Date of Award:

5-1964

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biology

Department name when degree awarded

Wildlife Biology

Committee Chair(s)

Allan W. Stokes

Committee

Allan W. Stokes

Abstract

Biologists often trap animals to obtain information on them. If trapping is selective toward some animals, the information may be inaccurate. Most mammalogists know or suspect that their trapping techniques (reviewed by Hayne, 1949; and Stickel, 1954) contain sources of bias. Since trapping remains the only feasible way to obtain information on many animals, researchers have tried to discover sources of sampling error and refine their techniques. They have found that one major source of difficulty may lie in the behavior of animals. Individual animals seem to respond differently to trapping, both initially and through learning (Geis, 1955; Crowcroft and Jeffers, 1961; and others). However, researchers seldom observe the behavioral responses of animals to traps. They infer information from capture data. Perhaps an empirical approach would shed more light on the relationship between behavior and trapping. The present study is such an approach.

Checksum

6d78139da7e05c7241b5ca75148333f8

Included in

Biology Commons

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