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Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons™
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- Habitat selection (3)
- Canis lupus (2)
- Fisher (2)
- Pekania pennanti (2)
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- Avian survey (1)
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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Estimation Of Probability Of Habitat Use Of Roosevelt Elk On The Olympic Peninsula, Vincent Michael Gugliotti
Estimation Of Probability Of Habitat Use Of Roosevelt Elk On The Olympic Peninsula, Vincent Michael Gugliotti
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
Estimating the probability of habitat use for a particular species is crucial to the direct management and conservation of that species. Without knowledge of habitat preferences, managers cannot effectively focus efforts on vital resources or landscape types. However, modelling probability of habitat use can be done in several ways which leaves room for variation and uncertainty in the estimates produced by each method. This study is an examination of the variation between two estimates of probability of habitat use while focusing on a particular subspecies of elk that inhabits a unique ecosystem relative to other elk subspecies. I modeled elk …
Understanding Caribou Population Cycles, Jack R. St. John
Understanding Caribou Population Cycles, Jack R. St. John
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
The complex population dynamics of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) were studied to determine the patterns of their population cycles and the processes driving them. It is well established, via previous archaeological research and Indigenous knowledge, that large migrating caribou herds found in and around the tundra at northern latitudes experience population boom and busts roughly every several decades. However, the processes driving the dynamics of these cycles are relatively unknown, which makes managing caribou herds for recreational and subsistence harvests difficult. It has been hypothesized that a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors shape these cycles, with density-dependence, predation, …
A Reintroduction Retrospective: Comparative Fisher (Pekania Pennanti) Survival And Prey Habitat Use In The Cascade Mountains Of Washington State, Tanner S.T. Humphries
A Reintroduction Retrospective: Comparative Fisher (Pekania Pennanti) Survival And Prey Habitat Use In The Cascade Mountains Of Washington State, Tanner S.T. Humphries
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Increasing human impacts on biodiversity highlight the global need for ecological restoration. For many wildlife species, reintroduction is necessary to re-establish populations in parts of their historic range where they have been extirpated. Reintroduction efforts are commonly used to help restore ecosystem integrity, but are often expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful at generating self-sustaining populations. Thus, a more complete understanding of the factors affecting restoration success is important for ensuring successful outcomes and responsible stewardship. Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are one of the most commonly reintroduced carnivores in North America, but the success of such efforts is highly variable, …
The Evolution Of Dragons, Laura J. Mayfield
The Evolution Of Dragons, Laura J. Mayfield
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
Dragons have been depicted in human art as early as 4500 BCE. For centuries, these fantasy creatures have inspired countless folk and fantasy tales, as well as appearing in the art of different cultures around the world. Now there are thousands of different depictions of these huge, flying, fire-breathing lizards, but are any of them possible? In this study, I reference peer-reviewed scientific articles, phylogenetic analysis, and paleoart studies to create biologically-sound dragons. Basing the dragon lineage on a real branch of webbed-winged scansoriopterygids—an extinct family of climbing and gliding maniraptoran dinosaurs—I explored the possible wing-structure, fire-breathing abilities, and effects …
Influence Of Livestock And Electrified Fences On Livestock Depredation And Habitat Selection By Grizzly Bears In The Mission Valley, Montana, Kari Lynn Eneas
Influence Of Livestock And Electrified Fences On Livestock Depredation And Habitat Selection By Grizzly Bears In The Mission Valley, Montana, Kari Lynn Eneas
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Balancing protection between livestock and carnivores has been a long-standing challenge in conservation. When encounters between carnivores and livestock or humans result in conflict or livestock depredation, the safety of both wildlife and humans are at risk. Reducing livestock depredation by grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) will be important as populations continue to recover and expand beyond public lands in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. We used GPS locations from 8 female grizzly bears spanning 5 years in the Mission Valley, Montana, to evaluate the effect of livestock on habitat selection of grizzly bears. The Mission Valley is located on …
Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson
Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Migration by ungulates has traditionally been thought of as a strategy that increases access to forage quality or reduces exposure to risk of predation, but the benefits of migration may be waning globally. In partially migratory populations, the persistence of both migrant and resident strategies is an intriguing ecological phenomenon, because migrants and residents often face contrasting fitness consequences. Partial migration is common in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a species that has experienced widespread declines across the western United States during recent decades. Mule deer seldom switch between migratory strategies throughout their lifetime, which may make them less resilient to …
Finding Fishers: Determining The Distribution Of A Rare Forest Mesocarnivore In The Northern Rocky Mountains, Jessica M. Krohner
Finding Fishers: Determining The Distribution Of A Rare Forest Mesocarnivore In The Northern Rocky Mountains, Jessica M. Krohner
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
The Northern Rocky Mountain fisher population (Pekania pennanti), is classified as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need and is of special concern to state, federal, and tribal entities. In this thesis, we present methods to effectively survey fishers across the northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana, and provide estimates of fisher distribution at a population range-wide scale through occupancy analyses. We also assess factors that influence fisher occurrence through covariate analyses and identify core fisher habitat in the northern Rockies through spatial occupancy modeling. By sampling broadly across the landscape, we provide baseline distributional data for comparison against …
Golden Eagle Resource Selection And Environmental Drivers Of Reproduction In The Northern Range Of Yellowstone National Park, David Brown Haines
Golden Eagle Resource Selection And Environmental Drivers Of Reproduction In The Northern Range Of Yellowstone National Park, David Brown Haines
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
In the United States (US), National Parks are considered the “crown jewels” of protected lands. However, the importance of National Parks to wildlife populations and the species that inhabit them is not often quantified, thus, requiring a better understanding of National Parks as a conservation tool. Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are a North American species of conservation concern and territories in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) are relatively dense. However, average reproductive rates over the past ten years (2011-2020) have been low (productivity = 0.34, nest success = 28%). The contrast of high density and …
Quantifying Coat Color Phenology Of Sympatric Snowshoe Hares And Weasels, Brandon Murray Davis
Quantifying Coat Color Phenology Of Sympatric Snowshoe Hares And Weasels, Brandon Murray Davis
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
No abstract provided.
