TY - JOUR
T1 - Summer habitat selection of the lower colorado river valley population of greater sandhill cranes
AU - Kruse, Kammie L.
AU - Collins, Daniel P.
AU - Conring, Courtenay M.
AU - Grisham, Blake A.
AU - Conway, Warren C.
AU - Knetter, Jeffrey M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Allen Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Identifying habitat selection and use is important to understand in wildlife management because it informs habitat manipulations, conservation efforts, and species distribution. Habitat selection by sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) has been studied primarily on overwintering areas and a few summering locations. Summer habitat selection by the Lower Colorado River Valley Population of greater sandhill cranes (A. c. tabida) in the Intermountain West is not widely known, but has been identified as an information need by many wildlife management agencies. We captured and attached satellite platform transmitter terminals to 21 adult sandhill cranes on Cibola and Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuges in Arizona and California, and private lands in California and Idaho. Home ranges of all marked cranes (50% core area: ¯x = 525.4 ha, SE = 155.6; 99% isopleth: ¯x = 6,476.5 ha, SE = 1,637.5) were similar to other studies on summering grounds. Resource analysis indicated that marked sandhill cranes used wetland habitats in greater proportion than their availability for both nocturnal and diurnal locations at the population level, by individuals within the entire landscape, and by individuals within their core area. Wetland habitats consist of ~7% of the available habitat. Within the Wetland category, the Temperate Flooded and Swamp Forest level (a Formation level in the National Vegetation Classification system) was the most important to summering Lower Colorado River Population sandhill cranes. Wetland managers can concentrate their efforts for conservation, enhancement, and restoration on these type of wetlands to ensure the sustainability of this small population of sandhill cranes.
AB - Identifying habitat selection and use is important to understand in wildlife management because it informs habitat manipulations, conservation efforts, and species distribution. Habitat selection by sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) has been studied primarily on overwintering areas and a few summering locations. Summer habitat selection by the Lower Colorado River Valley Population of greater sandhill cranes (A. c. tabida) in the Intermountain West is not widely known, but has been identified as an information need by many wildlife management agencies. We captured and attached satellite platform transmitter terminals to 21 adult sandhill cranes on Cibola and Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuges in Arizona and California, and private lands in California and Idaho. Home ranges of all marked cranes (50% core area: ¯x = 525.4 ha, SE = 155.6; 99% isopleth: ¯x = 6,476.5 ha, SE = 1,637.5) were similar to other studies on summering grounds. Resource analysis indicated that marked sandhill cranes used wetland habitats in greater proportion than their availability for both nocturnal and diurnal locations at the population level, by individuals within the entire landscape, and by individuals within their core area. Wetland habitats consist of ~7% of the available habitat. Within the Wetland category, the Temperate Flooded and Swamp Forest level (a Formation level in the National Vegetation Classification system) was the most important to summering Lower Colorado River Population sandhill cranes. Wetland managers can concentrate their efforts for conservation, enhancement, and restoration on these type of wetlands to ensure the sustainability of this small population of sandhill cranes.
KW - Antigone canadensis tabida
KW - Habitat selection
KW - Home range
KW - Lower Colorado river valley population
KW - Movements
KW - Sandhill crane
KW - Wetlands
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85038848449&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3996/042017-JFWM-037
DO - 10.3996/042017-JFWM-037
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85038848449
VL - 8
SP - 436
EP - 448
JO - Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
JF - Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
SN - 1944-687X
IS - 2
ER -