Optimal risk-based allocation of disease surveillance effort for clustered disease outbreaks.

Designing a disease surveillance program to detect a disease is challenging when animals are organized into herds, in part because disease cases are likely to be clustered. Clustered diseases are often surveilled using two-stage sampling, which allocates tests both among herds and within herds. Finding the optimal allocation of tests is computationally difficult, so some surveillance programs simply seek an approximate solution.

Partitioning global change: Assessing the relative importance of changes in climate and land cover for changes in avian distribution.

Understanding the relative impact of climate change and land cover change on changes in avian distribution has implications for the future course of avian distributions and appropriate management strategies. Due to the dynamic nature of climate change, our goal was to investigate the processes that shape species distributions, rather than the current distributional patterns. To this end, we analyzed changes in the distribution of Eastern Wood Pewees () and Red-eyed Vireos () from 1997 to 2012 using Breeding Bird Survey data and dynamic correlated-detection occupancy models.

Effect of Canine Parvovirus and Canine Distemper Virus on the Mexican Wolf () Population in the USA.

Mexican wolves (), classified as probably extinct in the wild in Mexico and endangered in the US, were reintroduced into Arizona in 1998. We combined annual serologic testing results from samples collected between 2003 and 2016 from 108 wolves and known survival data from 118 wolves born in the recovery area from 2003 to 2014 to evaluate whether exposure to canine distemper virus (CDV) or canine parvovirus (CPV) was associated with a greater risk of mortality before 2 yr of age. We used mixed-effects logistic regression to estimate the effect of CDV and CPV on the probability of mortality.

Accounting for imperfect detection of groups and individuals when estimating abundance.

If animals are independently detected during surveys, many methods exist for estimating animal abundance despite detection probabilities <1. Common estimators include double-observer models, distance sampling models and combined double-observer and distance sampling models (known as mark-recapture-distance-sampling models; MRDS). When animals reside in groups, however, the assumption of independent detection is violated.

Estimating indices of range shifts in birds using dynamic models when detection is imperfect.

There is intense interest in basic and applied ecology about the effect of global change on current and future species distributions. Projections based on widely used static modeling methods implicitly assume that species are in equilibrium with the environment and that detection during surveys is perfect. We used multiseason correlated detection occupancy models, which avoid these assumptions, to relate climate data to distributional shifts of Louisiana Waterthrush in the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data.

The effect of call libraries and acoustic filters on the identification of bat echolocation.

Quantitative methods for species identification are commonly used in acoustic surveys for animals. While various identification models have been studied extensively, there has been little study of methods for selecting calls prior to modeling or methods for validating results after modeling. We obtained two call libraries with a combined 1556 pulse sequences from 11 North American bat species.

Tree structure and cavity microclimate: implications for bats and birds.

It is widely assumed that tree cavity structure and microclimate affect cavity selection and use in cavity-dwelling bats and birds. Despite the interest in tree structure and microclimate, the relationship between the two has rarely been quantified. Currently available data often comes from artificial structures that may not accurately represent conditions in natural cavities.

Simple syllabic calls accompany discrete behavior patterns in captive Pteronotus parnellii: an illustration of the motivation-structure hypothesis.

Mustached bats, Pteronotus parnellii, are highly social and vocal. Individuals of this species roost in tight clusters, and emit an acoustically rich repertoire of calls whose behavioral significance is largely unknown. We recorded their social and vocal behaviors within a colony housed under semi-natural conditions.