Bukenhofer, George A.

Montague, Warren G.

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 48 Article 56 1994 Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker Warren G. Montague US Forest Service George A. Bukenhofer US Forest Service Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons Recommended Citation Montague, Warren G. and Bukenhofer, George A. (1994) "Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 48 , Article 56. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol48/iss1/56 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. 259Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded WoodpeckerWarren G. Montague and George A.BukenhoferPoteau Ranger District-Ouachita National ForestUSDA Forest ServiceP.O. Box 2255Waldron, AR 72958The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is afederally listed endangered species of limited distributioninArkansas (James et al., 1981; James and Neal, 1986,1989) and Oklahoma (Masters et al., 1989). The two pop-ulations represented in the shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata)forests of the Ouachita Highlands are the OuachitaNational Forest (Ouachita NF) population (Neal andMontague, 1991) and the McCurtain County WildernessArea (McCurtain CWA) population which is managed bythe Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation(ODWC, 1991; Kelley et al., 1993). Banding activities nec-essary to provide information about movements of indi-vidual P. borealis and relationships between individual P.borealis or groups of P. borealis began in 1990 on theOuachita NF and in 1992 in the McCurtain CWA.A female P. borealis was banded as a nestling with anumbered metal band on 14 May 1992 at cluster #109 inthe McCurtain CWA. This site (34°18.33'N, 94°42.53'W)is 17.7 km south of Watson, Oklahoma. This woodpeckerwas recaptured and plastic colored leg bands wereattached on 5 November 1992. The 5 November 1992recapture data was the last time the bird was observed attier natal cavity tree cluster. On 20 August 1993 duringroutine monitoring activities in compartment 126 I/stand8 (34°48.33'N, 94°10.88'W) of the Ouachita NF, we cap-tured this 15 month-old female where she roosted in acavity tree cluster with another P. borealis pair. She wassubsequently observed on 22 November 1993 at a previ-ously inactive cavity tree cluster in compartment1261/stand 7 (34°48.25'N, 94°11.44'W) 0.9 km northwestof this pair. Extensive resin well work on her roost cavitytree suggested that she had moved into this previouslynactive cavity tree cluster well before her presence wasdetected. This discovery documents a dispersal of 73.6<m for this bird (Fig. 1). All site locations were deter-mined using the global positioning system with an accura-cy of +/- 100 m. Sometime prior to 29 December 1993,he female from McCurtain County, Oklahoma, wasoined by a male P. borealis, which had been released at asite 2.4 km west of this cavity tree cluster on 17November 1993. He had been captured on the KisatchieNational Forest inLouisiana and was translocated as partof a two-bird group-reinitiation attempt (Montague,unpubl.). This newly formed pair remained together asrecently as 3 March 1994.Long distance dispersals ofP. borealis have been docu-mented in other studies. Such distances include 30.1 kmfor a male in South Carolina (Jackson, 1990), approxi-mately 80 km for a male in Texas (R.N. Conner, pers.comm.), and 90 km for a female in North Carolina(Walters et al., 1988). Walters (1991) reported maximumdispersal distances of 31.5 km for fledgling females, 21.1km for fledgling males, and 17.1 km for helper males inthe Sandhills of North Carolina. Lay (1973) reported adispersal of 41.8 km by a helper male inTexas.Ouachita NF dispersal distances from natal cavity treeclusters of 12.9 km and 15.3 km have been recorded formales, and 8 km, 15.3 km, and 20.2 km have been record-ed for females (Ouachita NF unpubl. data). Also docu-mented was a dispersal distance of 13.3 km by a 34-month-old female across the U.S. Highway 71 corridornear Waldron, Arkansas.The P. borealis dispersals we describe here have signifi-cant biological and management implications. Dispersalinformation becomes critical to maintaining sufficientgenetic variability within a population (Reed et al., 1988;Haig et al., 1993) and in determining effective populationsize (Reed et al., 1993). Population viability assessmentsFig. 