Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Catch-And-Release Angling On Growth And Survival Of Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus Mykiss, K. L. Pope, G. R. Wilde, D. W. Knabe

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Catch-and-release angling is popular in many parts of the world and plays an increasingly important role in fish conservation efforts. Although survival rates associated with catch-and-release angling are well documented for many species, sublethal effects have been less studied. An experiment was conducted to directly assess the effects of catch-and-release angling on growth and survival of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum). Catch-and-release events were simulated in laboratory tanks maintained at 15–16 °C with hooks manually placed in pre-designated locations in the mouths of the fish. There were no differences in standard length (P= 0.59) or wet weight (P=0.81) gained between …

2007 Plant Community Survey Of The Wildcat Hills Banner & Scotts Bluff Counties, Nebraska, Robert F. Steinauer

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

To facilitate conservation efforts within the BUL, vegetation surveys were conducted from July 5 to August 30, 2007 to provide additional information concerning the distribution and quality of native plant community and rare plant species occurrences within the area.

Approximately 50,000 acres were surveyed representing approximately one third of the Wildcat Hills west of Hubbard’s Gap Road. Landowners were contacted and permission to access their properties granted prior to field surveys. Nebraska Natural Heritage Program (NHHP) Ecological Community Survey Forms were completed to document plant communities, and NHHP Rare Plant Survey Forms were completed to document rare plants (S1 and …

Estimating The Number Of Whales Entering Trade Using Dna Profiling And Capture-Recapture Analysis Of Market Products, C. Scott Baker, Justin G. Cooke, Shane Lavery, Merel L. Dalebout, Robert L. Brownell Jr., Yong-Un Ma, Naoko Funahashi, Colm Carraher

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Surveys of commercial markets combined with molecular taxonomy (i.e. molecular monitoring) provide a means to detect products from illegal, unregulated and/or unreported (IUU) exploitation, including the sale of fisheries bycatch and wild meat (bushmeat). Capture-recapture analyses of market products using DNA profiling have the potential to estimate the total number of individuals entering the market. However, these analyses are not directly analogous to those of living individuals because a ‘market individual’ does not die suddenly but, instead, remains available for a time in decreasing quantities, rather like the exponential decay of a radioactive isotope. Here we use mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) …

The Whaling Issue: Conservation, Confusion, And Casuistry, Phillip J. Clapham, Simon Childerhouse, Nicolas J. Gales, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Michael F. Tillman, Robert L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Morishita’s “multiple analysis”of the whaling issue [Morishita J. Multiple analysis of the whaling issue: Understanding the dispute by a matrix. Marine Policy 2006;30:802–8] is essentially a restatement of the Government of Japan’s whaling policy, which confuses the issue through selective use of data, unsubstantiated facts, and the vilification of opposing perspectives. Here, we deconstruct the major problems with Morishita’s article and provide an alternative view of the whaling dispute. For many people in this debate, the issue is not that some whales are not abundant, but that the whaling industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself or to honestly assess …

Space–Time Zero-Inflated Count Models Of Harbor Seals, Jay M. Ver Hoef, John K. Jansen

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Environmental data are spatial, temporal, and often come with many zeros. In this paper, we included space–time random effects in zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) and ‘hurdle’ models to investigate haulout patterns of harbor seals on glacial ice. The data consisted of counts, for 18 dates on a lattice grid of samples, of harbor seals hauled out on glacial ice in Disenchantment Bay, near Yakutat, Alaska. A hurdle model is similar to a ZIP model except it does not mix zeros from the binary and count processes. Both models can be used for zero-inflated data, and we compared space–time ZIP and hurdle …

Hydrologic Connectivity And The Contribution Of Stream Headwaters To Ecological Integrity At Regional Scales1, Mary C. Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle, C. Rhett Jackson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Cumulatively, headwater streams contribute to maintaining hydrologic connectivity and ecosystem integrity at regional scales. Hydrologic connectivity is the water-mediated transport of matter, energy and organisms within or between elements of the hydrologic cycle. Headwater streams compose over two-thirds of total stream length in a typical river drainage and directly connect the upland and riparian landscape to the rest of the stream ecosystem. Altering headwater streams, e.g., by channelization, diversion through pipes, impoundment and burial, modifies fluxes between uplands and downstream river segments and eliminates distinctive habitats. The large-scale ecological effects of altering headwaters are amplified by land uses that alter …

