“
“We analyzed natal dispersal characteristics for 79 red wolves in the first long-term dispersal analysis for this species. Variables

analyzed included straight-line dispersal distance, duration, timing, age, direction, and evidence of natal habitat preference induction of dispersers. We compared these values during a time when the population was increasing (1990–1998) to a period when the numbers had leveled off (1999–2007) and stabilized. We found no difference in average dispersal distance, duration or age between the two periods, and no gender bias in these characteristics. Yearlings/adults dispersed shorter distances (29.5 km) than pups (42.5 km) from 1999 to 2007 and decreased their dispersal distances during this period. After 1999, CH5424802 clinical trial dispersals occurred 11 months of the year (compared with 7 months in 1990–1998), and the peak in pup dispersal timing shifted from December to January. The peak in dispersal timing was also significantly Doxorubicin clinical trial later for pups than yearlings/adults in 1999–2007. Dispersal direction was not random and there was a preference for a westward dispersal direction, attributed to the avoidance of water and a preference for agriculture. Natal habitat preference induction was also evident in dispersers during both time periods. “
“Finely tuned adjustment

of an individual’s phenotype can offer substantial fitness benefits when it is closely matched with environmental change. For instance, prey may be safeguarded against unnecessary costs to growth or development when their responses to temporally variable predation risk include plastic anti-predator defences. Yet, the correspondence between perceived predation risk and related responses should differ between behavioural and morphological phenotypes when risk fluctuates because behaviour can be modified quickly, whereas morphological phenotypes require time to build. Theoretical models predict intermediate expression when risk fluctuates rapidly relative to the time required to mount a response, whereas traits that can be modified relatively quickly should more closely track current

conditions. Using a tadpole-dragonfly next larva system, we sought to compare the expression of behavioural and morphological defences following exposure to constant versus variable predation risk. By varying the pattern and total duration of predator cue exposure, but not cue concentration, we quantified phenotypic plasticity and trait reversibility. Our results show that strong behavioural responses were limited to early ontogeny but closely matched current level of risk. The morphology of prey experiencing a weekly changing predator environment was intermediate to that of prey in the no-predator and constantly exposed treatments. Yet, prey exposed to a predator environment for the same total duration as the weekly changing environment, but in a different exposure pattern, was morphologically unresponsive to the onset of predation risk.