New Alligator Biologist Position with NCWRC
NC Wildlife Resources Commission Mission Statement:
To conserve North Carolina's wildlife resources and their habitats and provide programs and opportunities that allow hunters, anglers, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy wildlife-associated recreation.
Visit
www.ncwildlife.org for more information about careers. The agency employs approximately 700 employees.
Salary will be based on budget, education, experience and equity. Salary Grade 67 Hiring Range $35,474.00 - $55,460.00. Will consider trainee candidates. Trainee hiring range $30,856.00 - $34,190.00.
***This position is pending reclassification to Wildlife Diversity Biologist***
This is a full time, permanent position which is based in Raleigh and requires frequent travel with extensive overnight stays and regular travel across the state.
Description of Work:
Develops and implements projects to survey, monitor, research, and manage American alligator populations. Prepares proposals, narratives, reports and manuscripts containing plans, results, and analysis of data on those projects for agency reports, granting agencies, and peer-reviewed publications. Works with other WRC work teams to provide information, outreach, and communications to other agencies and the public. Serve as point of contact for other agencies and individuals regarding status and management issues related to American alligators. Participates, shares information, and guides state, regional, and national collaborations to improve population status, sustain habitat, and improve our knowledge of American alligators. Prepares and maintains an annual operating budget and submits required receipts and forms for purchases and expenses. Equipment and vehicle must be maintained and inventory must be maintained and checked. Program meetings and other administrative meetings must be attended as assigned. Reporting monthly is required for all activities conducted and the employee will participate in the State's performance management program.
For more information and to apply, click here.
Recent Paper on Bog Turtles
Bog Turtle Demographics within the Southern Population
Tutterow et al. 2017
Turtles are among the most vulnerable vertebrate group to declines, extirpations, and extinctions, especially those species with specific habitat requirements. The Bog Turtle (
Glyptemys muhlenbergii) is listed as federally Threatened in the United States, but the southern population of the species does not receive full habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act. To understand Bog Turtle demographics within the southern population, we applied Cormack-Jolly-Seber and multistate models in program MARK and calculated annual adult, sex-specific, and juvenile survival for intensively sampled (19–180 sampling days) Bog Turtle populations in North Carolina. The most parsimonious model indicated that adult survival remained constant over time for all populations, but was relatively low when compared to other species of turtles. Adult survival estimates varied between 0.86 and 0.94 among the sites, all below the 0.96 adult survival estimate documented for northern Bog Turtle populations. To evaluate variation in juvenile survival, we focused on three populations: the two largest known populations and an intensely studied, but critically declining population. The two largest populations had a greater proportion of juveniles than other populations and higher
juvenile survival (0.68 and 0.67) than the declining population (0.50). Thus, conservation efforts targeting juvenile survival and recruitment, such as nest protection and habitat enhancement, are important to ensure population stability. Furthermore, our estimates of adult and juvenile survival indicate that North Carolina populations are likely declining and without stronger protection measures, local and regional extirpations of the species may occur.
For the entire article, click here.
Recent Paper on Using Dogs to Find Box Turtles
Capture Effort, Rate, Demographics, and Potential for Disease Transmission in Wild Eastern Box Turtles (
Terrapene carolina carolina) Captured through Canine Directed Searches
Boers et al. 2017
The Eastern Box Turtle (EBT,
Terrapene carolina carolina) is a small terrestrial, long-lived turtle (Kimble et al. 2014). Habitat of the EBT includes tidal wetlands, meadows, and deciduous forests. Their home range may extend into adjacent habitats, which include fields, pastures, suburban areas, ponds, and streams (COSEWIC 2014). Because of their long lifespan and large home range (Currylow et al. 2012), EBTs are proposed to be sentinels of ecosystem health (Lloyd et al. 2016). The EBT is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (van Dijk 2013) due to many factors including human-induced environmental damage, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, traffic mortality, legal or illegal collection for personal use, cutting or mowing, prescribed burns, and unnaturally high predation on eggs, hatchlings, or juveniles (Budischak et al. 2006; Currylow et al. 2011; Nazdrowicz et al. 2008; Swarth and Hagood 2004).
