In the Spring of 2004, 1500 acres on the east side of the property were double-fenced to establish a domestic elk project that would study Chronic Wasting Disease resistance. In August of 2004, elk were placed in the enclosure. All females were bred to a resistant bull and the first calf crop was born in 2005.
This is a privately-funded project. The SJBRC currently supplies up to 150 ton of hay to feed the elk.
Fort Lewis College Biology Department - Wildlife Projects
Drs. Catherine and Joe Ortega have studied the effects of Cowbirds on song bird populations and ways to minimize their impact. They have also looked at the relationship between cowbird parasitism and cattle grazing. View some of their publications resulting from these studies.
From May through July, 1998, 2001, and 2004, they investigated the effects of three cattle grazing regimes (ungrazed during the nesting season, grazed at a low utilization, and grazed at a moderate to high utilization) in riparian and Gambel oak (Quercusgambelii) pastures in southwestern Colorado, where grazing dominates land use. When including 686 nests of 31 species, nesting success was not associated with grazing. However, brown-headed cowbird (Molothrusater) parasitism frequencies were significantly higher among nests in grazed pastures than in ungrazed pastures for all major cowbird hosts in the study site: warbling vireos (Vireo gilvus), plumbeous vireos (Vireo plumbeus), yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia), and chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina). The percent of successful nests (those which fledged at least one host) declined significantly with increased grazing for vireos and yellow warblers but not among chipping sparrows. The mean numbers of vireos and yellow warblers hatched and fledged were significantly reduced in parasitized nests compared with unparasitized nests. Among chipping sparrows, significantly more unparasitized nests were depredated than parasitized nests, confounding the relationship between parasitism and nest success. Excluding the nests that failed due to predation, significantly more chipping sparrows hatched and fledged from unparasitized nests than parasitized nests. Resting pastures from cattle grazing during the breeding season would likely benefit the nesting success of warbling vireos, plumbeous vireos, yellow warblers, and chipping sparrows.
Their research has been funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Colorado Wetlands Program, Fort Lewis College, and the Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation (National Science Foundation program).
