Burrowing rodents have unusually disproportionate effects on rangeland ecosystems
because they (1) engineer their environment through burrow construction and modification …

While numerous studies have examined either initial prey responses to an approaching
predator (flight initiation distance, FID), or subsequent hiding behavior (eg latency to resume …

Wildfire is a natural form of disturbance in California ecosystems, shaping resource
availability across a landscape on both spatial and temporal scales. Spatial variation in …

An individual's social environment can profoundly affect many aspects of their biology,
including their behavior, reproductive success, physiology, and survival. Facultatively social …

Mammal species can experience negative impacts from human land-use changes from
natural habitat to agricultural fields. These alterations in landscape and food availability …

Yersinia pestis is the bacterial agent of plague, a disease which has caused three trans-
continental pandemics through the Common Era. Y. pestis is currently present in reservoir …

DO BOLD/SHY PERSONALTIES COVARY WITH BODY CONDITION AND PARASITE LOAD
IN THE CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL (OTOSPERMOPHILUS BEECHEY Page 1 DO …

Although melanism is common in some species of North American squirrels, its occurrence
in the California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) was only anecdotal and …

Contemporary species are undergoing population declines and extinction at rates
unprecedented in recorded history. These ongoing global biodiversity losses are largely …

Emerging infections in both humans and wildlife can often be traced back to human
mediated changes in host densities, host communities, and the environment. In Chapter 1, I …