Ecological and behavioural factors affecting philopatry and life history patterns of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) in the southern Alberta prairie region
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The personality of an individual greatly influences its fitness. Yet, most conclusions about fitness, are often drawn from a population level perspective. In this thesis, I underline the importance of studying personality in behavioural ecology, and conservation. This thesis is the product of three years of research into personality, philopatry, and the life-history of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris), occurring in the extreme southern region of Alberta. My research methodology involved a hybrid approach, incorporating both my Métis-Indigenous way of exploring, and experiments drawn from standardized methodologies of western science. This thesis represents the first detailed study of yellow-bellied marmots living within the prairie ecozone of southern Alberta Canada; one of the most northern ranges of this species. In Chapter 1, I present my observational findings of ecology and general life history patterns of this species as it occurs in this region. In chapter 2, I present my investigation into whether personality and sex of individual yellow-bellied marmots living in this region, play a significant role in philopatry; the tendency of individual offspring to remain within their natal home. The experiments revealed consistent response of individual marmots across a variety of situations representing an anti-predator context. However, the only factor found to have an effect on philopatry, was the sex of individuals. I end with a summary of my results and recommendations for future research.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".