We used female ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) carcasses as surrogates for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) to study factors influencing survival and detection bias associated with avian fence collision surveys in southern Idaho, USA, during spring 2009. We randomly placed 50 pheasant carcasses on each of 2 study areas, estimated detection probability during fence-line surveys, and monitored survival and retention of carcasses and their associated sign over a 31-day period. Survival modeling suggested site and habitat features had little impact on carcass survival, and constant survival models were most supported by the data. Model averaged carcass daily survival probability was low on both study areas and ranged from 0.776 to 0.812. Survival of all carcass sign varied strongly by location, and the top sign survival model included a site effect parameter. Model averaged daily survival probability for collision sign on the 2 study sites ranged from 0.863 to 0.988 and varied between sites. Logistic regression modeling indicated detection probability of carcasses during fence-line surveys for avian collision victims was influenced by habitat type and microsite shrub height at the carcass location. Carcasses located in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) habitats were detected at a lower rate (0.36) than carcasses in little (A. arbuscula) and black sagebrush (A. nova) habitats (0.71). Increasing shrub height at the carcass location from the little sagebrush mean of 16.5 cm to the big sagebrush mean of 36.0 cm reduced detection probability by approximately 30%. Avian fence collision surveys in sagebrush-steppe habitats should be conducted at 2-week sampling intervals to reduce the impact of survival bias on collision rate estimates. Two-week sampling intervals may be too long in areas with low carcass and sign survival, therefore survival rates should be estimated on all study areas to determine the appropriate sampling interval duration. Researchers should be aware of the effects of local vegetation on detection probabilities, and methods to correct detection probabilities based on collision site attributes should be applied to ensure more accurate collision rate estimates. Additionally, caution should be used when aggregating or comparing uncorrected collision data from areas with differing vegetation, as detection probabilities are likely different between sites. ß 2011 The Wildlife Society.

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations are broadly distributed, occupy a variety of habitats, and have demographic rates that are heterogeneous through space and time. Dynamics of turkey populations are sensitive to the magnitude of fall either‐sex harvest, yet there have been few attempts to study performance of fall harvests systematically across a range of plausible demographic scenarios. Thus robustness of existing recommendations to structural uncertainty in population dynamics is marginally understood. We used a stochastic, sex‐specific theta‐logistic model to simulate performance of fall harvests (0–15%) across scenarios representing uncertainty about current rates of population productivity (3 levels), female losses during spring hunting (2 levels), and spring male harvest (3 levels), with uncertainty in the strength of density dependence as a common attribute. We demonstrated that performance of previously recommended fall harvests was not robust to changes in demographic parameters that occur within and among populations, and thus previous management recommendations may not be appropriate for all regions. Fall harvest rates capable of maintaining large populations with high probability varied from 0–6% with changes to population productivity, when median male and female spring harvests were 30% and 5%, respectively. In general, risks and management tradeoffs accompanying fall harvests were tightly linked to assumed values of population parameters, where changes to productivity and female loss had particularly strong effects on management outcomes. Specifically, reduced productivity or increased female loss decreased the ability to maintain large populations for a given fall harvest rate. Thus, fall harvest recommendations deduced from models that considered only a small portion of the demographic parameter space may not meet modern management objectives over a broader range of conditions. Moreover, our results suggest that future management could be improved by reducing structural uncertainty about turkey demography to allow for region‐specific harvest strategies, or by using decision‐theoretic approaches to identify harvest strategies that are robust to uncertainty about population parameters. © 2017 The Wildlife Society.

Previous research in Europe and North America suggested grouse are susceptible to collision with infrastructure, and anecdotal observation suggested greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) fence collision in breeding habitats may be prevalent. However, no previous research systematically studied greater sage‐grouse fence collision in any portion of their range. We used data from probability‐based sampling of fences in greater sage‐grouse breeding habitats of southern Idaho, USA, to model factors associated with collision at microsite and broad spatial scales. Site‐scale modeling suggested collision may be influenced by technical attributes of fences, with collisions common at fence segments absent wooden fence posts and with segment widths >4 m. Broad‐scale modeling suggested relative probability of collision was influenced by region, a terrain ruggedness index (TRI), and fence density per square km. Conditional on those factors, collision counts were also influenced by distance to nearest active sage‐grouse lek. Our models provide a conceptual framework for prioritizing sage‐grouse breeding habitats for collision mitigation such as fence marking or moving, and suggest mitigation in breeding habitats should start in areas with moderate‐high fence densities (>1 km/km2) within 2 km of active leks. However, TRI attenuated other covariate effects, and mean TRI/km2 >10 m nearly eliminated sage‐grouse collision. Thus, our data suggested mitigation should focus on sites with flat to gently rolling terrain. Moreover, site‐scale modeling suggested constructing fences with larger and more conspicuous wooden fence posts and segment widths <4 m may reduce collision. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.

Fish often exhibit complex movement patterns, and quantification of these patterns is critical for understanding many facets of fisheries ecology and management. In this study, we estimated movement and fishing mortality rates for exploited walleye (Sander vitreus) populations in a lake-chain system in northern Michigan. We developed a state-space model to estimate lake-specific movement and fishery parameters and fit models to observed angler tag return data using Bayesian estimation and inference procedures. Informative prior distributions for lake-specific spawning-site fidelity, fishing mortality, and system-wide tag reporting rates were developed using auxiliary data to aid model-fitting. Our results indicated that postspawn movement among lakes was asymmetrical and ranged from approximately 1% to 42% per year, with the largest outmigration occurring from the Black River, which was primarily used by adult fish during the spawning season. Instantaneous fishing mortality rates differed among lakes and ranged from 0.16 to 0.27, with the highest rate coming from one of the smaller and uppermost lakes in the system. The approach developed provides a flexible framework that incorporates seasonal behavioral ecology (i.e., spawning-site fidelity) in estimation of movement for a mobile fish species that will ultimately provide information to aid research and management for spatially structured fish populations.