To protect and manage an intact neotropical carnivore guild, it is necessary to understand the relative importance of habitat selection and intraguild competition to the ecology of individual species. This study examined habitat use of four carnivores in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize. We calculated photographic trap success (TS) rates for jaguars Panthera onca, pumas Puma concolor, ocelots Leopardus pardalis, grey foxes Urocyon cinereoargenteus, potential prey and humans at 47 remote camera stations spaced along roads and trails within the 139 km 2 study site. At each station, we used manual habitat sampling in combination with geographic information systems to estimate habitat characteristics pertaining to vegetation cover. We used negative binomial models to analyse species-specific TS as a response to habitat (including vegetation and landscape variables, prey activity and human activity) and co-predator activity rates. Jaguars [TS = 7.56 AE 1.279 (SE) captures per 100 trap-nights (TN)] and grey foxes (31.5 AE 6.073 captures per 100 TN) were commonly captured by cameras, while pumas (0.66 AE 0.200 captures per 100 TN) and ocelots (0.55 AE 0.209 captures per 100 TN) were rare. Model selection via Akaike's information criterion (AIC) revealed that models including habitat variables generally performed better than models including co-predator activity. Felid captures were positively associated with small bird TS and with the width or length of surrounding roads, while fox counts showed few habitat associations. Ocelot activity was positively related to jaguar captures, an effect probably explained by their shared preference for areas with more roads. Pumas were negatively related to human activity and jaguars showed a similar, though non-significant, trend, suggesting that these felids may be sensitive to human disturbance even within protected areas. Results suggest that these predators do not spatially partition habitat and that the jaguar could function as an umbrella species for smaller sympatric carnivores.

Nest and egg successes are documented for open-nesting bird species in a variety of riparian habitats in central Iowa. In most species, nest success was higher during the nestling period than during the incubation period. Causes of nest failure in order of decreasing importance were: predation by birds, snakes, or small mammals; predation by large mammals; desertion; cowbird parasitism; natural disasters. Relationships between nesting outcome and the following variables are analyzed statistically: adult weight, date, nest height, nest concealment, vegetation form supporting the nest (support life-form), and habitat type. Nest failure resulting from predation by large mammals and parasitism by cowbirds was greater among smaller-sized birds. The percentage of nests successfully fledging young increased with nest height. Losses from natural disasters differed among the support life-forms. Relationships among the factors that may affect nesting outcome are compared statistically to determine possible interactions. Mean body weight, which differed according to nest support life-forms, decreased as the season advanced. Body weight also was inversely related to nest concealment. Concealment differed among nest supports and was greater later in the breeding season. Concealment also was inversely related to nest height. The distribution of nests in the support life-forms changed during the season. Species more generalized in selecting nest substrates had lower nest success. SUCCESS IN RIPARIAN COMMUNITIES 155 NEST SUPPORT LIFE-FORM

: Acom production by oaks (Quercus spp.) is an important food resource for wildlife in many deciduous forests. Its role as a hard mast crop that can be either stored or used to build fat reserves for winter survival cannot be replaced by most other potential foods. Changes in forest management, introduced pests and pathogens, and increased deer populations have resulted in significant changes in the demography of oaks in eastern North America, as evident in Forest Inventory and Analysis data. Specifically, maples (Acer spp.) are replacing oaks in many forests through dominance of the younger age classes. These changes are not yet obvious in mast production but will take decades to reverse. Effective forest management for mast production is arguably one of the more important tasks facing wildlife professionals, yet receives scant attention by both public and private land managers. Public forests need to explicitly include mast production in their forest planning and reduce adversarial relationships over forest management. Market forces are driving commercial forests toward forest certification. Private forests compose 80% of our oak forests and are the hardest group to influence. States have not been able to effectively market forest plans and we recommend joining with advocacy groups more adept at motivating the public. Increased communication between wildlife and forestry professionals is needed through agency restructuring and joint meetings of professional agencies at the state level. Professional wildlife and forest managers are encouraged to make increased use of monitoring data and form a multiagency cooperative using a joint venture model, which has been successful for other organizations.

