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Captive breeding is increasingly being used to create supplies of endangered animals for release into natural habitats, but rearing strategies vary and debates arise over which methods are most efficient. We assessed postrelease behaviors and survival of three groups of black-footed ferrets, each with different prerelease experience. Eighteen ferret kits ≤60 days of age were moved with their dams from cages to 80-m2 outdoor pens with prairie dog burrows. These animals were compared to animals reared in standard cages (n=72), some of which were given experience killing prairie dogs (n=32). Ferrets were released onto white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) colonies in Wyoming, USA, in fall, 1992. Radio-tagged...
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Synopsis: In an attempt to better characterize the influence of human settlement patterns on wolf distribution, this paper examined how radio-collared gray wolves responded to different road types and human presence at the boundaries of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in south-central Alaska. Wolves tended to avoid oilfield access roads that were open to the public, but were attracted to gated pipeline access roads and secondary gravel roads with limited human use. The low use access and secondary roads likely provided an easy travel corridor for wolves. Prior to intensive trapping and hunting from 1978-1979, wolves demonstrated little territorial adjustment in response to a heavily used highway. However, only after...
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is under consideration as a chemical fish deterrent at pinch points in rivers (e.g., inside locks) to reduce unwanted fish passage. This study evaluated the behavioral responses of invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) to dissolved CO2 in laboratory tanks. The goal of this project was to quantify CO2 concentrations that modify round goby behavior. More specifically, avoidance behavior (voluntary response) and loss of equilibrium (involuntary response) were quantified across 5, 15, and 25°C water temperatures. These data can be used to inform future field testing of CO2 as an invasive fish deterrent. Spreadsheets include data that were used to evaluate the efficacy of carbon dioxide (CO2)...
Summary The use of biomass to produce bioenergy in order to provide a wide range of energy services (heat, light, comfort, entertainment, information, mobility etc.), and to produce biomaterials as substitutes for those presently manufactured from petro-chemicals, is an integrating response to a number of global problems. These include equity, development, energy supply security, rural employment, and climate change mitigation. Biomass provides fuel flexibility to match a wide range of energy demands and is a renewable energy source that can be stored, which is an advantage over several other forms of renewable energy. It has been identified by the European Union as a significant contributor to its 12% renewable...
This dataset includes the behavioral responses to a broadband sound for common carp in an outdoor concrete pond. Broadband sound (0.06 to 10 kHz) has shown potential as an acoustic deterrent for bigheaded carps, but the response of common carp to broadband sound has not been evaluated. Since common carp are ostariophysians, possessing Weberian ossicles similar to bigheaded carps, it is possible that sound can be used as an acoustical deterrent for all three species.
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The data are part of a larger, long-term project of lesser scaup on Lower Red Rock Lake, Montana, 2004-2015, conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This segment of the data has summarized results of late summer resighting surveys of nasal-marked adult females and GIS-derived habitat attributes. Scaup resighting surveys were conducted mid-August to early September, 2007-2013. The study site was divided into 16 survey plots (as shown as grid in figure); each plot comprised one to four 750 × 750 m survey blocks such that plots contained roughly equivalent area of open water Survey data included GPS location, number, and social status of marked females, wind conditions, and group size of other scaup associated...
An avalanche destroyed the main hydroelectric transmission line to Juneau, Alaska in April, 2008. Diesel-generated electricity was substituted, causing electricity prices to increase 500% for 45 days. Electricity demand fell by 25% during the supply disruption. Most of the reduction occurred before the higher rates were implemented. Some conservation – about 8% of historic consumption – persisted after the transmission line was repaired and prices returned to normal. Consumers reduced energy use through a combination of new habits and technical improvements. A survey of residential consumers indicated that the average household undertook 10 conservation actions, with major changes in lighting, space heating, fuel...
As wind power generation is rapidly expanding worldwide, there is a need to understand whether and how preconstruction surveys can be used to predict impacts and to place turbines to minimize impacts to birds. Wind turbines in the 165-km2 Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA), California, USA, cause thousands of bird fatalities annually, including hundreds of raptors. To test whether avian fatality rates related to rates of utilization and specific behaviors within the APWRA, from March 1998 to April 2000 we performed 1,959 30-minute behavior observation sessions (360° visual scans using binoculars) among 28 nonoverlapping plots varying from 23 ha to 165 ha in area and including 10–67 turbines per plot, totaling...
The relevance of econometric studies of ownership and use of private cars for environmental issues is sketched and some recent results are reviewed.
Electricity-generating wind turbines are an attractive energy source because they are renewable and produce no emissions. However, they have at least two potentially damaging ecological effects. Their rotating blades are hazardous to raptors which occasionally fly into them. And wind turbines are very noisy when active, a feature that may interfere with the lives of animals beneath them. We studied California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area of Northern California. These squirrels emit vocalizations that alert others to the presence of a predator, and so may be forced to compensate for turbine noise by modifying antipredator behavior. We compared the antipredator behavior...
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This data release includes video files and image-processing results used to conduct the analyses of hibernation patterns in groups of bats reported by Hayman et al. (2017), "Long-term video surveillance and automated analyses reveal arousal patterns in groups of hibernating bats.” Thermal-imaging surveillance video cameras were used to observe little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in a cave in Virginia and Indiana bats (M. sodalis) in a cave in Indiana during three winters between 2011 and 2014. There are 740 video files used for analysis (‘Analysis videos’), organized into 7 folders by state/site and winter. Total size of the video data set is 14.1 gigabytes. Each video file in this analysis set represents one...
