Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Behavior and Ethology
The Defensive Repertoire of New World Coral Snakes: Evolution and Natural History
Published: 2026-08-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
The defensive repertoire of New World coral snakes is diverse, but its evolutionary history remains poorly understood. We compiled 280 records of 11 defensive behaviors across 85 species of Micrurus and one species of Micruroides from the literature and contributions by researchers, naturalists, and wildlife photographers. Fifty-seven records represented behaviors not previously documented for [...]
Wolf–Deer Camera-trap Detections Across Wisconsin’s Statewide Wolf Range (2018–2025): A Temporary Increase in Wolves Following Deer After the 2021 Wolf Harvest, Displacement Effects by Habitat Zone, and Avoidance of People Across Co-occurring Species
Published: 2026-08-19
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Two prior analyses of wolf-enriched extracts of the Snapshot Wisconsin camera network — one county, then five northwestern counties — showed that gray wolves (Canis lupus) tended to arrive at cameras shortly after white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), that they arrived after antlered bucks more often than the bucks’ numbers would predict, and that deer returned to a site more slowly after a [...]
Mate choice copying in non-human animals: an update of two meta-analyses
Published: 2026-08-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology
Mate choice copying, the use of social information from the mating decisions of others, is a taxonomically widespread form of social learning with the potential to shape sexual selection. Two meta-analyses concluded that social information moderately and positively biases mate choice, but both rest on literature searches now at least seven years old. Using a multilingual, [...]
Wolf–Deer Movement After the 2021 Wolf Harvest, by North-South Gradient and Proximity to Towns using a Five-County Camera Record (2018–2025)
Published: 2026-08-03
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Previous analysis of a wolf-enriched extract of the Snapshot Wisconsin camera network for five northwestern counties (Barron, Burnett, Bayfield, Douglas, and Sawyer; 525 cameras, 294,031 camera-days, 634,214 detections, 2018–2025; 1,856 wolf detections on 197 cameras) established patterns in the way gray wolves (Canis lupus) follow, select which class of deer to follow, and how strongly they [...]
A modeling lens on landscapes-of-peril and other ecological drivers of zoonoses
Published: 2026-07-31
Subjects: Animal Diseases, Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences
Ecological systems are driven by a complex suite of environmental conditions, interactions among individuals, and reciprocal behavioral and biological responses of organisms to the ecosystems they inhabit. Individuals may, in turn, reshape those systems, generating feedback that alters the ecological drivers influencing subsequent system dynamics. Extractive and competitive processes are embedded [...]
Patterns of Gray Wolf and White-tailed Deer Movement: Local, County and Regional Camera-trap Data (2018-2025)
Published: 2026-07-31
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is the apex predator of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), but on a single restored site it can be too rare to study. A year-round survey of about ten cameras at nine fixed stations on an approximately 100-ha prairie–savanna complex located within Washburn County, Wisconsin, yielded too few wolf detections over three years (11,473 animal detections, 2024–2026) [...]
GLYPTEMYS INSCULPTA (Wood Turtle) PREDATION.
Published: 2026-07-29
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Glyptemys insculpta is a semi-aquatic emydid turtle native to the midwestern and northeastern United States and eastern Canada. This species is imperiled across much of its range and is legally protected in all states and provinces where it occurs. In this report, we document G. insculpta egg predation by Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii (Prairie Deer Mouse), which occurred within a two-week period [...]
Retrospective Analysis of Habitat Selection by Boreal Caribou in the Prince Albert Greater Ecosystem, Saskatchewan, Canada
Published: 2026-07-22
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology
Recent caribou research in Saskatchewan has focused on faecal DNA analyses, which provide valuable information on caribou population size and connectivity but limited information on habitat use and selection. The delineation of Caribou Habitat Management Areas (CHMAs) and associated tiered management objectives are based in part on habitat potential mapping derived from an expert-based model. [...]
Quiet stewardship and deer return times: sound continuity, not fuel, predicts white-tailed deer avoidance of stewardship machines in a multi-year steward-conducted camera census
Published: 2026-07-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Recreation and routine land management can alter wildlife behavior even where they do not reduce abundance, and the acoustic component of human activity is difficult to isolate from human presence itself. Within a single restored prairie–savanna, the same trail network is worked on foot, on a silent electric utility vehicle (UTV), and behind gas engines (a gas ATV and a mower), with all vehicle [...]
Phantom decoys cause irrational choice in lizards
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Choice theory generally predicts that individuals act to maximize their benefits and behave according to simple rationality assumptions. However, the predictions of choice theory are often violated when an additional option is added to a choice set leading to a shift in choice between the original options. While this “decoy effect” has been documented across several animal taxa, it has not been [...]
From a review to the field: Alternative coping styles under urbanisation
Published: 2026-07-06
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Endocrinology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physiology, Population Biology, Systems and Integrative Physiology Life Sciences, Zoology
Under human-induced rapid environmental changes, behavioural and physiological responses of organisms are key to maintain homeostasis and minimise fitness loss. Both responses can be integrated, into among-individual correlations forming stress-coping styles or syndromes (SCS). Such SCS emerge from genetic correlations or adaptive trade-offs. In the context of environmental challenges, more [...]
Bridging nutritional geometry and network ecology to quantify the robustness of nutritional networks
Published: 2026-07-01
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Nutrition, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Understanding the robustness and resilience of ecological networks is key to managing ecosystems and mitigating biodiversity loss. Simple models of network robustness simulate species losses across ecological networks but lack physiological realism, asserting that species persist if they interact with another organism. This neglects the nutritional consequences of resource loss and nutrition as a [...]
An individual-based model for white storks (Ciconia ciconia) in Germany during breeding season
Published: 2026-06-26
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Ornithology
Understanding how habitat selection influences individual fitness is essential for predicting species responses to environmental change. Resource Selection Functions (RSFs) are widely used to quantify habitat preferences, but they often overlook individual variation and rarely link habitat use to demographic outcomes. We combined empirical habitat-selection modelling with a spatially explicit [...]
Natural history models of bird–building collisions
Published: 2026-06-25
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Building collisions kill an estimated 1.28–5.19 billion birds annually in North America, making them the second leading cause of human-related avian mortality. Yet the behavioral and ecological drivers of collisions remain difficult to disentangle, as most knowledge derives from carcass surveys rather than direct observations. Here, we propose a conceptual framework that synthesizes four natural [...]
Beyond mistakes: same-sex partner acceptance and broad mating filters coexist in termite pairing
Published: 2026-06-24
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution
Same-sex sexual behavior is often interpreted either as a mistake arising from indiscriminate attempts or as an adaptive behavior directed towards same-sex partners. These explanations are typically considered mutually exclusive. Here we challenge this assumption using an adaptive same-sex pairing system in Reticulitermes termites. Long-term male-male pairings originate from tandem running, in [...]