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Rivers provide a special suite of goods and services valued highly by the public that are inextricably linked to their flow dynamics and the interaction of flow with the landscape. Yet most rivers are within watersheds that are stressed to some extent by human activities including development, dams, or extractive uses. Climate change will add to and magnify risks that are already present through its potential to alter rainfall, temperature, runoff patterns, and to disrupt biological communities and sever ecological linkages. We provide an overview of the predicted impacts based on published studies to date, discuss both reactive and proactive management responses, and outline six categories of management actions that will contribute substantially to the protection of valuable river assets. To be effective, management must be place-based focusing on local watershed scales that are most relevant to management scales. The first priority should be enhancing environmental monitoring of changes and river responses coupled with the development of local scenario-building exercises that take land use and water use into account. Protection of a greater number of rivers and riparian corridors is essential, as is conjunctive groundwater/surface water management. This will require collaborations among multiple partners in the respective river basins and wise land use planning to minimize additional development in watersheds with valued rivers. Ensuring environmental flows by purchasing or leasing water rights and/or altering reservoir release patterns will be needed for many rivers. Implementing restoration projects proactively can be used to protect existing resources so that expensive reactive restoration to repair damage associated with a changing climate is minimized. Special attention should be given to diversifying and replicating habitats of special importance and to monitoring populations at high risk or of special value so that management interventions can occur if the risks to habitats or species increase significantly over time.

There is growing evidence that maternal experience influences offspring via non-genetic mechanisms. When female three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were exposed to the threat of predation, they produced larger eggs with higher cortisol content, which consumed more oxygen shortly after fertilization compared with a control group. As juveniles, the offspring of predator-exposed mothers exhibited tighter shoaling behaviour, an antipredator defence. We did not detect an effect of maternal exposure to predation risk on the somatic growth of fry. Altogether, we found that exposure to an ecologically relevant stressor during egg formation had several long-lasting consequences for offspring, some of which might be mediated by exposure to maternally derived cortisol. These results support the hypothesis that female sticklebacks might influence the development, growth and behaviour of their offspring via eggs to match their future environment.

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We used radio‐telemetry and collar‐mounted activity sensors to compare home range size, habitat use, and activity patterns of owned and unowned free‐roaming cats on the outskirts of Champaign‐Urbana, Illinois, USA. Owned cats (3 M, 8 F) had smaller home ranges than unowned cats (6 M, 10 F), but we failed to detect consistent differences in home range size between the sexes or among seasons. Home ranges of unowned cats included more grassland and urban area than predicted based on availability in all seasons, and farmsteads were selected in fall and winter. Within home ranges, unowned cats shifted their use of habitats among seasons in ways that likely reflected prey availability, predation risk, and environmental stress, whereas habitat use within home ranges by owned cats did not differ from random. Unowned cats were more nocturnal and showed higher overall levels of activity than owned cats. Space use and behavioral differences between owned and unowned cats supported the hypothesis that the care a cat owner provides influences the impact a cat has on its environment, information that is important for making decisions on controlling cat populations. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Abstract: Management of high-density suburban deer populations requires knowledge of survival and movement to predict population trends. However, natural and human-induced influences on survival and movement of suburban deer are poorly understood. Therefore, we marked 208 (60 bucks, 148 does) white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from forest preserves in Chicago, Illinois, USA (1994-1998). Seasonal and annual survivorship was >0.80 for 114 does and 13 bucks. Deer-auto collisions produced the highest mortality rates, 0.10 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.14) and 0.17 (95% CI 0.0 to 0.37). Spring dispersal for does was 7% (3 of 41) for fawns and 6% (5 of 83) for yearlings and adults; and for bucks it was 50% (8 of 16) for fawns and 7% (2 of 30) for yearlings and adults. All dispersals were <9 km, except for 1 parous doe that moved 33.9 km. Doe home ranges averaged 51 (95% CI 40.5 to 61.5), 26 (95% CI 22.0 to 30.0), and 32 (95% CI 19.6 to 44.4) ha for winter-spring, summer, and fall, respectively. A priori, we developed a set of 10 logistic regression models for suburban doe survival relative to home range size and traffic exposure indices. Using Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC), the best models included covariates reflecting home range size and traffic exposure. Inference across a 290% confidence set of survival models indicated substantial spatial heterogeneity in mortality risk for suburban does. High survival and philopatry by suburban deer apparently contribute to their overabundance in metropolitan areas. JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 66(2):500-510

