| American dippers coloring page | American dippers coloring page | Text | American dippers
Wildlife
Education |
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Type:Text Subject:American dippers
Wildlife
Education |
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| American pika (Ochotona princeps) 2015 monitoring survey | American pika (<em>Ochotona princeps</em>) 2015 monitoring survey | Text
| American pika
<em>Ochotona princeps</em>
Endangered Species Act
Occupancy surveys
Population |
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Type:Text
Subject:American pika
<em>Ochotona princeps</em>
Endangered Species Act
Occupancy surveys
Population |
Description:Concern about American pika (Ochotona princeps, pika) populations stemmed from limited research linking climate change to population extirpations in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada Mountains (Beever et al. 2003, Moritz 2007). In October 2007, the pika was petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (Center for Biological Diversity 2007). A 12-month status review was completed in February 2010 with a finding of not warranted. Currently the pika is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in Colorado’s 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). The single conservation action outlined in the SWAP to manage the species is the implementation of a long- term monitoring program to detect changes in distribution. It was emphasized in the SWAP that data collected during monitoring surveys should allow managers to correlate changes in distribution with vegetation, anthropogenic and/or weather stress parameters. [show more]
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| Quick key to amphibians and reptiles of Colorado | Quick key to amphibians and reptiles of Colorado | Brochure | Amphibians
Reptiles |
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Type:Brochure Subject:Amphibians
Reptiles |
Description:Colorado is home to more than 70 amphibian and reptile species. This Quick Key was developed to help you identify these diverse animals. No matter where you are in the state, in the city, near a pond, even enjoying the view from over 12,000 feet, you likely are sharing that space with an amphibian or reptile. [show more]
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| Large-scale movement behavior in a reintroduced predator population | Large-scale movement behavior in a reintroduced predator population | Article | Analysis
Animal behavior
Endangered species
Lynx |
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Type:Article Subject:Analysis
Animal behavior
Endangered species
Lynx |
Description:Understanding movement behavior and identifying areas of landscape connectivity is critical for the conservation of many species. However, collecting fine-scale movement data can be prohibitively time consuming and costly, especially for rare or endangered species, whereas existing data sets may provide the best available information on animal movement. Contemporary movement models may not be an option for modeling existing data due to low temporal resolution and large or unusual error structures, but inference can still be obtained using a functional movement modeling approach. We use a functional movement model to perform a population-level analysis of telemetry data collected during the reintroduction of Canada lynx to Colorado. Little is known about southern lynx populations compared to those in Canada and Alaska, and inference is often limited to a few individuals due to their low densities. Our analysis of a population of Canada lynx fills significant gaps in the knowledge of Canada lynx behavior at the southern edge of its historical range. We analyzed functions of individual-level movement paths, such as speed, residence time, and tortuosity, and identified a region of connectivity that extended north from the San Juan Mountains, along the continental divide, and terminated in Wyoming at the northern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. Individuals were able to traverse large distances across non-boreal habitat, including exploratory movements to the Greater Yellowstone area and beyond. We found evidence for an effect of seasonality and breeding status on many of the movement quantities and documented a potential reintroduction effect. Our findings provide the first analysis of Canada lynx movement in Colorado and substantially augment the information available for conservation and management decisions. The functional movement framework can be extended to other species and demonstrates that information on movement behavior can be obtained using existing data sets. [show more]
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| The future of wildlife conservation funding: What options do U.S. college students support? | The future of wildlife conservation funding: What options do U.S. college students support? | Article | Angling
College students
Conservation policy
Funding
Hunting
Public support
Wildlife management |
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Type:Article Subject:Angling
College students
Conservation policy
Funding
Hunting
Public support
Wildlife management |
Description:Insufficient funding is a major impediment to conservation efforts around the world. In the United States, a decline in hunting participation threatens sustainability of the “user-pay, public benefit” model that has supported wildlife conservation for nearly 100 years, forcing wildlife management agencies to contemplate alternative funding strategies. We investigated support for potential funding options among diverse college students, a rapidly expanding and politically active voting bloc with a potentially powerful influence on the future of conservation. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states. Students preferred innovative approaches to conservation funding, with 72% supporting funding derived from industry sources (e.g., natural resource extraction companies), 63% supporting state sources (e.g., general sales tax), and 43% supporting conventional user-based sources such as license fees and excise taxes associated with outdoor recreation activities (e.g., hunting). Findings emphasize the need to broaden the base of support for conservation funding and highlight the importance of considering the preferences and perspectives of young adults and other diverse beneficiaries of wildlife conservation. [show more]
