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Assessing the Presence and Impacts of White-nose Syndrome on Montana’s Bat Populations through Disease Surveillance and Long-term Acoustic Monitoring
No full textIn 2019, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Montana Natural Heritage Program designed a plan to assess how the invasion and spread of the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which causes the disease White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), might impact bats across Montana. The resulting project involves annual, statewide surveillance for Pd and WNS to estimate the arrival and distribution of the disease, and long-term acoustic monitoring to assess bat occupancy and activity. Pd was first detected in Montana in 2020. In 2021, we surveyed 35 sites across the state, 9 of which were Pd-positive. WNS was first confirmed in 2021 among little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in Fallon, Carter, and Phillips Counties. As of 2021, Pd and WNS detections remain restricted to the eastern half of the state. During the summer of 2021, volunteers and staff from state, federal, and non-profit organizations deployed acoustic detectors at 87 North American Bat Program grid cells. We will use a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate both occupancy and relative activity before versus after the arrival of WNS. Understanding the impacts of WNS on Montana’s bats will inform decisions about how Montana pursues bat management and conservation strategies—whether it be treatments specific to WNS or ecological approaches toward offsetting the costs of disease. Wildlife and land management agency staff in Montana are currently engaged in a structured decision-making process to understand how best to respond to WNS while trying to maximize the abundance and distribution of bats across the state
Ongoing Work to Quantify Livestock Grazing in The Sagebrush Steppe Using Remote Sensing Data
No full textDomestic livestock grazing is the primary land use worldwide, but the influence of grazing on rangeland productivity is difficult to quantify due to its dependence on many environmental and management factors. This study examines the effect of livestock grazing on rangeland gross primary production (GPP) while accounting for effects of environmental variables. Specifically, we use Bayesian generalized linear models (GLMs) to regress field-based grazing intensity data on remotely sensed GPP and environmental covariates. Our preliminary results suggest that the grazing levels in our study area minimally influence short-term rangeland productivity when compared to other environmental variables. Our ongoing work will consider other measures of rangeland productivity (e.g., NPP, NDVI), alternate models, and simulations to improve our predictions. Our findings will provide insight into the relationship between grazing and rangeland productivity for use in grazing management
Post-Release Movement by Swift Foxes Translocated to the Fort Belknap Reservation, MT
No full textIn species reintroductions, monitoring post-release movement of translocated individuals can provide valuable insight into the factors influencing survival, site fidelity, and ultimately, reintroduction success. Swift fox (Vulpes velox) populations in Montana are primarily the result of multiple reintroduction efforts onto tribal lands in northern Montana and Canada, yet despite those actions occurring >20 years ago, an approximately 350 kilometer range gap remains between the restored population in northern Montana and southern populations near the borders of Wyoming and South Dakota. The Fort Belknap Indian Community and partners are translocating swift foxes both to promote connectivity in this range gap and to return an extirpated species to Nakoda and Aaniiih sovereign lands. To date, we have translocated and fitted 75 swift foxes with GPS collars to monitor post-release movement and measure progress towards ecological and cultural goals. In addition to an overview of the translocation process and early progress toward reintroduction benchmarks, we present preliminary results on the effects of origin, individual factors, and release strategy on distance travelled in the first two weeks post-release. We discuss the implications of findings from the first two years of translocations in terms of adaptive management of the ongoing reintroduction and for future conservation actions to promote this sensitive species
Use of Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) in Assessing Arrival Phenology of a Migratory Bird in The Northern Great Plains