The wide-ranging, cumulative, negative effects of anthropogenic disturbance, including habitat degradation, exotic species, and hunting, on native wildlife has been well documented across a range of habitats worldwide with carnivores potentially being the most vulnerable due to their more extinction prone characteristics. Investigating the effects of anthropogenic pressures on sympatric carnivores is needed to improve our ability to develop targeted, effective management plans for carnivore conservation worldwide. Utilizing photographic, line-transect, and habitat sampling, as well as landscape analyses and village-based bushmeat hunting surveys, we provide the first investigation of how multiple forms of habitat degradation (fragmentation, exotic carnivores, human encroachment, and hunting) affect carnivore occupancy across Madagascar’s largest protected area: the Masoala-Makira landscape. We found that as degradation increased, native carnivore occupancy and encounter rates decreased while exotic carnivore occupancy and encounter rates increased. Feral cats (Felis species) and domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) had higher occupancy than half of the native carnivore species across Madagascar’s largest protected landscape. Bird and small mammal encounter rates were negatively associated with exotic carnivore occupancy, but positively associated with the occupancy of four native carnivore species. Spotted fanaloka (Fossa fossana) occupancy was constrained by the presence of exotic feral cats and exotic small Indian civet (Viverricula indica). Hunting was intense across the four study sites where hunting was studied, with the highest rates for the small Indian civet ( individuals consumed/year), the ring-tailed vontsira (Galidia elegans) ( consumed/year), and the fosa (Cryptoprocta ferox) ( consumed/year). Our modeling results suggest hunters target intact forest where carnivore occupancy, abundance, and species richness, are highest. These various anthropogenic pressures and their effects on carnivore populations, especially increases in exotic carnivores and hunting, have wide-ranging, global implications and demand effective management plans to target the influx of exotic carnivores and unsustainable hunting that is affecting carnivore populations across Madagascar and worldwide.

The Appalachian Cooperative Grouse Research Project (ACGRP) was a multistate cooperative effort initiated in 1996 to investigate the apparent decline of ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and improve management throughout the central and southern Appalachian region (i.e., parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, USA). Researchers have offered several hypotheses to explain the low abundance of ruffed grouse in the region, including low availability of early‐successional forests due to changes in land use, additive harvest mortality, low productivity and recruitment, and nutritional stress. As part of the ACGRP, we investigated ruffed grouse population ecology. Our objectives were to estimate reproductive rates, estimate survival and cause‐specific mortality rates, examine if ruffed grouse harvest in the Appalachian region is compensatory, and estimate ruffed grouse finite population growth. We trapped >3,000 ruffed grouse in autumn (Sep‐Nov) and spring (Feb‐Mar) from 1996 to September 2002 on 12 study areas. We determined the age and gender of each bird and fitted them with necklace‐style radiotransmitters and released them at the trap site. We tracked ruffed grouse ≥2 times per week using handheld radiotelemetry equipment and gathered data on reproduction, recruitment, survival, and mortality. Ruffed grouse population dynamics in the Appalachian region differed from the central portion of the species' range (i.e., northern United States and Canada). Ruffed grouse in the Appalachian region had lower productivity and recruitment, but higher survival than reported for populations in the Great Lakes region and southern Canada. Population dynamics differed between oak (Quercus spp.)–hickory (Carya spp.) and mixed‐mesophytic forest associations within the southern and central Appalachian region. Productivity and recruitment were lower in oak‐hickory forests, but adult survival was higher than in mixed‐mesophytic forests. Furthermore, ruffed grouse productivity and recruitment were more strongly related to hard mast (i.e., acorn) production in oak‐hickory forests than in mixed‐mesophytic forests. The leading cause of ruffed grouse mortality was avian predation (44% of known mortalities). Harvest mortality accounted for 12% of all known mortalities and appeared to be compensatory. Population models indicated ruffed grouse populations in the Appalachian region are declining (%LD = 0.78–0.95), but differences in model estimates highlighted the need for improved understanding of annual productivity and recruitment. We posit ruffed grouse in the Appalachian region exhibit a clinal population structure characterized by changes in life‐history strategies. Changes in life history strategies are in response to gradual changes in forest structure, quality of food resources, snowfall and accumulation patterns, and predator communities. Management efforts should focus on creating a mosaic of forest stand ages across the landscape to intersperse habitat resources includi...