Mourning Dove Display Elicited by a Red Squirrel

European red squirrel population dynamics driven by squirrelpox at a gray squirrel invasion interface

Infectious disease introduced by non-native species is increasingly cited as a facilitator of native population declines, but direct evidence may be lacking due to inadequate population and disease prevalence data surrounding an outbreak. Previous indirect evidence and theoretical models support squirrelpox virus (SQPV) as being potentially involved in the decline of red squirrels (Sciurus vulg...

Reproductive ecology of the mourning dove: large-scale patterns in recruitment, breeding endocrinology, and developmental plasticity

The national strategic management plan for the mourning dove calls for the implementation of an operational monitoring program of recruitment rates that is national in scale. Age ratios estimates, i.e. juveniles per adult, generated from harvest wing collections are a potentially efficient method for large-scale monitoring of recruitment for the species. Generating unbiased estimates of recruit...

Inhibition of lipolysis does not affect insulin sensitivity to glucose uptake in the mourning dove.

Birds have much higher plasma glucose and fatty acid levels compared to mammals. In addition, they are resistant to insulin-induced decreases in blood glucose. Recent studies have demonstrated that decreasing fatty acid utilization alleviates insulin resistance in mammals, thereby decreasing plasma glucose levels. This has yet to be examined in birds. In the present study, the levels of glucose...

Structural color change following hydration and dehydration of iridescent mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) feathers.

Dynamic changes in integumentary color occur in cases as diverse as the neurologically controlled iridiphores of cephalopod skin and the humidity-responsive cuticles of longhorn beetles. By contrast, feather colors are generally assumed to be relatively static, changing by small amounts only over periods of months. However, this assumption has rarely been tested even though structural colors of...

Characterization of Acetylcholine-Mediated Vasodilation in Mourning Dove Arteries Under Normoglycemic and Hyperglycemic Conditions