Publications

Dominance is one of the most pervasive and important behaviors among wolves in a pack, yet its significance in free-ranging packs has been little studied. Insights into a behavior can often be gained by examining unusual examples of it. In the High Arctic near Eureka, Nunavut, Canada, we videotaped and described an unusually prolonged and intensive behavioral bout between an adult male...

Generally Gray Wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) tend to focus predation on young-of-the-year ungulates during summer, and I hypothesized that wolves preying on Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus Zimmerman, 1780) in summer would follow that trend. Over 23 July periods observing wolves on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, I found that packs of 2-12 adult wolves killed seven calves, one yearling, and...

Implementing the proposal set forth by Licht and colleagues (BioScience 60: 147–153) requires restricting wolves to tiny "islands," areas that are magnitudes smaller than the ranges of most wolf populations. Wolves naturally have large ranges; restricting their spatial needs increases the risk of wolves escaping, exacerbating public relations and political and legal problems. These...

The last in a series of three workshops to develop a decision framework for the scaup conservation action plan was conducted in September 2009. Fifteen waterfowl biologists and managers met in Memphis, Tennessee at the Ducks Unlimited Headquarters to review and refine the decision statement, objectives, and prototype model for the continental scaup population, with a special focus on...

Decline of leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) in the northern Great Plains of the US is generally viewed as a success story for biological control, but quality of the vegetation that survived the infestation is key to recovery of ecosystem function. In addition, effects of other invasive species, notably cool-season exotic grasses, must be taken into account. Objectives of this study were (1...

In 1993, a mark-recapture effort was initiated to band annually all Great Lakes Piping Plover nesting adults and offspring. With voluntary reporting by observers, >430 sightings of 154 individually-marked Great Lakes banded birds were documented on the wintering grounds during 19952005. This paper reports non-breeding distribution and site-fidelity and identifies Critical Habitat units...

Measuring abundance of invertebrate forage for piping plovers (Charadrius melodus; hereafter plovers), a federally listed species in the USA, is an important component of research and monitoring targeted toward species recovery. Sticky traps are commonly used to passively sample invertebrates, but catch rates may vary diurnally or in response to weather. We examined diurnal variation in...

The identification of predators of aquatic birds can be difficult. The Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentine) is considered a major predator of waterfowl and other aquatic birds, but the evidence for this reputation is based largely on circumstantial or indirect evidence rather than direct observations. Herein, the first documented observations of a snapping turtle attacking and...

In the wetland science field, sediment deposition is often thought of as being beneficial especially when one thinks of coastal estuarine systems. For example, sediments deposited from streams and rivers are necessary to naturally build and maintain tidal marshes. These sediments come from eroded upland soils in the interior of the continent. When these sediments are diverted from...

We are living in a period of massive global change. This rate of change may be almost without precedent in geologic history (1). Even the most remote areas of the planet are influenced by human activities. Modern landscapes have been highly modified to accommodate a growing human population that the United Nations has forecast to peak at 9.1 billion by 2050. Over this past century...

No abstract available.

Prescribed fire is used widely to manage grasslands on National Wildlife Refuges and other public lands in the northern Great Plains, but its effects on habitat use or production of wildlife in the region are poorly understood. During 19982003, we used point counts to examine effects of prescribed fire on vegetation and passerines in a mixed-grass prairie complex in north-central North...