Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
(N/A)
FAYETTEVILLE,AR 72703
Performing Department
Forestry And Natural Resources
Non Technical Summary
The purpose of this project is to outline my research plan to investigate the ecology, conservation, and management of large, forest-dwelling mammals in Arkansas beginning 1 October 2017 and ending 30 September 2022. Seven research projects scheduled under the scope of this project will be described. Each project has specific measurable objectives that will be accomplished within the time frames indicated. The 7 project objectives are as follows: 1) Determine elk and cattle diet composition and overlap, and elk depredation of standing forage crops in Arkansas, 2) Estimate elk abundance, density, and distribution in Arkansas, 3) Estimate survival and causes of mortality of elk calves, and female birth-site selection in Tennessee, 4) Genetically assign white-tailed deer and elk from Arkansas that have chronic wasting disease (CWD) to family groups, 5) Genotype CWD-positive and CWD-negative white-tailed deer and elk from Arkansas, 6) Determine the economic impacts of CWD in Arkansas, and 7) Estimate abundance and density of black bears in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain and West Gulf Coastal Plain, Arkansas.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Determine elk and cattle diet composition and overlap, and elk depredation of standing forage crops in Arkansas;Estimate elk abundance, density, and distribution in Arkansas;Estimate survival and causes of mortality of elk calves, and female birth-site selection in Tennessee.Genetically assign white-tailed deer and elk from Arkansas that have chronic wasting disease (CWD) to family groups;Genotype CWD-positive and CWD-negative white-tailed deer and elk from Arkansas;Determine the economic impacts of CWD in Arkansas;Estimate abundance and density of black bears in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain and West Gulf Coastal Plain, Arkansas.
Project Methods
Project: Elk and Cattle Diet Composition and Overlap, and Elk Depredation of Standing Forage Crops in the Buffalo River Watershed, ArkansasMicrohistological analysis will be used to quantify vegetation composition of elk and cattle diets from fecal pellet collections. Plant identification and percentage composition will be determined by examining 2 slides of 25 views per pellet sample. Plants contained within the pellets will be identified to species when possible. I will measure the niche breadth of elk and cattle using Levin's normalized index and use Ivlev's electivity index to evaluate elk and cattle forage selection. I will analyze diet overlap between elk and cattle using the simplified Morisita index. I will analyze differences in the proportion of plant categories or individual key plant species across herbivore species using a Kruskal-Wallis H-test.Project: Elk Abundance, Density, and Distribution in ArkansasA Jet Ranger helicopter and professional wildlife capture crew will be employed to capture 75 elk (50 cows and 25 bulls) of all age classes within the Buffalo River watershed. Thiafentanil oxalate will be used to anesthetize elk. Elk will be fitted with VHF radiocollars. I will divide the Buffalo River watershed into Elk Population Zones (EPZ) based, at least in part, on drainage basin topography. Using a helicopter, I will fly each EPZ and count and classify all elk observed. The most difficult aspect of developing the detection model will be obtaining accurate measurements of covariates for elk groups that are not detected in the preliminary surveys. I will use a fixed-wing aircraft to monitor the location of collared elk with telemetry before and during each survey. As soon as possible after it is clear that the survey crew has not detected a collared elk in an area they have covered, the telemetry crew will find the elk and record the associated covariates.Project: Survival and Causes of Mortality of Elk Calves, and Female Birth-Site Selection in TennesseeI will capture 40-45 adult female elk in baited corral traps. After capture, adult female elk will be anesthetized using a combination of carfentanil and xylazine. Immediately after anesthesia, each pregnant female will be fitted with either a satellite GPS or VHF radio-collar and vaginal implant transmitter. Pregnancy will be verified with ultrasonography. VITs will be programmed with a temperature-sensitive switch, set at 95oF, to be triggered on expulsion (i.e., at parturition) and, thus, allow me to begin my search for calves in the area they were born. When a VIT radio signal is detected, i.e., when the female gives birth to a calf, I will immediately search the birth area on foot. I