Bird and Terrestrial Species Conservation

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...

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. Historical...

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...

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...

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...

The Challenge: Despite more than a century and a half of study, accurate understanding of the diversity North American mammalian species and the distribution of those species remains unrefined. Yet this understanding is essential for determining the conservation status of species, for mapping out potential disease reservoirs, and for understanding the response of species to habitat perturbation...

The Challenge: The postcranial skeletons of mammals exhibit tremendous variation in form that partly relates to phylogeny (who a particular species is related to) and partly to locomotory function (how that species moves through its environment). Understanding the contributions of these two factors is important because phylogenetic characters assist in working out evolutionary relationships...

The Challenge: Ancient Egyptians mummified animals for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was as votive offerings to certain deities. Among the six species of shrews that have been identified as mummies, one is now extinct, one is no longer occurs in Egypt, and the remaining four have more restricted distributions in the country. One of the latter species also exhibits significantly...

Disease dynamics in wildlife are commonly related to changes or increases in environmental stressors that are placed upon an animal. Environmental pollutants are known to affect the immune system of wildlife, resulting in impaired resistance to infection and potential increases in disease outbreaks. In collaboration with: Jill Jenkins, Ph.D USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center; Julia Lankton...

The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey (WBPHS) is a primary source of waterfowl population status and trend information for management of ducks in North America. The survey has not been reviewed in several decades, and since the last review new analysis approaches and information needs have created a need to reassess the design, scope of inference, and analysis of the survey to...

This project aims to understand the factors driving breeding success of multiple waterbird species, with special emphasis on Least and Common Terns (two species of concern) on Poplar Island Environmental Restoration Project.

This project is focused on exploring the use of new technology to collect data on colonially nesting waterbird species in ways that reduce disturbance, improve data accuracy, or allow for the examination of previously unanswerable questions.