Publications by authors named "Catherine M Raley"

Article Synopsis
  • Wolverines in North America have seen a reduction in their distribution due to human activities during the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to their threatened status in the US and special concern status in Canada.
  • A study collected 882 genetic samples to analyze landscape connectivity factors, focusing on terrain complexity, human disturbance, forest configuration, and climate across a vast region of southwestern Canada and northwestern US.
  • Findings showed that human disturbance negatively affects wolverine genetic connectivity, while forest cover and snow persistence help maintain genetic diversity, which can inform future conservation management efforts.
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Camera traps deployed with olfactory attractants are used to survey rare and elusive carnivores. Study areas with deep snowpack and rugged terrain present challenges and risks to field personnel, who traditionally must revisit camera stations regularly to refresh attractants. In such locations, alternative overwinter survey protocols that include a persistent attractant would improve both the safety and efficiency of camera-trap surveys.

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The availability of spatially referenced environmental data and species occurrence records in online databases enable practitioners to easily generate species distribution models (SDMs) for a broad array of taxa. Such databases often include occurrence records of unknown reliability, yet little information is available on the influence of data quality on SDMs generated for rare, elusive, and cryptic species that are prone to misidentification in the field. We investigated this question for the fisher (Pekania pennanti), a forest carnivore of conservation concern in the Pacific States that is often confused with the more common Pacific marten (Martes caurina).

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