Wildlife Techniques Lecture Exam 2

What needs to be known to capture wildlife?

Where do they frequent? What routes do they take? What is their basic ecology (dispersal and foraging)? What does the literature say?

What are the key considerations for capture?

Animal size, weather, number of handlers, handling time and amount, monitoring of vital signs and activity (quail box), antibiotic or vitamin application (T&E species), <48 hours necropsy, target species behavior and conservation status, permits, safe and fast release spot

Dip net

Animal freezes (especially with bright light or noise) and net drops over them; used often for ground-roosting birds (ring-necked pheasants, sage grouse, prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse, bobwhite quail)

Drop net

Net drops down atop animal after set off; used often for deer and leking birds

Drive net

Animal is funneled into a narrow location into a capture pen and charged or net is narrowed to tangle themselves up; used for gazelle, giraffes, open-area species

Corral traps

Baited permanent structure similar to drive trap; smaller the better and best to be split into groups; used for big game species (elk, bison, bighorn sheep)

Cannon and rocket nets

Launches net held by canisters; dangerous and can be set off easily; works for mammals and lekking and/or wary birds

Net gun

Generally fired from helicopter; used to capture caribou, desert bighorn, coyotes, clear-area animals; almost 9% mortality in pronghorn when relocated

Types of small-medium animal box traps

Sherman live trap, Havahart live trap, Tomahawk live trap

What is the bias associated with Sherman live traps?

Lures differ: vanilla works in tropics but not here; fresh scent of another mouse had higher success rate than clean traps or traps with old scent

Types of large animal box traps

Clover trap for deer and elk; Stephenson box trap for deer; Culvert trap for bears

What are baited box traps used for?

Gregarious seed-eating species (quail, blackbirds, waterfowl); restrict size of entrance to size of target species

How do baited box traps work?

Bait is in and around the trap, bird goes into funnel and does not think it can get out (nor go against sharp grain of cage); funnel from top for vultures

Birds enter faster when cage is already full; use species-specific food to avoid raccoons

Check very often, at least twice per day, turkeys can die from stress

What is a lek?

Open spot (usually freshly burned/grazed spot) where male birds do their ritual and females select their mates

What is a “Judas bird”?

When a tracker is placed on one covey bird (quail) and it reveals where they all roost

What is high fidelity?

Birds, such as quail, do not want to abandon or leave their nests; makes dip netting easy

Mist-netting

Vertical fences of thin mesh with pockets capture birds as they fly and entangle them as they struggle

Must be frequently if not constantly revisited and net cannot be wet

Common for songbirds, works for owls and small raptors

What are the types of bird decoy and enticement traps?

Bal-chatri traps (raptors get stuck as they dive for food) and duck decoy traps

Nest traps

Considerations for capturing herps

Wear gloves/treat boots

Relative density can be acquired using time-constrained searches

What is a drift fence trap?

A drift fence creates a barrier that an animal walks along and falls into a pitfall bucket (that usually also has a trap)

Sometimes free buffet for raccoons

You can use minnow traps for salamanders too

Careful not to split up the metapopulation!

Cover board trap

Used primarily for snakes (creates microclimate)

Quick way to test presence/absence

Sex determination of bobwhite quail

- After 2 months old,

• Males: White throat patch & white superciliary; black eyeline and crown; black vermiculation on secondary coverts

• Females: Tan throat patch & tan superciliary; brown eyeline and crown; brown vermiculation on secondary coverts

How/when can you estimate bobwhite quail population

Fall: Covey counts (assembly call at daylight tells # of coveys); can only do 1 covey at a time

Spring: Whistle count (all males in a covey do this, multiply by two to get population); can do more than 1 covey at a time

Gallinaceous bird aging

Primaries molted and replaced starting with #1

P1 through P8 molted in first fall

Primaries 9 and 10 are retained through bird’s first winter, molted when bird becomes adult

How to age bobwhite quail

Use chart to find any exact age <150 days

Can only say it is >150 day old juvenal if P1-P8 look new because P9 and P10 won’t shed until adulthood

