Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Life Sciences (1478)
- Environmental Sciences (1474)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (1474)
- Animal Sciences (605)
- Medicine and Health Sciences (593)
-
- Veterinary Medicine (592)
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (591)
- Veterinary Infectious Diseases (591)
- Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health (590)
- Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology (588)
- Veterinary Microbiology and Immunobiology (587)
- Natural Resources Management and Policy (586)
- Natural Resources and Conservation (585)
- Other Veterinary Medicine (584)
- Population Biology (584)
- Zoology (582)
- Other Environmental Sciences (581)
- Ornithology (9)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (5)
- Immunology and Infectious Disease (4)
- Agriculture (3)
- Environmental Health and Protection (3)
- Other Animal Sciences (3)
- Parasitology (3)
- Public Health (3)
- Veterinary Pathology and Pathobiology (3)
- Aquaculture and Fisheries (2)
- Biology (2)
- Civil and Environmental Engineering (2)
- Clinical Epidemiology (2)
- Keyword
-
- Invasive species (108)
- Sus scrofa (102)
- Feral swine (82)
- Rabies (70)
- Canis latrans (68)
-
- Coyote (67)
- Wildlife damage management (61)
- White-tailed deer (49)
- Odocoileus virginianus (46)
- Raccoon (43)
- Management (42)
- Home range (36)
- Birds (34)
- Disease (33)
- Procyon lotor (33)
- Airport (31)
- Predation (31)
- Aquaculture (29)
- Rodenticide (29)
- Wildlife (29)
- Boiga irregularis (27)
- Surveillance (27)
- Damage (26)
- Phalacrocorax auritus (26)
- Wild pig (25)
- Bird strike (24)
- Blackbirds (24)
- Human–wildlife conflicts (24)
- Wild pigs (24)
- Oral rabies vaccination (23)
- Publication Year
- File Type
Articles 1021 - 1050 of 2570
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Best Practice Guidelines For Rat Eradication On Tropical Islands, B. B. Keitt, R. Griffiths, S. Boudjelas, K. Broome, S. Cranwell, J. Millett, W. Pitt, A. Samaniego-Herrera
Best Practice Guidelines For Rat Eradication On Tropical Islands, B. B. Keitt, R. Griffiths, S. Boudjelas, K. Broome, S. Cranwell, J. Millett, W. Pitt, A. Samaniego-Herrera
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Invasive vertebrates are a leading cause of extinction on islands and rats (Rattus spp.) are one of the most damaging to island ecosystems. Methods to eradicate rats from islands are well established and there have been over 580 successful eradications to date. Increasingly, rat eradications are being implemented on tropical islands, a reflection of the need to protect the threatened biodiversity in the tropics. Yet rat eradications on tropical islands fail more frequently than those in temperate climates. In an effort to identify the main reasons for the lower success rate on tropical islands and possible solutions, a workshop …
Thermal Fumigation Provides A Simple And Effective Solution For Sanitizing Cargo From Invasive Snakes, Fred Kraus, Randal S. Stahl, William Pitt
Thermal Fumigation Provides A Simple And Effective Solution For Sanitizing Cargo From Invasive Snakes, Fred Kraus, Randal S. Stahl, William Pitt
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
The Brown Treesnake (Boiga irregularis) is invasive in Guam and threatens to be dispersed by military and civilian transportation activities to other islands in the Pacific, where it could be expected to inflict similar damages. Prevention of inadvertent export of snakes in cargo and vehicles currently relies on trained canine detection teams, which are expensive to use and unable to detect all snakes. Hence, there has long been interest in developing effective and cheaper means of fumigating cargo to remove snakes. A companion study has shown that chemical fumigation is unlikely to be readily developed into a practical …
Effects Of Barred Owl (Strix Varia) Range Expansion On Haemoproteus Parasite Assemblage Dynamics And Transmission In Barred And Northern Spotted Owls (Strix Occidentalis Caurina), Krista E. Lewicki, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Lowell V. Diller, Alan B. Franklin
Effects Of Barred Owl (Strix Varia) Range Expansion On Haemoproteus Parasite Assemblage Dynamics And Transmission In Barred And Northern Spotted Owls (Strix Occidentalis Caurina), Krista E. Lewicki, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Lowell V. Diller, Alan B. Franklin
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
