| University of Minnesota, Duluth (2004 - 2009) | MAMMALOGY 4764 | Origin, taxonomy, distribution, physiology, ecology and behavior of mammals. Laboratory and fieldwork includes collection and identification of Minnesota species (2 hrs lecture, 3 hours lab). |
2007 |
EVOLUTION 4801 | Origin, history, opposition, and evidence supporting evolutionary ideas. Origin of life, phylogeny, biological history, mechanisms of evolutionary change, population genetics, speciation, tempo of evolution, macroevolution, extinction, biogeography, altruism. |
2007 |
ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES 8201 | Team-taught survey of advanced topics in ecological processes, including allometry, animal behavior, food webs, and energy and material flows through organisms and ecosystems. |
2006 |
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 4891 | Known behavior of various vertebrate and invertebrate phyla, emphasizing adaptive significance and the genetics and ontogeny of behavioral patterns (2 hrs lecture). |
| University of North Dakota, Grand Forks (2001-2002) |
BIOMETRY 470 | Analysis of biological data. Descriptive and inferential statistics (e.g., t-tests, goodness-of-fit, regression, ANOVA. non-parametric), interpreting and presenting statistical results (3 hrs lecture). |
| GENERAL ECOLOGY 332 | An introduction to ecology. Covers the relationship of individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems to their biotic and abiotic environments (3 hrs lecture, 3 hours lab). | |
| GENERAL BIOLOGY 150 | Basic concepts of biology with emphasis on life's diversity, processes, and man's place in nature (3 hrs lecture). |
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Moose in Minnesota: This website describes what is happening to moose in northeastern Minnesota, with links to other sites of interest. We also have about 200 pictures of moose that have been submitted by the public. Concern about moose is high because of the importance of moose to Minnesota. People also remember what happened to moose in northwestern Minnesota: In less than 20 years moose in northwestern Minnesota declined from over 4,000 to fewer than 100. Could the northeastern moose population, with over 7,000 moose, be starting a similar decline? The site also describes new research projects in northeastern Minnesota on moose, in Voyageurs National Park and on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. |
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CANADA LYNX IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION: This website describes a research project in which we are studying Canada lynx, a threatened species in the lower 48 states. Minnesota is home to a resident population. We are using VHF and GPS radiotelemetry to help understand factors affecting distribution, abundance, persistence, and habitat use of Canada lynx in and near the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota. |
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MINNESOTA MAMMALS WEBSITE This website is currently being built. It will be used as a resource for students in Mammalogy 4764 and other UMD classes. Our intent is to have a single website with images of bones, skins, animals, and other material for mammals of Minnesota. Check out the opossum and other species that have been entered! |
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IRISH ELK AND OTHER EXTINCT MEGAFAUNA This research grew out of the physiological modeling and antler growth modeling featured below. It illustrates how we can develop a model general enough to be used on species ranging from domestic sheep to the extinct Irish elk. How would growing these huge antlers have affected energy, protein, and mineral metabolism of Irish elk? We made some predictions in this article. Sometime in the future we will apply this same methodology to elephants, mastodons, and mammoths! |
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ANTLER GROWTH AND NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS When we started this work very little was published about antler composition early in the growing season. Would you believe that in May antlers are almost all water? That peak mineralization occurs in late July and early August? In these articles we give more details on predictions of composition and nutritional requirements throughout the period of antler growth. |
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LAND SNAILS A current project is a status assessment for 7 species or subspecies of terrestrial snails that are glacial relicts. Initially it was thought that these snails were restricted to the area where Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois meet. Distribution of some species is apparently wider than originally thought, reaching through Wisconsin and into the upper peninsula of Michigan. . |
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FORAGING AND PHYSIOLOGY OF RUMINANTS We developed a simulation model to predict energy, protein, and mineral metabolism of ruminants. It has been tested on many species, including moose, bison, elk, sheep, dairy cows, and deer. The graph to the left is from a Wildlife Monograph (DelGiudice et al. 2001). The original version of the model also included spatially-explicit foraging (Moen et al. 1997). It was distributed as an executable DOS program that still runs today on XP! Download the 1 MB zip file to try by clicking here. Unzip it with create directories option. |
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GPS COLLARS GPS collars first appeared in the mid 1990's. This moose is wearing a test collar at the Moose Research Center in Alaska in 1995. We tested effect of cover type and activity on GPS locations. Collars are now small enough to deploy on Canada lynx (see above). We are currently working on tests applying what was discussed in a recent Wildlife Society Bulletin article (Cain et al. 2005). |
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OTHER PICTURES AND TEXT This page will contain slide shows of general interest and items I need someone to access (e.g., soccer registration forms). For example, to the left is an image of a comet taken with a long exposure on 35mm film. |
