Highways and interstates cause habitat fragmentation and loss, with considerable impacts to wildlife. Interstate 70 is a major transportation route cutting through one of the only remaining forested connections for wildlife moving through the southern Rockies. To alleviate its potential barrier effect, the Colorado Department of Transportation is proposing to build a wildlife bridge on I-70 just west of Vail Pass. This study is aimed at testing which field techniques are most effective at documenting species presence in order to develop an appropriate long term monitoring strategy for this area. Four sampling methods are compared (track transect surveys, scat transect surveys, hair snares, and remotely-triggered camera surveys) during a baited and unbaited study session on Shrine Pass Road near I-70. Data from the baited sessions was used to determine how well each method documents species presence based on time, money and accuracy of identification. In addition, data from the baited session was compared to data from the unbaited session to see if there is any benefit to using a lure. I conclude that no method is free from bias and care should be taken to develop the most robust study design. Though cameras tend to detect the greatest degree of species richness, they frequently fail to detect several species. The effectiveness of cameras can largely be increased by supplementing them with other monitoring techniques. Considering budget and time restraints, I recommend using snow tracking in the winter months, and if at all feasible, scat surveys throughout the year.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05292008-214453 |
| Date | 07 August 2008 |
| Creators | Bonaker, Paige |
| Contributors | Len Broberg, Vicki Watson, Paul Wilson |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05292008-214453/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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