FW 458 Mid-term

• - Species that are tasty (past/present exploitation for meat & fur)
• - Species that annoy us (human-wildlife conflict)
• - Species listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA (legal mandate to monitor)

There is a size bias in all of these categories!

• • Interaction of humans and mammals in North America since first settlement in the Pleistocene
• • Interaction of European colonists and mammals
• • Preservation, conservation, and management of wildlife in the late 19th and 20th century

• • Humans arrived in NA 10-20,000 y.a.
• • At that time:
• – 5 species of elephant
• – Lions, cheetahs, dire wolves, sabre-toothed tigers, short-faced bears
• – Camels, llamas
• – Horses
• – Ground sloths
• – Numerous deer species
• – Giant beavers
• – Glyptodonts

• Martin 1984
• - 72% of NA megafauna went extinct 12-10,000 yrs. ago
• - Blitzkrieg hypothesis "Clovis first" :Idea that people came from Alaska and channeled way through ice glacier path to America.

• • Game species in diet varied substantially
• • Complex societies with many modes of subsistence (intensive agriculture, minor subsistence (intensive agriculture, minor agriculture, hunting/gathering)
• • Early native Americans modified habitat extensively through burning, farming

• Lewis & Clark expedition (1802-04)
• - a lot of bufaloe's

• - 1623:Plymouth colony makes hunting free to all colony members
• - 1630: Bounty offered for wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lion
• - 1639: Rhode Island colony ordinance prohibited killing deer - 1639: Rhode Island colony ordinance prohibited killing deer between May 1 & Nov 5
• - 1694: First closed season on deer (Massachusetts)
• - 1739: Deer wardens appointed (Massachusetts)

• • Rapid westward movement 1848 –1880s
• • Intentional killing of bison to destroy Plains Indian culture
• • Commercial utilization of many species (e.g., during CA gold species
• – Large game animals
• – Waterfowl, pigeons, oysters
• • Attempts at protection largely ignored
• – E.g., elk, pronghorn “protected” in CA in 1850, bighorn by 1873

• • Establishment of State Fish & Game agencies (1870s -1915)
• • Game refuges and preserves, National Parks (1890s)
• • Making sale of game illegal (~1900, state-by-state)
• • Lacey Act (1900): prohibited interstate commerce in illegal game
• • Protection of migratory birds (1916-17)
• • T. Roosevelt’s “conservation through wise use”
• – All outdoor resources
• – Public responsibility to conserve
• – Recognized science as the appropriate tool

• • Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 (Pittman-Robertson)
• • Habitat changes
• • Shift towards industrial and more wealthy society

• • Formalized efforts to conserve game and habitat
• • Aided shift from preservation to management
• • Shifted to concept of sustained annual yield
• – Before that, hunting regulations were just a way to divide up remaining wildlife!
• – By 1920s, started to see irruptive populations of ungulates

• • Scientific management for maximum game populations and recreational opportunities
• • Rapid rise of deer populations and associated problems problems
• • Predator control still practiced
• • Doe wars

• • Enforced buck-only hunting
• • Habitat improvement
• • Relocations
• • Now, overpopulated!
• • But this species does well in disturbed habitats…

• • National Environmental Policy Act (1969)
• – required assessment of for any federal action significantly affecting the human environment
• – includes public lands and wildlife-includes public lands and wildlife
• • Endangered Species Act (1973)
• • Community perspectives, management for multiple species including predators
• – Gradual shift away from dominance of hunting as rationale for policy and management
• – Hunting is still a major player and source of funding

• • Overabundance of white-tailed deer in eastern US
• • Underabundanceof mule deer…?
• • Predators in the backyard
• • Livestock & wildlife: competition, predation, and disease
• • Philosophy of harvest and lethal control
• • “Rights” of individual animals vs. populations/ecosystem management
• • Listing decisions (can be highly politicized)