The range of the barred owl (Strix varia) has expanded westward over the past century and now entirely overlaps the range of the federally threatened northern spotted owl (S. occidentalis caurina) in the Pacific Northwest. We compared Haemoproteus blood parasite assemblages among northern spotted owls in their native range and barred owls in both their native and invasive ranges to evaluate predictions of five hypotheses about parasites and biological invasions: (1) Enemy Release, where hosts benefit from a loss of parasites in their invasive range, (2) Enemy of My Enemy, where invasive hosts introduce parasites to …
Establishing A Definition Of Polar Bear (Ursus Maritimus) Health: A Guide To Research And Management Activities, Kelly A. Park, Colleen Duncan, Pauline Noi, Christian Sonne, Kristin Laidre, Martyn Obbard, Oystein Wiig, Jon Aars, Eric Regehr, Lori L. Gustafson, Todd Atwood
Establishing A Definition Of Polar Bear (Ursus Maritimus) Health: A Guide To Research And Management Activities, Kelly A. Park, Colleen Duncan, Pauline Noi, Christian Sonne, Kristin Laidre, Martyn Obbard, Oystein Wiig, Jon Aars, Eric Regehr, Lori L. Gustafson, Todd Atwood
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
The meaning of health for wildlife and perspectives on how to assess and measure health, are not well characterized. For wildlife at risk, such as some polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulations, establishing comprehensive monitoring programs that include health status is an emerging need. Environmental changes, especially loss of sea ice habitat, have raised concern about polar bear health. Effective and consistent monitoring of polar bear health requires an unambiguous definition of health. We used the Delphi method of soliciting and interpreting expert knowledge to propose a working definition of polar bear health and to identify current concerns regarding …
Is Anthropogenic Cougar Mortality Compensated By Changes In Natural Mortality In Utah? Insight From Long-Term Studies, Michael L. Wolfe, David N. Koons, David C. Stoner, Patricia Terletzky, Eric M. Gese, David M. Choate, Lise M. Aubry
Is Anthropogenic Cougar Mortality Compensated By Changes In Natural Mortality In Utah? Insight From Long-Term Studies, Michael L. Wolfe, David N. Koons, David C. Stoner, Patricia Terletzky, Eric M. Gese, David M. Choate, Lise M. Aubry
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Understanding the interplay between exploitation and natural mortality is essential to guiding sustainable conservation of wildlife. Exploitation of carnivores by humans has long been thought to result in compensatory reductions of natural mortality among survivors. If rates of human exploitation exceed natural mortality, however, such actions will ‘add’ to overall mortality and could imperil the sustainability of such actions. We applied competing risk analyses to >16 years of data for heavily harvested and semi-protected cougar populations in Utah to test the additive and compensatory mortality hypotheses, while accounting for parameter uncertainty. We additionally tested for presence of the two primary …
Prion Amplification And Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling Refine Detection Of Prion Infection, A. Christy Wyckoff, Nathan Galloway, Crystal Meyerett-Reid, Jenny Powers, Terry Spraker, Ryan J. Monello, Bruce Pulford, Margaret Wild, Michael F. Antolin, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Mark Zabel
Prion Amplification And Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling Refine Detection Of Prion Infection, A. Christy Wyckoff, Nathan Galloway, Crystal Meyerett-Reid, Jenny Powers, Terry Spraker, Ryan J. Monello, Bruce Pulford, Margaret Wild, Michael F. Antolin, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Mark Zabel
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Prions are unique infectious agents that replicate without a genome and cause neurodegenerative diseases that include chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is currently considered the gold standard for diagnosis of a prion infection but may be insensitive to early or sub-clinical CWD that are important to understanding CWD transmission and ecology. We assessed the potential of serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (sPMCA) to improve detection of CWD prior to the onset of clinical signs. We analyzed tissue samples from free-ranging Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) and used hierarchical Bayesian analysis to estimate the specificity …
Subtype-Specific Influenza A Virus Antibodies In Canada Geese (Branta Canadensis), Whitney M. Kistler, David E. Stallknecht, Thomas J. Deliberto, Kyle Van Why, Michael J. Yabsley
