Estimating species occurrence, abundance, and detection probability using zero-inflated distributions
S.J. Wenger, Mary C. Freeman
2008, Ecology (89) 2953-2959
Researchers have developed methods to account for imperfect detection of species with either occupancy (presence-absence) or count data using replicated sampling. We show how these approaches can be combined to simultaneously estimate occurrence, abundance, and detection probability by specifying a zero-inflated distribution for abundance. This approach may be...
Wildlife feeding in parks: methods for monitoring the effectiveness of educational interventions and wildlife food attraction behaviors
Jeffrey L. Marion, Robert G. Dvorak, Robert E. Manning
2008, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (13) 429-442
Opportunities to view and interact with wildlife are often an important part of high quality recreational experiences. Such interactions frequently include wildlife feeding, resulting in food-conditioned behaviors that may cause harm to both wildlife and visitors. This study developed and applied efficient protocols for simultaneously evaluating wildlife feeding-related...
Atlantic Flyway review: Region IV Piedmont-Coastal Plain, Fall 2007
Chandler S. Robbins
2008, North American Bird Bander (33) 139-146
Region IV welcomed another coastal station in 2007 with a report from Chris Snook at Charleston, South Carolina. The season was hot and dry throughout Region IV except in Florida where precipitation averaged above normal. Banders blamed their poor success on the lack of cold fronts in August, September, and...
Atlantic Flyway review: Region IV Piedmont-Coastal Plain, Fall 2007: Robbins Nest, Laurel, MD (390-0765)
Chandler S. Robbins
2008, North American Bird Bander (33) 141-141
After a gap of two years I resumed banding at this suburban fall-line station on the Patuxent River, my 33rd fall banding season on our two-acre wooded lot. I banded three mornings per week, trying to keep the same schedule as the Patuxent powerline station five miles downstream. I used...
Tidal marshes as disequilibrium landscapes? Lags between morphology and Holocene sea level change
M. L. Kirwan, A.B. Murray
2008, Geophysical Research Letters (35) 1-5
Historical acceleration in the rate of global sea level rise and recent observations of marsh degradation highlight the importance of understanding how marshes respond to sea level change. Here, we use an existing numerical model to demonstrate that marsh morphology, and its effect on biological productivity and vertical accretion,...
Comparative analysis of distribution and abundance of West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis virus vectors in Suffolk County, New York, using human population density and land use/cover data
I. Rochlin, K. Harding, H. S. Ginsberg, S.R. Campbell
2008, Journal of Medical Entomology (45) 563-571
Five years of CDC light trap data from Suffolk County, NY, were analyzed to compare the applicability of human population density (HPD) and land use/cover (LUC) classification systems to describe mosquito abundance and to determine whether certain mosquito species of medical importance tend to be more common in urban (defined...
Effects of human activity of breeding American Oystercatchers, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, USA
J. B. Sabine, J.M. Meyers, C. T. Moore, Sara H. Schweitzer
2008, Waterbirds (31) 70-82
Abstract.-Increased human use of coastal areas threatens the United States population of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus), a species of special concern. Biologists often attribute its low numbers and reproductive success to human disturbance, but the mechanism by which human presence reduces reproductive success is not well understood. During...
Long-term trends in breeding birds in an old-growth Adirondack forest and the surrounding region
S.A. McNulty, Sam Droege, R.D. Masters
2008, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (120) 153-158
Breeding bird populations were sampled between 1954 and 1963, and 1990 and 2000 in an old-growth forest, the Natural Area of Huntington Wildlife Forest (HWF), in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Trends were compared with data from regional North American Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) and from a forest...
A hierarchical model for spatial capture-recapture data
J. Andrew Royle, K.V. Young
2008, Ecology (89) 2281-2289
Estimating density is a fundamental objective of many animal population studies. Application of methods for estimating population size from ostensibly closed populations is widespread, but ineffective for estimating absolute density because most populations are subject to short-term movements or so-called temporary emigration. This phenomenon invalidates the resulting estimates...
Juvenile survival in a tropical population of roseate terns: Interannual variation and effect of tick parasitism
David Monticelli, Jaime A. Ramos, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Jeffrey A. Spendelow
2008, Marine Ecology Progress Series (365) 277-287
Many demographic studies on long-lived seabirds have focused on the estimation of adult survival, but much less is known about survival during the early years of life, especially in tropical species. We report analyses of a capture–recapture dataset of 685 roseate terns ringed as fledglings and adults between 1998 and...
Conserving waste rice for wintering waterfowl in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
J.P. Kross, R.M. Kaminski, K. J. Reinecke, A.T. Pearse
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1383-1387
Rice lost before or during harvest operations (hereafter waste rice) provides important food for waterfowl in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA, but >70% of waste rice is lost during autumn. We conducted experiments in 19 production rice fields in Arkansas and Mississippi during autumns 2003 and 2004 to evaluate...
Methods for estimating the amount of vernal pool habitat in the northeastern United States
R. Van Meter, L.L. Bailey, E.H.C. Grant
2008, Wetlands (28) 585-593
The loss of small, seasonal wetlands is a major concern for a variety of state, local, and federal organizations in the northeastern U.S. Identifying and estimating the number of vernal pools within a given region is critical to developing long-term conservation and management strategies for these unique habitats and their...
Sources of variation in detection of wading birds from aerial surveys in the Florida Everglades
M.J. Conroy, J.T. Peterson, O.L. Bass, C.J. Fonnesbeck, J.E. Howell, C. T. Moore, J.P. Runge
2008, The Auk (125) 731-741
We conducted dual-observer trials to estimate detection probabilities (probability that a group that is present and available is detected) for fixed-wing aerial surveys of wading birds in the Everglades system, Florida. Detection probability ranged from <0.2 to similar to 0.75 and varied according to species, group size, observer, and...
