Concepts

Behaviors that reduce the likelihood of predation, including vigilance and evasion tactics

Survival of organisms through winter diapause or dormancy, often related to environmental conditions during overwintering

Vocal signals produced in response to predator detection to warn conspecifics or communicate threat information

Population regulation mechanism where demographic rates depend on population density through competition and resource limitation

The movement away from your place of birth and onto another location involving decision to depart, displacement, and settlement

Process by which animals become less responsive to repeated non-threatening stimuli over time

Random environmental variation that affects demographic parameters across all individuals in a population simultaneously

Reduction in reproductive output of individuals due to presence of other conspecifics, particularly older or dominant individuals

A within-individual process caused by deterioration in molecular and physiological function resulting in a decrease in survival probability and reproductive output with age

Positive social interactions and bonds between individuals including behaviors like grooming, playing, and proximity maintenance

Ability of organisms to compensate for poor early-life conditions through increased feeding or altered resource allocation later in life

Communication through sound production that requires receivers to detect and discern between distinct acoustic signals

Winter survival strategy of some small mammals that may affect their vulnerability to avalanche disturbance depending on burrow depth and emergence timing

Behavioral and physiological mechanisms whereby group-living animals share body heat to reduce thermoregulatory costs

Attenuation and degradation of sound over distance due to atmospheric absorption, ground attenuation, signal scattering, and deflection by layered surfaces

Internal biological timing system that maintains rhythmicity in a wide range of behavioral, physiological, and metabolic processes

Physiological and behavioral adaptations to minimize energy expenditure

Improvement in population fitness through the introduction of new genetic material

Physiological responses of the immune system to pathogens, trauma, stress and inflammation

An individual's development from egg to adult

Growth pattern characterized by an initial period of mass gain followed by stabilization before hibernation entry

Communication between the central and enteric nervous systems as a potential mechanism for microbiome-behavior relationships

The evolutionary processes leading to the development of multiple distinct call types in animal communication systems

Experimental provision of additional food resources to wild populations to test resource limitation hypotheses

The ability to devise a novel solution to a novel or existing problem, measured as successful opening of puzzle box

Mass gain patterns in young animals during their first active season before hibernation

Behavioral patterns acquired through experience rather than innate programming

The process by which female mammals that develop in male-biased litters show signs of masculinization because they are exposed to testosterone produced by their male siblings in utero

The combining of information from multiple sensory modalities that influences decision-making

Infection by internal parasites including blood-borne trypanosomes and intestinal parasites that can affect host behavior and physiology

DNA amplification technique that amplifies circular DNA templates using phi29 DNA polymerase

Learning that occurs through observation or interaction with other individuals