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Greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage‐grouse) populations in the western United States have declined, necessitating conservation efforts. The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and livestock producers implemented the Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) to improve sage‐grouse habitat using regional‐specific management actions such as rotational grazing. We assessed the effect of SGI grazing management, the influence of brood female and chick morphometric traits, and multiple environmental and anthropogenic disturbance factors on chick mortality risk in a sage‐grouse population in central Montana, USA, from 2011–2019. We used a Kaplan‐Meier survival function to evaluate chick survival, Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate chick mortality risk as a function of brood female and chick morphometric traits, and the Andersen‐Gill formulation of the Cox proportional hazards model to assess the effects of time‐dependent habitat characteristics on chick mortality risk. Survival to 45 days post‐hatch for 510 chicks varied annually from 0.26 ± 0.07 (SE) to 0.69 ± 0.07. The 45‐day survival rate for all years combined was 0.51 ± 0.03. Chick mortality risk was not affected by changes in livestock grazing management implemented through the SGI grazing program. Brood female age and body condition, sex of chicks, vegetation, and anthropogenic variables were also unassociated with chick mortality risk. There were small protective effects of chick mass adjusted for age and mean minimum monthly temperature; greater chick mass and lower monthly temperatures correlated with reduced mortality risk. Overall, our study suggests the SGI grazing program does not confer additional benefits to sage‐grouse chicks beyond existing grazing practices. Incentivizing grazing practices that adhere to fundamental principles of rangeland ecology and maintain intact rangelands may be more effective than specific prescribed grazing systems for sage‐grouse conservation in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect species occupying ecosystems with relatively hard boundaries, such as alpine ecosystems. Wildlife managers must identify actions to conserve and manage alpine species into the future, while considering other issues and uncertainties. Climate change and respiratory pathogens associated with widespread pneumonia epidemics in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) may negatively affect mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) populations. Mountain goat demographic and population data are challenging to collect and sparsely available, making population management decisions difficult. We developed predictive models incorporating these uncertainties and analyzed results within a structured decision making framework to make management recommendations and identify priority information needs in Montana, USA. We built resource selection models to forecast occupied mountain goat habitat and account for uncertainty in effects of climate change, and a Leslie matrix projection model to predict population trends while accounting for uncertainty in population demographics and dynamics. We predicted disease risks while accounting for uncertainty about presence of pneumonia pathogens and risk tolerance for mixing populations during translocations. Our analysis predicted that new introductions would produce more area occupied by mountain goats at mid‐century, regardless of the effects of climate change. Population augmentations, carnivore management, and harvest management may improve population trends, although this was associated with considerable uncertainty. Tolerance for risk of disease transmission affected optimal management choices because translocations are expected to increase disease risks for mountain goats and sympatric bighorn sheep. Expected value of information analyses revealed that reducing uncertainty related to population dynamics would affect the optimal choice among management strategies to improve mountain goat trends. Reducing uncertainty related to the presence of pneumonia‐associated pathogens and consequences of mixing microbial communities should reduce disease risks if translocations are included in future management strategies. We recommend managers determine tolerance for disease risks associated with translocations that they and constituents are willing to accept. From this, an adaptive management program can be constructed wherein a portfolio of management actions are chosen based on risk tolerance in each population range, combined with the amount that uncertainty is reduced when paired with monitoring, to ultimately improve achievement of fundamental objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group living is found in only 10–15% of carnivorans and can shape demographic processes. Sociality is associated with benefits including increased ability to acquire resources, decreased risk of mortality, and increased reproductive success. We hypothesized that carnivore group size is influenced by conditions related to competition, prey, and mortality risk, which should affect benefits and costs of sociality and resulting demographic processes. We evaluated our hypotheses with gray wolves (Canis lupus) using a 14‐year dataset from a large, heavily managed population in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. Annual mean group size ranged 4.86–7.03 and averaged 5.92 overall. Most groups were relatively small, with 80% containing ≤8 members. Groups were larger in areas with higher densities of conspecific groups, and smaller where prey availability was low. Group sizes remained largely stable while the population was unharvested or under low‐intensity harvest but declined under high‐intensity harvest. Results support the hypothesis that as habitat becomes saturated, inclusive fitness may become increasingly important such that subordinates delay dispersal. In addition to direct implications for birth and deaths, conditions related to prey and mortality risk may also influence dispersal decisions. Our work also provided a model to predict group size of wolves in our system, directly fulfilling a management