Oklahoma Project: Compilation and analysis of wildlife data to inform natural resource management

Oklahoma Project

Compilation and analysis of wildlife data to inform natural resource management

September 2021 - September 2022

Personnel

Robert Lonsinger, Principal Investigator

Participating Agencies

Dugway Proving Ground

Lands owned by the Department of Defense (DoD) support the greatest densities of species of conservation concern (i.e., endangered, threatened or otherwise at-risk) of any Federal land agency. Under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and Sikes Act, the DoD is challenged to protect and provide for the conservation of these species while simultaneously adhering to the military mission. To accomplish this goal, DoD installations develop Integrated Natural Resource Management Plans (INRMPs) to guide management. INRMPs are developed in concert with the state, federal, and non-governmental partners and are revised on a 5-year interval to ensure installations continue to serve the military mission on a sustained basis that supports natural resource stewardship. Empirically-defensible data and transparent analyses of natural resource data are required to inform INRMP development and revision. This project has already completed objectives related to (1) evaluating space use of subadult golden eagle, (2) assessing methods for improving efficiency and reliability of noninvasive genetic sampling, and (3) comparing monitoring methods for kit foxes. In the current phase, this project aims to evaluate the utility and reliability of machine learning for rapid processing and analysis of camera-based data, to quantify the influence of machine-learning errors on parameter estimates, and to assess alternative methods of data handling and analyses that can minimize bias in results. The results of this study have and will inform wildlife monitoring on military installations.

Research Publications

Research Publications	Publication Date
Hixson, K. M. , S. J. Slater, R. N. Knight, and R. C. Lonsinger. 2022 Seasonal variation in resource selection by subadult golden eagles in the Great Basin Desert. Wildlife Biology 2022:e01002. \| Abstract \| Publisher Website	November 2021	Golden eagles (<i>Aquila chrysaetos</i>) are a long-lived and wide-ranging species believed to be stable or in slight decline across North America. Golden eagles have an extended subadult stage (4–5 years) that is critical to maintaining recruitment into the breeding population and population viability. Compared to adult golden eagles, the ecology of subadults has received little attention. We investigated patterns of resource selection for subadults in the Great Basin Desert of the western United States during summer and winter, 2013–2019. We monitored 46 subadults with GPS transmitters and related locational data (<i>n </i>= 99,037) with spatial predictors hypothesized to influence seasonal patterns of space use with mixed-effects logistic regression. Subadults selected for ridges and upper slopes in both seasons, but higher elevations in summer. Subadults showed weak selection for lower ridge density in summer, which was likely facilitated by selection for areas with greater thermal wind current potential. In contrast, subadults showed strong selection for higher ridge density in winter. Subadults selected areas further from roads in summer and closer to roads and electrical transmission lines in winter, which may be related to winter scavenging of road-killed ungulates. Resource selection functions suggested subadults selected for shrublands and woodlands in both seasons, but odds ratios revealed that during winter subadults avoided shrublands and increased selection of woodlands. Subadults tended to select for areas with infrequent fires in both seasons; areas with frequent fires were avoided in summer but selected for in winter. Seasonal changes in resource selection suggest that subadults used woodlands more than expected, and this may reflect spatial partitioning by subadults to lower-quality habitats to minimize competition with breeding adults during winter when energetic demands were higher and prey more limited. Our models had high predictive power and can inform natural resource planning to promote golden eagle conservation.
Lonsinger, R. C., R. N. Knight, and L. P. Waits. 2021. Detection criteria and post-field sample processing influence results and cost efficiency of occupancy-based monitoring. Ecological Application 31(7): e02404. doi: 10.1002/eap.2404 \| Abstract \| Publisher Website	July 2021	Optimization of occupancy-based monitoring has focused on balancing the number of sites and surveys to minimize field efforts and costs. When survey techniques require post-field processing of samples to confirm species detections, there may be opportunities to further improve efficiency. We used scat-based noninvasive genetic sampling for kit foxes (<i>Vulpes macrotis</i>) in Utah, USA, as a model system to assess post-field data processing strategies, evaluate the impacts of these strategies on estimates of occupancy and associations between parameters and predictors, and identify the most cost-effective approach. We identified scats with three criteria that varied in costs and reliability: (i) field-based identification (expert opinion), (ii) statistical-based morphological identification, and (iii) genetic-based identification (mitochondrial DNA). We also considered four novel post-field sample processing strategies that integrated statistical and genetic identifications to reduce costly genetic procedures, including (iv) a combined statistical-genetic identification, (v) a genetic removal design, (vi) a within-survey conditional-replicate design, and (vii) a single-genetic-replicate with false-positive modeling design. We considered results based on genetic identification as the best approximation of truth and used this to evaluate the performance of alternatives. Field-based and statistical-based criteria prone to misidentification produced estimates of occupancy that were biased high (~1.8 and 2.1 times higher than estimates without misidentifications, respectively). These criteria failed to recover associations between parameters and predictors consistent with genetic identification. The genetic removal design performed poorly, with limited detections leading to estimates that were biased high with poor precision and patterns inconsistent with genetic identification. Both statistical-genetic identification and the conditional-replicate design produced occupancy estimates comparable to genetic identification, while recovering the same model structure and associations at cost reductions of 67% and 74%, respectively. The false-positive design had the lowest cost (88% reduction) and recovered patterns consistent with genetic identification but had occupancy estimates that were ~32% lower than estimated occupancy based on genetic identification. Our results demonstrate that careful consideration of detection criteria and post-field data processing can reduce costs without significantly altering resulting inferences. Combined with earlier guidance on sampling designs for occupancy modeling, these findings can aid managers in optimizing occupancy-based monitoring.
Lonsinger, R., B. M. Kluever, L. K. Hall, R. T. Larsen, E. M. Gese, L. P. Waits, and R. N. Knight. 2020. Conservation of kit foxes in the Great Basin Desert: A review and recommendations. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 11:679–698. doi:10.1111/JFWM-20-025. \| Abstract \| Download \| Publisher Website	December 2020	The kit fox Vulpes macrotis is a species of concern to land managers in the Great Basin Desert of North America. Once common, kit foxes have declined from historical levels. Research on kit foxes in western Utah has spanned nearly 70 years and has potential to inform management and conservation within the Central Basin and Range Ecoregion of the Great Basin Desert. We conducted a systematic literature review on the northern kit fox subspecies V. m. nevadensis. We focused on studies conducted in the Central Basin and Range Ecoregion, which represents the majority of the Great Basin Desert, and provided a comprehensive summary of their ecology and demographics for resource managers. To guide future monitoring, we also reviewed techniques used for kit fox monitoring and research, and evaluated the strengths, limitations, and advances of these techniques. We identified four key factors that deserve consideration when selecting monitoring techniques for kit foxes: estimable parameters, reliability, cost, and rate of data return. Finally, we identify four primary management recommendations. We recommend that managers (i) expand kit fox monitoring and population assessments more broadly across the Great Basin Desert. To ensure future monitoring meets the needs of resource managers, we recommend (ii) the application of a structured decision-making process to identify key parameters and approaches. To better understand the factors limiting kit fox populations we recommend (iii) population viability and parameter sensitivity analyses to identify drivers of population change. Finally, based on evidence that genetic diversity of kit fox populations has been maintained by undescribed patterns of gene flow, we recommend (iv) a broad-scale assessment of population connectivity to identify corridors supporting metapopulation dynamics. These recommendations will facilitate proactive conservation of kit foxes and management practices to reduce future population declines.

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Oklahoma Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources