Source: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA submitted to
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN HUMAN ALTERED LANDSCAPES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0227323
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
FLA-WEC-005125
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 30, 2011
Project End Date
Oct 1, 2016
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Mccleery, R.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Non Technical Summary
One-fifth of the planet's vertebrates are classified as threatened. One particularly vulnerable group of vertebrates are mammals. Mammals play a critical role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and providing significant value to humans in the form of food, income, and recreation; however, the growth of the human population has put unprecedented stress on the planet's mammalian populations. Currently, one quarter of the planet's mammals are threatened with extinction. The major threats to mammal and other vertebrate populations include loss of habitat, agricultural expansion, harvesting, climate change, disease, and invasive alien species. Additionally, the functional integrity of many ecological systems has been diminished because of loss or reduction of mammals and other vertebrates .As the planet's landscapes become urbanized and dominated by agriculture we have little information to help us understand how wildlife communities and populations respond to these anthropogenic changes to their environment. The precarious state of the planet's vertebrates provides a suite of challenges to researchers and managers hoping to maintain the ecological integrity on a rapidly changing planet. We are challenged with the tasks of 1) understanding how animals respond to the changing landscapes around them 2) maintaining diversity and preventing the further loss of species, and 3) finding the most effective means for managing healthy wildlife populations that maintain ecosystem integrity. The overarching goal of my research program is to understand how wildlife responds to anthropogenic changes to their environment and to find ways to maintain communities and populations that foster healthy ecosystems. To achieve this goal, my research program will use field-based research to elucidate the processes driving vertebrate communities and populations. My field work will be complemented by a focus on quantitative ecology and the use of population and spatial models. Together, these tools will allow me to understand and address the many problems facing our planet's terrestrial vertebrate populations
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1350830107020%
1350820107010%
1350840107010%
1360850107020%
1360860107040%
Knowledge Area
135 - Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife; 136 - Conservation of Biological Diversity;

Subject Of Investigation
0840 - Fur-bearing animals; 0850 - Wildlife habitats; 0860 - Endangered species; 0830 - Wild animals; 0820 - Wild birds;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1: Understanding the influence of anthropogenic land use on terrestrial vertebrates Objective 2: Understanding and mitigating the impacts of introduced alien species Objective 3: Ecology and Conservation of African wildlife Objective 4: Providing scientific-based recommendations for the recovery of threatened populations Objective 5: Using attitudinal research to improve the conservation of terrestrial vertebrates
Project Methods
In agricultural landscapes, I am studying changes in small mammal communities and functional groups across a gradient running from protected areas into intensive sugarcane agriculture. Our preliminary findings have encouraged us to broaden the scope of this project and examine what landscape configurations outside of conservation areas are most conducive to maintaining biodiversity. Similarly, in agriculturally dominated landscapes, I am also trying to determine what habitat features and management strategies on roadside right-of-ways encourage wildlife diversity in these marginal habitats. My research on alien invasive species focuses on understanding and mitigating their impacts on human and wildlife populations. I am currently working with the U. S. Geological Survey and Everglades National Park to determine if the Burmese python population is negatively impacting mammal populations in south Florida. Additionally, I am working with colleagues at the Jones Ecological Research Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine if the red-imported fire ant, pervasive throughout the south-eastern United States, has altered the behaviors, movements, and population dynamics of small mammals throughout the region. When mammals are introduced to new systems, they can also be destructive to indigenous wildlife. One particularly destructive species is that I am working on is the feral house cat. The conservation of Africa's wildlife poses a specific set of challenges. My research on African wildlife conservation is focused on understanding the life histories of and interaction between vertebrate populations, as well as finding cost effective ways to manage and conserve diversity. I am also working to find ways to estimate the density of ungulates in the southern African savanna, and have initiated a study looking at the best way to detect and monitor mid-sized carnivores. My future goals are to understand how poaching, brush encroachment, and the removal of carnivores have a cascading effect on wildlife communities found in savanna systems. With my research on threatened species,I aim to provide information that helps understand the limiting factors on populations. I am currently working to determine the distribution of and influences of habitat and habitat management on Florida's listed fox squirrel populations. I am also developing a population simulation model to determine if the federally endangered Key Largo woodrat population can be helped through a captive rearing and release program. Working on threatened populations, I developed a unique monitoring technique for the endangered lower keys marsh rabbit monitoring protocol and am currently doing the same for the state of Florida's threatened fox squirrels. Finally, I have interest in developing ways to better predict stakeholders' responses to management actions. To improve predictive models, I have modified the theory of reasoned action by adding a measure of previous behaviors. I will continue to investigate and improve the attitude to behaviors link in an effort to better predict how stakeholders will respond to management actions taken to conserve wildlife.