need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring rare and elusive carnivores is inherently challenging because they often occur at low densities and require more resources to effectively assess status and trend. The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is an elusive mesocarnivore endemic to North America; in its western populations it is classified as a species of greatest conservation need. During winter of 2018–2019, we deployed remotely triggered cameras in randomly selected, spatially balanced 7.5‐km × 7.5‐km grid cells across a broad study area in western Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington, USA. As part of this large‐scale, multi‐state monitoring effort, we conducted an occupancy assessment of the Northern Rocky Mountain fisher population at a range‐wide scale. We used non‐spatial occupancy models to determine the current extent of fisher occurrence in the Northern Rocky Mountains and to provide baseline occupancy estimates across a broad study area and a refined sampling frame for future monitoring. We used a spatial occupancy model to determine patterns in fisher occurrence across their Northern Rocky Mountain range while explicitly correcting for spatially induced overdispersion. Additionally, we assessed factors that influenced fisher occurrence through covariate occupancy modeling that considered predicted fisher habitat, site‐level environmental characteristics, and the influence of available harvest records (incidental and regulated). We detected fishers in 32 out of 318 (10%) of our surveyed cells, and estimated that overall, 160 (14%; 95% CI = 115–218) of 1,143 grid cells were occupied by fishers. Fisher occupancy was positively associated with our stratum that contained cells with a greater proportion of predicted fisher habitat and with proximity to nearest 2000–2015 harvest location. Fisher occupancy was weakly and positively associated with increased canopy cover. Our spatial model identified 2 areas with higher predicted occupancy: a large area across the Idaho Nez Perce‐Clearwater National Forest, and a smaller area in the Cabinet Mountain Range crossing the northern border of Idaho and Montana. We used spatial occupancy results from our original sampling frame to create a biologically derived refined sampling frame for future monitoring. Within the bounds of our refined sampling frame, we estimated that 155 (22%; 95% CI = 110–209) of 700 grid cells were occupied by fishers. By incorporating our increasing understanding of fisher habitat with contemporary analytical techniques, we defined current range‐wide occupancy of the Northern Rocky Mountain fisher population, identified core areas of fisher occurrence for future conservation efforts, and used our model results to create a refined sampling frame for future fisher monitoring in the Northern Rocky Mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the western United States, wolverines (Gulo gulo) typically occupy high‐elevation habitats. Because wolverine populations occur in vast, remote areas across multiple states, biologists have an imperfect understanding of this species' current distribution and population status. The historical extirpation of the wolverine, a subsequent period of recovery, and the lack of a coordinated monitoring program in the western United States to determine their current distribution further complicate understanding of their population status. We sought to define the limits to the current distribution, identify potential gaps in distribution, and provide a baseline dataset for future monitoring and analysis of factors contributing to changes in distribution of wolverines across 4 western states. We used remotely triggered camera stations and hair snares to detect wolverines across randomly selected 15‐km × 15‐km cells in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming, USA, during winters 2016 and 2017. We used spatial occupancy models to examine patterns in wolverine distribution. We also examined the influence of proportion of the cell containing predicted wolverine habitat, human‐modified land, and green vegetation, and area of the cluster of contiguous sampling cells. We sampled 183 (28.9%) of 633 cells that comprised a suspected wolverine range in these 4 states and we detected wolverines in 59 (32.2%) of these 183 sampled cells. We estimated that 268 cells (42.3%; 95% CI = 182–347) of the 633 cells were used by wolverines. Proportion of the cell containing modeled wolverine habitat was weakly positively correlated with wolverine occupancy, but no other covariates examined were correlated with wolverine occupancy. Occupancy rates (ψ) were highest in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (ψ range = 0.8–1), intermediate in the Cascades and Central Mountains of Idaho (ψ range = 0.4–0.6), and lower in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (ψ range = 0.1–0.3). We provide baseline data for future surveys of wolverine along with a design and protocol to conduct those surveys. © 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society. Wolverines occupy most of the predicted habitat in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming; occupancy probability is highest in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and declines to the south and west. We provide a monitoring design for wolverines across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most wildlife professionals agree that science should inform wildlife management decisions, disconnect still exists between researchers and managers. If researchers are not striving to incorporate their findings into management decisions, support for research programs by managers can wane. If managers are not using research findings to inform management decisions, those decisions may be less effective or more vulnerable to legal challenges. Both of these situations can have negative consequences for wildlife conservation. We outline a collaborative research‐management approach to bridging the gap between wildlife managers and researchers. We describe differences in perspectives, perceptions, and priorities between managers and researchers; outline how and why the divide between researchers and managers has likely occurred and continues to