Manipulating predator populations is often posed as a solution to depressed ungulate populations. However, predator–prey dynamics are complex and the effect on prey populations is often an interaction of predator life history, climate, prey density, and habitat quality. The effect of predator removal on ungulate and, more specifically, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations has not been adequately investigated at a management scale. We tested the efficacy of removing coyotes (Canis latrans) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) for increasing survival and population growth rate of mule deer in southeastern Idaho, USA, during 1997–2003. We assigned 8 game management units (GMUs) to treatments under a 2 × 2 factorial design (treatments of coyote removal and lion removal) with 2 replicates of each treatment or reference area combination. We used methods typically available to wildlife managers to achieve predator removals and a combination of extensive and intensive monitoring in these 8 GMUs to test the hypothesis that predator removal increased vital rates and population growth rate of mule deer. We determined effects of predator removal on survival and causes of mortality in 2 intensive study sites, one with coyote and mountain lion removal and one without. We also considered the effects of other variables on survival including lagomorph abundance and climatic conditions. In these 2 intensive study areas, we monitored with radiotelemetry 250 neonates, 284 6‐month‐old fawns, and 521 adult females. At the extensive scale, we monitored mule deer population trend and December fawn ratios with helicopter surveys. Coyote removal decreased neonate mortality only when deer were apparently needed as alternate prey, thus removal was more effective when lagomorph populations were reduced. The best mortality model of mule deer captured at 6 months of age included summer precipitation, winter precipitation, fawn mass, and mountain lion removal. Over‐winter mortality of adult female mule deer decreased with removal of mountain lions. Precipitation variables were included in most competing mortality models for all age classes of mule deer. Mountain lion removal increased fawn ratios and our models predicted fawn ratios would increase 6% at average removal rates (3.53/1,000 km2) and 27% at maximum removal rates (14.18/1,000 km2). Across our extensive set of 8 GMUs, coyote removal had no effect on December fawn ratios. We also detected no strong effect of coyote or mountain lion removal alone on mule deer population trend; the best population‐growth‐rate model included previous year's mountain lion removal and winter severity, yet explained only 27% of the variance in population growth rate. Winter severity in the current and previous winter was the most important influence on mule deer population growth. The lack of response in fawn ratio or mule deer abundance to coyote reduction at this extensive (landscape) scale suggests that decreased neonate mortality due to coyote removal is partially compensatory. Annual remov...

Juvenile Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha emigrating from natal tributaries of the Sacramento River must negotiate the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a complex network of natural and man-made channels linking the Sacramento River with San Francisco Bay. Natural processes and water management actions affect the fractions of the population using the different migration routes through the delta and survival within those routes. However, estimating these demographic parameters is difficult using traditional mark-recapture techniques, which depend on the physical recapture of fish (e.g., coded wire tags). Thus, our goals were to (1) develop a mark-recapture model to explicitly estimate the survival and migration route probabilities for each of four migration routes through the delta, (2) link these route-specific probabilities to population-level survival, and (3) apply this model to the first available acoustic telemetry data of smolt migration through the delta. The point estimate of survival through the delta for 64 tagged fish released in December 2006 (Ŝ delta ¼ 0.351; SE ¼ 0.101) was lower than that for 80 tagged fish released in January 2007 (Ŝ delta ¼ 0.543; SE ¼ 0.070). We attributed the observed difference in survival between releases to differences in survival for given migration routes and changes in the proportions of fish using the different routes. Our study shows how movements among, and survival within, migration routes interact to influence population-level survival through the delta. Thus, concurrent estimation of both route-specific migration and survival probabilities is critical to understanding the factors affecting population-level survival in a spatially complex environment such as the delta.

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This paper illustrates how age‐at‐harvest data, when combined with hunter‐effort information routinely collected by state game management agencies, can be used to estimate and monitor trends in big game abundance. Twenty‐four years of age‐at‐harvest data for black‐tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus) were analyzed to produce abundance estimates ranging from 1,281 adult females to 3,232 adult females on a 22,079‐ha tree farm in Pierce County, Washington, USA. The annual natural survival probability was estimated to be 0.7293 ( = 0.0097) for this female population. The estimated abundance was highly correlated with an independent browse damage index (r = 0.8131, P < 0.001). A population reconstruction incorporating the browse index did not substantially improve the model fit but did provide an auxiliary model for predicting deer abundance. This population reconstruction illustrates a cost‐effective alternative to expensive big game survey methods.

