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Go for the Gould’s
by Jared Felkins, National Wild Turkey Federation

After 30 days of quarantine, the doors of the building that held them captive rolled open. Facing an unfamiliar Arizona mountain landscape, 39 Gould’s wild turkeys, having freedom in sight, took to wing, distancing themselves from their captors.

This April 2003 event marked the completion of the second phase of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s (Federation) “Go for the Gould’s Project”—the release of this subspecies into its former range.

“This is an important step in bringing wild turkeys back to their natural habitats across North America,” said Dr. James Earl Kennamer, the Federation’s senior vice president for conservation programs. “The Gould’s is staging a comeback in Arizona. This project will give the population a boost and allow us to learn more about this little-known subspecies.”

The project’s first phase began in mid-March in Sonora, Mexico. Using rocket nets, Mexican government biologists and Federation biologists and staff captured the 39 turkeys and had them shipped by air in wild turkey transport boxes to the specially built quarantine facility in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains. During quarantine, the turkeys were aged, sexed (12 gobblers and 27 hens), fitted with leg bands, and vaccinated against Exotic Newcastle Disease, an infectious and deadly poultry disease. Twenty of the turkeys were equipped with radio transmitters. These birds will be observed to determine home ranges, habitat use, and factors affecting nesting success and mortality rates. If all goes as hoped, the partnership will continue the relocation project for 5 years.

The Gould’s subspecies was nearly extirpated from the United States in the early 1900s and now occupies only a few remote areas of New Mexico’s Animas and San Luis Mountains and Arizona’s and New Mexico’s Peloncillo Mountains. For centuries, wild turkeys played an important role in the traditions and culture of American Indians in the Southwest. For some tribes, the wild turkey was sacred and not eaten, but for others, the gobbler was an important source of dietary protein. Native Americans used turkey feathers in religious ceremonies and to decorate clothing and fletch arrows.

The Gould’s wild turkey also proved to be an important food source for those who settled and worked the rugged lands of southern Arizona. For miners working in this region in the years between the Civil War and World War I, the Gould’s wild turkey was the entree of choice. By the time Arizona set legal hunting seasons for the bird in 1929, it had already disappeared from the landscape.

Today’s regulated hunting opportunities will benefit the Gould’s populations and local economies. For example, in 2002 a New Jersey man purchased the right to be the first person in modern times to hunt the Gould’s wild turkey in the United States. His winning bid of $17,500 at the Federation’s 2002 Grand National Auction will be used to help fund Gould’s restoration efforts in New Mexico and Arizona. Given the Federation’s track record, the project’s success is in the bag.

For more information, contact Bobby Maddrey, Director of Partnership Programs, National Wild Turkey Federation, 770 Augusta Road, Edgefield, South Carolina 29824, (800) 343-6983, bmaddrey@nwtf.net, www.nwtf.org.

Go for the Gould Project Partners

National Wild Turkey Federation
National Wild Turkey Federation-Arizona State Chapter
National Wild Turkey Federation-Tucson Local Chapter
Arizona Game and Fish Department
USDA Forest Service
USDA Department of Agriculture
WingShooters Lodge of Mexico
Mexico Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources

Winter Resorts of Sorts
by Matt Young, Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

In total, 38 species of waterfowl occur in Mexico, either as permanent residents or seasonal visitors. According to aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, several regions in Mexico serve as critical winter resorts to more than 15 percent of the continent’s waterfowl during the fall and winter months.

The Pacific Coast along the Baja Peninsula and the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit is the most important waterfowl wintering area. Its various and extensive networks of wetlands collectively support one-third of the waterfowl wintering in Mexico, including nearly the entire continental population of Pacific black brant.

The historic abundance of pintails and other dabbling ducks has declined markedly here, however, as the coastal plain’s rice fields have largely been converted to other uses. Additionally, commercial shrimp-farming in this region is rapidly altering the salinity and destroying the vegetation of wetlands.

The Interior Highlands of northern and central Mexico is an arid region with many large ranches and farms, but few water bodies. Roughly 10 percent of the 200,000 white-fronted geese wintering in Mexico occur in this region, plus significant numbers of lesser snow geese, Ross’ geese, green-winged teal, pintails, northern shovelers, and Mexican ducks—a rare, nonmigratory mallard subspecies.
This region has suffered extensive wetland losses in recent decades as vast areas of marshland have been altered for agriculture and urban development. Other wetlands have had their water sources redirected for irrigation, human consumption, and power generation, or have been degraded by overgrazing, pollution, and siltation.

