John Perrine

... Demographic stochasticity primarily affects populations with less than fifty to one hundred individuals, when populations ... from one to four million years for mammals to eleven to thirteenmillion years for marine ... Extinction, Recovery, and the Endangered Species Act 55 Table 4.1. ...

State Route (SR) 101 north of San Luis Obispo, California is a major regional traffic corridor with peak weekday traffic volumes of approximately 4,000 vehicles per hour. State Route 101 also bisects a major wildlife corridor in and near the Los Padres National Forest in the central coast region of California. Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) with large mammals including mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), black bear (Ursus americanus), mountain lion (Puma concolor), and feral pig (Sus scrofula) are a safety issue. Data provided by California Department of Fish and Wildlife indicates this section of highway may have a higher than normal AVC rate for black bear compared to other areas in the State. To develop solutions, Caltrans initiated an ongoing collaboration with California Polytechnic State University (Calpoly) in San Luis Obispo. Starting in 2009, students used automatic camera stations, trackplates and daily drive transects to document wildlife roadkills, roadside activity and use of existing underpasses for a wildlife connectivity study associated with a proposed median barrier project. Results from this study helped guide design decisions for a wildlife exclusion fence in a roadkill hotspot located in the same area. The project includes 2.5 miles of wildlife exclusion fence installed on both sides of SR 101, four jump-outs constructed at strategic locations to allow wildlife that become trapped along the roadway to escape from the highway corridor, and four electric mats installed as wildlife guards to discourage wildlife (bears in particular) from entering the highway corridor at unfenced roadways that intersect SR 101. The fencing project was funded through the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Enhancement Program in 2009 and was completed in April 2012. Currently, Calpoly students are monitoring the fence’s effectiveness at reducing roadkills while maintaining regional wildlife connectivity. Post-construction surveys began in summer 2012 and will continue for at least 12 months to allow for direct comparison with the 2009 pre-construction data. Students are conducting roadkill surveys to determine whether AVC rates have been reduced within the project area. Automatic camera stations have been deployed at the electric mats, jump-outs and undercrossings to quantify species-specific responses to these features. Initial results have documented the electric mats deterring bears from entering the road corridor, but suggest the design should be modified to better exclude deer. Results have also indicated that multiple species are using the undercrossings and deer are using the jump-outs. On-going monitoring and collaboration with partners has allowed Caltrans to integrate concerns about AVC rates and the preservation of wildlife habitat connectivity into the transportation planning process. The project received the Caltrans “Excellence in Transportation Award” in 2012 and the California Transportation Foundation 2013 Safety Project of the Year Award.

Microplastics are persistent environmental contaminants that to date have been studied primarily in aquatic systems, but few studies have examined their prevalence or impact in terrestrial trophic networks. A recent study documented microplastics in the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of terrestrial raptors in central Florida. We used protocols based on that study to develop a baseline dataset of microplastics in the GI tracts of terrestrial raptors on the central coast of California. In 2021, Pacific Wildlife Care, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Morro Bay, CA, provided 16 raptor carcasses: three red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), four red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus), two great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), and seven barn owls (Tyto alba). We found microplastics in the GI tracts of all 16 birds, with a mean (± SE) of 12.25 (± 1.89) microplastic particles per bird. Of the 196 microplastic particles we observed, microfibers were the most abundant (58%), followed by microb...

Carnivores play critical roles in ecosystems, yet many species are declining worldwide. The Sierra Nevada Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes necator; SNRF) is a rare and endangered subspecies of red fox limited to upper montane forests, subalpine, and alpine environments of California and Oregon, United States. Having experienced significant distribution contractions and population declines in the last century, the subspecies is listed as at-risk by relevant federal and state agencies. Updated information on its contemporary distribution and density is needed to guide and evaluate conservation and management actions. We combined 12 years (2009–2020) of detection and nondetection data collected throughout California and Oregon to model the potential distribution and density of SNRFs throughout their historical and contemporary ranges. We used an integrated species distribution and density modeling approach, which predicted SNRF density in sampled locations based on observed relationships between...

