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Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep

Managing water (e.g., catchments) to increase the abundance and distribution of game is popular in arid regions, especially throughout the southwest United States, where biologists often manage water year-round for desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). Bighorn may visit water when predator...

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Autores principales: Harris, Grant M., Stewart, David R., Brown, David, Johnson, Lacrecia, Sanderson, Jim, Alvidrez, Aaron, Waddell, Tom, Thompson, Ron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7685489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33232333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241131
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author Harris, Grant M.
Stewart, David R.
Brown, David
Johnson, Lacrecia
Sanderson, Jim
Alvidrez, Aaron
Waddell, Tom
Thompson, Ron
author_facet Harris, Grant M.
Stewart, David R.
Brown, David
Johnson, Lacrecia
Sanderson, Jim
Alvidrez, Aaron
Waddell, Tom
Thompson, Ron
author_sort Harris, Grant M.
collection PubMed
description Managing water (e.g., catchments) to increase the abundance and distribution of game is popular in arid regions, especially throughout the southwest United States, where biologists often manage water year-round for desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). Bighorn may visit water when predators (e.g., mountain lions [Puma concolor], coyotes [Canis latrans]) do not, suggesting that differences in species ecology or their surface water requirements influence visit timing. Alternatively, visits by desert bighorn sheep and predators may align. The former outcome identifies opportunities to improve water management by providing water when desert bighorn sheep visit most, which hypothetically may reduce predator presence, range expansion and predation, thereby supporting objectives to increase sheep abundances. Since advancing water management hinges on understanding the patterns of species visits, we identified when these three species and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) visited managed waters in three North American deserts (Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mojave). We unraveled the ecological basis describing why visits occurred by associating species visits with four weather variables using multi-site, multi-species models within a Bayesian hierarchical framework (3.4 million images; 105 locations; 7/2009-12/2016). Desert bighorn sheep concentrated visits to water within 4–5 contiguous months. Mountain lions visited water essentially year-round within all deserts. Higher maximum temperature influenced visits to water, especially for desert bighorn sheep. Less long-term precipitation (prior 6-week total) raised visits for all species, and influenced mountain lion visits 3–20 times more than mule deer and 3–37 times more than sheep visits. Visits to water by prey were inconsistent predictors of visits to water by mountain lions. Our results suggest improvements to water management by aligning water provision with the patterns and ecological explanations of desert bighorn sheep visits. We exemplify a scientific approach to water management for enhancing stewardship of desert mammals, be it the southwest United States or arid regions elsewhere.
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spelling pubmed-76854892020-12-02 Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep Harris, Grant M. Stewart, David R. Brown, David Johnson, Lacrecia Sanderson, Jim Alvidrez, Aaron Waddell, Tom Thompson, Ron PLoS One Research Article Managing water (e.g., catchments) to increase the abundance and distribution of game is popular in arid regions, especially throughout the southwest United States, where biologists often manage water year-round for desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). Bighorn may visit water when predators (e.g., mountain lions [Puma concolor], coyotes [Canis latrans]) do not, suggesting that differences in species ecology or their surface water requirements influence visit timing. Alternatively, visits by desert bighorn sheep and predators may align. The former outcome identifies opportunities to improve water management by providing water when desert bighorn sheep visit most, which hypothetically may reduce predator presence, range expansion and predation, thereby supporting objectives to increase sheep abundances. Since advancing water management hinges on understanding the patterns of species visits, we identified when these three species and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) visited managed waters in three North American deserts (Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mojave). We unraveled the ecological basis describing why visits occurred by associating species visits with four weather variables using multi-site, multi-species models within a Bayesian hierarchical framework (3.4 million images; 105 locations; 7/2009-12/2016). Desert bighorn sheep concentrated visits to water within 4–5 contiguous months. Mountain lions visited water essentially year-round within all deserts. Higher maximum temperature influenced visits to water, especially for desert bighorn sheep. Less long-term precipitation (prior 6-week total) raised visits for all species, and influenced mountain lion visits 3–20 times more than mule deer and 3–37 times more than sheep visits. Visits to water by prey were inconsistent predictors of visits to water by mountain lions. Our results suggest improvements to water management by aligning water provision with the patterns and ecological explanations of desert bighorn sheep visits. We exemplify a scientific approach to water management for enhancing stewardship of desert mammals, be it the southwest United States or arid regions elsewhere. Public Library of Science 2020-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7685489/ /pubmed/33232333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241131 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Harris, Grant M.
Stewart, David R.
Brown, David
Johnson, Lacrecia
Sanderson, Jim
Alvidrez, Aaron
Waddell, Tom
Thompson, Ron
Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title_full Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title_fullStr Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title_full_unstemmed Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title_short Year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
title_sort year-round water management for desert bighorn sheep corresponds with visits by predators not bighorn sheep
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7685489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33232333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241131
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