House Cats Avoid Coyote Haunts: Wild Cam Series

July 6, 2015 by Joshua Rapp Learn

A coyote looks at a camera trap in South Mountain Gameland, N.C.

There’s a trick to conserving nine lives, and a new camera trap study shows that it may involve domestic felines having prudence when it comes to keeping out of coyote habitat.

“The pattern was relatively straightforward and obvious,” said TWS member Roland Kays, a professor at North Carolina State University and the lead author of a study in the Journal of Mammalogy that shows domestic cats (Felis catus) tend to steer clear of areas that harbor coyotes (Canis latrans). “Most of the nature preserves that we surveyed had no cats.”

This newest Wild Cam photo essay of The Wildlife Society was one of the first studies of the larger eMammal Project, a citizen scientist initiative led by the Smithsonian Institute and NCSU to document animals in the east and eventually across the country. All camera trap images are courtesy of the eMammal Project.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Cat owners sometimes favor their pet felines for their mousing abilities, but the animals aren’t particularly picky when it comes to small animals. Housecats are estimated to kill billions of wild birds every year in the U.S. alone as well as any number of small mammals, lizards or other animals, Kays said. The team wanted to know if this kind of predation extended to national parks where wildlife professionals are working to protect species in the U.S. and Kays said it was “some relief” that coyotes seemed to keep the cats at bay in some wilderness areas.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Most coyote images collected by the team show solitary animals, but occasional shots show the animals hunting in packs. “When we did our statistical analysis, the number of coyotes seen at a site was the best explanatory variable,” Kays said. Aside from Raleigh’s urban areas, camera traps took photos in 32 protected sites like state or national parks and noticed immediately that there were rarely images of cats in areas that appeared to have lots of coyotes.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Even areas like Rock Creek Park located in the heart of Washington, D.C. had very few cat shots. Only a single brave cat, walking into the darkness, was captured on cameras compared to 125 coyote pictures taken in the area. “There’s no doubt that coyotes eat cats,” Kays said. “Some cats are stupid, but other cats figure it out.” The smart cats stay out of the wild places where coyotes roam.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

The work drawn on from this study involved around 500 volunteers putting cameras in more than 2,000 locations across six states from South Carolina to Maryland. The volunteers, including middle school and university students, were overseen by wildlife professionals such as Kays, pictured here kneeling on the far left. The professionals helped the volunteers put the millions of images they collected through the eMammal software.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Cats were detected 300 times more often in residential yards, where coyotes were rarely captured on film. “We found not many coyotes in people’s backyards. The places they overlap are the places in the small urban woodlots in Raleigh,” Kays said. Aside from the risk cats present to local microfauna, he said that felines are also in danger of being attacked or eaten when they live near wild areas. “You should really keep your cat indoors for your cat’s health,” he said.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Recent research by member of The Wildlife Society Stanley Gehrt showed that coyotes have adapted to living in heavily urbanized areas of Chicago. But Kays said coyotes are relatively newer in cities like Raleigh, where they still appear to stick to wilderness areas. Nonetheless, coyotes sometimes approach buildings — this one was taken from a camera set up by middle school volunteers. “In five years I’m sure they’ll be more urban than they are today,” Kays said.

Cats, coyotes

Image Credit: eMammal Project

Many coyotes in the east, such as the one pictured here on the left, are hybridized with domestic dogs. “In some ways coyotes are kind of an invasive species in the east,” Kays said. But many wildlife ecologists see them as the closest thing the region may get to the former wolf population.

“In areas like Australia or New Zealand that don’t have larger native predators, the cats are a huge problem,” Kays said. “[This study] shows that larger predators on the landscape can maintain the balance of nature by keeping invasive species at bay.” Knowing where domestic cats hunt can also help wildlife professionals asses the risk to local fauna, he added.

This photo essay is part of an ongoing series from The Wildlife Society featuring photos and video images of wildlife taken with camera traps. Check out other entries in the series here. If you’re working on an interesting camera trap research project and have photos you’d like to share, email Joshua at jlearn@wildlife.org.

