New Mexico Project
An estimate of abundance and an assessment of the efficacy of sterilization techniques for the control of wild burro populations
February 2015 - March 2018
Personnel
- James Cain, Co-Principal Investigator
- Gary Roemer, Principal Investigator
- David Delaney, Non-PI Collaborator
- Talesha Karish, Student / Post Doc
Participating Agencies
- Department of Defense, Fort Irwin
Feral burro populations have increased in numbers and are impacting fragile desert plant communities, reducing forage availability for domestic livestock and wildlife as well as seeking forage and water near human habitations, which brings them into conflict with humans. Fort Irwin, California has a relatively large population of burros (~1,000) that enter into the cantonment area, resulting in human-wildlife conflicts. We propose to estimate the size of the burro population, examine patterns of space use and employ non-lethal methods of immunocontraception or sterilization to reduce recruitment into the existing population in an attempt to reduce population size.
| Research Publications | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| Karish, T., G.W. Roemer. D.K. Delaney, and J.W. Cain III. 2023. Habitat selection and water dependency of feral burros in the Mojave Desert. Journal of Wildlife Management 87:e22429 | Download | July 2023 |
| Hennig, J.D., K.A. Schoenecker, J.W. Cain III, G.W. Roemer, and J.L. Laake. 2022. Accounting for residual heterogeneity in double-observer sightability models to decrease bias in feral burro abundance estimates. Journal of Wildlife Management 86:e22239. | Download | June 2022 |
| Gedir, J.V., J.W. Cain III, B.C. Lubow, T. Karish, D.K. Delaney, and G.W. Roemer. 2021. Estimating abundance and simulating fertility control in a feral burro population. Journal of Wildlife Management 85:1187-1199. | Download | July 2021 |
| Technical Publications | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| Reddell, C.D., T.K. Karish, G.W. Roemer, and J.W. Cain III. 2016. Investigations into the control of coyote and feral burro populations on the National Training Center Fort Irwin, California. Annual Progress Report to U.S. Army Construction and Engineering Research Laboratory and Fort Irwin National Training Center. | July 2016 |
| Presentations | Presentation Date |
|---|---|
| Karish, T., G.W. Roemer, D.K. Delaney, and J.W. Cain III. 2022. Habitat selection and water dependency of feral burros in the Mojave Desert. 101st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists, Tucson, Arizona, USA | June 2022 |
| Theses and Dissertations | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| Karish, T. 2020. Habitat selection by feral burros in the Mojave Desert. M.S. Thesis, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. 86 pp | July 2020 |