• • Need to recognize, identify, and categorize species that we manage we manage
• • Helps us think about the adaptations of different species or groups of species
• - Related species may have differentiated because of different selective pressures in different environments
• – Related species may hav similar requirements, compete
• • Management guidelines are often defined on a taxonomic basis
• • Taxonomy affects listing under the ESA

• • Much management of “artiodactyls” within Cetartiodactyla
• – Numerous & important as food
• – Strong effects on vegetation
• – Tolerated in human‐dominated landscapes
• • Carnivores too
• – High conservation and public interest (positive and negative)
• – Tourism depredation control of ungulate populations trophy hunting, fur trapping

• - Sus scrofa (feral pigs)
• - Europe, Asia, Africa
• - No horns, bundondon cheek teeth (rounded molars), upper canines larger than lower, directed outward and upward

• - Pecari tajacu (collared peccary/javelina)
• - NA & SA
• - No horns, bunodont cheek teeth; upper canines similar size to lower, directed downward; small paraoccipital process

• - Cervus elaphus (elk), Odocoileus hemionus (mule/ blacktail deer), O. virginianus (white-tailed deer), Alces alces (moose), Rangifer tarandus (caribou)
• - NA, SA, Europe, Asia
• - Antlers (branched, shed every year); two lacrimal foramina.

• - Ovibos moschatus (muskox), Ovis canadensis (bighorn sheep), Ovis dalli (Dall and stone sheep), Oreamnos americanus (mountain goat), Bison bison (American “buffalo”)
• - NA, Europe, Asia, Africa
• - Horns (outer sheath over a bony core, no shed), only one lacrimal foramen

• - Antilocapra americana (pronghorn antelope)
• - NA
• - horns (outer shealth, shed, no bony core); two lacrimal foramina, orbits high on skull.

• – Ursus americanus (American black bear), Ursus arctos (Brown/grizzly bear), Ursus arctos (Brown/grizzly bear) Ursus maritimus (Polar bear)
• - NA
• - carnassial teeth poorly developed; broad flat molars; last upper molar large and elongated

• – Puma concolor (puma/cougar/mountain lion), Lynx rufus (bobcat), Lynx rufus (bobcat), Lynx canadensis (Canadian lynx), Felis catus (feral cats), Pantera onca (jaguar), Leopardus pardalis (ocelot), Herpailurus yagouaroundi (jaguarundi)
• - NA
• -skull short, blunt, and rounded; carnassials large and bladelike along the long axis of the head.

• – Canis lupus (gray wolf), Canis rufus (red wolf), Canis latrans (coyote), Vulpes spp. (red, swift, artic, & kit foxes), Urocyon spp. (gray & island foxes), Canis familiaris (feral dogs)
• - NA
• - elongated skull, long and narrow rostrum, carnassials large; last upper molar is large and elongated.

• - Gulo gulo (wolverine), Enhydra lutra (sea otter), Enhydra lutra (sea otter), Lontra canadensis (northern river otter), Marte spennanti (fisher), Martes americana (American marten), Taxide ataxus (American badger), Mustelaspp.(mink, weasels, and ermine)
• - lower jaw locked into place, strong mandibular fossa, short rostrum, upper molar relatively large.

• • Sport hunting
• • Meat harvest/subsistence value
• • Commercial utilization
• • Tourism
• • Cultural values
• • Positive effects on wildlife and ecosystems

• • Agricultural/forestry damage
• • Urban/residential damage
• • Vehicle collisions
• • Disease reservoir
• • Attacks and predation on humans and pets
• • Negative effects on wildlife and ecosystems

N_{t + 1} = Nt+ Births – Deaths + Immigration ‐ Emigration

• N 1 = λN
• λ = Nt+ 1 / Nt = “finite rate of increase”
• λ = e^r
• r = loge(λ) = “exponential rate of increase”

• Nt= N0ert
• Nt= N₀λt
• (Remember that λ = er)

dN/dt = rN (1-N/K)

average # of live births per reproducing femae

• Natality/fecundity lower
• Recruitment very low
• Mortality (particularly of juveniles) is high
• Individual quality/condition is lower

