Biodiversity Stewardship Lab

“I love writing….but not in this technical style!”   Here are some coaching tips…

For his individual project, John is considering several alternatives: (a) comparison of reproductive strategies in yellow fin and blue tuna, (b) reproductive behavior in yellow fin tuna, and (c) display behavior of beta fighting fish. We look forward to more dialogue about which of these topics will be more practical within the time frame of this class, then how the topic is focused and fine-tuned.

The topic will be display behavior of Beta splendens, Siamese fighting fishing. Please give comments on Worksheet D; Fish Behavior

John, here are some comments to consider on the next round of refining your ideas for your research design. Lets dialogue about them in class: comments to encourage dialogue

revised draft for review

This is the topic chosen by Robin. She has written up a manuscript on the data she collected as part of an ongoing research project on duskies in Admiralty Bay, New Zealand. She is in the process of revising the draft, and welcomes input to strengthen the manuscript, with the intent of resubmitting it for publication.

First Draft Manuscript & Comments:

MMScienceDraft

Final Draft manuscript and cover letter:

ethletter9may082.doc

mmscience9may082.doc

The relation between parenting experience and reproductive success of cotton-topped tamarins is the topic chosen by Hollie. This will be the topic for her professional paper, and she is targetting to publish it in a primate journal. We talked about how she will analyze 10 years of records from the AZA database for this first draft. For her professional paper, she wants to expand with a larger data set that now is in need of quality control assessment (e.g. clean up!). Looking forward to dialogue about the process of refining and defining this process!

tamarin-research-questions-2.pdf

tamarin behavior definitions

decision tree

revised dataset

draft outline

Journal Format

revision 1

grassland-mating_first-draft.doc

Beginnings

This is the general topic chosen by Chris for his individual project.  We talked about how it might illustrate an evolutionary perspective on the divergence of male or female strategies in closely related species.  We look forward to dialogue as the title and research questions are defined.

Here are some interesting references:

References on passerine reproduction

:-) Revised Draft Manuscript for Review

Draft manuscript for review: Woldhagen et al. 3/24/08

This is our group project, for which Ashley will take the lead in writing the draft manuscript. Since she is doing the “lions share of the work”, it will also serve as her individual project. All team members will contribute their ideas as we move through the steps of the research method. Ashley will consider this input and decide what ideas best contribute to the logical flow of a manuscript that could be suitable for publication. In this way “out of the box thinking” by team members will contribute to principled leadership by one person who focuses in more depth on the research question. Lets dialogue here!

This is for John: protocol for observing focal video clips

potential data sheet for Objectives 1 & 2: feeding & resting

potential data sheet for objective 3: interact form

draft outline of methods & results: outline26Feb

Lit Cited:

All Taxa Weaning Lit

General Waterbuck Lit

Ungulate/Ruminant Weaning Lit

Birth Date/Cohort Lit

This is the current draft title for Krystal’s project, which will use a modeling approach to asking population-level questions about function of behaviors.  We look forward to dialogue as the research questions are refined and the model unfolds.

18) First Draft Manuscript due ( 3/18 ) Click on the link below

http://blogs.tamu.edu/jmpackard/files/2008/03/paper-for-janes-class_no_columns.doc

 ;-) Hope everyone is having fun revising the  manuscripts!!! :-)

This is Alexa’s individual project. She will be studying human dimensions of conservation as they relate to reintroduction programs. To that end, her project will consist of a literature review documenting the relationship between boldness in individual animals and their success as participants in a reintroduction program. Any feedback on her objectives or preliminary outline (both found below) is welcome!

Sutton - Boldness Manuscript (Final)

Sutton - Boldness Manuscript Letter to the Editor

First Draft Manuscript & Notes:
First Draft

Older Stuff:
Boldness Manuscript Draft 1 (In Progress!)

Boldness Outline (In Progress)
Boldness Outline Robin Comments

Sutton Objectives

We will be using the assigned texbook for our week of fieldwork at Fossil Rim:  “Lehner, P.  1996.  Handbook of Ethological Methods.  2nd edition. Cambridge Univ. Press. ” I recommend getting a copy to bring with you to Fossil Rim.  We will have several copies to share, as an alternative option.  This book is a good reference because it provides examples of behavioral studies to illustrate the statistical procedures.

 If you do not anticipate needing to go into as much depth on the statistics, I recommend the book by Martin, P. and Bateson as a good alternative.  It is excellent and a quick read.