Bi-Partisan Leaders Gather to Urge Action for LWCF

July 2, 2015 by Colleen Hartel

Scenic

Last week marked 100 days before the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) authorization expires at the end of September.

Senators Bennet (D-CO), Ayotte (R-NH), and Heinrich (D-MN), cosponsors of S.338, a bill to permanently reauthorize LWCF, gathered along with other bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate to urge action on this important program as the expiration date nears.

Since its inception in the 1960s, LWCF has made important contributions to conservation in every state. LWCF is the primary source of funding for land acquisition for conservation and public access areas by federal, state, and local governments.

Funding for LWCF comes from a portion of offshore oil and gas royalty payments. LWCF is authorized to receive up to $900 million from royalties annually. However over $18 billion, nearly 40% of the potential funds, has been diverted away from conservation purposes since the program’s beginning.

Proposed Congressional action through bills that would permanently authorize the program and dedicate funding at the full $900 million level annually would ensure future natural resource conservation for public use.

TWS members have acted in support of LWCF. Through our Action Alert, TWS sent nearly 400 messages to members of Congress encouraging them to support both permanent reauthorization and full funding for LWCF.

TWS is a supporter of the LWCF Coalition and has released a Policy Brief detailing the importance and applications of LWCF to wildlife professionals.

Source: LWCF Coalition Fact Sheet

Video: Citizen Scientists Help Educate About Endangered Bat

July 2, 2015 by Dana Kobilinsky

Florida bonneted bat

Kirsten Bohn had just moved to Miami to begin working as an assistant research professor at Florida International University. It had been a few days after she had settled into her new house in Coral Gables, in December 2012, and she decided to retreat to her backyard porch shortly after sunset to relax with a glass of wine.

Science fair project

A science fair project by junior high school student Sophie Sepehri displays information on Florida bonneted bats. Sepehri, who tracked bat activity using iPad, won city, regional and state awards for her science project.
Image Credit: Miami Bat Squad

As she sat down, sipping her wine, she heard a familiar sound — “Teek, teek, teek.” It was a high-pitched, sing-songy chirp of the endangered Florida bonneted bat (Eumops floridanus). “These sounds are not usually audible in other species,” said Bohn, now an assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins University, who has been studying other bat species in the molossidae bat family for over a decade. “For me, to hear it calling back and forth in real-time was amazing.”

The Florida bonneted bat, found in southern Florida, particularly Miami-Dade County, hasn’t been studied much, according to Bohn. “We didn’t know where they give birth, what they eat, what their foraging range is, what they’re roosting in. We know absolutely nothing about this bat,” Bohn said.

Soon after she identified the chirps, the Miami Herald ran an article on Bohn’s efforts and the response was amazing: “The public went wild,” Bohn said. “I had 100 e-mails within 24 hours.”


Florida bonneted bats make a unique chirping sound that’s audible to humans unlike many other bat species.

With help from citizen scientists who call themselves the Miami Bat Squad, Bohn was able to uncover some of the unknowns about these Florida bonneted bats or “Eumops,”which Bohn refers to them as, because of their scientific name — the largest bat species in Florida that they now estimate include only 200-500 known individuals.

About a year ago today, Bohn organized a bat night where she educated the approximately 300 attendees about the species over rum supplied by Bacardi — the rum company with its iconic bat logo. Bohn continues to teach citizens about distinct bat sounds and has also introduced individuals to an app for an iPad or smartphone that can pick up high-frequency bat chirps and detect the bats visually. The team recorded more than 300,000 calls, allowing Bohn to explore a wide range of data on the bats that covered a much larger range than had been previously thought. Bohn credits the people of Miami for the increased exposure and interest in the species. “It wasn’t me that started the citizen science aspect; it was the community.”

What They Found

With the data that were recorded, Bohn and her team were able to find one of the bats’ roosts near the main golf course in Coral Gables only four blocks from Bohn’s house. And to find other possible roosts, Bohn had volunteers spread out on a field and record when they heard the chirps. Sounds were coming from the north, east and south, suggesting that there are three other roosts present, Bohn said, although the team hasn’t discovered them yet.