Progress 09/30/11 to 10/01/16

Outputs
Target Audience:My research was focused on helping land managers and stakeholders in the southeastern United States and Southern Africa Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project lead to the creation of creation of the Swaziland Ecological Research Sympoium and a symposium on conserving wildlife in the Longleaf pine forests of the southeastern United States How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We gave presentations to wildlife professional and managers at local and national levels. Additionally, we presented our work to local birding clubs and to land managers in Africa What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We published an overview paper showing manageres how to maximize biodiversity in fragmented forest surrrounded by development. 2. We published on the impacts of Burmese pythons on mammals in south flroida. We submitted an addtion manuscript on the same topic 3. We continued to research the ecological impacts of locally abundant African elephants and investaged the role of bats in ebola outbreaks. We also submitted a manuscript in the impact of shrub encroachment on bird communities 4. We published our work on the threatend sherman's fox Squirrel, the endangered Salt marsh vole and the endangered Flroida Bonnted Bat. We are continuing to collect data on the state of Florida listed insular cotton rat and the Sanibel Island rice rat 5. We collected data from 300 household to understate the relationship between their, attitudes behaviors and use of natural resources

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Darracq, A. K., W. W. Boone, R. A. McCleery. 2016. Burn regime matters: A review of the effects of prescribed fire on vertebrates in the longleaf pine ecosystem. Forest Ecology and Management, 378:214-221. Ober, H. K, E. C.Braun de Torrez, J. A. Gore, A. M. Bailey, J. K. Myers, K. N. Smith and R. A. McCleery. 2016. Social organization of an endangered subtropical species, Eumops floridanus, the Florida bonneted bat. Mammalia: In press Sovie, A. R., R. A. McCleery, R. J., Fletcher, R. J., and K. M. Hart. 2016. Invasive pythons, not anthropogenic stressors, explain the distribution of a keystone species. Biological Invasions, 1-10. McCleery, R. A. and C.L. Zweig. 2016. Leveraging limited information to understand ecological relationships of endangered Florida salt marsh vole. Journal of Mammalogy: gyw084 Braun, C. E., H. K. Ober, and R. A. McCleery. 2016. Use of a Multi-tactic Approach to Locate an Endangered Florida Bonneted Bat Roost. Southeastern Naturalist. 15: 235-242 Tye, C. R. A. McCleery, R. J. Jr. Fletcher, D. U. Greene, R. Butryn. 2016. Evaluating Citizen Versus Professional Data for Modeling Distributions: Sample selection bias, Predictive performance and Environmental Associations for a Rare Squirrel. Journal of Applied Ecology. 15:235-242 Greene, D. U., R. A. McCleery, L. Wagner, and E. Garrison. 2016. A Comparison of Four Survey Methods for Detecting Fox Squirrels in the Southeastern United States. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management In-Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3996/082015-NAF-013 Fletcher Jr, R. J.,R. A. McCleery, R. A., D. U. Greene, C. A. Tye. 2016. Integrated models that unite local and regional data reveal larger-scale environmental relationships and improve predictions of species distributions. Landscape Ecology, 1-14.


Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:My research was focused on helping land managers and stakeholders in Florida and southern Africa Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We gave presentations to wildlife professional and managers at local and national levels. Additinally, we presented our work to local birding clubs and to land managers in Africa What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue to investigate how agricultural shapes wildlife communities in southern African and in south Florida We will use previously collected data to submit manuscripts on the impacts of invasive fire ants and pythons on mammal communities in the southeastern United States We will present our findings on the influences of elephant impacts on biodiversity and prepare manuscripts for submittal We will continue to research the Sanibel island Rice rat and submit research on the Endangered Florida Bonneted bat We have no research planned for this objective

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We published on the influence of intensive agriculture and roads on birds and small. 2. We published on the impacts of invasive fore ants on small mammals and on the impacts of Burmese pythons on mammals in south flroida. 3. We continued to research the ecological impacts of locally abundant African elephants and investaged the role of bats in ebola outbreaks. Additinally, we published on the factors infleuncing the survival of African bats. 4. We published our work on the threatend sherman's fox Squirrel and we began field work on the Sanibell Island rice rat 5. We made nor progress on this goal