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| Human expansion precipitates niche expansion for an opportunistic apex predator (Puma concolor) | Human expansion precipitates niche expansion for an opportunistic apex predator (<em>Puma concolor</em>) | Article | Animal behaviour
Conservation biology
Stable isotope analysis |
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Type:Article Subject:Animal behaviour
Conservation biology
Stable isotope analysis |
Description:There is growing recognition that developed landscapes are important systems in which to promote ecological complexity and conservation. Yet, little is known about processes regulating these novel ecosystems, or behaviours employed by species adapting to them. We evaluated the isotopic niche of an apex carnivore, the cougar (Puma concolor), over broad spatiotemporal scales and in a region characterized by rapid landscape change. We detected a shift in resource use, from near complete specialization on native herbivores in wildlands to greater use of exotic and invasive species by cougars in contemporary urban interfaces. We show that 25 years ago, cougars inhabiting these same urban interfaces possessed diets that were intermediate. Thus, niche expansion followed human expansion over both time and space, indicating that an important top predator is interacting with prey in novel ways. Thus, though human-dominated landscapes can provide sufficient resources for apex carnivores, they do not necessarily preserve their ecological relationships. [show more]
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| Effects of helicopter capture and handling on movement behavior of mule deer | Effects of helicopter capture and handling on movement behavior of mule deer | Article | Animal handling
Animal movement
Capture effects
Colorado
GPS radio collar
Helicopter net gunning
Live capture
Mule deer
<em>Odocoileus hemionus</em> |
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Type:Article Subject:Animal handling
Animal movement
Capture effects
Colorado
GPS radio collar
Helicopter net gunning
Live capture
Mule deer
<em>Odocoileus hemionus</em> |
Description:Research on wildlife movement, physiology, and reproductive biology often requires capture and handling of animals. Such invasive treatment can alter behavior, which may bias results or invalidate assumptions regarding representative behaviors. To assess the impacts of handling on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a focal species for research in North America, we investigated pre- and post-recapture movements of collared individuals, and compared them to deer that were not recaptured (controls). We compared pre- and post-recapture movement rates (m/hr) and 24-hour straight-line displacement among recaptured and control deer. In addition, we examined the time it took recaptured deer to return to their pre-recapture home range. Both daily straight-line displacement and movement rate were marginally elevated relative to monthly averages for 24 hours following recapture, with non-significant elevation continuing for up to 7 days. Comparing movements averaged over 30 days before and after recapture, we found no differences in displacement, but movement rates demonstrated seasonal effects, with faster movements post- relative to pre-recapture in March and slower movements post- relative to pre-recapture in December. Relative to control deer movements, recaptured deer movement rates in March were higher immediately after recapture and lower in the second and third weeks following recapture. The median time to return to the pre-recapture home range was 13 hours, with 71% of deer returning in the first day, and 91% returning within 4 days. These results indicate a short period of elevated movements following recaptures, likely due to the deer returning to their home ranges, followed by weaker but non-significant depression of movements for up to 3 weeks. Censoring of the first day of data post-capture from analyses is strongly supported, and removing additional days until the individual returns to its home range will control for the majority of impacts from capture. [show more]
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| A multi‐property assessment of intensity of use provides a functional understanding of animal movement | A multi‐property assessment of intensity of use provides a functional understanding of animal movement | Text | Animal movement
Clustering
GPS telemetry
Intensity of use
Mixture model |
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Type:Text Subject:Animal movement
Clustering
GPS telemetry
Intensity of use
Mixture model |
Description: Abstract
- The intensity of use of a location is one of the most studied properties of animal movement, yet movement analyses generally focus on the overall use of a location without much consideration of how patterns in intensity of use emerge. Extracting properties related to intensity of use, such as the number of visits, the average and variation in time spent and the average and variation in time between visits, could help provide a more mechanistic understanding of how animals use landscape. Combining and synthesizing these properties into a single spatial representation could inform the role that a location plays for an animal.
