Wildlife managers require reliable, cost‐effective, and accurate methods for conducting population surveys in making wildlife management decisions. Traditional methods such as spotlight counts, drive counts, strip counts (aerial, thermal, infrared) and mark–recapture techniques can be expensive, labor‐intensive, or limited to habitats with high visibility. Convenience sampling designs are often used to circumvent these problems, creating the potential for unknown bias in survey results. Infrared‐triggered cameras (ITCs) are a rapidly developing technology that may provide a viable alternative to wildlife managers because they can be economically used with alternative sampling designs. We evaluated population‐density estimates from unbaited ITCs and road surveys for the endangered Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) on No Name Key, Florida, USA (461‐ha island). Road surveys (n = 253) were conducted along a standardized 4‐km route each week at sunrise (n = 90), sunset (n = 93), and nighttime (n = 70) between January 1998 and December 2000 (total deer observed = 4,078). During this same period, 11 ITC stations (1 camera/42 ha) collected 8,625 exposures, of which 5,511 registered deer (64% of photographs). Study results found a difference (P < 0.001) between methods with road‐survey population estimates lower (76 deer) than ITC estimates (166 deer). In comparing the proportion of marked deer between the 2 methods, we observed a higher (P < 0.001) proportion from road surveys (0.266) than from ITC estimates (0.146). Spatial analysis of deer observations also revealed the sample area coverage to be incongruent between the 2 methods; approximately 79% of all deer observations were on urban roads comprising 63% of the survey route. Lower road‐survey estimates are attributed to 1) urban deer behavior resulting in a high proportion of marked deer observations, and 2) inadequate sample area coverage. We suggest that ITC estimates may provide an alternative to road surveys for estimating white‐tailed deer densities, and may alleviate sample bias generated by convenience sampling, particularly on small, outer islands where habitat and/or lack of infrastructure (i.e., roads) precludes the use of other methods.

That area‐sensitive songbirds breed only in relatively large patches suggests that there may be a minimum patch size threshold in which they will breed, even when controlling for the total amount of habitat in the landscape. We searched for minimum patch size thresholds of presence, territory establishment by males, pairing success, and reproductive success for 2 migratory songbirds that differed in sensitivity to patch size: golden‐cheeked warblers (Dendroica chrysoparia) and white‐eyed vireos (Vireo griseus). We assessed 2 potential limiting factors: brown‐headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) parasitism and arthropod biomass (food resource). We determined whether either factor was related to patch size and compared measurements of each above and below the observed thresholds. We monitored 24 golden‐cheeked warbler and 47 white‐eyed vireo territories in 12 patches. We found evidence of a minimum patch size threshold (between 15.0 ha and 20.1 ha) of reproductive success for golden‐cheeked warblers, but not for white‐eyed vireos. We found no minimum patch size thresholds for presence, territory establishment by males, or pair formation for either species. Conservation practices based on thresholds of presence, territory establishment, or pair formation might not address issues of reproduction for golden‐cheeked warblers. We failed to find evidence that cowbird parasitism or arthropod biomass were limiting factors. The ability to identify patch size thresholds of reproductive success for target species could be useful in conservation and management for setting goals for retention and restoration of target species’ habitat patch size.

Greater Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) are common, poorly studied birds of arid and semi‐arid ecosystems in the southwestern United States. Conservation of this avian predator requires a detailed understanding of their movements and spatial requirements that is currently lacking. From 2006 to 2009, we quantified home‐range and core area sizes and overlap, habitat selection, and survival of roadrunners (N= 14 males and 20 females) in north‐central Texas using radio‐telemetry and fixed kernel estimators. Median home‐range and core‐area sizes were 90.4 ha and 19.2 ha for males and 80.1 ha and 16.7 ha for females, respectively. The size of home range and core areas did not differ significantly by either sex or season. Our home range estimates were twice as large (x̄= 108.9 ha) as earlier published estimates based on visual observations (x̄= 28–50 ha). Mean percent overlap was 38.4% for home ranges and 13.7% for core areas. Male roadrunners preferred mesquite woodland and mesquite savanna cover types, and avoided the grass‐forb cover type. Female roadrunners preferred mesquite savanna and riparian woodland cover types, and avoided grass‐forb habitat. Kaplan‐Meier annual survival probabilities for females (0.452 ± 0.118[SE]) were twice that estimated for males (0.210 ± 0.108), but this difference was not significant. Mortality rates of male roadrunners were higher than those of females during the spring when males call from elevated perches, court females, and chase competing males. Current land use practices that target woody‐shrub removal to enhance livestock forage production could be detrimental to roadrunner populations by reducing availability of mesquite woodland and mesquite savanna habitat required for nesting and roosting and increasing the amount of grass‐forb habitat that roadrunners avoid.

on the area under the receiver operating curve (ROC). The model maintained a high classification probability when applied to the smaller validation data set, with an area under the ROC of 0.78.

A previous analysis of the content of articles published in The Wildlife Society (TWS) journals from 1937 to 1989 concluded that TWS should strive to publish more articles on nongame and endangered species, ecosystems, habitat fragmentation, and human dimensions. We revisited this analysis and included the years 1990-2007 to determine whether, and how, TWS journals have addressed previous concerns. We also analyzed changes in subject content for TWS journals from 1937 to 2007 using selected terms that we considered indicative of emerging trends within the wildlife profession and society by documenting patterns of use of these terms as key words. Additionally, we evaluated authorship patterns for all TWS journals during 1937-2007 to determine trends in both numbers of authors per article and author affiliations. Our analysis demonstrated that the content of TWS journals has changed over time, and the changes reflected emerging themes in TWS, the wildlife profession, and society. We documented increases in published studies of nongame species and multiple species and articles with multiple authorships representing diverse affiliations. We argue that these patterns reflect a TWS response to shifts in public opinion, policy developments, advances in technology, and changes in university curricula. Although the number of studies published on human dimensions and conservation education has increased over time, these disciplines remained underrepresented.