Butterfly Responses To Prairie Restoration Through Fire And Grazing, Jennifer A. Vogel, Diane M. Debinski, Rolf R. Koford, James R. Miller

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The development of land for modern agriculture has resulted in losses of native prairie habitat. The small, isolated patches of prairie habitat that remain are threatened by fire suppression, overgrazing, and invasion by non-native species. We evaluated the effects of three restoration practices (grazing only, burning only, and burning and grazing) on the vegetation characteristics and butterfly communities of remnant prairies. Total butterfly abundance was highest on prairies that were managed with burning and grazing and lowest on those that were only burned. Butterfly species richness did not differ among any of the restoration practices. Butterfly species diversity was highest …

Interactions: Supplemental Issue Elections 2007

TWS Wildlife Damage Management Working Group Newsletter

Vote….Special Election Issue Of Interactions; What Does It Mean To Be A Tws Member?; Meet The Candidates!; Instructions For Voting!; The Wildlife Society Wildlife Damage Management Working Group

Interactions: Newsletter Of The Wildlife Society Wildlife Damage Management Working Group, Interactions: Volume 13 Issue 3 Fall 2007

TWS Wildlife Damage Management Working Group Newsletter

Let Ters From Art The Wildlife Society Annual Conference Is Approaching Fast; Call For Manuscri PTS Issue of Human-Wildlife Conflicts To Focus On Large Predators; Wildlife Damage Working Group Business Proposed Change to Wildlife Damage Managmenet Working Group Charter; C All For Papers : International Beaver Ecology And Management Workshop Phoenix, Arizona October 9-12, 2007; Focus On The Field Agnic Wildlife Damage Management; Calls From The Field (Or A House, Or A Farm, Or A…); Humane Society Getting Into the Private Nuiance Wildlife Control Business; Call For Papers : 23rd Vertebrate Pest Confrence March 17-20, 2008 San Diego, California; Fall …

Evaluation And Comparison Of Gross Primary Production Estimates For The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Li Zhang, Bruce K. Wylie, Thomas Loveland, Eugene A. Fosnight, Larry L. Tieszen, Lei Ji, Tagir G. Gilmanov

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Two spatially-explicit estimates of gross primary production (GPP) are available for the Northern Great Plains. An empirical piecewise regression (PWR) GPP model was developed from flux tower measurements to map carbon flux across the region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) GPP model is a process-based model that uses flux tower data to calibrate its parameters. Verification and comparison of the regional PWR GPP and the global MODIS GPP are important for the modeling of grassland carbon flux. This study compared GPP estimates from PWR and MODIS models with five towers in the grasslands. Among them, PWR GPP and MODIS …

Fundulus As The Premier Teleost Model In Environmental Biology: Opportunities For New Insights Using Genomics, Karen G. Burnett, Lisa J. Bain, William S. Baldwin, Gloria V. Callard, Sarah Cohen, Richard T. Di Giulio, David H. Evans, Marta Gómez-Chiarri, Mark E. Hahn, Cindi A. Hoover, Sibel I. Karchner, Fumi Katoh, Deborah L. Maclatchy, William S. Marshall, Joel N. Meyer, Diane E. Nacci, Marjorie F. Oleksiak, Bernard B. Rees, Thomas D. Singer, John J. Stegeman, David W. Towle, Peter A. Van Veld, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, Andrew Whitehead, Richard N. Winn, Douglas L. Crawford

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

A strong foundation of basic and applied research documents that the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus and related species are unique laboratory and field models for understanding how individuals and populations interact with their environment. In this paper we summarize an extensive body of work examining the adaptive responses of Fundulus species to environmental conditions, and describe how this research has contributed importantly to our understanding of physiology, gene regulation, toxicology, and ecological and evolutionary genetics of teleosts and other vertebrates. These explorations have reached a critical juncture at which advancement is hindered by the lack of genomic resources for these …

