User:Chiaki167/sandbox

ccg246's peer review

Topic assigned on the dashboard is "collective animal behaviour", but I don't see any changes in user's sandbox or in the article itself, so I can't do a peer review on work not completed. That was easy :) Ccg246 (talk) 16:29, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Article Evaluation

The article I have chosen to to review is Kneading (cats).

Content Evaluation

Although the article is short, all content within the article is related to the topic. However the content is written in choppy short sentences which I found quite distracting. Moreover, a paragraph within the article opens with the phrase "cats can be found is the garden", a statement implying a garden is the natural habit of a cat. This could be improved by clarifying that a garden is merely an example of where one may find a cat and not their common habitat. Additionally, there is a portion of the article that states how kneading is a precursor to sleep for cats, however there is no more information on the topic. This section of the article could be elaborated on, for example hypothesis suggesting why cats participate in this sleeping ritual could be added.

Tone Evaluation

Despite the articles need for elaboration, the tone is neutral without any bias language. The article features neutral explanation of the behavior and no obvious over or underrepresented viewpoints.

Sources Evaluation

The article lists only three citation references, one being a website that no longer exists and two peer reviewed journal articles. The facts referenced in the article that are cited with a per-reviewed article are claims that appear to be reliable and backed up by reliable sources. However, a significant part of the article is associated with a citation to a website that no longer exists. Not only does the websites status as non-existent compromise the legitimacy of the information presented in the article, a website, even when properly linked, is not a reliable source when citing a fact. However, links associated with key words in the article that link Wikipedia users to other articles are relevant and functional.

Checking the Talk Page

The conversations taking place on the talk page of this article are fairly casual, for example a comment asked how they would get a proper citation for this article asking, "should I ask a cat." The conversations taking place on the talk page suggest that the Wikipedia users that have worked on this article in the past are unaware of what proper source material consists of and possibly unaware of how to obtain a proper source article.

This article is a part of Wiki project Cats. Wikipedia rates this article as "start class" on the projects quality scale and as " high importance" on the projects importance scale.

Article Draft

Feeding Habits

Seahorses use their long snout in order to eat their food with ease. However, they are slow to consume their food and have extremely simple digestive systems that lack a stomach and therefore must eat constantly to say alive.

Seahorses are not very good swimmers, and for this reason they need to anchor themselves to seaweed, coral or anything else that will anchor the seahorse in place. They do this by using their prehensile tail to grasp their object of choice. The Seahorse then uses its elongated snout to suck in small crustacean, mollusks, zooplankton and copepods.

Seahorses have three distinctive feeding phases. Preparatory, expansive and recovery. During the preparatory phase the seahorse will slowly approach the pray item while in an upright position, following this behaviour the she seahorse will slowly flex its head ventrally. In the expansive phase, the seahorse will successively capture its prey by simultaneously elevating its head and expanding the buccal cavity and sucking in the prey item. During the recovery phase the jaws, head, and hyoid apparatus of the seahorse return to their original positions.

Seahorses find food at the bottom of the environments in which they live since they can be found in shallow bodies of water. The seahorse’s ability to use camouflage in their shallow water environment helps them in their pursuit of food. Their ability to camouflage with their surroundings allows them to use the “sit and wait” strategy, a predatory strategy in which the seahorse will sit and and wait for the pray to come along and then they will ambush the pray at the best possible time.

The amount of available cover influences the seahorses feeding behaviour. For example, in wild areas with small amounts of vegetation, seahorses will use the “sit and wait” strategy. However, an environment with a greater amount vegetation will result in a significant degree of inspection of the their environment, as a result the seahorse will fed while they swim rather than using the sit and wait method. Furthermore, in an aquarium setting with little vegetation, the seahorses will fully inspect their environment and not use a sit and wait strategy to capture prey at all

Seahorses in phase 2 of mating dance

Breading Behaviors

Seahorses exhibit four phases of courtship that are indicated by clear behavioral changes and changes in the intensity of the courtship act. In phase one, the initial courtship phase typically takes place in the early morning one or two days before psychical copulation. During this phase the potential mates brighten in colour, quiver, and display rapid side to side body vibrations. These displays are preformed alternately by both the male and the female seahorse. The following phases, that is phase 2 through 4, happen sequentially on the day of copulation. Phase 2 is marked by the female pointing, a behaviour in which the female will raise her heads to form and oblique angel with her body. Than in phase 3 males will also began the same pointing behaviour in response to the female. Finally, the male and female will repeatedly rise upward together in a water column and end in mid water copulation, in which the female will transfer her eggs directly into the male’s brood pouch.

Phase one: Initial courtship

This initial courtship behaviour takes place about 30 minutes after dawn on each courtship day, taking place until the day of copulation. During phase one the males and females will remain apart during the night, but after dawn they will come together in a side by side position, brighten, and engage in courtship behaviour for about 2 to 38 minutes. In this phase, courtship is characterized by repeated instances of reciprocal quivering, that is, a male will approach the female, brighten and then will quiver, the female will follow the males courtship display with her own display in which she also will brighten and begin her quiver display about 5 seconds later. As the male’s quivers, he will rotate his body towards the female who will then rotate her body away before performing responses quiver. During phase one the tales of both seahorses are positioned within 1 cm of each other on the same hold-fast and both of their body’s are angled slightly outward from the point of attachment. However, the female will shift her tail attachment site causing the pair to circle their common hold-fast.

Phase 2: Pointing & Pumping

The second phase of the seahorse mating ritual begins with the female beginning her pointing posture. She begins this behaviour by leaning her body towards the male who will simultaneously lean away and quiver. This phase can last up to 54 minutes. Following phase two is a latency period that lasts about 23-220 minutes. During the latency period seahorses display no courtship behaviour and females are not bright during this period and males will display pumping behaviour at this time. ( DEFINE PUMPING BEHAVIOR)

Phase 3: Pointing – Pointing

The third phase begins with the females brightening and assuming the pointing position.The males will then reciprocate by responding with there own brightening and pointing display. This phase ends with the male departing and usually lasts 9 minutes and can occur one to six times during courtship.

Phase 4: Rising and Copulation

The final courtship phase includes 5-8 bouts of courtship. Each bout of courtship begins with both the male and female anchored to the same plant about 3 cm apart, usually they are facing each other and are still bright in colour from the previous phase. During the first bout, following the facing behaviour, the seahorses will rise upward together anywhere from 2 to 13 cm in a water column. During the final rise the female will insert her ovipositor and transfer her eggs though an opening into the males brood pouch