Elk Recruitment (2019-2021)Recruitment rates in elk herds in south-western and south-central Colorado have been rapidly dropping over the past two decades, despite high fertility estimates. On the Uncompahgre Plateau, fertility is approximately 90% but winter population surveys estimate only 30 calves:100 cows.
This study aims to identify cause-specific mortality in calves, as well as temporal distribution of mortality and variance in mortality pressure by age and cohort. Results of this research will be used to design new management plans to improve elk recruitment rates and stabilize the populations in Uncompahgre National Forest and Trinidad, CO. Camera grids were placed throughout the study sites to estimate calf:cow ratios and temporal distribution of growth and decline of the calf population. GPS-collared calves are monitored each season to identify cause of mortality and estimate temporal distribution of the different causes. |
Potential causes of mortality include: predation (black bear, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote), human disturbance, density-dependent factors (disease, low quality cows, etc.), environmental factors (major events, poor habitat, etc.), and asynchronous cycles.
A.I. Photo Filtering (2019-2020)In conjunction with the recruitment survey, I am collaborating with Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) and the American Museum of Natural History to create a machine learning software that can automatically locate and identify species in trail camera photos. This software is open source, created by Peter Ersts, and will cooperate with the CPW Photo Warehouse Database (also open source).
BBoxEE detects "movement" in the changing pixels of photos, draws a bounding box around the object, and labels it with the most likely class. The software improves with more training data, created by adjusting bounding boxes and correcting labels, which can be done manually or aided with previously identified photos via the IL2BB pipeline. |
This project is a formal collaboration between Colorado State University's USGS Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit and CPW. USGS, CPW, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are among the sponsors, plus private donations. Data is collected on USFS and BLM land, but they are not formal collaborators.