Reversing effects of inbreeding in red foxes

September 27, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

A red fox population in the Lassen Peak region of California is facing inbreeding but is a good candidate for genetic rescue, a conservation tool to reverse the effects of inbreeding depression. In a study published in Molecular Ecology and Evolution, researchers sequenced 28 whole genomes from four species of montane red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), including those in the Pacific mountains, Oregon Cascades, Lassen Cascades, the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains and the Sacramento Valley. They found that the Lassen and Sierra Nevada red fox populations had high rates of inbreeding. The genetic information also showed the Lassen population was likely once connected to the Oregon red foxes. The researchers believe inbreeding happened when populations declined as a result of unregulated trapping. “Not too long ago, this was an abundant, connected, diverse population,” said Cate Quinn, who was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis at the time of the research. “That diversity still exists. If we were to restore them as a group, these foxes may still have a lot of adaptive potential.”

Read the study in Molecular Ecology and Evolution.

Meet our sponsors—Part 2!

September 26, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

The Wildlife Society’s Annual Conference would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and year-round partners. We’d like to thank our sponsors listed below. Please take a moment to check out all of our sponsors here, and be sure to visit them during the conference to learn about their products, services and efforts!

BRONZE

Safari Club International Foundation

SCI Foundation has been conducting wildlife research and conservation projects around the world for over 20 years. We support the use of science-based information to inform wildlife management and ensure the long-term sustainability of wildlife populations.

American Bird Conservancy

American Bird Conservancy is dedicated to conserving birds and their habitats across the Americas.

E-obs GmbH

At e-obs, we want to provide you with a collar or tag that lets you take a closer look – a much closer look. This allows you to see small-scale movements up close and conduct detailed behavioral studies.

MetOcean Telematics

MetOcean Telematics is a global telemetry leader offering innovative voice, data and web-based solutions.

Ground Control Systems

Global satellite tracking and monitoring technology. Our partners build tracking collars and camera traps, and we transmit the data they capture.

ERTEC Environmental Systems

ERTEC manufactures revolutionary erosion and sediment control and wildlife barrier systems with twice the performance, half the total cost and ZERO Waste.

Vectronic Aerospace Inc.

Vectronic Aerospace is the global leader in wildlife monitoring telemetry equipment and technology.

Telonics Inc.

Telonics offers the most reliable products on the market and is continuing to develop new products and product features.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

The TRCP is a 501c3 non-profit corporation that works to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

American Public University

The mission of American Public University System is to provide high quality higher education with emphasis on educating the nation’s military and public service communities.

West Virginia Division of Natural Resources

It is the statutory mission of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to provide and administer a long-range comprehensive program for the exploration, conservation, development, protection, enjoyment, and the use of the natural resources of the State of West Virginia.

Browning Trail Cameras

Browning Trail Cameras is the most respected brand in trail cameras. Through innovative thinking and cutting-edge technology Browning delivers the trail camera performance and reliability you deserve to get the job done. Get yours today and see why Browning is still…The Best There Is.

Pig Brig Trap Systems

The Pig Brig® Trap is the most effective way to defend your land and livestock from feral hog damage, period.

Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources offers M.S. in Wildlife and Natural Resources and a Ph.D. in Animal and Natural Resource Sciences. Our PhD program bridges disciplines to address challenges associated with conservation of resources while maximizing food production.

Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources

Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) is responsible for the management of inland fisheries, wildlife, and recreational boating for Virginia. We are leading wildlife conservation and inspiring people to value the outdoors and their role in nature.

Wild Sheep Foundation and Women Hunt

About Wild Sheep Foundation: The Wild Sheep Foundation’s Mission is to “Enhance wild sheep populations, promote scientific wildlife management, and educate the public and youth on sustainable use and the conservation benefits of hunting while promoting the interests of the hunter.” About Women Hunt: For a variety of reasons women are one of the fastest-growing segments of the hunting, shooting and conservation communities. Wild Sheep Foundation’s Women Hunt program helps more women cross barriers into the hunting and conservation space.

