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Invertebrates are among the most diverse organisms on Earth, significantly contribute to ecosystem function and integrity, and possess high potential as bioindicators. By definition, invertebrates also are wildlife. Yet, inclusion of invertebrates in peer-reviewed wildlife journals has not been investigated. As such, our objective was to assess inclusion of invertebrates in prominent wildlife journals published in the last decade. Based on our review and first-hand experience, we also aimed to provide recommendations for integration of invertebrates into wildlife science, education, and peer-reviewed literature. We performed a systematic literature review by manually searching all issues and articles from Wildlife Society Bulletin. We analyzed data derived from our review to elucidate trends in the inclusion of invertebrates in these journals. We identified 4,916 articles that involved animal taxa, of which 122 (2.5%) included invertebrates and <1% included invertebrates as focal taxa. Our results indicated invertebrates are included in a minute portion of articles in top wildlife journals. We recommend a paradigm shift to a less taxonomically homogenized and vertebrate-centric approach to wildlife science and education, integrating invertebrates into wildlife studies, and publishing results of those studies in wildlife journals to facilitate effective management of all wildlife species. Ó 2015 The Wildlife Society.

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Herbicides, commonly used for vegetation management in intensively managed pine (Pinus spp.) forests of the southeastern United States, with and without fire, may alter availability of quality forage for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; deer), an economically and socially important game species in North America. Because greater forage quality yields greater deer growth and productivity and intensively managed pine forests are common in the southeastern United States, forest managers would benefit from an understanding of fire and herbicide effects on forage availability to improve habitat conditions for deer. Therefore, we evaluated independent and combined effects of fire and herbicide (i.e., imazapyr) on forage biomass and deer nutritional carrying capacity (CC) on land owned and managed by Weyerhaeuser NR Company in east‐central Mississippi, USA. We used a randomized complete block design of 6 pine plantations (blocks) divided into 4 10‐ha treatment plots to each of which we randomly assigned a treatment (burn‐only, herbicide‐only, burn + herbicide, and control). We estimated biomass (kg/ha) of moderate‐ and high‐use deer forage plants during July of 1999–2008, then estimated CC for diets to support either body maintenance (6% crude protein) or lactation (14% crude protein) with a nutritional constraints model. Herbaceous forages responded positively to fire and herbicide application. In most years, CC estimates for maintenance and lactation were greater in burn + herbicide than in controls. Maintenance‐level CC was always greater in burn + herbicide than in controls, except at 1 year posttreatment. Burn + herbicide was 2.6–8.3 times greater (x̄ = 4.0) than control for lactation‐level CC in 8 of 9 years posttreatment. We recommend fire and selective herbicides to increase high‐quality deer forage in mid‐rotation, intensively managed pine plantations.

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Background Small unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS) are replacing or supplementing occupied aircraft and ground-based surveys in animal monitoring due to improved sensors, efficiency, costs, and logistical benefits. Numerous UAS and sensors are available and have been used in various methods. However, justification for selection or methods used are not typically offered in published literature. Furthermore, existing reviews do not adequately cover past and current UAS applications for animal monitoring, nor their associated UAS/sensor characteristics and environmental considerations. We present a systematic map that collects and consolidates evidence pertaining to UAS monitoring of animals. Methods We investigated the current state of knowledge on UAS applications in terrestrial animal monitoring by using an accurate, comprehensive, and repeatable systematic map approach. We searched relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature, as well as dissertations and theses, using online publication databases, Google Scholar, and by request through a professional network of collaborators and publicly available websites. We used a tiered approach to article exclusion with eligible studies being those that monitor (i.e., identify, count, estimate, etc.) terrestrial vertebrate animals. Extracted metadata concerning UAS, sensors, animals, methodology, and results were recorded in Microsoft Access. We queried and catalogued evidence in the final database to produce tables, figures, and geographic maps to accompany this full narrative review, answering our primary and secondary questions. Review findings We found 5539 articles from our literature searches of which 216 were included with extracted metadata categories in our database and narrative review. Studies exhibited exponential growth over time but have levelled off between 2019 and 2021 and were primarily conducted in North America, Australia, and Antarctica. Each metadata category had major clusters and gaps, which are described in the narrative review. Conclusions Our systematic map provides a useful synthesis of current applications of UAS-animal related studies and identifies major knowledge clusters (well-represented subtopics that are amenable to full synthesis by a systematic review) and gaps (unreported or underrepresented topics that warrant additional primary research) that guide future research directions and UAS applications. The literature for the use of UAS to conduct animal surveys has expanded intensely since its inception in 2006 but is still in its infancy. Since 2015, technological improvements and subsequent cost reductions facilitated widespread research, often to validate UAS technology to survey single species with application of descriptive statistics over limited spatial and temporal scales. Studies since the 2015 expansion have still generally focused on large birds or mammals in open landscapes of 4 countries, but regulations, such as maximum altitude and line-of-sight limitations, remain barriers to improved animal surveys with UAS. Critical knowledge gaps include the lack of (1) best practices for using UAS to conduct standardized surveys in general, (2) best practices to survey whole wildlife communities in delineated areas, and (3) data on factors affecting bias in counting animals from UAS images. Promising advances include the use of thermal sensors in forested environments or nocturnal surveys and the development of automated or semi-automated machine-learning algorithms to accurately detect, identify, and count animals from UAS images.