Pathogens recently identified within wild populations are also potential threats to box turtle persistence (Allender et al. 2011). Specifically, ranavirus (Allender 2012; Johnson et al. 2008),
Terrapene herpesvirus 1 (Kane et al. 2016; Yonkers et al. 2015), adenovirus (Farkas and Gál 2009), and
Mycoplasma sp. (Feldman et al. 2006) have contributed to box turtle morbidity and mortality. All of these pathogens may elicit similar clinical signs, such as respiratory distress, oral lesions, ocular discharge, and lethargy (Gibbons and Steffes 2013; Johnson et al. 2005; McLaughlin et al. 2000), thus diagnoses can be easily confused. Transmission of these pathogens is poorly studied, but may occur through direct or indirect contact with lesions or secretions.
Trained wildlife locator dogs have been used to find freeranging animals and may bring considerable benefits to detection rate success (Cablk and Heaton 2006; Kapfer et al. 2012; Reindl-Thompson et al. 2006). Numerous studies have used canines to locate chelonian species (Kapfer et al. 2012; Nussear et al. 2008; Way Rose and Allender 2011). Boykin spaniels, used to capture EBTs in North Carolina, captured more turtles (N = 25 in 3 search h) than humans (N = 22 in 316.5 search h; Kapfer et al. 2012). Unfortunately, health status of the turtles captured and environmental factors were not reported and may play a role in capture differences between canines and humans in this and other locales. In the southwestern U.S., canines found more desert tortoises in vegetation and finished surveys more quickly than humans (Nussear et al. 2008). Ultimately, there was no difference in detection rate of canine and human teams, both teams found approximately the same proportion of sexes, and climatic variables did not affect the number of tortoises found by either team (Nussear et al. 2008). Despite the significant use of trained wildlife locator dogs for finding wildlife, there has been minimal research on the effects of demographics and health status (including pathogen presence) of the target species on capture rates and the potential for pathogen transmission by canines.
The following hypotheses were tested: 1) Dogs would capture a higher number of EBTs and at a higher rate than humans; 2) There would be no difference in demographic, natural history, environmental, or temporal factors of turtles captured by dogs and those captured by humans; 3) There would be no difference in physical examination or hematologic parameters between
turtles captured by dogs and those captured by humans; and 4) Oral swabs of dogs would have no detectable turtle pathogens after capture.
For the entire article, click here.
Recent Paper on Using Sex Toys to Study Turtles
(no, I'm not making this one up)
Good vibrations: a novel method for sexing turtles
McKnight et al. 2017
Abstract. The ability to accurately determine the sex of individuals is important for research and conservation efforts. While most species of turtle exhibit secondary sexual dimorphisms that can be used to reliably infer sex, there are some species that are very difficult to sex, and even within many dimorphic species, it is not uncommon to encounter individuals that appear to exhibit both male and female secondary sex characteristics. Therefore, we tested the novel method of using a vibrator to sex turtles by stimulating male turtles to evert their penises. We tested this method on males of four species (three families) with known sexual dimorphisms: spiny softshell turtles (
Apalone spinifera; n = 14), western chicken turtles (
Deirochelys reticularia miaria; n = 17), Mississippi mud turtles (
Kinosternon subrubrum hippocrepis; n = 10), and common musk turtles (
Sternotherus odoratus; n = 9). The method accurately sexed 100% of
A. spinifera, 64.7% of
D. r. miaria, 80.0% of
K. s. hippocrepis, and 55.6% of
S. odoratus. Despite the low success rates in some species, there are situations in which this method will be useful for researchers working with species that are difficult to sex using external morphological characteristics.
For the entire article, click here.
Article About Invasive Species & Lacey Act
FEDERAL INVASIVE SPECIES PREVENTION EFFORTS SUFFER SIGNIFICANT LITIGATION DEFEAT
Otts 2017 - The Sandbar
On Apri17, 2017, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
issued its opinion in United States Association of Reptile Keepers v. Zinke. The court held that 18 U.S.C. §42 (Title 18) of the Lacey Act prohibits only the importation of listed injurious species into the United States and shipments of injurious species between the continental United States and listed territories. This ruling struck down the longstanding interpretation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that Title 18 also prohibited the shipment of injurious species across state lines.
Full article here.
