Population Demographics and Dynamics of Colonizing Elk in a Desert Grassland–Scrubland

Bender, Louis C.; Piasecke, Jessica R.

doi:10.3996/102009-jfwm-013

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…By calculating λ , we were able to compare our results with other studies. Bender and Piasecke () reflected a high maximum estimate of λ for 3 consecutive years as 1.22, 1.22, and 1.08, which were comparable to the Bender et al (), who recorded λ = 1.22 for the fastest growing elk herd ever documented. We believe our estimate of λ = 1.19 mostly indicates the population is productive and growing.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Calf:female ratios are practical indices of herd productivity (Gaillard et al , Bender and Piasecke ). Collection of calf:female ratio data before post‐weaning mortality and calf recruitment into the adult population gave us the maximum potential finite rate‐of‐increase.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Small, reintroduced populations also occur in eastern provinces and states (Toweill and Thomas ). Elk populations have shown to be well‐suited for some arid regions in western North America (McCorquodale and Eberhardt ; Heydlauff et al ; Bender and Piasecke ; Halbritter and Bender , ; Tolleson et al ). A significant amount of research has been conducted on elk in North America, including some research on elk populations in arid lands similar to the Trans‐Pecos region of Texas, USA.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demographic characteristics of elk in the Glass Mountains, Texas

Pohler

Harveson

2014

Wildl. Soc. Bull.

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Historically distributed throughout North America, most populations of elk (Cervus elaphus) were extirpated by the early 20th century. Merriam elk (C. e. merriami) were once native to Texas, USA, and became extinct after the beginning of the 20th century through excessive hunting and degradation of habitat. Since then, landowners and state agencies have reintroduced Rocky Mountain elk (C. e. nelsoni) into the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. We determined herd composition, density, and survival rate of elk in the Glass Mountains, Texas. Twenty-six total density surveys were conducted in September and October of 2009 and 2010. Survival rate was determined by monitoring radiocollared elk. Collectively, calf:adult female:adult male ratios were found to be at moderate levels of 49:100:39. Our density estimate of 0.39 elk/km 2 (95% CI ¼ 0.18-0.78 elk/km 2 ) indicated the population could have stayed the same or possibly doubled in size since 1983 (0.21-0.22 elk/km 2 ; Grace 1983). The elk density in the Glass Mountains was much higher than that estimated for the much larger Trans-Pecos region, which was 0.14 elk/km 2 (95% CI ¼ 0.03-0.33 elk/ km 2 ). We estimated annual survival of mature male elk at 97.1% and of female elk at 94.4%, both of which are comparable to other sustainable populations in arid lands. Elk are not subject to a regulated harvest in Texas. Forming a cooperative management program and improved estimates of population dynamics will result in better management recommendations to resource managers. Ó 2014 The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demographic characteristics of elk in the Glass Mountains, Texas

Pohler

Harveson

2014

Wildl. Soc. Bull.

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“…Nelson and Burnell (1975) reported that stands with the densest canopy cover received the greatest amount of summer use and Marcum (1975) reported that elk selected summer bed sites in areas with the greatest canopy cover. However, Cook et al (1998) did not find that summer thermal cover decreased energy requirements, and other studies exhibited that elk populations could successfully inhabit areas with little or no tree overstory during summer (McCorquodale 1991, Merrill 1991, Strohmeyer and Peek 1996, Bender and Piasecke 2010. Though reasons why are unclear, during our study, elk typically selected areas with greater canopy cover.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies of elk resource selection have been conducted in mountainous terrain (Ager et al , McCorquodale , Webb et al , Beck et al ). However, elk have been expanding into many landscapes where they have not occurred in recent times, such as cultivated areas and non‐forested, semiarid environments (McCorquodale et al , McCorquodale , deCalesta and Witmer , Sawyer et al , Bender and Piasecke ). To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate resource use by non‐migratory elk within a semiarid riparian corridor.…”

