IDENTIFYING CHEMICAL SIGNALS AND EXAMINING THEIR ROLE IN REPRODUCTION IN THE MANED WOLF ( CHRYSOCYON BRACHYURUS) by Marieke Kester Jones A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Environmental Science and Public Policy Committee: ________________________________ Dr. Larry Rockwood, Dissertation Director ________________________________ Dr. Nucharin Songsasen, Committee Member ________________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Freeman, Committee Member ________________________________ Dr. Thomas Huff, Committee Member ________________________________ Dr. Albert Torzilli, Graduate Program Director ________________________________ Dr. A. Alonso Aguirre, Department Chairperson ________________________________ Dr. Donna Fox, Associate Dean, Student Affairs & Special Programs, College of Science ________________________________ Dr. Peggy Agouris, Dean, College of Science Date: __________________________ Summer 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Identifying Chemical Signals and Examining Their Role in Reproduction in the Maned Wolf ( Chrysocyon brachyurus ) A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Marieke Kester Jones Bachelor of Science Tufts University, 2009 Director: Larry Rockwood, Department Chairperson Department of Biology Summer Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2016 Marieke Kester Jones All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to my family. To my parents, Adrian and Nancy, your scientific curiosity continues to be an inspiration to me. With your steadfast support and encouragement, I really can do anything. To my siblings, Julia and Arnie, thank you for your trips to Virginia and your countless hours on the phone. Keith, you really have embodied the definition of a partner throughout my PhD, taking the challenges and victories along with me, pari passu . Finally, without the comedic antics of my fur children, Jack and Aubrey, my writing environm150ent would have been much more boring, albeit cleaner and quieter. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My journey to a PhD has been a formative experience for me and it would not have been possible without the support and guidance that I received from so many people. My interactions with you all enriched me professionally and socially. My experiences at George Mason University and at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have been very special indeed. I have been given unique opportunities and I would like to think that I have taken full advantage of them. This includes witnessing firsthand the transformation of the Smithsonian’s CRC into the multiuse campus that is SCBI today, lecturing biostatistics for seven years, and assisting with several fascinating side-projects. I first wish to thank my committee members. The four of you have truly made me the researcher and teacher I am today. I am deeply appreciative of Dr. Nucharin Songsasen for embarking on this journey with me since the very beginning when I started as her intern in 2009. Ever since, Nuch has supported me not only by providing sound scientific advice, but also through her insightful counseling and true mentorship all along the road to this dissertation. I am especially thankful for Nuch’s persistent belief in me, trusting that I was making progress while I worked miles away to complete my coursework and chemistry lab work. Thank you Momma Duck! Dr. Larry Rockwood has made this whole ride possible. When Nuch and I first met with him back in 2010, I think he was as excited as I was that I would be teaching biostatistics. That teaching position quickly became one of the most fulfilling, satisfying aspects of my PhD. Thank you Dr. Rockwood for trusting me with ever-increasing levels of teaching responsibilities; designing the distance learning and honors courses were some of the best professional development opportunities I had during my tenure here. Dr. Rockwood unfailingly found funding when there seemed to be none around and always added humor to my days on the Fairfax campus. Dr. Elizabeth Freeman is the best life coach a student could ask for. I could always depend on her to help me see the light through whatever academic or scientific challenge I faced. She always found the time to provide an incredibly detailed, thorough review of my work, which made me a better scientist and writer. Thank you Elizabeth. Finally, I am grateful to have been advised by Dr. Thomas Huff. Without the instrumentation in the SRIF lab, substantial SRIF lab funding, and Tom to guide me, my research would have only been aspirational. Tom has always been passionate about my research and worked tirelessly (including many weekends!) to ensure that the instruments were functioning properly. Along the way, he taught me everything I know about how these machines function and about all the weird and wonderful ways to use mass spec. iv I am especially thankful for the multiple opportunities Dr. David Luther gave me to participate in his research. David provided me an unparalleled chance to use my statistical knowledge in an important conservation application and I learned so much about the scientific publishing process from this experience. David was always inspirational in his ability to manage his full-time teaching commitment alongside his leadership of an impressive research agenda. Thank you to Dr. Arndt Laemmerzahl for being an excellent teaching supervisor. Arndt was always ready to hear my latest idea on how to improve our course and he inspired me to dive headfirst into R. For that, I cannot thank him enough! Dr. J Reid Schwebach deserves tremendous credit for inspiring me to get involved in teaching initiatives and for including me on multiple teaching grants. These experiences have inspired me to make education part of my career future. Also, Reid, thank you for all of your advice over so many lunches. A special acknowledgement goes to my father, Dr. Adrian Kester, for spending countless hours on the phone helping me troubleshoot my programming code. I am grateful for the sections of code he wrote to help me manage all of my data and for the time he took to make sure that I understood line-by-line what the code did. He has constantly provided support as I learned to program in R and Python and his love of programming is becoming infectious! Joanne Zimmerman and Sharon Bloomquist have been supportive in every way and have assisted so much with the logistics and paperwork inherent in a PhD. I also recognize the support and help from my student colleagues (past and present) at GMU and at SCBI: Dr. Natalia Prado, Dr. Stacie Bickley, Dr. Megan Brown, Dr. Kate Gentry, Chelsie Romulo, Dr. Katie Edwards, Lauren Wilson, Dr. Jilian Fazio, Dr. Parker Pennington, Dr. Jessye Wojtusik, Morgan Maly, Juthapathra “Ju” Dechanupong, Rachel Golden, Lilly Parker, Dr. Jennifer Nagashima, Jennifer Yordy, and Dr. Diana Koester among so many others. Endocrine lab staff members Niki Boisseau, Steve Paris, and Sarah Putman were instrumental in teaching me how to run and troubleshoot hormone enzyme immunoassays. My SCBI training would not be complete without advice and teachings from SCBI scientists Dr. Janine Brown, Dr. Budhan Pukazhenthi, Dr. Adrienne Crosier, and Dr. David Wildt. Without samples from the maned wolves, this entire dissertation would be empty. At SCBI, Ginger Eye was always willing to take time out of her already packed day to help me set up experiments, collect samples, or troubleshoot video cameras, acoustic monitors, etc. Thank you also to animal care staff Jessica Kordell, Tom Eyring, Ken Lang, Juan Rodriguez, and Paul Marinari. Animal care staff around the country were incredibly dedicated to collecting regular samples for this project: Karen Meeks at WOCC, Don Goff and Linda Thomas at Beardsley Zoo, Regina Mossotti, Tracy Rein, v and Jennifer Yordy at the Endangered Canid Center, Tammy Schmidt, Jenna Blough, and Carlos Martinez Rivera at Philly Zoo, Debbie Thompson and Carrie Day at Little Rock Zoo, Dave Brigham, Malia Somerville, and Jerry Aquilina at Buffalo Zoo, MaryJo Stearns, Jordan Maupin, and Jason Ahistus at Fossil Rim, Stephanie Gallivan at Wildlife Safari, and Ashley Bowen and Kathy Wolyn at Pueblo Zoo. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge the encouragement and support from my friends at Prince William County Rowing Club and my other family at Western Suburbs Rugby Football Club. With all of you asking about the wolves, listening to my weird animal facts, and coming to see my public lectures, this journey has been so fun! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii List of Abbreviations and/or Symbols .............................................................................. xv Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xvi Chapter 1: Literature review ............................................................................................... 1 The maned wolf ............................................................................................................... 1 Conservation of the maned wolf ....................................................................................