Field Assistant Research Articles

A surveillance study on dairy farmers selected in Baghabari milk pocket area of Bangladesh

This study was carried out to reveal the animal agriculture status of the dairy farmers. The survey was conducted by random sampling on 100 dairy farmers (50 from Shahzadpur upazila and 50 from Bera upazila). A pretested questionnaire was developed and multiplied for data collection. The data collected were brought to the headquarters of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Savar, Dhaka for analysis. After analysis it was found that the education level of the farmers of Shahzadpur upazila was better than that of Bera upazila, where 74% farmers of Shahzadpur and 66% farmers of Bera were engaged in agriculture. The average annual income and expense of the farmers of Shahzadpur were greater than that of Bera. The average total land, cultivable land and total livestock population per farmer were also higher in Shahzadpur upazila than in Bera upazila. In case of diversity of different genotypes of dairy cattle, except Jersey cross the number of Pabna, Sindhi cross, Shahiwal cross and H-F cross was much greater in Shahzadpur than in Bera. Most of the farmers purchase concentrate feeds and produce roughages in both the locations, where feed scarcity was seen mostly during rainy season. About 56% farmers treat their cattle with the help of veterinary surgeon and 44% farmers provide treatment with the help of veterinary field assistant in Shahzadpur, while the scenery was almost opposite in Bera. About 90% farmers of Bera upazila and 95% of Shahzadpur upazila used anthelminitics to deworm their animals. Most of the farmers in both sites dewormed their cattle every three months. About 78% farmers of Shahzadpur and 76% of Bera vaccinated their animals. About 85% farmers of Shahzadpur had been found to properly dispose the carcasses, where as only 48% farmers had been found to do it in Bera. Almost all the farmers washed their hands, equipment and udders of the cows with clean water before milking in both Shahzadpur and Bera. Approximately, all the farmers of both the locations milked their cows twice a day, did not perform milk testing and sold the raw fresh milk to the cooperative societies. All farmers used cow dung as fuel. Overall, it was revealed that Shahzadpur upazila was more advanced than Bera upazila in almost all aspects of animal agriculture.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2016, 2(1): 62-66

W. S. Cooper As I Knew Him: Teacher, Mentor and Friend

W. S. Cooper As I Knew Him: Teacher, Mentor and Friend

Three Papers That Influenced The Direction of My Career

As a junior at San Diego State University I was impressed by a massive wildfire that generated an extraordinary spectacle from the back porch of my parent’s home in the formerly rural community of Bonita. During my senior year I came across a paper by Philip Wells (Wells 1969) on the evolution of plant life history strategies and fire. His model was rather counterintuitive in that he pointed out that nearly all woody dicotyledenous species were able to vegetatively resprout after fire (or other disturbances), and the lack of resprouting capacity was rare and found primarily in fire-prone chaparral shrubs in the genera Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus. I talked with one of my professors, Dr. Paul Zedler, about doing a masters degree on this phenomenon. To this day I recall his note of caution, given in a very serious tone (to paraphrase), “Well Jon, one does not set out in a graduate program to just study whales, you need to narrow your ideas.” My eventual project led to a life-long career that included life history evolution in response to fires, and it is still an important part of my research program (Pausas and Keeley, in review). My master’s thesis project was published (Keeley 1977, Keeley and Zedler 1978) and these papers have been widely cited (collectively nearly 600 citations) and appear to have played a role in stimulating several synthesis papers addressing the drivers behind resprouting and seeding evolution (Bellingham and Sparrow 2000, Bond and Midgley 2003) and brought home to me the excitement of linking ecology and evolution. While working on my master’s thesis I accepted an offer to participate as a field assistant on Dr. Harold Mooney’s NFS/IBP convergent evolution study, comparing the structure and function of mediterreanean climate ecosystems in California and Chile. Mooney and Dunn (1970) stressed an ecophysiological model to explain the convergence of evergreen sclerophyllous-leaved shrubs in mediterranean-climate environments of California and Chile, and further opened my eyes to the connections between ecology and evolution. For my job I traveled once a week to study sites around southern California to record phenological stages of chaparral species. My job title was “quantitative phenologist” and most people assumed it had something to do with studying human skull morphology; little did we recognize that future climate change threats would induce ecologists around the globe into becoming quantitative phenologists. In this project I developed a friendship with Sterling Carter, who was doing graduate studies in Chile, and her advisor Dr. Al Johnson felt that a good use of his funds would be to send me to Chile to collect seeds for planned cytological studies. Since I had spent the previous summer in the Arctic tundra doing research for Dr. Frank Pitelka, I could couple this with a trip to Tierra del Fuego to make some “comparisons” with southern hemisphere tundra. While I believe the money was well spent, the trip did not lead to any publications, but it did provide a first-hand look at the systems Mooney and Dunn (1970) had written on, and instilled in me the need to think broadly in terms of other mediterraneanclimate ecosystems. These early experiences enabled me to develop colleagues in all MTC regions; this circumstance is reflected in a recent multi-authored book (Keeley et al 2012). Finishing my master’s thesis, I discussed with Dr. Zedler doing a Ph.D. and I recall him saying, again in a very serious (but I now recognized as a somewhat affected tone) something to the effect, ‘Well Jon,

