Category: Vertebrates

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Pinyon Jays

Click for larger picture, Pinyon Jay courtesy and copyright 2005 Marlene Foard - as found on www.utahbirds.org
Pinyon Jay, Tabiona, Utah
Courtesy and Copyright © 2005 Marlene Foard
As found on UtahBirds.org

Click for larger picture, Pinyon Jay Courtesy US FWS, Dave Menke, Photographer Pinyon Jay
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus
Courtesy US FWS
Dave Menke, Photographer

Few birds have such a strong association with one plant that the plants name becomes part of the birds name. Sage grouse is one, Acorn Woodpecker another, but the Pinyon Jay is our topic today. Pinyon Jays are usually found in close association with pinyon-juniper forests throughout the Great Basin and the nutritious nuts of the pinyon pine are their preferred food. The blue and grey birds collect and cache pinyon nuts in summer and fall for later consumption. They have an uncanny recovery accuracy and excellent spatial memory, which allows them to rediscover these scattered caches and eat pinyon nuts all year. They do not recover all the stored seeds, however, and therefore aid in the dispersal of pinyon pines.

Pinyon Jays have a complex social organization and are highly gregarious. [https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections]

They spend their lives in large flocks of up to 150 or more individuals. Nesting is communal, although rarely are there more than 2 or 3 nests per tree. Breeding season is in late winter. Many birds spend their entire lives in the flock into which they were born.

Pinyon Jays are not migratory, but they tend to be nomadic; traveling to wherever there is a good crop of pinyon nuts. They will also eat a wide variety of seeds, insects and berries to supplement their diet and can be found in adjoining sagebrush, ponderosa pine forest and riparian habitats. The conservation status of Pinyon Jays is considered vulnerable. Destruction of pinyon-juniper forests for grazing and changes in fire regimes have resulted in loss of habitat. And what is a Pinyon Jay to do without its pinyon nuts?

Thank-you to Kevin Colver for the use of his bird recordings.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:
Pictures: Courtesy and Copyright © 2005 Marlene Foard, as found on utahbirds.org
Also Courtesy US FWS, David Menke, Photographer
Bird Recordings: Kevin Colver https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus (Pinyon Jay), Fire Effects Information, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/gycy/all.html

Avian Cognition Laboratory, Northern Arizona University, https://www4.nau.edu/acl/index.htm

Pinyon Jays, Utah Bird Profiles, UtahBirds.org, https://utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsL-R/PinyonJay.htm

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Snipes Yipes!

Snipe, Heber, UT
Courtesy of and
Copyright © 2008 Kent R. Keller
As found on UtahBirds.org

The wild goose chase, the nocturnal tipping of cows and the snipe hunt are all good-natured tricks to play on gullible friends. Geese and cows are real, of course, but so is the snipe, a chunky relative of sandpipers. Its name may be the “common snipe”, but during most of the year, snipe encounters in Utah are anything but common. A few times annually, I flush snipe unexpectedly from the margins of a montane beaver pond, a patch of cattails along a suburban creek, or around valley springs and marshes, any wet place that gives the snipe mud that to probe for invertebrates and vegetative cover for camouflage. But come spring, the hunt for snipe is more hopeful, as I can listen for the male’s aerial courtship displays high above wet meadows and marsh margins. You aren’t likely to see him looping about at first, but when he periodically dives, the wind vibrating his outer tail feathers creates this distinctive winnowing sound:

[Audio: Common Snipe courtesy and copyright 2006 Kevin Colver available from “Songbirds of Yellowstone” https://www.wildsanctuary.com/the_wildstore.html and westernsoundcsape.org]

Common/Wilson’s Snipe
Courtesy of and Copyright
© 2004 Milton G. Moody
As found on UtahBirds.org

If you hear that sound near dusk or dawn, scan the skies, for you have found the elusive snipe. Wait a bit and he or his mate may perch atop a nearby wooden fencepost, a comical looking bird with its short legs and long delicate bill. A century ago, the snipe hunt was also real; market hunters devastated snipe numbers. Since then, snipe persist wherever their marshes, wet meadows and bogs have not been drained or filled. When next you are out someplace soggy to admire the spectacular plumage of spring ducks, remember to listen for the aerial display of the common snipe.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.
Credits:
Pictures: Courtesy and Copyright © 2004 Milton G. Moody and Copyright © 2008 Kent R. Keller, as found on utahbirds.org
Also Courtesy Digital Library, US FWS, Photographer W.F. Kubichek
Bird Recordings: Kevin Colver
Text: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Common Snipe
Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
W.F. Kubichek, Photographer

Wilson’s snipe, Gallinago delicata, Utah Conservation Data Center, Utah Division of Wildlife Services, https://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Display.asp?FlNm=gallgall

Diet composition of wintering Wilson’s Snipe.(SHORT COMMUNICATIONS)(Repo… An article from: The Wilson Journal of Ornithology by Jon T. McCloskey, Jonathan E. Thompson, and Bart M. Ballard, Digital 2009, https://www.amazon.com/composition-wintering-Wilsons-Snipe-COMMUNICATIONS/dp/B002HMJOUG

Wilon’s Snipe, Utah Bird Profiles, UtahBirds.org, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/CommonSnipe.htm

 

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American Pronghorn

American Pronghorn Buck
Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
Photographer: James C. Leopold

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

The American pronghorn has an identity problem. It’s Latin name Antilocapra Americana means “American antelope goat.” But the fleet-footed animal of the American West is neither an antelope nor a goat. It is the sole survivor of a family of hooved animals that flourished in the Miocene, from 7-25 million years ago. More than 13 species of that family have been found in the fossil record, but only one pronghorn survived to modern times. 
 

