Life Sciences Commons^™

Relevance Of Individual Data When Assessing The Gastrointestinal Nematode Infection Level, Nutritional And Productive Variables In A Tropical Farm Context: The Median Isn’T The Message, Gabriel Andrés Ortíz-Domínguez, Pedro Geraldo González-Pech, Juan Felipe De Jesús Torres-Acosta, Javier Ventura-Cordero, Juan Villalba, Carlos Alfredo Sandoval-Castro

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

We evaluated the relationship between individual and herd GIN infection level, nutrition, production performance and anemia parameters in a tropical farm context. Fifty-four female goats were monitored to assess their body condition score (BCS, nutritional status indicator), live weight (LW) and LW gain (LWG, both used as production level indicators), FAMACHA© and hematocrit (HT, both used as anemia indicators). Goats browsed for 4 h in a tropical forest and received balanced feed and chopped grass. The eggs per gram of feces (EPG) indicated the GIN burden, with fecal samples obtained at 7:00 (AM) and 15:00 h (PM.) from each goat …

Non-Random Sampling Measures The Occurrence But Not The Strength Of A Textbook Trophic Cascade, Daniel R. Macnulty, Elaine M. Brice, Eric J. Larsen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Although sampling the five tallest young aspen in a stand is useful for detecting the occurrence of any aspen recruitment, this technique overestimates the population response of aspen to wolf reintroduction. Our original conclusion that random sampling described a trophic cascade that was weaker than the one described by non-random sampling is unchanged.

Editorial: Mammalian Responses To Climate Change: From Organisms To Communities, Johan T. Du Toit, Robyn S. Hetem, M. Denise Dearing

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Mammals have displayed spectacular evolutionary success ever since an asteroid impact caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event ~66 million years ago, when the non-avian dinosaurs disappeared. Now another mass extinction event is underway because of another major planetary disturbance, but this time it is directly caused by just one over-achieving species among all those mammals: Homo sapiens.

Passive Acoustic Monitoring And Automatic Detection Of Diel Patterns And Acoustic Structure Of Howler Monkey Roars, Leandro A. Do Nascimento, Cristian Pérez-Granados, Karen H. Beard

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Nighttime studies are underrepresented in ecological research. Even well-known behaviors, such as the loud call of howler monkeys, are rarely studied at night. Our goal was to help fill this knowledge gap by studying the 24 h vocal behavior of the Guianan red howler monkey (Alouatta macconnelli) and to compare the acoustic structures of howling bouts made during the day to those made at night. We used passive acoustic monitoring coupled with automatic acoustic detection to study three groups of howlers over three months in the Viruá National Park, Roraima, Brazil. The automatic classifier we built detected 171 …

Decision-Making For Rewilding: An Adaptive Governance Framework For Social-Ecological Complexity, James R. A. Butler, Mariella Marzano, Nathalie Pettorelli, Sarah M. Durant, Johan T. Du Toit, Juliette C. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Rewilding can be defined as the reorganisation or regeneration of wildness in an ecologically degraded landscape with minimal ongoing intervention. While proposals for rewilding are increasingly common, they are frequently controversial and divisive amongst stakeholders. If implemented, rewilding initiatives may alter the social-ecological systems within which they are situated and thus generate sudden and unforeseen outcomes. So far, however, much of the discourse on the planning and implementation of rewilding has focused on identifying and mitigating ecological risks. There has been little consideration of how rewilding could alter the human components of the social-ecological systems concerned, nor governance arrangements that …

Predictors Of Puma Occupancy Indicate Prey Vulnerability Is More Important Than Prey Availability In A Highly Fragmented Landscape, Courtney A. C. Coon, Peter J. Mahoney, Emilie Edelblutte, Zara Mcdonald, David C. Stoner

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Habitat fragmentation represents the single greatest conservation challenge of the 21st century. This problem is particularly acute for large, obligate carnivores like pumas Puma concolor which have persisted in North and South America in the face of habitat fragmentation and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shrinking habitat and reduced connectivity mean that mapping habitat is increasingly important for species conservation in multiple-use landscapes. Previous work suggests that pumas occupy habitats where sufficient stalking cover and preferred prey are present, yet the intersection of these factors has rarely been assessed. Here we used data from 68 299 camera trap nights collected from 181 …