No full textAutonomous recording units (ARUs) are increasingly used in avian research to monitor bird populations in place of human observers. ARUs are particularly useful in remote locations and allow researchers to collect continuous and systematic temporal sampling with reduced field effort. As part of a larger study assessing whether crop fields operate as ecological traps for breeding thick-billed longspurs (Rhynchophanes mccownii), we used ARUs to compare arrival phenologies of longspurs in crop and native sites (n=20) at the core of their breeding range in northeast Montana. Secondary spillover from native sites into crop fields may indicate preference for native prairie habitats while earlier occupancy of crop sites may indicate preference of crop habitats. We used ARUs to document daily bird occupancy during the month of April in northern Valley County, Montana. We used dynamic occupancy models to estimate initial occupancy in crop and native sites and to derive estimates of latent occupancy across the 24-day survey period. We found no evidence that crop sites were occupied earlier than native sites. Site occupancy increased from 0.56 (0.12 SE) on April 7 to 0.99 (0.01 SE) on April 30 and was similar between crop and native sites. Our results demonstrate that ARUs may be a useful tool for assessing migration phenologies of vocal avian species, particularly once machine learning software is able to accelerate processing times of high-volume recording files
Wildfire Extends the Shelf-Life of Elk Nutritional Resources Regardless of Fire Severity
No full textLarge-scale, high severity wildfires are increasingly frequent across the western United States. Fire severity affects the amount of vegetation removed and helps dictate what, where, and how many plants can regenerate postfire, potentially altering the available habitat and nutritional landscape for wildlife including elk (Cervus canadensis). To evaluate the effects of fire severity on the Blackfoot-Clearwater elk population’s summer nutritional resources, we collected field data and remotely sensed information in years two and three after the Rice Ridge wildfire to compare forage quality across multiple forest types and fire severities and developed spatiotemporal predictive landscape nutrition models. We used these models to predict forage quality across the landscape and compared the observed landscape of nutrition to an unburned landscape to assess nutritional consequence of the Rice Ridge wildfire. Wildfire increased summer forage quality in both mesic and dry mixed conifer forests regardless of fire severity. Based on our predictive models, we found that wildfire extended the duration in which elk can access high quality forage in the summer. Therefore, shortly after a large-scale wildfire, elk may be better able to meet their requirements which may positively impact elk body condition, reproductive performance, and survival. Fire has frequently been shown to increase summer nutritional resources for elk, however, to our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the immediate impacts of fire severity on elk nutritional resources
Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society Abstracts
No full textOur conference theme this year revolved around telling our story, as well as sharing our lessons learned. There are many success stories that have come to fruition large in part due to wildlife professionals effectively communicating our management experience and research knowledge with others. Conversely there are situations where our wildlife messages have been lost due to one reason or another. And in almost all cases, if we were to do it over, we’d choose to communicate something differently. Given the issues surrounding wildlife and wildlife conservation, it is becoming more important that we, collectively, are effective at communicating our wildlife knowledge and experiences with others. Whether we are bringing our information from the field to our managers or administrators, from agency to agency and other partners, to stakeholder groups, members of our public, or to our policy and law makers, we need to effectively tell our story
Estimating Variable Pronghorn Survival Across Their Northern Populations
No full textEstimating demographic parameters (i.e., survival and recruitment) is critical for tracking and predicting trends in wildlife populations. Learning how demographic parameters change in response to dynamic landscape and climatic conditions can provide ecologists with insight into how wildlife populations might respond to future environmental changes. Further, identifying how demographic rates vary across populations can guide management actions to maximize conservation. In this project, we study how pronghorn population survival rates vary across a range of landscapes throughout their northern distributions. Leveraging GPS location and survival data from nearly 1,000 GPS collared pronghorn across Montana and South Dakota, we estimate annual survival from over 10 populations. South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) and the University of Montana have partnered with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to collar over 500 juvenile male and female and adult, female pronghorn in northwestern South Dakota, central South Dakota as well as an additional 500 adult female pronghorn across eastern, central, and southwestern Montana. We used a hierarchical Bayesian survival model to estimate annual survival rates and variability across populations. By gaining more insight into how pronghorn survival rates vary across populations, we can begin to ask more probing questions about the mechanisms driving survival across space and time, and adapt conservation actions to best meet management objectives in a changing landscape
