HOME RANGE OVERLAP and SPATIAL-TEMPORAL INTERACTIONS in FEMALE FISHERS on the HOOPA INDIAN RESERVATION in CALIFORNIA by Kerry M
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HOME RANGE OVERLAP AND SPATIAL-TEMPORAL INTERACTIONS IN FEMALE FISHERS ON THE HOOPA INDIAN RESERVATION IN CALIFORNIA By Kerry M. Rennie A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Natural Resources: Wildlife Committee Membership Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther, Committee Chair J. Mark Higley, Committee Member Dr. Matthew Johnson, Committee Member Dr. William J. Zielinski, Committee Member Dr. Yvonne Everett, Graduate Coordinator July 2015 ABSTRACT HOME RANGE OVERLAP AND SPATIAL-TEMPORAL INTERACTIONS IN FEMALE FISHERS ON THE HOOPA INDIAN RESERVATION Kerry M. Rennie Spatial organization and interactions within animal populations can have important effects on population demography, social dynamics, and genetic composition. Understanding social behavior and relatedness of individuals in a population can advise species management and conservation. Previous research suggests that fishers (Pekania pennanti) are asocial and exhibit intrasexual territoriality, where home ranges rarely overlap with the same sex. On the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, female fishers appear to overlap with members of the same sex to a greater extent than most studies report. I tested the hypothesis that female fishers tolerate some degree of spatial overlap, but that co- occurrence in the area of overlap is uncommon. I also tested the hypothesis that this overlap is mediated by habitat selection and female philopatry. I found that female fishers share a large proportion of their home ranges and overlap at a high frequency. However, dynamic interactions revealed fishers avoided each other in both space and time. Habitat used in overlap areas differed from what was available to them in non-overlapping areas but lacked a consistent pattern of ii selection among habitat types. I used genetic samples to assess population pairwise relatedness and determined that adult female fishers were more closely related and adult male fishers less related, to each other, respectively. Furthermore, these data showed evidence of male-biased dispersal in this population suggesting female philopatry. Information from this study is important for management of current fisher populations in order to better understand spatial patterns on the landscape needed to guide management for both source and translocation programs used for conservation of this species. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Grant Number: DGE-1049702) and in-kind contributions from Hoopa Valley Tribal Forestry. I thank the Hoopa Tribal Council and Hoopa Valley Tribal Forestry staff for their permission and encouragement throughout this study. I would like to sincerely thank my advisor, Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther, for her invaluable support, guidance, and encouragement throughout my tenure as an undergraduate and graduate student at Humboldt State University. I would also like to thank my committee members J. Mark Higley, Dr. Matthew Johnson, and Dr. William Zielinski for their expertise and suggestions on this manuscript. I extend my gratitude to J. Mark Higley and Dr. Sean Matthews for co-founding the Hoopa Fisher Project and for their incessant faith in me to carry out this project from start to finish. I especially appreciate Dr. Sean Matthews for mentoring me and being a constant source of inspiration for me throughout many years of fisher fieldwork. I would also like to thank Dr. Tim Bean and Angela Darnell for valuable statistical advice on the spatial-temporal component. I am indebted to Kristin Brzeski for her expertise on genetics and unwavering optimism and patience. This study would not have been possible without help from numerous field technicians in trapping efforts, especially Shannon Mendia. Last but not least, I would like to sincerely acknowledge Caylen Cummins for all of her hard work and dedication in helping to collect telemetry and den site locations. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 METHODS ......................................................................................................................... 9 Study Area ...................................................................................................................... 9 Capture and Handling ................................................................................................... 12 Radio telemetry ............................................................................................................. 13 Home Range and Overlap Estimation .......................................................................... 14 Spatial and Temporal Interaction Analysis ................................................................... 16 Habitat Analysis ............................................................................................................ 20 Genetic Analysis ........................................................................................................... 22 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 25 Home Range and Overlap ............................................................................................. 25 Spatial and Temporal Interactions ................................................................................ 28 Habitat Analysis ............................................................................................................ 28 Genetic Analysis ........................................................................................................... 31 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 38 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................... 46 PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ................................................................................ 55 v APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………56 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Description of notation used in text for calculating spatial and temporal interactions between female fishers with overlapping home ranges on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, March 2013 - March 2014 ................................. 18 Table 2. Mean area (km2) and percent overlap (± SE, range below) for home range (95% fixed kernel) and core use (50% isopleth) areas for pairwise and total combined overlap in annual, denning, and post-denning seasons on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, March 2013 - March 2014 .................................................................... 27 Table 3. Five Stand Structural Stage habitat types selected for (+++) or against (---) in areas of overlap (use) compared to non-overlap areas (available) in 12 female fishers on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, March 2013 - March 2014 ... 30 Table 4. The number of alleles, observed heterozygosity (HO), expected heterozygosity (HE), tests for conformance to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, allele size ranges, and allele frequency ranges of 9 microsatellite loci among 127 male and female residential fishers on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, September 2006 - February 2014................................................................................................................................... 33 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Study area boundary and trap locations on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation for the study of female fisher home range overlap and spatial-temporal interactions in northwestern California, USA, March 2013 - March 2014 .............................................. 11 Figure 2. Mean within population pairwise values (R) between 46 male and 81 female resident fishers on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, September 2006 - February 2014. Upper and lower whiskers denote 95% confidence limits determined by 999 bootstrap resampling. ......................................................................... 34 Figure 3. Mean relatedness values (Queller and Goodnight’s R values from GenAlEx) within distance classes for (a) female and (b) male resident fishers on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, September 2006 - February 2014. Upper and lower whiskers denote 95% confidence intervals determined by 999 bootstrap resampling. ........................................................................................................................ 35 Figure 4. Comparison of 46 male and 81 female AIc frequency distributions suggesting male sex-biased dispersal in fisher on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California, USA, September 2006 - February 2014 ...........................................................................