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Feral Swine Sus Scrofa: a New Threat to the Remaining Breeding Wetlands of the Vulnerable Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander Ambystoma Bishopi

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Feral Swine Sus Scrofa: a New Threat to the Remaining Breeding Wetlands of the Vulnerable Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander Ambystoma Bishopi Feral swine Sus scrofa: a new threat to the remaining breeding wetlands of the Vulnerable reticulated flatwoods salamander Ambystoma bishopi K ELLY C. JONES,THOMAS A. GORMAN,BRANDON K. RINCON,JOHN A LLEN C AROLA A. HAAS and R ICHARD M. ENGEMAN Abstract Feral swine Sus scrofa have been implicated as a Keywords Ambystoma bishopi, endangered species, major threat to sensitive habitats and ecosystems as well ephemeral ponds, hog control, hog damage, invasive spe- as threatened wildlife. Nevertheless, direct and indirect im- cies, rooting, Sus scrofa pacts on threatened species (especially small, fossorial spe- cies) are not well documented. The decline of the U.S. federally endangered reticulated flatwoods salamander Introduction Ambystoma bishopi, categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, has been rapid and there are few remaining nvasive feral swine Sus scrofa cause extensive damage breeding locations for this species. The flatwoods salaman- Ito natural systems and affect many species of native wild- der depends on complex herbaceous vegetation in all life life and vegetation, both directly and indirectly (Seward stages, including eggs, larvae and adults. Historically sets et al., ). In addition, feral swine have been implicated of hog tracks have been observed only occasionally in the as a major threat to sensitive habitats and ecosystems vicinity of monitored reticulated flatwoods salamander (Engeman et al., ). The negative impact of exotic species breeding wetlands, and damage to the wetlands had never on native species and ecosystems is exceeded only by – been recorded. However, during the autumn winter breed- human-caused habitat destruction (Wilcove et al., ; – ing season of we observed a large increase in hog Parker et al., ). In the USA exotic species have played sign, including extensive rooting damage, in known flat- a role in the listing of % of the species protected by the woods salamander breeding wetlands. Our objective was Endangered Species Act (Stein & Flack, ). Worldwide, to assess the amount of hog sign and damage in these wet- invasive species are a leading contributor to extinctions of lands and to take corrective management actions to curb birds, fish and mammals (Clavero & García-Berthou, additional impacts. Of wetlands surveyed for hog sign, ). Unlike many invasive species that may have primarily presence was recorded at %, and damage at %. Of the direct effects on other species through predation or compe- sites known to be occupied by flatwoods salamanders in tition, feral swine can have both direct effects as predators – , % had presence, and % had damage. We and indirect effects by drastically altering habitats (Zengel found that regular monitoring of disturbance in wetland ha- & Conner, ; Barrios-García & Ballari, ; Rossell bitats was a valuable tool to determine when intervention et al., ). Non-native predators tend to be a greater threat was needed and to assess the effectiveness of intervention. than native predators to prey populations (Salo et al., ). Habitat damage caused by feral hogs poses a potentially ser- Feral swine have been implicated as a threat to several threa- ious threat to the salamanders, which needs to be mitigated tened wildlife species in the USA, including the lesser using methods to control and exclude hogs from this sensi- prairie-chicken Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, shorebirds tive habitat. and marine turtles (USDA, ; Engeman et al., , ), but direct and indirect impacts on small, fossorial species, including amphibians, have not been as well docu- mented. Land managers tasked with the recovery of endan- gered wildlife require an increased understanding of the KELLY C. JONES (Corresponding author), THOMAS A. GORMAN*, BRANDON existence and nature of conflicts between feral swine and K. RINCON,CAROLA A. HAAS Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, threatened amphibians. