Agricultural co‐management aims to promote environmental sustainability while maintaining food‐safety standards. Amphibians, especially treefrogs, are known to enter fields of fresh produce intended for human consumption, which raises concerns for food safety and quality. We evaluated the effects of modifications to reduce the scalability of exclusion barriers on the fence‐crossing behavior of Pacific

Aerial surveys for waterfowl and other waterbirds provide abundance estimates that are commonly used by state and federal agencies for waterfowl and wetland management. However, most existing surveys provide an index of abundance and are uncorrected for visibility bias, which may limit their use in accurately determining local population size. We used concurrent ground and aerial surveys to estimate

An understanding of habitat selection and patterns of use by American black ducks (Anas rubripes; hereafter black ducks) during winter is important ecologically and for conservation of this declining species in the mid‐continent population of its North American range. During winters 2010–2011 and 2011–2012, we obtained 3,816 locations of 111 radiomarked female black ducks captured at Tennessee National

Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA, is a critical staging area for Wilson's (Phalaropus tricolor) and red‐necked (Phalaropus lobatus) phalaropes. Both phalarope species depend upon abundant invertebrate prey in Great Salt Lake to fuel fall migrations, but the lake currently faces the threat of becoming increasingly saline due to water diversions and climate change. The lake changes may decrease the ability

We collaboratively designed and implemented a pilot study to evaluate improved methods for estimating the distribution and abundance of prairie grouse in South Dakota and North Dakota. Current prairie grouse population monitoring in both states relies on annual surveys of male birds on leks within designated survey blocks. Although the survey results may give insight into local populations, they have

Purple martins (Progne subis) are declining in North America and the eastern subspecies is almost fully dependent on human‐provided nesting houses. We assessed nest house selection by purple martins located at the northern edge of their range. Guidebooks anecdotally describe the importance of house color, building material, hole shape, height, presence of shrubs, vertical accessibility, and distances

The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is recognized, outside its native range, as an invasive species, and efforts to deter its nesting have generally been unsuccessful. Enhancing perceived risk at the nest site is a little‐explored route in developing a nest deterrent. Specifically, nest predation risk affects site selection, reproduction, antipredator behavior, and fitness in nesting birds. We

Assessment of habitat suitability provides natural resource managers with insights on the quality and spatial distribution of habitat for wildlife species. However, habitat suitability models only provide information on current habitat parameters, and do not consider changes in habitat due to forest succession and disturbances. Habitat potential models have been developed by identifying habitat types

Our study explored the utility of using Importance‐Satisfaction Analysis (ISA) to identify critical attributes to deer management cooperative (DMC) member satisfaction. With white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus) management by landowners becoming an increasingly popular conservation tool, DMCs represent an approach by private landowners and hunters to collaboratively improve deer herds and hunting

The white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is an ecologically important species in forests of North America. Effective management of forests requires accurate, precise estimates of deer population abundance to plan and justify management actions. Spotlight surveys in combination with distance sampling are a common method of estimating deer population abundance; however, spotlight surveys are known

Toxic baiting of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is a potential new tool for population control and damage reduction in the United States. Use of toxic bait sites by non‐target species is concerning because of the risks posed from exposure to a toxic bait. A 2018 field trial in northern Texas, USA, examining the efficacy of a prototype toxic bait (HOGGONE®, containing 10% sodium nitrite) revealed unexpected

Social media is often used to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and engage the public, which can change the public's attitudes and behaviors and may be used to benefit conservation. Moreover, widespread social media use provides an alternative data sourcing platform to inexpensively access countless potential respondents. However, social media data have rarely been used in conservation regardless

Methods used in wildlife ecology can influence population‐ and community‐level estimates, such as species richness, sex ratio, age and size structure, occupancy and detection probabilities, and community composition. Various trapping and sampling biases exist for freshwater turtles including bait and trap choice and survey technique. To date, no study has investigated the influence of hoop net and

Owls play important cultural, ecological, and indicator roles throughout the world. Yet owls’ cryptic behavior has led to uncertainties about their basic ecology, including foraging, communication, and functional roles within the community, and potentially hindered the implementation of effective conservation measures. Here we demonstrate the potential for next‐generation GPS tags capable of recording

Humans engage in 2 modes of thinking: an associative mode and a reasoning mode. Institutions and scientific education primarily have focused on reasoning, even though the associative mode is linked to creativity and has been actively nurtured and used by influential scientists. The inattentiveness by scientific institutions toward associative thinking is such that it has been called the forgotten half

