Search

ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, declines of Canadian populations of boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) have received considerable attention from scientists, government agencies, environmental nongovernmental organizations, Indigenous communities, and the forest industry. Boreal caribou (also known as boreal woodland caribou) was listed as a threatened species in Canada when the Species at Risk Act came into force in June 2003. Many boreal caribou populations have been shown to be decreasing, in some cases precipitously, and empirical evidence from adult survival and calf recruitment surveys indicates that the cumulative effect of habitat disturbance, including that which results from industrial development, is a key driver in the decline. Yet, as scientific understanding of the decline has become clearer, and agreement among scientists and governments about habitat management requirements has increased, campaigns of denial have intensified in the public sphere. In this paper, we examine parallels with climate change rhetoric prolific in the 2000s and show that willful ignorance disguised as skepticism has resulted in public uncertainty despite robust scientific evidence. We show how these strategies of manufactured uncertainty used in climate change denial campaigns have seeped into wildlife management debates, with pernicious results. In this case, it has successfully delayed efforts to effectively address the decline of boreal caribou, which is protected under federal, provincial, and territorial legislation, and inhibited meaningful dialogue about socially acceptable conservation solutions. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management implications (MI) section of articles in The Journal of Wildlife Management ( JWM) and Wildlife Society Bulletin ( WSB) is meant to relay transparent, applicable information from researchers to managers. I questioned whether this goal was being met because inspection of paper titles in these journals showed many studies do not address management topics. Accordingly, I developed a classification scheme for statements in the MI section and analyzed the nature and content of randomly selected MI sections ( n = 80) in Volume 72 (2008) of JWM. Management implications (deductions or inductions) made up 5.5 ± 1% standard error of statements in the sample ( n = 562 statements). Accordingly, >90% of the statements in the sample of MI sections were not MIs. The MI heading does not inform readers of section content. I recommend a more flexible heading (e.g., Implications, Research Needs, Recommendations, Conclusions) or elimination of the section because salient material usually appears in other sections of a paper anyway. © 2011 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Long-term monitoring and research projects are essential to understand ecological change and the effectiveness of management activities. An inherent characteristic of long-term projects is the need for consistent data collection over time, requiring rigorous attention to data management and quality assurance. Recent papers have provided broad recommendations for data management; however, practitioners need more detailed guidance and examples. We present general yet detailed guidance for the development of comprehensive, concise, and effective data management for monitoring projects. The guidance is presented as a graded approach, matching the scale of data management to the needs of the organization and the complexity of the project. We address the following topics: roles and responsibilities; consistent and precise data collection; calibration of field crews and instrumentation; management of tabular, photographic, video, and sound data; data completeness and quality; development of metadata; archiving data; and evaluation of existing data from other sources. This guidance will help practitioners execute effective data management, thereby, improving the quality and usability of data for meeting project objectives as well as broader meta-analysis and macrosystem ecology research. © 2015 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin published by The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The baited hoop-net is one of the most heavily used sampling tools for monitoring freshwater turtle populations. In the past several years, we have published a series of studies that tested potential biases associated with this sampling method. For this paper, we used a new experiment to directly test the influence of trap-mouth opening size on both captures and escapes. We also summarized the results from previous studies to direct future research on this topic and provide a useful guide for managers and researchers using this sampling device. In our experiment during May 2013 in Texas, USA, we found that traps with larger mouth-openings were more efficient at capturing turtles, while escapes were minimal for both mouth sizes. Thus, at least within the boundaries we tested here, increasing mouth-opening size is an effective way to increase captures without introducing biases caused by differential escape probabilities. © 2014 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The ability to determine wildlife age classes is important for wildlife management and the key to understanding the life histories of species. We used radiograph images of the epiphyseal cartilage at the distal end of the radius and the age-class criteria developed by Lechleitner (1959) for black-tailed jackrabbits ( Lepus californicus) to determine age classes for antelope jackrabbits ( L. alleni) between 2011-2016. Using 2 known-age antelope jackrabbits, we found that 3 developmental phases similar to those identified by Lechleitner (1959; class 1 [juvenile: <7 months], class 2 [subadult: 7-11.4 months], and class 3 [adult: >11.4 months]) were also applicable to radiographs of forelegs of antelope jackrabbits. Although requiring some interpretive experience, we consider this technique superior to other lagomorph aging methods because radiographs can be obtained from live and dead animals. Using this method, biologists can determine ages of individuals in the population, which would help to estimate recruitment rates and predict population changes. © 2017 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]