grow; and present specific strategies and recommendations to foster stronger collaborations between managers and researchers. We advocate increased synergy between managers and researchers based on a shared vision of conservation and a collaborative structure that rewards researchers and managers. Most importantly, we suggest that relationships and communication between managers and researchers must be established early in research development and decision‐making processes, fostering the trust needed for collaboration. Institutions and agencies can facilitate these relationships by creating opportunities and incentives for integrating collaborative research into management decisions. We suggest this approach will strengthen ties between researchers and managers, increase relevance of research to management decisions, promote effectiveness of management decisions, reduce legal challenges, and ultimately produce positive, tangible, and lasting effects on wildlife conservation. © 2019 The Wildlife Society. We outline a collaborative research‐management framework where relationships and communication between managers and researchers are developed early in the research development and decision‐making processes. We suggest this approach will strengthen ties between researchers and managers, increase relevance of research to management decisions, promote effectiveness of management decisions, reduce legal challenges, and ultimately produce positive, tangible, and lasting effects on wildlife conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife reservoirs of infectious disease are a major source of human‐wildlife conflict because of the risk of potential spillover associated with commingling of wildlife and livestock. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the presence of brucellosis (Brucella abortus) in free‐ranging elk (Cervus canadensis) populations is of significant management concern because of the risk of disease transmission from elk to livestock. We identified how spillover risk changes through space and time by developing resource selection functions using telemetry data from 223 female elk to predict the relative probability of female elk occurrence daily during the transmission risk period. We combined these spatiotemporal predictions with elk seroprevalence, demography, and transmission timing data to identify when and where abortions (the primary transmission route of brucellosis) were most likely to occur. Additionally, we integrated our predictions of transmission risk with spatiotemporal data on areas of potential livestock use to estimate the daily risk to livestock. We predicted that approximately half of the transmission risk occurred on areas where livestock may be present (i.e., private property or grazing allotments). Of the transmission risk that occurred in livestock areas, 98% of it was on private ranchlands as opposed to state or federal grazing allotments. Disease prevalence, transmission timing, host abundance, and host distribution were all important factors in determining the potential for spillover risk. Our fine‐resolution (250‐m spatial, 1‐day temporal), large‐scale (17,732 km2) predictions of potential elk‐to‐livestock transmission risk provide wildlife and livestock managers with a useful tool to identify higher risk areas in space and time and proactively focus actions in these areas to separate elk and livestock to reduce spillover risk. © 2019 The Wildlife Society. We developed predictions of potential elk‐to‐livestock brucellosis transmission risk in southwest Montana. We estimated that approximately half of the risk occurred on areas where livestock may be present and 98% of that risk was on private ranchlands as opposed to state or federal grazing allotments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Wolf (Canis lupus) depredations of livestock are a ubiquitous source of conflict in every country where wolves and livestock overlap. We studied the spatial and temporal variation of wolf depredations of livestock in Montana during 2005–2015, including evaluations of targeted control efforts and public harvest as potential means to reduce depredations. During this time we collected spatial data for all confirmed wolf‐livestock depredations, tallied the annual number of depredation events within hunting districts, and collected data for variables potentially predictive of depredation events. We decomposed variation in depredation data into 2 distinct components: the binary presence or absence of depredation events in each district‐year, and the count of depredation events in district‐years with ≥1 event. We found that presence‐absence of depredations increased with wolf presence and wolf density, increased with livestock density, were highest at intermediate proportionate areas of agricultural land, and were a recurrent phenomenon such that districts with depredations the previous year were more likely to continue having them. Targeted removal, but not public harvest, significantly reduced the recurrent presence of depredations. The number of conflicts in district‐years with ≥1 depredation event was positively correlated with wolf density, cattle density, intermediate proportionate areas of forested land, and the number of events during the previous year. Public harvest reduced the counts of depredation events in areas where conflict reoccurred, though with a modest predicted effect size of 0.22 fewer depredations/district‐year, or 5.7 fewer depredation events statewide/year (8% of the annual average). Minimizing livestock losses is a top priority for wolf management. These results shed light on the broad‐scale patterns behind chronic problems and the effectiveness of wolf management practices in addressing them. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Fall elk ( Cervus canadensis) habitat management on public lands provides security areas for reasonable elk survival and hunter opportunity. The management focus of maintaining or improving security areas, combined with conservative harvest regulations, may explain why some elk populations have increased in the western United States. However, in areas that include lands that restrict public hunter access, elk may alter their space use patterns during the hunting season by increasing use of areas that restrict public hunter access rather than using security areas on adjacent public lands. We used global positioning system location data from 325 adult female elk in 9 southwest Montana populations to determine resource selection during the archery and rifle hunting seasons. We found that during the archery season, in order of decreasing strength of selection, elk selected for areas that restricted access to public hunters, had greater time-integrated normalized difference vegetation index values, had higher canopy cover, were farther from motorized routes, and had lower hunter effort. During the rifle season, in order of decreasing strength of selection, elk selected for areas that restricted access to public hunters, were farther from motorized routes, had higher canopy cover, and had higher hunter effort. Interactions among several covariates revealed dependencies in elk resource selection patterns. Further, cross-population analyses revealed increased elk avoidance of motorized routes with increasing hunter effort during both the archery and rifle hunting seasons. We recommend managing for areas with ≥13% canopy cover that are ≥2,760 m from motorized routes, and identifying and managing for areas of high nutritional resources within these areas to create security areas on public lands during archery season. During the rifle season, we recommend managing for areas with ≥9% canopy cover that are ≥1,535 m from motorized routes, and are ≥20.23 km2. Lastly, given increased elk avoidance of motorized routes with higher hunter effort, we recommend that to maintain elk on public lands, managers consider increasing the amount of security in areas that receive high hunter effort, or hunting seasons that limit hunter effort in areas of high motorized route densities. © 2017 The Wildlife Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Elk ( Cervus canadensis) populations that exceed socially tolerable population levels create problems with private landowners over property damage and competition with livestock. Increasing harvest of adult female elk is the primary management tool for curtailing elk population growth and reducing elk populations. However, this tool is not effective when elk are not accessible to hunters during hunting seasons. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effects of hunter access and other landscape factors on second-order and third-order elk resource selection during the archery and rifle hunting seasons in 2 populations: the Missouri River Breaks (MRB) and Larb Hills, Montana, USA. In our resource selection models, we first treated the individual elk-year as the sampling unit to estimate individual-level selection coefficients and second, we pooled data from all individuals to estimate population-level selection coefficients. Second-order population-level selection coefficients indicated that elk in MRB and Larb Hills selected home ranges in areas with no hunter access, and hunter access was the strongest predictor of second-order selection. Similarly, third-order population-level selection coefficients indicated elk in both populations selected locations within their seasonal home range with no hunter access, and the strength of selection for locations with no hunter access was stronger in the archery season than the rifle season. However, individual models revealed that although third-order population-level selection for locations with no hunter access was strong, only 46% of elk in the MRB selected for no hunter access during the archery season and 24% of elk selected for no hunter access during the rifle season. Additionally, the majority of all elk locations in the MRB (i.e., 68% of archery locations, 91% of rifle locations) occurred in areas accessible to hunters. These results highlight that population-level selection coefficients may not always represent individual selection patterns, and we recommend employing a combination of population-level and individual animal models as the basis of developing biological inferences. Even if hunter access is restricted in a relatively small geographic area within an elk population range, those areas may have a disproportionate effect on elk distributions and prevent effective harvest of female elk to maintain populations at objective levels (i.e., 1,700-2,000 elk). Working cooperatively with stakeholders to minimize elk harboring is necessary for curtailing further elk population increases and maintaining a distribution of elk across public and private lands. © 2016 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Good decision-making is essential to conserving wildlife populations. Although there may be multiple ways to address a problem, perfect solutions rarely exist. Managers are therefore tasked with identifying decisions that will best achieve desired outcomes. Structured decision making (SDM) is a method of decision analysis used to identify the most effective, efficient, and realistic decisions while accounting for values and priorities of the decision maker. The stepwise process includes identifying the management problem, defining objectives for solving the problem, developing alternative approaches to achieve the objectives, and formally evaluating which alternative is most likely to accomplish the objectives. The SDM process can be more effective than informal decision-making because it provides a transparent way to quantitatively evaluate decisions for addressing multiple management objectives while incorporating science, uncertainty, and risk tolerance. To illustrate the application of this process to a management need, we present an SDM-based decision tool developed to identify optimal decisions for proactively managing risk of pneumonia epizootics in bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis) in Montana. Pneumonia epizootics are a major challenge for managers due to long-term impacts to herds, epistemic uncertainty in timing and location of future epizootics, and consequent difficulty knowing how or when to manage risk. The decision tool facilitates analysis of alternative decisions for how to manage herds based on predictions from a risk model, herd-specific objectives, and predicted costs and benefits of each alternative. Decision analyses