Crop, Native Vegetation, and Biofuels: Response of White- Tailed Deer to Changing Management Priorities

The expansion of the cellulosic biofuels industry throughout the United States has broad-scale implications for wildlife management on public and private lands. Knowledge is limited on the effects of reverting agriculture to native grass, and vice versa, on size of home range and habitat use of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). We followed 68 radio-collared female deer from 1991 through 2004 that were residents of DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR) in eastern Nebraska, USA. The refuge was undergoing conversion of vegetation out of row-crop agriculture and into native grass, forest, and emergent aquatic vegetation. Habitat in DNWR consisted of 30% crop in 1991 but removing crops to establish native grass and wetland habitat at DNWR resulted in a 44% reduction in crops by 2004. A decrease in the amount of crops on DNWR contributed to a decline in mean size of annual home range from 400 ha in 1991 to 200 ha in 2005 but percentage of crops in home ranges increased from 21% to 29%. Mean overlap for individuals was 77% between consecutive annual home ranges across 8 years, regardless of crop availability. Conversion of crop to native habitat will not likely result in home range abandonment but may impact disease transmission by increasing rates of contact between deer social groups that occupy adjacent areas. Future research on condition indices or changes in population parameters (e.g., recruitment) could be incorporated into the study design to assess impacts of habitat conversion for biofuel production.

Surveillance of bovine tuberculosis and risk estimation of a future reservoir formation in wildlife in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis or M. caprae has recently (re-) emerged in livestock and wildlife in all countries bordering Switzerland (CH) and the Principality of Liechtenstein (FL). Comprehensive data for Swiss and Liechtenstein wildlife are not available so far, although two native species, wild boar (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus), act as bTB reservoirs elsewhere in continental Europe. Our aims were (1) to assess the occurrence of bTB in these wild ungulates in CH/FL and to reinforce scanning surveillance in all wild mammals; (2) to evaluate the risk of a future bTB reservoir formation in wild boar and red deer in CH/FL. Tissue samples collected from 2009 to 2011 from 434 hunted red deer and wild boar and from eight diseased ungulates with tuberculosis-like lesions were tested by direct real-time PCR and culture to detect mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). Identification of suspicious colonies was attempted by real-time PCR, genotyping and spoligotyping. Information on risk factors for bTB maintenance within wildlife populations was retrieved from the literature and the situation regarding identified factors was assessed for our study areas. Mycobacteria of the MTBC were detected in six out of 165 wild boar (3.6%; 95% CI: 1.4-7.8) but none of the 269 red deer (0%; 0-1.4). M. microti was identified in two MTBC-positive wild boar, while species identification remained unsuccessful in four cases. Main risk factors for bTB maintenance worldwide, including different causes of aggregation often resulting from intensive wildlife management, are largely absent in CH and FL. In conclusion, M. bovis and M. caprae were not detected but we report for the first time MTBC mycobacteria in Swiss wild boar. Present conditions seem unfavorable for a reservoir emergence, nevertheless increasing population numbers of wild ungulates and offal consumption may represent a risk.

Operation wildlife research /

Mode of access: Internet.

Five years of Pittman-Robertson wildlife restoration, 1949-1953,

Mode of access: Internet.

Wildlife and range research needs in northern Mexico and southwestern United States : workshop proceedings, April 20-24, 1981, Rio Rico, Arizona.

"September 1983."

Migratory nongame birds of management concern in the Northeast /

Includes bibliographical references.

Fish and wildlife leaflet.

Title from cover.

Wildlife handbook; North Pacific region.

Cover-title.

State extension specialists in fish and wildlife and/or person(s) designated to receive fish and wildlife information.

"December 1, 1983."

Fish & wildlife '90 : a report to the nation.

Cover title.

Development and expansion of the natural resource data and information systems in support of the Illinois Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan : annual segment report 2005 /

Submitted to Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Evaluation of bullfrog, rana catesbeiana, management in Illinois : a report to the Illinois Department of Conservation through the Illinois Natural History Survey /

Prepared by Philip C. Mankin, Jeffery L. Van Orman, Bruce D. Taubert, David P. Philipp.

Multiresource management of southwestern ponderosa pine forests : the status of knowledge /

"Published July 1991"--P. [2] of cover.

Management recommendations for the northern goshawk in the southwestern United States /

"November 26, 1991."

Range and wildlife habitat evaluation; a research symposium ... Flagstaff and Tempe, Ariz., May 1968.

Sponsored by the Branch of Range and Wildlife Habitat Ecology and Management Research, U.S. Forest Service.