CANDIDATES FOR 2005 ELECTION OF OFFICERS

 Second President-elect:

Molly R. Morris, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

Hugh Drummond, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico DF

Executive Editor:

Bill Searcy, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Mike Breed, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

Treasurer:

Phil Stoddard, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, F, USA

Jim Ha, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Junior Program Officer:

Diana Hews, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, USA

Member at Large:

Dario Maestripieri, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

John Eadie, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

Additional nominations may be made by letter to the 2005-06 Nominating Committee Chair, Ken Yasukawa, Department of Biology, Beloit College, 700 College St., Beloit, WI 53511 USA. Email: yasukawa@beloit.edu

Nominations must be signed by five or more ABS members in good standing (ABS Constitution, Article 8, Section 2) and must be received by 1 October 2005.

Note: Information on the candidates will be posted with the ballot in the November newsletter (posted first at http ://www.animalbehavior.org/ News and Announcements link at left))

2005 ANNUAL Meeting A SUCCESS!

The Annual Meeting of the Animal Behavior Society at Snowbird, Utah, 6-10 August, was highly successful with approximately 450 attendees. Jim Ha did a splendid job organizing the meeting. Thank you Jim and your family members, friends, students and Snowbird staff who assisted you.

AWARD PRESENTATIONS

Awards announced in prior years are sometimes presented in subsequent years at the annual meeting. Two such awards were present at the Snowbird 2005 meeting: Donald Dewsbury for Distinguished Service and the Quest Award to Gerald Wilkinson for his seminal research on reciprocity in vampire bats

Donald Dewsbury, University of Florida, with his 2002-2003   Distinguished Service award for sustained service contributions to the Animal Behavior Society:

Gerald Wilkinson (right)  receiving Quest Award from Ken Yasukawa

2005 AWARDS

ABS awards are presented on the final night of the annual meeting at the banquet. The following awards were announced on August 10, 2005.

Allee: BEST STUDENT PAPER 2005

There were 22 participants in the 2005 Warder Clyde Allee Student Paper Session at the annual ABS meetings in Snowbird, UT, this year.   All gave excellent talks and the session was very well attended, as usual.   The Allee Award was made to Christopher Leary from the University of Oklahoma for his paper, "Hormonal mediation of a condition-dependent sexually-selected trait: stress, attractiveness, and sexually-parasitic male toads."  Two honorable mentions were   also recognized: Alan H. Krakauer from the University of California, Berkeley, who presented "Brotherly love: kin  selection explains cooperative courtship in wild turkeys"  and Debra M. Shier from the University of California, Davis, for  "Family support increases the success of translocated prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus)."   The Allee Awards are generously supported by donations from Princeton University Press, University of Chicago Press, Harvard University Press, Sinauer Associates, and MIT Press. The Animal Behavior Society is grateful for their support.   Judges were Susan Foster, Mike Beecher, Janis Dickinson, Robert Gibson, and Doug Mock.

Allee Awards (left to right): Christopher Leary, Alan H. Krakauer and Debra Shier.

Founders’ Memorial Poster Award

Each year a poster competition, named for a founder of the Animal Behavior Society, is held at the annual meeting. (“ A founder is defined as a person active in the   period prior to 1966 who held at least two administrative positions, elected or appointed, in ABS or the ESA Section on Animal Behavior and Sociobiology or the ASZ Division of Animal Behavior as recorded by the ABS Historian.”) This year 16 posters were entered in the competition honoring William S. Verplanckk (See below). The best poster award went to Kendra Sewall, University of California Davis, on “Discrimination of group specific signals in red crossbills.” Honorable Mention was awarded to Alexandra Hernandez, University of Ontario, on “Experience with local geographic song mediates song preferences in female song sparrows” and Chih-YuanChuang, Tunghai University, on “Nocturnal predator attract prey with visual lure.” Steve Nowicki, Duke University, Regina Macedo, Universidade de Brasília, Vladimir Pravosudov, University of Nevada Reno, and Jan Randall, San Francisco State University judged this year’s competition.

William S. Verplank (1916-2002)  a comparative psychologist recognized for contributions to behavioral theory; language, animal behavior and as a founder of the Psychonomic Society

DISTINGUISHED TEACHER AWARD 2005

George Waring received the Distinguished Teacher Award, judged by the Education Committee, for his highly effective and innovative teaching and his reputation among peers and students for excellence in educating people about animal behavior. George is one of the Founders of the Animal Behavior Society. Culminating his long and prestigious career at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, was an award from the College of Science of Outstanding Teacher in 2005. His textbook, Horse Behavior, has been popular for several years, resulting in a 2 nd edition in 2003. Also nominated for this award were Sylvia Halkin and Anne Clark.