for 2 example herds revealed that meeting management objectives necessitates specific approaches unique to each herd. The analyses showed how and under what circumstances the alternatives are optimal compared to other approaches and current management. Managers can be confident that these decisions are effective, efficient, and realistic because they explicitly account for important considerations managers implicitly weigh when making decisions, including competing management objectives, uncertainty in potential outcomes, and risk tolerance. © 2016 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Wolf ( Canis lupus) predation on livestock and management methods used to mitigate conflicts are highly controversial and scrutinized especially where wolf populations are recovering. Wolves are commonly removed from a local area in attempts to reduce further depredations, but the effectiveness of such management actions is poorly understood. We compared the effects of 3 management responses to livestock depredation by wolf packs in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming: no removal, partial pack removal, and full pack removal. We examined the effectiveness of each management response in reducing further depredations using a conditional recurrent event model. From 1989 to 2008, we documented 967 depredations by 156 packs: 228 on sheep and 739 on cattle and other stock. Median time between recurrent depredations was 19 days following no removal ( n = 593), 64 days following partial pack removal ( n = 326), and 730 days following full pack removal ( n = 48; recurring depredations were made by the next pack to occupy the territory). Compared to no removal, full pack removal reduced the occurrence of subsequent depredations by 79% (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.21, P < 0.001) over a span of 1,850 days (5 years), whereas partial pack removal reduced the occurrence of subsequent depredations by 29% (HR = 0.71, P < 0.001) over the same period. Partial pack removal was most effective if conducted within the first 7 days following depredation, after which there was only a marginally significant difference between partial pack removal and no action (HR = 0.86, P = 0.07), and no difference after 14 days (HR = 0.99, P = 0.93). Within partial pack removal, we found no difference in depredation recurrence when a breeding female (HR = 0.64, P = 0.2) or ≥1-year-old male was removed (HR = 1.0, P = 0.99). The relative effect of all treatments was generally consistent across seasons (spring, summer grazing, and winter) and type of livestock. Ultimately, pack size was the best predictor of a recurrent depredation event; the probability of a depredation event recurring within 5 years increased by 7% for each animal left in the pack after the management response. However, the greater the number of wolves left in a pack, the higher the likelihood the pack met federal criteria to count as a breeding pair the following year toward population recovery goals. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease that affects a variety of ungulate species including mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus). As of 2014, no CWD cases had been reported in free-ranging ungulates in Montana. However, nearby cases in Canada, Wyoming, and the Dakotas indicated that the disease was encroaching on Montana's borders. Mule deer are native and common throughout Montana, and they represent a significant portion of the total hunter-harvested cervids in the state. The arrival of CWD in Montana may have significant ecosystem and socioeconomic impacts as well as potential consequences for wildlife management. We used 18,879 mule deer locations from 892 individual deer collected during 1975-2011 and modeled habitat selection for 7 herds in 5 of the 7 wildlife management regions in Montana. We estimated resource selection functions (RSF) in a Bayesian framework to predict summer and winter habitat preferences for mule deer. We estimated deer abundance from flyover counts for each region, and used the RSF predictions as weights to distribute the deer across the region. We then calculated the distance to the nearest known infected herds. We predicted areas of high risk of CWD infection in mule deer as areas with densities above the median density estimate and within the lowest quartile of distances to known infected herds. We identified these areas, the southeast corner of Montana and the north-central border near Alberta and Saskatchewan, as priority areas for CWD surveillance and management efforts. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Increasing elk ( Cervus elaphus nelsoni) populations across the West in response to increased demand for recreational and hunting opportunities may have negative, unintended consequences for disease transmission risk. Historically, free-ranging elk populations were not thought to sustain brucellosis ( Brucella abortus), but recent studies suggest increasing elk densities may result in free-ranging elk serving as maintenance hosts for the disease. We evaluated spatial variation in elk density, group sizes, and adult female brucellosis seroprevalence in 39 elk management districts in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem using a Bayesian approach. We used modeled relationships to estimate the effects of reducing elk density by 10-90% on grouping patterns and seroprevalence rates. Reducing the density of the 3 highest density elk herds by 10%, 50%, and 90% was predicted to result in a 9%, 39%, and 59% decrease in mean group size, whereas reducing the density of the 3 lowest density elk herds was predicted to result in only a 0%, 0.7%, and 1.3% decrease in mean group size. We estimated seroprevalence rates of 0.01-0.27 across management districts, and seroprevalence increased as elk density increased. For the 7 of 39 management districts with >10% estimated seroprevalence, 10%, 50%, and 90% reductions in elk density resulted in predicted mean seroprevalence reductions of 2%, 7%, and 9%, respectively. For the 14 management districts with ≤1% estimated seroprevalence, 10%, 50%, and 90% reductions in elk density resulted in no measurable change in predicted mean seroprevalence. Our results suggest that elk density has an