The First Record Of Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes Procyonoides) In Turkey, Morteza Naderi, Emrah Çoban, Josip Kusak, Mübeccel Çisel Kemahli Aytekin, Mark William Chynoweth, İsmail Kayahan Ağirkaya, Neslihan Güven, Ayşegül Çoban, Çağan Hakkı Şekercioğlu

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) was recorded for the first time in Turkey on May 10, 2019, and June 5, 2019, in the same location after 4668 nights of camera trapping in the forests of the Sarıkamış region and Allahuekber Mountains in eastern Turkey. It was recorded in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forest at 2340 m above sea level with extensive snow cover. Given that the nearest known population is in the forests of Georgia approximately 105 km away, there may already be a viable population in Turkey. As an omnivorous species with a high …

Anthropogenic Disturbance And Population Viability Of Woodland Caribou In Ontario, John M. Fryxell, Tal Avgar, Boyan Liu, James A. Baker, Arthur R. Rodgers, Jennifer Shuter, Ian D. Thompson, Douglas E. B. Reid, Andrew M. Kittle, Anna Mosser, Steven G. Newmaster, Tom D. Nudds, Garrett M. Street, Glen S. Brown, Brent Patterson

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

One of the most challenging tasks in wildlife conservation and management is to clarify how spatial variation in land cover due to anthropogenic disturbance influences wildlife demography and long‐term viability. To evaluate this, we compared rates of survival and population growth by woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) from 2 study sites in northern Ontario, Canada that differed in the degree of anthropogenic disturbance because of commercial logging and road development, resulting in differences in predation risk due to gray wolves (Canis lupus). We used an individual‐based model for population viability analysis (PVA) that incorporated adaptive patterns …

Food Availability Modulates Temperature-Dependent Effects On Growth, Reproduction, And Survival In Daphnia Magna, Gustavo S. Betini, Xueqi Wang, Tal Avgar, Matthew M. Guzzo, John M. Fryxell

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Reduced body size and accelerated life cycle due to warming are considered major ecological responses to climate change with fitness costs at the individual level. Surprisingly, we know little about how relevant ecological factors can alter these life history trade‐offs and their consequences for individual fitness. Here, we show that food modulates temperature‐dependent effects on body size in the water flea Daphnia magna and interacts with temperature to affect life history parameters. We exposed 412 individuals to a factorial manipulation of food abundance and temperature, tracked each reproductive event, and took daily measurements of body size from each individual. High …

Parsing The Effects Of Demography, Climate And Management On Recurrent Brucellosis Outbreaks In Elk, Gavin C. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Jerod A. Merkle, Jared D. Rogerson, Brandon M. Scurlock, Johan T. Du Toit

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

1. Zoonotic pathogens can harm human health and well‐being directly or by impacting livestock. Pathogens that spillover from wildlife can also impair conservation efforts if humans perceive wildlife as pests. Brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus, circulates in elk and bison herds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and poses a risk to cattle and humans. Our goal was to understand the relative effects of climatic drivers, host demography and management control programmes on disease dynamics.
2. Using >20 years of serologic, demographic and environmental data on brucellosis in elk, we built stochastic compartmental models to assess the influences of climate forcing, …

The Tail Wagging The Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions Of Wolves Or Grizzly Bears, Daniel Kinka, Julie K. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in the United States to mitigate livestock depredation by wild carnivores. We surveyed pastoralists to measure how experience with and attitudes towards LGDs related to attitudes towards livestock predators, and found positive responses regarding LGDs and negative responses regarding wolves and grizzly bears. The more respondents agreed that …

Home Range And Habitat Use Of West Virginia Canis Latrans (Coyote), Lauren L. Mastro, Dana J. Morin, Eric M. Gese

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Canis latrans (Coyote) has undergone a range expansion in the United States over the last century. As a highly opportunistic species, its home range and habitat use changes with ecological context. Coyotes were first reported in West Virginia in 1950 but were not commonly observed until the 1990s, and there is scant information on Coyotes in the region. We used telemetry data from 8 radiocollared Coyotes in West Virginia to estimate home-range size and third-order habitat selection. Home-range areas (95% utilization distributions; UDs) varied from 5.22 to 27.79 km² (mean = 12.48 ± 2.61 km²), with highly …