Genesis Award for the Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation 2005

The GenesisAward was first awarded in 2000 and honors the best undergraduate poster, in addition to recognizing all undergraduates presenting posters at the annual meeting. The award for the best undergraduate research poster at the annual ABS meeting in Snowbird Utah, August 2005 was presented to Jennifer Hamel, “Lil ‘ Click-zipper: a new song morph in the Amblycorypha rotundifolia complex (Katydids),”  University of North Carolina, Asheville, Honerable Mention was presented to Colt Jeffy Edin, St. John’s University (co-authored by  Sarah J.  Hegg, Shawn A. Thomas, and Jerry O. Wolff) , “Do females prefer intro-versus interpopulation males?” and Mary S. Tudor, Ohio University(co-authored by Molly  R Morris, Oscar  Rios Cardenas, Natalie S. Dubois), “Mechanisms for asymmetric hybridization in swordtails.” Judges included Garrison Smith, Sue Margulis, Denise Pope, and Cathy Bevier

CALL FOR SYMPOSIA

FOR THE 2007 AAAS MEETING

ABS is striving to expand awareness of its excellent science via symposia for the annual AAAS meeting. The target date for the next symposium is February 2007 at a location to be announced. Anyone interested in organizing a symposium for the meeting please contact Jan Randall at jrandall@sfsu.edu .

Genesis award presented to Jennifer Hamel by President Ken Yasukawa

ABS CAREER AWARDS

Presented at the 2005 ABS meeting in Snowbird Utah by Past President Jeff Galef

Distinguished Animal Behaviorist –  Robert Trivers , Rutgers University, was recognized for his outstanding life-time achievement and contribution   to new theories and ideas about natural selection and evolution of social behavior.

Exemplar AWARD – Steve Emlen , Cornell University, was awarded the Exemplar Award for his long-term and significant contributions to animal behavior including his work on orientation and navigation, mating systems, and the adaptive significance of social behavior.

Quest – Carl Gerhardt , University of Missouri— Columbia, was awarded the Quest award for his seminal research on the neurobiological control and evolution of acoustic communication and sexual selection in frogs..

Young Investigator - Kevin McGraw , Arizona State University, for his original research on  the control and function of animal colors.

Distinguished Contribution - MikeBeecher, University of Washington, for sustained contribution to ABS as editor, president, Allee Award judge and committee service.

ABS Children's Book Award

Winner of the Children's Book Award 2005 was “Lupe: A Wolf Pup’s First Year,” written by Rebecca L. Grambo (photography by Daniel J. Cox, Published by Walrus Books - an imprint of Whitecap Books ).   Other finalists (in alphabetical order by title): “Animal Groups: How animals live together” (written by Etta Kaner and illustrated by Pat Stephens, Published by Kids Can Press), “Baby Ground Squirrel” (written by Aubrey Lang, photography by Wayne Lynch, Published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside) “ Rain, Rain, Rain Forest” (written by Brenda Z. Guiberson and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, Published by Henry Holt and Company). Judging 60 titles submitted by 19 publishers were Paul Switzer, chair and Chris Cratsley, Abby Schwarz, Becky Talyn. as well as about 150 school children from several different schools. Submitted books will be donated to grade school libraries and nature centers. The publisher receives a certificate of recognition and a "logo" that can be used to advertise the book

2005 ABS FILM FESTIVAL

The winner of the 22 nd Annual Film Festival for the best commercial film of 2005 was "Elephas maximus: The Biology and Conservation of the Asian Elephant" Produced by Michael Noonan, Nathan Johnson, and Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation. The winner of the Jack Ward Memorial Film Competition (non-commercial category) was "Walking with Ghosts" Produced by Carolyn Underwood, Michael Allder, and Bullfrog Films. This year's judges were Barbara Clucas, University of California at Davis, Marianne Engle, Muskingum College, Todd Freeberg, University of Tennessee, Terry Ord, University of California at Davis, Vladimir Pravosudov, University of Nevada Reno and David White, University of Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2005 Latin American Travel Grants, which help defray the costs of housing and meals at ABS meetings.   This year's awards for travel to the Snowbird meeting were received by Daniel Paz Decanini and Carolina Bernardo from Universidade de Brasilia. We thank reviewers of the proposals, Ann Hedrick, Jan Randall and Lynette Hart.

DIRECTION OF CORRESPONDENCE

ABS Newsletter and general correspondence concerning the Society should be sent to Jan A. Randall, jrandall@sfsu.edu.. Deadlines are the 15th of the month preceding each Newsletter. The next deadline is 15 October 2005. Articles submitted by members of the Society and judged by the Secretary to be appropriate are occasionally published in the ABS newsletter. The publication of such material does not imply ABS endorsement of the opinions expressed by contributors.