Adventures of a field assistant in the Amazon

The current EMS system is, understandably, geared towards domestic animals, so vet students with an interest in wildlife often develop this independently. Fourth‐year vet student Renata Snow spent last summer trapping and tracking tamarins in the Amazon rainforest

Wilfred Borden Schofield (1927–2008)

After a brief struggle with cancer, Dr. Wilfred (Wilf) Borden Schofield, 81, passed away peacefully on the morning of November 5, 2008, at Marion Hospice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was preceded in death by his wife, Peggy, his parents and brothers, Donald and Eric. Wilf is survived by his daughters, Linda, Muriel and Pamela, his grandchildren, Aisha, Elise, Shayden and Kai, his sister, Vera, and brother-in-law, Turner, and nieces, nephews, cousins and many former students and colleagues. Wilf was born in Brooklyn Corner, Kings County, Nova Scotia on 19 July 1927 to Alethia May Borden and Gilbert Schofield. After high school he went on to Acadia University with the intention of becoming a high school teacher. His focus changed when John S. Erskine (the local bryologist) introduced him to botany and bryophytes. During his undergraduate years he collected both vascular plants and bryophytes while developing his passion for fieldwork. He graduated from Acadia University in 1950 with a B.A. and obtained a Class A Teacher’s License from Nova Scotia Normal College in 1951. For the next several years he taught high school geology in Nova Scotia. In 1954 he moved to Stanford University in California, and started graduate work under the guidance of William C. Steere. Not a person to choose an easy thesis topic he chose to work on the taxonomically difficult genus Hypnum. He focused on the species of Canada, Alaska and the northern latitudes. During the summer of 1955 Wilf joined Howard Crum as a field assistant and spent the summer collecting in the Canadian Rocky Mountain parks. He completed his thesis, The Relationships and Geographic Distribution of Canadian and Alaskan Species of Hypnum, and received his M.S. degree in 1956. During the summer of 1956 Wilf and Howard were joined by Lewis Anderson and Bill Steere and he collected both bryophytes and vascular plants in Fort Churchill, Manitoba. This trip resulted in one of his first published papers; ‘‘The salt marsh vegetation of Churchill, Manitoba, and its phytogeographic implications’’ which appeared in the Bulletin of the National Museum of Canada in 1959. While attending classes at Stanford, Wilf met Turner Bledsoe, a classmate who had a sister Margaret (Peggy) Irene Bledsoe. Peggy, an accomplished concert pianist and artist, completed her M.A. in music at Stanford. Mutual friends at Stanford introduced Wilf (the confirmed bachelor) to Peggy and they ‘‘hit it off.’’ They were married in the fall of 1956 after a one-month courtship. Howard Crum loved to tell how he went along on their honeymoon, which was a collecting trip. The young couple returned to Nova Scotia where Wilf spent the winter teaching high school. After he and Peggy spent the summer of 1957 doing fieldwork in the Yukon, they moved to Durham, North Carolina where Wilf started his Ph.D. under Henry J. Oosting at Duke University. While this was primarily an ecological study, his dissertation, The Ecotone between Spruce-fir and Deciduous Forest in the Great Smoky Mountains, included a strong bryophyte component. While at Duke he continued his love of bryology in the company of Lewis Anderson and various visiting bryologists. Many of those visiting bryologists, including Sinske Hattori, Hisa Ando, Zen Iwatsuki, Alan Mark and Helen Ramsay, became lifelong friends who hosted him and his family in their travels abroad. Upon completion of his dissertation in 1960, Wilf, with Peggy and their first daughter, Linda,