The Gulf Coast and Yucatan Peninsula wetlands rival those of the Pacific Coast in their importance to wintering waterfowl and other migratory birds. The most important area here is the Laguna Madre in Tamaulipas, supporting nearly 1 million wintering ducks, including 35 percent of the continent’s redheads. Tens of thousands of redheads and other waterfowl depend upon the lagoon’s historical—albeit now declining—abundance of shoalgrass and upon the region’s coastal freshwater ponds.
Farther south and east, in the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, are numerous wetland systems that provide important migration and wintering habitat for the majority of the continent’s blue-winged teal population and a myriad of neotropical migratory bird species. Pollution, urban and industrial development, aquaculture, cattle-ranching, and agriculture pose ongoing threats to wetlands here.
One group particularly committed to conserving waterfowl populations and their habitats is Ducks Unlimited de México (DUMAC). Founded in 1974, DUMAC is the country’s leading nongovernmental wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization. Together with various partners in these important regions, DUMAC is helping to ensure that future generations will be able to witness winged spectacles like the memorable one I saw through my mangrove blind.

For more information, contact Matt Young, Senior Writer, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., One Waterfowl Way, Memphis, Tennessee 38120, (901) 758-3825, myoung@ducks.org , or Eduardo Carrera, Director, Ducks Unlimited de México, Avenida Vasconcelos No. 209 Ote., Residencial San Agustín, Garza García, Nuevo León, México C.P. 66260, (52)(818) 335-1212, ecarrera@dumac.org.

An Instinct for Insects
by Barbara French, Bat Conservation International

The orphans managed to get airborne, but just barely. The baby bats’ first flights consisted of short, uncertain hops that ended with landings considered atrocious by bat standards: they came in upright and clutched the sides of their cage. Within days, however, the pups were racing confidently around their enclosure and landing, with the prerequisite somersaults, upside down on the ceiling—just as red bats should.

These eight red bats, orphaned soon after birth, single-handedly acquired the secrets of their kind. Without the help of their mothers, they learned to fly and land, fire up their sonar systems, and hunt appropriate insects. Much of what it takes to be a successful red bat—or at least the biological foundation on which behavior develops—apparently is hard-wired into the genes of the species.

As a wildlife rehabilitator and a science officer for Bat Conservation International, I care for many orphaned bats. Any innate ability of baby bats to learn how to fly, forage, and avoid predators, without a mother’s help, is important to wildlife rehabilitators, who must judge whether orphans can be released with a reasonable chance of survival.

To determine whether baby red bats can become successful insectivores on their own, I built an outdoor flight cage measuring about 56 feet by 21 feet and 12 feet high and covered it with netting. Foliage and roosts were hung from the ceiling. The eight red bat orphans, seven males and one female, were hand-raised from infancy and placed inside the cage when they were 3 to 6 weeks old and able to eat insects.

The young bats began flying almost immediately after entering the cage and became accomplished flyers within days. Then they seemed to notice the insects swarming around lights hung from the ceiling. The bats repeatedly flew into and straight out of the swarms. Within a week or two, however, most began darting about and turning sharply within the swarms, as though pursuing insects. Professor John O. Whitaker, Jr., of Indiana State University confirmed the presence of insect parts in their droppings.

We used a bat detector to monitor the echolocation (sonar) calls the bats use to chase down insects. Clearly defined “feeding buzzes,” the rapid-fire calls that signal a bat’s final attack on an insect, were detected after 2 weeks in the flight cage.

In the wild, red bat pups continue nursing while they’re learning to capture insects. Red bat mothers lactate for only about 38 days after giving birth, so the young apparently must feed on their own after that. The orphan bats needed 50 to 82 days to learn to forage efficiently for insects. The delay was probably due to the absence of maternal coaching.

Although hunting skills are apparently innate, a mother’s support seems to sharply reduce the learning curve; an orphan is not likely to survive long enough to learn what it needs to know. A rehabilitator’s intervention may give young bats the time they need to hone their survival skills.

For more information, contact Barbara French, Science Officer, Bat Conservation International, P.O. Box 162603, Austin, Texas 78716, (512) 327-9721, french@batcon.org, www.batcon.org.