Animal Behavior Society Web Site: http://www.animalbehavior.org/

Animal Behaviour, manuscripts and editorial matters: Animal Behavior Editorial Office, Indiana University, 2611 East 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47408-2603, USA. Email: aboffice@indiana.edu, Phone (812) 856-5541. Fax (812) 856-5542.

Change of Address, missing or defective issues: Animal Behavior Society, Indiana  University, 2611 East 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47408-2603, USA. Email: aboffice@indiana.edu, Phone (812) 856-5541. Fax (812) 856-5542.

ABS OFFICERS

President: Stephen Nowicki, Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0325 USA. E-mail: snowicki@duke.edu.

First President-elect:  Douglas Mock, Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK   73019, Phone: (405)325-2751, E-mail: dmock@ou.edu

Second President-elect: Gerald Wilkinson, Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742. email: wilkinso@umd.edu

Past President: Ken Yasukawa, Department of Biology, Beloit College, 700 College St., Beloit, WI 53511 USA. Email: yasukawa@beloit.edu

Treasurer: Lee Drickamer, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona State University, Flagstaff AZ, Email: Lee.Drickamer@nau.edu

Secretary: Jan A. Randall, Department of Biology,   San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA   94132 USA. E-mail: jrandall@sfsu.edu

Program Officer: Jennifer Fewell, Department of Biology, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287, E-mail:   j.fewell@asu.edu  

Junior Program Officer: TBA in January 2006

Parliamentarian: Jill Marie Mateo,    University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA    Phone:   (773) 834-9848, E-mail:   jmateo@uchicago.edu

Executive Editor: George Uetz, Department of Biological Sciences, ML006, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0006, Email: uetzgw@email.uc.edu

Members-at-Large:

Lynette A.   Hart, Department of Population Health and Reproduction, and Director, UC Center for Animal Alternatives, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, E-mail: lahart@ucdavis.edu

Chris Evans, Animal Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109, Australia, Phone: 61 (0)2 9850 9230, E-mail: chris@galliform.psy.mq.edu.au,

Regina H. Macedo, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília 70910-900 - Brasília - DF – Brasil, Phone:   +55-61-307-2265, E-mail: rhfmacedo@unb.br

Historian: Donald Dewsbury, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Email: dewsbury@ufl.edu.

NOTICE!

Issues of the ABS Newsletter are published first on the ABS Webpage. To get ABS news fast, point your browser to: http://www.animalbehavior.org/ and select News and Announcements from the left menu

Standing Committee and Subcommittee Chairs

Animal Care: Todd M. Freeberg, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN   37996, Phone: (865) 974-3975, E-mail: tfreeber@utk.edu

Web Policy: Shan D. Duncan, Indiana University, c/o Animal Behavior Society 2611 East 10th St No 170, Bloomington, Indiana 47408 USA    Phone:   (812) 856-5541   E-mail:   sdduncan@indiana.edu

Conservation: Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C.   Center for Avian Cognition, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska USA.   pazymino@unlserve.unl.edu  

Nomination: Bennett G. Galef, Jr., Dept. of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada. E-mail: galef@mcmaster.ca

Education: Penny L. Bernstein,    Kent State University Stark Campus 6000 Frank Avenue, Canton, Ohio 44720, Phone: (330) 499-9600, E-mail:   pbernstein@stark.kent.edu

Film: Todd M. Freeberg, Department of Psychology,

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN   37996, Phone: (865) 974-3975, E-mail: tfreeber@utk.edu

Issues in Applied Animal Behavior: Dr. Suzanne Hetts,   Animal Behavior Associates, 4994 S Independence Way, Littleton, Colorado 80123-1906, E-mail: Suzanne@AnimalBehaviorAssociates.com

Development: Ira B. Perelle, Mercy College, Patterson, New York 12563,    Phone:   (845) 279-9074, E-mail:   IBP1@aol.com

Public Affairs: Unfilled. Contact Steve Ramey, ABS Central Office, 2611 East 10 th St, Bloomington IN 47408-2603, E-mail: aboffice@indiana.edu

Board Prof. Cert. Subcom: Stephen Zawistowski, ASPCA, 424 E. 92nd St., New York, NY 10128 Phone: (212) 876-7700 ext. 4401, E-mail: stevez@aspca.org

Phone: 52(228) 8 421800 Ext: 3009, rogelio@ecologia.edu.mx

Diversity: Duane M. Jackson, Psychology, Morehouse College, Augusta, Georgia.  FAX: (404) 215-2754,   E-mail: djackson@morehouse.edu

Membership Committee: Lee C. Drickamer, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona State University, Flagstaff AZ, Email: Lee.Drickamer@nau.edu

ABS officers, committee chairs, officers elect and liaisons attending Executive Committee meeting at Snowbird August 6, 2005. (first row, left to right) Lynette Hart, Jan Randall, Regina Macedo, Jill Mateo, Jennifer Fewell, Molly Morris, Jeff Galef, Ken Yasukawa, Ira Perelle, Steve Ramey (second row, left to right) Steve Nowicki, Jerry Wilkinson, Philip Stoddard, Chris Evans, George Uetz, Lee Drickamer, Doug Mock and Shan Duncan.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETINGS

2006: 10 th – 17 th August, Snowbird, Utah

Watch the ABS website for details.

