William Wallace Duncan, an Appreciation

FOREWORD President John C. Kilgo, of Trinity College, prepared the contents of this volume to be presented in manuscript form to the members of Bishop Duncan\u27s family. He was for many years closely associated with Bishop Duncan and between them there existed the warmest and most intimate friendship. A number of Bishop Duncan\u27s friends and admirers expressed a desire to have a copy of this appreciation in permanent form, and Dr. Kilgo has kindly given us permission to have the manuscript printed. We are issuing this volume as a tribute of respect to one whose life and labors have been the richest benediction, and whose memory we cherish as a priceless heritage. It is very fitting that this tribute should come from Trinity College. He was one of its most loyal and sincere friends, and was an alumnus in that he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the institution.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/collegebooks/1012/thumbnail.jp

Bat response to Carolina bays and wetland restoration in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain

Abstract: Bat activity in the southeastern United States is concentrated over riparian areas and wetland habitats. The restoration and creation of wetlands for mitigation purposes is becoming common in the Southeast. Understanding the effects of these restoration efforts on wetland flora and fauna is thus becoming increasingly important. Because bats (Order: Chiroptera) consist of many species that are of conservation concern and are commonly associated with wetland and riparian habitats in the Southeast (making them a good general indicator for the condition of wetland habitats), we monitored bat activity over restored and reference Carolina bays surrounded by pine savanna (Pinus spp.) or mixed pine-hardwood habitat types at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In order to determine how wetland restoration efforts affected the bat community, we monitored bat activity above drained Carolina bays pre- and post-restoration. Our results indicate that bat activity was greater over reference (i.e., undrained) than drained bays prior to the restorative efforts. One year following combined hydrologic and vegetation treatment, however, bat activity was generally greater over restored than reference bays. Bat activity was also greater over both reference and restored bays than in random, forested interior locations. We found significantly more bat activity after restoration than prior to restoration for all but one species in the treatment bays, suggesting that Carolina bay restoration can have almost immediate positive impacts on bat activity

Use of Roadside Deer Removal to Reduce Deer–Vehicle Collisions

Identification of management tools to reduce the incidence of deer–vehicle collisions (DVCs) is important to improve motorist safety. Sharpshooting to reduce white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; deer) along roads has proven successful in urban situations but has not been evaluated in undeveloped areas. We used a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design to evaluate the use of sharpshooting to reduce DVCs along roads on the uninhabited U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, during 2011–2017. We removed 242 deer from 4 treatment roads during 2015 and 2016, with 2-year removal rates per road averaging 5.0 deer/km of road (range 4.0–5.8). We monitored accident rates as DVCs per million vehicle-km traveled (VKT) during annual cycles (March–February) following the initial removal and during the 7 months (March–September) following removals in spring and the 5 months (October–February) following removals in fall. The response in accident rates varied among the annual cycle, spring, and fall. The BACI effect indicated that removal treatments reduced accident rate by 1.184 DVCs per million VKT (P = 0.081) over the annual cycle and by 1.528 DVCs per million VKT (P = 0.023) following spring removals, but following fall removals we detected no effect (P = 0.541). Relative to the pre-removal accident rate for removal roads, the estimated treatment effect on an annual basis equated to a 39.4% reduction in accidents and during spring equated to a 50.8% reduction in accidents. We conclude that sharpshooting along roads in undeveloped areas can be a viable tool to reduce DVCs and can be useful in areas where population control via hunter harvest is not practical or desirable

Effective Dose and Persistence of Rhodamine-B in Wild Pig Vibrissae

As a result of substantial ecological and economic damage attributed to wild pigs (Sus scrofa), there is international interest in using pharmaceutical baits to control populations. To assess the efficacy and specificity of baiting programs, chemical biomarkers can be used to evaluate uptake of pharmaceutical baits. Rhodamine B (RB) is known to be an effective biomarker in wild pigs. However, significant data gaps exist regarding the minimum effective dosage and persistence of RB in wild pigs. We used a controlled doubleblind study experiment conducted in spring of 2014 on the Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina, USA, wherein we administered a one-time dose of RB at 3 treatment levels (5 mg/kg, 15mg/kg, or 30 mg/kg) to 15 captive pigs, with 5 pigs/treatment group to investigate persistence of RB. Facial vibrissae were collected pre-RB ingestion as a control and every 2 weeks post-RB ingestion for 12 weeks. We examined samples for RB presence and used a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to determine the influence of treatment dose on persistence of RB. Additionally, we measured distance moved by the RB mark away from the vibrissae root and used a GLMM to assess movement rates of RB bands along growing vibrissae. We found consistently greater persistence of RB in the 15- and 30-mg/kg treatments across the sampling period. A significant, positive movement trend in RB bands was observed within the 15mg/kg and 30 mg/kg groups. Based on our results, a 15 mg/kg dosage can be considered a minimum effective dose for wild pigs and will reliably produce a detectable RB mark up to and likely beyond 12 weeks after ingestion

Effects of hunting and season of fire on wild turkey populations in South Carolina.