Subtype-Specific Influenza A Virus Antibodies In Canada Geese (Branta Canadensis), Whitney M. Kistler, David E. Stallknecht, Thomas J. Deliberto, Kyle Van Why, Michael J. Yabsley
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Historically, surveillance for influenza A viruses (IAVs) in wild birds has relied on viral detection assays. This was largely due to poor performance of serological assays in wild birds; however, recently developed commercial serological assays have improved the ability to detect IAV antibodies in wild birds. Serological surveillance for IAV antibodies in Canada geese (Branta canadensis) has shown that, despite a low prevalence of virus isolations, Canada geese are frequently exposed to IAVs and that exposure increases with latitude, which follows virus isolation prevalence patterns observed in dabbling ducks. The objectives of this study were to further evaluate IAV antibodies …
The Effects Of Radar On Avian Behavior: Implications For Wildlife Management At Airports, Eleanor Sheridan, Jacquelyn Randolet, Travis Lee Devault, Thomas Walter Seamans, Bradley Fields Blackwell, Esteban Fernández-Juricic
The Effects Of Radar On Avian Behavior: Implications For Wildlife Management At Airports, Eleanor Sheridan, Jacquelyn Randolet, Travis Lee Devault, Thomas Walter Seamans, Bradley Fields Blackwell, Esteban Fernández-Juricic
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Airports often contain foraging, breeding, and roosting resources for wildlife. Airports also have different types of radars to assist with air traffic control, monitoring weather, and tracking wildlife that could become a risk for collision with aircraft. The effect of radar electromagnetic radiation on wildlife behavior is not well understood. The goal of this study was to determine whether bird behavior is affected by radar in two contexts: stationary radar (e.g., surveillance radar) and approaching radar (e.g., aircraft weather radar). We used brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) as a model species as they are common at airports. We hypothesized that radar …
Demographic And Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Avian Influenza Infection At The Continental Scale, And In Relation To Annual Life Cycle Of A Migratory Host, Rodolfo Nallar, Zsuzsanna Papp, Tasha Epp, Frederick A. Leighton, Seth R. Swafford, Thomas J. Deliberto, Robert J. Dusek, Hon S. Ip, Jeffrey Hall, Yohannes Berhane, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, Catherine Soos
Demographic And Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Avian Influenza Infection At The Continental Scale, And In Relation To Annual Life Cycle Of A Migratory Host, Rodolfo Nallar, Zsuzsanna Papp, Tasha Epp, Frederick A. Leighton, Seth R. Swafford, Thomas J. Deliberto, Robert J. Dusek, Hon S. Ip, Jeffrey Hall, Yohannes Berhane, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, Catherine Soos
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Since the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in the eastern hemisphere, numerous surveillance programs and studies have been undertaken to detect the occurrence, distribution, or spread of avian influenza viruses (AIV) in wild bird populations worldwide. To identify demographic determinants and spatiotemporal patterns of AIV infection in long distance migratory waterfowl in North America, we fitted generalized linear models with binominal distribution to analyze results from 13,574 blue-winged teal (Anas discors, BWTE) sampled in 2007 to 2010 year round during AIV surveillance programs in Canada and the United States. Our analyses revealed that during late summer staging …
Impact Of Capture And Transportation Methods On Survival Of Small Rodents During Relocation Events, Roger A. Baldwin, Ryan Meinerz, Holly E. Jantz, Gary W. Witmer
Impact Of Capture And Transportation Methods On Survival Of Small Rodents During Relocation Events, Roger A. Baldwin, Ryan Meinerz, Holly E. Jantz, Gary W. Witmer
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Capture and transportation of wild rodents is needed to supply study animals for laboratory or enclosure studies and for translocation of threatened and endangered species. Stress of captured rodents must be minimized to maximize survival. Methods to limit stress include minimizing capture and transportation durations, providing sufficiently sized housing with adequate nesting materials and foods, and ensuring that animals are maintained in comfortable environmental conditions. We utilized these techniques to capture and transport California voles (Microtus californicus) and pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae) from California to Colorado to determine their rate of survival during this process. We …