American Pronghorn DoePhotographer: James C. Leopold Courtesy US FWS Digital Library

Many consider the pronghorn to be the fastest land animal in the world. Certain individuals have been clocked up to 60 miles an hour. It’s true that cheetah can go 70 miles per hour,–but only for several hundred yards. The pronghorn on the other hand, can go for great distances at high speed without breaking a sweat, leaving pursuers such as coyotes and wolves in the dust. Mountain lions occasionally creep up behind them, but that’s tricky in the open grasslands and shrub steppe that pronghorns prefer. Simply put, no land mammal on earth can keep up with the pronghorn over a significant distance.

Pronghorn Herd RunningCourtesy US FWS Digital Library
Photographer: Jack Woody

So why is this animal so implausibly fast? John Byers of the University of Idaho believes that the pronghorn and its relatives evolved traits to enhance speed under the influence of ghost predators. These predators are now extinct but their existence is memorialized through the adapted traits of their prey.

Before the late Pleistocene extinction, a variety of carnivorous megafauna filled grasslands often referred to as the American Serengeti. The giant short-faced bear, the American lion, a jaguar, a form of hyena and the saber-toothed cat were likely ambush predators of the pronghorn. But the most compelling reason for the pronghorn’s improbable speed is the presence of the North American cheetah. This long -limbed cat with powerful heart and lung capacity set off an evolutionary arms race with the pronghorn. Natural selection favored speed since slow cats went hungry and slow pronghorns were devoured.

American Pronghorn BuckCourtesy US FWS Digital Library
Photographer: Harvey Doerksen[/caption]

Nowadays, lacking the need for such swift getaways, it’s possible that the pronghorn has slowed down. But if slowing down is 60 miles an hour, imagine what a high speed chase with the powerful prehistoric cheetah must have been like!

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:
Images: Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center
Sources & Additional Reading:

Adams, Daniel B. 1979, “The Cheetah: Native American” Science 205 (4411): 1155–1158. https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/205/4411/1155

John A. Byers, American Pronghorn: Social Adaptations and the Ghosts of Predators Past, University of Chicago Press, 1998, https://www.amazon.com/American-Pronghorn-Social-Adaptations-Predators/dp/0226086992

John A. Byers, Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn, Harvard University Press, 2003, https://www.amazon.com/Built-Speed-Year-Life-Pronghorn/dp/0674011422

Pronghorn, ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA, Utah Conservation Data Center, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Display.asp?FlNm=antiamer

Pronghorn, Wildlife Library, National Wildlife Foundation, https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Pronghorn.aspx

Antilocapra americana, Pronghorn, Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Antilocapra_americana/

 

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Censuses and Surveys

Wolf with Radio Collar watches biologists FWS Digital Library, Photo by William Campbell
Wolf with Radio Collar
Photographer: William Campbell
US FWS

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

This year’s Census is the 23rd national headcount in United States history.

Census results affect the allocation of all kinds of government financial and program resources. The Census also determines the distribution of seats in
the state and federal House of Representatives.

It is also important to know the number and whereabouts of different wildlife species. This information is used for a number of management purposes– for instance, monitoring the status of endangered species or determining hunting or fishing quotas.

Mountain Lion with Radio Collar
Photographer: Claire Dobert
Courtesy US FWS

Counting wildlife isn’t as easy as counting people. You can’t mail
animals a survey with a self-addressed stamped envelope and you don’t necessarily know where to find them at any given point in time.

True censuses of animals are rare for in most cases a complete count is either too expensive or too difficult to undertake. Only animals conveniently and visibly grouped in a particular location can be censused– such as fish in a fish hatchery, or large animals along a certain migration route.

Setting a waterfowl capture net
Courtesy US FWS

Instead, biologists define an area of interest, then sample at random locations within that area. Samples usually consist of a number of transects or randomly selected quadrants. Counts from these samples are then extrapolated to an entire habitat or study area.

Along with selecting a sampling method, you have to figure out how you are going to effectively count an individual occurrence. This can be extremely tricky. Especially if your animal is reclusive or nocturnal. According to Dr. Eric Gese, a specialist in predator ecology at Utah State University, biologists use tracks, scats, scratches, burrows, hair samples –even roadkill counts as proxies for individual animals.

FWS Biologist Tracking a Black Bear
Photo by John & Karen Hollingsworth,
Courtesy US FWS

Capturing, marking and recapturing animals is one of the most reliable–albeit expensive– ways to do a direct count of animals. Captured animals are marked with ear tags, radio collars, dyes or even radioactive isotopes. In a future program I’ll describe an example of how one scientist tracks and counts large and elusive predators in the wild.

Thanks to Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources for supporting the development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:
Images: Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center
Sources & Additional Reading:

Gese, E. M. 2001. Monitoring of terrestrial carnivore populations. Pages 372–396 in J. L. Gittleman, S. M. Funk, D. Macdonald, and R. K. Wayne, editors., Carnivore conservation. Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Video: Biologists track hibernating bears for research, KSL Broadcasting Salt Lake City UT, 27 March 2010, https://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=647&sid=10166167

American Black Bear, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wildlife.utah.gov/publications/pdf/bearnew.pdf

(tracking) Black-footed Ferrets, Wildlife Review Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wildlife.utah.gov/wr/0804ferrets/0804ferrets.pdf