University of Wyoming Open Journals
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How Conifer Diversity and Availability Influence the Abundance and Biology of the Red Crossbill
No full textIn order to understand the distributions and abundances of animals, many environmental factors must be considered, particularly the availability of food resources. Food resources are especially important to nomadic species that move in response to the spatial and temporal availability of these specific food resources that are critical to their survival. An example of such nomadic species is the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), which specializes on conifer seeds, a resource that significantly varies both temporally and geographically. Thus, crossbills will move large distances each year to find areas with abundant conifer seeds. While conifer seeds impact the distribution, abundance, and reproductive rate of crossbills, it is likely not the only factor driving these patterns. To truly understand what drives the distribution and abundance of crossbills across North America, further study is needed not only on how external environmental factors such as food abundance affect these patterns, but how tradeoffs among internal physiological processes such as reproduction and survival related processes such as immune function may affect when crossbills irruptively migrate or whether or not reproduction occurs. Historically, research to understand how organisms orchestrate their annual cycles with respect to these costly and conflicting physiological processes has focused narrowly on seasonal breeders that constrain reproduction to times of year when thermoregulatory demand is low (i.e., summer), which provide limited opportunities to reveal how physiological costs of different processes may interact with environmental conditions to influence the evolution of investment strategies. In this study, we are examining how the diversity, abundance, and size of cone crop of conifers influence both 1) the quantity and diversity of red crossbills, as well as 2) their seasonal modulation in investment patterns in reproduction and self-maintenance processes such as immune function in Grand Teton National Park, where crossbills can be found breeding in both summer and winter. Preliminary results from this study have indicated that both conifer diversity and cone crop size affect overall quantity and vocal type diversity of crossbills in Grand Teton National Park, as well as affecting their investment in reproduction and immunity. Overall, results from this study will provide information on how species in general and crossbills, specifically, respond to rapidly changing environments, which has become increasingly important in light of the effects of anthropogenic change
Jackson Hole Wildlife Park: An Experiment to Bridge Tourism and Conservation
No full textFrom a vantage point on a rise above the Snake River, the valley below is shrouded in darkness. A faint glow on the eastern horizon heralds the dawn. The only sound comes from the river as water gurgles over rocks and other impediments. As the sky grows brighter, the shadows in the valley begin to take form, revealing numerous small streams that braid through dense thickets of willows and other shrubbery before returning to the main river channel. Small dark shapes dart among the trees and shrubs, filling the air with a variety of birdsongs. As the rising sun gradually illuminates the valley a herd of elk rise, one-by-one, in a distant meadow and begin grazing on the spring grasses. Moments later a cow moose and her calf emerge from behind the willows at the waterâs edge, scattering the birds. This area, with its mosaic of habitats, teems with wildlife. It is not surprising, then, that this upper part of Jackson Hole became the chosen site for the Jackson Hole Wildlife Park (JHWP) and became the Parkâs main animal viewing area for tourists and scientists alike
Old Faithful Visitorâs Center Exhibit Observation Study
No full textThis report was a result of volunteer research orchestrated by Katy Duffy, Interpretive Planner, Yellowstone National Park. The data collection was a direct need for grant compliance for the National Science Foundation associated with exhibits for the new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, which opened to the public in August, 2006. The objective of this research was to understand visitor interaction with these exhibits using an unobtrusive form of data collection
Pictorialism in the American West
No full textEarly twentieth century (1900-1945) photography of northwestern Wyoming (including the Teton and Yellowstone areas) fits into a paradigm of regional photographic production that either conforms to the documentary or pictorial aesthetics most common in the era. Pictorial photography, especially, links the region to larger trends in the nation and can be analyzed to uncover previously unexamined assumptions about the value of photographic aesthetics and regional production within the milieu of fine art photography in the United States prior to WWII
Extremal Laplacian-energy-like invariant of graphs with given matching number
No full textLet G be a graph of order n with Laplachian spectrum μ1 ≥ μ2 ≥ · · · ≥ μn. The Laplacian-energy like invariant of graph G, LEL for short, is defined as: LEL(G) = . In this note, the extremal (maximal and minimal) LEL among all the connected graphs with given matching number is determined. The corresponding extremal graphs are completely characterized with respect to LEL. Moreover a relationship between LEL and the independence number is presented in this note. 
Numerical ranges of quadratic operators in spaces with an indefinte metric
No full textThe numerical range of a quadratic operator acting on an indefinite inner product space is shown to have a hyperbolic shape. This result is extended to different kinds of indefinite numerical ranges, namely, indefinite higher rank numberical ranges and indefinite Davis-Wielandt shells. 
