Ecology and Conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Ecology and Conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens write by David A. Haukos. This book was released on 2016-02-22. Ecology and Conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Shortlisted for the 2018 TWS Wildlife Publication Awards in the edited book categoryLesser Prairie-Chickens have experienced substantial declines in terms of population and the extent of area that they occupy. While they are an elusive species, making it difficult at times to monitor them, current evidence indicates that they have been persistently
Status, Ecology, and Management of the Lesser Prairie Chicken
Status, Ecology, and Management of the Lesser Prairie Chicken - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Status, Ecology, and Management of the Lesser Prairie Chicken write by Maple Andrew Taylor. This book was released on 1980. Status, Ecology, and Management of the Lesser Prairie Chicken available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Grouse
Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Grouse - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Grouse write by Brett K. Sandercock. This book was released on 2011-09-04. Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Grouse available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "Summarizing current knowledge of grouse biology, this volume is organized in four sections--spatial ecology, habitat relationships, population biology, and conservation and management--and offers insights into spatial requirements, movements, and demography of grouse. Much of the research employs emerging tools in ecology that span biogeochemistry, molecular genetics, endocrinology, radio-telemetry, and remote sensing".--Adapted from publisher descrip tion on back cover
Booming from the Mists of Nowhere
Booming from the Mists of Nowhere - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Booming from the Mists of Nowhere write by Greg Hoch. This book was released on 2015-12-15. Booming from the Mists of Nowhere available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. For ten months of the year, the prairie-chicken’s drab colors allow it to disappear into the landscape. However, in April and May this grouse is one of the most outrageously flamboyant birds in North America. Competing with each other for the attention of females, males gather before dawn in an explosion of sights and sounds—“booming from the mists of nowhere,” as Aldo Leopold wrote decades ago. There’s nothing else like it, and it is perilously close to being lost. In this book, ecologist Greg Hoch shows that we can ensure that this iconic bird flourishes once again. Skillfully interweaving lyrical accounts from early settlers, hunters, and pioneer naturalists with recent scientific research on the grouse and its favored grasslands, Hoch reveals that the prairie-chicken played a key role in the American settlement of the Midwest. Many hungry pioneers regularly shot and ate the bird, as well as trapping hundreds of thousands, shipping them eastward by the trainload for coastal suppers. As a result of both hunting and habitat loss, the bird’s numbers plummeted to extinction across 90 percent of its original habitat. Iowa, whose tallgrass prairies formed the very center of the greater prairie-chicken’s range, no longer supports a native population of the bird most symbolic of prairie habitat. The steep decline in the prairie-chicken population is one of the great tragedies of twentieth-century wildlife management and agricultural practices. However, Hoch gives us reason for optimism. These birds can thrive in agriculturally productive grasslands. Careful grazing, reduced use of pesticides, well-placed wildlife corridors, planned burning, higher plant, animal, and insect diversity: these are the keys. If enough blocks of healthy grasslands are scattered over the midwestern landscape, there will be prairie-chickens—and many of their fellow creatures of the tall grasses. Farmers, ranchers, conservationists, and citizens can reverse the decline of grassland birds and insure that future generations will hear the booming of the prairie-chicken.
Landscape Ecology, Survival and Space Use of Lesser Prairie-chickens
Landscape Ecology, Survival and Space Use of Lesser Prairie-chickens - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Landscape Ecology, Survival and Space Use of Lesser Prairie-chickens write by Samantha Robinson. This book was released on 2015. Landscape Ecology, Survival and Space Use of Lesser Prairie-chickens available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has experienced range-wide population declines and range contraction since European settlement. Due to ongoing declines, lesser prairie-chickens were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014; however, uncertainty regarding the legal status of the species has developed following a judicial decision to vacate the listing in September 2015. Regardless, new research is required for conservation planning, especially for understudied portions and temporal periods of the occupied range. I evaluated nonbreeding lesser prairie-chicken survival using known-fate models, and tested for the influence of environmental, landscape and predator effects on weekly survival. I estimated nonbreeding home-range size using fixed kernel density estimators and Brownian Bridge movement models for VHF and Satellite tagged lesser prairie-chickens, and measured habitat use during the 6-month nonbreeding period (16 September - 14 March). I also determined the influence of lek location on space use intensity within home ranges using resource utilization functions. Female survival was high (0.75, SE = 0.05) and consistent across nonbreeding seasons, but not explainable by selected variables. Mean home range size for birds with GPS transmitters (955 ha, SE = 128.5) was 215% larger than for individuals with VHF transmitters (303 ha, SE = 24.1) and 136% greater during the 2014-2015 nonbreeding season than the 2013-2014 season. Males and females were tied to leks throughout the nonbreeding season, and this relationship was not variable across the months of the nonbreeding season. Proportions of habitat used differed among study sites, but temporal trends were not evident. Lesser prairie-chickens exhibited consistency among ecoregions for home-range, space use, and survival; however, with differing habitat use among regions, management should be on the regional scale. Agriculture and energy development have caused fragmentation of the landscape where lesser prairie-chickens evolved. I used known fate survival models to test if landscape composition or configuration within sites caused survival to differ by site, as well as within home ranges to determine if functional relationships exist between weekly survival and landscape configuration or composition. I used Andersen-Gill models to test whether distance to anthropogenic features affected hazard rates. Differences in survival rates between sites, with survival rates 50% greater in Clark County, Kansas compared to Northwestern, Kansas, corresponded to differences in the amount of grassland habitat on the landscape, but study-site configuration was not measurably different. Increasing the number of patch types within home ranges increased survival, indicating positive effects of heterogeneity. In addition, as distance to fences decreased, lesser prairie-chickens experienced greater risk. Overall, further breakup of grassland landscapes that lesser prairie-chickens occupy should be avoided, to avoid habitat loss and fragmentation thresholds that could further affect survival rates. Additionally, fences should be removed or avoided around active leks.