2007: 21--25 July, Burlington, Vermont

2005-2006 ABS President Steve Nowicki, on his 50 th birthday talking with his former student Denise Pope, Trinity University, at the ABS banquet . 

ARTICLES

Thoughts on Art Myrberg on hearing of his death”

By Samuel J. Ha,  Professor Emeritus

Department of Biology, Millersville University

Art Myrberg appeared at Miami about a year after I had returned to Miami to restart my graduate work. Art was brought in by Warren Wisby in 1964 as an academic/theoretical behaviorist to add expertise in a

Art Myrberg and Anne Rasa at the 1973 IEC meeting in Washington, DC.

Behavior Section he was starting within Miami’s Department of Marine Biology and Fisheries. Art’s work at Seewiesen with Konrad Lorenz had involved freshwater cichlid fish, so he had to get up to speed on maintaining saltwater fish. He got SCUBA certified and was settling in with the rest of us in our new building when Warren suddenly announced he was leaving to head the new National Aquarium in Washington (later cancelled). I’m sure Art never anticipated being burdened with responsibility for the entire group so suddenly. That group included grad students Don Nelson, Sam Gruber, Bill Herrnkind, Herb Kumpf, Skip Livingston and me as well as employees Joe Richard and Juanita Spires. He was "thrown off the deep end of the dock” to sink or swim with a bunch of outspoken graduate students, several grants needing to be renewed, budgets to deal with and his own research still in startup mode. He had to deal with space allocation in the new building and the bickering among the new tenants and later, problems in the plumbing and working out how best to operate the running seawater system of the building. I have always been very grateful to Art for the fact that he stepped in after Warren left and took on the job of helping Sonny Gruber and Don Nelson finish up their Ph.D.’s and took me on as a Master’s student. He had not participated in choosing us, but he   wholeheartedly helped us as though we were his own.   I became his first “ start to finish” graduate student.

Art also inherited Warren’s research grants with NSF for shrimp behavior, octopus behavior, Coral reef fish behavior (damselfish), and contracts with the Office of Naval Research for Research in Shark Sensory Physiology and Shark Behavior. As part of that responsibility, he had to come up to speed on grant writing, renewal writing and annual report-writing, as well as budget-managing and site-visits. He did so very quickly, as he was always a quick study when he needed to be.

Art enjoyed visits from many famous behavior people, some just passing through, others, especially from his post-doc days at Lorenz’s lab would visit for weeks, using his house as a base for touring the US. He had plenty of room at the house, kept it immaculate, and always welcomed visitors. The most memorable for me was Konrad Lorenz himself. When Konrad and his wife visited for about three weeks, he stayed at Art’s and visited the Keys and snorkeled, and many evenings, Art invited his grad students to come down to the house for a few beers and to sit and talk to and listen to, Konrad   reminiscing. We had all read Konrad’s books, of course, as part of Art’s behavior course and seminars, but to hear the man himself and to talk to him was the most memorable academic experience of my life.

A research cruise with Art was like one of his classes- intense. He started early and worked long into the night. He participated in nearly everything, conferring with the captain on locations and weather, supervising air tank filling, catching and keeping live animals when necessary, and diving for hours each day. We took turns cooking on R. V. Calanus, because the vessel did not include a cook in its crew of 2. Art took his turn, but was always happy to let someone who enjoyed cooking take his turn for him. The one area where he wasn’t so hands-on was with the electronics (we recorded and played back sounds, and recorded video for later lab analysis). I think that was because on an early research trip, while I was still a grad student, Art thought he would help out by plugging in a power unit and got the shock of his life. After that happened again, because he again hadn’t rinsed his hands with fresh water, he was happy to let me or one of the other grad students handle the electronics. In his early days as a SCUBA diver, Art used up his air in half the time of more experienced divers and always said it was because he was getting half-filled tanks. Later, when he became calmer under water, Art was really proud of his SCUBA ability, which included spending hours (up to the table limits) in the water each day, wearing out much younger grad students with his physical energy. Years later, when I had sabbatical from teaching, Art was kind enough to include me on several research trips on board R. V. Calanus and I think that we worked well together.