A Pilot Study Of The Effects Of Mycoplasma Ovipneumoniae Exposure On Domestic Lamb Growth And Performance, Thomas E. Besser, Jessica Levy, Melissa Ackerman, Danielle Nelson, Kezia R. Manlove, Kathleen A. Potter, Jan Busboom, Margaret Benson

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a globally distributed pathogen that has been associated with pneumonia in both domestic and wild Caprinae. It is closely related to M. hyopneumoniae, a respiratory pathogen of swine that is associated with decreased growth rates of pigs as well as clinical respiratory disease. In order to assess the effects of M. ovipneumoniae on lamb performance, we generated a cohort of lambs free of M. ovipneumoniae by segregation of test negative ewes after lambing, then compared the growth and carcass quality traits of M. ovipneumoniae-free and -colonized lambs from weaning to harvest. Some signs of respiratory disease …

Hidden Cost Of Disease In A Free-Ranging Ungulate: Brucellosis Reduces Mid-Winter Pregnancy In Elk, Gavin C. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Arthur D. Middleton, Jared D. Rogerson, Brandon M. Scurlock, Johan T. Du Toit

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Demonstrating disease impacts on the vital rates of free‐ranging mammalian hosts typically requires intensive, long‐term study. Evidence for chronic pathogens affecting reproduction but not survival is rare, but has the potential for wide‐ranging effects. Accurately quantifying disease‐associated reductions in fecundity is important for advancing theory, generating accurate predictive models, and achieving effective management. We investigated the impacts of brucellosis (Brucella abortus) on elk (Cervus canadensis) productivity using serological data from over 6,000 captures since 1990 in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, USA. Over 1,000 of these records included known age and pregnancy status. Using Bayesian multilevel models, …

Development Of On-Shore Behavior Among Polar Bears (Ursus Maritimus) In The Southern Beaufort Sea: Inherited Or Learned?, Kate M. Lillie, Eric M. Gese, Todd C. Atwood, Sarah A. Sonsthagen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are experiencing rapid and substantial changes to their environment due to global climate change. Polar bears of the southern Beaufort Sea (SB) have historically spent most of the year on the sea ice. However, recent reports from Alaska indicate that the proportion of the SB subpopulation observed on-shore during late summer and early fall has increased. Our objective was to investigate whether this on-shore behavior has developed through genetic inheritance, asocial learning, or through social learning. From 2010 to 2013, genetic data were collected from SB polar bears in the fall via hair snags …

Age-Specific Estimates Indicate Potential Deleterious Capture Effects And Low Survival Of Stocked Juvenile Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus Lucius), Scott R. Clark, Mary M. Conner, Scott L. Durst, Nathan R. Franssen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Hatcheries and stocking programs have become necessary to repatriate or augment populations of imperiled fishes worldwide. Over nearly two decades, millions of endangered juvenile Colorado Pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius have been stocked into the San Juan River (Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah); however, recruitment of these individuals to adult life stages (age ≥6) remains low. Using a mark–recapture data set collected from annual riverwide electrofishing efforts between 2003 and 2016, we investigated apparent survival and capture probabilities of stocked Colorado Pikeminnow to identify age‐specific bottlenecks contributing to this lack of recruitment. With relatively high capture rates, which averaged between 0.34 and …

Behavioral And Spatial Responses Of Captive Coyotes To Human Activity, Jeffrey T. Schultz, Julie K. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Human interactions can alter an animal’s behavior and utilization of its surroundings, and how this impacts the welfare of some captive wild animals is of growing concern. Structural enrichment shelters offer weather protection, reprieve space from other animals or humans, or resting space. Perimeter or open space may be important during periods of activity, such as foraging or play. This study addressed the effects of human activity on coyote behavioral budgeting and enclosure utilization. We predicted that human activity would affect coyote behavior and spatial utilization of enclosure space. Specifically, we hypothesized that human activity would prompt vigilant and other …

Winter Feeding Of Elk In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem And Its Effects On Disease Dynamics, Gavin C. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Erik K. Cole, Rebecca K. Fuda, Jared D. Rogerson, Brandon M. Scurlock, Johan T. Du Toit