Antimicrobial Activities Of Aldehydes And Ketones Produced During Rapid Volatilization Of Biogenic Oils, Aruna Lamba

Masters Theses

"The overall objective of the research presented in this thesis was to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of commercially available neat compounds in order to validate the analytes which were found in the smoke generated during rapid volatilization of biogenic oil esters and mineral oils. To attain this objective various analytes were selected from the analytical data provided for the smoke, and neat compounds were purchased. A special desiccator was designed to conduct experiments. Simultaneously vapor phase concentration of the neat compounds was determined to establish relation between neat compounds and the analytes found in smoke. Other part of the thesis …

Ipm And Iwdm: Is There A Difference?, Michael J. Bodenchuck

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Integrated pest management (IPM) has been the model for pest management for more than half a century. IPM has been defined as “the process of integrating and applying practical methods of prevention and control to keep pest situations from reaching damaging levels while minimizing potentially harmful effects of pest control measures on humans, nontarget species and the environment” (USDA 1994). The IPM model taught in invertebrate pest management classes includes the concept of an economic threshold (a level at which the benefits of control exceed the costs of the damage plus the costs of control). The methods which are “integrated” …

A Landscape-Level Survey Of Feral Hog Impacts To Natural Resources Of The Big Thicket National Preserve, Pedro M. Chavarria, Roel R. Lopez, Gillian Bowser, Nova J. Silvy

Human–Wildlife Interactions

We conducted a survey of the impact of feral hog (Sus scrofa) on the natural resources of the Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP), a unit of the National Park Service. We worked in 3 management units: Lance Rosier, Big Sandy, and Turkey Creek. Random stratified sampling was conducted to assess impacts from hog damage on resources by vegetation type at a landscape scale. Landscape features such as topography, soil moisture, soil type, and dominant vegetative cover types were used to predict hog damage. The overall damage to vegetation from hog rooting or wallowing averaged 28% within the 3 …

Intrafield Patterns Of Wildlife Damage To Corn And Soybeans In Northern Indiana, Travis L. Devault, James C. Beasley, Lee A. Humberg, Brian J. Macgowan, Mónica I. Retamosa, Ollin E. Rhodes Jr.

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Management programs aimed at reducing wildlife damage to row crops rely on information concerning the spatial nature of wildlife damage at local and landscape scales. In this study we explored spatial patterns of wildlife damage within individual corn and soybean fields by describing relationships between specific locations where wildlife damage was recorded and distances from such locations to various habitat types that presumably influenced animal abundance and movements in our study area. Using stratified random sampling, we conducted depredation surveys of 100 corn fi elds and 60 soybean fields from May through October both in 2003 and 2004 and recorded …

Adaptive And Economic Management Methods For Feral Hog Control In Florida, Richard M. Engeman, Bernice U. Constantin, Stephanie A. Schwiff, Henry T. Smith, John Woolard, John Allen, John Dunlap

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) negatively impact the environment in most places around the world where they have been introduced into the wild. In many places, hog removal is essential to protect special habitats, in particular, wetlands. This paper describes techniques developed for use in adaptive management approaches to enhance hog removal efforts in Florida, as well as methods to evaluate the economic impacts from hog management. A valuable adaptive management tool that can be an easily applied index to monitor feral hog activity is track plots. This method has been effective for monitoring hog distribution and relative abundance, …

An Extraordinary Patch Of Feral Hog Damage In Florida Before And After Initiating Hog Removal, Richard M. Engeman, John Woolard, Henry T. Smith, Jean Bourassa, Bernice U. Constantin, Daniel Griffin

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) are a particularly destructive exotic species in the United States (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1999), including Florida, which, along with Hawaii, is one of 2 states cited as having the most severe invasive species problems (U.S. Congress 1993) in the country. First introduced to North America by the European colonists (Conover 2007) hogs were one of the first invasive exotic species to take hold in Florida. They can transmit disease to livestock (Hartin et al. 2007) and humans (Conover and Vail 2007). They impose a variety of negative environmental impacts, including habitat degradation and …

