USGS Science⌕ Search

SEARCH · USGS Science

Results for “Animals”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 379 records · Page 21Linked to original sources
USGS2013

Legal, ethical, and procedural bases for the use of aseptic techniques to implant electronic devices

The popularity of implanting electronic devices such as transmitters and data loggers into captive and free-ranging animals has increased greatly in the past two decades. The devices have become smaller, more reliable, and more capable (Printz 2004; Wilson and Gifford 2005; Metcalfe et al. 2012). Compared with externally mounted devices, implanted devices are largely invisible to external viewers such as tourists and predators; exist in a physically protected, thermally stable environment in mammals and birds; and greatly reduce drag and risk of entanglement. An implanted animal does not outgrow its device or attachment method as can happen with collars and harnesses, which allows young animals to be more safely equipped. However, compared with mounting external devices, implantation requires greater technical ability to perform the necessary anesthesia, analgesia, and surgery. More than 83% of publications in the 1990s that used radiotelemetry on animals assumed that there were no adverse effects on the animal (Godfrey and Bryant 2003). It is likely that some studies using implanted electronic devices have not been published due to a high level of unexpected mortality or to aberrant behavior or disappearance of the implanted animals, a phenomenon known as the “file drawer” problem (Rosenthal 1979; Scargle 2000). The near absence of such studies from the published record may be providing a false sense of security that procedures being used are more innocuous than they actually are. Similarly, authors sometimes state that it was unlikely that device implantation was problematic because study animals appeared to behave normally, or authors state that previous investigators used the same technique and saw no problems. Such statements are suppositions if no supporting data are provided or if the animals were equipped because there was no other way to follow their activity. Moreover, such suppositions ignore other adverse effects that affect behavior indirectly, and animals often mask the signs of infection to avoid attracting predators (Wobeser 2006). Guidance specific to sterilization of electronic devices for implantation is limited in the wildlife record (Burger et al. 1994; Mulcahy 2003). Few biologists have been formally trained in aseptic technique, but most biologists know that electronic devices should be treated in some way to reduce the chance for infection of the host animal by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. Most biologists (73%) who implant devices into fishes believe aseptic techniques are important (Wagner and Cooke 2005). However, I maintain that many biologists find it difficult to place the concept of asepsis into practice in their work because of confusion about what constitutes aseptic technique, a lack of surgical knowledge and training, the perception of increased costs, or the belief that aseptic surgeries are impractical or unnecessary for their application. Some have even argued that, while compromising surgical techniques in the field might result in complications or mortalities, the money saved would allow for a compensatory increase in sample size (Anderson and Talcott 2006). In this paper I define aseptic surgical techniques, document the legal and professional guidance for performing aseptic surgeries on wild animals, and present options for sterilizing electronic devices and surgical instruments for field use.

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management↗
USGS2015

Faunal responses to fire in chaparral and sage scrub in California, USA

Impact of fire on California shrublands has been well studied but nearly all of this work has focused on plant communities. Impact on and recovery of the chaparral fauna has received only scattered attention; this paper synthesizes what is known in this regard for the diversity of animal taxa associated with California shrublands and outlines the primary differences between plant and animal responses to fire. We evaluated the primary faunal modes of resisting fire effects in three categories: 1) endogenous survival in a diapause or diapause-like stage, 2) sheltering in place within unburned refugia, or 3) fleeing and recolonizing. Utilizing these patterns in chaparral and sagescrub, as well as some studies on animals in other mediterranean-climate ecosystems, we derived generalizations about how plants and animals differ in their responses to fire impacts and their post fire recovery. One consequence of these differences is that variation in fire behavior has a much greater potential to affect animals than plants. For example, plants recover from fire endogenously from soil-stored seeds and resprouts, so fire size plays a limited role in determining recovery patterns. However, animals that depend on recolonization of burned sites from metapopulations may be greatly affected by fire size. Animal recolonization may also be greatly affected by regional land use patterns that affect colonization corridors, whereas such regional factors play a minimal role in plant community recovery. Fire characteristics such as rate of spread and fire intensity do not appear to play an important role in determining patterns of chaparral and sage scrub plant recovery after fire. However, these fire behavior characteristics may have a profound role in determining survivorship of some animal populations as slow-moving, smoldering combustion may limit survivorship of animals in burrows, whereas fast-moving, high intensity fires may affect survivorship of animals in above ground refugia or those attempting to flee. Thus, fire regime characteristics may have a much greater effect on postfire recovery of animal communities than plant communities in these shrubland ecosystems.

