Growth of ungulate populations is typically most sensitive to survival of neonates, which in turn is influenced by maternal nutritional condition and trade-offs in resource selection and avoidance of ...predators. We assessed whether resource use, multi-predator risk, maternal nutritional effects, hiding cover, or interactions among these variables best explained variation in daily survival of free-ranging neonatal white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) during their post-partum period (14 May-31 Aug) in Michigan, USA. We used Cox proportional hazards mixed-effects models to assess survival related to covariates of resource use, composite predation risk of 4 mammalian predators, fawn body mass at birth, winter weather, and vegetation growth phenology. Predation, particularly from coyotes (Canis latrans), was the leading cause of mortality; however, an additive model of non-ideal resource use and maternal nutritional effects explained 71% of the variation in survival. This relationship suggested that dams selected areas where fawns had poor resources, while greater predation in these areas led to additive mortalities beyond those related to resource use alone. Also, maternal nutritional effects suggested that severe winters resulted in dams producing smaller fawns, which decreased their likelihood of survival. Fawn resource use appeared to reflect dam avoidance of lowland forests with poor forage and greater use by wolves (C. lupus), their primary predator. While this strategy led to greater fawn mortality, particularly by coyotes, it likely promoted the life-long reproductive success of dams because many reached late-age (>10 years old) and could have produced multiple generations of fawns. Studies often link resource selection and survival of ungulates, but our results suggested that multiple factors can mediate that relationship, including multi-predator risk. We emphasize the importance of identifying interactions among biological and environmental factors when assessing survival of ungulates.
Stakeholder Trust in a State Wildlife Agency RILEY, SHAWN J.; FORD, J. KEVIN; TRIEZENBERG, HEATHER A. ...
The Journal of wildlife management,
09/2018, Letnik:
82, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Trust in science and government regulatory agencies (e.g., state wildlife agencies) is a growing issue among wildlife managers and administrators who are attempting to engage stakeholders and develop ...effective, public wildlife conservation. However, a paucity of research has investigated attributes affecting stakeholder trust in wildlife agencies. We proposed a theoretical model of 2 key factors that can affect levels of trust: procedural fairness and technical competency. We used structured equation modeling to examine the influence of these factors on trust in a state wildlife agency by a prominent wildlife stakeholder, licensed hunters ≥18 years old. We tested the model with results from a mail-back questionnaire (n = 2,708 respondents, 39.6% response rate) about trust in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Division. The respondent population closely reflected Michigan’s population of hunting license-holders regarding demographic and geographic composition. The modified measurement model fit the data well, supporting the uniqueness of the procedural fairness, technical competency, and trust measures. The test of the structural model indicted that stakeholder perceptions of procedural fairness and technical competence exhibited by agency personnel positively influenced trust; however, the coefficient for procedural fairness was nearly 4 times greater than that of perceived technical competence of personnel. Perceived congruency of values between stakeholders and the agency was the most important modifier of the relationship of fairness and competency on trust. Our findings identify influential pathways wildlife professionals generally and state wildlife agencies specifically can take to strengthen stakeholders’ trust and confidence in their agencies. The complexity of public wildlife management ensures that there always will be factors affecting trust in state wildlife agencies for which agencies can do little about. Yet, development of decisions processes perceived by stakeholders to be fair and transparent and investment in agency personnel with skills in stakeholder engagement likely will be effective ways to foster trust and confidence in state wildlife agencies.
Estimating spatial and temporal resource use and partitioning among carnivore species varies based on life history and is critical to understanding ecological relationships of sympatric carnivores ...and their prey. Temporal variation in food availability can have a substantial influence on distribution, foraging behavior, prey selection, and population dynamics of carnivores. We investigated shifts in space use of black bears (Ursus americanus), bobcats (Lynx rufus), coyotes (Canis latrans), and gray wolves (C. lupus) in response to seasonal availability of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns in Michigan, USA, May–August 2009–2011. We used generalized linear mixed models to identify whether probabilistic fawn space use resulted in shifts in carnivore space use from deer pre‐parturition (PPP, 1 May–24 May) to fawn limited mobility (LMP, 25 May–30 June) and social mobility (SMP, 1 July–31 August) periods. We developed a rule‐based algorithm to identify “clusters” of carnivore GPS locations and investigated carnivore clusters to identify fawn predation sites. Carnivores shifted space use among periods, but responses varied among species regarding fawn space use. Black bears selected against areas with greater fawn use during LMP and selected areas with greater fawn use during SMP. We suggest black bear space use was unrelated to fawn space use and reflected availability of vegetative forage. Bobcats selected areas with greater fawn use during LMP and SMP. Coyotes were indifferent to areas where fawns occurred during LMP but selected against areas with greater fawn use during SMP, likely foraging on alternative prey. Coyotes were spatially constrained by wolves, selecting against areas with greater wolf use during LMP and SMP. Wolves selected against areas with greater fawn use during LMP and SMP and selected areas near habitat edges and areas containing livestock carcasses. Carnivore responses to fawn white‐tailed deer distribution and vulnerability were congruent with life history strategies, resulting in space use shifts in response to temporarily abundant resources. Carnivores did not overall rely predominantly on fawns, likely shifting their space use to maximize intake of other seasonal resources. These events provide additional insight into life history strategies among co‐occurring species and dynamics of multi‐species predator–prey systems.
