The Greater Yellowstone Area Mountain Ungulate Project
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The Greater Yellowstone Area Mountain Ungulate Project 2011 ANNUAL REPORT www.gyamountainungulateproject.com May 2012 Authors: Montana State University – Bozeman Robert Garrott, Professor, Ecology Department, Principal Investigator Jay Rotella, Professor, Ecology Department, Principal Investigator Megan O’Reilly, M.S. Graduate Student Jesse DeVoe, M.S. Graduate Student Carson Butler, Research Technician Elizabeth Flesch, Research Technician Mike Sawaya, Database Contractor Collaborators: Idaho Fish and Game Hollie Miyasaki, Wildlife Biologist, Idaho Falls Dale Toweill, Wildlife Program Coordinator, Boise Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Julie Cunningham, Wildlife Biologist, Bozeman Tom Lemke, Wildlife Biologist, Livingston (retired) Karen Loveless, Wildlife Biologist, Livingston Justin Paugh, Wildlife Biologist, Big Timber Shawn Stewart, Wildlife Biologist, Red Lodge National Park Service P.J. White, Supervisory Wildlife Biologist, Yellowstone NP, Mammoth WY Sarah Dewey, Wildlife Biologist, Grand Teton NP, Moose, WY United States Forest Service Jody Canfield, Wildlife Biologist, Gallatin National Forest, Bozeman, MT Rachel Feigley, Wildlife Biologist, Gallatin National Forest, Livingston, MT Andrew Pils, Wildlife Biologist, Shoshone National Forest, Cody, WY Dan Tyers, Wildlife Biologist, Bozeman, MT Wyoming Game and Fish Department Doug Brimeyer, Wildlife Biologist, Jackson Kevin Hurley, Bighorn Sheep Coordinator, Cody (retired) Doug McWhirter, Wildlife Biologist, Cody Funding Yellowstone National Park Canon U.S.A., Inc. through the Yellowstone Park Foundation Montana State University Wyoming Game and Fish Department Idaho Fish and Game Department United States Forest Service Wyoming Governor’s Big Game License Coalition Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation Montana Wild Sheep Foundation 2 Preface It has been an interesting road we have all traveled over the past 2.5 years of this project. Starting with a recognition of the need to gain better knowledge of bighorn sheep and mountain goat ecology and the interactions between the two species, and a vision of putting together a collaborative research project among as many natural resource agencies and professionals as possible, together we have built what I think is a strong foundation for a productive research program that can inform and enhance conservation and management of these two mountain ungulates in the region. Our collaboration now includes 18 professionals representing nearly every natural resource agency in the region that manages bighorn sheep and mountain goats and their habitat. Our financing has expanded from the initial funding provided by Yellowstone National Park and Montana State University to additional grants and/or in-kind contributions from Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana state fish and wildlife agencies, the U.S. Forest Service, as well as contributions from corporate and sportsman organizations. These developments are real milestones and it is great to all be pulling together on this effort. The first two years of work has focused on putting together the collaborations and funding, and in aggregating all available data so that we can benefit from the work that management biologists have put into monitoring their populations over the past 2-3 decades. It has been quite a task to understand all the data from the various sources, and the many differing formats, but we think we have captured nearly all the fundamental data on the 26 bighorn sheep populations as well as the 11 mountain goat survey areas in the greater Yellowstone area. Two students have mined these data for biological insight and have provided our first major research products which are included in this report. With these accomplishments behind us we are now moving into establishing new field research initiatives in a number of study sites throughout the region. This is no small task, starting with securing all the special permits required by state, federal, and university entities! The first graduate student supported by our initiative, Megan O’Reilly, who is responsible for developing and refining occupancy survey methodologies that we hope will lead to enhance habitat models, has completed her field work and is scheduled to defend her thesis within the year. Jesse DeVoe will be building on Megan’s work as the project’s second graduate student, with the goal of building and validating mountain goat habitat models to predict mountain goat range expansion and abundance throughout the GYA. Telemetry studies focused on questions of spatial ecology and population dynamics have been initiated on a number of study areas, with plans in the works to add several more. We are also building our expertise in health, body condition, and disease to develop a solid research program in these topics to help address the ever pressing questions dealing with bighorn sheep die-off’s. Many thanks to all of you who have enthusiastically participated in this venture thus far. I look forward to what we will accomplish together in the year to come. - Bob Garrott 3 Table of Contents Project Overview ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Building Databases for Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats in the GYA .............................................................. 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 Database Design Considerations ............................................................................................................................... 7 Point Data Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 7 Polygon Data Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Database Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Mountain Goat Range Expansion ............................................................................................................................ 21 Population Trends of Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats in the Greater Yellowstone Area ........................... 24 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................... 24 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 25 Background ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 Methods ................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Compilation of Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat Data from the GYA ........................................................... 27 Ln-linear Regression Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 28 Comparison of Sympatric and Allopatric Bighorn Sheep Population Growth Rates .......................................... 30 Synthesis of Mountain Ungulate Data from the GYA ........................................................................................ 31 Results ..................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Data Compilation ................................................................................................................................................ 32 Ln-linear Regression Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 35 Comparison of Sympatric and Allopatric Bighorn Sheep Population Growth Rates .......................................... 35 Synthesis of Mountain Ungulate Data from the GYA ........................................................................................ 41 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................................... 45 Data Compilation ................................................................................................................................................ 45 Ln-linear Regression Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 46 Comparison of Sympatric and Allopatric Bighorn Sheep Population Growth Rates .......................................... 48 Synthesis of Mountain Ungulate Data from the GYA ........................................................................................ 49 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................. 50 Literature Cited ....................................................................................................................................................... 50 Climatic