Functional connectivity for white-tailed deer drives the distribution of tick-borne pathogens in a highly urbanized setting.

Context: As cities seek to provide more habitat for wildlife, there may be unintended consequences of increasing tick-borne disease hazards. In the United States, the Northeast is both highly urban and a hotspot for blacklegged ticks () and tick-borne disease emergence. Though tick-borne disease was once considered a suburban and rural problem, tick-borne hazards in urban landscapes are increasing.

Ambassador Animals Do Not Have a Clear Effect on Visitor Conservation Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Exotic Pets at a Zoo Exhibit.

There is relatively little work examining visitor outcomes of ambassador animal programs, such as whether these programs are educationally effective or unintentionally promote exotic pet ownership. We designed a two-way factorial experiment to test whether ambassador animals enhanced or detracted from the educational outcomes of a zoo exhibit. We surveyed 312 visitors at the Oakland Zoo at a static exhibit focused on the illegal wildlife trade.

Mapping and modeling human-black bear interactions in the Catskills region of New York using resource selection probability functions.

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are an iconic and common species throughout much of the United States and people regularly interact with these large predators without conflict. However, negative interactions between people and bears can manifest in conflicts that can hinder conservation efforts. Black bears are highly attracted to anthropogenic sources of food, and negative interactions with people are primarily a product of trash mismanagement.

Effect of Vegetation on the Abundance of Tick Vectors in the Northeastern United States: A Review of the Literature.

Tick-borne illnesses have been on the rise in the United States, with reported cases up sharply in the past two decades. In this literature review, we synthesize the available research on the relationship between vegetation and tick abundance for four tick species in the northeastern United States that are of potential medical importance to humans. The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) (Say; Acari: Ixodidae) is found to be positively associated with closed canopy forests and dense vegetation thickets, and negatively associated with open canopy environments, such as grasslands or old agricultural fields.

Applications of behavioral science to biodiversity management in agricultural landscapes: conceptual mapping and a California case study.

The plot-level decisions of land managers (i.e., farmers, ranchers, and forest owners) influence landscape-scale environmental outcomes for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

Translocation of threatened New Zealand falcons to vineyards increases nest attendance, brooding and feeding rates.

Anthropogenic landscapes can be rich in resources, and may in some cases provide potential habitat for species whose natural habitat has declined. We used remote videography to assess whether reintroducing individuals of the threatened New Zealand falcon Falco novaeseelandiae into a highly modified agricultural habitat affected the feeding rates of breeding falcons or related breeding behavior such as nest attendance and brooding rates. Over 2,800 recording hours of footage were used to compare the behavior of falcons living in six natural nests (in unmanaged, hilly terrain between 4 km and 20 km from the nearest vineyard), with that of four breeding falcon pairs that had been transported into vineyards and nested within 500 m of the nearest vineyard.

Effects of introducing threatened falcons into vineyards on abundance of passeriformes and bird damage to grapes.

Agricultural landscapes are becoming an important focus of animal conservation, although initiatives to conserve predators to date have rarely provided economic benefits to agricultural producers. We examined whether introduction to vineyards of the New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), a species listed as threatened by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, affected the abundance of 4 species of Passeriformes that are considered vineyard pests or affected the amount of economic loss due to grape (Vitis vinifera) damage. Three of the species were introduced and remove whole grapes from bunches (Blackbird [Turdus merula], Song Thrush [Turdus philomelos], and Starling [Sturnus vulgaris]), whereas the one native species (Silvereye [Zosterops lateralis]) pecks holes in grapes.