A study was undertaken to explore relationships between wetland characteristics which make them efficient water purifiers versus their ability to serve as wildlife habitat. The effects of designing constructed wetlands for improved habitat on water treatment efficiencies were quantified. Results indicate that some sacrifice in treatment efficiency is required and that the degree of efficiency reduction is dependant upon pollutant loading rates. However, sacrifice in efficiency is much smaller than increase in habitat quality, and can be offset by increasing wetland area. A practical, theoretical application was then attempted.

No description available.

Cottontail rabbit, Sylvilagus floridanus, utilization of 16 artificial burrows was studied during the winters of 1976-1977 and 1977-1978. The burrows were located in Delaware County, Indiana, in four vegetative cover types including ungrazed deciduous forest, fescue grassland, wildlife plantings, and multiflora rose hedgerow. Each burrow consisted of a lay-up chamber made from the upper portion of a 55-gallon steel drum set on top of the ground. Two entrances made of slotted plastic drainage pipe extended in opposite directions. Soil was filled around the burrows and over the entrance tunnels. Cottontails found in the burrows were captured, marked by ear tagging, sexed, weighed, measured and released.Burrow utilization was noted in each cover type with greatest usage occurring in the multiflora rose hedgerow and in the forest. Snow cover and low ambient air temperature seemed to be the two most important factors contributing to burrow usage.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential for protecting critical resplendent quetzal habitat on private lands bordering the south-western edge of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica. First, a habitat analysis was made of 12 forest patches using a 10% strip method to obtain an importance value for the Lauraceae fed on by the resplendent quetzal. Second, a landowner survey was conducted using a structured interview questionnaire to determine landowner attitudes, and the possible factors influencing these attitudes, towards forested land, wildlife, the resplendent quetzal and potential habitat protection incentives. Significant differences were found between forest patch importance values for the Lauraceae suggesting that for conservation purposes careful forest patch selection is important. Most landowners were found to value their forested land more than their land under other uses and to favor technical forest management assistance over leasing. If funding can be made available there is a good chance that resplendent quetzal habitat can be adequately protected and managed through providing assistance to those landowners with the most critical forest patches. / Department of Natural Resources

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2004. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Clayton B. Marlow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-53).

M.S.

The consequences to wildlife of living in contaminated areas with chronic low-dose rates of radiation are still relatively unknown. Laboratory studies using acute radiation have demonstrated that invertebrates are relatively radioresistant compared to other taxa. However, there is little scientific evidence to show how chronic low dose rates affect invertebrates. This is problematic for understanding the consequences to wildlife living in highly contaminated areas and also testing assumptions made for invertebrates by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). This thesis was designed to address a number of recommendations have been suggested to improve radioecological studies and help reduce the uncertainty as to effects at low dose rates. These include environmentally relevant laboratory studies (Chapters 2 and 4), improved dosimetry and dose assessments (Chapter 3), investgating confounding factors (Chapter 4) and continuity between laboratory experiments and field work conducted in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) (Chapter4). Chapter 2 presents an environmentally-relevant experiment testing how bumblebee reproduction and life history is affected by chronic low-dose rates. Unexpectedly, at dose rates equivalent to the CEZ, queen production declined and reproductive timing was altered. The estimation of dose rates to establish a dose-effect relationship for wild animals is difficult and a common criticism of radioecological studies, therefore, Chapter 3 tests whether the common approach to measuring only external ambient dose rates is suitable and whether the inclusion of life-history traits significantly alters the dose rate. The findings from this chapter reiterate the necessity to use dose-assessment tools to test different parameters to estimate dose rate in different scenarios to account for unknown variation. Chapter 4 demonstrates that in areas of elevated dose rates in the CEZ parasite burden was higher and bumblebees did not live as long. These results were reinforced by a laboratory study, which determined bumblebees exposed to increased radiation doses had high parasite burdens and were infected quicker, resulting in reduced longevity. The data in this thesis detected effects below the current dose bands used in international radioprotection and therefore advocate these dose bands be re-evaluated. However, the data do not support studies which have measured adverse effects at dose rates similar to background and suggest that confounding factors such as habitat quality and co-stressors need to be included in field and laboratory studies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The behavioural ecology of duikers (Cephalophus spp.) was studied in mature forest and mixed secondary vegetation around TaI National Park, Cöte d'Ivoire. The most common species in both vegetation types was C. maxwelli, followed by C. dorsalis, C. ogilbyi, C. niger, C. zebra and C. lentinki in mature forest, and C. niger, C. dorsalis and C. sylvicultor in secondary vegetation. Population surveys were carried out by a number of methods. Transect censuses by night were found most efficient in mature forest, whereas in secondary vegetation, only pellet transect censuses and drives into nets were possible. C. maxwelli populations were estimated at about 63 km2 in mature forest and 79 km2 in secondary vegetation. Duikers were primarily frugivorous, but the proportion of leaves taken increased in the season of fruit scarcity. Fruit abundance in different habitats increased with the age of the vegetation. Six C. maxwelli in mature forest and four in secondary vegetation were radio-collared to determine ranging patterns and social behaviour. They were diurnal and lived in groups of one male with one or two females and young. Home ranges, which were about 5 ha in size in mature forest and 3.6 ha in secondary vegetation, were defended by males, and the boundaries were marked by latrine areas by both sexes. In mixed secondary vegetation, all habitats were used except open fields and bamboo thickets. Implications for conservation and management are discussed. The continued preservation of mature forest and the control of poaching are essential for the survival of the three rarer species (C. -jentinki, C. zebra and C. ogilbyi). The control of poaching must precede any programme of sustainable harvesting of the more abundant species, which could be carried out in secondary vegetation. Duiker farming may be possible if low-cost sources of fencing and forage can be identified.