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Bird and Terrestrial Species Conservation

Filter Total Items: 87

Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands

Scientists from six USGS science centers are collaborating with USDA, university, and Tribal partners, and Department of the Interior land managers, to assess the status of pollinator communities and the distribution of species of conservation concern using environmental DNA. These methods will be used to improve assessments of habitat quality and pollinator responses to restoration, including...
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Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands

Scientists from six USGS science centers are collaborating with USDA, university, and Tribal partners, and Department of the Interior land managers, to assess the status of pollinator communities and the distribution of species of conservation concern using environmental DNA. These methods will be used to improve assessments of habitat quality and pollinator responses to restoration, including...
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Advancing Risk Modeling for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Southeast Asia has long been the epicenter of AIV emergence. However, as demonstrated by H5NX, these viruses can quickly reach global spread and have significant impacts on poultry production and human health. We have two ongoing efforts funded by the National Science Foundation to help improve our understanding of AIV emergence, spread, and transmission in today’s rapidly changing landscape.
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Advancing Risk Modeling for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Southeast Asia has long been the epicenter of AIV emergence. However, as demonstrated by H5NX, these viruses can quickly reach global spread and have significant impacts on poultry production and human health. We have two ongoing efforts funded by the National Science Foundation to help improve our understanding of AIV emergence, spread, and transmission in today’s rapidly changing landscape.
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Red Knot Migration and Population Ecology

Eastern Ecological Science Center biologists are studying migration and population ecology of the rufa red knot, a bird species that is dependent on horseshoe crab eggs to complete its trans-hemispheric migration. The birds' spring migration is timed with spawning of horseshoe crabs because the eggs are the perfect food for a migrating red knot.
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Red Knot Migration and Population Ecology

Eastern Ecological Science Center biologists are studying migration and population ecology of the rufa red knot, a bird species that is dependent on horseshoe crab eggs to complete its trans-hemispheric migration. The birds' spring migration is timed with spawning of horseshoe crabs because the eggs are the perfect food for a migrating red knot.
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Quantitative Turtle Analysis Project: Machine learning with turtles

The Quantitative Turtle Analysis Project (QTAP) was created in 2019 with the goal of investigating how machine learning can be used to study wildlife populations using capture-recapture methods. QTAP has specifically been researching how digital images of the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) can be used by automated programs to recognize unique individual turtles, in place of a...
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Quantitative Turtle Analysis Project: Machine learning with turtles

The Quantitative Turtle Analysis Project (QTAP) was created in 2019 with the goal of investigating how machine learning can be used to study wildlife populations using capture-recapture methods. QTAP has specifically been researching how digital images of the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) can be used by automated programs to recognize unique individual turtles, in place of a...
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Asian Flyways Collaborative for Waterbirds (AFCoW)

The Asian Flyways Collaborative for Waterbirds (AFCoW) is a collaborative group effort that brings together research scientists engaged in understanding waterbird ecology in Eastern Asia. Due to the complexity of waterbird biology and unique threats to their populations in East Asia, we have established a voluntary international network of collaborators to promote advanced studies of large-scale...
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Asian Flyways Collaborative for Waterbirds (AFCoW)

The Asian Flyways Collaborative for Waterbirds (AFCoW) is a collaborative group effort that brings together research scientists engaged in understanding waterbird ecology in Eastern Asia. Due to the complexity of waterbird biology and unique threats to their populations in East Asia, we have established a voluntary international network of collaborators to promote advanced studies of large-scale...
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Hazard and Risk of Anticoagulant Rodenticides to Predatory and Scavenging Wildlife

Invasive mammalian predators are the most damaging group of animals affecting global biodiversity. When introduced on remote islands, alien rodent species can devastate local biota and have been linked to approximately 30% of all extinctions. In addition, rodents can also consume and spoil crops, and serve as disease vectors that affect humans. Starting in the 20th century, rodenticides were...
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Hazard and Risk of Anticoagulant Rodenticides to Predatory and Scavenging Wildlife