The survival of juvenile Chinook Salmon through the lower San Joaquin River and Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta in California was estimated using acoustic tags in the spring of 2009 and 2010. The focus was on route use and survival within two major routes through the Delta: the San Joaquin River, which skirts most of the interior Delta to the east, and the Old River, a distributary of the San Joaquin River leading to federal and state water export facilities that pump water out of the Delta. The estimated probability of using the Old River route was 0.47 in both 2009 and 2010. Survival through the southern (i.e., upstream) portion of the Delta was very low in 2009, estimated at 0.06, and there was no significant difference between the Old River and San Joaquin River routes. Estimated survival through the Southern Delta was considerably higher in 2010 (0.56), being higher in the Old River route than in the San Joaquin route. Total estimated survival through the entire Delta (estimated only in 2010) was low (0.05); again, survival was higher through the Old River. Most fish in the Old River that survived to the end of the Delta had been salvaged from the federal water export facility on the Old River and trucked around the remainder of the Delta. The very low survival estimates reported here are considerably lower than observed salmon survival through comparable reaches of other large West Coast river systems and are unlikely to be sustainable for this salmon population. More research into mortality factors in the Delta and new management actions will be necessary to recover this population.Received March 28, 2012; accepted September 5, 2012

Single-release and modified single-release statistical models were evaluated as means to generate reliable survival estimates from release-recapture studies of migrant salmonid smolts in the Snake and Columbia rivers of the northwestern United States. Monte Carlo simulation studies were used to assess robustness of estimation methods to violations of model assumptions. To field test model assumptions, passive integrated transponder tagged chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) smolts were released on seven consecutive days in 1993 above Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. These releases were used to estimate sampling variability of survival estimates for comparison with model-based variance estimates and to assess mixing of detected and nondetected individuals. Field results satisfied model assumptions. The average survival estimate from point of release to the tailrace of Lower Granite Dam (31 km) was 0.902 ± 0.004 (mean ± SE). From the tailrace of Lower Granite Dam to the tailrace of Little Goose Dam (60 km) the average survival estimate was 0.859 ± 0.013.

A proportion of juvenile Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and other salmonids travel through one or more turbines during their seaward migration in the Columbia and Snake rivers. There is limited information on how these fish respond to the hydraulic pressures found during turbine passage events. We exposed juvenile Chinook salmon to varied acclimation pressures and subsequent exposure pressures to mimic the hydraulic pressures of large Kaplan turbines. Additionally, we varied abiotic (total dissolved gas and rate of pressure change) and biotic factors (condition factor, fish length, and fish weight) that may contribute to the incidence of mortal injury associated with fish passage through hydropower turbines. We determined that the main factor associated with the mortal injury of juvenile Chinook salmon during simulated turbine passage was the ratio between the acclimation pressure and the lowest exposure pressure. Condition factor, total dissolved gas, and rate of pressure change were found to only slightly increase the predictive power of the equations relating the probability of mortal injury to the conditions of exposure or the characteristics of the test fish during simulated turbine passage. This research should assist engineers and fisheries managers in operating and improving hydroelectric facilities while minimizing mortality and injury to turbine-passed juvenile Chinook salmon. Using these data, models can be built that might determine how much mortal injury is present at different turbine operations as pressures change. Further, pressure data coupled with the mortal injury data should be useful to engineers and turbine manufacturers when designing new turbines, which could not only increase power generation and efficiency but also minimize barotrauma to the fish that pass through them.

Precise, up-to-date survival estimates for salmonids that migrate through reservoirs, hydroelectric dams, and free-flowing sections of the Snake and Columbia rivers are essential to develop effective strategies for recovering depressed stocks. To provide this information, survival was estimated for yearling chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and steelhead O. mykiss with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags that migrated through Snake River dams and reservoirs from 1993 through 1998. A multiple-recapture model for single release groups was used to estimate survival from detections of PIT-tagged fish at dams. The stretch of river over which survival was estimated varied between years, depending on the release site, the number of dams with the capability to detect and rerelease PIT-tagged fish back to the river, the total number of fish marked, and the efficiency of detecting PIT-tagged fish at each dam. Precision of survival estimates varied with the number of fish PIT-tagged and released and the amount of spill at dams with PIT-tag detectors. When spill levels were high, detection probabilities were lower, as was precision. Mortality at bypass outfall sites was not significant at any Snake River dam investigated. Estimated annual average per-project (combined reservoir and dam passage) survival ranged from 86% to 94% for yearling chinook salmon and from 88% to 92% for steelhead. Survival estimates were higher for both species in years when spill was used specifically to pass fish through nonturbine routes. Over the same stretches of river in years with similar flow conditions from 1970 through 1975, per-project survival estimates typically averaged 57-71% for yearling chinook salmon and 77-90% for steelhead. From 1993 to 1998, survival estimates for fish released from Snake River basin hatcheries to the Lower Granite Dam tailrace indicated that substantial smolt mortality occurred before fish entered the hydropower system. For each hatchery, estimated survival varied each year, and estimates from different hatcheries to Lower Granite Dam varied inversely with the distance fish traveled.