Welcome! edit

Hello, EWool101, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:50, 8 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

EWool101 (talk) 19:50, 8 March 2016 (UTC)Reply


Wiki Prep

On the talk page of the Caribou article, there’s a detailed discussion on why the article was spilt into two to distinguish the difference between caribou and reindeer. It’s still slightly ongoing. There’s a nice bit in the article about countercurrent heat exchange, however besides that there isn't too much on reproductive physiology or about seasonal changes. Something to note about the main article is that a few of the sections don't belong under the headers, such as migration and range under the size heading. Also, this same section could be combined in the ecology heading with the distribution and habitat section. There seems to be a good amount of contributors to the topic, the article itself is fairly long too.

Under the history of the article, there are a lot of citation edits as well as grammar and fact checking edits on certain numbers. There was a fairly recent addition on female Caribou nutrition as well. EWool101 (talk) 14:02, 25 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

edit

EWool101 (talk) 15:26, 11 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hi Emilee, please add here to your evaluation by commenting on the history of the caribou article. I will assign you the caribou article for your wiki work this semester.Rico.schultz (talk) 18:30, 18 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

Added piece in Fish Physiology on temperature tolerance EWool101 (talk) 19:34, 4 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

Emilee, you need to move you draft contribution from your sandbox to here, your user talk page, so that taxon teammates can see it. you need to add one more reference for full credit. Also it would be best to format citations and references correctly so that we can see what it will look like when you publish it.Rico.schultz (talk) 17:30, 26 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

Fixed it below, sorry! EWool101 (talk) 19:04, 26 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

edit

Draft

Due to their environment, caribou have developed adaptions and methods for efficiency during the warm months as well as for warmth during the cold months. The body composition of caribou varies highly with the seasons. [1]

The environmental variations play a large part in their nutrition, as winter nutrition is crucial to adult and neonatal survival rates[2]. Lichens are a staple during the winter months as they’re a readily available food source, which reduces the reliance on stored body reserves. Despite lichens being a crucial part in the diet of all caribou, they are less prevalent in the diet of pregnant caribou compared to non-pregnant individuals. This is in part because although lichens are high in carbohydrates, they are lacking in protein that vascular plants provide[3]. It was shown that the amount of lichen in a diet decreased with increasing latitude. Nutritional stress is highest where lichen abundance was low. Lichen abundance is more closely related to adult survivorship than pregnancy itself.

Breeding females have more body mass than nonbreeding females between the months of March and September with a difference of about 10kg. However, in the November-December, nonbreeding females have more body mass than the breeding females. Body masses of both breeding and non-breeding females peaked in September. During the March-April reading, breeding females have more fat mass than the nonbreeding females with a difference of almost 3kg. After this however, every reading afterwards showed that the nonbreeding females had more fat mass than the breeding females.[4]

I think it would be more effective to make overall statements about caribou instead of referring to specific studies that have been done particularly in the second paragraph. I also think you could tie all of the information together better - RAS — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rachelsmiley (talkcontribs) 17:55, 27 April 2016 (UTC)Reply


Updated Draft

Caribou have developed adaptions for optimal metabolic efficiency during warm months as well as for during cold months.[5] The body composition of caribou varies highly with the seasons. Of particular interest is the body composition and diet of breeding and non-breeding females between seasons. Breeding females have more body mass than non-breeding females between the months of March and September with a difference of around 10 kg more than non-breeding females. From November to December, non-breeding females have more body mass than breeding females as non-breeding females were able to focus their energies towards storage during colder months rather than lactation and reproduction. Body masses of both breeding and non-breeding females peaked in September. During the months of March through April, breeding females have more fat mass than the nonbreeding females with a difference of almost 3 kg. After this however, nonbreeding females on average have a higher fat mass than the breeding females.[6]

The environmental variations play a large part in caribou nutrition, as winter nutrition is crucial to adult and neonatal survival rates.[7] Lichens are a staple during the winter months as they’re a readily available food source, which reduces the reliance on stored body reserves.[8] Lichens are a crucial part of the caribou diet, however they are less prevalent in the diet of pregnant caribou compared to non-pregnant individuals. The amount of lichen in a diet is found more in non-pregnant adult diets than pregnant individuals due to the lack of nutritional value. Although lichens are high in carbohydrates, they are lacking in essential proteins that vascular plants provide. The amount of lichen in a diet decreases in latitude that results in nutritional stress being higher in areas with low lichen abundance.[9]

@EWool101: Emilee, thanks for commenting on Rachel's Mule deer contribution! Rico.schultz (talk) 16:26, 29 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

References

  1. ^ Karasov, W.H. and Martinez del Rio, C. 2007. The Chemistry and Biology of Food in Physiological Ecology: How Animals Process Energy, Nutrients, and Toxins (pp. 49-108).
  2. ^ Wilmer, Pat; Stone, Graham; Johnston, Ian (2009). Environmental Physiology of Animals. Wiley. pp. 645-663. ISBN 9781405107242.
  3. ^ Joly, K., Wasser, S. K., & Booth, R. 2015. Non-invasive assessment of the interrelationships of diet, pregnancy rate, group composition, and physiological and nutritional stress of barren-ground caribou in late winter. PLOS ONE, 10(6).
  4. ^ Allaye Chan-McLeod AC, White RG, Russell DE. 1999. Comparative body composition strategies of breeding and nonbreeding female caribou. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 77(12): 1901-1907
  5. ^ Karasov, W.H. and Martinez del Rio, C. 2007. The Chemistry and Biology of Food in Physiological Ecology: How Animals Process Energy, Nutrients, and Toxins (pp. 49-108).
  6. ^ Allaye Chan-McLeod AC, White RG, Russell DE. 1999. Comparative body composition strategies of breeding and nonbreeding female caribou. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 77(12): 1901-1907
  7. ^ Wilmer, Pat; Stone, Graham; Johnston, Ian (2009). Environmental Physiology of Animals. Wiley. pp. 645-663. ISBN 9781405107242.
  8. ^ Allaye Chan-McLeod AC, White RG, Russell DE. 1999. Comparative body composition strategies of breeding and nonbreeding female caribou. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 77(12): 1901-1907
  9. ^ Joly, K., Wasser, S. K., & Booth, R. 2015. Non-invasive assessment of the interrelationships of diet, pregnancy rate, group composition, and physiological and nutritional stress of barren-ground caribou in late winter. PLOS ONE, 10(6).

Feedback edit

Nice work on your draft. I made a small copyedit in keeping with Wikipedia's style guide - references go after punctuation, not before, and there isn't supposed to be a space between them. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:43, 3 May 2016 (UTC)Reply