Publications

By 1973, radio telemetry was regarded as an important potential tool for studying the elusive, nocturnal, and semifossorial black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), but fears of using invasive techniques on this highly endangered mammal caused delays. We began radio collaring ferrets in 1981. Use of radio telemetry on ferrets proved to be both challenging and rewarding. We document two...

No abstract available.

In 2000 the U.S. Congress authorized the expansion of the former Great Sand Dunes National Monument by establishing a new Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in its place, and establishing the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The establishment of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve and the new Baca National Wildlife Refuge in the San Luis Valley (SLV), Colorado was one of...

We explore the issues relevant to those types of ecosystems containing new combinations of species that arise through human action, environmental change, and the impacts of the deliberate and inadvertent introduction of species from other regions. Novel ecosystems (also termed ‘emerging ecosystems’) result when species occur in combinations and relative abundances that have not occurred...

No abstract available.

Several models have been developed to estimate prey requirements and to assess habitat suitability of release sites for the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) (e.g., Stromberg and others, 1983; Powell and others, 1985; Biggins and others, 1993). None of these models, however, addressed possible differences in energetic requirements between sites due to climatic differences within the...

Although the monitoring of black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) populations following reintroductions has not been haphazard, several ferret recovery groups since 1994 have recommended development of uniform standards prescribing minimum methods, intensities, and frequencies of monitoring that would provide data on population size, mortality rates, and recruitment. Such standards would...

This study was conducted to further assess the feasibility of vaccinating black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) against plague (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis). On days 0 and 28, 17 postreproductive ferrets were immunized by subcutaneous injection with a recombinant fusion protein containing F1 and V antigens from Y. pestis. Another 17 animals received a placebo by the same...

No abstract available.

Canine distemper virus (CDV) causes a systemic disease that is highly virulent to mustelids and other carnivore (Order Carnivora) species and is found worldwide. Endemic canine distemper in wild and domestic carnivores in the United States has made reintroduction of endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) difficult in the absence of safe and effective CDV vaccines and...

Long-distance migration, one of the most physically demanding events in the animal kingdom, is well developed in many species of Charadriidae and Scolopacidae. Some shorebirds renowned for their extraordinary long-distance migrations, notably American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica), Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa), and White-rumped Sandpiper (C. fuscicollis), travel as many as 15...

Using an estimated background nitrogen (N) deposition value of 0.5 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 in 1900, and a 19-year record of measured values from Loch Vale (Colorado, USA; NADP site CO98), I reconstructed an N-deposition history using exponential equations that correlated well with EPA-reported NOx emissions from Colorado and from the sum of emissions of 11 western states. The mean wet N...