Botstiber Institute of Wildlife Fertility Control

The Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control (BIWFC), established in 2016, advances reproductive management as part of an integrated approach to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and promote coexistence worldwide through education, outreach, and engagement. BIWFC has two offices, its headquarters in Media, PA, USA, and BIWFC Europe at the University of York, UK.

Weyerhaeuser Company

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands, has been a global leader in sustainability for more than a century.

Mule Deer

The mission of the Mule Deer Foundation is to ensure the conservation of mule deer, black-tailed deer and their habitat.

Rocky Mtn

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s mission is to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat and our hunting heritage.

Titley Scientific

Titley Scientific company was born in Australia, combining electronic and ecology expertise. We’ve been developing acoustic technology for more than 40 years, pioneering ‘Anabat’ the worldwide standard in bat detection.

University of Montana, Wildlife of Biology Program

The University of Montana’s Wildlife Biology Program provides students with an extensive knowledge of ecology, population biology, wildlife biology and critical thinking and quantitative skills. Our students become leaders, bringing science to the dynamic management of wildlife and fish populations and their habitat, communities, and ecosystems.

Sundance Consulting

Sundance Consultants, LLC (Sundance), is a full-service environmental consulting and remediation firm providing services in Compliance, Site Characterization & Remediation, Natural Resources, Planning and Permitting, Cultural Resources, Tribal Engagement, Public Involvement, Staff Augmentation, IT, and Geographic Information Systems. 

Ecotone Telemetry

Ecotone is an association of professional ornithologists, ecologists and specialists in environmental protection. We put together projects and analyses in the field of environmental protection and management. We produce various kinds of GPS telemetry equipment for birds and mammals. Our wildlife trackers are used on all continents including Antarctica.

Wildlife Drones Pty Ltd

Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most advanced drone-based radio-telemetry system to support wildlife professionals and researchers to monitor wildlife, collect data in real-time and survey vast areas. We empower wildlife biologists and researchers to cost-effectively collect more radio-telemetry data, more often and with less effort. Our radio-telemetry system is compatible with any VHF tags globally.

Squeal on Pigs! USDA and SCWDS

The Squeal on Pigs! tool enables quick response to feral swine via a mobile app and reporting system. It helps wildlife managers identify and remove small or new populations before they establish. The project also provides a media toolkit for integrating Squeal on Pigs messaging into outreach efforts.

Boat noise hampers orcas’ hunting ability

September 26, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

The noise from passing ships is hindering the ability of orcas to find their prey in the Pacific Northwest. Orcas use ultrasonic echolocation to hunt fish—they communicate and coordinate their hunting through clicks. Researchers placed tracking and noise recording devices on northern and southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea that sits between British Columbia and Washington state between 2009 and 2014. They found that louder ship noise resulted in longer hunting times for the orcas (Orcinus orca). “Vessel noise negatively impacts every step in the hunting behavior of northern and southern resident orcas: from searching to pursuing and finally capturing prey,” said lead author Jennifer Tennessen, a senior research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, in a press release. “It shines a light on why southern residents in particular have not recovered. One factor hindering their recovery is availability and accessibility of their preferred prey: salmon. When you introduce noise, it makes it even harder to find and catch prey that is already hard to find.”

Read more at Mongabay.

Wildlife Vocalizations: Kathy Granillo

September 25, 2024 by Kathy Granillo

I love to travel and explore, and I have been lucky to travel to several amazing places for my work. I could make the case for several places being the most interesting, but the one that immediately comes to mind is Chiapas, Mexico.

I was a member of a team from the United States visiting Selva El Ocote Biosphere Reserve to provide advice on improving ecotourism opportunities and programs there. A few years prior in 1991, while I was a forest biologist at the Klamath National Forest, I had set up one of the first of the U.S. Forest Service’s Sister Forests as part of the Partners in Flight Program with a biosphere reserve in Chiapas. At the time, the Forest Service encouraged individual forests to find a counterpart forest or reserve in Latin America that shared some of the same neotropical migratory birds and to share management and research knowledge with them. I selected a biosphere reserve in Chiapas that not only provided winter habitats for many of the birds that breed in northwestern California, but that also shared management issues such as steep hillsides prone to landslides, and rivers with important fisheries.