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We measured ontogenetic changes in routine and maximum swimming speeds of bighead, grass, and silver carp larvae. Daily measurements of routine swimming speed were taken for two weeks post-hatch using a still camera and the LARVEL program, a custom image-analysis software. Larval swimming speed was calculated using larval locations in subsequent image frames and time between images. Using an endurance chamber, we determined the maximum swimming speed of larvae (post gas bladder inflation) for four to eight weeks post-hatch.
Nine Heloderma suspectum were observed between 1 April and 13 July 1979. In April and May, movements of Heloderma were associated with areas where eggs of ground nesting birds were most abundant. During June and July, Heloderma responded to decreasing egg availability by shifting their diets to small mammals and moving onto areas where these prey were most abundant. These shifts are adaptive as Heloderma continually exploit the most abundant prey. Lizards demonstrated a foraging strategy of rarely backtracking and consuming only an average of 46% of the eggs available at each nest. The number of eggs eaten per day by each lizard was positively correlated with lizard weight. Combinations of lizard satiation, reproduction,...
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These data are serum urea nitrogen and creatinine levels for polar bears captured in the southern Beaufort Sea 1983-2016 and the Chukchi Sea 1987-1993. The dataset includes relevant information about the bears that were captured including the latitude and longitude of their capture location, capture date, age class and sex, the age and number of cubs accompanying an adult female, and whether the bear denned during the previous winter or exhibited signs of being engaged in mating behavior at the time of or just prior to capture.
The management of canid populations has been at the forefront of wildlife management worldwide for much of the last century. Effective management depends on the ability to integrate species biology, the environmental aspects upon which those populations depend, and the factors controlling species abundance. Further, managing canid populations requires consideration of territoriality and dominance, which may have a significant effect on population dynamics. To better understand the effect of social structure on canid populations, we developed an individual-based computer model using Swarm to mimic natural coyote population dynamics. We selected the Swarm simulation environment because it is ideally suited for creating...
Recent studies have shown the potential of acoustic deterrents against invasive silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). This study examined the phonotaxic response of the bighead carp (H. nobilis) to pure tones (500– 2000 Hz) and playbacks of broadband sound from an underwater recording of a 100 hp outboard motor (0.06–10 kHz) in an outdoor concrete pond (10 × 5 × 1.2 m) at the U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center in La Crosse, WI. The number of consecutive times the fish reacted to sound from alter- nating locations at each end of the pond was assessed. Bighead carp were relatively indifferent to the pure tones with median consecutive responses ranging from 0 to 2 reactions away...
The effectiveness of an acoustic barrier to deter the movement of silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, and bighead carp, H. noblis, was evaluated. A pond (10 m, x 5 m x 1.2 m) was divided in half by a concrete-block barrier with a channel (1 m across) allowing fish access to each side. Underwater speakers were placed on each side of the barrier opening and an outboard motor noise (broadband sound; 0.06 – 10 kHz) was broadcast to repel carp that approached within 1 m of the channel. Broadband sound was effective at reducing the number of successful crossings in schools of silver carp, bighead carp and a combined school. Repulsion rates were 82.5% (silver carp), 93.7% (bighead carp) and 90.5% (combined). This...
Electricity-generating wind turbines are an attractive energy source because they are renewable and produce no emissions. However, they have at least two potentially damaging ecological effects. Their rotating blades are hazardous to raptors which occasionally fly into them. And wind turbines are very noisy when active, a feature that may interfere with the lives of animals beneath them. We studied California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area of Northern California. These squirrels emit vocalizations that alert others to the presence of a predator, and so may be forced to compensate for turbine noise by modifying antipredator behavior. We compared the antipredator behavior...
Aquatic organisms exposed to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) at early life-stages may have reduced reproductive fitness via disruption of reproductive and non-reproductive behavioral and physiological pathways. Survival to reproductive age relies upon optimal non-reproductive trait expression, such as adequate predator avoidance responses, which may be impacted through EDC exposure. During a predator–prey confrontation, larval fish use an innate C-start escape behavior to rapidly move away from an approaching threat. We tested the hypotheses that (1) larval fathead minnows exposed to estrogens, a primary class of EDCs, singularly or in mixture, suffer a reduced ability to perform an innate C-start behavior...
Fisheries managers have often suggested that survival of trout during the winter is a major factor affecting population densities in many stream ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains. In Wyoming, trout population reductions from fall to spring in excess of 90% have been documented in some reservoir tailwaters. Though biologists have surmised that these reductions were the result of either mortality or emigration from some river sections, the specific mechanisms have not been defined and the factors leading to the trout loss are unknown. This is a review of four studies that were conducted or funded between 1991 and 1998 by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to understand the extent of overwinter losses, identify some...
    map background search result map search result map Influence of prerelease experience on reintroduced black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) Gray wolf response to refuge boundaries and roads in Alaska. Survey and habitat data for postbreeding lesser scaup, Lower Red Rock Lake, MT, 2007-2013 Long-term video surveillance and automated analyses of hibernating bats in Virginia and Indiana, winters 2011-2014. Ontogenetic changes in swimming speed of silver carp, bighead carp, and grass carp larvae-Data Serum Urea and Creatinine Levels of Spring-caught Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Southern Beaufort Sea, 1983-2016, and Chukchi Sea, 1987-1993 Influence of prerelease experience on reintroduced black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) Long-term video surveillance and automated analyses of hibernating bats in Virginia and Indiana, winters 2011-2014. Gray wolf response to refuge boundaries and roads in Alaska. Serum Urea and Creatinine Levels of Spring-caught Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Southern Beaufort Sea, 1983-2016, and Chukchi Sea, 1987-1993