Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Understanding The Drivers Of Body Condition In Female Elk: Implications For Nutritional Ecology On Changing Landscapes, Nicole P. Bealer

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Ungulate body condition is often understood to reflect the nutritional resources on the landscape but is ultimately influenced by more than forage because body condition integrates both energetic costs and benefits. Factors driving variation in female body condition can be classified in both individual vs. environmental and bottom-up vs. top-down frameworks. My research evaluates how individual vs. environmental and bottom-up vs. top-down frameworks explain variation in ingesta-free body fat (IFBF) in female elk (Cervus canadensis). I used seven years (2015-2021) of IFBF data from monitored and recaptured female elk (n = 139) in the Ya Ha Tinda (YHT) population in …

Responses Of Elk To Mangement Actions And Hunter Access In The Northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, Usa, Peter O. Mumford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chapter 1

Regulation of rifle hunting of adult female elk is the main tool wildlife managers use to manage the abundance of elk (Cervus canadensis) in the western United States. However, elk are increasingly located in areas where hunting access is restricted during rifle-hunting season, decreasing the ability of managers to reduce elk abundance through hunter harvest. Management actions that restricted hunter access in a 26 km2 area and closed 62 kms of predominantly 2-wheel motorized routes occurred in the northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, USA. We collected data on elk locations before and two years after the management actions and …

Bottom-Up Herbivore-Plant Feedbacks Trump Trophic Cascades In A Wolf-Elk-Grassland System, Trevor C. Weeks

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Top-down predator-prey effects that alter the abundance, biomass, or productivity of a population community across more than one link in a food web are referred to as trophic cascades. While these effects have been extensively studied in aquatic environments, fewer studies have examined trophic cascades in terrestrial ecosystems. And fewer still terrestrial studies have tested for trophic cascades between vertebrates and grassland vegetation. Across the globe, grassland plant biomass is driven by both precipitation and non-linear positive feedbacks between grazing and plant productivity, as predicted by the Intermediate Grazing Hypothesis. Yet little is known about the role that apex carnivores …

Estimating Juvenile Recruitment Of Elk In An Occupancy Modeling Framework, Mateen A. Hessami

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Juvenile recruitment is a key parameter in understanding ungulate population dynamics. Traditional methods in population composition surveys, such as estimating young: adult-female ratio’s, can be precluded by cost, safety, and feasibility. The use of remote cameras provides a potentially cutting-edge tool to apply to wildlife population estimation techniques. While the prevalence of remote cameras in ungulate studies has increased, few studies have used cameras to estimate vital rates, such as recruitment or survival. Here, we tested the potential of remote cameras to estimate calf: cow ratios and calf survival of elk (Cervus elaphus) using the Royle-Nichols (2003) occupancy …