001, d.f.=82, P=0.130); r males F=2.33, d.f.=118, P=0.320). In summary, squirrels were able to alter their use of space and reduce their range overlap depending on the surrounding environment. “
“Supplementary feeding studies are widely used to assess the effects of food availability on herbivore population dynamics. Supplementary feeding

studies make the implicit and often untested assumption that supplementary feed is used by the target population. Here we describe and present the results of a supplementary feeding experiment to assess the effects of over-winter food availability on mountain hare Lepus timidus body condition, fecundity and survival in two fed and two control areas. We used passive induced transponder (PIT) tags and feeding stations equipped with PIT tag readers and data loggers

to monitor individual use of supplementary feed. Fifty per cent, of 119 PIT-tagged hares, Fostamatinib mw AZD6244 molecular weight which were resident on the fed areas, used food, but individual variation in the time spent feeding was large. Food supplementation was associated with greater male body mass, earlier breeding, higher fecundity and longer survival. At the population (treatment) level these differences were not statistically significant. At the individual level the combined radio-telemetry and PIT tag data revealed a large and highly significant effect of supplementary feeding on survival. Recent syntheses of mountain hare population ecology have not identified food as a key factor determining dynamics. Our experimental study however demonstrates that food may have profound effects on individuals. In addition our study raises

critical questions about the design and interpretation of supplementary feeding studies. “
“The field of morphometrics is developing quickly and recent advances allow for geometric techniques to be applied easily to many zoological problems. This paper briefly introduces geometric morphometric techniques and then reviews selected Obatoclax Mesylate (GX15-070) areas where those techniques have been applied to questions of general interest. This paper is relevant to non-specialists looking for an entry into geometric morphometric methods and for ideas of how to incorporate them into the study of variation within and between species, the measurement of developmental stability, the role of development in shaping evolution and the special problem of measuring the shape of fossil specimens that are deformed from their original shape. “
“There has recently been much interest in the long-term effects of early growth conditions. Telomeres, the repetitive DNA sequences that cap eukaryotic chromosomes, are potentially a useful tool for studying such effects. Telomeres shorten at each cell division and considerable evidence links the rate at which they do so with cellular and organismal senescence.