important effect on elk group sizes, which may influence the risk of brucellosis transmission and resultant exposure rates. Manipulating elk density may in turn affect brucellosis seroprevalence rates. However, debate among the diverse stakeholders involved in elk management on the effectiveness of reducing density, group sizes, and brucellosis exposure rates in elk, relative to other interests and objectives, is necessary prior to manipulation of elk density for this purpose. © 2015 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Pneumonia epizootics are a major challenge for management of bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis) affecting persistence of herds, satisfaction of stakeholders, and allocations of resources by management agencies. Risk factors associated with the disease are poorly understood, making pneumonia epizootics hard to predict; such epizootics are thus managed reactively rather than proactively. We developed a model for herds in Montana that identifies risk factors and addresses biological questions about risk. Using Bayesian logistic regression with repeated measures, we found that private land, weed control using domestic sheep or goats, pneumonia history, and herd density were positively associated with risk of pneumonia epizootics in 43 herds that experienced 22 epizootics out of 637 herd-years from 1979-2013. We defined an area of high risk for pathogen exposure as the area of each herd distribution plus a 14.5-km buffer from that boundary. Within this area, the odds of a pneumonia epizootic increased by >1.5 times per additional unit of private land (unit is the standardized % of private land where global [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Big-game hunting is a valuable resource for outdoor recreation opportunities, an economic driver for state and local economies, and the primary mechanism for funding game and non-game wildlife management. However, hunting license sales are declining, leading many state wildlife management agencies to re-evaluate funding and management structures. Understanding the mechanisms behind such declines, and diagnosing the persistence of such trends is necessary to anticipate license fund fluctuations. To examine hunter recruitment and retention rates, we analyzed a data set of >490,000 deer and elk license records from 2002 to 2011 from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' Automated Licensing System. We used a temporal symmetry model in a mark-recapture framework to estimate hunter retention, recruitment rates, and population change, and then used population change estimates to forecast future hunter populations. We used covariates of gender, age, residency, and license price to improve model parsimony. Millennial generation hunters increased during the 11-year analysis, and this was driven by high recruitment rates of young hunters, especially women, but recruitment decreased dramatically as youth aged. Because Baby Boomers constitute such a large proportion of the hunting population, decreases in recruitment and retention in this cohort drove declines in the Montana hunter population. Increasing license price decreased the probability of recruiting and retaining hunters. The hunter population was stable until 2006, but has been declining since that time with nearly a 50% decline in hunter recruitment from 2002 to 2011. © 2014 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Mountain lions ( Puma concolor) are widely hunted for recreation, population control, and to reduce conflict with humans, but much is still unknown regarding the effects of harvest on mountain lion population dynamics. Whether human hunting mortality on mountain lions is additive or compensatory is debated. Our primary objective was to investigate population effects of harvest on mountain lions. We addressed this objective with a management experiment of 3 years of intensive harvest followed by a 6-year recovery period. In December 2000, after 3 years of hunting, approximately 66% of a single game management unit within the Blackfoot River watershed in Montana was closed to lion hunting, effectively creating a refuge representing approximately 12% (915 km2) of the total study area (7,908 km2). Hunting continued in the remainder of the study area, but harvest levels declined from approximately 9/1,000 km2 in 2001 to 2/1,000 km2 in 2006 as a result of the protected area and reduced quotas outside. We radiocollared 117 mountain lions from 1998 to 2006. We recorded known fates for 63 animals, and right-censored the remainder. Although hunting directly reduced survival, parameters such as litter size, birth interval, maternity, age at dispersal, and age of first reproduction were not significantly affected. Sensitivity analysis showed that female survival and maternity were most influential on population growth. Life-stage simulation analysis (LSA) demonstrated the effect of hunting on the population dynamics of mountain lions. In our non-hunted population, reproduction (kitten survival and maternity) accounted for approximately 62% of the variation in growth rate, whereas adult female survival accounted for 30%. Hunting reversed this, increasing the reliance of population growth on adult female survival (45% of the variation in population growth), and away from reproduction (12%). Our research showed that harvest at the levels implemented in this study did not affect population productivity (i.e., maternity), but had an additive effect on mountain lion mortality, and therefore population growth. Through harvest, wildlife managers have the ability to control mountain lion populations. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Reliable knowledge of the status and trend of carnivore populations is critical to their conservation and management. Methods for monitoring carnivores, however, are challenging to conduct across large spatial scales. In the Northern Rocky Mountains, wildlife managers need a time- and cost-efficient method for monitoring gray wolf ( Canis lupus) populations. