Treesearch

On January 9, 1990, 32 turkeys were captured in the Black Hills of South Dakota using the drug alpha-chloralose. One of these turkeys had a unique tag attached to it's wing that indicated it had been trapped previously Let's look back in time and see what made the events in the life of this turkey deviate slightly from "The Events in the Turkey Year" described by Bailey and Rinell in The Wild Turkey and It's Management.

The plan for conservation of Neotropical Migratory Birds - Partners in Flight - appeals to many Canadians. The birds themselves are loved for their beauty, their song, their mysterious migration, and their faithful return each spring. They are valued as members of healthy ecosystems, especially when they gorge themselves on caterpillars. Canadians recognize that the conservation of migratory birds should be coordinated internationally. Countries do not own the birds, but only provide accommodation for some steps of a long journey.

We measured rates of oxygen consumption and evaporative water loss (EWL) of Mexican Spotted (Strix occidentalis lucida) and Great Horned (Bubo virginianus) owls in Arizona. Basal metabolic rate averaged 0.84 ccO2 . g-1 . h-1 for the Spotted Owl and 0.59 ccO2 . g-1 . h-1 for the Great Horned Owl, with apparent thermoneutral zones extending from 17.0-25.2°C for the Spotted Owl and 20.3-32.2°C for the Great Horned Owl. EWL increased exponentially with ambient temperature in both species, but the Great Horned Owl showed a greater ability to dissipate metabolic heat production at high temperatur...

The purpose of this symposium was to assist the USDA Forest Service, other federal land management agencies, and the New Mexico State Land Office in the future development and management of the pinon-juniper ecosystem in the Southwest. Authors assessed the current state of knowledge about the pinon-juniper resource and helped develop future research and management goals.

Describes the final 20 minutes of a smokejumper fire-fighting crew and the fire that overran 16 men as they were attempting to escape. The foreman and two firefighters escaped. Comparison with the behavior of a crew trapped by a fire in 1985 is described.

This session, attended by 90-100 people, focused on current wildlife management practices in the West, how they conflict with neotropical migratory bird conservation, and possible solutions for resolving these conflicts.

A recently-created complex of reserves spanning the Guatemala, Mexico, Belize borders in the southern Yucatan Peninsula constitutes 5.5 million acres of contiguous, protected lowland forest. Information is needed on compatibility of various land-uses and biodiversity protection in multiple-use zones of these reserves. To address these and other needs related to conservation of migrant songbirds, Peregrine Fund collaborators (6 Guatemalans and 5 North Americans) in 1992 began studies of songbirds wintering in and near the Guatemalan portion of the Maya/Calakmul/Rio Bravo reserve complex....

Under the National Forest Management Act of 1979, the USDA Forest Service is charged with maintaining viable populations of all existing native vertebrate species on lands they administer. Accomplishment of this responsibility requires complete assessment of all federally authorized, funded, or implemented projects that may jeopardize the continued existence of a species. An understanding of the processes of extinction and the characteristics of populations that make them more or less likely to persist is fundamental to such assessments. We review processes contributing to extinction and...

We studied habitat selection patterns of Merriam's Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) hens with poults in a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ecosystem. Thirty-six radio-marked hens produced 19 broods, and we obtained 230 locations of hens with poults. We described vegetation of habitats using criteria from the Rocky Mountain Region, U.S. Forest Service, for determining effects of forest management and monitoring of wildlife populations. Most habitat units were 432 ha and corresponded to third-order habitats as described by Johnson (1980). Hens with poults selected large meadows and...

Populations of brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molofhrus afer) have increased to the point where they pose a potential threat to populations of many neotropical migrant songbirds. Because cowbirds mostly feed in short grass (e.g., pastures and lawns) or on bare ground (e.g., row crops), they benefit directly from human activities. Cowbirds commute up to 7 km between feeding areas and habitats where they search for host nests, often favoring forest edge or secondary growth. Several neotropical migrants with restricted geographical ranges are endangered, at least partly as a result of...