Alasdair Veitch - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Alasdair Veitch

Abstract Wolves in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago face several challenges to persistence: a hars... more Abstract Wolves in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago face several challenges to persistence: a harsh habitat, an unstable prey base, and potentially significant anthropo-genic influences. These external factors, if combined with genetic constraints common to island populations, could ...

Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2012

ABSTRACT We studied the presence of linear enamel hypoplasias (LEHs; tooth defects associated wit... more ABSTRACT We studied the presence of linear enamel hypoplasias (LEHs; tooth defects associated with physiological stress) in caribou (Rangifer tarandus). A timeline of tooth enamel development was determined by radiographic examination of 48 mandibles from caribou aged 3–24 months old. We examined mandibles from the Bluenose East (n = 56) and Bluenose West (n = 15) caribou herds in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada, for LEHs and 21.1% (15/71) were affected. We concluded that LEHs do occur in caribou and tracking these over time may provide a tool to track population dynamics in extant wildlife. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.

Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) are the least studied ungulate species that occurs in the No... more Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) are the least studied ungulate species that occurs in the Northwest Territories. The distribution of goats in the territory - both historically and at present - is limited to the lower half of the 130,000 km 2 Mackenzie Mountains between the Yukon-NWT border and the east edge of the range, including a portion of Nahanni National

Mammal Study, 2005

Beringia is the region spanning eastern Asia and northwestern North America that remained ice-fre... more Beringia is the region spanning eastern Asia and northwestern North America that remained ice-free during the full glacial events of the Pleistocene. Numerous questions persist regarding the importance of this region in the evolution of northern faunas. Beringia has been implicated as both a high latitude refugium and as the crossroads (Bering Land Bridge) of the northern continents for boreal mammals. The Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP) is an international collaboration that has provided material to assess the pattern and timing of faunal exchange across the crossroads of the northern continents and the potential impact of past climatic events on differentiation. Mammals and associated parasite specimens have been collected and preserved from more than 200 field sites in eastern Russia, Alaska and northwestern Canada since 1999. Previously, fossils and taxonomic comparisons between Asia and North America mammals have shed light on these events. Molecular phylogenetics based on BCP specimens is now being used to trace the history of faunal exchange and diversification. We have found substantial phylogeographic structure in the Arctic and in Beringia in mustelid carnivores, arvicoline rodents, arctic hares and soricine shrews, including spatially concordant clades and contact zones across taxa that correspond to the edges of Beringia. Among the tapeworms of these mammalian hosts, new perspectives on diversity have also been developed. Arostrilepis horrida (Hymenolepididae) was considered to represent a single widespread and morphologically variable species occurring in a diversity of voles and lemmings in eastern and western Beringia and more broadly across the Holarctic region. The BCP has demonstrated a complex of at least 10 species that are poorly differentiated morphologically. The diversity of Paranoplocephala spp. and Anolocephaloides spp. (Anoplocephalidae) in Beringia included relatively few widespread and morphologically variable species in arvicolines. BCP collections have changed this perspective, allowing the recognition of a series of highly endemic species of Paranoplocephala that demonstrate very narrow host specificity, and additional species complexes among arvicolines. Thus, extensive, previously unrecognized, diversity for tapeworms of 2 major families characterizes the Beringian fauna. By elucidating evolutionary relationships and phylogeographic variation among populations, species and assemblages, refined views of the sequence and timing of biotic expansion, geographic colonization and impact of episodic climate change have been developed for Beringia. Ultimately, Beringia was a determining factor in the structure and biogeography of terrestrial faunas across the Nearctic and Neotropical regions during the Pliocene and Quaternary.

Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus moschatus) on the northwestern mainland of Nunavut and Northwest Terri... more Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus moschatus) on the northwestern mainland of Nunavut and Northwest Territories, Canada, are infected with the protostrongylid lungworm, Umingmak- strongylus pallikuukensis. The geographic range of this muskox population is expanding to the south and west, and it is anticipated that these animals will eventually become sympatric with Dall's sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) in the Mackenzie and Richardson Mountains.

Fresh, intact carcasses of 2 adult Dall's sheep ( Ovis dalli dalli ) ewes were recovered from... more Fresh, intact carcasses of 2 adult Dall's sheep ( Ovis dalli dalli ) ewes were recovered from the northern Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories on 11 June and 25 July 1999. Both ewes were emaciated and post mortem examinations demonstrated severe, subacute to chronic, fibrino-purulent bronchopneumonia, with bacterial septicaemia in the first ewe. Gross and histological lesions along the dorso-caudal borders

The American Naturalist, 2009

potheses were rejected. Our results link transcontinental variation in species interactions to an... more potheses were rejected. Our results link transcontinental variation in species interactions to an abiotic environmental driver, fire. Intakes of defense toxins by Alaskan hares exceed those by Wisconsin hares, suggesting that the proposed selection mosaic may coincide with a geographic mosaic of coevolution.

Parasites & Vectors, 2012

Background: Onchocerca cervipedis is a filarioid nematode of cervids reported from Central Americ... more Background: Onchocerca cervipedis is a filarioid nematode of cervids reported from Central America to boreal regions of North America. It is found primarily in subcutaneous tissues of the legs, and is more commonly known as 'legworm'. Blackflies are intermediate hosts and transmit larvae to ungulates when they blood-feed. In this article we report the first records of O. cervipedis from high latitudes of North America and its occurrence in previously unrecognized host subspecies including the Yukon-Alaska moose (Alces americanus gigas) and the Grant's caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti).