Fire Ecology↗
USGS2012

Shrews, rats, and a polecat in "the pardoner’s tale"

While historically existing animals and literary animal characters inform allegorical and metaphorical characterization in The Canterbury Tales, figurative usage does not erase recognition of the material animal. "The Pardoner's Tale," for one, challenges the terms of conventional animal metaphors by refocusing attention on common animals as common animals and common human creatures as something worse than vermin. Most attention has been paid to the larger animals-goat, hare, and horse-that constitute the physical portrait of Chaucer's Pardoner in the "General Prologue" and in the prologue to his tale.! Like these animals, rats and a polecat, together with rhetorical shrews, appear in this tale as well as in other literature, including bestiaries and natural histories. Equally to the purpose, these animals could be physically observed as constituents of both urban and rural landscapes in fourteenth-century England.2 In the Middle Ages, animals were part of the environment as well as part of the culture: they lived inside as well as outside the city gates, priory walls, and even domestic spaces; a rat in the street or the garden might not be any less welcome or uncommon than encountering someone's horses and goats nibbling vegetation or blocking a passage. Not being out of the ordinary, though, such animals could (and can) be overlooked or dismissed as com­mon, too familiar to register. This chapter reveals why readers and listeners should pay close attention to the things they think they know and what they hear about what they think they know.

Book chapter↗
USGS2002

Possible sources of nitrate in ground water at swine licensed-managed feeding operations in Oklahoma, 2001

Samples collected and analyzed by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry from 1999 to 2001 determined that nitrate exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level for public drinking-water supplies of 10 milligrams per liter as nitrogen in 79 monitoring wells at 35 swine licensed-managed feeding operations (LMFO) in Oklahoma. The LMFOs are located in rural agricultural settings where long-term agriculture has potentially affected the ground-water quality in some areas. Land use prior to the construction of the LMFOs was assessed to evaluate the types of agricultural land use within a 500-meter radius of the sampled wells. Chemical and microbiological techniques were used to determine the possible sources of nitrate in water sampled from 10 wastewater lagoons and 79 wells. Samples were analyzed for dissolved major ions, dissolved trace elements, dissolved nutrients, nitrogen isotope ratios of nitrate and ammonia, wastewater organic compounds, and fecal coliform bacteria. Bacteria ribotyping analysis was done on selected samples to identify possible specific animal sources. A decision process was developed to identify the possible sources of nitrate. First, nitrogen isotope ratios were used to define sources as animal, mixed animal and fertilizer, or fertilizer. Second, wastewater organic compound detections, nitrogen-isotope ratios, fecal coliform bacteria detections, and ribotyping were used to refine the identification of possible sources as LFMO waste, fertilizer, or unidentified animal or mixtures of these sources. Additional evidence provided by ribotyping and wastewater organic compound data can, in some cases, specifically indicate the animal source. Detections of three or more wastewater organic compounds that are indicators of animal sources and detections of fecal coliform bacteria provided additional evidence of an animal source. LMFO waste was designated as a possible source of nitrate in water from 10 wells. The source of waste in water from five of those wells was determined through ribotyping, and the source of waste in water from the remaining five wells was determined by detections of three or more animal-waste compounds in the well samples. LMFO waste in the water from wells with unidentified animal source of nitrate does not indicate that LMFO waste was not the source, but indicated that multiple animal sources, including LMFO waste, may be the source of the nitrate.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS2004

Estimation of sex-specific survival from capture-recapture data when sex is not always known