1. Seventy-four km dispersal of P. borealis fromMcCurtain County, Oklahoma (cluster 109) to ScottCounty, Arkansas (Poteau Ranger District cluster1261/8).Proceedings Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.48, 1994259Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 48 [1994], Art. 56Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1994260of either the Ouachita NF orMcCurtain CWA subpopula-tions necessitate consideration of gene flows from neigh-boring subpopulations when evaluating potential losses ofgenetic variability (Reed et al., 1993).Translocation of individual P. borealis identified as sur-plus to the reproductive needs of their groups of origin isone technique recommended to expedite populationgrowth and to foster increasing genetic variability(Stangel et al., 1992; Haig et al., 1993). Translocationstypically involve juvenile females, or juvenile males whenat least one helper male would remain with the breedingpair. Such translocations may take place in one of twoforms: first,as single-bird augmentations, when single sur-plus males or females are moved to a cluster with analready established individual of the opposite sex; second,as two-bird group-reinitiations in which male/femalepairs of surplus individuals are moved to suitable, unoc-cupied habitat (Allen et al., 1993).The occurrence of long distance, natural dispersals ofP. borealis should help allay fears about the wisdom offuture translocations. In this case opportunities to translo-cate P. borealis between the Ouachita NF and McCurtainCWA subpopulations should become a high priority forcooperation between the administering agencies.AcknowledgementsWe thank William Shepherd, John Skeen, JosephNeal, and Ron Masters for their helpful input concerningvarious drafts of the manuscript.Literature CitedAllen,D.H., K.E. Franzreb and R.E.F. Escano. 1993.Efficacy of translocation strategies for Red-cockadedWoodpeckers. Wildl.Soc. Bull. 21:155-159.Haig, S.M.,J.R. Belthoff and D.H.Allen. 1993.Population viability analysis for a small population ofRed-cockaded Woodpeckers and an evaluation ofenhancement strategies. Conservation Biology 7:289-301.rackson, J.A. 1990. Intercolony movements of Red-cock-aded Woodpeckers inSouth Carolina. J. FieldOrnithol. 61:149-155.[ames, D.A.,D.L. Hart and F.L.Burnside. 1981. Study ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker inArkansas. FinalReport for Ark.Game and Fish Comm., Project E-l-5(Job II),143 pp.James, D.A.and J.C. Neal. 1986. Arkansas birds, theirdistribution and abundance. Univ.of Arkansas Press,Fayetteville. 402 pp.James, D.A.and J.C. Neal. 1989. Update of the status ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Arkansas. FinalReport to the Ark. Game and Fish Comm. (Proj. E-l).18 pp.Kelley,J.F., S.M. Pletschet and D.M.Leslie,Jr. 1993.Habitat associations of Red-cockaded Woodpeckercavity trees inan old-growth forest of Oklahoma. J.Wildl.Manage. 57:122-128.Lay, D.W. 1973. Red-cockaded Woodpecker study. TexasParks and Wildlife Department. Project W-80-R-16. 33pp.Masters, R.E., J.E. Skeen and J.A. Garner. 1989. Red-cockaded Woodpecker inOklahoma: an update ofWood's 1974-77 study. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 69:27-31.Neal,J.C. and W.G. Montague. 1991. Past and presentdistribution of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and itshabitat in the Ouachita Mountains inArkansas. Proc.Arkansas Acad. Sci. 45:71-75.Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. 1991.McCurtain County Wilderness Area managementplan. (Jan. 1991). 39 pp.Reed, J.M., P.D. Doerr and J.R. Walters. 1988. Minimumviable population size of the Red-cockadedWoodpecker. J. Wildl.Manage. 52:385-391.Reed, J.M., J.R. Walters, T.E.Emigh and D.E. Seaman.1993. Effective population size inRed-cockadedWoodpeckers: population and model differences.Conservation Biology 7:302-308.Stangel, P.W., M.R.Lennartz and M.H.Smith. 1992.Genetic variation and population structure of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Conservation Biology 6:283-292.Walters, J.R. 1991. Application of ecological principles tothe management of endangered species: the case ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.22:505-523.Walters, J.R., S.K. Hansen, J.H. Carter, III,P.D. Manorand R.J. Blue. 1988. Long-distance dispersal ofanadult Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Wilson Bull.100:494-496.Proceedings Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.48, 1994260Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 48 [1994], Art. 56https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol48/iss1/56

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Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker

