John+W.

=Wiki Post #1 - Genetics 22/10/2015= For my first wiki post I have decided to cover a topic that I have had experience with first hand. This is the genetics of the color in North American Black Bears. The name would obviously lead you to believe that they are all black; this is false. This name was given to them by Europeans who saw only black-colored bears when they arrived in North America. As these Europeans moved west-ward they began encountering different color bears and assuming they were different species. It was discovered however that they were all the same species, just with different coat colors (known as phases). There are 5 phases, But only 2 in New Brunswick. Many people believe that they change colors depending on their surrounding. Now this is true to a degree, the further west you get the lighter the bear's fur, but often enough 2 bears of different colors will mate and produce multiple cubs. For example there could be a black mother and a brown father, they would have the possibility of having 3 black cubs, 3 brown cubs, 2 black 1 brown, etc. This proves that the transfer of color is passed down genetically. This spring while bear hunting we had a mother and three cubs come into to our bait site. She had two brown cubs and 1 black cub. Although we only had black males coming into our bait, this can mean one of two things, either one of those males has a dormant brown fur gene or the brown male found a new territory. Either way this is something extremely uncommon here in New Brunswick. Color phase bears are very rare, we were the only people in New Brunswick to take a cinnamon phase black bear this year. Pretty cool looking eh?

This picture demonstrates how the color genes travel trough generations and the many possibilities that can happen when two different color black bears mate.

Here is a prime example of how different two bears can be in color. This is all due to transfer of genes in their parents. These two cubs are brother and sister born the same year. The white is bigger than the black this is also because of the genes he or she received from his parents.

Here is a video of a mother black bear and her 2 brown cubs and 1 black cub. I included this to show the variety of colors and to show how different black bears can look from the common black color all due to their genes:

Reference sites: http://www.americanbear.org/fur.htm

http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/basic-bear-facts/16-black-bear-color-phases.html

http://www.bearstudy.org/website/images/stories/Publications/Inheritance_of_Coat_Color.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear

Further Reading: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vgl/wildlife/projects/black_bears.html Read more on bear genetis

http://www.bearsafari.com/en/bear.cfm This link shows you a company that does tours of bear watching here in NB

http://www.harrishillresort.com/Ontario-hunting-black-bear-hunts Here you can watch and book bear hunts in ontario

http://newbrunswickhunting.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3688-world-record-black-bear-shot-in-new-brunswick-1972/ These are the records of biggest bears here in NB

=Wiki Post #2 - Evolution 20/11/2015=

The whitetail deer is probably the oldest large mammal species in North America. Some whitetail deer fossils found in Florida are as much as 3.5 million years old. By contrast //Homo sapiens //as a species is roughly 200,000 years old. Whitetail deer evolved from a similar species known as //Odocoileus brachyodontus //that existed from about 3.9-3.5 million years BP. It was probably a species closely related to the Eurasian roe deer. A genome wide study of the deer family has yet to be completed. The roe deer is the Eurasian species anatomically most similar to the Odocoileus genus, and therefore most likely to share a common ancestor. This image shows the development of a buck white tail's skull and antlers, this deer has exceptional genes to develop such a perfect set of antlers in that short of time. This chart shows how the species split during evolution, the white tail we know now has evolved from Odocoileus brachyodontus. These deer we now know have evolved to have the color of their fur go pale and grey during the winter and light brown in the summer to camouflage themselves more easily form predators.  An example of a deer in the summer 

media type="youtube" key="HAyZee8gujM" width="560" height="315" This video shows the more recent history of white tail deer, and talks about what their numbers used to be before the Europeans came and began harvesting excessive numbers. This video even talks about where the term of calling 1 dollar a "Buck".

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/whttail.pdf This talks about white tailed deer history in BC http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/deer/ The encyclopedia on Canadian white tails https://books.google.ca/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&pg=PA255&lpg=PA255&dq=white+tail+deer+evolution&source=bl&ots=TLHVJHczEJ&sig=ymEqLOqbXFi2mIruop4PBI2gmWw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCt_jHpKDJAhVIJh4KHaPwDPoQ6AEITzAL#v=onepage&q=white%20tail%20deer%20evolution&f=false The evolution, behacior and ecology of white tails and mule deer http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/careerstart-grade8/5585 More on deer evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer https://www.montclair.edu/media/montclairedu/csam/njsoc/sessions/whitetaildeerecology.pdf https://prezi.com/7bhbkx8kk2do/evolution-of-the-white-tailed-deer/ http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/deer.html
 * Further Reading:**
 * Sources:**

=Wiki Post #3 - Nervous System 13/01/2016= To understand how a drugs effects the body, we must first understand how the Autonomic Nervous System works. The Autonomic Nervous System is controlled by the hypothalamus, it operates in two branches. The first of these is the sympathetic branch of the Autonomic Nervous System. Stimulants are released into our body causing our heart rate to go up, causing us to be more aware and more tense generally.
 * How drugs effects our autonomic nervous system.**

The second branch is the Parasympathetic branch. When it is activated, it causes the opposite effect, causing depressant –like chemicals to be released in our system, slowing it down. The goal is to maintain a balance between the two branches. When we are tired and run down, there is very little sympathetic activity. When we feel safe and secure, when we are not worried or thinking too much about something and are not over exhausted then there is very little sympathetic activity going on.

This image shows the two branches in the autonomic nervous system.

Now when we take outside drugs into our system it throws off the balance of our Autonomic Nervous System. If we drink a lot of coffee our system is ‘jacked up’ so the parasympathetic branch goes into effect releasing depressant chemicals to counter the effects of the caffeine. If we stop taking the caffeine we still have an over abundance of these parasympathetic chemicals in our body and this is one of the factors that plays into addiction.

A few random drugs.

__** A video explaining the Autonomic Nervous System: **__ media type="youtube" key="3a_aLsFvNWs" width="560" height="315"

More on the two branches on the autonomic nervous system

__** Furthur reading: **__

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system All the great world of wikipedia has to say. http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/autonomic-nervous-system-disorders/overview-of-the-autonomic-nervous-system More info on the autonomic nervous system http://n-pharmacology.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page_4.html Blog on the effects of drugs on the ANS http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/ap/vander/nervous/reading12.mhtml More on the effects of drugs on the ANS

__** Sources: **__ http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/gcrc/ad_center/2005Pharm501AutonomicsPDF.pdf https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/auto.html http://www.ndrf.org/ans.html https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/autonomicnervoussystemdisorders.html