Comprehensive Dietary Study
of Ungulates in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt
National Park
Jonathon Jenks
Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
South Dakota State University
Abstract:
This two-year
study will quantify the dietary ecology of ungulates in the
South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Information
from this landmark project will be used for species-specific
management planning efforts, and to update our current forage
allocation model, thus improving its reliability and application
for management of wildlife in the park. Our project is a
Masters level graduate study that will be completed by Chad
Sexton in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries Science at the College of Agricultural and Biological
Sciences, South Dakota State University (SDSU), Brookings.
Although we have processed and summarized almost 2 years of
fecal samples for diet analyses of elk inhabiting areas inside
and outside of the park, we lack adequate funding to incorporate
the other ungulates into our analyses (e.g., continue
collections, to perform the actual microhistological analyses,
interpret and synthesize the results, etc.). Thus, we are
proposing a park-funded Masters level study with the following
specific objectives:
1) Expand
our original diet study to include not just elk inside the
park, but all of the major ungulates inside the South Unit
of the park. Diets will be determined for elk, bison, feral
horses, mule and white-tailed deer, and pronghorn on a
monthly basis, with plant fragments being identified to the
species level.
2) Continue
to examine the diets of a subset of the elk population
(targeted collections outside the park using radiocollared
elk) which “seasonally migrate” outside the South Unit
during the period ~April-November.
3) Describe
and quantify dietary overlap of managed ungulates (primarily
elk, bison, and feral horses) inside the South Unit of the
park.
4)
Examine and reconstruct the forage allocation model
developed by Montana State University in 1993, by
incorporating new dietary data, and any other new data
(e.g., forage production, habitat delineations, etc.) which
have been acquired since the model was developed (~15 years
ago).
Funding Agency:
National Park Service
Modification # J1545-06-0001
$3,525
Mod/0001 No Cost Extension
Effective Dates: January 1, 2006 through September 30,
2007