Bohn said one of the main findings from her research is that these particular bats can be studied acoustically. “The problem with most endangered bats is acoustic sampling,” she said. “The bats use ultrasonic signals that don’t travel very far and are easily blocked by interfering objects. We have learned that because this bat uses such a low frequency and produces calls at such high amplitudes, you can hear this bat from great distances. If it’s flying around, you’re going to pick it up acoustically.” With inherent biases about bats needing ultrasonic microphones, Bohn noted that a regular microphone is sufficient and even better to use for this type of bat. Further, the team found that bat surveys for Eumops should not be conducted in the winter, from mid-November to the end of February, because the bats are sensitive to temperatures and only emerge on warm nights.

In the next month, Bohn said she will have a map of all of the “hearings” (rather than sightings) of the bats throughout Miami-Dade county. She also partnered with a community conservation group, Friends of Ludlum Trail, which is working to preserve green space that covers 12 miles from Miami International Airport, all the way south, to determine whether there are more roosting sights close to the trail and if the bats are using the area for foraging. They are also erecting bat houses along the trail, she said, in order to provide habitat for the bats. Bohn is currently in need of volunteers for a future project including collecting guano and using DNA barcoding techniques to determine the bats’ diet.


Citizen Scientists help put up a bat house, as part of their help protecting the endangered bat species in Miami.

“Most people who study bats think they’re just so furry and all so cute, but for me, I felt that this is a world that we didn’t know existed,” Bohn said. “If you sit out in the middle of the night you may not hear or see a thing, but you can turn on the light and there’s a bat. “I like to say that once I started, once I went bat, I never went back.”

Wildlife Services Assists AZTWS with Techniques Workshop

July 2, 2015 by The Wildlife Society

Arizona

The Arizona Chapter of The Wildlife Society (TWS) hosted the fifth annual Wildlife Techniques Workshop in late April at the Horseshoe Ranch, located about 55 miles north of Phoenix, AZ. Sponsored by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the workshop provides a unique hands-on opportunity for students and new professionals to learn a variety of field techniques, gain experience from working professionals, and exchange ideas with other members of Arizona Chapter of TWS.

Students and new professionals learn radio telemetry techniques.

Students and new professionals learn radio telemetry techniques.
Image Credit: Christopher Carrillo

Workshop classes included animal tracking, mobile device applications, radio telemetry, vegetation sampling, geocaching, bat mist netting, small mammal tapping, herpetofauna trapping, CODA net gun use, and wildlife capture techniques (i.e. bird and mammal trapping).   USDA’s Wildlife Services program in Arizona taught the use of cage traps, pigeon/dove traps, sparrow traps, padded-jaw leg-hold traps, coni-bear traps, raptor traps, suitcase beaver traps, darting equipment, and use of the air cannon. Wildlife Services-Arizona also discussed its role in disease monitoring and surveillance. Attendees were also introduced to techniques on sampling wildlife for bubonic plague, tularemia, rabies, and avian influenza.

Students and new professionals learn tracking techniques.

Students and new professionals learn tracking techniques.
Image Credit: Christopher Carrillo

Students from Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Scottsdale Community College, Midwestern University, and New Mexico State University attended the workshop. Additional instructors came from the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Bureau of Land Management.

Students and new professionals learn mobile device application.

Students and new professionals learn mobile device application.
Image Credit: Christopher Carrillo

The Arizona Chapter of TWS is dedicated to promoting sound management and conservation of Arizona’s wildlife resources. Membership is open to all professionals, students and laypersons interested in wildlife research, management, education and administration.  Our chapter works to maintain communication among wildlife professionals; encourages communication between those professionals and the public; supports continuing education through grants, workshops and regional meetings; encourages student involvement in the wildlife profession; and actively participates in shaping management and conservation policy through letters, public statements and resolutions.

Wildlife Services is a Strategic Partner of The Wildlife Society.

TWS Conference: Exciting Networking Opportunities

July 2, 2015 by Nick Wesdock

Sailboat

Imagine yourself strolling through downtown Winnipeg on a quiet evening in 1920; or climbing aboard a 17th century wooden vessel and setting sail in Hudson Bay. These are a couple of the things you can experience during your several-million-year journey through Manitoba history – just one more reason to attend this year’s revamped TWS Annual Conference in Winnipeg.