Populations of many common grassland birds in the midwestern United States have been declining in recent decade~ These declines have been particularly pronounced in Illinoi.~ where the prairie has been severely fragmented and disturbed by farming. This article describes transitions in agricultural land use in Hlinois since the early 1800~ their effects on grassland habitag and responses by avtfauna Furthermor~ factors affecting nesting by birds are considered from a landscape perspective for a study area in central Illinois during the period (1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981) when cropping became so intensive that grassland persisted primarily as tinear edge~ There was a paucity of avifauna nesting on grassy edge habitats on the study area~ with a mean of 2.2 nests per i~ representing only eight specie~ Nest densities and species diversity were highest on study plots where grassland urns nearby, where cover types were heterogeneou~ and where there were corridors connecting plots to the surrounding landscape Nest success was variable from year to year, and for Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) the average annual nest success on edge habitats was positively related to the total amount of grassy cover (including hay and small grains) per nesting pheasant The findings suggest that it is too simplistic to conclude that linear habita~ compared to field settlng~ are "predator trapx " Responses by birds to habitat deterioration in Illinois may foretell future trends eisewhere in North America where faming practices are becoming more intensive Uso Aglcola de la Tierra y Hfibitat del Pastizal eta nlinois: Futura Conmoci6n para las Aves del Oeste Medio?Resumen: Las Poblactones de muchas aves comunes de los pastizales del oeste medio de los Estados Unidos ban venldo declinando en ddcadas reciente& Estas declinaclones ban sldo particularmente pronunciadas en Illinoi,~ d6nde la pradera ha sldo severamente fragmentada y perturbada por el uso agrtcola Este articulo describe las transiciones en el uso agricola de la tierra en Illinois desde principios del 1800~ sus efectos en el hdbttat de los pastizales y las respuestas de la avifauna Mds a~r~ los factores que afectan la nidificaci6n de las ayes son conslderados desde una perspectiva paisajtstica para un drea de estudio en Illinois central durante el pertodo (1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981) cuando el cultivo se hizo tan intensivo que los pastizales persistieror~ primariament~ como hordes lineare~ Hubo una escasez en la nidtficaci6n de la avifauna en los hordes de los hdbitats herbdceos en el drea de estudio, con una media de 2.2 nldos por ha~ repre. sentando solamente 8 especie~ La densldad de los nidos y la diversldad de especies fueron mds altas en los plots de estudio d6nde el pastizal se encontraba en las inraedlacione~ d6nde los tipos de cobertura fueron heterogdneos y ddnde existian corredores que conectaOan los plots con el paisaje lindante. El dxito de los nldos fud variable de aho en aho y, para los fatsanes de cuello ...

Range expansion and population increase by coyotes (Canis latrans), reduced hunting and trapping, and intensified agricultural practices in the Midwest have altered red fox (Vulpes vulpes) mortality, although relative impacts of these factors are unknown. We examined mortality causes and survival of red foxes in urban and rural agricultural areas of Illinois, using radio telemetry data from 335 foxes (Nov 1996 to May 2002). We used Akaike's Information Criterion to evaluate six survival models for foxes reflecting 1) environmental effects, 2) intrinsic effects, 3) temporal effects, 4) behavioral effects, 5) social effects, and 6) a global model. Environmental and intrinsic models of survival were optimal for adult foxes. Adult foxes with low (0‐20%) and high (80‐100%) percentages of row crops in their home ranges had higher survival than adults with moderate percentages (40‐70%). Heavier adults at capture also survived better. A global model (all covariates) was optimal for juvenile foxes. Higher juvenile survival associated with larger litters, lower body fat, and reduced dispersal time. Yearly survival ranged from 0.18 for rural male juveniles to 0.44 for rural female adults. Adult survival rates (0.35) were 11% higher than juvenile survival rates (0.24). Yearly survival varied for urban foxes due to cyclic outbreaks of sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabei). Thus, summer survival (May‐Sep) of urban juveniles ranged from 0.10 (mange present) to 0.83 (no mange recorded). Mange was the most common (45% of all fatalities) source of mortality for urban foxes, followed by road kill (31%). We recorded only 4 mange fatalities (2%) for rural foxes. Rural foxes experienced low hunting mortality (7%) and equivalent road kill and coyote predation fatalities (40% each). Sources of mortality for midwestern foxes have dramatically changed since the 1970s when hunting was the major cause of mortality. Coyote predation has effectively replaced hunting mortality, and cyclic patterns of mange outbreaks in urban fox populations might indicate a dynamic source or sink relationship to surrounding rural fox populations. Absent mange, urban areas might provide refugia for red foxes where coyote populations persist at high densities in rural areas. Managers of sympatric urban and rural wildlife populations must understand survival dynamics influencing the population at the landscape level.