Thesiss

Although prescribed burning has been used frequently for manipulating habitat, it has been rarely used in grassland areas with the intent to improve habitat quality for wild turkeys (Meleagris gallapavo ). I studied breeding season and nest location habitat use of wild turkey he…

The xeric sandhills on Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge have a monospecific overstory of longleaf pine and an understory dominated by turkey oak and wiregrass. The understory vegetation is spatially heterogeneous within stands, with small patches dominated by either t…

Habitat management efforts for the New England cottontail, a species of conservation concern, are primarily focused on creating and maintaining dense understory vegetation. Native shrublands and forest types on Cape Cod provide large expanses of potential habitat for New England…

Marshbirds are difficult to survey due their secretive nature and association with dense wetland vegetation. Recently developed standardized survey protocols are used to monitor patterns of abundance, primarily at large spatial scales, but also can be used to assess marshbird re…

Reptiles and amphibians are in rapid, global decline but these declines are regionally and taxonomically disproportionate. North American pit vipers have low fecundity and rely on high adult survivorship, making them particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic threats. The rare, bu…