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bailey, K. M., R.A. McCleery, M. W. Binford, C. Zweig. 2015. Land-cover change within and around protected areas in a biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Land Use Science: 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2015.1086905 Long, A. K., L. M. Conner, L. L. Smith, R. A. McCleery. 2015. Effects of an Invasive Ant and Native Predators on Cotton Rat Recruitment and Survival. Journal of Mammalogy 96: 1135-1141. Tye, C., D. Greene, W. Giuliano, R.A. McCleery. 2015. Using Camera-trap Photographs to Identify Individual Fox Squirrels (Sciurus niger) in the Southeastern United States. The Wildlife Society Bulletin: 39:645-650. McCleery, R. A, A.R. Sovie, R. Reed, M. Cunningham, M. Hunter, K. Hart. 2015. Marsh Rabbit Mortalities Tie Pythons to the Precipitous Decline of Mammals in the Everglades. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: 282:20150120. McCleery, R. A., A.R. Holdrof, L.L. Hubbard. B.D. Peer. 2015. Maximizing the wildlife conservation value of road right-of-ways in an agriculturally dominated landscape. PLoS One 10: e0120375


Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: My research was focused on helping land managers and stakeholders in Florida and southern Africa Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We gave presentations to wildlife professional and managers at local and national levels What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1. We will further investigate the influence of intensive agriculture on birds and bats communities and try and understand how these changes influence the ecology of the system and ultimately humans 2. We will focus on understanding theimpacts of invasive pythons and red imported fire ants on native wildlife in the southeastern U.S. 3. We will continue research on the ecological impacts of locally abundant African elephants and investage the role of bats in ebola outbreaks 4. We plan to continue our work on on the endangered Florida salt marsh vole and Sherman's fox squirrel. We will start work on the Sanibell Island rice rat 5. We have no research planned for this objective

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We were able to continue to understand how intensive agriculture and urbanization drastically alters wildlife communities and linked changes in these communities to changes in the ecological function of the system. We published two manuscripts on this topic 2. We made considerable progress toward understanding why an invaive bird, the monk parakeet build large nests on electric utility equipment. These nests often cause power outages. We have made reccomadntations for preventing future nesting. These reccomandations should aid electrtic utility companies and their consumers. We also intiated a project to examine the impacts of invasive snakes on native mammals in the Flroida Everglades. We published one manuscriptson this topic 3. We intiated a project to understand how locally abundant elephnat populations can alter biodiversity, vegetation stucture and ecosystem function in African savannas. 4. We continued to research the endangered Key Largo woodrat, salt marsh vole and Sherman's fox squirrel. We found the captive breeding of Key Largo woodrats would harm the ppulation and developed a new method for detecting endangered salt marsh voles. We published two manuscript on this topic 5. No progress was made on this objective

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Reed J.E., R.A. McCleery, N.J. Silvy, F.E. Smeins, D.J. Brightsmith. 2014. Monk parakeet nest-site selection of electric utility structures in Texas. Landscape and Urban Planning: 129:65-72. Austin, J. D., E.V. Saarinen, A., Arias-P�rez, R.A. McCleery, and R. H. Lyons 2014. Twenty-one novel microsatellite loci for the endangered Florida salt marsh vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus dukecampbelli). Conservation Genetics Resources 1-3. McCleery R.A, C.L. Zweig, M.A. Desa, R. Hunt, W.M. Kitchens, H.F. Percival. 2014. Novel method for camera trapping small mammals. Wildlife Society Bulletin: 38:887-891. McCleery, R.A., J. A. Hostetler, M. K. Oli. 2014. Better off in the wild? Evaluating a captive breeding and release program for the recovery of an endangered rodent. Biological Conservation: 169: 198-205. Hurst, Z. M., R. A. McCleery, B. A. Collier, N. J. Silvy, P. J. Taylor and A. Monadjem. 2014. Linking changes in small mammal communities to ecosystem functions in an agricultural landscape. Mammalian Biology: 79:17-23.


Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: My research was focused on helping land managers and stakeholders in flroida and southern Africa Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Our results were presented two land managers and stakeholders in annual reports, publications and orally in seminar and round table formats What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will further investigate the influence of intensive agriculture on wildlife communities and try and understand how these changes influence the ecology of the system and ultimately humans We will focus on understanding and preventing invasive monk parakeets from nesting on electric utilities We will initiate research on the ecological impacts of locally abundant African elephants We plan to continue our work on the endangered Key largo woodrat and initiate research on the endangered Florida salt marsh vole We have no research planned for this objective

