic groups, and it is valuable to derive estimates on this basis to serve as priors in later Bayesian models, steering parameter uncertainty towards biologically plausible values, and leading to more reliable model predictions and improved management recommendations. We used Bayesian hierarchical modeling and data from the literature to establish informative priors for instantaneous d as predictions scaled from body mass or maximum age. Posterior mean estimates of the scaling parameters of these models were −0.27 (body mass) and −1.07 (maximum age), respectively, conforming to expected values of −0.25 and −1.00. Direct estimates of d from published studies of coyotes (Canis latrans) in southern Texas, fisher (Pekania pennanti) in Sierra Nevada, and slender mongoose (Galerella sanguinea) in the Kalahari Desert were within the credible intervals of predictions for d using both models. We also compared survivorship curves based on model predictions with observed survivorship of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) from a variety of studies in Britain, among which intensity of culling varied markedly. Across all species, there was better support for the d prediction from maximum age, than from body mass. We thus recommend use of maximum age data to establish informative priors for d where possible. Posterior median predictions of d from maximum age were within 0.01–0.14/year of the direct estimates, whereas the differences between direct estimates and predictions from body mass were 0.04–0.27/year. Sensitivity analysis showed trivial effects of between-sex differences in body mass, and age-specific mortality, on predictions of d. Differences between body mass and maximum age model predictions were attributed to the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic mortality factors in the 2 approaches (i.e., maximum age predictions allowed for extrinsic factors to affect predicted mortality).
Journal Article