Consequence of Dam Genotypes on Productive and Reproductive Performance of Dairy Cows under the Rural Condition in Bangladesh

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the consequence of dam genotypes on productive and reproductive performance of different cross-bred dairy cows under field condition. A total of 313 dairy cow's information were collected from 33 Artificial Insemination (AI) Sub-centers/Points from the District AI center of greater Rajshahi district for a period from 1993 to 2002. The information of the productive and reproductive parameters were analyzed from questionnaires answered by 33 field assistant (artificial inseminator) and owner's of cow in respective of AI Sub-Center/Points as well as from reading the AI and 100% progeny collection Registers. In general, the mean birth weight, age at puberty, age at first fertile service, age at first calving, gestation length, post-partum heat period, days open, wastage day, service per conception, milk production per day, peak milk production per day, lactation length, lactation yield, dry period, weaning period and calving intervals were 18.8 kg, 27.9 month, 29.2 month, 38.7 months, 278.7 days, 139 days, 160 days, 20.3 days, 1.62, 5.13 L, 10.45 L, 282 days, 1445 L, 146 days, 10.65 months and 438 days, respectively. Dam genotype of dairy cows were divided into 5 groups according to their genetic composition. LxF, SxSL, L, LxSLxF and LxSxSL of dam genotype had significant effect on all the productive and reproductive performances of the dairy cows except on age at first calving, gestation length and weaning period. The genotypes of dam's of cows like LxF and LxSL showed a better performance under field condition at greater Rajshahi district and poor performance were recorded in L and LxSxSL of dam genotype. The experiment reflects that the LxF and LxSL genotypes of dam showed the better productive and reproductive performances of dairy cows under rural condition in Bangladesh.

Knowing a medical doctor is associated with reduced mortality among sick children consulting a paediatric ward in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

To examine equity in access to public health services in Guinea-Bissau. The study was conducted in 2000-2001 at the emergency clinic of the only paediatric ward in Bissau. Mothers of all children from the study area were interviewed about previous care seeking and relations with anybody working in the health sector. All management actions in the emergency clinic were registered. In-hospital and subsequent community mortality was ascertained through community surveillance. The measured outcome was mortality risk within 30 days of first consultation. We followed 1572 children with a first consultation. Of these, 8.2% died within 30 days. Acquaintance with a physician reduced 30-day mortality risk by 48% (95% CI: 18-66). The effect was strongest among post-neonatal children (54%; 95% CI: 18-74). Mortality within 30 days of consultation was also independently predicted by consultation after 7 PM, nurse team on duty, day of week and young mother. In a multivariate model, socioeconomic status and school education were not associated with 30-day mortality when acquaintance with a medical doctor was taken into account. Favouritism may be a significant factor for quality of care and child mortality in developing countries. Interventions to improve hospital and health worker performance should be given high priority.