I made a point of attending his Distinguished Fellow lecture at the Animal Behavior Society   meeting in Davis and it was excellent, as Art’s public talks always were. Art was proud of being recognized by ABS and by other professional organizations including the American Elasmobranch Society. Art was also proud of his children, Augie and Beverly, a businessman and an attorney.

Art had a long and distinguished career at the University of   Miami and he influenced thousands of students in his courses and at scientific meetings with his presentations. I was unable to return to Miami for Art’s retirement dinner, but sent a letter of congratulation, which apparently was read to him. He sent me a letter of thanks and said he was looking forward to retirement. He was a rare and memorable individual and I am proud to have known him and glad to have had his help.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Join an ABS Committee!

Would you like to volunteer for one of the society's active committees?   This is an important and rewarding way to participate in the business of the society, and we need your help!   Committees include Membership, Policy, Animal Care, Public Affairs, Education, Film, Conservation, Latin American Affairs, and others.  

Contact ABS President Stephen Nowicki, Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0325 USA. E-mail: snowicki@duke.edu

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF LATIN AMERICAN MEETING IN XALAPA, MEXICO

The Latin American Affairs Committee (LAAC) plans to organize a regular meeting to promote ABS membership in Latin America, and to promote interaction between Latin American, US and Canadian ABS members. The meeting is proposed to be scheduled every two years in a Latin American country, under a format similar to US regional meetings (2-3 days, 80-150 people, no parallel sessions, and a poster session). Although open to all members, research topics and study sites, it should be of special interest to members living or doing field work in Latin-America, or interested in establishing collaborations between US, Canadian and Latin American researchers. Mexico has a large contingent of ABS members, and recent experience organizing the 2004 annual ABS meeting in Oaxaca. Geographically, Mexico is a natural bridge between Latin America and the rest of North America. Xalapa is a small and picturesque city in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental, surrounded by cloud forest, sixty miles from the Port of Veracruz (with connecting flights to the US). Visit http://www.xalapa.net/sitios/xalapa.htm for a quick tour. To promote attendance and to avoid competing with other meetings possible dates for the Xalapa meeting are either late April-early May or late October-early November. The organizing committee would appreciate your input sent to rogelio@ecologia.edu.mx on which of these dates would make it more likely for you or your students to attend, as well as any other suggestion. A second announcement with scheduled dates based on the input received will be posted on the ABS website and in the November newsletter.

BEKOFF WINS AWARD

Marc Bekoff has been awarded the Bank One Colorado Corporation's Faculty Community Service Award. This award recognizes his various, extensive efforts to draw attention to the plight of animals, and to inspire people to treat all animals more humanely. Marc is a local director of Jane Goodall's outreach program called Roots and Shoots, which takes programs into the public schools. Animal awareness and rights have also been major themes of Marc's extensive writing, including the books "The Ten Trusts" (with Jane Goodall), "Minding Animals", and "The Smile of a "Dolphin".

The Bank One Faculty Community Service Award is made possible by a generous endowment from the Bank One Colorado Corporation through the CU Foundation. The purpose of the endowment is to provide a single award of $10,000 annually to a full-time faculty member at one of the campuses of the University of Colorado who has rendered exceptional educational, humanitarian, civic, or other service in his or her community, external to the faculty member's primary   university responsibilities and for no additional remuneration.

OPPORTUNITIES

Notice! For funding source information see http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABS/Grants/

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

THE CETACEAN BEHAVIOR AND CONSERVATION (CBC) AWARD

 Purpose: The Cetacean Behavior and Conservation Award was established in 2001 to provide financial support for graduate students studying cetacean behavior and/or cetacean conservation in natural environments. The goal of the award is to encourage original and significant research that focuses on endangered populations or species, or on critically important problems in cetacean behavioral biology.

Award: A maximum of two awards of a maximum of $1000.00 US each will be made to successful applicants. The awarded funds may be used for travel, supplies, and/or equipment necessary to support the proposed research. Awarded funds may not be used for stipends or salary for graduate students, research assistants, or any other personnel, nor may it be used for conference expenses. The award must be used for field research; it cannot be used for laboratory research. The award shall be given only if there is (are) proposal(s) deemed worthy by the judges in any given year. Thus, there may be years in which no award is made, in which case funds will accrue towards the next years' award(s).

Eligibility: Applicants must be enrolled in a Masters or Doctoral Program in a University accredited by a regional college association. Applicants must also be members in good standing of one of the following professional societies: Animal Behavior Society or Association of the Study of Animal Behaviour. U.S. citizenship is not required.

Application Process: Application will be available from the ABS website http://www.animalbehavior.org beginning November 2005 (via the general Student Research Award application process).

