This study of 88 fetuses of the Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) from a single wild-ranging population has yielded values of k in the heterogonic growth formula for 18 measurable attributes. Length measurements of the ear pinna and the elements of the legs have the highest coefficients during prenatal development. This is in marked contrast with circumstances subsequent to birth.There is no evidence of an anterior-posterior trend in growth in diameter of parts of the trunk. In the legs, each component of the hind limb grows faster than the corresponding part of the foreleg. This departs from the patterns of postnatal growth where there is slight anterior precedence.During fetal development, unlike postnatal development, cranial and rostral segments of the skull grow at the same rate.Regional variation in growth rate of different body parts is extensive and even in twin pairs may involve several characteristics, sometimes departing in different directions.In mixed-sex twins either sex can be more developed than its littermate but there is strong evidence for male dominance in size. This is apparent also in comparison of single fetuses of equal developmental stage.Comparison with fetal growth patterns of the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) and the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) reveals that the subspecies of hemionus possess generally similar patterns. However, both races of this species differ from virginianus in a number of features of relative growth.Many structural changes occur at a smaller fetal size in columbianus than in hemionus or virginianus in keeping with the smaller adult size of the former. The heterogonic growth constants of columbianus and hemionus for five segments upon which comparison can be made are similar, but differ from those of the species virginianus. It appears, therefore, that patterns of relative growth are closely similar within the species even where there are considerable differences in mature size of the subspecies. Interspecies differences occur even where ultimate size and general proportions may be similar.
The number of bat call files recorded in acoustic surveys may be used to assess comparative bat activity levels over time and among habitats. Acoustic signal processing can segregate bat files from noise files and thus quickly provide an estimate of the number of bat files in a large sample of recordings. However, false positive and false negative classifications may result in a biased estimate requiring adjustment, as inaccurate bat numbers may impact bat conservation decisions. Previous research has ranked software classification accuracy in comparison to the visual classification of spectrograms. Small classification errors can result in considerable bias in software-derived estimates of the number of bat call files in a sample. Estimation bias may not have a linear relationship to the percentage of files containing bats, requiring unique correction coefficients. The focus of this note is to 1) illustrate patterns of bias that may result from noise scrubbing and 2) to illustrate the application of two methods of bias adjustment, the Rogan-Gladen estimator and Bayesian inference. The expected bias of four noise scrubbing tools from the literature, each of different measured accuracy, was plotted over a simulated range of true bat file prevalence while holding constant the accuracy of each scrubber. Rogan-Gladen bias adjustment was accurate for all four noise scrubbers. Bayesian bias adjustment showed low overall error, with some inflation at very low bat file prevalence. Caveats in the use of both bias adjustment methods are discussed.
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