Oecologia, 2001

Page 1. Abstract Examining both spatial and temporal variation can provide insights into populati... more Page 1. Abstract Examining both spatial and temporal variation can provide insights into population limiting factors. We investigated the relative spatial and temporal changes in range use and mortality within the Red Wine Mountains ...

The Journal of Wildlife Management, 1999

Page 1. DEMOGRAPHY OF DECLINE OF THE RED WINE MOUNTAINS CARIBOU HERD JAMES A. SCHAEFER,&a... more Page 1. DEMOGRAPHY OF DECLINE OF THE RED WINE MOUNTAINS CARIBOU HERD JAMES A. SCHAEFER,&amp;#x27;2 Department of Forest Resources &amp;amp; Agrifoods, Wildlife Division, PO Box 3014, Station B, Goose Bay, NF AOP ...

Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 2000

In fall 1991, a radio-collared black bear (Ursus americanus) in northern Labrador (Canada) died f... more In fall 1991, a radio-collared black bear (Ursus americanus) in northern Labrador (Canada) died from valvular endocarditis caused by coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus, with widespread dissemination of the infection to other organs shortly before death. Apparently, this is the first reported case of bacterial valvular endocarditis in a wild black bear.

Veterinary Parasitology, 2009

Climate change is influencing the structure and function of natural ecosystems around the world, ... more Climate change is influencing the structure and function of natural ecosystems around the world, including host–parasite interactions and disease emergence. Understanding the influence of climate change on infectious disease at temperate and tropical latitudes can be challenging because of numerous complicating biological, social, and political factors. Arctic and Subarctic regions may be particularly good models for unraveling the impacts of

Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2008

Conservation …, 2008

Wolves in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago face several challenges to persistence: a harsh habitat... more Wolves in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago face several challenges to persistence: a harsh habitat, an unstable prey base, and potentially significant anthropo-genic influences. These external factors, if combined with genetic constraints common to island populations, could ...

… Journal of Zoology, 2007

... tarandus tarandus (L., 1758), Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788) et Rangifer tarandus g... more ... tarandus tarandus (L., 1758), Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788) et Rangifer tarandus grantii (Allen, 1902)), de boeufs musqués (Ovibos moschatus moschatus (Zimmermann, 1780) et Ovibos moschatus wardi Lydekker, 1900) et d&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;or-ignaux (Alces alces gigas Miller ...

EcoHealth, 2009

Many northern Canadians have continued a subsistence lifestyle of wildlife harvesting and, theref... more Many northern Canadians have continued a subsistence lifestyle of wildlife harvesting and, therefore, value sustainable wildlife populations. At a regional wildlife workshop in the Sahtu Settlement Area, Northwest Territories in 2002, elders and community leaders raised concerns regarding wildlife health, food safety, and the effects of climate change on wildlife. They requested that efforts be put toward training youth in science and increasing involvement of hunters and youth in wildlife research. In response, we initiated a long-term, integrated approach to foster community-based wildlife health monitoring and research. Annual trips were made to all schools in the Sahtu from 2003 to 2009 to provide hands-on learning for 250-460 students on a range of wildlife topics. In addition, interviews were conducted with 31 hunters and elders to document their local ecological knowledge of wildlife health and local hunters were trained as monitors to collect tissue samples and measurements to assess body condition and monitor health of harvested caribou (n = 69) and moose (n = 19). In 2007 the program was extended to include participation in the annual caribou hunt held by one community. Each year since 2005, a graduate student and/or a postdoctoral trainee in the veterinary or biological sciences has participated in the program. The program has evolved during the last 6 years in response to community and school input, results of empirical research, hunter feedback, local knowledge, and logistical constraints. The continuity of the program is attributed to the energetic collaboration among diverse partners and a unified approach that responds to identified needs.

Molecular identification of dorsal-spined larvae (DSL) from fecal samples indicates that the prot... more Molecular identification of dorsal-spined larvae (DSL) from fecal samples indicates that the protostrongylid parasite Parelaphostrongylus odocoilei occupies a broader geographic range in western North America than has been previously reported. We analyzed 2,124 fecal samples at 29 locations from thinhorn sheep (Ovis dalli dalli and O. d. stonei), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis and O. c. californiana), mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus), woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus), and black-tailed deer (O. h. columbianus). The DSL were recovered from populations of thinhorn sheep south, but not north, of the Arctic Circle, and they were not recovered from any of the bighorn sheep populations that we examined. In total, DSL were recovered from 20 locations in the United States and Canada (Alaska, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta, and California). The DSL were identified as P. odocoilei by comparing sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) region of ribosomal RNA among 9 protostrongylid species validated by adult comparative morphology. The ITS2 sequences were markedly different between Parelaphostrongylus and other protostrongylid genera. Smaller fixed differences served as diagnostic markers for the 3 species of Parelaphostrongylus. The ITS2 sequences (n ϭ 60) of P. odocoilei were strongly conserved across its broad geographic range from California to Alaska. Polymorphism at 5 nucleotide positions was consistent with multiple copies of the ITS2 within individual specimens of P. odocoilei. This work combines extensive fecal surveys, comparative morphology, and molecular diagnostic techniques to describe comprehensively the host associations and geographic distribution of a parasitic helminth.