Deadline:JANUARY 15, 2006 Decisions will be made in February 2006.

OPPORTUNITY FOR RESEARCH

Opening for one graduate student for the Master of Science in Biology degree at Georgia Southern University to study African elephant communication, social biology and human-elephant conflict in northern Tanzania.  

Entrance required by spring semester (January) 2006.   All graduate school requirements must be met.   Desired attributes of candidates include the following:

BS degree in a field of Biology, field experience in animal behavior / ecology, strong GPA, excellent GRE scores, willingness to live abroad in Spartan but comfortable conditions, hearty and healthy, able to get along with diverse cultures and educational backgrounds, ability to learn Swahili, organized, self-starter, sound writing and computer skills, and a desire to pursue excellence in science.   Individual must hold a valid passport or obtain one.

Transportation, basic living expenses, and a salary are provided during the fieldwork.   Students will develop a research plan with testable hypotheses based upon the objectives of the overall project.   Fieldwork will commence in the summer 2006 and last approximately one year.

Interested students should contact Bruce Schulte (bschulte@georgiasouthern.edu).   Additional openings may be forthcoming in the fall 2006 for elephant research in Tanzania and South Africa and at facilities in North America, but the immediate opening is for January 2006 with fieldwork starting in the summer 2006.  

Please forward a resume and references available upon initial contact.   Information about the Department of Biology at Georgia Southern University can be found at (http://www.bio.georgiasouthern.edu/), follow links to Dr. Schulte's website for more on the project and to the graduate school for entrance requirements.

TRAVEL SUPPORT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

Pending funding by the National Science Foundation, the ISBE American Committee is offering partial travel support to US citizens and permanent residents to facilitate attending the 11th ISBE meeting in Tours, France, 23-28 July 2006. Priority for funding will be given to applicants (1) planning to give a presentation (oral or poster) at the meeting; (2) who have received or are about to receive their Ph.D. but that are junior in level or otherwise not yet established in the field; and (3) who have limited or no access to institutional or external funding that can be used to attend the meeting. In an attempt to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of attendees from the US, we especially encourage minority applicants. To apply for a travel award, submit (preferably by email) (1) a 1-2 page curriculum vita, (2) an expanded abstract (1 page maximum) of the work you plan on submitting for consideration to the ISBE program, (3) a proposed budget, including any additional sources of travel support available, and (4) names and email addresses of two references, to Dr.

Walter D. Koenig, Hastings Reservation, 38601 E. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley, CA 93924 (email: koenigwd@berkeley.edu). Application deadline is 1 Jan. 2006. We will notify successful applicants by 15 Feb. 2006.

CALL FOR SYMPOSIA

FOR THE 2006 ANNUAL MEETING

Symposium proposals for the 2006 annual ABS meeting in Snowbird Utah August 10th - 17th should be submitted to the Program Officer by September 15, 2005.  Information on organizing symposia may be found at the ABS website:

http://www.animalbehavior.or g/ABS/Program/HostGuide/SympGuide.html

Symposium proposals may be submitted by email to j.fewell@asu.edu  or by regular post to the ABS Program Officer, Jennifer Fewell, Dept of Biology, Arizona State, Tempe, AZ, 85287 USA.

A B S n e t

THE ELECTRONIC MAIL NETWORK OF THE ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SOCIETY

ABSnet provides a fast electronic forum for animal behaviorists, and others interested in the study of animal behavior, in a digest or newsletter form. ABSnet provides job announcements, requests-for-information, computer-related news (eg. virus and bug alerts), appropriate software and hardware reviews, and news of Society activities and business. ABSnet is not an interactive, listserv-type discussion group but rather a moderated forum for the exchange of information of interest to animal behaviorists. The digest or newsletter does not replace the official Society hardcopy newsletter sent to all Society members via regular mail. Questions? Let me know! James C. Ha, University of Washington jcha@u.washington.edu. To SUBSCRIBE to ABSnet go to: http://www.animalbehavior.org and click the News and Announcements link at left, then the Subscribe/Unsubscribe link under ABSNet and fill out the web based form. Links to Post an article or view the archives are also available.

Did you know?

Purchases via the Amazon.com link on our main web page, http:www.animalbehavior.org, contribute 5% of the total to ABS. If you have books to order and would like to contribute to the society's efforts at the same time, please consider this option. The Amazon link is found at the bottom of our main page.

MINUTES

THE ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SOCIETY ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

10 AUGUST 2005

SNOWBIRD, UTAH

• President Ken Yasukawa called the meeting to order at 9:45 AM. He introduced the newly elected officers and made a call for volunteers to join one of the several standing committees of the society.

• Jeff Galef announced this year’s nominations for the offices of President Elect, Treasurer, Junior Program Officer and Member at Large.

