Why Monitor Wildlife?This project is the start of a much bigger picture for Radford University’s biology department, the continuation of this study will allow us to be recognized in a regional and global scale with the NPN. The continuation of wildlife monitoring can help with previous studies in carnivorous communities within the New River Valley. An example is in the bobcat population in Giles, Virginia. In the study done by Kelly and Holub 2008 they found that bobcats avoided areas with traffic and females were more likely to change movement patterns during hunting season. The importance of monitoring wildlife is critical in their conservation and can serve as a tool for understanding their habitats, migration, and behaviors. Therefore, our data is another puzzle piece to the conservation community.
In the study of phenology in wildlife management we monitored mammal phenophases. Phenophases in mammals can be described as the “observable stage or phase in the annual life cycle of an animal that can be defined by a start and end point” (USA-NPN). Examples of phenophases include mating, hibernating, and feeding. The NPN has defined a list of “standardized phenophases” for mammals to insure consistent data is collected by the observer. The observations that are collected about wildlife help us determine how they are affected by seasonal changes. The presence of wildlife depends on the factors like time of year, time of day, and habitat. Trapping animals is a way of seeing these changes to draw further conclusions about populations within a community. All data was contributed to the National Phenology Network and Natures Notebook. |
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