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Habitat Manipulation For The Reestablishment Of The Utah Prairie Dog In Capitol Reef National Park, Rodney L. Player

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah prairie dogs were transplanted onto the site of a former colony located on Jones Bench in the northwestern corner of Capitol Reef National Park. Shrubs on Jones Bench were significantly taller than those found on active colonies of Ut ah prairie dogs located nearby on the Awapa Plateau. Therefore, the Jones Bench site offered an opportunity to test the hypothesis that shrub height is a major inhibitory factor on occupation of sites by prairie dogs. Four sites of 5 ha each were delimited on Jones Bench prior to the transplanting o~ animals. Vegetation treatments were carried out on three …