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) conducts annual telephone surveys of >50,000 deer and elk hunters. We explored how survey data on hunters' sightings of wolves could be used to estimate the occupancy and distribution of wolf packs and predict their abundance in Montana for 2007-2009. We assessed model utility by comparing our predictions to MFWP minimum known number of wolf packs. We minimized false positive detections by identifying a patch as occupied if 2-25 wolves were detected by ≥3 hunters. Overall, estimates of the occupancy and distribution of wolf packs were generally consistent with known distributions. Our predictions of the total area occupied increased from 2007 to 2009 and predicted numbers of wolf packs were approximately 1.34-1.46 times the MFWP minimum counts for each year of the survey. Our results indicate that multi-season occupancy models based on public sightings can be used to monitor populations and changes in the spatial distribution of territorial carnivores across large areas where alternative methods may be limited by personnel, time, accessibility, and budget constraints. © 2013 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional elk habitat management on public land has focused on providing security habitat for bull elk during the hunting season to provide for both adequate hunter opportunity and bull survival. This paradigm has given less consideration to adult female elk habitat use, patterns of adjacent land ownership, and hunter access. This paradigm also was developed when elk population sizes were much smaller in many areas. In many Rocky Mountain states, the focus of elk population management has recently shifted to reducing or maintaining elk population sizes, necessitating a better understanding of the implications of security habitat management, as well as patterns of adjacent land ownership and hunter access, on adult female elk. We addressed this need by testing the hypotheses that during the hunting season: 1) adult female elk selection for areas prohibiting or limiting hunter access is stronger than elk selection for publicly owned and managed elk security habitat, 2) these effects occur during the archery hunting period and intensify during the rifle hunting period, and 3) the effects of hunter access on selection are consistent among herds that occupy landscapes characterized by a matrix of public and private lands. We used global position system locations collected from 82 females in 2 different Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) elk herds to evaluate effects of hunter access, security habitat as defined by the Hillis paradigm, and other landscape attributes on adult female elk resource selection during the pre-hunting, archery, rifle, and post-hunting periods. We found that female elk selection for areas restricting public hunting access was stronger than selection for security habitat in both study areas, and that the density of roads open to motorized use was the strongest predictor of elk distribution. Increases in selection for areas that restricted hunting access occurred during the rifle hunting period, and we did not find consistent evidence these movements were triggered by the archery hunting period. Our results provide evidence that in landscapes characterized by a matrix of public and privately owned lands, traditional concepts of elk security habitat need to be expanded to also include areas that restrict hunter access to plan for elk population management that is regulated through adult female harvest. Future efforts should investigate whether elk use of areas that restrict hunter access are flexible behavioral responses to hunting risk, or if these behaviors are passed from generation to generation such that a learned pattern of private land use becomes the normal movement pattern rather than a short-term behavioral response. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, growing concern over increasing rates of brucellosis seroprevalence in wildlife has challenged wildlife managers to develop strategies for minimizing the potential for pathogen exchange within and between wildlife populations. Recent evidence suggests that increases in elk seroprevalence may be associated with increasing elk densities and/or increasing size of elk aggregations. However, the interactions between elk population density, landscape factors, and elk aggregation patterns are not well-understood, making appropriate management responses challenging. Using a unique, long-term elk aggregation dataset collected across a wide range of elk population sizes, we investigated relationships between elk population size, landscape factors, and elk aggregation responses (group size and group density) with goals of clarifying how changes in elk population size may affect elk aggregation patterns. Overall, landscape attributes and weather had a stronger influence on elk aggregation patterns than factors such as elk population size that are within management control. We found little evidence that elk population size affected mean elk group sizes, but we did find evidence that the size and density of the largest elk aggregations increased as elk population size increased. We also found some evidence that group densities increased following the establishment of wolves. However, across the relatively wide range of elk population sizes observed in this study, only modest changes in elk group density were observed, suggesting that dramatic reductions in population sizes would be necessary to produce measureable reductions in elk group density to affect frequency-dependent transmission. Management actions designed to lower disease transmission are likely to negatively affect other objectives related to elk management and conservation. We therefore suggest that a first step in managing disease transmission risk is agreement among stakeholders interested in elk management of all objectives related to elk management, including acknowledgment that disease transmission is undesirable. © 2011 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big game hunting is the most popular type of hunting in the United States, and deer and elk hunting are the most popular type of hunting in Montana. Similar to other states, deer and elk hunting also generates most of the revenue spent on wildlife conservation by the state of Montana. Although nationwide trends indicate a concerning decline in hunter participation, the trends in license sales