Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest
Knowledge about recruitment in a population can be critical when making conservation decisions, particularly for harvested species. Harvest can affect population demography in complex ways and this may be particularly true for species whose successful reproduction is linked with complex social dynam...
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ftmontanastunojs:oai:ojs.arc.lib.montana.edu:article/698 2024-09-15T18:01:21+00:00 Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest Ausband, David E. Stansbury, Carisa R. Stenglein, Jennifer L. 2015-12-31 application/pdf https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698 eng eng Intermountain Journal of Science https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698/547 https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698 Copyright (c) 2015 Intermountain Journal of Sciences Intermountain Journal of Sciences; Vol. 21 No. 1-4 December (2015); 56 1081-3519 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Non-peer-reviewed Abstract 2015 ftmontanastunojs 2024-07-10T03:16:13Z Knowledge about recruitment in a population can be critical when making conservation decisions, particularly for harvested species. Harvest can affect population demography in complex ways and this may be particularly true for species whose successful reproduction is linked with complex social dynamics. We used noninvasive genetic sampling and a natural experiment to estimate recruitment in gray wolves (Canis lupus) before and after harvest in the northern Rocky Mountains, Idaho USA (2008-2013). We hypothesized that recruitment would decline after hunting and trapping began and that the decline in recruitment would be attributable to the harvest of pups and not subtler mechanisms associated with group dynamics and reduced reproductive success. We collected fecal samples from wolves in 10 packs for 6 consecutive years, extracted DNA, and genotyped 154 individual pups across 18 microsatellite loci. Population harvest rates averaged 23.8% (SD = 9.2). Our hypothesis that recruitment would decline was supported; survival from 3 – 15 months of age decreased from 0.60 (95% CI: 0.48-0.72) without harvest to 0.38 (95% CI: 0.28-0.48) with harvest and recruitment declined from 3.2 (95% CI: 2.1-4.3) to 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1-2.1) pups per pack after harvest was initiated. We attributed just 18-38% of pup mortality directly to harvest and suggest that there are indirect effects of harvest on recruitment that may be associated with changes in group size and structure. Models that do not include both direct and indirect effects of harvest on recruitment may underestimate the potential impact of harvest on population growth in social species. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus gray wolf Montana State University Library Open Journal Systems |
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description |
Knowledge about recruitment in a population can be critical when making conservation decisions, particularly for harvested species. Harvest can affect population demography in complex ways and this may be particularly true for species whose successful reproduction is linked with complex social dynamics. We used noninvasive genetic sampling and a natural experiment to estimate recruitment in gray wolves (Canis lupus) before and after harvest in the northern Rocky Mountains, Idaho USA (2008-2013). We hypothesized that recruitment would decline after hunting and trapping began and that the decline in recruitment would be attributable to the harvest of pups and not subtler mechanisms associated with group dynamics and reduced reproductive success. We collected fecal samples from wolves in 10 packs for 6 consecutive years, extracted DNA, and genotyped 154 individual pups across 18 microsatellite loci. Population harvest rates averaged 23.8% (SD = 9.2). Our hypothesis that recruitment would decline was supported; survival from 3 – 15 months of age decreased from 0.60 (95% CI: 0.48-0.72) without harvest to 0.38 (95% CI: 0.28-0.48) with harvest and recruitment declined from 3.2 (95% CI: 2.1-4.3) to 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1-2.1) pups per pack after harvest was initiated. We attributed just 18-38% of pup mortality directly to harvest and suggest that there are indirect effects of harvest on recruitment that may be associated with changes in group size and structure. Models that do not include both direct and indirect effects of harvest on recruitment may underestimate the potential impact of harvest on population growth in social species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ausband, David E. Stansbury, Carisa R. Stenglein, Jennifer L. |
spellingShingle |
Ausband, David E. Stansbury, Carisa R. Stenglein, Jennifer L. Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
author_facet |
Ausband, David E. Stansbury, Carisa R. Stenglein, Jennifer L. |
author_sort |
Ausband, David E. |
title |
Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
title_short |
Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
title_full |
Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
title_fullStr |
Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Survival and Recruitment of Gray Wolf Pups Before and after Harvest |
title_sort |
survival and recruitment of gray wolf pups before and after harvest |
publisher |
Intermountain Journal of Science |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698 |
genre |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
op_source |
Intermountain Journal of Sciences; Vol. 21 No. 1-4 December (2015); 56 1081-3519 |
op_relation |
https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698/547 https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/IJS/article/view/698 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Intermountain Journal of Sciences |
_version_ |
1810438508035178496 |