Evaluating The Reliability Of Field Identification And Morphometric Classifications For Carnivore Scats Confirmed With Genetic Analysis, Robert C. Lonsinger, Eric M. Gese, Lisette P. Waits
Evaluating The Reliability Of Field Identification And Morphometric Classifications For Carnivore Scats Confirmed With Genetic Analysis, Robert C. Lonsinger, Eric M. Gese, Lisette P. Waits
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Scat surveys are commonly used to monitor carnivore populations. Scats of sympatric carnivores can be difficult to differentiate and field-based identification can be misleading. We evaluated the success of field-based species identification for scats of 2 sympatric carnivores—coyotes (Canis latrans) and kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis). We conducted scat surveys in the Great Basin desert of Utah, USA, during the winter and summer of 2013, and we detected 1,680 carnivore scats. We classified scats based on field identification, recorded morphometricmeasurements, and collected fecalDNA samples for molecular species identification. We subsequently evaluated the classification success of field identification …
Contact Heterogeneities In Feral Swine: Implications For Disease Management And Future Research, Kim M. Pepin, Amy J. Davis, James C. Beasley, Raoul Boughton, Tyler A. Campbell, Susan M. Cooper, Wesson D. Gaston, Steve Hartley, John C. Kilgo, Samantha M. Wisely, A. Christy Wyckoff, Kurt C. Vercauteren
Contact Heterogeneities In Feral Swine: Implications For Disease Management And Future Research, Kim M. Pepin, Amy J. Davis, James C. Beasley, Raoul Boughton, Tyler A. Campbell, Susan M. Cooper, Wesson D. Gaston, Steve Hartley, John C. Kilgo, Samantha M. Wisely, A. Christy Wyckoff, Kurt C. Vercauteren
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Contact rates vary widely among individuals in socially structured wildlife populations. Understanding the interplay of factors responsible for this variation is essential for planning effective disease management. Feral swine (Sus scrofa) are a socially structured species which pose an increasing threat to livestock and human health, and little is known about contact structure. We analyzed 11 GPS data sets from across the United States to understand the interplay of ecological and demographic factors on variation in co-location rates, a proxy for contact rates. Between-sounder contact rates strongly depended on the distance among home ranges (less contact among sounders …
Evaluating Fladry Designs To Improve Utility As A Nonlethal Management Tool To Reduce Livestock Depredation, Julie K. Young, Elizabeth Miller, Anna Essex
Evaluating Fladry Designs To Improve Utility As A Nonlethal Management Tool To Reduce Livestock Depredation, Julie K. Young, Elizabeth Miller, Anna Essex
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Nonlethal deterrents against carnivores are important components to protecting livestock and conserving carnivore populations. However, the performance of the visual deterrent called fladry, a historical tool used to defend livestock from carnivores, is often hindered by design flaws that eventually reduce its effectiveness. Our purpose was to identify a fladry design that reduces coiling (i.e., wrapping of individual flags tight to the rope from which they hang) and maintains free movement of the deterrent in the wind. We created 6 new designs, replicated designs using 2 materials (nylon and marine vinyl), and compared them with the design most commonly used …
Dynamics Of Virus Shedding And Antibody Responses In Influenza A Virus-Infected Feral Swine, Hailiang Sun, Fred L. Cunningham, Jillian Harris, Yifei Xu, Li-Ping Long, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, John A. Baroch, Paul Fioranelli, Mark W. Lutman, Tao Li, Kerri Pedersen, Brandon S. Schmit, Jim Cooley, Xiaoxu Lin, Richard G. Jarman, Thomas J. Deliberto, Xui-Feng Wan
Dynamics Of Virus Shedding And Antibody Responses In Influenza A Virus-Infected Feral Swine, Hailiang Sun, Fred L. Cunningham, Jillian Harris, Yifei Xu, Li-Ping Long, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, John A. Baroch, Paul Fioranelli, Mark W. Lutman, Tao Li, Kerri Pedersen, Brandon S. Schmit, Jim Cooley, Xiaoxu Lin, Richard G. Jarman, Thomas J. Deliberto, Xui-Feng Wan
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Given their free-ranging habits, feral swine could serve as reservoirs or spatially dynamic ‘mixing vessels’ for influenza A virus (IAV). To better understand virus shedding patterns and antibody response dynamics in the context of IAV surveillance amongst feral swine, we used IAV of feral swine origin to perform infection experiments. The virus was highly infectious and transmissible in feral swine, and virus shedding patterns and antibody response dynamics were similar to those in domestic swine. In the virus-inoculated and sentinel groups, virus shedding lasted ≤6 and ≤9 days, respectively. Antibody titres in inoculated swine peaked at 1 : 840 on …
Animal Reactions To Oncoming Vehicles: A Conceptual Review, Steven L. Lima, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. Devault, Esteban Fernández-Juricic
Animal Reactions To Oncoming Vehicles: A Conceptual Review, Steven L. Lima, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. Devault, Esteban Fernández-Juricic
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Animal–vehicle collisions (AVCs) are a substantial problem in a human-dominated world, but little is known about what goes wrong, from the animal’s perspective, when a collision occurs with an automobile, boat, or aircraft. Our goal is to provide insight into reactions of animals to oncoming vehicles when collisions might be imminent. Avoiding a collision requires successful vehicle detection, threat assessment, and evasive behaviour; failures can occur at any of these stages. Vehicle detection seems fairly straightforward in many cases, but depends critically on the sensory capabilities of a given species. Sensory mechanisms for detection of collisions (looming detectors) may be …
The Effect Of Social Context And Social Scale On The Perception Of Relationships In Monk Parakeets, Elizabeth A. Hobson, Darlene J. John, Tiffany L. Mcintosh, Michael L. Avery, Timonthy F. Wright
The Effect Of Social Context And Social Scale On The Perception Of Relationships In Monk Parakeets, Elizabeth A. Hobson, Darlene J. John, Tiffany L. Mcintosh, Michael L. Avery, Timonthy F. Wright
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Social relationships formed within a network of interacting group members can have a profound impact on an individual’s behavior and fitness. However, we have little understanding of how individuals perceive their relationships and how this perception relates to our external measures of interactions. We investigated the perception of affiliative and agonistic relationships at both the dyadic and emergent social levels in two captive groups of monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus, n = 21 and 19) using social network analysis and playback experiments. At the dyadic social scale, individuals directed less aggression towards their strong affiliative partners and more aggression …
Antibody Response Of Cattle To Vaccination With Commercialmodified Live Rabies Vaccines In Guatemala, Amy T. Gilbert, Lauren Greenberg, David Moran, Danilo Alvarez, Marlon Alvarado, Daniel L. Garcia, Leonard Peruski
Antibody Response Of Cattle To Vaccination With Commercialmodified Live Rabies Vaccines In Guatemala, Amy T. Gilbert, Lauren Greenberg, David Moran, Danilo Alvarez, Marlon Alvarado, Daniel L. Garcia, Leonard Peruski
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Vampire bat rabies is a public and animal health concern throughout Latin America. Aspart of an ecological study of vampire bat depredation on cattle in southern Guatemala,we conducted a vaccine seroconversion study among three dairy farms. The main objec-tives of this cross sectional and cohort study were to understand factors associated withbat bites among cattle, to determine whether unvaccinated cattle had evidence of rabiesvirus exposure and evaluate whether exposure was related to bat bite prevalence, and toassess whether cattle demonstrate adequate seroconversion to two commercial vaccinesused in Guatemala. In 2012, baseline blood samples were collected immediately prior tointramuscular inoculation of …
Widespread Detection Of Antibodies To Leptospira In Feral Swine In The United States, K. K. Pedersen, K. L. Pabilonia, T. D. Anderson, S. N. Bevins, C. R. Hicks, J. M. Kloft, Thomas J. Deliberto
Widespread Detection Of Antibodies To Leptospira In Feral Swine In The United States, K. K. Pedersen, K. L. Pabilonia, T. D. Anderson, S. N. Bevins, C. R. Hicks, J. M. Kloft, Thomas J. Deliberto
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
As feral swine continue to expand their geographical range and distribution across the United States, their involvement in crop damage, livestock predation, and pathogen transmission is likely to increase. Despite the relatively recent discovery of feral swine involvement in the aetiology of a variety of pathogens, their propensity to transmit and carry a wide variety of pathogens is disconcerting. We examined sera from 2055 feral swine for antibody presence to six serovars of Leptospira that can also infect humans, livestock or domestic animals. About 13% of all samples tested positive for at least one serovar, suggesting that Leptospira infection is …