Many animals lack obvious sexual dimorphism, making assignment of sex difficult even for observed or captured animals. For many such species it is possible to assign sex with certainty only at some occasions; for example, when they exhibit certain types of behavior. A common approach to handling this situation in capture-recapture studies has been to group capture histories into those of animals eventually identified as male and female and those for which sex was never known. Because group membership is dependent on the number of occasions at which an animal was caught or observed (known sex animals, on average, will have been observed at more occasions than unknown-sex animals), survival estimates for known-sex animals will be positively biased, and those for unknown animals will be negatively biased. In this paper, we develop capture-recapture models that incorporate sex ratio and sex assignment parameters that permit unbiased estimation in the face of this sampling problem. We demonstrate the magnitude of bias in the traditional capture-recapture approach to this sampling problem, and we explore properties of estimators from other ad hoc approaches. The model is then applied to capture-recapture data for adult Roseate Terns ( Sterna dougallii ) at Falkner Island, Connecticut, 1993-2002. Sex ratio among adults in this population favors females, and we tested the hypothesis that this population showed sex-specific differences in adult survival. Evidence was provided for higher survival of adult females than males, as predicted. We recommend use of this modeling approach for future capture-recapture studies in which sex cannot always be assigned to captured or observed animals. We also place this problem in the more general context of uncertainty in state classification in multistate capture-recapture models.

Connecticut↗
USGS2017

State-dependent behavior alters endocrine–energy relationship: Implications for conservation and management

Glucocorticoids (GC) and triiodothyronine (T3) are two endocrine markers commonly used to quantify resource limitation, yet the relationships between these markers and the energetic state of animals has been studied primarily in small-bodied species in captivity. Free-ranging animals, however, adjust energy intake in accordance with their energy reserves, a behavior known as state-dependent foraging. Further, links between life-history strategies and metabolic allometries cause energy intake and energy reserves to be more strongly coupled in small animals relative to large animals. Because GC and T3 may reflect energy intake or energy reserves, state-dependent foraging and body size may cause endocrine–energy relationships to vary among taxa and environments. To extend the utility of endocrine markers to large-bodied, free-ranging animals, we evaluated how state-dependent foraging, energy reserves, and energy intake influenced fecal GC and fecal T3 concentrations in free-ranging moose ( Alces alces ). Compared with individuals possessing abundant energy reserves, individuals with few energy reserves had higher energy intake and high fecal T3 concentrations, thereby supporting state-dependent foraging. Although fecal GC did not vary strongly with energy reserves, individuals with higher fecal GC tended to have fewer energy reserves and substantially greater energy intake than those with low fecal GC. Consequently, individuals with greater energy intake had both high fecal T3 and high fecal GC concentrations, a pattern inconsistent with previous documentation from captive animal studies. We posit that a positive relationship between GC and T3 may be expected in animals exhibiting state-dependent foraging if GC is associated with increased foraging and energy intake. Thus, we recommend that additional investigations of GC– and T3–energy relationships be conducted in free-ranging animals across a diversity of body size and life-history strategies before these endocrine markers are applied broadly to wildlife conservation and management.

Wyoming↗
USGS2008

Estimated home ranges can misrepresent habitat relationships on patchy landscapes

Home ranges of animals are generally structured by the selective use of resource-bearing patches that comprise habitat. Based on this concept, home ranges of animals estimated from location data are commonly used to infer habitat relationships. Because home ranges estimated from animal locations are largely continuous in space, the resource-bearing patches selected by an animal from a fragmented distribution of patches would be difficult to discern; unselected patches included in the home range estimate would bias an understanding of important habitat relationships. To evaluate potential for this bias, we generated simulated home ranges based on optimal selection of resource-bearing patches across a series of simulated resource distributions that varied in the spatial continuity of resources. For simulated home ranges where selected patches were spatially disjunct, we included interstitial, unselected cells most likely to be traveled by an animal moving among selected patches. We compared characteristics of the simulated home ranges with and without interstitial patches to evaluate how insights derived from field estimates can differ from actual characteristics of home ranges, depending on patchiness of landscapes. Our results showed that contiguous home range estimates could lead to misleading insights on the quality, size, resource content, and efficiency of home ranges, proportional to the spatial discontinuity of resource-bearing patches. We conclude the potential bias of including unselected, largely irrelevant patches in the field estimates of home ranges of animals can be high, particularly for home range estimators that assume uniform use of space within home range boundaries. Thus, inferences about the habitat relationships that ultimately define an animal's home range can be misleading where animals occupy landscapes with patchily distributed resources.