Ruffed grouse sex determination

Retrices longer than 6 inches: male

Retrices shorter than 6 inches: female

Wild turkey sexing

Females have buff tip on their breast feathers, males do not

Wild turkey aging

Juvenile males have longer middle retrices

P9 and P10 are pointed with white barring not extending to the tip on juveniles and rounded with white barring extending to the tip on adults

Sexing American woodcock

- Length of bill

• Male: <66 mm

• Female: >70 mm

- Weight

• Male: 155-175 g

• Female: 195-200 g

- Width of P10, 9, and 8

• Male: <12.4 mm

• Female: >12.6 mm

- Wing chord measurements

• Male: up to 127 mm

• Female: at least 139 mm

Aging American woodcock

Chicks can be aged by the length of their bill for their first 15 days

If S5 - S8 have buffed tips, it is a juvenile

Different types of waterfowl plumages

Natal, juvenile, basic, alternate

Rules for aging and sexing birds

1. Be independent from irregular nutritional or physiological variations

2. Have clear separations into age classes or year classes without subjective judgment

3. Be suitable for living animals of all ages

4. Be easily applied by semi-skilled technicians

Dabbling ducks

Colorful speculums

Can walk

Feed by dabbling (tipping over)

Mostly feed on vegetation

Can take off quickly from water

Diving ducks

Little color in speculum

Feet set back on body (harder to walk)

Feed at 2-5 m deep

Mainly feed on vegetation

Must run across water before taking off

Tribe Mergini

Little color in speculum

Feet set back on body (harder to walk)

Feed at 15-20 m deep

Mainly feed on animal matter

Must run across water before taking off

Narrow, serrated bills

Tribe Oxyurini

Breeding plumage in summer rather than winter

Dives and swims well but can barely walk on land and has tiny wings

What is adaptive management?

Management adapts to population in real time

Requires a lot of historical data

WINGBY

Waterfowl gets funding so they get harvest limits

Types of marking permits and when they’re needed

• Federal/State permits required before most species can be captured and marked.

• State Permits – required for most resident wildlife populations.

• Federal Permits – required for migratory birds and T&E species.

• Applying for permits occurs way in advance

What are the 5 considerations for marking wildlife?

Selection (duration, distance, individual ID, affect behavior), retention (permanent, semi-permanent, temporary), recognition (recapture or no), species-specific attributes (will the chick’s leg grow?), and adverse effects (semi-aquatic animals can’t have collars)

All about ear tags

Very common for all sizes, but can be lost and requires recapture for small species

All about collars

Fixed or expandable

Should not restrict breathing, circulation, feeding

Potential ice build-up on birds

Freeze branding

Older technique; either liquid nitrogen or dry ice and methanol

All about tattooing

Permanent and requires recapture

All about tissue removal

Mammals: toe clipping and ear notching; not super harmful but there are better methods

Herps: Tail notching (no impact), scute notching, toe clipping

All about photo ID

Used often with marine mammals (unique fins/coloration); new AI stuff must be checked

What part of the wing holds a tag on a soaring/migrating bird?

Patagium

All about leg bands on birds

Single bands are uniquely numbered, multiple bands are color-coded

Bird banding pliers

Need a permit

Harvesting causes discrepancy between game and nongame proportions in banded vs recovered birds

All about nasal discs

Used to be very common

Ice buildup

Didn’t affect movement or body condition but does affect survival

All about VIE

Visual implant elastomer

Polymer injected as liquid and becomes pliables

Seen under blacklight

Does not inhibit cutaneous respiration

PIT tag

Subcutaneous injection

Usually permanent

Code read by reader

Used for small individuals; often in hatched sea turtles and snakes

Genetic marking

Extraction from living or dead specimens

Becoming less expensive

Not immediate

Statistical population reconstruction

Radio marking

Species specific considerations

Weight, battery life, signal strength increase with size

Mortality switch adds weight

Dyes and prints

Temporary external markers to ID mammals at a distance

Applied on immobilized or trapped animals or applied from distance with paint gun

Particle markers

Fluorescent pigments used to follow movements of small animals

Trails followed with UV lights

Some range, habitat use, movement patterns shown

Easier than radio telemetry