Granillo holds a captive Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) pup at a captive facility on Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, where pups work on reintroducing the species to the wild. Credit: USFWS

I then moved to a position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and biologist Brian Woodbridge picked up the Sister Forest project. He set up staff visits between Selva El Ocote and Klamath with themes around watersheds, fisheries and wildlife management. He implemented an inventory and monitoring program at the reserve and trained local biologists in survey techniques. He coordinated various research projects led by researchers from both the U.S. and Mexico.

The biological diversity and general integrity of the land wowed everyone who visited the reserve. Villages embedded in the reserve included small crop areas, and the people who lived there also cultivated shade-grown organic coffee in the forest understory.

Granillo and refuge volunteer Ron Eilefson establish transects to survey birds in grasslands on Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: USFWS

The U.S. Forest Service encouraged the reserve to work with the villagers to market their coffee in the shade-grown organic market, which was just starting to grow in popularity. The villagers could then be compensated more for this specialty coffee, and this encouraged them to keep sustainably growing coffee.

Woodbridge also encouraged locals to become tour guides and for Selva El Ocote to open to ecotourism groups. In order to offer the best experience for ecotourists, the reserve requested an assessment to determine its suitability for ecotourism. Woodbridge put together a team and invited me on. We all met in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, and then toured the reserve for several days, mimicking a trip that a tour group might take.

The place was amazing—beautiful forests, lakes, rivers, colorful birds, a wide variety of mammals, reptiles and insects. It is a medium-to-high elevation humid tropical forest, and has a vast karst cave system, a type of landscape characterized by soluble rocks like limestone, which form jagged surface features and caves. The reserve staff were eager to show us around, and the local villagers were friendly.

The accommodations and some of the modes of travel were challenging. Transportation was primarily in the back of an open truck with slat sides that was called “El Pollo” due to its bright yellow color. When it rained, they threw a blue tarp over the truck bed where we rode. We stayed in two camps. The lodging for one was a large room with bunk beds, and outdoor dining was at a rustic table. The other site was a small house with several beds to each bedroom.

But both made for good stories when we ended our trip with a group dinner in San Cristobal de las Casas. The team wrote a detailed report in English and Spanish with recommendations for improving the area for ecotourism and submitted it to the reserve’s directorate.

It was a unique opportunity to see the intersection of protecting a truly amazing place while balancing the economic needs of the surrounding villages.

Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences. 

Learn more about Wildlife Vocalizations, and read other contributions.

Submit your story for Wildlife Vocalizations or nominate your peers and colleagues to encourage them to share their story. For questions, please contact tws@wildlife.org.

How species find enough food in Yellowstone

September 25, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

Using scat samples and GPS tracking, researchers uncovered not only what wildlife in Yellowstone eat, but also how they find food. In a study published in Royal Society Open Science, scientists found that feeding behavior really depended on the animal’s body size. Small species like mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) seemed to expand their diets during the summer and feed on leftover plants in protected valleys in the winter. Large species like bison (Bison bison) tended to travel into deep snow during the winter to search for unique food reserves that smaller species couldn’t access. “The study showed that these species can feed far more adaptably than anyone had previously assumed,” said lead study author Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. “All species switch the ways they search for food, but the opportunities an individual bison has to fuel its migration or survive a hard winter might only work for it because it’s big. Meanwhile, other species might need to group together for protection in winter because they’re small.” The researchers said that these findings are important for conservation. “If we want to help wildlife populations thrive, we should be maintaining a diversity of habitats and plant resources across their migratory corridors so that many animals, each with their own preferences, personalities and needs, can find what’s best to fuel their journey,” said co-author Tyler Kartzinel, an associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Brown.

Read the study in Royal Society Open Science.

