(Download) "Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus Grahamensis) Uses Nest Following Lightning Strike (Notes) (Report)" by Melissa J. Merrick, R. Nathan Gwinn & Rebecca L. Minor ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus Grahamensis) Uses Nest Following Lightning Strike (Notes) (Report)
- Author : Melissa J. Merrick, R. Nathan Gwinn & Rebecca L. Minor
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 80 KB
Description
Fire threatens survival of forest-dwelling mammals in North America, especially in the western United States, as increases in frequency and intensity of forest fires are predicted (Koprowski et al., 2006; Lehmkuhl et al., 2007). The threat is intensified for forest obligates such as tree squirrels that depend on trees for food, shelter, and protection from predators (Koprowski, 2005). In the short term, fire appears to have a negative impact on tree squirrels as thinned stands and subsequent reduction in canopy cover and available food are associated with high mortality and decreased density of squirrels (Podruzny et al., 1999; Fisher and Wilkinson, 2005; Koprowski, 2005; Koprowski et al., 2006; Herbers and Klenner, 2007). Observations of response of tree squirrels to direct impacts of fire are uncommon. Mortality in Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) was high in burned areas, yet most surviving animals did not immediately abandon territories if some unburned habitat remained (Koprowski et al., 2006). Herein, we report the response of an endangered Mount Graham red squirrel after a direct lightning strike to a tree containing a cavity nest of this taxon in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona. As part of an ongoing study, Mount Graham red squirrels are marked with ear tags and fitted with radiocollars to examine use of space and to determine locations of nests (Koprowski et al., 2006). Following heavy thunderstorms on 25 August 2007, we noticed smoke rising from a small isolated fire within the territory of a radiocollared adult male red squirrel. A snag Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), which contained a red squirrel nest, had been struck by lightning, and the upper bole and branches were in flames. The tree was 90-cm in diameter at breast height, 26.2-m tall, and 3 m from an occupied midden (central larderhoard). We first located a cavity nest 18.8 m up in this tree in September 2002 after which it was used 25 times by five squirrrels. The aforementioned adult male resided at the midden for [greater than or equal to] 395 days, but had not used this nest during 17 previous nocturnal radio-locations of the squirrel. The top one-third of the branches had fallen to the ground around the bole and also were burning.
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