Individual level response to natural and anthropogenic disturbance represents an increasingly important, but as yet little understood, component of animal behavior. Disturbance events often alter habitat, which in turn can modify behaviors of individuals in affected areas, including changes in habitat use and associated changes in social structure. To better understand these relationships, we i...

Stochastic population theory makes clear predictions about the effects of reproductive potential and carrying capacity on characteristic time-scales of extinction. At the same time, the effects of habitat size and quality on reproduction and regulation have been hotly debated. To trace the causal relationships among these factors, we looked at the effects of habitat size and quality on extincti...

Changes in the distribution and abundance of bird and small mammal species at urban-wildland edges can be caused by different factors. Edges can affect populations directly if animals respond behaviorally to the edge itself or if proximity to edge directly affects demographic vital rates (an ‘‘ecotonal’’ effect). Alternatively, urban edges can indirectly affect populations if edges alter the ch...

T effects of landscape context on habitat quality are receiving increased attention in conservation biology. The objective of this research is to demonstrate a landscape-level approach to mapping and evaluating the anthropogenic risks of grassland and forest habitat degradation by examining habitat context as defined by intensive anthropogenic land uses at multiple spatial scales. A landscape m...

Differential habitat use and intraguild competition are both thought to be important drivers of animal population sizes and distributions. Habitat associations for individual species are well-established, and interactions between particular pairs of species have been highlighted in many focal studies. However, community-wide assessments of the relative strengths of these two factors have not be...

The US Fish and Wildlife Service will make an Endangered Species Act listing decision for the lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; “LPC”) in March 2014. Based on the findings of a single, Uzbek antelope study, conservation plans put forth for the LPC propose to modify and re-position habitat in the landscape through a series of temporary preservation/restoration efforts. We argue...

Critical habitat is defined under Section 2 of Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA) as, “the habitat necessary for the survival or recovery of a listed wildlife species and that is identified as the species’ critical habitat in the recovery strategy or in an action plan for the species”. SARA requires the development of recovery strategies for species listed as Endangered, Threatened or Extirpat...

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a declining seabird that is well-known for nesting in coastal old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Most studies of habitat selection have focused on modeling terrestrial nesting habitat even though marine habitat is believed to be a major contributor to population declines in some regions. To address this information gap, we conducted a...

Egg mimicry is an important adaptation of common cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, against rejection of eggs by their respective hosts. A precondition for the maintenance of egg mimicry is that female cuckoos find hosts with a matching egg type. Experimental evidence indicated that habitat imprinting may be important for host selection. We tested whether the spacing and laying patterns of female cuckoo...

A habitat-change model was used to compare past, present, and future land cover and management practices to assess potential impacts of alternative agricultural practices on wildlife in two agricultural watersheds, Walnut Creek and Buck Creek, in central Iowa, USA. This approach required a habitat map for each scenario based on soil type and land cover, a list of resident species, and an estima...