ScholarWorks@UARK

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 48 Article 561994Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockadedWoodpeckerWarren G. MontagueUS Forest ServiceGeorge A. BukenhoferUS Forest ServiceFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu.Recommended CitationMontague, Warren G. and Bukenhofer, George A. (1994) "Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker," Journal of theArkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 48 , Article 56.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol48/iss1/56259Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded WoodpeckerWarren G. Montague and George A.BukenhoferPoteau Ranger District- Ouachita National ForestUSDA Forest ServiceP.O. Box 2255Waldron, AR 72958The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is afederally listed endangered species of limited distributioninArkansas (James et al., 1981; James and Neal, 1986,1989) and Oklahoma (Masters et al., 1989). The two pop-ulations represented in the shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata)forests of the Ouachita Highlands are the OuachitaNational Forest (Ouachita NF) population (Neal andMontague, 1991) and the McCurtain County WildernessArea (McCurtain CWA) population which is managed bythe Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation(ODWC, 1991; Kelley et al., 1993). Banding activities nec-essary to provide information about movements of indi-vidual P. borealis and relationships between individual P.borealis or groups of P. borealis began in 1990 on theOuachita NF and in 1992 in the McCurtain CWA.A female P. borealis was banded as a nestling with anumbered metal band on 14 May 1992 at cluster #109 inthe McCurtain CWA. This site (34°18.33'N, 94°42.53'W)is 17.7 km south of Watson, Oklahoma. This woodpeckerwas recaptured and plastic colored leg bands wereattached on 5 November 1992. The 5 November 1992recapture data was the last time the bird was observed attier natal cavity tree cluster. On 20 August 1993 duringroutine monitoring activities in compartment 126 I/stand8 (34°48.33'N, 94°10.88'W) of the Ouachita NF, we cap-tured this 15 month-old female where she roosted in acavity tree cluster with another P. borealis pair. She wassubsequently observed on 22 November 1993 at a previ-ously inactive cavity tree cluster in compartment1261/stand 7 (34°48.25'N, 94°11.44'W) 0.9 km northwestof this pair. Extensive resin well work on her roost cavitytree suggested that she had moved into this previouslynactive cavity tree cluster well before her presence wasdetected. This discovery documents a dispersal of 73.6<m for this bird (Fig. 1). All site locations were deter-mined using the global positioning system with an accura-cy of +/- 100 m. Sometime prior to 29 December 1993,he female from McCurtain County, Oklahoma, wasoined by a male P. borealis, which had been released at asite 2.4 km west of this cavity tree cluster on 17November 1993. He had been captured on the KisatchieNational Forest inLouisiana and was translocated as partof a two-bird group-reinitiation attempt (Montague,unpubl.). This newly formed pair remained together asrecently as 3 March 1994.Long distance dispersals ofP. borealis have been docu-mented in other studies. Such distances include 30.1 kmfor a male in South Carolina (Jackson, 1990), approxi-mately 80 km for a male in Texas (R.N. Conner, pers.comm.), and 90 km for a female in North Carolina(Walters et al., 1988). Walters (1991) reported maximumdispersal distances of 31.5 km for fledgling females, 21.1km for fledgling males, and 17.1 km for helper males inthe Sandhills of North Carolina. Lay (1973) reported adispersal of 41.8 km by a helper male inTexas.Ouachita NF dispersal distances from natal cavity treeclusters of 12.9 km and 15.3 km have been recorded formales, and 8 km, 15.3 km, and 20.2 km have been record-ed for females (Ouachita NF unpubl. data). Also docu-mented was a dispersal distance of 13.3 km by a 34-month-old female across the U.S. Highway 71 corridornear Waldron, Arkansas.The P. borealis dispersals we describe here have signifi-cant biological and management implications. Dispersalinformation becomes critical to maintaining sufficientgenetic variability within a population (Reed et al., 1988;Haig et al., 1993) and in determining effective populationsize (Reed et al., 1993). Population viability assessmentsFig. 