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Managing Montana’s Golden Eagles in a Landscape of Development: a Collaborative Approach
Get PDFThe Montana Golden Eagle Working Group, an active coalition of agency representatives and eagle experts, was convened in April 2011 to address information needs and management recommendations for Golden Eagles in the state. Current data indicates Golden Eagle populations may be declining across the western United States and stable or declining in Montana. New energy and subdivision development may exacerbate these population trends through direct mortality, indirect and direct habitat loss and alteration, and increased disturbance. However, we lack information that is necessary to evaluate population-level impacts of new development. In 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a final rule authorizing limited issuance of permits to take Bald and Golden Eagles where the take is consistent with the goal of increasing or stable breeding populations, is associated with and not the purpose of an otherwise lawful activity, and cannot practicably be avoided despite the implementation of advanced conservation practices. Consequently, limited take of eagles may be authorized relative to energy development or other activities while managing for no net loss to the population. This means the USFWS must identify potential eagle mortality sources, the impact of potential mortality on the population, and impact avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation strategies. The Golden Eagle working group is drafting a monitoring strategy and management recommendations for Golden Eagles in a landscape of development. Here we provide information on working group activities which are focused on allowing for continued development while simultaneously conserving one of Montana’s most charismatic birds
What Does it all Mean? Interpreting Respiratory Pathogen Survey Results for Bighorn Sheep Management
Get PDFRespiratory disease has been a major challenge for bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) conservation and is a dominant factor influencing management decisions of bighorn sheep, however; much about the disease process remains unknown. Decades of research have compiled considerable evidence that domestic sheep and goats can transmit the disease to bighorn sheep as well as strong evidence for several bacterial organisms as causative agents for the disease. However, there are examples of bighorn populations hosting the agents linked to respiratory disease with little demographic side-effects. Further, the immediate cause of disease events often remains undetermined. Two general hypotheses exist to explain observed disease events in wildlife populations: 1) A disease event is caused by introduction of a novel pathogen from neighboring or sympatric host populations or; 2) A disease event is caused by certain conditions triggering endemic pathogens to become virulent to the host. While the extent to which these competing hypotheses explain observed respiratory disease events in bighorn sheep is unknown, the appropriate management actions to address disease due to these different processes are very different. Effectively addressing these hypotheses and better understanding the major causes of observed respiratory disease events is a challenge and requires rigorous and repeated pathogen sampling in bighorn populations both affected and seemingly unaffected by respiratory disease. This presentation provides a brief background of bighorn respiratory disease, highlights the challenges of interpreting respiratory pathogen survey results to inform management as well as recent advances in respiratory pathogen research that have promise to help further inform management decisions
Brown Bear and Human Recreational Use of Trails in Anchorage, Alaska
Get PDFThe Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska, has 301,000 human residents and hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Anchorage also supports a viable population of brown bears (Ursus arctos alascensis). As a result, human-bear encounters are common. We monitored recreational trails near salmon spawning streams at 3 study sites with camera traps during the summers of 2009 – 2012 to better understand daily and seasonal activity patterns of bears and humans on these trails. We found that the more remote study sites had the least human activity and the most bear activity, and human-bear encounters were most likely to occur from July through early September due to a higher degree of overlap between human and bear activity during this timeframe. Most brown bears at our study sites appeared to have adopted a crepuscular and nocturnal activity pattern, which was more pronounced at the site with the most human use. More people used trails Friday through Sunday, while there was no difference in bear activity among days of week. Recreational activities and user groups differed among sites. Based on our data, areas should be assessed individually to mitigate adverse human-bear encounters. However, one potential solution for avoiding dangerous bear encounters at all study sites is to restrict human access or types of recreational activity. When human access is controlled in important bear habitat, distribution of visitors becomes spatially and temporally more predictable, allowing bears an opportunity to adjust activity patterns to avoid people while still using the resource