Improved test detects CWD early

September 24, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

Improved DNA testing that can detect chronic wasting disease in cervids early suggests that saliva may be more infectious than urine and feces. The new testing described in a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases can find CWD in deer samples before clinical signs appear. Chronic wasting disease is a lethal neurological disease in cervids like deer, elk (Cervus canadensis) and moose (Alces alces). The prions that cause the disease can be excreted by the animals and live in the environment for years. Using improved testing, the researchers studied saliva, urine and feces from 12 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) after they were given small amounts of CWD-positive brain tissue or saliva by mouth. The team detected consistent prion shedding in six deer that expressed the same genotype. Prion shedding also seemed to occur more consistently through saliva than urine or feces. “This finding reinforces previous studies reporting that saliva is more infectious than urine or feces after experimental CWD prion inoculation,” the researchers wrote. The team hopes these findings can help with early disease detection in cervids.

Read more at the University of Minnesota and check out the study in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

TWS members recognized in Garden & Gun magazine

September 24, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

Garden & Gun magazine recognized three TWS members as Champions of Conservation in its October/November 2024 issue.

The title recognizes 10 leaders and innovators in sustainability whose work has benefited southern ecosystems. TWS members Jimmy Bullock, Lauren Pharr and Murry Burgess received the honor this year.

Bullock of RMS Timber Company in Birmingham, Alabama, has forged a blueprint for how private landowners can save threatened southern species. Lauren Pharr, from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Murry Burgess, from Starkville, Mississippi, earned the recognition for starting the nonprofit Field Inclusive to help historically marginalized or excluded nature lovers. 

A team of five conservation experts selected these individuals as well as Champions of Conservation following rigorous research.

“At G&G, conservation has been at the core of our editorial mission from the beginning,” said David DiBenedetto, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Garden & Gun. “Our deep appreciation for the South has always been tied to the land, and we’re proud to support the remarkable efforts of those working to preserve and protect it. We can only hope this coverage spreads awareness and inspires others.”

Davis Strait polar bear population decreases slightly  

September 23, 2024 by Joshua Rapp Learn

A polar bear population that encompasses parts of Greenland and several Canadian provinces and territories is only slightly decreasing, despite an increase in harvest and decreasing ice.

“We found that there was a slight decline in abundance between 2006 and 2018,” said Kylee Dunham, an applied quantitative ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. But “this population is doing fairly well, all things considered,” she said.

The Davis Strait polar bear (Ursus maritimus) population, which lives in parts of Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Nunavut, occupies the sea, land and islands in the northeastern part of North America.

From 2005 to 2007, scientists monitored the bears by capturing them and giving them lip tattoos for identification. They also took tissue samples for genetic analysis. They estimated there were about 2,190 polar bears in the population at the time.

Surveying a vast territory

In a study published recently in Marine Mammal Science, researchers repeated the survey in 2017-2018, only this time scientists didn’t capture bears. Marcus Dyck, who died in a helicopter crash during a survey conducted in Lancaster Sound on April 25, 2021, and others flew along the coastlines of the range from August to October, on the mainland and islands, looking for bears. When they found one, they darted the animal to gather DNA for analysis back in the lab.

“They fire a dart that goes into their hind end and pulls out a little tissue,” Dunham said.

Population models revealed that the Davis Strait population had dropped a little, to about 1,944 polar bears. This represents a decline of roughly 1% per year, Dunham said. But overall, the outlook isn’t that bad for this population, Dunham said.

“It was a great effort by all the staff,” said Jim Goudie, Deputy Minister of Land and Natural Resources in Nunatsiavut, who took part in some of the surveys. At the same time, Goudie said that the overall survey numbers don’t match the data in Nunatsiavut, where Inuit are seeing an increase in polar bears.

“There are more polar bears in Nunatsiavut than there’s ever been,” Goudie said. This may be due to the difficulty in surveying such a large area as Davis Strait, or it may be due to finer-scale regional differences in the subpopulation of polar bears.

Dunham said that overall bear numbers in the huge area might still be decreasing, even if they increase in some local areas. Shrinking sea ice might be pushing bears into areas where they are more likely to encounter humans, for example, which leads to an increase in human-bear conflict.

Since the researchers didn’t collect fine-scale data on adult recruitment, they don’t have a good idea of why the population is decreasing, Dunham said. But the surveys didn’t reveal any changes in the body conditions of bears since the previous study that occurred more than a decade earlier.