Anticoagulant Rodenticide Exposure And Toxicosis In Coyotes (Canis Latrans) In The Denver Metropolitan Area, Sharon A. Poessel, Stewart W. Breck, Karen A. Fox, Eric M. Gese
Anticoagulant Rodenticide Exposure And Toxicosis In Coyotes (Canis Latrans) In The Denver Metropolitan Area, Sharon A. Poessel, Stewart W. Breck, Karen A. Fox, Eric M. Gese
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Anticoagulant rodenticides are widely used in urban areas to control rodent pests and are responsible for secondary poisoning in many nontarget wildlife species. We tested the livers of five coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Denver Metropolitan Area, Colorado, US, for anticoagulant rodenticides. All five livers were positive for brodifacoum, with values ranging from 95 ppb to 320 ppb, and one liver was positive for bromadiolone, with a value of 885 ppb. Both of these rodenticides are second-generation anticoagulants, which are more potent and more likely to cause secondary poisoning than first-generation anticoagulants due to their accumulation and persistence …
A Behaviorally-Explicit Approach For Delivering Vaccine Baits To Mesopredators To Control Epizootics In Fragmented Landscapes, James C. Beasley, Todd C. Atwood, Michael E. Byrne, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Shylo R. Johnson, Olin E. Rhodes Jr.
A Behaviorally-Explicit Approach For Delivering Vaccine Baits To Mesopredators To Control Epizootics In Fragmented Landscapes, James C. Beasley, Todd C. Atwood, Michael E. Byrne, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Shylo R. Johnson, Olin E. Rhodes Jr.
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Despite the widespread use of aerial baiting to manage epizootics among free-ranging populations, particularly in rabies management, bait acceptance and seroconversion rates often are lower than required to eliminate spread of disease. Our objectives in this study, therefore, were to evaluate the performance of stratified bait distribution models derived from resource selection functions (RSF) on uptake of placebo rabies baits by raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), as well as the probability of bait uptake as a function of proximity to bait distribution areas in fragmented agricultural ecosystems. Among 478 raccoons and 108 opossums …
Evaluating And Validating Abundance Monitoring Methods In The Absence Of Populations Of Known Size: Review And Application To A Passive Tracking Index, Lee R. Allen, Richard M. Engeman
Evaluating And Validating Abundance Monitoring Methods In The Absence Of Populations Of Known Size: Review And Application To A Passive Tracking Index, Lee R. Allen, Richard M. Engeman
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Rarely is it possible to obtain absolute numbers in free-ranging populations and although various direct and indirect methods are used to estimate abundance, few are validated against populations of known size. In this paper, we apply grounding, calibration and verification methods, used to validate mathematical models, to methods of estimating relative abundance. To illustrate how this might be done, we consider and evaluate the widely applied passive tracking index (PTI) methodology. Using published data, we examine the rationality of PTI methodology, how conceptually animal activity and abundance are related and how alternative methods are subject to similar biases or produce …
Is Anthropogenic Cougar Mortality Compensated By Changes In Natural Mortality In Utah? Insight From Long-Term Studies, Michael L. Wolfe, David N. Koons, David C. Stoner, Patricia Terletzky, Eric M. Gese, David M. Choate, Lise M. Aubry
Is Anthropogenic Cougar Mortality Compensated By Changes In Natural Mortality In Utah? Insight From Long-Term Studies, Michael L. Wolfe, David N. Koons, David C. Stoner, Patricia Terletzky, Eric M. Gese, David M. Choate, Lise M. Aubry
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Understanding the interplay between exploitation and natural mortality is essential to guiding sustainable conservation of wildlife. Exploitation of carnivores by humans has long been thought to result in compensatory reductions of natural mortality among survivors. If rates of human exploitation exceed natural mortality, however, such actions will ‘add’ to overall mortality and could imperil the sustainability of such actions. We applied competing risk analyses to >/= 16 years of data for heavily harvested and semi-protected cougar populations in Utah to test the additive and compensatory mortality hypotheses, while accounting for parameter uncertainty. We additionally tested for presence of the two …