will hand capture approximately 30 neonatal calves <6 days old. All calves will be aged, weighed, measured (hind foot and head length), and examined for ticks. General body condition will be subjectively determined as poor, moderate, or good based on behavior, presence or absence of inflammation of the umbilicus and anus, and level of ectoparasite infestation. Calves will be fitted with expandable, releasable radio-collars. Each calves' radio signal will be monitored each day at dawn from mid-May through mid-August, when the risk of mortality to calves is relatively high. Beginning in mid-August, calves will be monitored less intensively: 3 times per week until mid-November, then once or twice per week until mid-May. I will develop models of calf survival using the known-fate models in program MARK. Weekly, preweaning, seasonal, and annual calf survival will be estimated. I will examine up to 90 birth site locations and evaluate birth site-specific habitat selection at macro- and microhabitat scales using a resource selection function modeling approach.Project: Family Group Assignment and Genotyping White-tailed Deer in Arkansas Using DNA extracted from the ear tissues of the 266 deer collected for CWD testing in the CWD focus area and the 52 deer collected from southwestern Pope County (N = 318 ear tissue samples), I intend to address the question of whether or not the CWD-positive male found dead in Pope County can be genetically assigned to the deer subherd in Newton County. DNA will be extracted from ear tissue collected from each deer (N = 318) and genotyped using 2,000 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) DNA markers.Project: Family Group Assignment and Genotyping Elk in ArkansasDNA samples will be collected from as many elk in the Pruitt herd as possible. While the animals are still warm, 25 guard hairs will be collected from the dorsal and ventral neck region. Hair samples will be supplemented with scat samples from Pruitt, Boxley Valley, and Gene Rush WMA, to assure we have a good genetic representation of elk in and surrounding the Pruitt subherd. For each hair and scat sample, WGI will conduct 16-locus microsatellite genotyping followed by analysis of individual origins (specifically, statistical testing with GeneClass 2 to establish whether the genotype from the CWD-positive cow could have been drawn from the local population).Project: Economic Impacts of Chronic Wasting Disease in ArkansasThis project consists of a statewide telephone survey conducted in cooperation with the UALR Survey Research Center to study the awareness, attitudes, and experiences of licensed hunters regarding CWD.Project: Estimate Abundance and Density of Black Bears in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain and West Gulf Coastal Plain, ArkansasThe study area is too large to adequately survey with typical uniformly-spaced hair trap configurations. I will, therefore, employ a clustered hair trapping grid and utilize spatially explicit capture-mark-recapture (secr) population abundance and density estimation techniques. Each trapping cluster will consist of 9 (3x3) hair traps. Each trap within each cluster will be 2 km apart. Each hair trap will consist of an enclosure comprised of 2 strands of 4-pronged barbed wire stretched around 3-5 trees and positioned 50 and 25 cm above ground level. We will hang bait and scent attractants such as bakery products, fish carcasses, molasses, and/or candy flavoring from a line above the enclosure. Different lures will be employed after each trapping session to provide a novel scent to previously "captured" bears. Each trap will be checked and rebaited weekly for 7 consecutive weeks, beginning in June 2017. Hair samples that may have originated from different animals, i.e., hair collected from different barbs, will be collected and stored separately. We will remove hair samples from the barbed-wire wearing sterile latex gloves to avoid contamination of the DNA. Each hair sample will be placed in small paper envelopes, sealed, and the location, date, session number, and trap number will be recorded on the envelope. A flame will be passed under each barb to remove any missed hairs before the wire is reused. All hair samples will be stored in Ziploc® plastic bags containing granular silica and stored in a dry, cool, dark environment until analysis. Silica is a desiccant, which minimizes DNA degradation. Following standard protocols, DNA will be extracted and analyzed based on 12 microsatellite markers and a gender marker. Once the hair samples are genotyped and individual bears identified, we will create capture histories and use the secr package for program R to model population abundance and density.