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Author: Rebecca Lynne Cain Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic dissertations Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation relies on the active participation of citizen hunters to achieve management goals. One factor that motivates hunters to become active participants is an opportunity to harvest a mature white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with large antlers, especially the case for achievement-oriented wildlife recreationists. Variation in antler conformation and size among white-tailed deer is noticeable across landscapes. Moreover, when mapped, there is obvious spatial heterogeneity in the harvests of record deer (e.g., deer with large antlers that qualify for entry in the Boone and Crockett records) across the United States, with the majority of entries coming from the Midwestern region. This dissertation should engage the interests of wildlife biologists and researchers. Chapter 1 focuses on testing hypotheses about harvest outcomes for antler point restrictions in the state of Michigan. Chapter 2 evaluates spatially explicit trends in antler sizes of record deer across the Midwestern United States. Chapter 3 evaluates the degree to which management regulations influenced the harvest of record deer in the Midwest United States. Chapter 4 focuses on potential issues related to reporting bias and proposes an adaptation of N-mixture models to account for imperfect detection. Findings from this research include: 1) the importance of spatial context when evaluating trends in harvest data across a large geographic region; 2) antler point restrictions do indeed protect yearling males from harvest and advance the age structure of male harvest; 3) implementing antler point restrictions did not increase antlerless harvest or change the trajectory in hunter numbers; 4) antler sizes of record deer in the Midwest showed increasing trends; 5) harvests of record deer were greater in areas with management regulations that restricted the buck harvest; 6) more record deer were reported when at least 1 record deer was reported the previous year; 7) detection of harvests of record deer do not follow any spatial or temporal pattern.As interest in quality deer management and harvesting adult males with large antlers increases, it is important for wildlife managers and hunters to understand how regulations can influence harvests of record deer. My work offers insights into the relationships between management strategies and harvest outcomes. This research provides managers important information about factors affecting harvests of record deer, outcomes of management regulations, and inherent differences in record deer harvests and characteristics among ecoregions. Managers can draw on the insights gained from this dissertation research during the decision-making process when setting annual hunting regulations, as well as communicating reasonable expectations for deer populations to hunters and other interested stakeholder groups.
Author: Rebecca Lynne Cain Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic dissertations Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation relies on the active participation of citizen hunters to achieve management goals. One factor that motivates hunters to become active participants is an opportunity to harvest a mature white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with large antlers, especially the case for achievement-oriented wildlife recreationists. Variation in antler conformation and size among white-tailed deer is noticeable across landscapes. Moreover, when mapped, there is obvious spatial heterogeneity in the harvests of record deer (e.g., deer with large antlers that qualify for entry in the Boone and Crockett records) across the United States, with the majority of entries coming from the Midwestern region. This dissertation should engage the interests of wildlife biologists and researchers. Chapter 1 focuses on testing hypotheses about harvest outcomes for antler point restrictions in the state of Michigan. Chapter 2 evaluates spatially explicit trends in antler sizes of record deer across the Midwestern United States. Chapter 3 evaluates the degree to which management regulations influenced the harvest of record deer in the Midwest United States. Chapter 4 focuses on potential issues related to reporting bias and proposes an adaptation of N-mixture models to account for imperfect detection. Findings from this research include: 1) the importance of spatial context when evaluating trends in harvest data across a large geographic region; 2) antler point restrictions do indeed protect yearling males from harvest and advance the age structure of male harvest; 3) implementing antler point restrictions did not increase antlerless harvest or change the trajectory in hunter numbers; 4) antler sizes of record deer in the Midwest showed increasing trends; 5) harvests of record deer were greater in areas with management regulations that restricted the buck harvest; 6) more record deer were reported when at least 1 record deer was reported the previous year; 7) detection of harvests of record deer do not follow any spatial or temporal pattern.As interest in quality deer management and harvesting adult males with large antlers increases, it is important for wildlife managers and hunters to understand how regulations can influence harvests of record deer. My work offers insights into the relationships between management strategies and harvest outcomes. This research provides managers important information about factors affecting harvests of record deer, outcomes of management regulations, and inherent differences in record deer harvests and characteristics among ecoregions. Managers can draw on the insights gained from this dissertation research during the decision-making process when setting annual hunting regulations, as well as communicating reasonable expectations for deer populations to hunters and other interested stakeholder groups.