The use of radio‐frequency identification (RFID) offers new potential in remote wildlife monitoring to reduce the invasive nature of studies requiring direct contact with study animals. Facilitated by the emergence of new technology, RFID can remotely identify individual animals implanted with passive‐integrated‐transponder (PIT) tags. We aimed to establish and assess a new technique for remote RFID

Estimating animal home ranges is a primary purpose of collecting tracking data. Many widely used home range estimators, including conventional kernel density estimators, assume independently‐sampled data. In stark contrast, modern animal tracking datasets are almost always strongly autocorrelated. The incongruence between estimator assumptions and empirical reality often leads to systematically underestimated

As wild pigs (Sus scrofa) expand throughout North America researchers are increasingly being tasked with trapping and marking entire sounders (family groups) to attach monitoring devices or other identifying markers to gather knowledge to inform management. Capture and marking procedures can be challenging, dangerous for both researchers and animals, and time consuming, particularly when handling sounders

Plague causes declines in native wildlife populations including those of prairie dogs (Cynomys sp.) and endangered black‐footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes). The infusion of insecticides into prairie dog burrows is a vector control method regularly used to suppress or prevent plague transmission by fleas. Detailed methods on how insecticide application equipment (dusters) is calibrated or how the quality

We surveyed nest‐structure use by sympatric nesting wood ducks (Aix sponsa) and black‐bellied whistling ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) across coastal South Carolina, USA, in 2016–2017. Of 718 nest boxes surveyed cumulatively in 2016 and 2017, 61% were used by wood ducks and 15% by black‐bellied whistling ducks. Lower nest‐box use by whistling ducks was related to recent arrivals and breeding by the

Fish crows (Corvus ossifragus) can be important seabird egg predators. In southwestern Florida, USA, crows were previously documented as causing the abandonment of black skimmer (Rynchops niger) colonies. While lethal crow control might be the most effective strategy, there are ethical and practical concerns about corvid control in an urban setting. Illness‐induced aversion to egg eating (conditioned

To estimate population abundance of wide‐ranging and elusive species, wildlife managers require practical data‐collection methods that are efficient, accurate, and cost‐effective. Natural abundance marking can provide a useful solution, but it has largely been utilized only for conservation monitoring of species with very high distinctiveness. We estimated abundance of invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa)

Prescribed fire and canopy reduction are accepted forest management practices used to increase forage and cover for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in pine systems throughout the southeastern United States. However, use of prescribed fire to improve conditions for deer and turkeys has not been evaluated in upland hardwood forests of the Coastal Plain

Aerial surveys are an efficient technique for counting animals over large geographic areas such as rangelands. In southwestern rangelands, aerial surveys are routinely conducted for ungulates, with the implicit understanding that abundance estimates represent an undercount. Distance sampling can correct for visibility bias, but assumes perfect detection on the survey line, a condition often violated

The indirect effects (risk effects) of hunting (e.g., lowered frequency of hunting site use by deer due to human predation risk) have received increasing attention in deer management programs. However, our understanding of the relationship between hunting time schedule and risk‐effect level remains limited. We investigated the relationships between hunting time schedule (the duration of the hunting

The northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is one of the bat species most affected by white‐nose syndrome. Population declines attributed to white‐nose syndrome contributed to the species’ listing as federally threatened under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although one of the most abundant Myotine bats in eastern North America prior to white‐nose syndrome, little is known about northern

Surgical implantation of transmitters into the coelomic cavity is a common attachment technique for ducks and geese. Although retention rates are assumed to be high, most studies utilizing this attachment method involve tracking in a system where low rates of recapture, resight, or recovery limit the ability of researchers to assess tag loss. We describe the extrusion and loss of coelomic radiotransmitters

Challenges in monitoring rare and elusive species often involve low detection and sampling success. Noninvasive methods have allowed researchers to more efficiently monitor rare and elusive species while reducing costs of more invasive, traditional techniques. We evaluated the use of a noninvasive method as an alternative to live‐trapping pocket gophers. We found that tunnel diameter can be used to

I developed a method of marking raccoons (Procyon lotor) for individual recognition under trail camera surveillance using restraint cones, tail‐fur clipping, and hair dyeing in an old field‐agricultural habitat matrix in southwest Wisconsin, USA, during 2012 and 2018–2019. I live‐trapped and marked 29 individual raccoons and monitored them using trail cameras during early May to mid‐August. Fur‐clipping