Evaluating Success for a Within-Mountain Range Transplant of Bighorn Sheep in Southwestern Montana
Get PDFMontana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) performed a bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) transplant within the Madison Mountains of southwest Montana February 2015. Once with 5 distinct wintering ranges, the herd since endured, and recovered from, several all-age die-offs. As of 2013, one historic wintering area was overpopulated (>250 bighorn), one sparsely populated (~30 bighorn), and three historic wintering areas were left unoccupied: Indian Creek, Wolf Creek, and the Henry’s Mountains. MFWP evaluated habitat and proposed to reintroduce bighorn from the overpopulated wintering range to either Wolf Creek or Indian Creek. After the EA and public process concluded, Wolf Creek was the selected release site. MFWP captured 52 bighorn from the overpopulated winter range using a drop-net, and moved them via trailer to the release site. Ten of the released bighorns were fitted with LOTEK Lifecycle GPS collars, providing satellite location data once daily for up to 4 years. Transplant success was mixed, with three collared bighorns immediately returning to their former range, three collared bighorns wintering at the sparsely populated intermediate range, and four collared bighorns remaining through winter and into summer at the reintroduction site. One bighorn died shortly after release. The four collared bighorns remaining at the release site explored Indian Creek through summer, then in July, 3 returned to their original range and 1 remained in the transplant area. Of the 52 bighorns transplanted, approximately 10-15 remain in the Wolf Creek transplant range. Subsequent transplants are planned to enhance the restoration of bighorn sheep in the Madison Range
PopR: Software for Wildlife Managers
Get PDFIt is widely recognized that modern computer software makes wildlife management and research easier and allows increasingly complex tasks to become routine. Unfortunately, data storage and reporting rarely keep pace with the rapid expansion of data analysis software. Such disconnects in workflow can lead to missed opportunities where data are not used to their fullest extent and results are slow to emerge. Here we present a server-based software system, PopR (https://popr.cfc.umt.edu), which merges wildlife management agency databases with state-of-the-art statistical software for real-time wildlife data analysis, population modeling and reporting. The interface to PopR is a secure website allowing access from any location with internet access and from any platform (personal computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.). PopR connects to remote data sources through an application program interface (API). PopR implements Bayesian integrated population models (IPM) combining multiple data sources. The IPM’s efficiently deal with limited data, overcome missing data and facilitate prediction with error. PopR also implements individual data source analyses such as survival, sightability and herd composition, among others. PopR modules are in development or in use in the states of Idaho, Montana and South Dakota where the software is used for a variety of species including deer, elk and mountain lions. Finally, add-on applications include tools for defining biological populations, checking data integrity and eliciting expert opinion. The PopR workflow management system promises to streamline data collection, automate routine analyses and generally save managers time while increasing inference from limited data
Variation in Birth Mass and Mass Gain During Lactation for a Long-Lived Mammal: A Case Study Using the Weddell Seal
Get PDFReproduction in mammals is costly, with implications for trade-offs between current reproduction and survival. Life history theory suggests the amount of energy allocated to reproduction should change as a function of increasing maternal age, and empirical work supports both within-individual decreases (consistent with senescence) and increases (consistent with constraint and restraint). The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) is an ideal organism with which to study patterns of maternal energy allocation due to the life history. Here, we used a long-term mark-recapture database of individually marked mothers and pups in Erebus Bay, Antarctica, to develop a stratified sample of masses from pups and known-age females across maternal ages in 11 different years. Hierarchical modeling of potential sources of variation in: 1) pup masses at parturition, 2) pup mass gains from parturition to mid-lactation (~20 days), and 3) pup mass gains from mid-lactation to late-lactation (~20-days to ~35-days) was used to 1) evaluate the relative support for increases/decreases in reproductive allocation as a function of maternal age, 2) assess how patterns of reproductive allocation may reflect pre-parturition resource acquisition and/or post-parturition resource allocation, and 3) estimate the magnitude of individual heterogeneity in maternal effects after accounting for maternal and offspring characteristics. Our results provide strong evidence that reproductive investment at parturition and pup mass gains from parturition through late-lactation vary with maternal age and breeding history and result in important differences in late-lactation pup masses. Such variation may have consequences for the early-life success of offspring, and thus implications at the population level