Of Sorcery and State

Harry G. West, Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 336 pp. In the Shimakonde language of northern Mozambique, kupilikula means to overturn, undo, or invert. One would— "pilikula" the sorcery of an opponent, thereby doing harm to the intending perpetrator of harm. In his book entitled Kupilikula, Harry West expands the definition of that word to include transformation of various sorts—of meaning, of power, and of neo-liberal governance. Sorcery, West argues, has played a significant, complex role in anti-colonial struggle, socialism, and in post-socialist reform on the Mueda planteau of Cabo Delgado Province. Indeed, Muedans have frequently found, in the invisible realm, the authority they lack in government and in the market. In mild tones, then, Kupilikula celebrates sorcery and redeems it from longstanding critiques. West organizes Kupilikula as a series of encounters with alleged sorcerers and their alleged victims. Rather than advancing in article-length strides, his argument unfolds in the course of 28 vignettes. Readers learn of sorcerers who turn themselves into lions and devour their victims or who turn their victims into lions who are killed by people. Counter-sorcerers, who also number among West's friends and subjects, rescue victims and repel the sorcerer's charms. Can they do so without themselves knowing and practicing sorcery? [End Page 1001] With verve and insight, West conveys the atmosphere of suspicion, doubt, and ambiguity prevailing on the Mueda plateau. He is a skilled fieldworker; at one point he even secures the coy confession of a sorcerer. Students will find West's style engaging and the book extremely readable. Indeed, by acknowledging the role of his field assistant in nearly every interview, West does a great service to aspiring anthropologists: he subverts the myth of the lone ethnographer-cowboy. At the same time, however, the density of vignettes and dialogues may detract from the potential value of Kupilikula. At the outset, West describes uwavi, the invisible realm, as a discourse or a language for expressing relationships, fortune, misfortune, power, and efficacy in the world. His conversations with and about sorcerers demonstrate that point amply. But those conversations occupy so much space in the book that one can hardly see past them. Is sorcery only an idiom? Do sorcerers practice sorcery in ways other than talking about it? One emerges unsure of how sorcery really occurs. Other idioms for understanding and explaining the world—notably, kinship—relate to categories of events in the visible world, such as, marriage and birth. What are the categories of events that animate the discourse of uwavi, and how does that discourse rise and fall in accordance with events? West's vignettes address and answer these questions situationally rather than systematically. The main situations are political, related to the neo-liberal reforms beginning in earnest in 1994. Under structural adjustment and related programs, the Mozambican state privatized state-owned corporations, ceased to provide public services, and, in general, ceded vast swathes of its territory to private capital and/or to international development NGOs. Meanwhile, under the banner of decentralization, the state told rural residents, such as, those on the Mueda plateau, to elect their own leaders and provide services to themselves. Democracy and development had arrived! Thanks to uwavi discourse, Muedans saw through this charade almost immediately. The concepts of sorcery, West writes, functioned as "a sensory organ through which to perceive profound contradictions in the emerging neo-liberal order" (8). In the past, Muedans expected their leaders to ensure the community's physical well-being and to protect it from invisible malevolence. Under socialism, President Samora Machel had provided services for Mozambicans while unofficially indulging them in their belief that he and the ruling FRELIMO party practiced beneficial sorcery. Then, fifteen years of civil war made Mozambique the poorest nation in the world. Prostrate before international donors, the post-war state embraced structural adjustment. It divested itself of any economic [End Page 1002] responsibility for the people and, by extension, of...

The researcher and the field assistant: a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural viewing of positionality

It is almost a given in the social sciences that the outcome of the research process is directly affected by the social makeup of both researcher and respondents. Researchers have been encouraged to engage in a reflective process so as to recognise the existence of multiple viewpoints, the partiality of their assessments and the situatedness of the knowledge they produce. As a natural scientist taking up social science research I accepted these ideas quite readily, and endeavoured to prepare myself by considering how my positionality would affect the research. However, fieldwork was a shock, as farmers were not interacting with me; instead they were interacting with my field assistant/interpreter as if he was the researcher. I experienced feelings of invisibility and exclusion, which reflexivity could not explain. In retrospect, and in an attempt to understand what happened during my fieldwork, I asked my field assistant to write about how he felt my identity, and his own, influenced the research process. I use this article in two ways. First, I have taken the opportunity to reflect on my experiences of fieldwork, by challenging my original reflexive account of fieldwork by contrasting it with my field assistant's reflexive account. Second, I use the experience of fieldwork positionality as a case study to illustrate one of the big challenges that face those who wish to become interdisciplinary scholars, spanning the natural and social sciences.

