Robert J. Warren

Te Central Georgia Bear Population (CGBP) is of special conservation concern due to its relatively small population size and isolation from other bear populations in the southeastern United States. Plans to widen Georgia State Route (SR) 96, which bisects the CGBP, have potential to negatively impact the population. Highway underpasses are being planned to mitigate these impacts. During 2012-2015, we captured and ftted 63 American black bears (Ursus americanus) with global-positioning-system collars and used remote, infrared cameras to document bear crossings along SR 96. We evaluated...

More than 1 million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur annually in the United States. The majority of these accidents involve white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and result in >US $4.6 billion in damage and >200 human fatalities. Prior research has used collision locations to assess sitespecific as well as landscape features that contribute to risk of deer-vehicle collisions. As an alternative approach, we calculated road-crossing locations from 25 GPS-instrumented white-tailed deer near Madison, Georgia (n = 154,131 hourly locations). We identified crossing locations by...

The most commonly used method to determine the timing of breeding for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is to measure fetuses from deceased animals. However, this method is resource-intensive and can only provide data for limited geographic areas. Numerous studies have reported that deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) increase during the breeding season due to increased deer movements associated with breeding activity. Based on these observations, we obtained records of DVCs in Georgia from 2005 - 2012 (n=45,811) to determine when peaks in DVCs occurred for each county in Georgia. We...

Managing and restoring longleaf pine forests throughout the Southeast is a conservation priority. Prescribed fire is an integral part of these activities, as it is the primary means of controlling hardwood encroachment and maintaining native groundcover. Nest site and preflight brood ground- roost site selection of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) has not been well studied in longleaf pine systems. Therefore, we determined habitat characteristics associated with wild turkey nests and ground-roosts in 2 longleaf pine forests in southwestern Georgia. We radio-tagged 45...

Managing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations requires an understanding of fawn survival and cause-specific mortality. In the Southeast, coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) can be major sources of fawn mortality and may limit some white-tailed deer populations. We captured and radio-collared 47 fawns at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in southwestern Georgia during 2007, 2008, 2011, and 2012 to quantify cause-specific mortality and survival. Fawn survival to 20 weeks of age (i.e., opening day of firearms season) was 29.0%. Coyote predation...

We investigated effects of growing-season prescribed fire on daily nest survival, nest success, and poult survival of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) on two similar research sites in southwestern Georgia: the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center and Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area. We collected daily locations for radio-tagged females throughout the 2011-2012 nesting seasons. Females with nests or poults near or within an active growing-season fire were located hourly. We estimated poult survival using flush counts and incidental sightings until poults...

Nest predation can limit avian recruitment and may be a proximate source of population declines in many avian populations. Because nest predation may be affected by availability of alternative foods and nest density, we used artificial nests and track counts to evaluate effects of supplemental food and nest density on nest success of artificial ground nests. Nest success was lower at 7 of 9 nest density classes when a supplemental food source was present. In the absence of supplemental food, nest success was inversely related to nest density, but when supplemental food was present,...

Graduates from fisheries and wildlife programs in the Southeast need to know what qualifications are necessary to successfully attain entrylevel biologist positions with state agencies, and state agencies and university programs share a responsibility for preparing students for these positions. Despite much literature devoted to the discussion of what should be included in academic curricula, little work has been done to identify how agencies are communicating with students and what types of experiences will best prepare potential applicants for employment with these agencies. We used...

We assessed the efficacy of predator removal as a tool for increasing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) recruitment at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in southwestern Georgia, an area with a low-density (2-6 deer/km2) deer herd. We partitioned our 11,736-ha study area into predator removal (approximately 4,200 ha) and non-removal (approximately 2,800 ha) zones with a 4,500-ha buffer between them. We removed 23 coyotes (Canis latrans) and 3 bobcats (Lynx rufus) from the removal zone between January and August 2008. Most of these (14 coyotes and 1 bobcat) were...

Effects of traffic volume on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) movement patterns and behavior have not been well documented. During summer 2004, we monitored survival and home ranges of 34 radiocollared deer (6 males and 28 females) in a heavily visited state park in Georgia to determine effect of road distribution on home range use. We also monitored hourly movements for eight females in relation to daily patterns of vehicle volume within the park. Although deer behavior was altered by frequent exposure to traffic and roadside feeding of deer by park visitors, no deer were killed...