Biodiversity monitoring is important for species and habitat management, although it can be costly in terms of personnel time and expertise. Citizen Science projects that engage community participants to collect species distribution data can provide high volumes of data at little cost, but data are often associated with unknown observer error. Projects that remove decision‐making (e.g., species identification)

Detailed information on movements, space use, and habitat selection patterns by northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) is important for understanding population dynamics, gene flow, disease spread, and development of habitat management activities. Advances in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has allowed researchers to collect spatial and temporal location data with increasing

Monitoring within an adaptive management framework provides important insights about system responses to management and information on which management actions to adjust to improve outcomes over time. We evaluated the range‐wide monitoring survey of the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) and assessed its ability to track changes in species’ population status over time using data gathered

We developed a simple and environmentally‐friendly protocol for identifying herbivore diets by isolating and identifying microscopic vegetation fragments from fecal materials that can be easily applied in remote areas where laboratories are absent. We used feces from human‐habituated Virunga mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), whose diet is well‐known, to develop and validate the protocol

Farmland set‐aside programs provide important habitat for many wildlife species, yet little information exists regarding how vegetation structure and species respond to conservation practice and site age. This information could provide managers with a guide for how to implement, enhance, and maintain wildlife benefits of conservation programs. We describe how vegetation structure and avian species

Historically, undergraduate college students enrolled in natural resources programs came from rural backgrounds and regularly participated in fishing, hunting, and trapping (i.e., consumptive activities). Student demographics shifted considerably over the past 30 years, with more natural resources students coming from urban backgrounds with lower levels of engagement in consumptive activities. Some

Predation on smolts by Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia) has been identified as a factor limiting the restoration of some populations of anadromous salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) from the Columbia River basin that are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Implementation of a management plan to reduce numbers of Caspian terns nesting at the 2 largest colonies in the Columbia Plateau region of

Wire cages (exclosures) that exclude nest predators are regularly used for management of federally threatened and endangered populations of piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) and similar species. However, recent evidence that apparent nest abandonment related to exclosure use is indicative of adult mortality has led to concern about the technique. We developed a decision support tool named PiperEx

Population viability analyses can assess species persistence under current or simulated future conditions and guide conservation and management efforts for species of concern. We evaluated population viability of an endangered songbird, the golden‐cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia), over a 50‐year period using empirically derived population parameters collected from 2009 to 2015 on the Balcones

Despite widespread interest in white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the southeastern United States, historical deer populations and densities have not been compiled into one accessible source. We digitized maps from 1950, 1970, 1982, and 2003 and reviewed literature to quantify population sizes and densities in the Southeast, although previous estimates may not be accurate. Deer population

Chronically overabundant white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations have made it difficult to regenerate desirable woody species throughout much of their range in the eastern United States and southern Canada. Neither silvicultural prescriptions nor deer management alone have resulted in successful forest regeneration. We tallied woody stems (≥1 m tall, <10 cm diameter) on 62 hunted and

Wildlife managers often need to estimate population abundance to make well‐informed decisions. However, obtaining such estimates can be difficult and costly, particularly for species with small populations, wide distributions, and spatial clustering of individuals. For this reason, DNA surveys and capture–recapture modeling has become increasingly common where direct observation is consistently difficult

Motion‐triggered camera traps are subject to imperfect detection and thus camera‐trapping surveys often try to increase species detectability as part of the study design. One possible way to increase detectability is to use lures, which may encourage a species to investigate a given area. Yet the effectiveness of lures is primarily grounded in anecdotal support. We quantified the effect of a common

The decline of the Eastern North American monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population continues to be a major concern among conservationists. Numerous publications and organizations suggest that establishing milkweed (Asclepias spp.), at a landscape scale, is necessary to increase the monarch population. The translocation of commercially grown containerized plugs is commonly recommended to establish

Fruit is consumed by songbirds, yet whether or not it comprises an important component of habitat quality depends on the extent to which it is used by birds. In addition, there is evidence fruits of exotic invasive species may be nutritionally inferior to fruits of native species, so the influence of plant invasion on bird body condition is of interest to managers. Birds that consume invasive fruits

We conducted a field experiment to test effects of complete drawdown to dried substrates versus partial (shallow water, 0–10 cm) drawdown on widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima) and other native submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) biomass (dry) in managed brackish tidal impoundments (hereafter, impoundments) in the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers Basin, South Carolina, USA. We sampled SAV in 20 impoundments