Integrating Three Scales of Analysis to Compare Spiny Softshell Turtle Nesting Habitat in Dammed Versus Undammed Rivers
No full textRiverine turtles’ life cycles are highly adapted to the dynamic river systems in which they live. Apalone spinifera (spiny softshell turtle), for example, rely on complex habitat produced through spring-flood pulse flows and minimal anthropogenic modifications for their life processes. The extent and quality of this sort of habitat appears to be increasingly limited by the effects of dams on river systems such as on the Bighorn River, located in south-eastern Montana. In comparison, the Yellowstone River is a relatively undammed river which experiences natural flood pulses. Little research has been done that focuses on how anthropogenic modifications, especially dams, affect spiny softshells’ habitats and population structure. Three scales of data were utilized (ground observations of turtle nesting sites; high-resolution (~2cm) unmanned aerial system (UAS) imagery; and medium resolution (10m) Sentinel 2 imagery, to generate a viable estimate of the amount of available spiny softshell nesting habitat in 32.2 km study areas along both the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers in Montana. Using a smaller study area of 15-hectares within the full 32.2km study as a model for differences in nesting habitat availability between UAS imagery and Sentinel imagery resulted in about 54% nesting habitat in common on the Yellowstone and almost 86% in common for the Bighorn. These percentages were used to create a corrected full study nesting habitat estimation. When run, the Yellowstone River had almost nine times more APSP nesting habitat than that of the Bighorn. From an ecological and conservation perspective, this is important to consider
Aquatic Invasive Species Management in Western Montana - American Bullfrog and Common Snapping Turtle
No full textInvasive herptiles can negatively impact native aquatic species through competition for resources, predation, and introduction of pathogens. In response to public reports and the need for updated surveys on invasive herptile infestations west of the Continental Divide in Montana, we undertook a project to survey for and control common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus). We used a GIS to map potential habitat for the focal species to prioritize efforts. We used targeted outreach to collect sightings and educate the public about invasive species. Once we had compiled relevant data, we conducted surveys to estimate the extent of current infestations. Concurrently, we conducted control operations to eliminate snapping turtles and bullfrogs from key areas. During June - September of 2021, we set 78 snapping turtle traps in 40 different water bodies for a total of 593 trap-nights. Trapping success was low, resulting in the removal of 11 snapping turtles and one nest containing 73 eggs. We conducted 110 nighttime calling surveys for bullfrogs and spent 11 nights removing bullfrogs from seven wetlands. Results suggest there is not a well-established breeding population of snapping turtles in west-central Montana, but a breeding population exists in northwest Montana. Bullfrogs in west-central Montana have not significantly expanded their range since the early 2000s, whereas bullfrogs have spread past a key dispersal pinch-point in northwest Montana and are expanding towards Ninepipes Reservoir and associated wetland complexes. We suggest specific, ongoing monitoring and removal efforts to address these invasive herptiles in key areas
Assessment of Species Diversity and Habitat for Bats in the Limestone Hills of Central Montana
No full textBat species use a diversity features as day roosts including man-made structures, caves, trees, and rock outcrops which provide crevices and cavities to shelter in during the day. While roosts such as caves and mines are relatively will studied, roosts in rocks are poorly described. In July and August 2021 we conducted visual encounter surveys of rock outcrops within the Limestone Hills Training Area east of Townsend, Montana to detect roosting bats. Surveyors traversed small cliffs and talus examining cracks and crevices for roosting animals and guano. Across 10 surveys we detected three species of bat: Western Small-footed Myotis (Myotis ciliolabrum), Long-eared Myotis (M. volans), and Little Brown Myotis (M. lucifigus). Roosts were typically in horizontal or vertical crevices between 1 and 3 cm in width with good solar exposure. We found roosts occupied by single individuals as well as females and pups. We also use mist net deployed over water sources and acoustic detector/ recorders placed across the landscape to assess species diversity, allowing the opportunity to compare effectiveness of these methods. The same three species were detected with both roost surveys and mist nets. Using acoustic methods we recorded six species across five sites. While acoustic methods were more effective for assessing diversity than the other methods, detection of bats at rock outcrops and water sources allow assessment of the importance of the features for roosting and drinking respectively, important information for managing these species and the landscapes they inhabit