Ecological Modelling↗
USGS2006

Immobilization of free-ranging male pacific walruses ( Odobenus rosmarus divergens ) with carfentanil citrate and naltrexone hydrochloride

The major challenges in immobilization of free-ranging walruses ( Odobenus rosmarus divergens ) are to produce a deep level of anesthesia very quickly (to avoid darted animals from entering the water and drowning), and to find a drug or drug combination that requires only a small volume to be delivered by dart, is safe, reversible, and that provides an adequate period of immobilization to permit attachment of instruments, phlebotomy, and measuring. Tiletamine-zolazepam is recommended for immobilization of pinnipeds, with inhalant anesthesia recommended for more extensive procedures requiring better analgesia (Gales 1989). Drugs that have been used on free-ranging walruses include ketamine (Hagenbeck et al . 1975), phencyclidine combined with acepromazine (DeMaster et al . 1981), etorphine (Born and Knutsen 1990, Hills 1992, Griffiths et al . 1993), tiletamine-zolazepam (Stirling and Sjare 1988, Griffiths et al . 1993), medetomidine and ketamine (Lydersen et al . 1992), and carfentanil (Hills 1992, Lanthier et al . 1999). Carfentanil but not etorphine is presently licensed and available in the United States. Forty-eight adult male walruses were immobilized with carfentanil citrate in the summers of 1995-1997 at Maggy Beach (58°57’N, 161°76’W), a land haul-out located at Cape Peirce within the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Alaska. The number of animals present during immobilizations ranged from three to several thousand. Criteria for choosing individual walruses included good body condition, the presence of two tusks of sufficient diameter for the attachment of radio transmitters, and presence of the animal at the edge of the herd. In addition, we chose animals that were resting quietly and which had not recently hauled out (as judged by skin color). Walruses were darted from ranges of approximately 10-15 m using a Cap-Chur rifle (Palmer Chemical and Equipment Co., Douglasville, Georgia, GA 30133). Carfentanil citrate (Wildlife Pharmaceuticals, Fort Collins, CO 80524) was administered by dart with a 10-cm needle to the lumbar region. Most animals received a dose of 2.7 or 3.0 mg of carfentanil. One animal received a second dose after the first syringe apparently burst on impact. Induction times were measured as being the time at which the animal collapsed, failed to respond to external stimuli, or as the time when the darter stood up and moved towards the animal.

Marine Mammal Science↗
USGS2018

Accounting for location uncertainty in azimuthaltelemetry data improves ecological inference

Background Characterizing animal space use is critical for understanding ecological relationships. Animal telemetry technology has revolutionized the fields of ecology and conservation biology by providing high quality spatial data on animal movement. Radio-telemetry with very high frequency (VHF) radio signals continues to be a useful technology because of its low cost, miniaturization, and low battery requirements. Despite a number of statistical developments synthetically integrating animal location estimation and uncertainty with spatial process models using satellite telemetry data, we are unaware of similar developments for azimuthal telemetry data. As such, there are few statistical options to handle these unique data and no synthetic framework for modeling animal location uncertainty and accounting for it in ecological models. We developed a hierarchical modeling framework to provide robust animal location estimates from one or more intersecting or non-intersecting azimuths. We used our azimuthal telemetry model (ATM) to account for azimuthal uncertainty with covariates and propagate location uncertainty into spatial ecological models. We evaluate the ATM with commonly used estimators (Lenth (1981) maximum likelihood and M-Estimators) using simulation. We also provide illustrative empirical examples, demonstrating the impact of ignoring location uncertainty within home range and resource selection analyses. We further use simulation to better understand the relationship among location uncertainty, spatial covariate autocorrelation, and resource selection inference. Results We found the ATM to have good performance in estimating locations and the only model that has appropriate measures of coverage. Ignoring animal location uncertainty when estimating resource selection or home ranges can have pernicious effects on ecological inference. Home range estimates can be overly confident and conservative when ignoring location uncertainty and resource selection coefficients can lead to incorrect inference and over confidence in the magnitude of selection. Furthermore, our simulation study clarified that incorporating location uncertainty helps reduce bias in resource selection coefficients across all levels of covariate spatial autocorrelation. Conclusion The ATM can accommodate one or more azimuths when estimating animal locations, regardless of how they intersect; this ensures that all data collected are used for ecological inference. Our findings and model development have important implications for interpreting historical analyses using this type of data and the future design of radio-telemetry studies.

Movement Ecology↗