Impact of censusing and research on wildlife populations

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dc.contributor.authorKilpatrick, A. Marmen
dc.contributor.authorHoyt, Joseph R.en
dc.contributor.authorKing, R. Andrewen
dc.contributor.authorKaarakka, Heather M.en
dc.contributor.authorRedell, Jennifer A.en
dc.contributor.authorWhite, J. Paulen
dc.contributor.authorLangwig, Kate E.en
dc.contributor.departmentBiological Sciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2021-02-23T14:14:20Zen
dc.date.available2021-02-23T14:14:20Zen
dc.date.issued2020-11en
dc.description.abstractPopulation monitoring and research are essential for conserving wildlife, but these activities may directly impact the populations under study. These activities are often restricted to minimize disturbance, and impacts must be weighed against knowledge gained. However, few studies have quantified the effects of research or census-related visitation frequency on populations, and low visitation rates have been hypothesized to have little effect. Hibernating bats have been hypothesized to be especially sensitive to visitation because they have limited energetic stores to survive winter, and disturbance may partly deplete these stores. We examined the effect of site visitation frequency on population growth rates of three species of hibernating bats, little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) and tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus), both before and after detection of the disease white-nose syndrome. We found no evidence that more frequent visits decreased population growth rates for any of these species. Estimated coefficients were either the opposite sign as hypothesized (population growth rates increased with visitation frequency) or were very small (difference in population growth rates 0.067% [SE 2.5%]-1.8% [SE 9.8%]) relative to spatial and temporal variation (5.9-32%). In contrast, white-nose syndrome impacts on population growth rates were easily detected and well-characterized statistically (effect sizes 4.4-8.0; severe population declines occurred in the second and third years after pathogen detection) indicating that we had sufficient power to detect effects. These results indicate that visitation frequency (forM. sodalis:annual vs. semi-annual counts; forM. lucifugusandP. subflavus:1-3 three research visits per year) had undetectable impacts on bat population growth rates both with and without the additional stress of an emerging infectious disease. Knowledge gained from censuses and research may outweigh disturbance due to human visitation if it can be used to understand and conserve the species.en
dc.description.adminPublic domain – authored by a U.S. government employeeen
dc.description.notesNational Science Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: DEB-1115895, DEB-1336290, DEB 1911853; US FWSen
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [DEB-1115895, DEB-1336290, DEB 1911853]; US FWSUS Fish & Wildlife Serviceen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.264en
dc.identifier.eissn2578-4854en
dc.identifier.issue11en
dc.identifier.othere264en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/102427en
dc.identifier.volume2en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsPublic Domainen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/en
dc.subjectcensusen
dc.subjectendangered speciesen
dc.subjectmonitoringen
dc.subjectmultiple stressorsen
dc.subjectresearch impactsen
dc.subjectwildlife managementen
dc.titleImpact of censusing and research on wildlife populationsen
dc.title.serialConservation Science and Practiceen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)