Predator-Induced Renesting And Reproductive Effort In Indigo Buntings: More Work For Less Pay?, Dana L. Morris, John Faaborg, Brian E. Washburn, Joshua J. Millspaugh
Predator-Induced Renesting And Reproductive Effort In Indigo Buntings: More Work For Less Pay?, Dana L. Morris, John Faaborg, Brian E. Washburn, Joshua J. Millspaugh
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Renesting after nest predation is ultimately an adaptive response to increase productivity in birds. However, renesting also increases reproductive effort to replace lost clutches. We investigated the consequences of this increased reproductive effort by determining whether renesting in female indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea) is associated with a decline in body condition (size-corrected mass) and haematocrit and an increase in stress hormones and whether renesting or maternal body condition is associated with a decline in productivity (clutch size, nestling body condition). Next, because a consequence of multiple renesting attempts is a prolonged breeding season and later timing, we predicted …
Effects Of Mountain Beaver Management And Thinning On 15-Year-Old Douglas Fir Growth And Survival, Dan L. Campbell, Richard M. Engeman, James P. Farley
Effects Of Mountain Beaver Management And Thinning On 15-Year-Old Douglas Fir Growth And Survival, Dan L. Campbell, Richard M. Engeman, James P. Farley
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
We examined 4-year growth of 15-year-old damaged and undamaged Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menzesii) after integrating temporary population reductions of mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa) with thinning in a pre-commercial hand-planted plantation in western Washington. Five treatment combinations were considered: (1) trapping mountain beavers in an unthinned area, (2) trapping before thinning to 65 trees/ha (160 trees/ac), (3) no trapping and thinning to 65 trees/ha, (4) no trapping and thinning to 146 trees/ha (360 trees/ac), and (5) no trapping and no thinning. Removal of ≥90 % of mountain beavers temporarily reduced mountain beaver activity whether the stand was unthinned or thinned. Diameter …
Avian Bornaviruses In North American Gulls, Jianhua Guo, Ian Tizard, John A. Baroch, H L. Shivaprasad, Susan L. Payne
Avian Bornaviruses In North American Gulls, Jianhua Guo, Ian Tizard, John A. Baroch, H L. Shivaprasad, Susan L. Payne
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Avian bornaviruses, recently described members of the family Bornaviridae, have been isolated from captive parrots and passerines as well as wild waterfowl in which they may cause lethal neurologic disease. We report detection of avian bornavirus RNA in the brains of apparently healthy gulls. We tested 439 gull brain samples from 18 states, primarily in the northeastern US, using a reversetranscriptase PCR assay with primers designed to detect a conserved region of the bornavirus M gene. Nine birds yielded a PCR product of appropriate size. Sequencing of PCR products indicated that the virus was closely related to aquatic bird bornavirus …
Review Of The 2012 Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Outbreak In Domestic Ruminants In The United States, G Stevens, B Mccluskey, A. King, E O'Hearn, G Mayr
Review Of The 2012 Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Outbreak In Domestic Ruminants In The United States, G Stevens, B Mccluskey, A. King, E O'Hearn, G Mayr
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
An unusually large number of cases of Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) were observed in United States cattle and white-tailed deer in the summer and fall of 2012. USDA APHIS Veterinary Services area offices were asked to report on foreign animal disease investigations and state diagnostic laboratory submissions which resulted in a diagnosis of EHD based on positive PCR results. EHD was reported in the following species: cattle (129 herds), captive white-tailed deer (65 herds), bison (8 herds), yak (6 herds), elk (1 herd), and sheep (1 flock). A majority of the cases in cattle and bison were found in Nebraska, …
The Cost Of Canine Rabies On Four Continents, A. M. Anderson, S. A. Shwiff
The Cost Of Canine Rabies On Four Continents, A. M. Anderson, S. A. Shwiff
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