Invasive mammalian predators are the most damaging group of animals affecting global biodiversity. When introduced on remote islands, alien rodent species can devastate local biota and have been linked to approximately 30% of all extinctions. In addition, rodents can also consume and spoil crops, and serve as disease vectors that affect humans. Starting in the 20th century, rodenticides were...
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Bird Habitat Needs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Historically the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) was predominantly bottomland hardwood forest and most birds of conservation concern depend on bottomland hardwood forest. Past conservation planning has focused on habitat objectives with presumption that bird population goals would be met by habitat provision.
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Bird Habitat Needs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Historically the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) was predominantly bottomland hardwood forest and most birds of conservation concern depend on bottomland hardwood forest. Past conservation planning has focused on habitat objectives with presumption that bird population goals would be met by habitat provision.
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Monitoring Birds in National Parks of the Gulf Coast Network

The Challenge: Avian monitoring within the Gulf Coast Network of the National Park Service is challenged to provide valid quantitative data on bird populations within park boundaries with limited financial input. Thus, citizen science (volunteer) bird monitoring has been proposed to achieve reliable estimates of bird populations and to assess the effects of habitat change and temporal dynamics of...
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Monitoring Birds in National Parks of the Gulf Coast Network

The Challenge: Avian monitoring within the Gulf Coast Network of the National Park Service is challenged to provide valid quantitative data on bird populations within park boundaries with limited financial input. Thus, citizen science (volunteer) bird monitoring has been proposed to achieve reliable estimates of bird populations and to assess the effects of habitat change and temporal dynamics of...
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Adaptive Management of Black Rails

The Black Rail ( Laterallus jamaicensis ) is the most secretive of the secretive marsh birds and few aspects of its life history and ecology are well understood. The Eastern Black Rail subspecies ( L. j. jamaicensis ) is listed as endangered in five states along the Atlantic Coast and has been proposed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act and is under review for federal listing...
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Adaptive Management of Black Rails

The Black Rail ( Laterallus jamaicensis ) is the most secretive of the secretive marsh birds and few aspects of its life history and ecology are well understood. The Eastern Black Rail subspecies ( L. j. jamaicensis ) is listed as endangered in five states along the Atlantic Coast and has been proposed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act and is under review for federal listing...
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Rafinesque’s Mammals

The Challenge: Taxonomic nomenclature relies, in part, upon an accurate taxonomic history in order to establish the correct name for a taxon. Constantine S. Rafinesque (1783–1840), was a knowledgeable North American natural historian who was is responsible for describing and naming such iconic American mammals as the mule deer [Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817)] and the white-footed mouse...
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Rafinesque’s Mammals

The Challenge: Taxonomic nomenclature relies, in part, upon an accurate taxonomic history in order to establish the correct name for a taxon. Constantine S. Rafinesque (1783–1840), was a knowledgeable North American natural historian who was is responsible for describing and naming such iconic American mammals as the mule deer [Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817)] and the white-footed mouse...
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Survival of the Least Fit: Incidence of Physical Trauma in a Wild Mammal Community

The Challenge: It has been generally considered that a severe injury to a wild mammal that seemingly limits its ability to forage for food or escape predators will almost certainly lead to that individual’s demise. Inspection of skeletons of wild caught small mammals, however, has revealed a surprising number of individuals with healed fractures of the skeletal bones―including the primary...
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Survival of the Least Fit: Incidence of Physical Trauma in a Wild Mammal Community

The Challenge: It has been generally considered that a severe injury to a wild mammal that seemingly limits its ability to forage for food or escape predators will almost certainly lead to that individual’s demise. Inspection of skeletons of wild caught small mammals, however, has revealed a surprising number of individuals with healed fractures of the skeletal bones―including the primary...
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Diversity and Biogeography of Treeshrews

The Challenge: Treeshrews (order Scandentia) are small-bodied mammals endemic to South and Southeast Asia. Since it was first described in 1820, the Common Treeshrew (Tupaia glis) has had a complex taxonomic history that has led to widely variable estimates of diversity, misidentification of populations, and general confusion regarding it and closely related species. One result is that T. glis has...
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Diversity and Biogeography of Treeshrews

The Challenge: Treeshrews (order Scandentia) are small-bodied mammals endemic to South and Southeast Asia. Since it was first described in 1820, the Common Treeshrew (Tupaia glis) has had a complex taxonomic history that has led to widely variable estimates of diversity, misidentification of populations, and general confusion regarding it and closely related species. One result is that T. glis has...
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