Wildlife and Terrestrial Species

Nuclear microsatellite markers have been developed and implemented on ~2,000 West Indian manatees. These markers provide individual genetic fingerprints for mark-recapture studies, population structure information for the conservation of unique or isolated populations, and pedigree and relatedness information for addressing inbreeding and breeding structure patterns.

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease that threatens the survival of hibernating bats in North America. Since first documented in the winter of 2005/2006, WNS has spread from a very small area of New York across at least two thousand kilometers in half or more of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. Over five million bats are estimated to have died during the past decade from...

Grasslands are arguably one of the most anthropogenically stressed ecosystems of the western United States. The highly endangered black-footed ferret and prairie dogs epitomize grassland mammals of high conservation concern.

A multi-agency effort assesses the health of manatees and provides baseline information on their health, reproductive status, and nutritional condition.

Since 1978, USGS scientists have photo-documented manatees in the Southeast United States. Now, more than 3,000 manatees can be found in the MIPS database.

Manatees are tropical to subtropical in distribution and, with few exceptions, Florida is the northern limit of their natural winter range. The availability of warm-water habitat during winter is critical for the future persistence of the population in Florida.

USGS works with partners to assess manatee distribution and habitat use throughout the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

The Challenge: Since 1966, the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) has filled a vital role in identifying at-risk bird species for Federal, State, and private entities. The BBS is a scientifically rigorous population count performed by a highly skilled, largely volunteer work force of nearly 2,500 observers. Every year these observers visit most of the survey’s 4,500 routes, which consist of...

White-nose syndrome (WNS) and/or Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P.d.), the causal agent, has spread westward across 26 states and 5 provinces within the eastern United States and Canada, respectively, over a short period of time. Since its discovery there has been a search to stop the spread of this disease that has killed millions of hibernating bats in its wake. Recent collaborative work by FORT...

The Challenge: The North American Bird Phenology Program (BPP) houses a data set of 6 million historical observations of over 800 bird species, documenting occurrences and migration times from the 1880s through the 1970s -- the longest and most comprehensive legacy data set on bird migration in existence. In an effort to rescue this invaluable data set, the BPP has scanned and are in the process...

During the winter of 2006–2007, an affliction of unknown origin dubbed “white-nose syndrome” (WNS) began devastating colonies of hibernating bats in a small area around Albany, New York. Colonies of hibernating bats were reduced 80–97 percent at the affected caves and mines that were surveyed. Since then, white-nose syndrome or its causative agent have consistently spread more than 2,000...

The Challenge: Each autumn, millions of landbirds migrate southward from breeding areas in the U.S. and Canada. Because these migrations occur during hurricane season, the impacts of hurricanes on migrating birds and their en route resting and foraging sites (stopover sites) are a real concern. Hurricane Sandy occurred late in the landbird migration season. By the time the storm made landfall in...