One goal of the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment (SNFPA) 2001 and 2004 Records of Decision was to protect and recover native Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) populations in the Sierra Nevada (USDA Forest Service 2001 p. 14). To accomplish this goal, the ROD commits the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to completing a conservation assessment for the Sierra Nevada red fox in cooperation with other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as Tribal governments. This conservation assessment synthesizes the best available scientific information and thought concerning habitat relationships, population status and trends, historical and current distributions, and key threats potentially affecting the distribution, abundance and persistence of the Sierra Nevada red fox. Biologists and resource managers from the Forest Service, US Department of the Interior (USDI) National Park Service, USDI Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, University of ...

The following is a slightly edited version of a plenary address delivered at the Western Section annual meeting in January 2009. The plenary theme was “The view from the future: wildlife management challenges and opportunities of the next 100 years.” Key references are listed at the end of the address. Readers will also be interested in the Winter 2009 (Vol. 3, No. 4) issue of The Wildlife Professional, which contains a special section on the preparation and training of future wildlife professionals

Context: A central problem in road ecology is the need to minimise roadkill without exacerbating fragmentation. The best current solution to this problem is wildlife-exclusion fencing combined with crossing structures. However, because species vary in their propensity to use crossing structures, optimising their design for a suite of species remains a challenge. Aims: We investigated medium-and large-mammal use of undercrossings along Highway 101 in the Central Coast of California. Specifically, we quantified how undercrossing size, surrounding habitat, and the presence of a wildlife-exclusion fence, influenced overall species richness, as well as use by black bear, mule deer, puma, and bobcat. Methods: Using wildlife cameras, we documented mammal use at 11 undercrossings in our study area. We calculated the openness index of each undercrossing and remotely measured habitat features, such as percentage tree cover, and distance to nearest stream. We determined the relative importance of these factors on overall species richness, and the activity of focal species, using generalised linear mixed models in an information-theoretic framework. Key results: Mesocarnivores used a wider variety of undercrossings, and used them more frequently, than did larger mammals. Species richness and bear activity were greater closer to streams, and there was more bear activity at undercrossings within the wildlife-exclusion fence zone than outside it. Deer activity was strongly and positively related to undercrossing openness. Our puma and bobcat analyses were uninformative, likely because we detected puma too infrequently, and because bobcats showed little variation in use across sites. Conclusions: Our results support previous research highlighting natural travel corridors (e.g. riparian areas) as important places for wildlife crossings, both for a diversity of medium–large mammals and a low-density large carnivore. Ungulates may be the most selective taxa in respect to undercrossing use. Implications: Large, open undercrossings along natural travel routes accommodate the greatest diversity of medium–large mammal species.

This file contains the site-specific covariates and capture histories for the 34 occupancy-modeled species. Each row contains a capture history for a species at a site along with that site's model covariates, including era, region, slope, elevation, elevation squared, T100 (number of traps x 100), and logT (log of the number of traps). There are also two columns for latitude ("lat") and longitude ("long"), but these were not used in the occupancy analysis. This file is formatted as it was used in the MARK analysis

Resurveys of historical collecting localities have revealed range shifts, primarily leading edge expansions, which have been attributed to global warming. However, there have been few spatially replicated community-scale resurveys testing whether species' responses are spatially consistent. Here we repeated early twentieth century surveys of small mammals along elevational gradients in northern, central and southern regions of montane California. Of the 34 species we analysed, 25 shifted their ranges upslope or downslope in at least one region. However, two-thirds of ranges in the three regions remained stable at one or both elevational limits and none of the 22 species found in all three regions shifted both their upper and lower limits in the same direction in all regions. When shifts occurred, high-elevation species typically contracted their lower limits upslope, whereas low-elevation species had heterogeneous responses. For high-elevation species, site-specific change in temperature better predicted the direction of shifts than change in precipitation, whereas the direction of shifts by low-elevation species was unpredictable by temperature or precipitation. While our results support previous findings of primarily upslope shifts in montane species, they also highlight the degree to which the responses of individual species vary across geographically replicated landscapes

Resurveys of historical collecting localities have revealed range shifts, primarily leading edge expansions, which have been attributed to global warming. However, there have been few spatially replicated community-scale resurveys testing whether species' responses are spatially consistent. Here we repeated early twentieth century surveys of small mammals along elevational gradients in northern, central and southern regions of montane California. Of the 34 species we analysed, 25 shifted their ranges upslope or downslope in at least one region. However, two-thirds of ranges in the three regions remained stable at one or both elevational limits and none of the 22 species found in all three regions shifted both their upper and lower limits in the same direction in all regions. When shifts occurred, high-elevation species typically contracted their lower limits upslope, whereas low-elevation species had heterogeneous responses. For high-elevation species, site-specific change in te...

