Section of pasture 29 depicting 22 known animals.

<p>Figure A is the 1^st principal component of the first image acquired (T1), figure B is the 1^st principal component of the second image acquired (T2), and figure C is the differenced image resulting from subtracting T1 from T2.</p

Mean image-to-image mis-registration errors (STD, standard deviation of five distance differences (meters) for each pasture; SE, standard error) across 5 points in the X and Y directions for eight pastures.

<p>Mean image-to-image mis-registration errors (STD, standard deviation of five distance differences (meters) for each pasture; SE, standard error) across 5 points in the X and Y directions for eight pastures.</p

The percent correct (P_correct), the percent omission (P_omiss), and the percent of commission (P_commiss) for counting animals from a differencing process between two images acquired on a single day.

<p>^1. (Correctly mapped polygons a/Known number of animals in pasture).</p><p>^2. (Missed Animals/Known number of animals in pasture).</p><p>^3. (Incorrectly mapped polygons/Number of mapped polygons).</p

Evaluation of Harvest Indices for Monitoring Cougar Survival and Abundance

Harvest indices are used by state wildlife management agencies to monitor population trends and set harvest quotas for furbearer species. Although harvest indices may be readily collected from hunters, the reliability of harvest indices for monitoring demography and abundance of the harvested species is rarely examined, particularly amongst large carnivores. The overall objective of this study was to assess whether cougar (Puma concolor) harvest statistics collected by wildlife managers were correlated with changes in cougar demography, mainly survival rates and abundance. We estimated key demographic parameters for 2 cougar populations in Utah over 17 years during which we monitored 235 radio-collared cougars. We then compared these demographic parameters to harvest statistics provided by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources over the same time period for the Oquirrh-Stansbury (lightly harvested population) and Monroe (heavily harvested population) harvest management units. In the Oquirrh-Stansbury unit, the percent of harvested cougars \u3e6 years old was positively correlated with annual survival, indicative of a population experiencing several years of high survival resulting in an older age structure. Percent of permits filled and cougar abundance were also significantly correlated, suggesting higher hunting success with increased density. In the Monroe management unit, the annual percent of permits filled was correlated with changes in overall annual survival and male and female annual survival. Of utmost importance, pursuit success (cougars treed/day) increased with the number of cougars on the unit suggesting that pursuit indices may be an informative metric for wildlife managers to determine cougar population trends. Because both management units were subjected to contrasting mortality regimes, results provided by this assessment could potentially be applied to additional management areas sharing similar ecological characteristics and harvest metrics

Landscape use by fishers: core areas differ in habitat than the entire home range

Home ranges have long been studied in animal ecology. Core areas may be used at a greater proportion than the rest of the home range, implying the core contains dependable resources. The Pacific fisher (Pekania pennanti Erxleben, 1777) is a rare mesocarnivore occupying a small area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. Once statewide, fishers declined in the 1900s due to trapping, habitat fragmentation, and development. Recently, drought induced by climate change may be affecting this population. We examined space use of fishers in their core versus their home range for levels of anthropogenic modifications (housing density, road density, silvicultural treatments), habitat types, and tree mortality. We found core areas contained more late-successional forest and minimal human activity compared to their territory. Their core had higher levels of dense canopy and higher amounts of conifer cover, while minimizing the amount of buildings, developed habitat, and low canopy cover. Fishers may in effect be seeking refugia by minimizing their exposure to these elements in their core. Conserving landscape components fishers’ use in their core will be important for the persistence of this isolated population.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Effects of Landscape-Scale Environmental Variation on Greater Sage-Grouse Chick Survival.

Effective long-term wildlife conservation planning for a species must be guided by information about population vital rates at multiple scales. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations declined substantially during the twentieth century, largely as a result of habitat loss and fragmentation. In addition to the importance of conserving large tracts of suitable habitat, successful conservation of this species will require detailed information about factors affecting vital rates at both the population and range-wide scales. Research has shown that sage-grouse population growth rates are particularly sensitive to hen and chick survival rates. While considerable information on hen survival exists, there is limited information about chick survival at the population level, and currently there are no published reports of factors affecting chick survival across large spatial and temporal scales. We analyzed greater sage-grouse chick survival rates from 2 geographically distinct populations across 9 years. The effects of 3 groups of related landscape-scale covariates (climate, drought, and phenology of vegetation greenness) were evaluated. Models with phenological change in greenness (NDVI) performed poorly, possibly due to highly variable production of forbs and grasses being masked by sagebrush canopy. The top drought model resulted in substantial improvement in model fit relative to the base model and indicated that chick survival was negatively associated with winter drought. Our overall top model included effects of chick age, hen age, minimum temperature in May, and precipitation in July. Our results provide important insights into the possible effects of climate variability on sage-grouse chick survival

Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator

<div><p>In the Arctic Ocean’s southern Beaufort Sea (SB), the length of the sea ice melt season (i.e., period between the onset of sea ice break-up in summer and freeze-up in fall) has increased substantially since the late 1990s. Historically, polar bears (<i>Ursus maritimus</i>) of the SB have mostly remained on the sea ice year-round (except for those that came ashore to den), but recent changes in the extent and phenology of sea ice habitat have coincided with evidence that use of terrestrial habitat is increasing. We characterized the spatial behavior of polar bears spending summer and fall on land along Alaska’s north coast to better understand the nexus between rapid environmental change and increased use of terrestrial habitat. We found that the percentage of radiocollared adult females from the SB subpopulation coming ashore has tripled over 15 years. Moreover, we detected trends of earlier arrival on shore, increased length of stay, and later departure back to sea ice, all of which were related to declines in the availability of sea ice habitat over the continental shelf and changes to sea ice phenology. Since the late 1990s, the mean duration of the open-water season in the SB increased by 36 days, and the mean length of stay on shore increased by 31 days. While on shore, the distribution of polar bears was influenced by the availability of scavenge subsidies in the form of subsistence-harvested bowhead whale (<i>Balaena mysticetus</i>) remains aggregated at sites along the coast. The declining spatio-temporal availability of sea ice habitat and increased availability of human-provisioned resources are likely to result in increased use of land. Increased residency on land is cause for concern given that, while there, bears may be exposed to a greater array of risk factors including those associated with increased human activities.</p></div

Description of sea ice variables used in the analysis of factors influencing the timing of arrival on shore, length of stay, and timing of departure back to sea ice by polar bears from the Southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation.

<p>Description of sea ice variables used in the analysis of factors influencing the timing of arrival on shore, length of stay, and timing of departure back to sea ice by polar bears from the Southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation.</p

Model ID, explanatory variables, AIC and AIC_c values, Akaike weights, and deviance for the linear mixed models describing the length of stay on shore, 1986–2014.

<p>Model ID, explanatory variables, AIC and AIC_c values, Akaike weights, and deviance for the linear mixed models describing the length of stay on shore, 1986–2014.</p