Using Demographic and Landscape Analysis to Guide Conservation
Planning for Common Loons in Montana
Advisor: Mike Mitchell
Cooperators: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, United States
Forest Service, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Montana
Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Plum Creek,
Ashley Lake Homeowners Association, Montana Loon Society, Biodiversity
Research Institute of Maine
Project Duration: 2005-2007
UM Project Affiliation: WBIO/MTCWRU
Objectives:
The goals of my research are to estimate carrying capacity
for the Common Loon in Montana and examine the effects of
landscape change on its population. The specific objectives
are (1) to create a landscape of suitable habitat in a geographic
information system (GIS), (2) to create spatially explicit
habitat models using predictor variables associated with
chick survival and fecundity, (3) to test predictions on
independent data, and (4) to simulate response under various
landscape treatments.
Progress:
This summer we captured and banded 24 new birds which raised
our total marked population to 154.
These birds represent 38 of the less than 70 known territories.
Territories range from just south of Eureka, in northwest
Montana, to near Ovando, east of Missoula. Two new territories
were discovered; Finger Lake north of Whitefish and Summit
Lake just off the Swan Highway. We recovered a banded breeding
female near her nest on Island Lake (cause of death unknown).
Also, a juvenile originally captured on Dickey Lake last
year was found near Santa Cruz, California in poor health.
It was rehabilitated and released in the northeastern part
of San Francisco Bay. We recovered an unbanded adult on Cedar
Creek Reservoir while searching for a banded female that
disappeared when her chick was less than two weeks old. We
began building a GIS landscape and establishing collection
protocol for habitat measurements for nearly 700 lakes in
northwest Montana. This summer we also began collecting data
on the number of fledged young per territorial pair. In addition,
last fall we captured and implanted satellite transmitters
in 4 Common Loons in cooperation with the Confederated Salish
and Kootenai Tribe.
