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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Using Resident-Based Hazing Programs To Reduce Human–Coyote Conflicts In Urban Environments, Mary Ann Bonnell, Stewart W. Breck
Using Resident-Based Hazing Programs To Reduce Human–Coyote Conflicts In Urban Environments, Mary Ann Bonnell, Stewart W. Breck
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
The concept of hazing (aversive conditioning) is often promoted as a tool for reducing human–coyote (Canis latrans) conflicts in urban environments. Little scientific evidence exists on the effectiveness of hazing, particularly hazing applied by residents (i.e., community-level hazing). Wildlife professionals question if residents will properly and consistently apply hazing techniques and if hazing impacts coyote behavior over short- and long-term periods. We describe 2 separate efforts designed to encourage residents to haze coyotes in the Denver Metro Area, Colorado, USA: a citizen science program and an open space hazing trial. Both efforts were intended to be management techniques …
Influence Of Free Water Availability On A Desert Carnivore And Herbivore, Bryan M. Kluever, Eric M. Gese, Steven J. Dempsey
Influence Of Free Water Availability On A Desert Carnivore And Herbivore, Bryan M. Kluever, Eric M. Gese, Steven J. Dempsey
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Anthropogenic manipulation of finite resources on the landscape to benefit individual species or communities is commonly employed by conservation and management agencies. One such action in arid regions is the construction and maintenance of water developments (i.e., wildlife guzzlers) adding free water on the landscape to buttress local populations, influence animal movements, or affect distributions of certain species of interest. Despite their prevalence, the utility of wildlife guzzlers remains largely untested. We employed a before–after control-impact (BACI) design over a 4-year period on the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, USA, to determine whether water availability at wildlife guzzlers influenced …
Uncovering Behavioural States From Animal Activity And Site Fidelity Patterns, Peter J. Mahoney, Julie K. Young
Uncovering Behavioural States From Animal Activity And Site Fidelity Patterns, Peter J. Mahoney, Julie K. Young
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
1. Space use by animals has important implications for individual fitness. However, resource requirements often vary throughout the course of a lifetime and are a reflection of the demands associated with daily tasks or specific life-history phases, from food acquisition to reproduction, and emphasize the need to classify resource selection relative to specific behavioural states. Site fidelity is often indicative of behaviours important for individual maintenance (e.g. foraging), species’ life history (e.g. seasonal site selection), social communication (e.g. scent-marking) and species interactions (e.g. predation, competition). Thus, resolving site fidelity patterns associated with key behaviours is essential to accurately quantify behavioural-dependent …
Coyote (Canis Latrans) Diet In An Urban Environment: Variation Relative To Pet Conflicts, Housing Density, And Season, S. A. Poessel, E. C. Mock, S. W. Breck
Coyote (Canis Latrans) Diet In An Urban Environment: Variation Relative To Pet Conflicts, Housing Density, And Season, S. A. Poessel, E. C. Mock, S. W. Breck
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823) are highly successful in urbanized environments, but as they populate cities, conflict can occur and often manifests in the form of incidents with pets. To better understand whether coyotes view pets as prey or, alternatively, as competitors or a threat, we conducted a diet analysis of coyotes in the Denver metropolitan area (DMA) by analyzing scats. We also examined differences in diet between high- and low-density housing and among seasons. We found only small percentages of trash and domestic pets in the coyote diet. The presence of pets in the diet did not coincide …
Greater Sage-Grouse Nest Survival In Northwestern Wyoming, Jimmy D. Taylor Ii, R. Douglas Holt, Elizabeth K. Orning, Julie K. Young
Greater Sage-Grouse Nest Survival In Northwestern Wyoming, Jimmy D. Taylor Ii, R. Douglas Holt, Elizabeth K. Orning, Julie K. Young
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Nest survival, along with female survival and chick survival, is the most important vital rates to population growth of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse). We used global positioning system and very high-frequency transmitters on female sage-grouse to identify 204 nests and monitor incubation on 5 sites in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming from 2011 to 2014; we determined nest fate and identified predators with camera traps. We used an information-theoretic approach to compare 6 a priori nest survival models. Nest survival was best described by a model that included differences across study sites and ranged from 0.20±0.01 (SE) to …