Author: Timothy Edward Fulbright Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 1603449515 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
The original, 2006 edition of Timothy Edward Fulbright and J. Alfonso Ortega-S.’s White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands was hailed as “a splendid reference for the classroom and those who make their living from wildlife and the land” and as “filling a niche that is not currently approached in the literature.” In this second, full-color edition, revised and expanded to include the entire western United States and northern Mexico, Fulbright and Ortega-S. provide a carefully reasoned synthesis of ecological and range management principles that incorporates rangeland vegetation management and the impact of crops, livestock, predation, and population density within the context of the arid and semiarid habitats of this broad region. As landowners look to hunting as a source of income and to the other benefits of managing for wildlife, the clear presentation of the up-to-date research gathered in this book will aid their efforts. Essential points covered in this new edition include: White-tailed deer habitat requirements Nutritional needs of White-tailed deer Carrying capacity Habitat management Hunting Focused across political borders and written with an understanding of environments where periodic drought punctuates long-term weather patterns, this revised and expanded edition of White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands will aid landowners, researchers, and naturalists in their efforts to integrate land management and use with sound ecological practices.
Author: William Leroy Miller Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Wildlife diseases are important stressors of natural populations and commonly impact species of management and conservation interest. Because of this, mitigating the negative effects of these diseases is a common goal of many management strategies. One of the key goals in areas of recent disease emergence is to minimize the geographic diffusion of diseases across landscapes so that nave populations remain minimally impacted. Prospective tools for predicting disease flow are particularly helpful in the initial stages of the epizootic cycle. Evaluating patterns of population structure, susceptibility, and connectivity can provide important insights into the potential spread of diseases across landscapes. Landscape genetic analyses, in particular, have proven particularly useful in elucidating these population characteristics. Chronic wasting disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease of members of the family Cervidae, is a disease of particular concern due to the ecological and economic importance of infected species. Chronic wasting disease is caused by an infectious prion protein that can be passed by contact among individuals and/or through the use of shared environments. Contact among nave and infected individuals is thought to play an important role in the geographic diffusion of this disease, and management plans commonly focus on minimizing contact among these groups. Population structure and patterns of gene flow impact the distribution and occurrence of chronic wasting disease on landscape where it occurs. Thus, assessing these factors may help to identify effective management units and to predict transmission patterns within and among populations. Additionally, individual and population susceptibility to this disease is modulated by genetic variability in the prion protein (PRNP) gene, so evaluating transmission dynamics in tandem with spatial PRNP variability provides a means of assessing the innate vulnerability of populations to disease occurrence and establishment.In this study, I evaluated the genetic structure of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America in order to evaluate factors that may influence the epizootiology of chronic wasting disease. I used a panel of 11 microsatellite markers to assess spatial genetic structure and gene flow. These markers were chosen from a large suite of available loci (106 candidate markers) identified from 58 previous or ongoing studies of white-tailed deer genetics. These markers were chosen because they were characterized by low genotyping error rates and were inferred to be broadly applicable across the range of white-tailed deer in North America given the geographic distribution of previous studies. I genotyped a total of 2222 individuals to assess spatial genetic structure of white-tailed deer in the Mid-Atlantic region. White-tailed deer conformed to a pattern of isolation-by-distance at both fine and broad spatial scales. Despite this, 11 distinct subpopulation clusters were identified throughout the region. The edges of these subpopulations were associated with high-volume traffic roads and areas of greater elevational relief. Despite significant structure, subpopulations maintained high rates of connectivity. There was evidence of hierarchical genetic structure with the bounds of larger population units generally corresponding to physiographic provinces. Subpopulation units defined this way are more likely to be an effective disease management unit relative to those commonly defined by anthropocentric boundaries. Population structure is only one factor influencing the geographic distribution of diseases. Cervids are farmed in this region, and several captive cervid facilities have experienced recent outbreaks of chronic wasting disease. Egression from infected facilities represents another potential pathway for transmission. I used a Bayesian assignment algorithm to test for captive egression and dispersal events among free-ranging populations, both of which may contribute to epizootic patterns. I found a low (2.0%) but significant proportion of free-ranging deer that assigned to captive origin. Two deer that were infected with chronic wasting disease had a high probability of sourcing from captive populations. The proportion of individuals that assigned to a migratory origin was as high as 13.8% among the four subsampling units, and the proportion of individuals with admixed ancestry was as high as 46.7%. This suggests dispersal is common and ongoing and is commensurate with the high migration rates reported previously. One deer infected with chronic