Research Grants (Generic)

Understanding the importance of life history parameters is vital to managing wildlife populations. Therefore, the work within this agreement will focus on ungulates, to advance understanding the natural annual population variability from a set of life history parameters. The effort will evaluate the following: a) the minimum population size at which a population of ungulates (sheep, deer etc.) is unlikely to go extinct; b) once we gain an understanding of the population size at which a population is likely to go extinct, we then compare these rules, namely the size of population, and persistence time, to that which game management agencies pursue across the southwestern United States. We can then compare the populations used in the field, to our recommendations from the demographic modeling; and c) because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and State Agencies remove sheep from source populations, to support other populations or repopulate new populations elsewhere, we identify the population trajectories of those source populations, based on the number of removals. The intent is to generate population models using a suite of demographic parameters from ungulates, to cover numerous ungulates, thereby assisting management of many species within and outside of the southwestern region of the United States. Such information will help with managing and conserving ungulate populations, while improving harvest regulations for hunted species. This cooperative agreement builds off a previous agreement (F13AC00236, Population trends and predicted trajectories of American Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in the American Southwest) between the Service and New Mexico State University (NMSU). The Service and NMSU examined population trajectories for many pronghorn populations as they appeared to be declining across the American southwest. As with this agreement, there exists much public and agency interest to reverse these trends for pronghorn and other game ungulates. Previously, we identified the climatic drivers responsible for the population declines. We posited that larger populations are likely to be buffered by these drivers and should persist longer. This agreement builds off the climatic project conducted by NMSU by directly examining relationships between ungulate population sizes and population persistence. The authorizing statute citation is: Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956, as amended, 16 U.S.C. (742f (a)(4); Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, as amended, 16 U.S.C. 661.; Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 753), Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, as amended (16 U.S.C. 4601 4 through 11), Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 through 1543).