As part of a broader trial of noninvasive methods to research wild wolves (Canis lupus) in Minnesota, USA, we explored whether wolves could be remotely monitored using a new, inexpensive, remotely deployable, noninvasive, passive acoustic recording device, the AudioMoth. We tested the efficacy of AudioMoths in detecting wolf howls and factors influencing detection by placing them at set distances from

Marking birds with radiotransmitters to ascertain movements and demographic parameters has been a common practice for >50 years. Previous research provides evidence that transmitters may negatively affect some avian species, including gallinaceous birds. Investigators now commonly use rump‐mount transmitters with leg‐loop harnesses to monitor greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), but there

Nest predation is often the primary cause of nest failure for ducks throughout North America. Tremendous efforts have been made to identify predators responsible for nest predation to benefit the conservation and management of ducks. However, we are unaware of empirical evidence that identifies predators of duck nests in the boreal forest, which is an important breeding area. We used camera traps on

The difficulty in observing and capturing elusive species in the wild is one of the main reasons for the limited number of studies on such species. This knowledge gap affects the development of conservation and management plans. Hence, testing the feasibility of research tools is essential for the future use and reliability of such tools. Camera traps increasingly are used as an alternative to capturing

In response to health threats posed by toxic lead to humans and scavenging wildlife, there is currently a focus on transitioning from lead‐based to lead‐free bullets for shooting (harvesting, culling, or recreational hunting) of wild animals. However, the efficacy of lead‐free bullets for shooting small mammals has seldom been evaluated. We compared the animal welfare outcomes and costs of using lead‐based

Accurate assignment of age class is critical for understanding most demographic processes. For waterfowl, most techniques for determining age class require birds in hand, reducing utility for quickly and efficiently sampling a large portion of the population. As an alternative, we sought to establish an observation‐based methodology, achievable in the field with standard optics, for determining age

Some chelonians, such as the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), spend much of their time underground in burrows. Often, they will retreat into these burrows when approached. This predator avoidance behavior may potentially influence the spatial use patterns that researchers directly observe via manual telemetry. In an effort to record the movements of gopher tortoises using affordable methods that

Creating early successional vegetation on working farms can increase northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) abundance with little reduction in crop production, but specific effects of field border establishment on bobwhite nesting ecology are not well understood. We monitored bobwhite nesting on a 1,740‐ha working farm with 19% of property managed for early successional vegetation

Organic solvents, such as methanol (MeOH) and ethanol (EtOH), are commonly used to extract and preserve steroids from animal excreta (feces, urine). As a result, the target substances are often in the solvent when they are subsequently analyzed using enzyme immunoassay (EIA). We examined steroid extraction from the feces of forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii; collected in Sichuan Province, China

Despite obvious challenges and evidence of recent decline at certain overwintering sites, the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) remains widespread and ubiquitous throughout much of its recorded range within the United States, and adults still migrate in the tens of millions to overwintering sites in México. We share scientific as well as practical concerns with the initiative to list the monarch

Wild‐harvested meat, defined as meat obtained through legal hunting of free‐ranging wildlife, has been part of the food system for most of human existence. Nonetheless, description and measurement of current roles wild‐harvested meat plays in nonsubsistence communities is lacking. To better understand this system and inform policy choices, we sought to identify characteristics of consumers, their consumption

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) populations in North America were once estimated at nearly 30 million. However, unrestricted harvest of pronghorn was one of the major factors that led to 25,000 individuals by 1924. Through rigorous management, pronghorn populations rebounded to an estimated 1 million individuals by 1984. Within Texas, USA, by the late 1980s, the pronghorn population had recovered

Aerial application of management tools can provide a cost‐effective means to conserve or control wildlife populations at the landscape scale. Large spatial scales, however, present difficulties when assessing in situ reliability and integrity of the devices themselves. We demonstrate application of a distance‐sampling density estimation approach to assess the performance of a newly developed toxicant

Careful design of a wildlife population monitoring strategy is necessary to obtain accurate and precise results whether the purpose of the survey is development of habitat suitability models, to estimate abundance, or assess site occupancy. Important characteristics to consider in survey design are sources of elevated variability, particularly within‐subject variability, which increases the amount

Using traditional capture methods, shrews typically have low capture and high trap‐mortality rates. To reduce effects from live‐trapping and attempt to increase detection success, we investigated 3 potential noninvasive survey methods for shrews (Soricidae): track tubes, scat tubes, and camera traps. These 3 techniques were tested in areas of the San Joaquin Valley, California, USA, with high detection