Accurately determining the diet of wild animals can be challenging if food items are small,
visible only briefly, or rendered visually unidentifiable in the digestive system. In some food …

Individuals undergo profound changes throughout their early life as they grow and transition
between life-history stages. As a result, the conditions that individuals experience during …

Habitat preferences in animals are often examined during the breeding period when
individuals are easier to observe. However, habitat use may change once young become …

Whether an individual disperses or remains site‐faithful between breeding seasons can
have important impacts on individual fitness and population dynamics. While several studies …

Human influence on ecosystems is rapidly expanding, and one consequence is the
increased availability of human food subsidies to wildlife. Human food subsidies like refuse …

The biotic and abiotic factors responsible for determining ranges of most species are poorly
understood. The Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis (Linnaeus, 1766)) relies on …

Adult patients receiving cosmetic injections frequently experience needle fear symptoms
which results in patient discomfort, suffering, and poor injection outcomes. The needle fear …

Microbiomes are ecological communities that thrive in a wide variety of habitats, including
on or in animal hosts. This thesis presents analyses of two microbiome data sets associated …

Knowledge of the downstream effects of conditions experienced during early life is essential
to understanding the mechanisms driving individual physiology, behaviour, and, ultimately …