Memoirs of Mbororo. The Life of Ndudi Umaru: Fulani Nomad of Cameroon

This remarkable book recounts the life of Ndudi Umaru, a pastoral nomadic Fulani, who was born in the Nigeria-Cameroon border zone, but spent most of his life in Cameroon where he was treated for leprosy. Left to his own devices at an early age - his illness having separated him from his kith and kin - Ndudi was befriended by Pere Bocquene, a French missionary who took him on as a field assistant. Working closely with the young man, Pere Bocquene realised Ndudi was a keen observer of his country's pastoral society, with its links to a wider social setting, and suggested he record his observations on tape. The result is a rare and sensitive collaboration, which sheds new insight into the world of the Mbororo and the complex and ever-changing social mosaic of West African savanna societies. Ndudi's leprosy and his efforts to find a cure grant him the necessary perspective to analyze this complex world, while still remaining a part of it. For the western public, the Mbororo have often been the photogenic subjects of 'Disappearing World' documentaries or glossy coffee table books. However, this account renders 'the exotic' comprehensible, preserving the cultural authenticity of Ndudi's story while making this unique world more accessible to outsiders.

Humboldt, Willdenow, and Polygala (Polygalaceae)

SummaryRankin Rodriguez, R. & Greuter, W.: Humboldt, Willdenow, and Polygala (Polygalaceae). – Taxon 50: 1231–1247.2001. ‐ ISSN 0040–0262.Based on published sources (including contemporary correspondence) and the Humboldt expedition's field notebooks, some information on Humboldt and Bonpland's plant collections in their relation to Willdenow and his Species plantarum is provided. The genus Polygala served as a test sample. The Willdenow Herbarium (B‐W) holds 23 Polygala specimens from the Humboldt expedition (several others were erroneously attributed to Humboldt), representing 17 of the 18 species described by Kunth in the Nova genera. The following main conclusions are drawn: (1) three types of handwriting can be recognised on the expedition's field labels in B‐W, which are identified as Bonpland's, Humboldt's, and a third one that is tentatively ascribed to an unknown field assistant; (2) a full set of the plant collections from Venezuela was sent to Willdenow from Havana early in 1801 and had been received in Berlin by September 1802; (3) in vol. 3(2) of Willdenow's Species plantarum, published in early November 1802, a single species (Hypericum caracasanum) was described based on the new Humboldt material; (4) the numbers found on many of Humboldt's labels refer to the numbered entries in the field notebooks, but are not collection numbers in the modern sense, because many collections, on which no notes were taken, remained unnumbered; (5) numbering was fairly consistent, all duplicates of collections on which field notes exist being normally numbered, except when the label was accidentally lost; (6) the set of duplicates given by Humboldt to Willdenow was virtually complete, but the equally complete set in Bonpland's herbarium (P‐Bonpl.), having been studied by Kunth in the first place, should be used to typify the names of new taxa first published in the Nova genera. Based on an improved understanding of the background of these collections, a recently proposed type designation for Polygala tenella Willd. is rejected. This long forgotten name is here neotypified in such a way as to retain its traditional place in the synonymy of P. paniculata L.

Fred B. Kniffen: As Archaeologist

Although a doctoral student of Carl Sauer, Fred Kniffen was a trained archaeologist when he arrived in Louisiana in the late 1920s. He had course work with Alfred L. Kroeher and had served as his field assistant at the University of California, Berkeley. One of his first pieces of research after joining the faculty at Louisiana State University was concerned with the geomorphic history of Bayou Manchac which was at one time the most upstream distributary of the Mississippi River. There he recognized three different pottery assemblages that he could relate to different time periods. These could not only be revealing in the history of Bayou Manchac, but to other features of the Mississippi. Subsequently, this concept was applied in the Southeast in general. During the development of federal aid to archaeology programs during the Great Depression, Kniffen became an organizing force behind the creation of a multifaceted endeavor in Louisiana. Again profiting from his experience with Kroeber in California, Kniffen turned his attention to the historic American Indians of Louisiana, producing publications and students in that field.