Influence Of Habitat Patch Characteristics On The Success Of Upland Duck Nests, Jaiume M. Jiménez, Michael R. Conover, Raymond D. Deuser, Terry A. Messmer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

When there is a rich guild of nest predators that use different modalities and techniques to locate hidden nests, we hypothesized that no habitat patch characteristic will consistently predict nest success, because if such a characteristic existed then predators would develop a search image based on it and use that characteristic to increase their hunting efficiency for nests. We tested this prediction in the Prairie Pothole region of North Dakota by characterizing the features of 16 habitat patches that contained >1,800 dabbling duck nests. Nest success was monitored during both the early and late nesting season over 2 years. Nest …

Demographic And Spatial Characteristics Of Feral Hogs In The Chihuahuan Desert, Texas, Roger N. Adkins, Louis A. Harveston

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) have recently expanded their range to include portions of the arid regions of the Chihuahuan Desert, Texas. We examined feral hog density, survival rates, range size, and habitat use in the Davis Mountains, Texas, to understand hog ecology in a desert environment. We tested the hypothesis that densities of feral hogs across Texas would be positively related to precipitation. Feral hog densities in the Chihuahuan Desert were low (0.65 individuals/km²), supporting our prediction. Annual home range sizes (100% minimum convex polygon) were also high and averaged 48.3 ± 4.4 km² and …

Distribution And Disease Prevalence Of Feral Hogs In Missouri, R. Edwin Hartin, Mark R. Ryan, Tyler A. Campbell

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No attempts have been made to document the distribution of feral hogs (Sus scrofa) in Missouri. Also, antibody prevalence for pseudorabies virus and swine brucellosis have not been reported from Missouri. Our objectives were to characterize the current distribution of feral hogs in Missouri and to determine prevalence and distribution of feral hogs with antibodies against selected important diseases. We collected feral hog sighting data both from the public and Missouri Wildlife Services and Missouri Department of Conservation wildlife biologists. We determined prevalence of antibodies against pseudorabies virus, swine brucellosis, tularemia, and classical swine fever. From 2000 to …

Birth Control Is Not For Everyone: A Response, Allen T. Rutberg

Human–Wildlife Interactions

In her Soap Box critique of wildlife contraception (HWC 2007), Elizabeth Bingham makes 2 basic points (if she will forgive my distillation of a complex set of arguments). She argues, first, that wildlife contraception is too expensive and too slow to act to meet the needs of farmers, ranchers, and other business people who suffer losses from wildlife damage. Second, she argues, inflated expectations for the problem-solving capacity of wildlife contraception are driving more attention and research money into wildlife contraception than a more hard-headed evaluation would warrant.

Hazing Of Canada Geese Is Unlikely To Reduce Nuisance Populations In Urban And Suburban Communities, Robin A. Holevinski, Paul D. Curtis, Richard A. Malecki

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Growing populations of resident Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have caused increased nuisance problems in urban and suburban communities. Hazing, or persistent harassment, is often recommended as a nonlethal management strategy to alleviate these problems. Does hazing simply cause a local redistribution of birds, or can it solve nuisance problems by pushing geese to rural areas where hunting mortality could reduce the population? To answer this question, we marked 368 adult and 400 juvenile geese with leg bands in 1 urban and 1 suburban community in western New York State during June 2002 and 2003. This sample included 30 …

Book Review: The Beast In The Garden: A Modern Parable Of Man And Nature, Nicole Mccoy

Human–Wildlife Interactions

When I first read The Beast in the Garden shortly aft er the release of the hardback edition in 2004, I was reminded of the exchange quoted above in the movie, “The Matrix.” Neo (Mr. Anderson) survived. Scott Lancaster, a teenage athlete running in the hills outside of his Colorado high school, died. He probably never heard the mountain lion that stalked and killed him, but after reading David Baron’s book, I believe we should have. Had our ears been attuned to the proper frequency, the mountain lion’s approach would have been as loud as the subway train that spelled …

