Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock. / "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [vii]-viii.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Neuroscience)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Eumetopias jubata is polygyncus. The sea-lions segregate during the breeding season into pupping colonies consisting of adult males and females, and non-pupping colonies consisting mainly of sub-adult males. All previous studies of the social behaviour E. jubata have been concerned only with pupping colonies. This study describes the social behaviour and organization of a non-pupping colony. The colony is located at Mclnnes Island, British Columbia (Lat. 52°16’ N., Long. 128°43’ W.). It consists of 100-150 animals. They are mainly sub-adult males though several adult sea-lions of both sexes were present. Data concerning six age-sex classes were taken using two methods. One method involved the development of an ethogram consisting of 34 behaviour patterns and the observation of social interactions. The other method involved spacial organization and activity. Qualitative notes on territorial and reproductive behaviour as well as population structure were also recorded. A peck-dominance hierarchy exists between the classes and is related to many of the behaviours measured. Males are more socially involved than females. This is more voluntary for males than it is for females. As males mature their behaviour becomes more complex than that of females. Females are not aggressive. This is reflected by their lack of Body Contact behaviour. Males are aggressive towards other males and use more Body Contact behaviour than females. Body Contact behaviour is mainly physical aggressive interaction. As males mature it is replaced with Non-body Contact behaviour which is largely threats and displays. The intense social conditioning of sub-adult males results in more socially adept adults that are better able to cope with the complex society at pupping colonies. Sub-adult males are not territorial. However, some adult males are. This is related to the presence of females. Territories act as refuges for females who avoid areas of activity and harassment by sexually mature sub-adult males. This contributes to the grouping of females around territorial adult males. Non-pupping colonies are spatially organized similar to pupping colonies except for the relative proportion of age-sex classes. Socially, non-pupping colonies are less organized than pupping colonies. Social organization in E. jubata is promoted by the tranquil behaviour of adults and inhibited by the disruptive behaviour of sub-adult males. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (PhD)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert A. Garrott. Includes bibliographical references.

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2007. / "June 15, 2007"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-74).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, l927. / Vita. Bibliography included in the introduction.

In this study I present a new mechanism for the evolution of male display as a consequence of female choice. I use a population genetic model to show that if female preferences for better males are based on a cue that is an integral part of male adaptation, a display may evolve if it amplifies the variance in this cue, and hence increases female resolution power with respect to male quality. This evolutionary mechanism is used as a core of a theory that explains the evolution of male display and adaptive female choice (i.e. female preferences that evolve because of their association with high quality genes). I argue that because an amplifying display (termed "amplifier") decreases mating success of males of poor quality, modifiers are likely to evolve that decrease the expression of the amplifier when associated with the poor quality males. As a result, the amplifier's expression becomes an indicator of male quality, and provides sufficient conditions for the evolution of a new type of female choice that is based on the amplifier's expression. This process may lead, in turn, to further changes in both female choice and male display, emphasizing either the amplifying effect of displays or their indicating effect. I show that the direction of these changes may depend on the cost that the amplifier confers on male viability, and on the degree of polygyny of the mating system in concern. I also outline explicit predictions for empirical tests.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Despite the salient role of the landscape in the development of white Australian identity, and the prominence of the landscape discourse in dominant film commentary, little attention has been afforded to the function of the animal image as a cultural representational code in the context of the meanings educed. The aim of this study is to examine the animal and human-animal representations in selected Australian films released between 1971 and 2001, and to establish the various ways in which such a focus foregrounds significations which offer new, or more complex, articulations of Australian identity.This study was confined to live-action representations of animals, not necessarily as central figures, in Australian feature films. Within the three-decade time-frame, the films chosen for analysis were selected to provide illustrations of the main hypothesis through a range of narrative themes and genres. The films considered include those recognised as forerunners to the Revival (e.g. Walkabout and Wake in Fright); classics of the Revival (e.g. Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith); Australian produced international commercial successes (e.g. The Man From Snowy River and Crocodile Dundee); as well as films which have fallen off the radar of recent Australian film commentary (e.g. Mad Dog Morgan and Long Weekend), and those that never made it into the matrix of intellectual representational discourse (e.g. Howling III: The Marsupials and Razorback). The films were analysed as open-ended metaphors, allowing for negotiated and oppositional readings. The images and the narratives of the films were interpreted using qualitative methods grounded ontologically in a mixed method semiotic approach. All representational modes were considered: image, symbol, analogy, allegory, metaphor or metonymy. Where appropriate, cultural, psychological and behavioural theories from reception studies were employed to describe or decode textual effects. The discussion addresses overt messages and alternate interpretations. The dominant meanings were considered from the social reflection perspective and where pertinent, analysed through social imaginary theory.The analysis found that Walkabout functions as the seminal text in the study of animal symbolism, human-animal representation and the objective or ‘ecological’ perspective in post-Revival Australian cinema. The film introduces a new mode and style of animal representation evident in many subsequent Australian films. Films set around the time of Federation featuring marginalised protagonists and the landscape are found to be nationing allegories, presenting themes of equal import and greater contemporary relevance than those of male representation. More recent films with marginalised protagonists exhibit a shift in focus from the concerns of emerging nationhood to those of Australia’s emerging cosmopolitanism. In representations of masculinity and the landscape, the privileging of the physical activity of human-animal interaction resituates the texts beyond the customary matrices of patriarchal affirmation and the promotion of a pastoral ethos. Themes of humananimal ‘mateship’ and inter-species egalitarianism are identified, as well as the presentation of conflict resolution through symbolic metamorphosis into animality. The films are revealed to be a more complex exposition of Australian identity than previously recognised, marking a distinct development in the progression of national representations towards an environmentally aware ethos.Analysis of the horror genre foregrounds the nexus between Australian identity, assimilation and metamorphosis into animality. The feral/indigenous dichotomy is identified as a key trope in Australian representation and the portrayal of particular modes of human-animal relationships are seen to function as indicators of deviance in characterisation. The discussion also highlights the way in which the privileging of animal representations works to emphasise the universality of the films’ concerns, while simultaneously grounding them in a specific culture and location. Principally, the findings in this study confirm my original proposition that animal-centred readings of the selected films would reveal a rich seam of fresh interpretative possibilities relevant to the discourse of Australian national cinema and identity. I have also argued that many of the cultural significations and thematic nuances offered by the texts have been overlooked or misinterpreted by a dominant commentary which repeats the omissions inherent in the viewpoint of the sublime aesthetic by failing to recognise the codes and conventions signified in the detail of the filmic representations.More broadly, this study exemplifies the ways in which animal-centred readings not only resituate certain texts within the cannon of Australian national cinema, but how depictions of animals and the human-animal relationship function simultaneously as both nationing and universalising tropes. By admitting animal-focused discussion into the norms of Australian cultural criticism and textual discourse, the resulting significations connect the texts with a global contemporary inflection in existential concern: namely that of the relationship between humans and the environment.