Some notes on glacial geomorphology in the inner part of St. Jonsfjorden, Svalbard

Working as a field assistant for Dr. Harmon Matter during the Norwegian Polar Research Institute's Svalbard Expedition 1991, A.-I. Kverndal had the opportunity to do a large-scale study on the glacial geology in the St. Jonsfjorden area. This note emphasises the glacial geomorphology connected to the Konowbreen/Osbornebreen glacier system; it also comments on the possibilities for further research in this area.

Some notes on glacial geomorphology in the inner part of St. Jonsfjorden, Svalbard

Working as a field assistant for Dr. Harmon Matter during the Norwegian Polar Research Institute's Svalbard Expedition 1991, A.-I. Kverndal had the opportunity to do a large-scale study on the glacial geology in the St. Jonsfjorden area. This note emphasises the glacial geomorphology connected to the Konowbreen/Osbornebreen glacier system; it also comments on the possibilities for further research in this area.

Different Apron Strings: Children as Field Assistants

Since writing this paper I have been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship that will enable me to return to Ladeiras, Brazil in order to continue the research on child mortality and to begin writing a monograph entitled Mother Love and Child Death i n Northeast Brazil. All five of us have decided to return to Brazil, although Sarah and Nate will return home with my husband, Michael, after the summer months. Jennifer, my eldest daughter, has decided to postpone entering college in the fall of 1987 in order to remain in Brazil with me for the duration of the research project as my field assistant. All three of the children are enthusiastic about the return to Brazil and are somewhat dismissive of their previous difficulties. I remain guarded on the prognosis.

Field mapping in the Nagssugtoqidian of South-East Greenland

The 1976 season's work was the first of a reconnaissance mapping programme between 62° 30'N (Tingmiarmiut) and 68° 00'N (Kangerdlugssuaq) as the first stage in producing 1:500000 map sheets of this part ofthe east coast. The work was carried out by a team of six geologists, one geophysicist (G. E. J. Beckmann, see this report) and one field assistant (H. B. Nøhr Hansen) using 5 m inflatable boats from a 80 ton motor cutter (Tycho Brahe). Reconnaissance work was completed from Sermiligaq (64° 54'N) to inner Kangertigtivatsiaq (66° 28'N) (fig. 19). Approximately one week was spent in the region between Sermilik west of Angmagssalik and Sermiligaq to provide a link between the earlier reconnaissance work of Bridgwater & Gormsen (1968) and the Birmingham Vniversity teams who mapped in the Angmagssalik area between 1967 and 1970 (Wrightet al., 1973). North of 66°00'N in Sermilik and 66° 15'N on the outer coast work was prevented by ice which remained impassable until late August. A total of 35 days was available.

