Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Wildlife Research Wildlife Research Society
Ecology, management and conservation in natural and modified habitats
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > WR > WR07187
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 35(8)

Optimising methods for monitoring programs: Olympic marmots as a case study

Julia Witczuk A B C D , Stanislaw Pagacz B and L. Scott Mills A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Wildlife Biology Program, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.

B Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, 00-679 Warszawa, Poland.

C Postal address: Carpathian Wildlife Research Station, Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Ogrodowa 10, 38-700 Ustrzyki Dolne, Poland.

D Corresponding author. Email: juliawit@miiz.eu

Wildlife Research 35(8) 788-797 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR07187
Submitted: 15 December 2007  Accepted: 9 October 2008   Published: 16 December 2008

Abstract

Monitoring of rare and declining species is one of the most important tasks of wildlife managers. Here we present a large-scale, long-term monitoring program for Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) throughout its range across a logistically challenging mountainous park. Our multiple-stage process of survey design accounts for the difficulty imposed by access to remote habitats and funding constraints. The Olympic marmot is endemic to the Olympic Mountains, Washington State, USA. Although nearly all of its range is enclosed within Olympic National Park, declines and local extirpations of the species have been documented. We considered several possible alternative survey approaches, and propose a monitoring program designed to reflect extinction–recolonisation dynamics using presence–absence data. The sampling design is based on annual surveys of a set of at least 25 randomly selected clusters (closely located groups of sites with record of current or historical occupancy by marmots), and supplemented by sampling 15 never-occupied sites to test for new colonisations. The monitoring plan provides a framework that park managers can use for assessing changes over time in Olympic marmot distribution across the range of the species. Our sampling design may serve as a useful case study for establishing monitoring programs for other species with clumped distributions.

Additional keywords: Marmota olympus, occupancy, Olympic National Park, presence–absence.


Acknowledgements

We thank Sue Griffin, Jon Graham, Dan Pletscher and Kerry Foresman, as well as Andrea Taylor and two anonymous reviewers, for suggestions on the monitoring program and manuscript. We are grateful to Olympic National Park managers and staff for their support for the project. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0415604 to L. Scott Mills and Mark L. Taper).


References

Armitage, K. B. , and Downhower, J. F. (1974). Demography of yellow-bellied marmot populations. Ecology 55, 1233–1245.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Barash D. P. (1989). ‘Marmots: Social Behavior and Ecology.’ (Stanford University Press: Stanford.)

Bibikov D. I. (1999). ‘Marmots of the World.’ Scientific ed. K. B. Armitage. Available at: http://www.cons-dev.org/marm/MARM/PUBNET/Theses/Bibikov/bibtex/801.html [Verified 19 November 2008].

Blumstein, D. T. , and Arnold, W. (1998). Ecology and social behavior of golden marmots (Marmota caudata aurea). Journal of Mammalogy 79, 873–886.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Bryant A. A. (1998). Metapopulation ecology of Vancouver Island marmots (Marmota vancouverensis). Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.

Bryant A. A. (2000). Relative importance of episodic versus chronic mortality in the decline of Vancouver Island Marmots (Marmota vancouverensis). In ‘Proceedings of a Conference on the Biology and Management of Species and Habitats at Risk (Kamloops, BC, 15–19 February 1999), Vol. 1’. (Ed. L. M. Darling.) pp. 189–196. (BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks: Victoria, BC.)

Bryant, A. A. , and Janz, D. W. (1996). Distribution and abundance of Vancouver Island Marmots (Marmota vancouverensis). Canadian Journal of Zoology 74, 667–677.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Cortot H. , Francou M. , Juan D. , Tron L. , Le Berre M. , and Ramousse R. (1996). Development of a census method of Alpine marmots in the Écrins National Park. In ‘Biodiversity in Marmots’. (Eds M. Le Berre, R. Ramousse and L. Le Guelte.) pp. 23–28. (International Marmot Network: Moscow.)

Fagerstone, K. A. , and Biggins, D. E. (1986). Comparison of capture–recapture and visual count indices of prairie-dog densities in black-footed ferret habitat. Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs 8, 94–98.
Griffin S. C. (2007). Demography and ecology of a declining endemic: The Olympic marmot. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Montana, Missoula.