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confidence: 99%

Elk resource selection patterns in a semiarid riparian corridor

et al. 2016

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Elk (Cervus elaphus) have depredated corn at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (BDANWR), New Mexico, USA, which has interfered with the refuge's ability to provide supplemental nutrition to overwintering sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) and other waterbirds. To identify management options for minimizing cropland depredation, we examined elk resource selection patterns using negative binomial generalized linear mixed models. We used 8,244 global positioning system (GPS) locations collected from 9 adult female elk to model fine-scale resource use (sampling units were 100 Â 100-m cells; n ¼ 3,646) and corn field use (sampling units were corn fields; n ¼ 18) by a resident herd along the Rio Grande River in central New Mexico, USA. The fine-scale model suggested that elk use in cropland areas increased when alfalfa and corn were present and elk use was greatest 0.14 km from uncultivated areas. Elk use in uncultivated areas increased as canopy cover increased. Elk use exhibited a quadratic relationship with hiding cover, which varied with distance to cropland. We validated the fine-scale model with an independent sample of radiomarked adult female elk (n ¼ 12; 1,106 locations). The fine-scale model was successful in predicting elk use; 84.1% (SE ¼ 1.1) of radio-marked elk locations fell within high or medium-high use cells. Corn field use models indicated that elk use increased as the proportion of the corn field perimeter adjacent to alfalfa increased. Elk use of corn fields declined as distance to uncultivated areas and the proportion of other corn fields at the same growth stage increased. Probability of elk use peaked when corn reached heights of 1.4 m to 1.7 m and use varied with distance to uncultivated areas. Corn fields at these heights were in the late vegetative or tassel-milk growth stage, which are the stages at which damage to corn plants is most detrimental to yield. The average distance each elk moved per day during the corn growing season was 5,013 m (SD ¼ 957) and varied among individuals (3,251-6,317 m). This is relatively large in relation to the size of the managed floodplain at BDANWR. Our results, couched in elk daily movements, can help direct crop management, vegetation manipulation, and timing of hazing efforts aimed at reducing elk use of crops. Ó

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Evaluating mountain lion diet before and after a removal of feral horses in a semiarid environment

Iacono,

Schoenecker,

Manlove

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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Non‐native species can affect ecosystems by influencing native predator‐prey dynamics. Therefore, management interventions designed to remove non‐natives may inadvertently lead to increased predation on native species. Feral horses are widely distributed throughout the arid parts of western North America. A growing body of research indicates that horses can be an important prey species to mountain lions in ecosystems where they overlap. In December 2020, the Bureau of Land Management removed 455 horses from the Delamar Mountains, Nevada, USA. We leveraged this management intervention to implement a before–after–control–impact study to test hypotheses about predation on horses and native ungulates. We predicted (1) that horses would comprise an important part of the diet in this mixed‐prey community, (2) following removal, the proportion of horses in the diet would decrease and native ungulates would increase, and (3) mountain lion home ranges overlapping the treatment areas would increase in response to decreased prey availability. From 2018 to 2022, we investigated 1360 clusters from 29 GPS‐collared lions and identified 1056 prey items. To model the probability of a predation event (a kill), we fit a mixed‐effects logistic regression model for ungulate prey as a function of lion sex, treatment area (in/out), and treatment period (pre‐/post‐removal). We used a log‐linear regression model to evaluate changes in home range size. The most common prey were mule deer (55%), feral horses (32%), and coyotes (4%). Twenty‐two of 29 lions consumed horses, although the rate of horse consumption was highly variable across individuals. Horses of both sexes and all age classes were predated. In contrast to predictions, our models detected no effect of removals on diet composition (βinteraction = 0.30 ± 1.1), nor did the removal influence home range size (βinteraction = 0.02 ± 0.02). Despite a 46% reduction in horse abundance, we found no evidence for prey‐switching following the horse removal treatment. Removal magnitude, rapid horse immigration, and/or behavioral specialization of individual mountain lions may help explain these results. Our findings have important implications for mountain lion and feral horse management in arid environments characterized by high prey diversity, but low prey abundance.

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Population Demographics and Dynamics of Colonizing Elk in a Desert Grassland–Scrubland

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Demographic characteristics of elk in the Glass Mountains, Texas

Demographic characteristics of elk in the Glass Mountains, Texas

Elk resource selection patterns in a semiarid riparian corridor

Evaluating mountain lion diet before and after a removal of feral horses in a semiarid environment

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