This report assesses impacts to wild turkey populations from hunting and prescribed fire. The objectives of the study were as follows: (1) To compare survival rates and causes of mortality of wild turkey gobblers between hunted and unhunted populations; (2) To determine the effects of dormant versus growing season prescribed burns on nesting success, survival and habitat use of wild turkey hens; (3) To determine the effects of dormant versus growing season prescribed burns on the availability of wild turkey plant foods

Abundance of Green Tree Frogs and Insects in Artificial Canopy Gaps in a Bottomland Hardwood Forest

Horn, Scott, James L. Hanula, Michael D. Ulyshen, and John C. Kilgo. 2005. Abundance of green tree frogs and insects in artificial canopy gaps in a bottomland hardwood forest. Am. Midl. Nat. 153:321-326. Abstract: We found more green tree frogs (Hyla cinerea) in canopy gaps than in closed canopy forest. Of the 331 green tree frogs observed, 88% were in canopy gaps. Likewise, higher numbers and biomasses of insects were captured in the open gap habitat. Flies were the most commonly collected insect group accounting for 54% of the total capture. These data suggest that one reason green tree frogs were more abundant in canopy gaps was the increased availability of prey and that small canopy gaps provide early successional habitats that are beneficial to green tree frog populations

Effects of scale of movement, detection probability, and true population density on common methods of estimating population density

Knowledge of population density is necessary for effective management and conservation of wildlife, yet rarely are estimators compared in their robustness to effects of ecological and observational processes, which can greatly influence accuracy and precision of density estimates. In this study, we simulate biological and observational processes using empirical data to assess effects of animal scale of movement, true population density, and probability of detection on common density estimators. We also apply common data collection and analytical techniques in the field and evaluate their ability to estimate density of a globally widespread species. We find that animal scale of movement had the greatest impact on accuracy of estimators, although all estimators suffered reduced performance when detection probability was low, and we provide recommendations as to when each field and analytical technique is most appropriately employed. The large influence of scale of movement on estimator accuracy emphasizes the importance of effective post-hoc calculation of area sampled or use of methods that implicitly account for spatial variation. In particular, scale of movement impacted estimators substantially, such that area covered and spacing of detectors (e.g. cameras, traps, etc.) must reflect movement characteristics of the focal species to reduce bias in estimates of movement and thus density

Quantitative analysis of woodpecker habitat using high-resolution airborne LiDAR estimates of forest structure and composition

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology has the potential to radically alter theway researchers and managers collect data onwildlife–habitat relationships. To date, the technology has fostered several novel approaches to characterizing avian habitat, but has been limited by the lack of detailed LiDAR-habitat attributes relevant to species across a continuum of spatial grain sizes and habitat requirements. We demonstrate a novel three-step approach for using LiDAR data to evaluate habitat based on multiple habitat attributes and accounting for their influence at multiple grain sizes using federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW; Picoides borealis) foraging habitat data fromthe Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, USA. First,we used high density LiDAR data (10 returns/m2) to predict detailed forest attributes at 20-mresolution across the entire SRS using a complementary application of nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression andmultiple linear regressionmodels. Next,we expanded on previous applications of LiDAR by constructing 95% joint prediction confidence intervals to quantify prediction error at various spatial aggregations and habitat thresholds to determine a biologically and statistically meaningful grain size. Finally,we used aggregations of 20-m cells and associated confidence interval boundaries to demonstrate a newapproach to produce maps of RCWforaging habitat conditions based on the guidelines described in the species\u27 recovery plan. Predictive power (R2) of regression models developed to populate raster layers ranged from 0.34 to 0.81, and prediction error decreased as aggregate size increased, but minimal reductions in prediction error were observed beyond 0.64-ha (4 × 4 20-m cells) aggregates. Mapping habitat quality while accounting for prediction error provided a robust method to determine the potential range of habitat conditions and specific attributes that were limiting in terms of the amount of suitable habitat. The sequential steps of our analytical approach provide a useful framework to extract detailed and reliable habitat attributes for a forest-dwelling habitat specialist, broadening the potential to apply LiDAR in conservation and management of wildlife populations. A zipped folder of Google maps is attached below as a related file