Griffin, S. C. , Valois, T. , Taper, M. L. , and Mills, L. S. (2007). Effects of tourists on behaviour and demography of Olympic marmots. Conservation Biology 21, 1070–1081.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | Houston D. B. , and Schreiner E. G. (1994). The Olympic Mountains and environs. In ‘Mountain Goats in Olympic National Park: Biology and Management of an Introduced Species’. (Eds D. B. Houston, E. G. Schreiner and B.B. Moorhead.) pp. 14–27. (United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service: Denver.)

Joseph, L. N. , Field, S. A. , Wilcox, C. , and Possingham, H. P. (2006). Presence–absence versus abundance data for monitoring threatened species. Conservation Biology 20, 1679–1687.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | Leontieva M. N. , Paramonov G. V. , and Zakharov A. P. (1997). Some peculiarities of bobac enumeration at different stages of reacclimatization. In ‘Holarctic Marmots as a Factor of Biodiversity. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Marmots, Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic, Russia, 25–30 August 1997’. (Eds V. Y. Rumiantsev, A. A. Nikol’skii and O. V. Brandler.) pp. 238–242. (ABF Publishing House: Moscow.)

MacKenzie, D. I. , Nichols, J. D. , Sutton, N. , Kawanishi, K. , and Bailey, L. L. (2005). Improving inferences in population studies of rare species that are detected imperfectly. Ecology 86, 1101–1113.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | MacKenzie D. I. , Nichols J. D. , Royle J. A. , Pollock K. H. , Bailey L. L. , and Hines J. E. (2006). ‘Occupancy Estimation and Modeling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamics of Species Occurrence.’ (Academic Press: San Diego.)

Mills L. S. (2007). ‘Conservation of Wildlife Populations: Demography, Genetics, and Management.’ (Blackwell Publishing: Oxford.)

Mills, L. S. , Citta, J. J. , Lair, K. P. , Schwartz, M. K. , and Tallmon, D. A. (2000). Estimating animal abundance using noninvasive DNA sampling: Promise and pitfalls. Ecological Applications 10, 283–294.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Morin P. A. , and Woodruff D. S. (1996). Noninvasive genotyping for vertebrate conservation. In ‘Molecular Genetic Approaches in Conservation’. (Eds T. B. Smith and R. K. Wayne.) pp. 298–313. (Oxford University Press: New York.)

Nichols, J. D. , and Williams, B. K. (2006). Monitoring for conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21, 668–673.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Ramousse R. , Giboulet O. , and Le Berre M. (1997). Marmot presence signs and space structure of alpine marmot habitats. In ‘Holarctic Marmots as a Factor of Biodiversity. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Marmots, Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic, Russia, 25–30 August 1997’. (Eds V. Y. Rumiantsev, A. A. Nikol’skii and O. V. Brandler.) pp. 329–333. (ABF Publishing House: Moscow.)

Severson, K. E. , and Plumb, G. E. (1998). Comparison of methods to estimate population densities of black-tailed prairie dogs. Wildlife Society Bulletin 26, 859–866.
Thompson S. K. (2002). ‘Sampling.’ (John Wiley and Sons: New York.)

Thompson W. L. (2004). ‘Sampling Rare or Elusive Species: Concepts, Designs, and Techniques for Estimating Population Parameters.’ (Island Press: Washington, DC.)

Thompson W. L. , White G. C. , and Gowan C. (1998). ‘Monitoring Vertebrate Populations.’ (Academic Press: San Diego.)

Van Horne, B. , Schooley, R. L. , Knick, S. T. , Olson, G. S. , and Burnham, K. P. (1997). Use of burrow entrances to indicate densities of Townsend’s ground squirrels. The Journal of Wildlife Management 61, 92–101.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Witczuk J. (2007). Monitoring program and assessment of coyote predation for Olympic marmots. M.S. Thesis, The University of Montana, Missoula.

Wood W. A. (1973). Habitat selection and energetics of the Olympic marmot. M.S. Thesis, Western Washington University, Bellingham.

Zegers, D. A. (1981). Verification of censusing techniques for the Wyoming ground squirrel. Acta Theriologica 26, 125–128.





Appendix 1.  Results of the pilot polygon surveys for the detectability assessment
Click to zoom