Publications

We studied pairing success in male rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) in northern Alaska to learn whether males obtaining more females possessed phenotypic traits that influenced female choice directly, whether these traits permitted males to obtain territories favored by females, or whether both processes occurred. The number of females per male varied from zero to three. Several male and territory t

The 13 chapters in this book were selected from the 75 research papers presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference of Research on the Colorado Plateau. The theme of this meeting centered around research, inventory, and monitoring on lands over the Colorado Plateau, with a focus on the newly created BLM Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The conference, held on 15-18 September 1997 in Fla

Lead poisoning of waterfowl, particularly tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus), has been documented in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin in northern Idaho for nearly a century. Over 90% of the lead-poisoned tundra swans in this area that were necropsied have no ingested lead shot. Spent lead shot from hunting activities over the years is therefore a minor source of lead in these swans. The migrating swan

Many applied and theoretical investigations require information on how productivity varies in time and space (Temple and Wiens 1989. DeSante 1995). Examples include studies of habitat quality, population trends, life-history tactics, and metapopulation dynamics. From a demographic perspective, productivity is the number of young counted at a given time of year, produced per adult (e.g. Caswell 198

Highly toxic sodium cyanide (NaCN) is used increasingly by the international mining community to extract gold and other precious metals through milling of high grade ores and heap leaching of low grade ores. Of the 98 million kg cyanide (CN) consumed in North America in 1989, about 80% was used in gold mining (Knudson 1990). In Canada, more than 90% of the mined gold is extracted from ores with th

Two different methods of reconstructing historical vegetation change, drawing on General Land Office (GLO) surveys and fossil pollen deposits, are demonstrated by using data from the Great Lakes region. Both types of data are incorporated into landscape-scale analyses and presented through geographic information systems. Results from the two methods reinforce each other and allow reconstructions o

We examined effects of fire on golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) territory occupancy and reproductive success in southwestern Idaho because wildfires since 1980 have resulted in large-scale losses of shrub habitat in the Snake River Plain. Success (percentage of pairs that raised young) at burned territories declined after major fires (P = 0.004). Pairs in burned areas that could expand into adjace

No abstract available.

Lack of information concerning predatory interactions between Ambystoma gracile and Ambystoma macrodactylum (long-toed salamander) larvae, as well as potential cannibalism within A. gracile populations, prompted us to conduct a field experiment to investigate the potential for this inter- and intraspecific predation. This field experiment was conducted at a lake in Mount Rainier National Park, Was

The American Kestrel(Falco sparverius) is a sexually dichromatic falcon that exhibits considerable individual plumage variability. For example, the anterior extent of the black dorsal barring in juvenile males has been used throughout North America as one of several aging criteria, but recent data demonstrate that the variability among individual Southeastern American Kestrels(E S. paulus)exce

A synoptic inventory of physical and chemical properties and plankton assemblages of 27 mountain lakes was conducted at Mount Rainier National Park in 1988. From 1990–1993, die opportunity was presented to resurvey six of these lakes to determine inter-annual change within die set of characteristics surveyed in 1988. If changes were evident, a second objective was to provide guidance to park manag

Connectivity of discrete habitat patches may be described in terms of the movements of individual organisms among such patches. To examine connectivity of widely dispersed alkali lake systems, we recorded post-breeding and subsequent breeding locations of color-banded American Avocets (Recurvirostra americana) in the western U.S. Great Basin, from 1995-1997. Among individuals observed during the p