As an attendee, you will have the opportunity to catch up with old friends while making new acquaintances at A Night at the Museum on Sunday evening. In fact, after spending four days with these folks, you may have a hard time saying goodbye at the closing event, where members, students and guests will gather to relax and celebrate the exhilarating week Manitoba-style!

A Night at the Museum Networking Event is a great way to kick off the week by learning about the history and heritage of Manitoba. Meander through the fascinating and engaging galleries while enjoying food and drinks with peers along the way. The Manitoba Museum will set the stage for many of the wildlife and conservation themes you will hear about throughout the conference. A full-sized replica of the Nonsuch, which sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668 and later established the Hudson’s Bay Company, is one of the feature exhibits. In addition, the museum spotlights several of the province’s current and historic biomes, complete with a miniature urban-scape of Winnipeg’s “boom time.”

In the wake of a hasty, eventful week, you’ll probably be ready to wind down and take in what you have been experiencing over the past several days. Perhaps you’ll be excited to share your knew-found wisdom or see how you stack up against other experts in your field. The Manitoba Social on Wednesday night is the perfect time to do so.

Traditionally, a “Manitoba social” – also known as a “Winnipeg social” or “wedding social” – is a fundraising party for weddings or community organizations. TWS’ social will follow these practices, offering ethnic Manitoba food and drinks such as various deli meats and cheeses, pickles and garlic sausage. A true Manitoba social event would typically not serve food until midnight, but TWS will be serving the snacks more toward the middle of the event, which will take place between 8- 11 p.m. If this doesn’t get your appetite going, there will be other options as well. There also will be a silent auction, a 50/50 raffle and a live disc jockey to provide music and entertainment for those who like to step onto the dancefloor after a drink or two.

Both the opening and closing events, along with many more, are included with the “Complete Access” badge this year. Don’t miss out on these and other extraordinary networking events, plenary speakers and once-in-a-lifetime field trips. The conference is less than four months away! Register online.

Overfishing, Climate Change Push Mexican Seabirds North

July 1, 2015 by Joshua Rapp Learn

Mexican seabirds

Climate change and overfishing is pushing a colony of seabirds from their native Mexican nesting grounds into California.

“The problem for the elegant terns is not only the temperature anomalies but also the overfishing of sardines” said Enriqueta Velarde, an ecologist at the University of Veracruz in Mexico and the lead author of a study recently published in Science Advances.

Mexican seabirds

A sardine fishing boat in the Gulf of California´s Midriff Island Region hauls the purse-seine net after a fishing operation in 2013, when their catch of Pacific sardine had nearly collapsed due to overfishing.
Image Credit: E. Velarde

Velarde has been studying elegant terns (Thalasseus elegans) since 1979 when she first came to the island of Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California, which usually hosts about 95 percent of the population of the migratory birds. Back then, there were 15,000 nests but the Mexican government had given that island and others in the Gulf protected status a few years earlier. Populations increased, further helped by the 1995 eradication of a rat population that had been introduced in the late 19th century. “The rats were feeding on the seabirds’ eggs and little chicks,” Velarde said.

By around 2008 the island hosted around 150,000 — about 10 times the number of birds around when Velarde first arrived.

But the terns failed to make a single nest in five out of the last 15 years. They arrived in the end of March upon their return from Chile, stayed for a couple of weeks, then left.

Meanwhile, researchers in California noticed elegant tern numbers were increasing in the Los Angeles harbor, the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach and particularly in the San Diego Bay.

“This species’ breeding is mostly restricted to this island at present. But in the last 15 years it has been going to California to nest,” Velarde said. “If we collaborate [internationally] we can get interesting results that can help everyone,” Velarde said.

Not all of the birds were able to find new nesting grounds in California, though. Velarde said many of them may have returned to Chile after spending some time looking for suitable breeding or nesting grounds.

Velarde and other researchers set out to find the reasons behind these habitat changes and discovered that the exodus years (2003, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2015) correlate well with warm water periods in the Gulf of California.

“Elegant terns are a very good indicator species for the area,” she said. “This century there’s been more frequent sea surface temperature anomalies in the Gulf of California.”