1. Seventy-four km dispersal of P. borealis fromMcCurtain County, Oklahoma (cluster 109) to ScottCounty, Arkansas (Poteau Ranger District cluster1261/8).Proceedings Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.48, 1994259Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 48 [1994], Art. 56Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1994260of either the Ouachita NF orMcCurtain CWA subpopula-tions necessitate consideration of gene flows from neigh-boring subpopulations when evaluating potential losses ofgenetic variability (Reed et al., 1993).Translocation of individual P. borealis identified as sur-plus to the reproductive needs of their groups of origin isone technique recommended to expedite populationgrowth and to foster increasing genetic variability(Stangel et al., 1992; Haig et al., 1993). Translocationstypically involve juvenile females, or juvenile males whenat least one helper male would remain with the breedingpair. Such translocations may take place in one of twoforms: first,as single-bird augmentations, when single sur-plus males or females are moved to a cluster with analready established individual of the opposite sex; second,as two-bird group-reinitiations in which male/femalepairs of surplus individuals are moved to suitable, unoc-cupied habitat (Allen et al., 1993).The occurrence of long distance, natural dispersals ofP. borealis should help allay fears about the wisdom offuture translocations. In this case opportunities to translo-cate P. borealis between the Ouachita NF and McCurtainCWA subpopulations should become a high priority forcooperation between the administering agencies.AcknowledgementsWe thank William Shepherd, John Skeen, JosephNeal, and Ron Masters for their helpful input concerningvarious drafts of the manuscript.Literature CitedAllen,D.H., K.E. Franzreb and R.E.F. Escano. 1993.Efficacy of translocation strategies for Red-cockadedWoodpeckers. Wildl.Soc. Bull. 21:155-159.Haig, S.M.,J.R. Belthoff and D.H.Allen. 1993.Population viability analysis for a small population ofRed-cockaded Woodpeckers and an evaluation ofenhancement strategies. Conservation Biology 7:289-301.rackson, J.A. 1990. Intercolony movements of Red-cock-aded Woodpeckers inSouth Carolina. J. FieldOrnithol. 61:149-155.[ames, D.A.,D.L. Hart and F.L.Burnside. 1981. Study ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker inArkansas. FinalReport for Ark.Game and Fish Comm., Project E-l-5(Job II),143 pp.James, D.A.and J.C. Neal. 1986. Arkansas birds, theirdistribution and abundance. Univ.of Arkansas Press,Fayetteville. 402 pp.James, D.A.and J.C. Neal. 1989. Update of the status ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Arkansas. FinalReport to the Ark. Game and Fish Comm. (Proj. E-l).18 pp.Kelley,J.F., S.M. Pletschet and D.M.Leslie,Jr. 1993.Habitat associations of Red-cockaded Woodpeckercavity trees inan old-growth forest of Oklahoma. J.Wildl.Manage. 57:122-128.Lay, D.W. 1973. Red-cockaded Woodpecker study. TexasParks and Wildlife Department. Project W-80-R-16. 33pp.Masters, R.E., J.E. Skeen and J.A. Garner. 1989. Red-cockaded Woodpecker inOklahoma: an update ofWood's 1974-77 study. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 69:27-31.Neal,J.C. and W.G. Montague. 1991. Past and presentdistribution of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and itshabitat in the Ouachita Mountains inArkansas. Proc.Arkansas Acad. Sci. 45:71-75.Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. 1991.McCurtain County Wilderness Area managementplan. (Jan. 1991). 39 pp.Reed, J.M., P.D. Doerr and J.R. Walters. 1988. Minimumviable population size of the Red-cockadedWoodpecker. J. Wildl.Manage. 52:385-391.Reed, J.M., J.R. Walters, T.E.Emigh and D.E. Seaman.1993. Effective population size inRed-cockadedWoodpeckers: population and model differences.Conservation Biology 7:302-308.Stangel, P.W., M.R.Lennartz and M.H.Smith. 1992.Genetic variation and population structure of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Conservation Biology 6:283-292.Walters, J.R. 1991. Application of ecological principles tothe management of endangered species: the case ofthe Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.22:505-523.Walters, J.R., S.K. Hansen, J.H. Carter, III,P.D. Manorand R.J. Blue. 1988. Long-distance dispersal ofanadult Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Wilson Bull.100:494-496.Proceedings Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.48, 1994260Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 48 [1994], Art. 56http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol48/iss1/56

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Long-Range Dispersal of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker

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