Female ungulate reproductive success is dependent on the survival of their young, and affected by maternal resource selection, predator avoidance, and nutritional condition. However, potential ...hierarchical effects of these factors on reproductive success are largely unknown, especially in multi-predator landscapes. We expanded on previous research of neonatal white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) daily survival within home ranges to assess if resource use, integrated risk of 4 mammalian predators, maternal nutrition, winter severity, hiding cover, or interactions among these variables best explained landscape scale variation in daily or seasonal survival during the post-partum period. We hypothesized that reproductive success would be limited greater by predation risk at coarser spatiotemporal scales, but habitat use at finer scales. An additive model of daily non-ideal resource use and maternal nutrition explained the most (69%) variation in survival; though 65% of this variation was related to maternal nutrition. Strong support of maternal nutrition across spatiotemporal scales did not fully support our hypothesis, but suggested reproductive success was related to dam behaviors directed at increasing nutritional condition. These behaviors were especially important following severe winters, when dams produced smaller fawns with less probability of survival. To increase nutritional condition and decrease wolf (Canis lupus) predation risk, dams appeared to place fawns in isolated deciduous forest patches near roads. However, this resource selection represented non-ideal resources for fawns, which had greater predation risk that led to additive mortalities beyond those related to resources alone. Although the reproductive strategy of dams resulted in greater predation of fawns from alternative predators, it likely improved the life-long reproductive success of dams, as many were late-aged (>10 years old) and could have produced multiple litters of fawns. Our study emphasizes understanding the scale-dependent hierarchy of factors limiting reproductive success is essential to providing reliable knowledge for ungulate management.
Wildlife professionals lack a framework and process for incorporating ethical considerations in a systematic and transparent way, along with ecological and social science, to support wildlife ...management decision‐making. We provide such a framework and process based on 3 of the major theoretical branches ethicists have developed in Western culture: consequentialist moral theory, which focuses on consequences and outcomes; principle‐ and rule‐based approaches that deal with what is considered right or wrong; and virtue ethical theory, which considers factors such as character, virtue, and aesthetics. The framework can be used to anticipate the ethical consequences of alternative courses of action or taking no action. If wildlife professionals use this framework as an assessment tool to provide input into decision‐making, resulting decisions will be more transparent, better understood by stakeholders, and more consistent with public trust responsibilities.
Ethics, along with biological and social science, play a role in wildlife management decision making. This paper provides a practical framework and process that can be used to make assessment of ethical considerations explicit and transparent. Use of the framework will contribute to more fully informed decision making, consistent with public trust responsibilities.
Wildlife management is evolving in many ways including adaptation of philosophy and practices to contemporary ideas about governance of wildlife as public trust resources. Inherent to good governance ...is citizen engagement, especially regarding who is engaged and to what ends management efforts are directed. Two decades ago, the profession was encouraged to shift from a client orientation (i.e., a narrow focus on people who pay for services and products) to a stakeholder orientation (i.e., any people affected by or affecting wildlife or its management). We believe that it is time again to broaden thinking about the related questions: wildlife management for whom and for what? We argue that management needs to shift slightly from a stakeholder orientation to a beneficiary orientation. This shift may be less challenging than the earlier call for change but nevertheless has implications for practices of public engagement and for objectives and outcomes of wildlife management that bring the enterprise into better alignment with the expectations of public trust resource management.
Hastening the development of early and mid‐career fish and wildlife (hereafter wildlife) professionals in state and federal agencies is an acute need. In particular, development and application of ...exceptional reasoning and judgment skills is critical. It would be shortsighted, however, for wildlife agency administrators to assume professional development is simply a matter of staff training. Decker et al. (2019) completed an expert panel study in 2019 to identify habits and practices of consistently high performing wildlife management professionals. Decker et al. (2019) suggest 5 clusters of competencies are characteristic of consistently high‐performing wildlife professionals: being a critically inquisitive, continuous learner; practicing multi‐level, integrative systems thinking; being self‐disciplined; using a balanced approach; and having the emotional intelligence to interact successfully with others. Based on observations from a series of workshops with wildlife professionals, our collective professional experience, and literature review, we contend that impediments to expression of key habits/practices identified by Decker et al. (2019) exist at the group and organizational, as well as the individual level. We argue that providing individual training is necessary, but not sufficient to create work environments where wildlife professionals in state and federal wildlife agencies can develop and apply reasoning and judgment skills. Structural and cultural change in wildlife agencies would enhance effectiveness of public wildlife management. We hope this empirically‐grounded commentary stimulates reflection within wildlife agencies and a commitment to organizational behavior that catalyzes professional development.
Decker et al. (2019) completed an expert panel study in 2019 that identified habits and practices characteristic of consistently high‐performing wildlife professionals. Barriers to expression of key habits/practices identified by Decker et al. (2019) exist at the group and organizational, as well as the individual level. We argue that providing individual training is necessary, but not sufficient to create work environments where all wildlife professionals can develop and apply reasoning and judgment skills.
In light of the trajectory of wildlife governance in the United States, the future of sustainable use of wildlife is a topic of substantial interest in the wildlife conservation community. We examine ...sustainable-use principles with respect to “good governance” considerations and public trust administration principles to assess how sustainable use might fare in the 21st century. We conclude that sustainable-use principles are compatible with recently articulated wildlife governance principles and could serve to mitigate broad values and norm shifts in American society that affect social acceptability of particular uses. Wildlife governance principles emphasize inclusive discourse among diverse wildlife interests, which could minimize isolated exchanges among cliques of like-minded people pursuing their ambitions without seeking opportunity for sharing or understanding diverse views. Aligning governance practices with wildlife governance principles can help avoid such isolation. In summary, sustainable use of wildlife is likely to endure as long as society 1) believes the long-termsustainability of wildlife is not jeopardized, and 2) accepts practices associated with such use as legitimate. These are 2 criteria needing constant attention.
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