• Gestation time (number of individuals born reflects habitat conditions in the previous year)
• Long‐lived species with high adult survival
• Population and habitat (vegetation) cycle differently
• Environmental stochasticity and predation

• Clarifies the importance of different habitats for determining desired deer density
• Makes it clear that not all management objectives or human values will be met at any time Helps compare deer populations in different environments

• Population trajectory
• Habitat indicators
• Reproductive output
• Juvenile survival Animal condition and health
• Experimental approaches

• Offspring/mother ratio
• – Survival of juveniles
• Pregnancy or twinning rates for species that exhibit variable reproduction
• Amount of browsing on preferred forage species
• Condition indices such as body fat, jaw size, etc.

any process that causes mortality or affects birth rates (affects the rate of population change)

any process that causes growth rate to decline as a population increases

• -populations of herbivores are constrained primarily by plant a vailability, populations of predators are determined by herbivore availability
• - Competition is the dominant mechanism (intra‐specific and inter‐specific)
• - As population(s) increase(s) competition increases
• - Fitness of individuals declines, population growth rate declines, population size declines
• - Predator populations are determined by prey availability

• - populations of predators control herbivore populations, which in turn limits the impact on vegetation
• - Predation is the dominant mechanism limiting herbivore populations
• - As population of prey increases population of predators increases
• - Predators reduce population of prey
• - Prey are not limited as strongly by intraspecific competition (e.g., lack of food)

• Concept of niche and resource partitioning
• Species evolve separated niches to reduce interspecific competition
• May be stronger during times of limited resources

• - These curves express responses of individual predators to increasing densityofindividualprey density of individual prey
• Type 1 is biologically unrealistic unrealistic
• Type 3 is “prey switching”

• •Change in predator number as prey increases
• •Typically, mammalian predator numbers reach an asymptote because of territoriality (interference)

• % prey population removed
• - Combines functional response with numerical response
• - density dependent predation
• (i) predators regulate prey at low densities at low densities
• (ii) predators cannot regulate prey
• (iii) multiple stable states

predators are killing prey that would have died anyway because of starvation disease etc starvation, disease, etc.

predators are killing prey that would have survived otherwise

• - means that the predator has an alternate and abundance food source and therefore will not be limited by prey populations
• - Subsidized predators can extirpate a prey population

• Coursing predators
• - Wolves (can take adult bison, muskox, elk, deer, moose, caribou)
• - Coyotes (prey on young of larger herbivores, rabbits etc)
• Stalking predators
• - Mountain lion (can take deer, bighorn sheep, elk calves, etc)
• - Bobcat and lynx (fawns lambs occasional adult deer or bighorn)
• – Smaller mustelids(mostly take rodents & lagomorphs)
• Opportunistic predators
• - Bears (deer fawns, elk & caribou calves)
• – Wolverines (carrion, large game in deep snow)

• Determine the status of the population Define the goals of the management program
• Establish a management strategy
• Determine how well the goals were achieved

• Harvest a small number of antlerless deer (will include some young bucks) along with the usual male harvest
• After several seasons, harvest a higher proportion of antlerless deer
• Continue to slowly increase antlerless harvest
• - Recruitment will increase almost linearly to a point (MSY)
• Track sex ratio of the population
• Track age structure of the harvested population
• - Should see increase in younger animals harvested

• Harvest of females will increase to levels similar that of males
• - Sex ratio will move towards equality Female age structure will shift to lower age classes (similar to males)
• Harvest of males will increase because of much higher recruitment of males and females
• Density Dependence

• A population near K or declining will have more older animals
• High numbers of 1‐2 year old animals indicates recruitment is high, population may be increasing or gwell below K (heavy harvest)
• Problem: getting an accurate age structure from your harvested animals.

• Mature males are pursued as trophies
• Trophy quality assessed by antler/horn configuration (ungulates) or weight (carnivores) or weight and tusk size (pigs)
• Records kept by Boone and Crockett, etc. = “book”