Publications
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center staff publish results of their research in USGS series reports and in peer-reviewed journals. Publication links are below. Information on all USGS publications can be found at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 1903
Utilization of Skylab (EREP) system for appraising changes in continental migratory bird habitat
The author has identified the following significant results. Surface water statistics using data obtained by supporting aircraft were generated. Signature extraction and refinement preliminary to wetland and associated upland vegetation recognition were accomplished, using a selected portion of the aircraft data. Final classification mapping and analysis of surface water trends will be accomplishe
Authors
E.A. Work, D.S. Gilmer
Feeding Ecology of Breeding Blue-Winged Teals
A 5-year investigation of factors influencing the selection of foods consumed by blue-winged teals (Anas discors) during the breeding season in the glaciated prairie region of south-central North Dakota showed that birds first arriving on the breeding grounds consumed a diet consisting of 45 percent invertebrates. The proportion of animal foods in the diet increased to 95 percent at the onset of t
Authors
George A. Swanson, Mavis I. Meyer, Jerome R. Serie
Habitat management considerations for prairie chickens
Lack of nesting and brood rearing habitat appears to be the universal limiting factor for prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) throughout their range. Grasslands are essential to prairie chickens, but vary widely in quality and thus in their ability to support prairie chickens. High-quality habitat is grassland providing residual vegetation averaging about 20 inches in height in spring a
Authors
L.M. Kirsch
Effects of radio packages on wild ducks
A total of 211 wild, free-flying mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and wood ducks (Aix sponsa) were equipped with breast-mounted radio packages during the breeding seasons of 1968-72. Known predation loss was 7.6 and 12.0 percent for mallards and wood ducks respectively, 60 percent occurred within 3 weeks of instrumentation. The highest predation rate for mallards was 0.0048 kills per tracking day and
Authors
D.S. Gilmer, I. J. Ball, L.M. Cowardin, J. H. Riechmann
Remote sensing for identification and classification of wetland vegetation
Multispectral photography and ground truth were obtained on an area 12 miles (19.3 km) east of Bemidji, Minnesota, to identify and map wetlands less than 2 acres (0.8 hectare) in size, to map emergent vegetation in lakes, and to explore the feasibility of classifying vegetation from aerial photographs. Wetlands less than 2 acres in size were identified on photography taken in May 1971, and emergen
Authors
L.M. Cowardin, V.I. Myers
Breeding of the black guillemot in northern Alaska
No abstract available.
Authors
G.J. Divoky, G.E. Watson, J. C. Bartonek
Avian mortality from collisions with overhead wires in North Dakota
Abstract has not been submitted
Authors
G.L. Krapu
Feeding ecology of pintail hens during reproduction
Food supply has been acknowledged as one of eight major external factors regulating the sexual cycles of birds (Marshall 1961). Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain the role of food supply as an ultimate factor regulating breeding (Marshall 1951; Lack 1954, 1968; Wynne-Edwards 1962; and others). Another potential influence of food is its being a proximate stimulus to breeding. When cer
Authors
G.L. Krapu
Foods of breeding pintails in North Dakota
Food habits of breeding pintails (Anas acuta) were studied relative to sex, land use, and reproductive condition during the spring and summer of 1969, 1970, and 1971 in eastern North Dakota. Hens and drakes, respectively, consumed 79.2 percent and 30.0 percent animal matter on nontilled wetlands and consumed 16.6 percent and 1.1 percent animal matter on tilled wetlands. Aquatic dipterans (primaril
Authors
G.L. Krapu