| | Accession Number | 5001863 |
| | Title | Modeling and management of sandhill crane populations |
| | Project Description | There are six subspecies of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) endemic to North America. The |
| | greater sandhill crane (G. c. tabida) can be divided into several breeding populations. Two of these |
| | populations, the Rocky Mountain Population, and the Midcontinent Population are currently |
| | hunted. A third population, the Eastern Population, is currently not hunted, but the Mississippi |
| | Flyway is considering the possibility of opening a season. Proper management of these birds |
| | requires reasonable knowledge of their population dynamics and response to hunting. For the |
| | Rocky Mountain Population, much is known about their recruitment and some is known about |
| | their abundance and harvest levels, but little is known about their survival. One aspect of this |
| | project will be to computerize and analyze 20 years of mark/resight and recovery data for these |
| | cranes, for survival, movements, and their relationship to pertinent climatic and habitat variables. A |
| | second aspect of this project will be to develop a model of the population dynamics of the Rocky |
| | Mountain Population, to predict the impact of changes in harvest levels. A final aspect of this |
| | project will be to analyze mark/resighting data for the Eastern Population of greaters and the |
| | Florida sandhill crane, a threatened subspecies, which occur together on their wintering range. |
| | This information could be used in the management of the Florida sandhill, and in helping the |
| | evaluate the potential impacts of opening a hunting season on Eastern greaters. |
| | Keywords | adaptive management, markresight, movement, population dynamics, sandhill cranes, survival, |
| | Principal | William L Kendall, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: William_Kendall@usgs.gov; |
| | Investigators | Roderick Drewien, University of Idaho: ; Stephen Nesbitt, Florida Game and Freshwater Fish |
| | Commission: ; |
Return to SIS Projects Listing