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Providing food to wildlife during periods when natural food is limited results in aggregations that may facilitate disease transmission. This is exemplified in western Wyoming where institutional feeding over the past century has aimed to mitigate wildlife–livestock conflict and minimize winter mortality of elk (Cervus canadensis). Here we review research across 23 winter feedgrounds where the most studied disease is brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus. Traditional veterinary practices (vaccination, test-and-slaughter) have thus far been unable to control this disease in elk, which can spill over to cattle. Current disease-reduction efforts are being guided by ecological …

Are Cattle Surrogate Wildlife? Savanna Plant Community Composition Explained By Total Herbivory More Than Herbivore Type, Kari E. Veblen, Lauren M. Porensky, Corinna Riginos, Truman P. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The widespread replacement of wild ungulate herbivores by domestic livestock in African savannas is composed of two interrelated phenomena: (1) loss or reduction in numbers of individual wildlife species or guilds and (2) addition of livestock to the system. Each can have important implications for plant community dynamics. Yet very few studies have experimentally addressed the individual, combined, and potentially interactive effects of wild vs. domestic herbivore species on herbaceous plant communities within a single system. Additionally, there is little information about whether, and in which contexts, livestock might functionally replace native herbivore wildlife or, alternatively, have fundamentally different effects …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Brood Flush Counts: A Case Study In Two Quail Species, Jeremy P. Orange, Craig A. Davis, R. Dwayne Elmore, Evan P. Turner, Smauel D. Fuhlendorf, Eric T. Thacker

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Taking brood flush counts is a common sampling method that has been used for decades to estimate brood and chick survival in many gallinaceous bird species. However, brood survival estimates based upon flush counts may be biased because of low detection probabilities, occurrence of brood amalgamations, brood abandonment, and brooding adult mortality. Given that brood flush counts are still commonly used to estimate brood survival, and in some cases extrapolated to provide an estimate of chick survival, it is important to evaluate biases associated with this method. Therefore, we evaluated the use of brood flush counts to estimate brood survival …

How Does Variation In Winter Weather Affect Deer-Vehicle Collision Rates, Daniel D. Olson, John A. Bissonette, Patricia C. Cramer, Patrick J. Jackson, Kevin D. Bunnell, Daniel C. Coster

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding how deer move in relationship to roads is critical, because deer are in vehicle collisions, and collisions cause vehicle damage, as well as human injuries and fatalities. In temperate climates, mule deer Odocoileus hemionus have distinct movement patterns that affect their spatial distribution in relationship to roads. In this paper, we analyzed deer movements during two consecutive winter seasons with vastly different conditions to determine how deer—vehicle collision rates responded. We predicted that deer—vehicle collision rates would be higher when precipitation and snow depth were higher. We used meteorological data from local weather stations to describe temperature, precipitation and …

Dispersal Patterns Of Subadult And Adult Colorado Squawfish In The Upper Colorado River, D. B. Osmundson, Ronald J. Ryel, M. E. Tucker, D. B. Burdick, W. R. Elmblad, T. E. Chart

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Abstract.—We investigated distribution and dispersal patterns of subadult and adult Colorado squawfish Ptychocheilus lucius (recently renamed the Colorado pikeminnow) throughout their range in the upper Colorado River. Annual, river-wide, capture–recapture data were used to document movements during a 5-year period (1991–1995). Average total length of Colorado squawfish progressively increased upstream: juveniles and subadults occurred almost exclusively in the lowermost 105 km of the 298-km study area, whereas most adults were concentrated in the uppermost 98 km. This was most pronounced early in the study and less so later due to the effect of two or three strong year-classes that dispersed …

Growth And Survival Of Colorado Squawfish In The Upper Colorado River, D. B. Osmundson, Ronald J. Ryel, T. E. Mourning

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Growth and adult survival rates were estimated for the endangered Colorado squawfish Ptychocheilus lucius inhabiting the upper Colorado River by using data from fish captured during 1990–1995. Mean annual growth rates of fish aged 3–6 years ranged from 32.2 (age 6) to 82.0 (age 3) mm/year. Growth rates for older fish were highest for fish 400–449 mm total length, TL, (42.7 mm/year) and declined to 19.8 mm/year for fish 500–549 mm TL. Fish 550 mm and longer grew an average 9.5 mm/year. Survival rates for fish 550 mm and longer were estimated by comparing measured size distributions with simulated stable …