Download or read book Observations on the Genetic Diversity of Bobcat Lynx Rufus Populations in Oklahoma written by Timothy Ewan Mathews McSweeny and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bobcats (Lynx rufus) have been recorded in a majority of counties within the state of Oklahoma, and are regularly harvested for their pelts statewide. There have been a limited number of studies on bobcats in Oklahoma due to annual hunting seasons, human alterations to the environment, and regular long-distance dispersals of male bobcats, questions have been raised regarding the genetic diversity and structure of the population in the state. To better understand the current genetic diversity of Oklahoma's bobcats, tongue samples from harvested individuals were collected by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and deposited in laboratories at the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. I extracted DNA from tissue samples collected across 25 counties and performed fragment analyses using 10 microsatellite loci, plus a sex-determining locus. This allowed me to assess the current genetic structure of bobcats within the state, as well as levels of genetic diversity. My data shows that there is currently a high level of heterozygosity across the state, representing a sustainable level of genetic diversity. Results of genetic structure analyses indicate that there is a single population distributed across the state, allowing for the maintenance of genetic diversity through high levels of gene flow.
Download or read book Landscape Genetics of Bobcats Lynx Rufus Across Western Texas written by Imogene A. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Various environmental, ecological, and anthropogenic factors impact the genetic structure of natural populations. I compared the heterozygosity of a highly mobile, generalist species, the bobcat (Lynx rufus), to environmental variables throughout western Texas to determine whether landscape-level changes impact population structure. Tissue samples from 102 bobcats were collected from 5 diverse ecoregions throughout western Texas. Bobcats were genotyped for 9 microsatellite loci to estimate genetic variation and population structure. I observed high genetic variation with little population structure (K=2) throughout western Texas. Bobcats were significant for isolation by distance (P = 0.009), but also exhibited significant differences in allele frequencies throughout the sample set and in comparisons AMONG ecoregions. Bobcats also demonstrated a relatively high inbreeding coefficient (FIS = 0.1002), possibly as a result of philopatry and sensitivity to habitat fragmentation. Factoria l detrended correspondence analysis indicated weak affinity for ecoregion locations within a single cluster, which is likely the result of habitat affinities and local adaptations to a highly variable landscape. To examine specific environmental variables, I performed local and regional scale ordination analyses. Canonical correspondence analyses indicated that ~25% of the variation in heterogeneity was explainable by the nine environmental variables used. At the local level, mesquite-lotebush plant associations most strongly impacted bobcat heterozygosity, while mesquite-lotebush and urbanization were the variables most strongly correlated to increased heterozygosity at the regional scale. Mean patch size, mean patch edge, and Shannon's diversity index of patch size were also selected as meaningful variables for both scales, suggesting the relevance of spatial heterogeneity to bobcat gene flow. Bobcat genetic structu7re in western Texas appears to be partially impacted by habitat variation, vegetation composition, and spatial heterogeneity, though more information is needed to determine if other direct or indirect environmental gradients influence gene flow. There was very little variation in the genetic data, however, which reduced the meaningfulness of any correlations. My study suggested that local variables can impact population structure even when species are highly mobile and occupy variable ranges. As a result, managers should consider a myriad of landscape factors instead of individual barriers before making assumptions about the adaptations and flexibility of ecological generalists. Identifying landscape variables relevant to population structure has important management and conservation implications for maintaining genetic variation in highly mobile populations.
Download or read book Development of Noninvasive Genetic Techniques to Monitor Elusive Carnivores written by Jennifer Mae White and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Genetic Analysis of a Bobcat lynx Rufus Population in South Texas written by Jan Janecka and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Occupancy Abundance and Population Genetics of Bobcats in Western Maryland USA written by Kevin J. Lamp and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monitoring the status and trends of bobcat (Lynx rufus) distribution, abundance, and population genetics are important to wildlife professionals tasked with bobcat conservation and management. In Maryland, USA, bobcats are expanding their distribution east of bobcat range (i.e., Garrett and Allegany counties, Maryland), likely indicating an increase in abundance and prompting interest in bobcats' status within western Maryland. My objectives were to 1) evaluate the efficacy of non-invasive genetic sampling techniques to detect and individually identify bobcats, 2) evaluate and predict bobcat occupancy, 3) estimate and compare bobcat abundance using 2 methods, and 4) assess bobcat population structure and genetic diversity in western Maryland. I conducted my study on 3 study areas in western Maryland including areas within and surrounding Potomac-Garrett, Savage River, and Green Ridge State Forests. On each study area, I overlaid a 5 x 8 grid network of 40 cells, each cell 5.5 km2 in size, to evenly distribute hair snare and camera locations. During January-March 2019 I conducted hair snaring surveys, scat collection surveys, and snow tracking surveys to compare each non-invasive genetic sampling technique by detections using mitochondrial DNA and individually identified samples using 10 microsatellite loci. During January-March 2019 and 2020, I placed 1 camera in each grid cell and visited cameras weekly to collect photo data and re-bait each location. I used single-season occupancy and Royle-Nichols models to estimate bobcat occupancy and abundance, respectively, over both years and all study areas. I surveyed transects consisting of hiking trails, closed or lightly used roads, and off-highway vehicle trails from May-August 2019 to collect scat samples. I screened scats by species and identified bobcat scats to the individual level for use in spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models. I assessed population structure using the Bayesian clustering method in program STRUCTURE and principal coordinate analysis. In addition, I examined genetic diversity using heterozygosity and number of alleles per locus.
Download or read book Population Genetics and Phylogeography of Bobcats Lynx Rufus Using Microsatellites and Mitochondrial DNA written by Emily Katherine Croteau and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are generalist carnivores with an expansive range from southern Canada to northern Mexico, in which 11 - 12 subspecies have been described. Presently, there is little information on the genetic structure of bobcat populations at large spatial scales. Furthermore, it is unknown whether the current isolation of bobcat populations is a historic feature, or whether recent landscape alterations have disrupted dispersal among previously connected populations. These data reveal that bobcats have not historically experienced large barriers to dispersal. Recent habitat alterations may be disrupting dispersal over large scales.
Download or read book Genetic Relationship Among Populations of Bobcats Lynx Rufus Determined by Analysis of Microsatellite Loci written by Jennifer Rae Bowles and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Population Genetic Structure of Bobcats Lynx Rufus in South Dakota written by Stuart C. Fetherston and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Critical Effects of Urbanization on a Charismatic Carnivore written by Laurel Elizabeth Klein Serieys and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization has profound ecological impacts that reach beyond city boundaries. Obvious ecological consequences of urbanization include habitat loss and fragmentation. Anthropogenic barriers reduce habitat connectivity, impede gene flow between populations and accelerate the loss of genetic diversity in populations due to drift. Urbanization may have also cryptic consequences such as the effects of human-introduced toxicants on wildlife populations. Toxicants are a leading cause of population decline for a variety of animal species worldwide and may directly threaten animal populations by causing direct mortalities, or indirectly through sublethal, chronic effects such as reproductive impairment, decreased immune competence, and increased disease susceptibility or emergence. If population-level impacts occur as a result of toxicant exposure, genetic consequences may also accompany reduced population sizes and connectivity. These include inbreeding depression that may increase the probability of population extinction and the loss of adaptive potential that reduces the ability of populations to respond to novel selection regimes. Overall, urbanization presents wildlife with many novel stressors to which they must adapt or perish. Urbanization is increasing at an unprecedented pace; understanding both the obvious and the cryptic threats to wild animal populations persisting near urban areas will be vital to promoting conservation and the maintenance of global biodiversity. To address the consequences of urbanization on wildlife populations, I focused on a well-studied population of bobcats (Lynx rufus) living in and around Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA). This region comprises a collection of protected park areas near downtown Los Angeles. Bobcats inhabiting SMMNRA have been monitored by National Park Service (NPS) biologists since 1996. Within a localized region of SMMNRA, the NPS has demonstrated that a major freeway (US-101) acts not only as a barrier to movement for bobcat and coyote (Canis latrans) populations, but potentially also as a social barrier. Further, from 2002-2005, a notoedric mange epizootic associated with secondary anticoagulant rat poison exposure was the greatest source of mortality for bobcats. During this period, the annual survival rate for radio-collared animals fell by> 50% and in 2003 the mange mortality rate reached a high of 51%. Long-term samples were collected from this population from 1996-2012, allowing the rare opportunity to make direct comparisons before, during, and after the population decline. Using these data as a foundation, my research focused on three main objectives. First, I characterized neutral and adaptively relevant genetic diversity in bobcat populations across SMMNRA in both fragmented urban and protected natural areas. Second, I examined anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in bobcats across southern California, contrasting seasonal, demographic and spatial risk factors in both natural and urbanized areas. Third, I characterized physiological and immunological parameters in bobcats across SMMNRA to evaluate the effects of disease and toxicant exposure on bobcat health in an urban, fragmented landscape. I found that two freeways are significant barriers to gene flow. Further, the 3-year disease epizootic, associated with secondary anticoagulant rodenticide exposure, caused a population bottleneck that led to significant genetic differentiation pre- and post-disease populations that was greater than that between populations separated by major freeways for> 60 years. However, balancing selection acted on immune-linked loci during the epizootic, maintaining variation at functional regions. With respect to anticoagulant rodenticide exposure, I detected high prevalence of exposure (89%, liver; 39%, blood) and found that for individuals with paired liver and blood data (N = 64), 92% were exposed most frequently to greater than or equal to 3 compounds. Prevalence and the amounts of