Habitat, Nutrition and Population Ecology of Two Transplanted Bighorn Sheep Populations in Southcentral Wyoming PDF Download
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Author: John G. Cook
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal introduction
Languages : en
Pages : 622
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Author: John G. Cook
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal introduction
Languages : en
Pages : 622
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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal populations
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Author: Craig W. McCarty
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal populations
Languages : en
Pages : 46
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Category : Fishes
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Natural history
Languages : en
Pages : 414
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Author: Justin G. Clapp
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781321905830
Category : Bighorn sheep
Languages : en
Pages : 121
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Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadesis) populations drastically declined throughout North America during the early 1900's, with many populations extirpated from historic ranges. Bighorn reintroductions or supplementations via translocation efforts has been a primary tool used to reestablish and support bighorn sheep. However, translocations are financially, biologically, and logistically challenging, with many bighorn translocation efforts ultimately considered unsuccessful. Because of these challenges, wildlife managers continue to investigate factors that may improve the likelihood of translocation success, including conducting habitat improvements and increasing monitoring efforts of translocated bighorn sheep. Beginning in 2009, translocations of bighorn sheep to the Seminoe Mountains were conducted in south-central Wyoming by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD). Bighorns from 3 translocation efforts were released and monitored in the Seminoe area, where no known remnant bighorns remained from previous translocation attempts. Global positioning system (GPS) data recovered from a sample of radio-collared bighorns shortly after translocations revealed bighorns were distributed toward the perimeter of the area intended for occupancy, and it was postulated that habitat improvements through prescribed burning may open restrictive habitat and promote increased bighorn use of the study area. Prescribed burning was scheduled to occur in the study area in 2011. I developed research objectives in relation to bighorn sheep translocations to investigate 1) how long bighorn take to acclimate to new surroundings after translocation events, and 2) provisional impacts of fire-mediated habitat alterations on bighorn distribution, habitat selection, and demography. To achieve my objectives, I monitored bighorn sheep in the Seminoe Mountains from 2009-2013. I also used GPS location data gathered from 40 bighorn sheep (F = 32, M = 8) that were radio-collared during initial translocation events from 2009-2011, and after the initiation of habitat alterations in 2011 I gathered additional data from another capture effort in the study area where 25 bighorns (F = 20, M = 5) were collared and released on site, collecting GPS data through 2013. In Chapter 2 I conducted an analysis investigating the temporal aspect of bighorn acclimation by measuring the amount of time for daily movement rates to stabilize for each bighorn after being released. I found it took approximately 30 days for bighorns to acclimate after being translocated, but only about 5 days if animals were captured and released in the same area where they were familiar with their surroundings. Also, animals that were released where no extant bighorns existed took 57% longer to acclimate, indicating that releasing bighorns with conspecifics reduces the time it takes to acclimate to novel environments. These findings may assist managers in developing efficient monitoring protocols after bighorn translocations occur. To accomplish my second objective I used a suite of techniques to analyze bighorn distribution, habitat selection, and bighorn demographics in response to fire-mediated habitat alterations. In Chapter 3 I compared bighorn utilization distribution size, overlap, and similarity across a spectrum of home range contours before and after treatments, identifying how changes occurred across varying home range levels. I found bighorns expanded distributions after fires by approximately 200%, and that core home ranges were altered to a higher degree than full home range extents. In Chapter 4, I next modelled resource selection of bighorns in the study area using a negative binomial general linear regression model to specifically identify if bighorn selected for fire-treated areas. Resource selection models showed no selection for fire-treated areas overall, although mean proportion of bighorn locations within areas treated with prescribed burning increased after treatment, lending some evidence toward selection for prescribed burns. Finally, in Chapter 4 I compared bighorn fire responses to bighorn survival throughout the study. Kaplan-Meier estimates showed bighorn survival was high early in the study, and I found some support that bighorns that expanded distribution after prescribed burns increased use of treated areas. However, bighorn survival decreased precipitously (~30%) after a wildfire event in 2012 that removed much vegetation and that coincided with severe drought conditions in the study area, delaying plant phenological response into the winter season. This event likely caused bighorns to expand distribution in an attempt to gain access to forage (no habitat selection identified), and bighorns that died in association with poor body condition had higher overlap with burned areas than those that survived. Given these results, it is likely that bighorns may respond positively to small-scale prescribed burns, but that large-scale fires, especially those that coincide with drought conditions and that encompass large areas currently occupied by bighorn sheep, may reduce bighorn fitness. Therefore, it is most likely best to conduct habitat alterations prior to translocation events.
Author: Frederick De Forest Heald
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 652
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Author: Norman S. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bighorn sheep
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 802
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Author: Edward B. Arnett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bighorn sheep
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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