wasting disease assigned to a migratory origin. These results may indicate that both captive egression and natural dispersal have the potential to contribute to the spread of this disease into previously uninfected regions.Individual susceptibility to chronic wasting disease is thought to be linked to variation at two single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PRNP gene. Thus, population-scale variability at these loci may influence the risk of infection and establishment. The Mid-Atlantic populations of white-tailed deer generally had a higher proportion of susceptible individuals relative to populations with a longer history of chronic wasting disease. Variability at these loci varied spatially within the region and generally conformed to patterns of population structure. This suggests that some populations may be more innately susceptible than others to chronic wasting disease establishment. Understanding patterns of population structure and susceptibility provides insights into the potential occurrence of chronic wasting disease but does not necessarily explain transmission dynamics among populations. Transmission is expected to be facilitated by dispersal, but how deer move among populations is likely a consequence of the underlying landscape matrix. I evaluated the correlation between landscape features and patterns of gene flow using a resistance surface modeling approach to identify potential transmission corridors. Patterns of genetic differentiation were best explained by a resistance surface including percent forest cover, elevational relief, and traffic volume. While large streams were also included in the resistance surface, landscape resistance related to streams was negligible. Elevational relief and traffic volume were less resistant features than areas of low forest cover, highlighting the permeability of these features to deer movement. Gene flow was facilitated through forested corridors in heterogeneous landscapes and was more diffuse in homogeneous landscapes. A large number of chronic wasting disease cases occurred in areas of high connectivity, indicating that these areas may influence disease transmission among distinct groups of deer. In conclusion, patterns of white-tailed deer genetic structure are cryptic and associated with features that are permeable to movement. Nevertheless, these features may influence the distribution of chronic wasting disease and the possibility for transmission among populations. Furthermore, spatial variability at loci associated with disease susceptibility suggests that some populations may be more innately at risk for disease establishment than others. Incorporating the inferred patterns of population structure, connectivity, and susceptibility into disease forecasting models represents a logical extension and may further elucidate the trends observed here. Other sources of infection, such as captive egression, may pose a risk independent of patterns predicted by natural population structure. Thus, joint consideration of anthropogenic and natural sources of infection may further aid in predicting future epizootic patterns.
Author: Timothy E. Fulbright Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 9781603445658 Category : Range management Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
For most of the last century, range management meant managing land for livestock. How well a landowner grew the grass that cattle ate was the best measure of success. In this century, landowners look to hunting and wildlife viewing for income; rangeland is now also wildlife habitat, and they are managing their land not just for cattle but also for wildlife, most notably deer and quail. Unlike other books on white-tailed deer in places where rainfall is relatively high and the environment stable, this book takes an ecological approach to deer management in the semiarid lands of Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. These are the least productive of white-tail habitats, where periodic drought punctuates long-term weather patterns. The book's focus on this landscape across political borders is one of its original and lasting contributions. Another is its contention that good management is based on ecological principles that guide the manager's thinking about: Habitat Requirements of White-Tailed Deer White-Tailed Deer Nutrition Carrying Capacity Habitat Manipulation Predators Hunting Timothy Edward Fulbright is a Regents Professor and the Meadows Professor in Semiarid Land Ecology at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. J. Alfonso Ortega-S., is an associate professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Author: R. Larry Marchinton Publisher: Stackpole Books ISBN: 0811743551 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 336
Book Description
Informative essays by professional deer biologists. Comprehensive descriptions of viable management programs. Precise methods of evaluating the effectiveness of quality deer management.
Author: Charles Wayne Anderson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
Current research is necessary to focus management of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the agricultural midwest, especially given the novel presence of chronic wasting disease in the region. Objectives were to: (1) examine the potential effects of weather and row-crop harvest on daily harvest of white-tailed deer by archery, and individual hunter variables (e.g., age, weapon preference, preference of hunting method) on individual hunter efficiency and success in 2 regions of Illinois (i.e., east-central and southern Illinois); (2) estimate white-tailed deer densities using direct (i.e., spotlighting deer from road transects) and indirect (i.e., counting pellet groups on randomly-placed transects) techniques across 3 study areas in the midwestern U.S.; (3) quantify sex, age, and season-specific survival and dispersal rates of white-tailed deer in east-central Illinois; and (4) assess habitat selection of white-tailed deer during the summer months in east-central Illinois.
Author: Rebecca Lynne Cain
Author: Rebecca Lynne Cain
Author: Timothy Edward Fulbright
Author: William Leroy Miller
Author: William F. Porter
Author: Timothy E. Fulbright
Author: R. Larry Marchinton
Author: 
Author: William F. Porter
Author: 
Author: Charles Wayne Anderson