Yet El Nino and global warming were only part of the story. The sardine fishing fleet off the coast of the state of Sonora has been picking up over the last decade or so. The Mexican sardine fleet recorded a record catch of half a million tons in 2009 — one of the years that the terns didn’t nest on Isla Rasa — and the fishery has collapsed since then.

Elegant terns feed on sardines and other small pelagic fish, and Velarde said that this overfishing could be further exacerbating the bad conditions imposed by changing climate. Other birds such as brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), Heermann’s gulls (Larus heermanni), brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) and blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii) have also faced similar population declines in the Gulf as well as some marine mammals like sea lions and whales.

“We’re experiencing an ecosystem collapse,” Velarde said. “Those small pelagic species feed a huge amount of animals.”

While population fluctuations are normal in any populations, she said that overfishing doesn’t help an ecosystem already suffering from climate change related problems.

“The Gulf of California has been having these wider fluctuations and more extreme changes in temperatures,” she said. As a result, “we need to manage the sea resources in a very careful manner.”

Wisconsin Budget Cuts Impact Wildlife Research

July 1, 2015 by The Wildlife Society

Bird

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official and Director of the Bureau of Science Services, Jack Sullivan, announced his resignation amid the subjugation of his office to severe budget cuts in the 2015-2017 Wisconsin Budget. Sullivan’s office, responsible for conducting research activities on wildlife resources and providing a foundation of scientific expertise for decision-making by the DNR, is having several staff positions cut as a result of this budget. TWS’s North Central Section previously submitted a letter expressing concern about budget cuts that limit scientific authority.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

Manitoba Doubles Up on Protection for Bats

July 1, 2015 by Colleen Hartel

Manitoba bats

Manitoba has recently added several new species to its at-risk watch list.

Both the little brown bat and the northern long-eared bat have been listed as “endangered” in the province, which is the highest level of risk designation available.

The announcement was paired with the introduction of new statutes that allow the province to recognize whole ecosystems as protected. Manitoba listed alvar, which are sparse plant communities growing on top of limestone, and tall grass prairie ecosystems as protected.

The alvar ecosystem is especially significant as habitat for bat species in the province. Biologists report that the multiple levels of protection at both the species and ecosystem level will better protect whole communities. While white-nose syndrome, a devastating fungal disease that has decimated other bat populations in the United States and Canada, hasn’t yet been detected in Manitoba, the anticipatory protections can contribute to mitigating the effects of the disease if it eventually reaches the province.

These two bat species, along with the tri-colored bat that does not occur in Manitoba, have also been listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act, which is the federal-level regulation in Canada.

Source: CBC News (June 16, 2015)

Ignite TWS Talk: Jennifer Forbey

July 1, 2015 by The Wildlife Society

Winnipeg Ignite

“Enlighten us, but make it quick.” — Ignite

Imagine that you’re about to present a talk that shares your passion about a personal or professional wildlife-related experience to over 300 peers and colleagues. However, you have just five minutes and 20 slides that will auto-advance every 15 seconds whether you’re ready or not. You take the stage, the timer begins and off you go.

It’s fun, it’s intense and the crowd loves it! Welcome to Ignite TWS.

Launched as a new event at our Annual Conference in Pittsburgh in 2014, our nine speakers created so much buzz with their talks that we’re doing it again at our 2015 Annual Conference in Winnipeg. This summer, we’ll share all nine presentations at wildlife.org to build up the anticipation for this year’s slate of talks that are scheduled for Wednesday, October 21.

This week’s featured Ignite TWS talk is by Jennifer Forbey on The Herbivore’s Prescription: A Tale of Wildlife Directed Bioprospecting.

To learn more about this year’s conference, click here. To register today, click here. 

Waters of the United States Rule Published

June 30, 2015 by The Wildlife Society

Duck

The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineer published their finalized rule, Definition of the Waters of the United States, which clarifies which water bodies receive protection under the Clean Water Rule after a series of Supreme Court decisions created uncertainty over what water bodies fall under its jurisdiction. The rule will go into effect 60 days after its publication.

Read the rule in the Federal Register.