• Jeff Galef reported for Treasurer Lee Drickamer the following: 1) The ABS Endowment has done quite well, now exceeding $600,000 and continuing to grow.   We should all thank Jeff Galef for his stewardship of the Endowment Fund.   Each of the past several years we have put an additional $50,000 into the Endowment.   We are now approaching the 2X annual budget amount that is recommended for societies like ours to have in reserve. (2) The income for FY05 ($322,250) was $16,650 above what we had projected.   Though we overspent the projected budget by $8,600, we still had a surplus of just over $8,000.   We are in solid shape financially.   We continued to receive a substantial subsidy ($195,000 in FY05) from our agreement with ASAB and Elsevier concerning the journal. (3) The projected income for FY 06 is $300,400 with planned expenses of $300,450.   Anyone wishing to see the entire spreadsheet for our budget calculations is welcome to do so by contacting the Treasurer directly.

• Secretary Molly Morris reported on the publication of the newsletter, and last year’s elections, which were conducted for the first time on the website.   In addition, she summarized the motions passed by the Executive Committee (EC) this past year, which included the following:   Approved the Parliamentarian's proposed electronic rules of order for EC discussion during the year;   passed the proposed change to policy, “At Executive Committee Meetings, only elected members of the Executive Committee can vote; substitutes and officers-elect are not eligible to vote”; approved revised guidelines for Animal Care;   approved the motion that eligibility for participation in the annual Allee Session at the ABS Meetings no longer be contingent on whether the material to be presented be unpublished; approved the change in confidentiality of the Education award. Nominees may now be notified; Approved a publishing agreement of the journal of Animal Behavior with the Elsevier Limited.

• Executive Editor George Uetz reported on the status of the journal. The impact factor for Animal Behaviour has dropped slightly, however our journal is still one of the top ranking behavior journals in the world.   Total submissions have been up again in 2004-2005, with a total of 292 manuscripts (an increase of 2.5%) . The acceptance rate is 44-46%. The Editor also reported that there has been an enormous change in the process of handling manuscripts due to the shift to Editorial Manager online.   Progress has been made towards the goal of a 4-6 month period from acceptance to publication.

• Jeff Galef, the designated host for the Snowbird meetings in Utah August 2006, reported on plans for next year’s annual meeting.   Snowbird is 6 miles from Salt Lake City and our meetings will be taking over the entire resort.   There will be both hotel style housing and condos with kitchens. For the first time, a licensed day camp for kids will be available.   In addition, a demonstration on the mountain in training dogs for avalanche work has been scheduled.

• President Yasukawa called for new business. The following issues were discussed.

•  President Yasukawa made concluding remarks and called for a motion to adjourn.   A motion to adjourn the meeting was seconded and passed at 10:45 AM.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

6 AUGUST 2005

Superior Room B, The Cliff Hotel, Snowbird, Utah.

Officers present: Uetz, Hart, Drickamer, Morris, Galef, Stoddard, Fewell, Yasukawa, Mateo, Nowicki, Dewsbury, Evans, Mock