We estimated the economic impacts of canine rabies in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Direct and indirect costs of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, dog vaccination and control, rabies diagnostic testing and cattle mortality-related costs were accounted for. The number of human deaths was updated from previous estimates based on population growth, and the costs associated with the risk of human mortality were incorporated. We accounted for uncertainty associated with the parameter estimates using a Monte Carlo simulation and estimated that the global burden of canine rabies is approximately $124 billion annually. This result illustrates the potential benefits that could be realized …
Carnivore Incidents With U.S. Civil Aircraft, Alexander R. Crain, Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. Devault
Carnivore Incidents With U.S. Civil Aircraft, Alexander R. Crain, Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. Devault
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Wildlife incidents with aircraft are of concern in the United States as they pose a risk to human safety and economic losses for the aviation industry. Most previous research on wildlife-aircraft incidents has emphasized birds, bats, and ungulates. We queried the Federal Aviation Administration’s National Wildlife Strike Database from 1990 to 2012 to characterize carnivore incidents with U.S. civil aircraft. We found 1016 carnivore incidents with aircraft representing at least 16 species, with coyotes (n = 404) being the species most frequently struck. California and Texas had the most reported incidents and incidents were most likely to occur at …
Influence Of Simulated Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax Auritus, Predation On Multiple-Batch Production Of Channel Catfish,Ictalurus Punctatus, Brian S. Dorr, Carole R. Engle
Influence Of Simulated Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax Auritus, Predation On Multiple-Batch Production Of Channel Catfish,Ictalurus Punctatus, Brian S. Dorr, Carole R. Engle
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
The double-crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, is considered the primary depredating bird species on commercially produced channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, in the southeastern USA. We simulated different levels of cormorant predation on losses at harvest and economic effects on channel catfish production in a multiple-batch cropping system. We observed significant (P<0.05) declines in catfish production at increasing levels of cormorant predation in this study. This decline was mitigated by increased individual growth of catfish at higher predation rates (i.e., lower catfish densities). This mitigating effect produced a non-linear relationship with total kg of catfish harvested per pond resulting in a non-linear incremental increase in breakeven price related to predation. Costs of production ($/kg) increased with increasing predation levels up to very high levels of predation with a cumulative maximum increase in breakeven price of $0.143/kg. These results indicate that losses at harvest due to cormorant predation occur immediately but are mitigated in part by compensatory growth of individual catfish. Losses due to cormorant predation in multi-batch systems can be considerable, but there is not a 1:1 relationship between losses and kg of catfish harvested due to compensatory factors.
Spatially Explicit Modeling Of Blackbird Abundance In The Prairie Pothole Region, Greg M. Forcey, Wayne E. Thogmartin, George M. Linz, Patrick C. Mckann, Shawn M. Crimmins
Spatially Explicit Modeling Of Blackbird Abundance In The Prairie Pothole Region, Greg M. Forcey, Wayne E. Thogmartin, George M. Linz, Patrick C. Mckann, Shawn M. Crimmins
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Knowledge of factors influencing animal abundance is important to wildlife biologists developing management plans. This is especially true for economically important species such as blackbirds (Icteridae), which cause more than $100 million in crop damages annually in the United States. Using data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the National Land Cover Dataset, and the National Climatic Data Center, we modeled effects of regional environmental variables on relative abundance of 3 blackbird species (red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus; yellow-headed blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus; common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula) in the Prairie Pothole Region of the central United States. We …