Meet Us in Managua
by Beatriz López, Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

For countless millennia, waterfowl have migrated to and from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but only relatively recently have biologist-pilots taken to the air to follow and count them. Since the mid-1950s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has flown annual species-specific surveys over Mexico’s east and west coasts and comprehensive surveys every 3 years throughout the country.

Because waterfowl are inextricably linked with wetland habitats, Ducks Unlimited, Inc. (DU), is interested in learning more about where migratory waterfowl winter and focusing its wetland habitat conservation programs accordingly. Waterfowl are also a criteria in distinguishing wetlands of importance. Therefore, LAC conservationists are motivated to collect much needed data on migratory and resident waterfowl species to help identify internationally important wetlands, determine habitat management needs, and establish protected areas in their countries. From these dual interests, the Waterfowl Surveys Initiative emerged.

When the initiative started in 2000, six LAC countries were working with DU to collect waterfowl data via aerial surveys. Involving more countries and participants was a challenge, but now, 3 years and several in-country training workshops later, the initiative has grown to include 13 LAC countries with nearly 100 highly motivated “duck counters.”

To encourage more coordination among countries, DU and the Universidad Centroamericana held the “1st Regional Meeting on Waterfowl Surveys and Wetland Conservation in Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America,” in Managua, Nicaragua, from January 31 through February 4, 2003. The Vice Minister from Nicaragua’s Ministry of Natural Resources inaugurated the event. A $50,000 Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act grant, plus $151,091 in contributions from DU and numerous LAC organizations and individuals, helped to fund this meeting and associated survey efforts.

More than 35 people from 15 countries attended, including four biologist-pilots and one migratory bird biologist from the Service and two waterfowl management biologists from the Canadian Wildlife Service who shared survey techniques via in-flight training workshops and demonstrations. A representative from each country presented an overview on how the initiative’s waterfowl data are being applied back home.

In Costa Rica and Colombia, survey data are used to help monitor the progress of wetland restoration programs. In Nicaragua, several sites were designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention with the help of survey data. In El Salvador, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, government agencies use survey data to establish hunting regulations and identify areas to protect. Additionally, survey data supported the demarcation of new BirdLife International Important Bird Areas in various countries.

This first regional meeting strengthened the collaborative spirit among colleagues in the initiative. Haitian biologists will receive support from those in the Dominican Republic, who in turn were trained by Cuban biologists. Also, biologists from El Salvador will support Honduran and Nicaraguan colleagues in surveying their shared coastal resource: Golfo de Fonseca. Given the need for long-term migratory waterfowl studies to help biologists understand the relationship between populations and habitat availability, such plans for ongoing coordination are encouraging and exciting.

For more information, contact Beatriz López or Montserrat Carbonell, Latin America and Caribbean Program, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., One Waterfowl Way, Memphis, Tennessee 38120, (901) 758-3788, blopez@ducks.org , mcarbonell@ducks.org.

Laying the Tracks for Rail Conservation
by Robert Mesta, Sonoran Joint Venture

Secretive and rarely seen, rails move furtively throughout the world’s wetlands, forests, and grasslands, typically preferring the dense vegetation of each habitat, making them difficult to study and, thus, understand. Approximately one-third of the 133 species of the family Rallidae are threatened with extinction, primarily due to habitat loss. For lack of information about them, some species are becoming endangered before a conservation strategy can even be devised.

The biologically productive and diverse coastal wetlands of northwest Mexico provide critical breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat for hundreds of bird species, including four species of rails. Like elsewhere in the world, however, these coastal wetlands are being destroyed or compromised by salt extraction, conversion to agricultural lands, pollutants, aquaculture, and urban, industrial, and tourism development. As rail habitat is lost, so too are opportunities to learn more about these elusive birds.

Since so little is known about the rails of northwest Mexico, basic ground surveys need to be conducted before a conservation plan can be developed. Recognizing this, the Sonoran Joint Venture and its partners initiated the Northwest Mexico Rail Survey Project in the spring of 2003. The project’s goals are to determine the distribution and relative abundance of clapper, Virginia, black, and sora rails, and, ancillarily, American and least bitterns; to identify important breeding areas and the threats to each; and to develop an effective conservation strategy. The project area encompasses 21 wetlands throughout the Mexican states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa.