Quadrat Sampling of a Nesting Population of Bald Eagles

An aerial stratified random sample survey of nesting bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was conducted during 1974 on 173,900 km2 of northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba, Canada. I sampled less than the total (target) area to reduce cost and to avoid a search bias in areas previously visited. Fifty-three 100 km2 quadrats provided estimates of 428 ? 158 (37% ) eagles, excluding nestlings, and 291 ? 88 (30%) breeding areas for the sampled area and 579 ? 165 breeding areas for the entire area. Stratification reduced the variance of the means by roughly 22 percent for breeding areas in the entire area. A real visibility bias requires rigorously standardized techniques and, unless measured, limits the usefulness of estimates of actual numbers. The techniques should be feasible for a larger region and repeated sampling would provide a measure of trends in the status of this species of eagle. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 41(3):438-443 Claims that bald eagle populations have declined or not are based largely on reproductive information (Braun et al. 1975, Broley 1958, Gerrard 1973, Grier 1974, Laycock 1973, Sprunt 1966, 1969, Sprunt et al. 1973, U.S. Dept. of Interior 1974). The lack of simultaneous information on age-specific mortality and age of first breeding precludes the modeling of bald eagle population dynamics (Brown 1974, Brown and Cade 1972, Henny et al. 1970, Mertz 1971, Whitfield et al. 1974, Young 1968). Lack of adequate census data also hinders the determination of population status based upon changes in numbers of individuals. Counts of eagles on wintering areas (Fawks 1961 plus yearly updates, Hancock 1974, Higby 1975, Lint 1975, Southern 1963, 1964, Wrakestraw 1973) or during migrations (McClelland 1973, Spofford 1969, U.S. Dept. of Interior 1971) are of limited value because they reflect annual variations in weather and food availability. Furthermore, it is difficult to ascertain the source of eagles observed on migration or wintering areas. The National Audubon Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and others have attempted to determine the total number of nesting bald eagles in the 48 contiguous states (Braun et al. 1975, Laycock 1973, Sprunt 1966, U.S. Dept. of Interior 1974). The majority of nesting birds, however, are found in Alaska and Canada, where only scattered attempts have been made to assess the eagle populations (Davis 1966, Gerrard 1973, Gerrard and Whitfield 1967, Grier 1967, 1969, King et al. 1972, Mansell 1965, Whitfield et al. 1974). All that is clear from the numbers of birds seen nesting in Alaska and Canada, and on wintering areas in the contiguous United States is that the present population of bald agles in North America must be relatively larg (Braun et al. 1975). Reliable censuses are needed to determine the status of the continental breeding population for management purposes. King et al. (1972) conducted a quadrat sample survey of bald eagles in southeastern Alaska. In searching for a technique to gain information on bald eagle numbers in Canada's boreal forest, in northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba, I conducted a similar survey during 1974. The results of that survey as reported herein were encouraging and, with some modification, the techniques can provide useful trend information in future years. This research was supported by the Canadian Wildlife Service, Eastern Region, Project No. 6145/74-75. R. Buckler was my field assistant and pilot; without his valuable help the project would not have been con438 J. Wildl. Manage. 41(3):1977 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.112 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 05:01:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SAMPLING NESTING BALD EAGLES * Grier 439 Table 1. Classification and distribution of quadrats in the study area. Eleven quadrats with much human activity (towns, mines) and considered unsuitable for eagles were excluded

A One-Man Profiling Method for Beach Studies

ABSTRACT An instrument system is described whereby beach profiles may be surveyed by one man without the aid of a field assistant. The accuracy of the method is tested and shown to give results within about ± .07 feet vertically with traverse legs less than 30 feet in horizontal distance. The procedure has additional appeal because the equipment is inexpensive and portable and the profile can usually be completed more quickly than by using a level and rod.