Migration of Florida sub-adult Bald Eagles
E.K. Mojica, J.M. Meyers, B.A. Millsap, K.L. Haley
2008, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (120) 304-310
We used satellite telemetry locations accurate within 1 km to identify migration routes and stopover sites of 54 migratory sub-adult Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) hatched in Florida from 1997 to 2001. We measured number of days traveled during migration, path of migration, stopover time and locations, and distance traveled...
Anatomy of a bottleneck: diagnosing factors limiting population growth in the Puerto Rican parrot
S.R. Beissenger, J.M. Wunderle Jr., J.M. Meyers, B.-E. Saether, S. Engen
2008, Ecological Monographs (78) 185-203
The relative importance of genetic, demographic, environmental, and catastrophic processes that maintain population bottlenecks has received little consideration. We evaluate the role of these factors in maintaining the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) in a prolonged bottleneck from 1973 through 2000 despite intensive conservation efforts. We first conduct...
Potential environmental contaminant risks to avian species at important bird areas in the northeastern United States
Barnett A. Rattner, B.K. Ackerson
2008, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (4) 344-357
Environmental contaminants can have profound effects on birds, acting from the molecular through population levels of biological organization. An analysis of potential contaminant threats was undertaken at 52 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) within the northeastern Atlantic coast drainage. Using geographic information system methodology, data layers describing or integrating...
Visual implant elastomer mark retention through metamorphosis in amphibian larvae
Evan H. Campbell Grant
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1247-1252
Questions in population ecology require the study of marked animals, and marks are assumed to be permanent and not overlooked by observers. I evaluated retention through metamorphosis of visual implant elastomer marks in larval salamanders and frogs and assessed error in observer identification of these marks. I found 1) individual...
Management concerns about known and potential impacts of lead use in shooting and in fishing activities
C.I. Goddard, N.J. Leonard, D.L. Stang, P.J. Wingate, Barnett A. Rattner, J. C. Franson, S.R. Sheffield
2008, Fisheries (33) 228-236
We present a summary of the technical review, jointly requested by the American Fisheries Society and The Wildlife Society, addressing the hazards to wildlife resulting from lead objects or fragments introduced into aquatic and terrestrial environments from the use of ammunition and fishing tackle. Impacts from lead are well documented...
Forty-ninth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American birds
Richard C. Banks, R. Terry Chesser, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen Jr., James D. Rising, Douglas F. Stotz, Kevin Winker
2008, The Auk (125) 756-766
This is the eighth Supplement since the publication of the 7th edition of the Check-list of North American Birds (American Ornithologists’ Union [AOU] 1998). It summarizes decisions made by the AOU’s Committee on Classification and Nomenclature-North and Middle America between 1 January and 31 December 2007....
Potential effects of mixed infections in ticks on transmission dynamics of pathogens: comparative analysis of published records
Howard S. Ginsberg
2008, Experimental and Applied Acarology (46) 29-41
Ticks are often infected with more than one pathogen, and several field surveys have documented nonrandom levels of coinfection. Levels of coinfection by pathogens in four tick species were analyzed using published infection data. Coinfection patterns of pathogens in field-collected ticks include numerous cases of higher or lower...
Objectives and metrics for wildlife monitoring
J.R. Sauer, M. G. Knutson
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1663-1664
Monitoring surveys allow managers to document system status and provide the quantitative basis for management decision-making, and large amounts of effort and funding are devoted to monitoring. Still, monitoring surveys often fall short of providing required information; inadequacies exist in survey designs, analyses procedures, or in the ability to...
Monitoring in the context of structured decision-making and adaptive management
J. E. Lyons, M.C. Runge, H. P. Laskowski, W. L. Kendall
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1683-1692
In a natural resource management setting, monitoring is a crucial component of an informed process for making decisions, and monitoring design should be driven by the decision context and associated uncertainties. Monitoring itself can play >3 roles. First, it is important for state-dependent decision-making, as when managers need...
Seasonal movements and migration of Pallas's Gulls Larus ichthyaetus from Qinghai Lake, China
S.B. Muzaffar, John Y. Takekawa, D.J. Prosser, David C. Douglas, B. Yan, Z. Xing, Y. Hou, E.C. Palm, S. H. Newman
2008, Forktail (24) 100-107
We studied the seasonal movements and migration often Pallas's Gulls Larus ichthyaetus trom Qinghai Lake to assess migratory routes and stopover areas. Each individual was captured and equipped with an 18 g solar-powered Platform Transmitter Terminal (PIT) to track its movements from September 2007 to May 2008. Six...
Apparent tolerance of turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) to the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac
Barnett A. Rattner, M.A. Whitehead, G. Gasper, C.U. Meteyer, W.A. Link, M.A. Taggart, A.A. Meharg, O. H. Pattee, D.J. Pain
2008, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (27) 2341-2345
The nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug diclofenac is extremely toxic to Old World Gyps vultures (median lethal dose ∼0.1–0.2 mg/kg), evoking visceral gout, renal necrosis, and mortality within a few days of exposure. Unintentional secondary poisoning of vultures that fed upon carcasses of diclofenac‐treated livestock decimated populations in the Indian subcontinent. Because of the...
A double-observer method to estimate detection rate during aerial waterfowl surveys
M.D. Koneff, J. Andrew Royle, M.C. Otto, J.S. Wortham, J.K. Bidwell
2008, Journal of Wildlife Management (72) 1641-649
We evaluated double-observer methods for aerial surveys as a means to adjust counts of waterfowl for incomplete detection. We conducted our study in eastern Canada and the northeast United States utilizing 3 aerial-survey crews flying 3 different types of fixed-wing aircraft. We reconciled counts of front- and rear-seat...
