La tesis plantea el estudio de distintos aspectos de la actividad cinegética, desde la generalidad del análisis de discursos, modalidades de caza, organización socioeconómica cinegética, percepción cognitiva medioambiental, etc. hasta la particularidad del análisis etnográfico localizado en el Parque Natural de la Sierra del Carrascal de la Font Roja. Hasta llegar aquí se plantea una estrategia narrativa densa en la que se integre bajo una perspectiva holística los distintos aspectos que configuran la caza en España, recorriendo un camino que va desde aspectos más generales a la particularidad de casos concretos.Finalmente, la investigación busca abrir un terreno poco trabajado hasta el momento por la antropología social española, mostrando la relevancia y atractivo que la caza actual en el territorio nacional tiene para el estudio etnográfico. / The thesis raises the study of various aspects of hunting, from the generality of the analysis of discourses, forms of hunting, hunting socioeconomic organization, environmental cognitive perception, and so on, until the particularity of ethnographic analysis located in the Natural Park of the "Sierra del Carrascal" of the "Font Roja". Until you get here there is a dense narrative strategy that is integrated in a holistic perspective on the various aspects that make up the game in Spain, travelling a road that goes from broader issues to the particularity of specific cases.Finally, the research seeks to open up a little worked field to date for Spanish social anthropology, showing the relevance and appeal that the current game has for the ethnographic study in the national territory.

Between 1988 and 1989, an intensive archaeological survey of a small drainage known as Roan Mare coulee in southern Saskatchewan was conducted by Dr. Ernest Walker (Walker 1990). Among the 120 archaeological sites in the area, seven bison kills and a vast array of associated drivelines were identified. This study focuses upon the spatial interaction amongst the kills, the drivelines and the local environment in relation to the bison hunting strategies used on the Northern Plains. This is done by modelling where bison are likely to move in the terrain as well as how the topography obstructs their line of sight. As this problem covers a large spatial area and multiple different data sources, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are integrated into the research design in the form of Least Cost Path and Viewshed analyses. Both archaeological data from Walker's survey and environmental data such as elevation and water sources served as the input datasets required by ArcGIS's spatial analysis tools. The results of the Least Cost Path analyses were compared visually to both the location and orientation of the driveline evidence, while the viewshed results were compared to the trap's location at the valley edge. The results of this research showed that the drivelines found at Roan Mare coulee appear to be following the general orientation of the landscape at the broadest scales, and likely served to funnel bison over large distances. There also appear to be several locations on the landscape that are amenable to moving bison to several different sites. The viewshed evidence shows the smaller scale nuances between bison vision and the terrain in a hypothetical drive event. The differences in the viewable area available to the bison at each site likely played a role in the chosen strategy employed when that site was used. It is hoped that this style of research can be continued with higher quality data and additional variables to help clarify many of the subtleties found in a Plains bison drive.

In this thesis five different protection harnesses for hunting dogs against canidae attacks were assessed. Hunting dogs can be attacked and severely injured or killed by wolves (Canis lupus) when released during hunting. So far there is no effective protection method. Similar problems are reported with African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) and dholes (Cuon alpinus) with other domestic animals. In this study the experimental harnesses were presented on a dummy to lure the animals to attack them. The harnesses with physical (screws or spikes on the back) and ultrasound (immediate bite controlled and 19 second continuous ultrasound) deterrents were only assessed during wolf attacks, whereas the harness with electric shocks was also tested on the other two species. Neither physical nor ultrasound deterrents showed a large enough aversive response in the wolves. Electric shocks, given to the animals when biting the dummy, triggered an immediate release of the dummy in all three species. Long term effects differed between species and individuals. The exposed wolf did not touch the dummy again after a second exposure, whereas all except one African wild dog bit the dummy again in consecutive trials. Some individuals returned to bite a second time even in the same trial. An assessment of the long term effect on dholes was not possible, as the individuals were undistinguishable. Based on the data obtained in this study a harness with electric deterrent seems the most promising.

Management of big wildlife such as bears can be a difficult task, especially in the face of human-wildlife conflict and demands of the hunting industry. The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) population at Yusufeli County (Artvin, northeastern Turkey) has recently been the focus of scientific, social and economic concerns. This study population of c. 140 individuals occurs within 800 km2 of forested and alpine land. Legal hunting of male bears was allowed in 2007 after an interval of four years. This study aims to find out through a population viability analysis the level and frequency of trophy hunting this population can tolerate for the next 50 years. A matrix model with six age-classes for each sex was constructed using observed and literature-based parameter values. RAMAS Metapop was used to simulate four different scenarios where numbers of hunted bears and hunting frequency changes. The model was highly sensitive to maximum growth rate and adult survival. Interval extinction probabilities for the next 50 years ranged between 0% and 26% depending on the scenario. Viable scenarios (with an extinction probability &lt / 0.05) were only possible with either no trophy hunting or hunting of 4 subadult/adult males and 1 adult female every other year. Legal and illegal hunting jointly impact the bear population in a strong way, and when they occur simultaneously every year, they lead to extinction in the long run. Avoidance of illegal killing and a close supervision of trophy hunting are crucial in the management of this bear population.

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Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 93 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: One often wishes to understand the probability distribution of stochastic data from experiment or computer simulations. However, where no model is given, practitioners must resort to parametric or non-parametric methods in order to gain information about the underlying distribution. Others have used initially a nonparametric estimator in order to understand the underlying shape of a set of data, and then later returned with a parametric method to locate the peaks. However they are interested in estimating spectra, which may have multiple peaks, where in this work we are interested in approximating the peak position of a single-peak probability distribution. One method of analyzing a distribution of data is by fitting a curve to, or smoothing them. Polynomial regression and least-squares fit are examples of smoothing methods. Initial understanding of the underlying distribution can be obscured depending on the degree of smoothing. / ABSTRACT: Problems such as under and oversmoothing must be addressed in order to determine the shape of the underlying distribution.Furthermore, smoothing of skewed data can give a biased estimation of the peak position. We propose two new approaches for statistical mode estimation based on the assumption that the underlying distribution has only one peak. The first method imposes the global constraint of unimodality locally, by requiring negative curvature over some domain. The second method performs a search that assumes a position of the distribution's peak and requires positive slope to the left, and negative slope to the right. / ABSTRACT: Each approach entails a constrained least-squares fit to the raw cumulative probability distribution.We compare the relative efficiencies [12] of finding the peak location of these two estimators for artificially generated data from known families of distributions Weibull, beta, and gamma. Within each family a parameter controls the skewness or kurtosis, quantifying the shapes of the distributions for comparison. We also compare our methods with other estimators such as the kernel-density estimator, adaptive histogram, and polynomial regression. By comparing the effectiveness of the estimators, we can determine which estimator best locates the peak position. We find that our estimators do not perform better than other known estimators. We also find that our estimators are biased. / ABSTRACT: Overall, an adaptation of kernel estimation proved to be the most efficient.The results for the work done in this thesis will be submitted, in a different form, for publication by D.A. Rabson and J.K. Looper. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77). Also available on the Internet.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

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