Roads can negatively impact the survival of wildlife populations through additional mortality from road kill and population fragmentation caused by road avoidance behaviors. The 11.9 mile section of State Route 101 between the towns of San Luis Obispo and Atascadero, CA, USA, crosses a mountain lion movement corridor and an area important to maintaining ecological connectivity between protected lands in the Los Padres National Forest to the north and south. I examined the spatial patterns and landscape and roadway factors associated with road kill occurrence for six taxa; large mammals, mesocarnivores, squirrels, rabbits, birds and raptors. road kills were documented using vehicle-based surveys. Small mammals were the most common road kill (58.3%), followed by mesocarnivores (10.9%), birds (10.6%), rabbits (5.1%), large mammals (3.3%) and raptors (3.2%). Twenty-nine large mammal road kills were observed; eighteen mule deer, six black bears and five feral pigs. Road kill was highest ...

The following is a slightly edited version of a plenary address delivered at the Western Section annual meeting in January 2009. The plenary theme was “The view from the future: wildlife management challenges and opportunities of the next 100 years.” Key references are listed at the end of the address. Readers will also be interested in the Winter 2009 (Vol. 3, No. 4) issue of The Wildlife Professional, which contains a special section on the preparation and training of future wildlife professionals.

ABSTRAC/': VlSitors and employees in national parks may observe species ofinterest to wildlife biologists and resource managers. These sightings are useful to researchers and managers only ifthe data can be efficiently acquired, stored and retrieved for analysis.· We identified several problems in the wildlife sightings reporting system at Lassen Volcanic National Park, including a confusing array ofreporting forms; incomplete contact information for the reporter; insuffi­ cient reporting ofthe animal's description, behavior and location; and a cumbersome data entry and retrieval system. We developed a new system to correct these problems. A single reporting form corrects the aforementioned data gaps and includes a park map so the reporter canmark the approximate location ofthe sighting. Resource Managemeot staff use a clear overlay with a numbered 1 mP grid to assign a location code for each sighting. This code and the report information are entered into a Microsoft Access ...

ABSTRACT AimThe American pika (Ochotona princeps) appears to have experienced climate-mediated upslope range contraction in the Great Basin of North America, but this result has not yet been extended to other portions of the pika's range. Our goals were: first, to determine the environmental parameters that most influence current pika distribution within California; second, to infer whether these constraints explain extirpations that have occurred in California; third, to predict future extirpations; and fourth, to advance methods for assessing the degree to which pikas and other climate-sensitive mammals are threatened by climate change.LocationHistorical pika record locations in California, USA, spanning four degrees of latitude and longitude, from Mount Shasta to the southern Sierra Nevada.Methods We identified 67 precise historical pika record locations and surveyed them exhaustively, over multiple years, to determine whether pika populations persist at those sites. We used an information theoretic approach and logistic regression to model current pika occupancy as a function of 16 environmental variables, tested our best-performing model as a predictor of historical occupancy, and then used our model to predict future pika occupancy given anticipated climate change.ResultsPikas no longer occurred at 10 of 67 (15%) historical sites in California. The best predictors of occupancy were average summer temperature and talus habitat area within a 1-km radius. A logistic model fitted to this relationship correctly predicted current occupancy at 94% of sites and correctly hindcasted past occupancy at 93% of sites, suggesting that the model has strong temporal transferability. Depending on the future climate scenario, our model projects that by 2070 pikas will be extirpated from 39% to 88% of these historical sites in California.Main conclusionsOur simple species distribution model for pikas performs remarkably well for both current and historical periods. Pika distribution appears to be governed primarily by behavioural restrictions mediated by summer temperature and by the configuration of talus habitat available to pikas locally. Pikas, and other montane species in the western USA, may be subjected to above-average exposure to climate change because summer temperature is projected to rise more than annual temperature.