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We were able to understand how intensive agriculture drastically alter wildlife communities and linked changes in these communities to changes in the ecological function of the system. We published two manuscripts on this topic We made considerable progress in understanding how the invasive pathogen,Geomyces destructans, that causes white-nose syndrome in bats interacts with bat wings and alters fungus communities on bats. We published one manuscripts on this topic We were able to provide basic life history and ecological information on two rarely studied African animals. We documented the activity and movement patterns of the tortoise Stigmochelys pardalis in a subtropical savanna and examined the Multi-scale habitat selection of Mus minutoides in the Lowveld of Swaziland. This research generated two publications. We continued to research the endangered Key Largo woodrat and Sherman’s fox squirrel. We found that captive breeding of Key Largo woodrats was not a viable option for recovery of this speices. We published one manuscript on this topic . No progress was made on this objective

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Hurst, Z. M., R. A. McCleery, B. A. Collier, R. J. Fletcher, N. J. Silvy, P. J. Taylor and A. Monadjem. 2013. Dynamic edge effects in small mammal communities across a conservation-agricultural interface in Swaziland. PLoS ONE 8(9): e74520. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074520 Johnson, L. J., A.N. Miller, A. R. A. McCleery, R. A., R. McClanahan, J. A. Kath, S. Lueschow, and A. Porras-Alfaro 2013. Psychrophilic and psychrotolerant fungi on bats: Geomyces a common fungus on bat wings prior to the arrival of White Nose Syndrome. Applied and Environmental microbiology 79:5465-5471 McCleery, R.A., M. K. Oli , J. A. Hostetler, B. Karmacharya, D. Greene, C. Winchester, J. Gore, S. Sneckenberger, S. B. Castleberry, M. T. Mengak. 2013. Predation-driven declines of an endangered mammal? Can a captive-breeding-release program aid recovery? Journal of Zoology 291: 5968. Long, A.K., K. Bailey, D.U. Greene, C. Tye, !C. Parr, !H.K. Lepage, !K.H. Gielow, A. Monadjem and R.A. McCleery. 2013. Multi-scale habitat selection of Mus minutoides in the Lowveld of Swaziland. African Journal of Ecology 51:493500. Monadjem A., R. A. McCleery and B. Collier. 2013. Activity and movement patterns of the tortoise Stigmochelys pardalis in a subtropical savanna. Journal of Herpetology 47:237-242


Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: I am continuing to conduct research on understanding and mitigating the impact of introduced alien species. Along with my graduate students, we currently in the middle of 2 experiments looking at the impacts of pythons and fire ants on mammal communities. Additionally, I have continued to provide scientific information for the recovery of endangered species. My graduate students and I have completed analysis on the distribution of threatened fox squirrels throughout Florida and initiated data collection on endangered voles and threatened endemic round-tailed muskrats. Additionally, we have made huge strides in understanding and conserving African wildlife. I procured money and began the construction of a research center in Swaziland and brokered a Memorandum Of Understanding between the University of Swaziland and the University of Florida. Additionally along with the All-out Africa we initiated a long term monitoring of Swaziland faunal diversity. To disseminate our findings my graduate students and I presented our findings at four conferences and I personally presented my research findings to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Swaziland national Trust Commission. Furthermore, my research on the impacts of sea-level rise on endangered rabbits was picked up by more than 50 news outlets including the discovery channel. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
The results from our research on the impacts of sea-level rise on endangered rabbits in south Florida helped reshape the debate on how sea-level rise influences wildlife populations. Our research showed the impacts from sea-level rise have been harming coastal wildlife for the last 50 years. Furthermore, we demonstrated how coastal development exacerbates the influence of sea-level rise on wildlife habitat. Additionally, our research efforts have changed managers' perceptions of the endangered Key Largo woodrat. It was thought that the species was declining from predation risks but our research helped change this perception and there is a growing belief that this species is threatened by fluctuating rates of reproduction.

Publications

  • Morgan, T.C. R.A. McCleery, M.P. Moulton and A Monadjem. 2012. Are Southern Black Flycatchers Melaenornis pammelaina associated with Fork-tailed Drongos Dicrurus adsimilis Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology 83:109-111
  • Long, A.K., K. Bailey, D.U. Greene, C. Tye, C. Parr, H.K. Lepage, K.H. Gielow, A. Monadjem and R.A. McCleery. 2013. Multi-scale habitat selection of Mus minutoides in the Lowveld of Swaziland. African Journal of Ecology: In press
  • Monadjem A., R. A. McCleery and B. Collier. 2013. Activity and movement patterns of the tortoise Stigmochelys pardalis in a subtropical savanna. Journal of Herpetology: In press
  • Schmidt, J. A., R. A. McCleery, J. R. Seavey, S. E. Cameron Devitt, and P. M. Schmidt. 2012. Impacts of a half century of sea-level rise and development on an endangered mammal. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12024