Partners launched the project by holding a 2-day training workshop this past March in the Lower Colorado River Delta area of Sonora. Thirty biologists from five Mexican states attended the workshop, where they learned—through both classroom and field instruction—how to identify rails and bitterns by sight and sound, and survey them using the new Standardized North American Marsh Bird Monitoring Protocols. Surveys began the following week and were concluded by the end of the summer. Partners will begin to develop the conservation plan in the near future.

By the project’s end, rail surveys had been conducted in at least six wetlands in Baja California, three in Baja California Sur, nine in Sonora, and three in Sinaloa. Partners had a lot of ground to cover, but they were enthusiastic and even recorded the presence of other bird species they encountered during the surveys, adding to the overall knowledge of which birds use these important wetlands.

Partners hope that the project’s survey results and rail conservation plan will be the genesis of a long-term, binational, concerted effort to consider the needs of rails when developing plans for the protection and management of the wetlands of northwest Mexico.

For more information, contact Robert Mesta, Coordinator, Sonoran Joint Venture, 738 North Fifth Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85705, (520) 882-0047, robert_mesta@fws.gov.

Northwest Mexico Rail Survey Project Partners

Pronatura-Peninsula de Baja California
Pronatura-Sonora
Pronatura-Sinaloa
Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education–Baja California
Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve
University of Arizona
Sonoran Joint Venture

Shorebirds on the Move: Looking for a Mud Puddle
by Carol Lively, Will Meeks, and Neal Niemuth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Photos by Craig Bihrle, North Dakota Game and Fish Department

Eastern North Dakota is famous for its fertile soils and the crops they produce. Recognizing the agricultural potential of the region, early settlers broke the native prairie and drained many wetlands, dramatically altering the landscape. But thousands of wetland basins survived, even though many are cultivated. Typically small and shallow, these wetlands hold water for short periods during the year, usually a few weeks in spring or following a heavy rain. Many people disparagingly refer to these temporary wetlands as “mud puddles.”

Though small, temporary, and cultivated, these wetlands are ecologically important for a variety of reasons. Waterfowl use them as “pair ponds,” contributing to the production of the famed “duck factory” of North America’s Prairie Pothole Region. These wetlands retain and slowly release water in spring, which is important to communities downstream in the flood-prone Red River Valley. Finally, several studies have shown that these small basins are vitally important feeding and resting areas for migrating shorebirds, providing them with protein-rich invertebrates for their long, intercontinental flights.

The Prairie Pothole Joint Venture funded a survey, conducted in 2001, to determine use of temporary and seasonal wetlands in agricultural fields by spring migrant shorebirds in eastern North Dakota. The 10-week study found more than 4,000 shorebirds of 25 species on 1,181 sample wetlands. Even though average use was low, the cumulative effect of small basins is likely enormous.

According to National Wetlands Inventory data, the Drift Prairie of North Dakota has more than 1 million temporary and seasonal wetland basins, with millions of additional small basins throughout the Prairie Pothole Region. Because the shorebird study’s sampling focused on wetlands in agricultural fields along roads in areas of high crop density, the number of shorebirds present cannot be extrapolated to all wetlands in the Drift Prairie. However, the number of migrant shorebirds using wetlands in the region is substantial, possibly totaling several million. Clearly, the pejorative “mud puddle” is inappropriate, as cultivated basins provide wildlife habitat when wet, as well as crops when dry.

Large, coastal migration-staging areas such as San Francisco and Delaware Bays annually host shorebirds in flocks of hundreds of thousands. Individual, small wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region rarely attract such spectacular concentrations of shorebirds, but the cumulative value of small wetlands, including those in agricultural fields, to migrating shorebirds in the mid-continent region is high.

Wetland drainage and degradation are ongoing problems in the Drift Prairie, particularly for wetlands in agricultural fields. With the recent loss of protection for small, isolated wetlands under the Clean Water Act, conservation of wetlands in the Drift Prairie is more important than ever. The Prairie Pothole Joint Venture’s mission is to protect, restore, and enhance these habitats. “Mission accomplished” is its vision. Over the past 15 years, joint venture partners have made steady progress toward manifesting the vision, conserving nearly 6 million acres of habitat throughout the Prairie Pothole Region, including thousands of “mud puddles”—and they’re not finished yet.

For more information, contact Neal Niemuth, Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3425 Miriam Avenue, Bismarck, North Dakota 58501, (701) 355-8542, neal_niemuth@fws.gov.