Climate change may play a role in the decrease—there is certainly less sea ice in the area than there used to be. An increase in legal harvest in places like Nunavut or Nunavik in northern Quebec may also have had an effect, though not as much as wildlife managers in those areas might have hoped based on population goals.

“Essentially, those management measures were incredibly unsuccessful,” Goudie said.

JWM: Lead poses biggest risk to eagles

September 23, 2024 by The Wildlife Society

Compared to a number of species, bald eagles are most vulnerable to lead poisoning coming from bullets in New York. Fragments from bullets used to hunt species like white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are sometimes left in the environment for scavengers like bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) to consume. In a study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management, researchers studied the risk of lead exposure in 14 birds and 17 mammals, from American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) to Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana). They found that bald eagles were the most vulnerable, followed by golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), American goshawks (Astur atricapillus), American crows and common ravens (Corvus corax). “A surprising number of species are at risk, and we can use bald eagles to continue to monitor lead issues because they are quite vulnerable,” said TWS member Krysten Schuler, wildlife disease ecologist who directs the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab and co-authored the study, in a press release. “With this list, we’re expanding our lead testing to more species and will think more broadly about lead exposure in these animals over time.”

Read the study in The Journal of Wildlife Management.

Endemic Mexican amphibians face high pressure from humans

September 20, 2024 by Joshua Rapp Learn

Amphibians endemic to Mexico face a high degree of pressure from human sources, according to new research.

A country-wide analysis revealed places where conservation dollars might work best for the amphibians.

“The efforts should be driven by the species we want to conserve,” said Leticia Ochoa Ochoa, a professor of biology at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM).

In a study published recently in Animal Conservation, Ochoa Ochoa and her colleagues conducted species assessments of 124 amphibians endemic to Mexico. Using sources like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), they figured out the known and predicted distributions of these amphibians as well as threats they likely faced. The team also looked at the degree of connectivity between populations.

The dwarf Mexican tree frog (Tlalocohyla smithii) is endemic to the country. Credit: Leticia Ochoa Ochoa

They found a high level of anthropogenic effects, including conversion of land for livestock, agriculture, roads, mines, urban expansion and pollution. Endemic amphibians had an average habitat loss of 83% to anthropogenic effects. Ambystoma salamanders faced the largest distribution loss. “Large ambystomatids’ reproductive habits and presence in an area depend on a high level of conserved habitat; therefore, the presence of anthropic threats will have a greater impact on its suitability levels,” the authors wrote in the paper.

“There’s a strong belief that all anthropogenic activities are bad for amphibians,” Ochoa Ochoa said. And while this was often true in their research, not all impacts they found were equally bad. In reality, the level of impact from threats depended on species traits. Creatures such as cane toads (Rhinella horribilis), common Mexican treefrogs (Smilisca baudinii) or painted treefrogs (Tlalocohyla picta) survive well in agricultural or livestock settings, or even in small towns, for example.

Common Mexican tree frogs don’t always respond badly to anthropogenic pressure. Credit: Leticia Ochoa Ochoa

The analysis also revealed that conservation for some species, like the great peeping frog (Eleutherodactylus grandis), which lives around the UNAM campus and is considered endangered by the IUCN, could be extremely difficult.

“The chances for surviving in this species are very slim,” Ochoa Ochoa said. “There is no genetic exchange with other populations because they are very isolated.” Since the university is still growing, new buildings are sometimes built in the species’ habitat.

Meanwhile, the zoque treefrog (Quilticohyla zoque), which the IUCN also considers endangered, has a wider distribution, and their populations appeared to be doing fine in many areas, even if those areas were unprotected. Ochoa Ochoa said that it would be relatively easy to protect the species by conserving some of their range where they already live.

“We should choose our battles because we don’t have a lot of money,” she said.

Cane toads also did relatively well in human settings. Credit: Leticia Ochoa Ochoa

The results of the study weren’t all bad news, though. Ochoa Ochoa and her colleagues found that small frogs that live in trees and reproduce in water weren’t as affected by human threats. Small to medium-sized frogs that developed or laid eggs in water didn’t do too badly either.