Wildlife Data Collection, Management, and Conservation Flashcards

Flashcards covering the Endangered Species Act, wildlife data collection and management techniques, capture/marking methods, and conservation detection dogs.

Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973

Federal legislation passed in 1973 to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.

Endangered Species (ESA definition)

A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Threatened Species (ESA definition)

A species that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

An agency within the Department of the Interior with primary responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater organisms under the Endangered Species Act.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

An agency within the Department of Commerce responsible mainly for marine wildlife, such as whales, and anadromous fish, such as salmon, under the Endangered Species Act.

ESA Listing Factors

The five biological criteria evaluated by the FWS to determine listing status: 1) habitat destruction or damage, 2) overutilization, 3) disease or predation, 4) inadequacy of existing protection, and 5) other natural or manmade factors.

Candidate Species (ESA)

Species for which the FWS has sufficient biological information to warrant proposing them for listing under the ESA, but listing is precluded by higher priorities.

Take (ESA)

Defined under the ESA as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect listed species, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.

Harm (ESA regulation definition)

An act that actually kills or injures wildlife, which may include significant habitat modification or degradation that impairs essential behavioral patterns such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

Section 7 Consultation

A requirement under the ESA for federal agencies to consult with the FWS or NMFS to ensure their actions are not likely to jeopardize listed species or destroy/adversely modify critical habitat.

Critical Habitat

Specific geographic areas designated under the ESA containing physical or biological features essential to the conservation of a listed species that may require special management or protection.

Endangered Species Committee

A Cabinet-level committee created in 1978 with authority to exempt development projects from ESA restrictions if project benefits clearly outweigh species conservation; it has only been convened three times.

Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP)

A planning document required under ESA Section 10 allowing non-federal entities to receive an incidental take permit provided they assess impacts and outline mitigation steps.

Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA)

A voluntary agreement providing regulatory assurances to non-federal landowners who restore or enhance habitat for listed species, allowing them to return the land to agreed baseline conditions at the end of the agreement.

Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA)

A voluntary agreement for non-federal landowners conserving candidate species in exchange for regulatory assurances that no additional restrictions will be imposed if the species is later listed.

Conservation Banking

A free-market enterprise where permanently protected and managed lands generate mitigation credits that developers can purchase to offset adverse impacts to listed species elsewhere.

CITES

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; a 175-nation agreement designed to prevent species endangerment or extinction due to international trade.

Greenback Cutthroat Trout

The official state fish of Colorado.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

A committee required for all entities conducting research on vertebrate animals to review and approve protocols to ensure methods are ethical, legal, and necessary.

Non-invasive Wildlife Sampling Techniques

Data collection methods that do not involve capturing or physically handling animals, such as track plates, camera traps, hair snares, scat analysis, acoustics, Doppler radar, eDNA, and drones.

Track Plate Station

A non-invasive detection setup consisting of an aluminum plate, soot, bait, and adhesive shelf paper to capture animal footprints for species identification.

Sherman Live Trap

A small folding box trap used for the non-lethal live capture and release of small mammals in mark-and-recapture studies.

Havahart Trap

A wire cage live trap larger than a Sherman trap, used for capturing medium-sized mammals such as squirrels and foxes.

Drift Fence

A barrier fence paired with pitfall or funnel traps used to intercept and temporarily capture reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial invertebrates.

Berlese Funnel

A sampling device that uses a light and heat source above a leaf litter sample to drive small soil arthropods downward through a screen into preservative fluid.

Corral Trap

A large enclosure capture system capable of trapping groups of animals; highly efficient but carries higher stress and mortality risks.

Free/Ground Darting

A chemical immobilization method conducted on foot; features low stress and minimal mortality risk for the animal but is time-consuming and ineffective for elusive animals.

Helicopter Darting/Netting

An aerial capture technique that is highly efficient for capturing elusive large mammals, but is very expensive, high-stress, and dangerous.

Mist Netting

Fine mesh netting suspended between poles used to safely entangle and capture flying birds or bats for research and banding.

Harp Net

A frame supporting vertical monofilament lines that guide flying bats into a collection pouch without entangling them.

Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT Tag)

An internal microchip implanted into an animal that transmits a unique identification number when scanned by a reader.

Radio Telemetry

A tracking method using a radio transmitter attached to an animal and a directional receiver antenna used by researchers to monitor fine-scale local movement.

'Ake'ake (Band-rumped Storm Petrel)

A small, nocturnal, burrow-nesting endangered seabird (Oceanodroma castro) that breeds in high-elevation volcanic lava fields in Hawaii.

Conservation Detection Dogs

Specially trained dogs used by wildlife managers to locate cryptic, rare, or burrow-nesting species by scent across challenging landscapes.