- We developed an R package named ‘UseScape’ that allows the extraction of these metrics and then clustered them using mixture modelling to create a spatial representation of the type of use an animal makes of the landscape. We illustrate applications of the approach using datasets of animal movement from four taxa and highlight species-specific and cross-species insights.
- Our framework highlights properties that functionally differ in how animals use them, contrasting, for example, heavily used locations that emerge because they are frequented for long durations, locations that are repeatedly and regularly visited for shorter durations of time or locations visited irregularly. We found that species generally had similar types of use, such as typical low, mid and high use, but there were also species-specific clusters that would have been ignored when only focusing on the overall intensity of use.
- Our multi-system comparison highlighted how the framework provided novel insights that would not have been directly obtainable by currently available approaches. By making the framework available as an R package, these analyses can be easily applicable to a myriad of systems where relocation data are available. Movement ecology as a field can strongly benefit from approaches that not just describe patterns in space use, but also highlight the behavioural mechanisms leading to these emerging patterns.
[show more]
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| Continuous-time discrete-space models for animal movement | Continuous-time discrete-space models for animal movement | Article | Animal movement
Multiple imputation
Varying-coefficient model
Markov chain |
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Type:Article Subject:Animal movement
Multiple imputation
Varying-coefficient model
Markov chain |
Description:The processes influencing animal movement and resource selection are complex and varied. Past efforts to model behavioral changes over time used Bayesian statistical models with variable parameter space, such as reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, which are computationally demanding and inaccessible to many practitioners. We present a continuous-time discrete-space (CTDS) model of animal movement that can be fit using standard generalized linear modeling (GLM) methods. This CTDS approach allows for the joint modeling of location-based as well as directional drivers of movement. Changing behavior over time is modeled using a varying-coefficient framework which maintains the computational simplicity of a GLM approach, and variable selection is accomplished using a group lasso penalty. We apply our approach to a study of two mountain lions (Puma concolor) in Colorado, USA. [show more]
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| Environmental dynamics and anthropogenic development alter philopatry and space‐use in a North American cervid | Environmental dynamics and anthropogenic development alter philopatry and space‐use in a North American cervid | Article | Animal movement
Energy development
Home range
<em>Odocoileus hemionus</em>
Utilization distribution |
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Type:Article Subject:Animal movement
Energy development
Home range
<em>Odocoileus hemionus</em>
Utilization distribution |
Description: Aim
The space an animal uses over a given time period must provide the resources required for meeting energetic needs, reproducing and avoiding predation. Anthropogenic landscape change in concert with environmental dynamics can strongly structure space-use. Investigating these dynamics can provide critical insight into animal ecology, conservation and management.
Location
The Piceance Basin, Colorado, USA.
Methods
We applied a novel utilization distribution estimation technique based on a continuous-time correlated random walk model to characterize range dynamics of mule deer during winter and summer seasons across multiple years. This approach leverages second-order properties of movement to provide a probabilistic estimate of space-use. We assessed the influence of environmental (cover and forage), individual and anthropogenic factors on interannual variation in range use of individual deer using a hierarchical Bayesian regression framework.
Results
Mule deer demonstrated remarkable spatial philopatry, with a median of 50% overlap (range: 8–78%) in year-to-year utilization distributions. Environmental conditions were the primary driver of both philopatry and range size, with anthropogenic disturbance playing a secondary role.
Main conclusions
Philopatry in mule deer is suspected to reflect the importance of spatial familiarity (memory) to this species and, therefore, factors driving spatial displacement are of conservation concern. The interaction between range behaviour and dynamics in development disturbance and environmental conditions highlights mechanisms by which anthropogenic environmental change may displace deer from familiar areas and alter their foraging and survival strategies. [show more]
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