and hunter participation within most states have not received as much attention. We investigated trends in resident deer and elk license sales in Montana using existing licensing databases. We then estimated hunter recruitment, hunter participation, and license purchasing probabilities using hunter education and licensing databases. We employed a multi-state mark-recapture model and 248,819 records of deer and elk license purchasing habits for individual Montana residents during 2002-2007. We used matrix population models to examine the relative influence of these parameters on trends in license sales and hunter participation. Resident deer and elk license sales increased 4% in Montana during 2002-2007. We found that males had greater recruitment rates, retention rates, and license purchasing probabilities than females, and that young adults had lesser license purchasing probabilities than other age classes. Based on analyses of matrix population models, trends in license sales in Montana are most influenced by middle-aged and baby boomer male license purchase probabilities. Trends in hunter participation are positively influenced by recruitment and retention in all male age classes, with the smallest predicted effects arising from recruitment of young adult males. Our results suggest that a focus on older age class males with programs designed to increase hunter recruitment, retention, and license purchase probabilities may have similar or larger effects on trends in license sales and hunter participation in Montana than programs directed at youth. Our analyses also provide a framework by which trends in hunter recruitment, retention, and license purchasing habits can be objectively quantified in order to inform and evaluate hunter recruitment, retention, and license purchase habit programs. © 2011 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable analyses can help wildlife managers make good decisions, which are particularly critical for controversial decisions such as wolf ( Canis lupus) harvest. Creel and Rotella (2010) recently predicted substantial population declines in Montana wolf populations due to harvest, in contrast to predictions made by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP). We replicated their analyses considering only those years in which field monitoring was consistent, and we considered the effect of annual variation in recruitment on wolf population growth. Rather than assuming constant rates, we used model selection methods to evaluate and incorporate models of factors driving recruitment and human-caused mortality rates in wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Using data from 27 area-years of intensive wolf monitoring, we show that variation in both recruitment and human-caused mortality affect annual wolf population growth rates and that human-caused mortality rates have increased with the sizes of wolf populations. We document that recruitment rates have decreased over time, and we speculate that rates have decreased with increasing population sizes and/or that the ability of current field resources to document recruitment rates has recently become less successful as the number of wolves in the region has increased. Estimates of positive wolf population growth in Montana from our top models are consistent with field observations and estimates previously made by MFWP for 2008-2010, whereas the predictions for declining wolf populations of Creel and Rotella (2010) are not. Familiarity with limitations of raw data, obtained first-hand or through consultation with scientists who collected the data, helps generate more reliable inferences and conclusions in analyses of publicly available datasets. Additionally, development of efficient monitoring methods for wolves is a pressing need, so that analyses such as ours will be possible in future years when fewer resources will be available for monitoring. © 2011 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Endangered Species Act, documenting recovery and federally mandated population levels of wolves (Canis lupus) in the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) requires monitoring wolf packs that successfully recruit young. United States Fish and Wildlife Service regulations define successful breeding pairs as packs estimated to contain an adult male and female, accompanied by ≥2 pups on 31 December of a given year. Monitoring successful breeding pairs will become more difficult following proposed delisting of NRM wolves; alternatives to historically intensive methods, appropriate to the different ecological and regulatory context following delisting, are required. Because pack size is easier to monitor than pack composition, we estimated probability a pack would contain a successful breeding pair based on its size for wolf populations inhabiting 6 areas in the NRM. We also evaluated the extent to which differences in demography of wolves and levels of humancaused mortality among the areas influenced the probability of packs of different sizes would contain successful breeding pairs. Probability curves differed among analysis areas, depending primarily on levels of human-caused mortality, secondarily on annual population growth rate, and little on annual population density. Probabilities that packs contained successful breeding pairs were more uniformly distributed across pack sizes in areas with low levels of human mortality and stable populations. Large packs in areas with high levels of human-caused mortality and high annual growth rates had relatively high probabilities of containing breeding pairs whereas those for small packs were relatively low. Our approach can be used by managers to estimate number of successful breeding pairs in a population where number of packs and their sizes are known. Following delisting of NRM wolves, human-caused mortality is likely to increase, resulting in more small packs with low probabilities of containing breeding pairs. Differing contributions of packs to wolf population growth based on their size suggests monitoring successful breeding pairs will provide more accurate insights into population dynamics of wolves than will monitoring number of packs or individuals only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]