contaminants were associated with human activities that included commercial, residential, and agricultural development. I found a strong association between AR exposure to greater than and equal to 0.25 ppm or greater than and equal to 2 compounds and an ectoparasitic disease, notoedric mange. Finally, I observed that AR exposure has both immune stimulatory and suppressive effects that may explain increased bobcat susceptibility to notoedric mange as a result of chronic exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. Bobcats exposed to ARs had elevated lymphocyte, and specifically B cell counts, and decreased percentages of neutrophils. Overall, these data highlight that even for free-ranging animals that are considered relatively adaptable to urbanization, habitat fragmentation and toxicant exposure can have profound population level effects that threaten the long-term stability of wildlife populations in an increasingly urbanized landscape.
Download or read book Wild Cats written by Kristin Nowell and published by World Conservation Union. This book was released on 1996 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available on the 36 wild cats of the world. It includes the first published collection of detailed range maps and some of the first photographs of rare species in the wild. It provides a thorough review of major issues in cat conservation such as habitat loss and management of big cats in livestock areas; field and laboratory research; international trade; the role of zoos; and reintroduction. High priority are identified to further the cause of cat conservation.
Download or read book Small Wild Cats written by James G. Sanderson and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the behavior, biology, and conservation of the more than 30 small wild cat species.
Download or read book Research Grants Index written by National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Division of Research Grants and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 1238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Proceedings of a Symposium on the Native Cats of North America Their Status and Management written by Samuel E. Jorgensen and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecological Regions of North America written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.
Download or read book The Mammals of Texas written by David J. Schmidly and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From reviews of previous editions: “This is the standard reference about Texas mammals.” —Wildlife Activist “A must for anyone seriously interested in the wildlife of Texas.” —Texas Outdoor Writers Association News “[This book] easily fills the role of both a field guide and a desk reference, and is written in a style that appeals to the professional biologist and amateur naturalist alike. . . . [It] should prove useful to anyone with an interest in the mammal fauna of Texas or the southern Great Plains.” —Prairie Naturalist The Mammals of Texas has been the standard reference since the first edition was coauthored by William B. Davis and Walter P. Taylor in 1947. Revised several times over the succeeding decades, it remains the most authoritative source of information on the mammalian wildlife of Texas, with physical descriptions and life histories for 202 species, abundant photographs and drawings, and distribution maps. In this new edition, David J. Schmidly is joined by one of the most active researchers on Texas mammals, Robert D. Bradley, to provide a thorough update of the taxonomy, distribution, and natural history of all species of wild mammals that inhabit Texas today. Using the most recent advances in molecular biology and in wildlife ecology and management, the authors include the most current information about the scientific nomenclature, taxonomy, and identification of species, while also covering significant advances in natural history and conservation.
Download or read book Mammal Tracks Sign written by Mark Elbroch and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-08-23 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive reference guide to mammal tracks and sign for North America. This new edition is more visual, with more than 1300 photos and 450 illustrations for easy comparison and identification of similar sign. Each species account includes information on tracks and trails, scat and urine, nests and lodges, as well as sign on the ground, in trees and shrubs, on fungi and on plants. Winner of the 2019 National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Classic Books.
Download or read book The Wild Cat Book written by Fiona Sunquist and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-10-02 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cat experts Fiona and Mel Sunquist present comprehensive entries for each of the thirty-seven cat species that include color distribution maps and up-to-date information related to the species' IUCN conservation and management statuses, while their informative sidebars reveal why male lions have manes (and why dark manes are sexiest), how cats see with their whiskers, the truth behind our obsession with white lions and tigers, and why cats can't be vegetarians. The Wild Cat Book also highlights the grave threats faced by the world's wild cats--from habitat destruction to human persecution.