Quantifying False Positives In Avian Survey Data, Kaitlyn M. Strickfaden
Quantifying False Positives In Avian Survey Data, Kaitlyn M. Strickfaden
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
Imperfect detection is a known issue when conducting count-based surveys in wildlife studies. False positive detections, observed occurrences of individuals that truly are not present, are often assumed to not occur. This assumption can bias detection rates and create misleading results when calculating population estimates. Survey methods such as the dependent double-observer method are suggested to reduce the occurrence of false positives (Nichols et al. 2000). My study quantified and compared rates of false positives in a single-observer method and a dependent double-observer method using computer-generated auditory surveys. I categorized volunteer observers as either inexperienced or experienced and asked them …
Spatial Patterns Of Winter Roadside Gray Wolf Sightability In Yellowstone National Park, Jeremy Sunderraj
Spatial Patterns Of Winter Roadside Gray Wolf Sightability In Yellowstone National Park, Jeremy Sunderraj
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
Imperfect detection is ubiquitous among wildlife research and can affect research conclusions and management. Detection probability is often included in observation-based models. We leveraged research of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in northern Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to evaluate how the probability of sighting radio collared wolf packs from ground-based observation locations was affected by the characteristics of each spatial location (i.e., distance from the road, visibility (from a viewshed analysis), habitat openness, carcass presence, and wolf group size). We used two complementary approaches focusing on sightings during early (mid-November to mid-December) and late (March) winter periods between 1995 and 2017. …
Lewis’S Woodpecker Nest Success And Habitat Selection In Cottonwood Floodplain Versus Burned Conifer Forests, William M. Blake
Lewis’S Woodpecker Nest Success And Habitat Selection In Cottonwood Floodplain Versus Burned Conifer Forests, William M. Blake
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Breeding habitat selection influences reproductive outcomes. Habitat selection may be adaptive and benefit populations, but it can also be maladaptive with negative consequences for populations. Understanding habitat selection and its influence on reproductive success, especially in species of concern, is critical for effective management. Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) is a Species of Concern that has experienced national population declines. We studied its abundance and reproductive success in two commonly selected breeding forest types (i.e., cottonwood floodplain and mixed-conifer burned), and nest-site characteristics (nest availability, food availability, and vegetation attributes) that have the potential to yield strong differences in …
High-Resolution Mapping Of Hierarchical Greater Sage-Grouse Nesting Habitat: A Grain-Spectrum Approach In Northwestern Wyoming, Robert T. Haynam Iii
High-Resolution Mapping Of Hierarchical Greater Sage-Grouse Nesting Habitat: A Grain-Spectrum Approach In Northwestern Wyoming, Robert T. Haynam Iii
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Our overall objective was to create a probabilistic nesting-habitat map for the Jackson Hole sage-grouse population that would have utility as a tool for future research, conservation, and management. The models that we developed for this purpose were specified to evaluate whether sage-grouse may be selecting nesting-habitat characteristics simultaneously at various spatial scales. Our spatially-explicit landscape-scale research was implemented primarily with readily available National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) data. All nesting data was collected from 2007-2010. We tested how a broad range of grain sizes (spatial resolution) of covariate values affected the fit to logistic regression models used to estimate …
Influence Of Fine Sediment On Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) Egg Survival And Spawning Habitat Suitability, Ian R. Anderson
Influence Of Fine Sediment On Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) Egg Survival And Spawning Habitat Suitability, Ian R. Anderson
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
The Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is a freshwater salmonid that is found in clear, cold waters throughout the northern regions of North America. Arctic grayling are still widespread in Alaska and Canada but have declined substantially in their two historic, disjunct southern populations in the contiguous United States. One of these populations was found in the AuSable River in Michigan and went extinct in the mid-1900s (Vincent 1962) while the other, found in the Upper Missouri River drainage in Montana, now inhabits a small portion of its historical range (Nelson 1954). Currently, only two native populations of Arctic …
Cows And Plows: Science-Based Conservation For Grassland Songbirds In Agricultural Landscapes, Marisa K. Lipsey
Cows And Plows: Science-Based Conservation For Grassland Songbirds In Agricultural Landscapes, Marisa K. Lipsey
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Temperate grasslands are among earth’s most imperiled ecosystems. In North America, steep declines of endemic songbird populations indicate that grassland loss and degradation may be approaching critical levels. Grasslands are agricultural landscapes largely (~85%) under private ownership with little formal protection status. Remaining bird populations depend on grazing lands that have not been converted to cropland. We combine regional data from a hotspot for grassland bird diversity (northeast Montana, USA; 26,500-km2) with continental data spanning the northern Great Plains (1,000,000-km2) to evaluate how land use and management influence bird distribution and abundance. Regionally, habitat used by seven grassland specialists spanned …
Habitat Quality Influences Migratory Strategy Of Female White-Tailed Deer, Charles R. Henderson Jr.
Habitat Quality Influences Migratory Strategy Of Female White-Tailed Deer, Charles R. Henderson Jr.
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Partial migration is a life history strategy that is common for ungulate species living in seasonal environments. One factor that influences the decision to migrate by ungulates is access to high quality habitat. We evaluated the influence of access to winter habitat of high quality on the probability of an individual migrating, the differences in seasonal habitat use between and within migratory and resident classes of deer, and the effects of this decision on the survival of female white-tailed deer. We hypothesized that deer with home ranges of relatively low quality in winter would have a relatively high probability of …