Effi Cacy Of Cpth-Treated Egg Baits For Removing Ravens, Peter S. Coates, Jack O. Spencer, Jr., David J. Delehanty

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Human-altered landscapes have provided resource subsidies for common ravens (Corvus corax) resulting in a substantial increase in raven abundance and distribution throughout the United States and Canada in the past 25 years. Ravens are effective predators of eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. During 2002–2005, we tested whether chicken egg baits treated with CPTH (3-chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride) could be used to manage raven numbers in an area where raven depredation was impacting sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus columbianus) and greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations in Nevada. We performed multiple raven surveys at a treatment site and …

Crop Diversifi Cation Leads To Diverse Bird Problems In Hawaiian Agriculture, Marni E. Koopman, William C. Pitt

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Over the last 20 years, Hawaii’s agriculture has shifted from a focus on sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) and pineapples (Ananas comosus) produced on large farms to a diverse array of products produced on a multitude of smaller farms. This dramatic shift in production, in addition to the introduction of many new avian species, has resulted in a concomitant change in the problems faced by agriculture. We surveyed farmers to determine the extent of _bird damag_e ^to crops, t^he sp^ecies responsible, _the c_rops m_ost v …

Drive-By Netting: A Technique For Capturing Grebes And Other Diving Waterfowl, Joe A. Caudell, Michael R. Conover

Human–Wildlife Interactions

We describe a new method (drive-by netting) for capturing grebes (Podiceps spp.) and other birds that dive under water to escape capture. We used a floating gill net to capture 203 eared grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) in 20 days in 1999 on the Great Salt Lake (GSL), 652 eared grebes in 41 days on the GSL in 2000, and 409 grebes in 20 days in 2001. Other species captured during the 2000 and 2001 fi eld seasons included 1 western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis), 9 ruddy ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis), and 1 Canada goose (Branta …

Avoiding Confl Icts Between Wildlife Professionals And Local Hunters Over Efforts To Eradicate Exotic Game Species, Hans Sin

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Wildlife damage management, by its nature, is conducive to a variety of conflicts within society, whether it is the method of management or the management itself. Conflicts within society are common, and people with diverse opinions and values may disagree about how wildlife or natural resources should be managed. Opinions can vary among different interest groups (e.g., backpackers, wildlife viewers, and hunters) that have invested time and money in the resource. Eradication efforts of big game to preserve threatened or endangered plants or wildlife have been a source of controversy among various local hunter groups, especially on island ecosystems, such …

Ecology And Management Of Feral Hogs, Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Ben C. West

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) have been present in North America since the arrival of the earliest settlers in the sixteenth century. Colonists originally released hogs because of the animals’ ability to survive on their own and to serve as a ready food supply for settlers. Since that time, hogs have expanded their range and now are present in 40 of the 50 United States and parts of Canada. Their rapid expansion is similar to that of other introduced species, and, as a result, they are generally classified as an invasive exotics, along with hundreds of other plant and …

Foraging Preferences Of Captive Canada Geese Related To Turfgrass Mixtures, Brian E. Washburn, Scott C. Barras, Thomas W. Seamans

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Overabundant populations of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) cause economic and safety concerns associated with collisions with civil and military aircraft. Habitat management techniques that reduce the use of airfield habitats by geese might reduce these concerns. The objective of this study was to determine if captive Canada geese exhibited a foraging preference between a vegetation mixture consisting mostly of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens) versus an endophyte-infected tall fescue- (Festuca arundinacea) based vegetation mixture.

Public Opinion, The Leopold Report, And The Reform Of Federal Predator Control Policy, James W. Feldman

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This paper explores the role of public opinion in a landmark shift in the federal predator control pro^gram. In 1963, the Le^opold Committee recommended extensive reform in the federal predator c_ontrol program, predicting that growing p_ublic support for the environmen_tal movement would force such a move if the government did not initiate a change. In the years following the publication of the Leopold Report, the U.S. Division of Wildlife Services reformed its predator control program and tried to improve its public image. Meanwhile, both environmentali_sts and ranchers fought …