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

Montana Wildlife Research Activities


Mother grizzly at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Frank van Manen

Much of the Unit research effort from 1970 through the present focused on interactions of predators with both wild and domestic prey species. During a decade when considerable public and scientific opinion held that predators seldom killed healthy wild ungulates or livestock, Unit studies initiated in the 1970�s helped to form the more realistic and useful viewpoint that is still evolving today. Serious economic losses of sheep and lambs to coyotes and golden eagles were documented in several Unit studies, and one study involved developing effective techniques for preventing depredation on lambs and kids by golden eagles. Continuing work on predator-prey interactions has involved demographic effects and life-history tradeoffs involved in nest predation on birds, both game and nongame species, as influenced by altered communities of generalist nest predators, habitat degradation and fragmentation, and other environmental perturbations.

Type Citation Publication Date
Software Release Walsh, D.P., Ballmann, A.E., and Russell, R.E. 2024. Pseudogymnoascus destructans detections by US county 2007-2022: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1Z9YTHB. May 2024
Software Release Walsh DP, Martin J, Robertson EP, Work TM, Kellogg CA, Evans JS, Barker V, Hawthorn A, Aeby G, Paul V, Walker BK, Kiryu Y, Woodley CM, Meyer JL, Rosales SM, Studivan M, Moore JF, Brandt ME, Bruckner A. Code for: Rapid prototyping for quantifying belief weights of competing hypotheses about emergent diseases. Version 1.0.0: U.S. Geological Survey software release https://doi.org/10.5066/P9S9JDVB 2022
Data Release Sells, S.N., and Costello, C.M. 2024. Predicted connectivity pathways for grizzly bears between the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystems: spatial data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8. May 2024
Data Release Sells, S.N. and Costello, C.M. 2024. Predicting future grizzly bear habitat use in the Bitterroot Ecosystem under recolonization and reintroduction scenarios: spatial data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8. May 2024
Data Release Sells, S.N. and Costello, C.M. 2024. Predicted grizzly bear movement pathways in Central Montana: spatial data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8. July 2023
Data Release Sells, S. N., Costello, C. M., Lukacs, P. M., van Manen, F. T., Haroldson, M., Kasworm, W., Teisberg, J., Vinks, M. A., and Bjornlie, D. 2023. Predicted grizzly bear habitat use in Western Montana: spatial data: U. S., Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8. July 2023
Data Release Sells, S. N., Costello, C. M., Lukacs, P. M., van Manen, F. T., Haroldson, M., Kasworm, W., Teisberg, J., Vinks, M. A., and Bjornlie, D. 2023. Predicted grizzly bear habitat use in Western Montana: spatial data: U. S., Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8.
Data Release Sells, S. N., Costello, C. M., Lukacs, P. M., Roberts, L. L., and Vinks, M. A. 2023. Predicted connectivity pathways between grizzly bear ecosystems in Western Montana: spatial data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91EWUO8. July 2023
Software Release Reyes J.F.M., Walsh, D., and Zhu, J. Example code for implementing physics-informed neural networks and generating simulated data. 2024. Version 1.0.0: U.S. Geological Survey software release. Reston, Va. https://doi.org/10.5066/P13VMCUO October 2023
Data Release Martin, J., Walsh, D.P., Robertson, E.P., Work, T.M., Kellogg, C.A., Evans, J.S., Barker, V., Hawthorn, A., Aeby, G., Paul, V.J., Walker, B.K., Kiryu, Y., Woodley, C.M., Meyer, J.L., Rosales, S.M., Studivan, M., Moore, J.F., Brandt, M.E., and Bruckner, A., 2023, Expert assessments of hypotheses concerning the etiological agent(s) of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease collected during a rapid prototyping project.: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9DLNEBY. January 2023
Software Release Ketz, A.C., D.J. Storm, R.E. Barker, A.D. Apa, C. Oliva-Aviles, and D.P. Walsh. Assimilating ecological theory with empiricism: Using constrained generalized additive models to enhance survival analyses. Version 1.0.0: U.S. Geological Survey software release. Reston, Va. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ANP64H January 2023
Software Release Ketz, A., Storm, D.J., Barker, R., Apa, A.D., Oliva-Aviles, C., and Walsh, D.P., 2022, Data for Assimilating ecological theory with empiricism: Using constrained generalized additive models to enhance survival analyses: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ONA9J0. January 2023
Software Release Hanley BJ, Mitchell CI, Walter WD, Walsh DP, Jennelle CS, Hollingshead NA, Abbott RC, Kelly JD, Grove DM, Them CE, Ahmed MS, Miller LA, & Schuler KL. 2023. Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Optimization Software Version 2 [Software]. 2.0.0. U.S. Geological Survey Software Release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9W7JVNJ. March 2023
Data Release Cook, J. D., D. M. Williams, D. P. Walsh, and T. J. Hefley. 2023. Bayesian composition sampling. U.S. Geological Survey Software Release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9XMF7FS. January 2023