The greater sage-grouse is emblematic of the sagebrush ecosystem of the Great Basin of the Western United States. USGS scientists will host several talks and poster at The Wildlife Society meeting, describing research that can improve sagebrush habitat management and land-use decisions.

More than just Rocks

You could say that the U.S. Geological Survey is about more than just rocks.

When wildlife scientists, managers and students gather in Portland, Oregon, this October for The Wildlife Society’s 2012 Conference, they’ll find a conference program with close to 60 presentations, 5 symposia and at least 26 posters featuring a USGS contributor or mentor.

Now nested in the Ecosystems mission of the agency, wildlife research programs at USGS match the longevity of The Wildlife Society, which commemorates its 75^th anniversary this year. The Cooperative Research Unit program was founded in 1935, and one USGS Ecosystems science center — the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center — came into being in 1936, when President Franklin Roosevelt established the Patuxent Research Refuge.

With over a century of history under various U.S. Department of Interior entities, these wildlife research units now form a crucial and complementary element of USGS.

These days USGS is working on science issues that are more complex, larger in scale, and involve more scientific uncertainty than in the past. The agency’s expertise in mapping and landscape surveys, satellite tools and natural hazards analysis has injected technological innovations into wildlife research. At the same time, the legacy of these wildlife research programs — and the collaborative partnerships they have nurtured — are ever more critical as USGS assists other Interior agencies on addressing complex wildlife resource issues, such as climate change, energy, ecosystem restoration, water availability, and human impacts on the landscape.

USGS at The Wildlife Society’s 2012 Conference

White-nose syndrome is devastating bat species, and this one will be one of many wildlife diseases to be discussed by USGS scientists at The Wildlife Society Conference.

A quick glance through the 2012 conference program and you’ll find USGS scientists alongside academia, agency and institutional partners slated to discuss wildlife topics such as:

• Bat interactions with wind energy installations,
• energy development decision support and greater sage-grouse, songbirds, raptors and other species,
• white-nose syndrome, chronic wasting disease and other wildlife health trends,
• innovations in spatial capture-recapture models and hierarchical models, as well as applications of population genetics, LiDAR and stable isotope analysis,
• conservation, climate change impacts and habitat modeling of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, and
• pika, polar bear, clapper rail, spotted owl, salamanders and other species of concern.

Furthermore, USGS is proud to continue its support of the TWS Native Students Professional Development Program, welcoming the next generation of wildlife scientists and enriching the cultural and technical knowledge base of the wildlife research community.

Follow Us!

USGS scientists will present research on many waterfowl species at The Wildlife Society conference, including northern pintails, lesser scaup, Hawaiian goose, and diving ducks.

Fans can follow the USGS at TWS 2012 Conference via social media. Follow @USGSlive on Twitter as well as the #TWS2012 conference hashtag, friend us on Facebook at facebook.com/usgeologicalsurvey, browse the schedule of USGS talks on Google Calendar or add the schedule to your smartphone.

More importantly, say hello to our many scientists in person and stop by the USGS exhibit booth. It’s said that you learn the most being out in the field, but the same can be said for the great face-to-face exchange of ideas and inspired collaborations that are sparked at TWS conferences.

Happy 75^th Birthday, TWS!

Scan this to browse the schedule of USGS talks on Google Calendar:

Browse the schedule of USGS talks at The Wildlife Society’s conference on Google Calendar

Scan this to add the schedule to your smartphone:

Add the Schedule of USGS Presentations at The Wildlife Society’s Conference to Your Mobile Device

Some Polar bears in the Arctic can swim in excess of 200 miles.

Polar bears spend much of their lives in and around water, and they are well adapted for swimming. But recent findings of USGS  scientists demonstrate that they are even better swimmers than many imagined: In years of extreme sea-ice retreat in the southern Beaufort Sea region of Alaska, polar bears have been documented taking very long swims,   in excess of 30 miles.

Data collected from long distance swims by Polar bears suggest that they do not stop to rest during their journey.

In addition to being an impressive feat, this provides some tantalizing clues into the polar bear’s future in an Arctic with less sea ice. That these bears can swim such long distances might mean that they are not as vulnerable to being stranded at sea as has been depicted by the media. Scientists wonder, however, if polar bears might be expending essential energy in swimming long distances.

A USGS-led study tracked 52 adult female polar bears outfitted with global positioning system collars from 2004 to 2009. Getting a satellite telemetry collar on a polar bear is no simple matter. Scientists use helicopters to fly over the sea ice to find and tranquilize bears. While the bear is tranquilized, scientists attach a radio collar with multiple antennae and give the bear a small identifying tattoo on the inside of the upper lip.

Later, when the bears are swimming, one of the antennae is submerged so that the swims appear as gaps in the data that is transmitted. Overlaying this data onto maps of sea ice shows scientists approximately where the bears are swimming. Researchers documented 50 swims with an average length of 96 miles. While long-distance swims were relatively uncommon, 38 percent of the collared bears took at least one long swim. Results from the study appear in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Data collected from long distance swims by Polar bears suggest that they do not stop to rest during their journey.

Scientists have no way of knowing if long-distance swims are a new feature of polar bear life. “We did not have the GPS technology on collars to document this type of swimming behavior in polar bears in prior decades,” explains Karen Oakley, of the USGS Alaska Science Center . “However, summer sea ice conditions in the southern Beaufort Sea have changed considerably over the last 20 to 30 years, such that there is much more open water during summer and fall. Historically, there had not been enough open water for polar bears in this region to swim the long distances we observed in these recent summers of extreme sea ice retreat.”

While it is encouraging that polar bears can swim so far, it is also a potential risk for the bears, the researchers noted. The energy and physical costs of such long-distance swimming are unknown, but scientists did note polar bears moved, on average, 2.3 times more than when the same individuals were on sea ice. The movement data also suggest the bears were not pausing to rest or feed during long-distance swims. Twelve of the twenty documented swimming bears were adult females that had yearlings or cubs-of-the-year at the time they were outfitted with the GPS collar.

“We were able to recapture or observe 10 of these females within a year of collaring, and 6 of these females still had their cubs,” said Anthony Pagano, a USGS scientist and lead author of the study.  “These observations suggest that some cubs are also capable of swimming long distances. For the other four females with cubs, we don’t know if they lost their cubs before, during, or at some point after their long swims.”

Scientists track Polar bears with by attaching GPS equipped collars to a sample population. These collars transmit data that help develop maps like this one that shows a swim of nearly 220 miles long.

This and other USGS-sponsored polar bear research projects are aimed at refining and enhancing models to project the future status of polar bears in a rapidly changing Arctic environment in which sea ice is continuing to retreat faster than forecasted.