EFFECTS OF ELECTRIC FENCE PERMEABILIY ON GRIZZLY AND BLACK BEARS IN THE BLACKFOOT VALLEY OF MONTANA (POSTER)
Get PDFIncreasing agriculture-bear conflicts on private lands require innovative approaches to conserve wildlife while also conserving the economic viability of Montana farmers and ranchers. Electric fencing has been an effective tool for deterring bears from calving areas and bee yards. Recent advances in electric fencing materials, as well as automated deployment devices, have reduced costs and increased interest in using electric fencing to deter bears from larger areas, like crop fields. Scientific evaluations of the efficacy of temporary electric fencing at deterring grizzly (Ursus arctos) and black bears (Ursus americanus) are lacking. Additionally, large-scale installations of electric fencing may impact bear movements and habitat use. In 2015, we began a multi-faceted study in the Blackfoot Valley to evaluate A) the efficacy of various rapid-deployment electric fencing designs in deterring bears from agricultural lands, and B) landscape level space use and permeability of agricultural lands relative to electric fences. Baited enclosures of 2-3 fencing configurations were established in the valley during the spring of 2015. Each enclosure is systematically energized and unenergized for 3-day periods throughout the spring and summer; passage into the enclosure is monitored with motion-activated trail cameras to provide information on configuration effectiveness and permeability. In addition, we established 60 randomly selected camera trap stations throughout the valley to evaluate landscape-level habitat use relative to landscape metrics and electric fences. Daily movement locations provided by 5 grizzly bears fitted with GPS collars will provide individual-level information on seasonal movements and habitat selection relative to habitat conditions and electric fences
Use of High-Resolution Aerial Imagery to Improve a GIS Habitat Model (Poster)
Get PDFFor many species, land cover is the most important input variable for a GIS habitat model. Yet, coarse-resolution satellite imagery provides the foundation of many available land cover datasets. With low-resolution imagery, habitats such as shrublands and narrow or small riparian elements typically remain invisible to digital image analysis software and to the naked eye. Habitat misclassification often occurs and land cover accuracy rates may range from only 60% to 80%. We ran a sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) habitat model, originally developed by Montana FWP, using a current land cover layer based on 30-meter resolution satellite imagery. From the results, we chose a subset of areas with high potential to contain the most suitable habitat. We then updated each area’s land cover by “ground-truthing” it against high resolution imagery (NAIP, 1 meter and Esri, 6 inch). We corrected misclassified habitats of interest and then reran the model. Although time consuming, we believe this manual “ground-truthing” process greatly improved the accuracy of the model and made the on-ground habitat surveys more efficient. We also believe this approach would improve habitat modeling efforts for other species
Indices of Body Composition and Repeatability of Residual Feed Intake in Growing Columbia Ewes Fed the Same Diet
Get PDFResidual feed intake (RFI), an efficiency measurement based upon the difference in expected and actual feed intake, is used to improve production efficiency of livestock. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the repeatability of ewe RFI measured for two consecutive years, and to investigate the relationship between indices of body composition in yearling ewes and RFI. Two trials, using the same Columbia ewe lambs (n = 17) were conducted in consecutive years (2014, 2015) using the same diet. RFI was calculated for each ewe each year. RFI did not differ (P = 0.77) between years. Each year, ewes were separated into RFI classes (LOW (efficient); MOD (average); HIGH (inefficient)). In 2014, ewe lamb performance did not differ among classes (P > 0.3). In 2015, dry matter intake was greater for HIGH ewes (P < 0.0002). Ribeye area (REA; cm2) and backfat thickness (BF; cm) were measured by ultrasound on day 0 (start of trial), 17, and 45 (end of trial) in 2015 and used to calculate estimates of final body composition. RFI classification did not affect REA or BF (P > 0.25). There was a trend for whole-body muscle mass to differ among RFI classes (P = 0.09), but no other body composition estimates were affected. Results suggest that RFI is repeatable; however, indices of body composition seem to be independent of RFI in Columbia ewes fed the same diet under similar conditions