Officers absent: Drummond

Officer elect present: Wilkinson, Randall, Macedo

Chairs and Liaisons present: Duncan, Ha, Ramey, Macedo, Drickamer, Perelle

• The meeting was called to order at 9.00 am by President Ken Yasukawa. Introductions were made.
• The Executive Committee (EC) approved the minutes from last year’s meeting.
• Don Dewsbury proposed a definition for Founders of the Society which was unanimously approved. Based on this definition there are 32 Founders. Discussion of the possibility that there may be someone that has been honored as a Founder but does not fit this definition lead to a second motion – It was unanimously approved that we grandfather in anyone that was honored as a Founder by the Society but does not fit the new definition.
• President Yasukawa asked parliamentarian Mateo to read the voting policy passed by the EC this past year, which states that chairs of committees and replacements for members of the EC do not vote during this meeting.
• Information about the venue for the 2007 meetings was presented by Yasukawa and Fewell. The dates available for the Sheraton in Burlington, Vermont are the last three weeks of July. There was discussion of when the EC would assess the conference center venue, because this year is the second year the Society has held annual meetings in a conference center compared with a University. It was noted that meeting at a conference center is in general perceived as being more expensive. Some of the points discussed about choosing locations for meetings were the following: 1) Conference centers book three years in advance; 2) Universities are increasing in price and so the difference in cost is not really very much; 3) The job of the host is not as extensive as it once was due to the expertise of the conference centers; 4) the society has in the past made an effort to switch the location and times of the meetings from east to west and early summer to late.
• Junior Program Officer Fewell moved to have only one candidate for the JPO position for the election this November. Only one of the two candidates, Diana Hews, could start the job immediately after the election in February, which is necessary to stay on schedule to replace the SPO with the JPO every two years. The motion was unanimously approved.
• Report from the Central Office (CO) by Steve Ramey and webmaster Shan Duncan – The CO has made extensive progress towards becoming more organized and efficient.   Much more of the society’s business takes place electronically including the new online membership processing. Shan Duncan explained the new ID system, in which each member will have a permanent number that allows him/her access to the website and the various pages for different functions in the society. New software will be put in place that will make the website much cleaner and more efficient. The revamping of the website will not only make tasks quicker and more efficient, but will put the officers of the society in a position to be more actively involved in upkeep of information on the site. There was some discussion of how long to keep lapsed members in the system and how much information individuals should be required to provide when becoming a member.   The motion was passed to keep names of lapsed members in the system for 5 years, and for the minimum information to include name, affiliation, e-mail and phone number, with an option to not be included in the membership directory.
• Two other website issues were discussed. While establishing a Program Guide has been a long standing goal of the society and in particular the education committee, the idea was raised that it may be better to have a way for students to access information on the website about individuals doing a particular kind of research. In addition, there was discussion of how the site could function for committee member appointments.
• Jim Ha reported on the meetings at Snowbird. There were 460 registrants this year. The conference center at Snowbird was wonderful and went way beyond their contract. They opened some restaurants that were normally closed, set up some buffet dinners at reduced prices, and set up a kiosk for breakfast and lunch outside the meeting rooms. As host, he decided to give people a tram ride rather than conference bags or coffee cups. Each registrant got a ticket for the tram with their registration materials. The shuttle service Canyon travel will take registrants anywhere they want to go, and there is a discount for activities at the activity center. There was some discussion of returning to Snowbird on a schedule or alternating years.
• A proposal to consolidate all research grants on the website was made. Applicants will be able to mark the grant for which they would like to be considered. This would mean that the jobs of the Members at Large would change: MAL 2 would have the travel awards and the MAL 1 would now handle all of the research awards.   The motion was unanimously passed.
• The EC discussed the current function of the newsletter and how it is being published online. It was proposed that more pictures and articles should be included.
• Report from the Chair of the Membership Committee – Lee Drickamer. Three issues were discussed: how to make decisions about removing lapsed members from the list, how to increase membership, and the implementation of a sponsored membership program. There was overall agreement to initiate the sponsored membership program, and the chair of the Latin American Affairs committee agreed to provide names.
• Report from the Latin American Affairs Chair - Regina Macedo. There were not enough Latinos at the meeting this year to have the Pachanga. The committee now has funds to invest more in travel grants in the future, and it was proposed to make the awards larger (currently only $300 dollars while it costs around $2000 to attend). Also, the committee proposed regional meetings every other year in a Latin American country since costs and obtaining Visas have become problematic for Society members from Latin American countries.
• There was discussion of the proposal submitted by the Education Committee to form a committee whose job would be to provide mentors for undergraduates attending the meeting. While it was generally agreed that undergraduates are welcome at our annual meetings, it was also agreed that providing mentors for undergraduates did not fit in clearly with the core goals of the Animal Behavior Society. There was discussion of the fact that regional meetings seem to have declined, and that these are better venues in which to support undergraduates. By a unanimous vote, the proposal was declined.
• Treasurer’s Report - Lee Drickamer reported that the Society is in really good financial shape. We currently have two years of operating expenses in our account and therefore we will be putting less into this account in the future, making for a small sum of discretional funds available annually.   Lee made a motion to set up a committee that would look in to ways to spend these discretionary funds on the annual meeting as well as working with the Latin American committee for meetings every other year in Latin America.   A proposal to have the current president chair and appoint this committee was unanimously approved.
• A motion to send the Secretary of the society to AAAS meetings next year as the society’s representative was unanimously passed. Members are encouraged to send ideas for symposia to the new Secretary, Jan Randall.
• Phil Stoddard, the retiring Senior Program Officer, presented a proposal to help fund the program officers to attend meetings as they work during the meetings and get to attend very few of the talks. After extensive discussion and a friendly amendment, the motion of covering 100% of housing and registration for the program officers was passed by a vote of seven to zero with four abstaining.
• After a unanimous vote to suspend the rules that the budget must be approved in the second Executive committee meeting, the budget of $300,400.00 with projected expenses 50 dollars in the red was unanimously approved.
• The Executive Editor George Uetz reported that the numbers for the journal are looking good. For more details see the minutes of the Business meeting.
• Past President Galef presented the nominees for EC offices and Career Awards. All nominees for offices were unanimously supported and the EC voted on recipients for five Career Awards.
• President Yasukawa entertained a motion to adjourn; the motion was passed and the meeting adjourned at 3:55 PM