The Role of Environmental Heterogeneity in the Regulation of Duck Populations

Behavioral spacing of breeding pairs and the availability of energy resources have been proposed as major factors that regulate duck populations. To compare the relative importance and interaction of the two mechanisms, the seasonal distribution of duck populations was determined in an edaphically heterogeneous system of beaver (Castor canadensis) ponds west of Ottawa, Ontario, near a boundary of the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Lowland and the Precambrian Shield. Ponds were selected in a number of geological substrates, so that within a relatively small geographical area a variety of water chemical conditions was represented. The seasonal production of submerged vegetation was a function of water hardness and formed the basis of the assumption that water chemistry could be employed quantitatively as a measure of pond fertility. Numbers of breeding pairs of ducks were dependent only on the amount of surface water available, indicating that the major population regulatory mechanism was behavioral spacing. Fledged ducks, on the other hand, selected fertile wetlands regardless of pond size, indicating that populations were regulated by the availability of energy resources. Habitat requirements of broods were intermediate, because both behavioral escape cover and food availability were important. It is postulated that the different environmental requirements of the three life history stages are an evolutionary adaptation to a temporarily unpredictable environment. The adaptations allow duck populations to maintain equilibrium in a temporarily unpredictable environment, and to attain high population size in a spatially heterogeneous environment. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 40(1):22-32 Behavioral spacing mechanisms and the availability of food resources are two factors considered to be of major significance in the regulation of duck populations (Evans and Black 1956, Moyle 1956, Hawkins 1964, Jahn and Hunt 1964:16, Dzubin 1969, Dzubin and Gollop 1972). Although there is a considerable body of knowledge concerning duck population dynamics and the regulatory effects of specific environmental factors, there is a lack of consensus on the relative importance, or relationships, of the various factors known to regulate population size. The question of what overall environmental factors regulate duck populations was asked repeatedly by contributors to the Saskatoon Wetlands Seminar published in 1969. In summarizing the seminar, Jahn (1969:177) stated that for progress to be made in waterfowl research Seasonal needs of the birds must be related to the physical, chemical and biotic features of the ecosystem. Recent developments in theoretical ecology have stressed the importance of the abiotic environment in determining many basic biotic properties (Loucks 1970, Sanders 1969, Slobodkin and Sanders 1969, Smith 1970, Wiegert and Owen 1971). Such fundamental biological phenomena as niche differentiation and mechanisms of population regulation may evolve in response to environmental characteristics. The theoretical evidence that mechanisms of ecosystem organization and population regulation can respond to environmental characteristics provided the conceptual basis for this study. Research emphasis was placed on determining environmental parameters that would quantitatively indicate the seasonal requirements of breeding ducks. To this end, a study area was selected that provided a continuum of wetlands ranging from biologically productive hardwater ponds to less productive soft water ponds, yet was small enough to avoid geographical influences on populations. The presence of numerous beaver ponds J. Wildl. Manage. 40 (1):1976 22 REGULATION OF DUCK POPULATIONS * Patterson overlying a variety of geological substrates provided a natural outdoor laboratory. Ponds of specific chemical regimes and sizes could be selected to provide the treatments necessary for field experiments to determine the environmental requirements of ducks. This work is from a Ph.D. thesis submitted to Carleton University. Financial support was provided by research contracts and graduate scholarships from the Canadian Wildlife Service and Ontario Graduate Fellowships. I thank L. P. Lefkovitch, Director, Statistical Research Service, Agriculture Canada, for performing the statistical analyses and A. T. Prince, Director, Inland Waters Branch, Environment Canada, whose laboratory conducted the water chemical analyses. E. Grinnell's hard work and enthusiasm as my field assistant are greatly appreciated. I also thank H. G. Merriam and J. D. H. Lambert, Department of Biology, Carleton University, and N. G. Perrett and H. Boyd, Canadian Wildlife Service, for advice during the study. H. G. Merriam, H. Boyd, L. P. Lefkovitch, and W. J. D. Stephen critically reviewed the

Cecil Edgar Tilley, 1894-1973

Cecil Edgar Tilley was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 14 May 1894, the son of a civil engineer in the South Australian State Service. His family was very musical and Tilley himself as a boy was keenly interested in the piano and was a proficient organ player. He expressed regret in later years that his enthusiasm for science had allowed this interest in music to lapse. He went first to the University of Adelaide where, in his second year, he accepted the post of Cadet in the Geology Department. This meant that he was granted remission of fees in exchange for making thin sections and performing other minor duties. The petrologist in the Department at that time (1912) was W. R. Browne, temporarily taking the place of Douglas Mawson who was in the Antarctic. The petrology class was small, with Tilley the only outstanding student. Browne’s appointment terminated at the end of 1912, but he spent some time in the early part of 1913 collecting from the granitic intrusives exposed at Victor Harbour on the coast south of Adelaide. Tilley acted as Browne’s field assistant and himself examined the related granites of Cape Willoughby on Kangaroo Island. The results eventually appeared in two papers in the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia for 1919, representing his first published petrological work. He completed the four-year B.Sc. honours course in November 1914, and the following year he went to Sydney University, to which Browne had returned, and became an undergraduate again, completing the final-year B.Sc. course and gaining medals in both chemistry and geology. Both Departments wanted him for the post of Junior Demonstrator and he chose Geology.