Mapping and modeling human-black bear interactions in the Catskills region of New York using resource selection probability functions.

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are an iconic and common species throughout much of the United States and people regularly interact with these large predators without conflict. However, negative interactions between people and bears can manifest in conflicts that can hinder conservation efforts. Black bears are highly attracted to anthropogenic sources of food, and negative interactions with people are primarily a product of trash mismanagement. In the Catskills region of New York State, home to a large population of black bears, over 400 such conflicts are reported each year. While the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has seen progress recently in educating residents of the region on how to reduce unwanted interactions with bears, they have had less success educating the 12 million tourists that visit the Catskills each year. Understanding where conflict may occur in the future, and the environmental and anthropogenic factors that precede it, may help guide management strategies to reduce these unwanted interactions. Therefore, we designed resource selection probability functions (RSPFs) to examine the relationship between human-black bear conflicts in the Catskills with a suite of landscape and anthropogenic data, using conflicts reported to the DEC across the state of New York in 2018-2019. We found that human-black bear conflicts were more likely to occur in the residential areas of the Catskills on the urban-wildland interface; areas with relatively higher human population densities, away from dense forest, and further from heavily urbanized areas. While future work is needed to continuously validate our model predictions, our results will provide the DEC and other conservation managers in the Catskills the ability to create more targeted plans for mitigating unwanted human-black bear interactions, and provide a better understanding of the mechanisms driving human-carnivore interactions at an urban-wildland interface more generally.

Effect of Vegetation on the Abundance of Tick Vectors in the Northeastern United States: A Review of the Literature.

Tick-borne illnesses have been on the rise in the United States, with reported cases up sharply in the past two decades. In this literature review, we synthesize the available research on the relationship between vegetation and tick abundance for four tick species in the northeastern United States that are of potential medical importance to humans. The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) (Say; Acari: Ixodidae) is found to be positively associated with closed canopy forests and dense vegetation thickets, and negatively associated with open canopy environments, such as grasslands or old agricultural fields. The American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) (Say; Acari: Ixodidae) has little habitat overlap with I. scapularis, with abundance highest in grasses and open-canopy fields. The lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) (Linnaeus; Acari: Ixodidae) is a habitat generalist without consistent associations with particular types of vegetation. The habitat associations of the recently introduced Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) (Neumann; Acari: Ixodidae) in the northeastern United States, and in other regions where it has invaded, are still unknown, although based on studies in its native range, it is likely to be found in grasslands and open-canopy habitats.

Applications of behavioral science to biodiversity management in agricultural landscapes: conceptual mapping and a California case study.

The plot-level decisions of land managers (i.e., farmers, ranchers, and forest owners) influence landscape-scale environmental outcomes for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. The impacts of their decisions often develop in complex, non-additive ways that unfold over time and space. Behavioral science offers insights into ways decision-makers manage complexity, uncertainty, choice over time, and social influence. We review such insights to understand the plot-level conservation actions of farmers that impact biodiversity. To make these connections concrete, we provide a case study of the decision to adopt biodiversity management practices in the heavily cultivated region of the Central Valley, California, USA. We use results from a survey of 122 farmers in the region to test whether adoption is related to farm tenure arrangements or peer influence. We find farmers who are more sensitive to peer influence are three times more likely to adopt practices that support biodiversity, including wildflowers, native grasses, cover crops, hedgerows, and wetlands. This relationship could have important implications for how plot-level decisions aggregate to landscape-scale outcomes. Finally, we suggest priorities for future research and program design to integrate behavioral science into biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. By considering land managers' plot-level conservation decisions with the lens of behavioral science, we identify barriers and opportunities to promote environmental benefits.

Translocation of threatened New Zealand falcons to vineyards increases nest attendance, brooding and feeding rates.

Anthropogenic landscapes can be rich in resources, and may in some cases provide potential habitat for species whose natural habitat has declined. We used remote videography to assess whether reintroducing individuals of the threatened New Zealand falcon Falco novaeseelandiae into a highly modified agricultural habitat affected the feeding rates of breeding falcons or related breeding behavior such as nest attendance and brooding rates. Over 2,800 recording hours of footage were used to compare the behavior of falcons living in six natural nests (in unmanaged, hilly terrain between 4 km and 20 km from the nearest vineyard), with that of four breeding falcon pairs that had been transported into vineyards and nested within 500 m of the nearest vineyard. Falcons in vineyard nests had higher feeding rates, higher nest attendance, and higher brooding rates. As chick age increased, parents in vineyard nests fed chicks a greater amount of total prey and larger prey items on average than did parents in hill nests. Parents with larger broods brought in larger prey items and a greater total sum of prey biomass. Nevertheless, chicks in nests containing siblings received less daily biomass per individual than single chicks. Some of these results can be attributed to the supplementary feeding of falcons in vineyards. However, even after removing supplementary food from our analysis, falcons in vineyards still fed larger prey items to chicks than did parents in hill nests, suggesting that the anthropogenic habitat may be a viable source of quality food. Although agricultural regions globally are rarely associated with raptor conservation, these results suggest that translocating New Zealand falcons into vineyards has potential for the conservation of this species.

Effects of introducing threatened falcons into vineyards on abundance of passeriformes and bird damage to grapes.

Agricultural landscapes are becoming an important focus of animal conservation, although initiatives to conserve predators to date have rarely provided economic benefits to agricultural producers. We examined whether introduction to vineyards of the New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), a species listed as threatened by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, affected the abundance of 4 species of Passeriformes that are considered vineyard pests or affected the amount of economic loss due to grape (Vitis vinifera) damage. Three of the species were introduced and remove whole grapes from bunches (Blackbird [Turdus merula], Song Thrush [Turdus philomelos], and Starling [Sturnus vulgaris]), whereas the one native species (Silvereye [Zosterops lateralis]) pecks holes in grapes. The introduction of falcons to vineyards was associated with a significant decrease in the abundance of introduced passerines and with a 95% reduction in the number of grapes removed relative to vineyards without falcons. Falcon presence was not associated with a change in the number of Silvereyes, but there was a 55% reduction in the number of grapes pecked in vineyards with falcons. Our results indicate that, relative to damage in vineyards without falcons, the presence of a falcon could potentially result in savings of US$234/ha for the Sauvignon Blanc variety of grapes and $326/ha for Pinot Noir variety of grapes.