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. E-mail [email protected] Reticulated flatwoods salamanders Ambystoma bishopi JOHN ALLEN Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of and frosted flatwoods salamanders A. cingulatum have Agriculture, Niceville, Florida, USA been identified, along with three other amphibian species RICHARD M. ENGEMAN National Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA in Florida that are either federally or state listed, as being threatened by the activities of feral hogs (USDA, ). *Current address: Aquatic Resources Division, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Chehalis, Washington, USA Although direct predation of salamanders by feral swine Received May . Revision requested July . has been reported (Howe et al., ), it has been suggested Accepted October . First published online February . that habitat disturbance from extensive rooting has the most Oryx, 2018, 52(4), 669–676 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001253 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University Libraries - Virginia Tech, on 10 Mar 2020 at 17:52:39, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001253 670 K. C. Jones et al. serious impact on amphibians with specialized habitat re- frequent drought years, smoke management risks that in- quirements (Means & Travis, ). Feral hogs create short- herently accompany prescribed fire, and slow natural dis- term disturbance of vegetation and soil, removing emergent persal by the salamanders into recently restored habitat, plants and exposing bare soil (Arrington et al., ; Doupé the species faces a long, difficult road to recovery. et al., ; Rossell et al., ). They can also affect the Feral swine are relatively ubiquitous at Eglin, where their long-term vegetation structure, as certain plants appear to damage to wetlands has been documented for many years respond positively and others, such as seedlings of the long- (Engeman et al., ). Nevertheless, for . years only oc- leaf pine Pinus palustris, which as canopy trees provide an casional sets of hog tracks had been observed in the vicinity important source of fuel to maintain the fire-dominated of monitored flatwoods salamander breeding wetlands, and ecology of this habitat, may be consumed preferentially by damage to the sites had never been documented prior to hogs (Simberloff, ; Arrington et al., ; Means, . However, while surveying for larval flatwoods sala- ; Boughton & Boughton, ). These impacts are par- manders during the – autumn–winter breeding ticularly challenging for flatwoods salamanders because season we observed a significant increase in hog sign, in- these species rely on hydric and mesic longleaf pine–wire- cluding extensive damage from rooting in known breeding grass Aristida stricta savannah habitat for both the aquatic wetlands of the flatwoods salamander. The addition of this and terrestrial phases of their life cycles (Palis, ). new threat to an already challenging recovery poses a poten- The reticulated flatwoods salamander was listed as feder- tially serious problem, the severity of which needs to be ally endangered in (USFWS, ) and is categorized assessed. as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Palis & Hammerson, Effects of invasive species on rare species may be more ). The decline of the species has been rapid, and fewer pronounced in a location such as Florida, where rare species than breeding wetlands across the species’ range are may be particularly vulnerable because extensive develop- known to have been occupied in recent years (USFWS, ment has depleted many of the native habitats on which ; Semlitsch et al., ). Eglin Air Force Base in they depend (Engeman et al., ). Invasive species often Florida is one of few remaining public lands where this spe- present novel control situations for managers, requiring the cies occurs, and it is the only remaining property within the acquisition of biological knowledge and the development entire range of the species to support two populations, each and testing of control technologies and strategies (e.g. occurring in wetland complexes having . occupied wet- Engeman & Vice, ). Our objective was to assess the lands (Gorman et al., ). amount of hog sign and damage in these wetlands and to The flatwoods salamander depends on complex herb- take corrective management actions to curb additional im- aceous vegetation for all aspects of its life history. The eco- pacts from this invasive mammal. We report on our moni- tone between deeper wetland areas and uplands provides toring procedure as well as the management practices to a diverse habitat structure, and this type of shallow, well- document the benefits of regular monitoring in facilitating vegetated littoral zone is known to be important to many a rapid response. species of pond-breeding amphibians (Porej & Hethering- ton, ; Shulse et al., ). Flatwoods salamanders lay their eggs in dense herbaceous ground cover in the ecotone Study area (Gorman et al., ), and developing larvae feed and seek cover there as well (Sekerak et al., ; Gorman et al., ). Our study area comprised longleaf pine–wiregrass flat- Frequently metamorphs and adults are observed climbing woods with scattered ephemeral wetlands of various and perching above the ground in wiregrass near breeding sizes on Eglin Air Force Base, Okaloosa County, Florida. wetlands (Jones et al., ). This dense understorey herb- Within this area we selected wetlands, of which were aceous vegetation is maintained by the presence of an historical breeding
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