OpportunityTitle: NWRS SPECIAL PROJECT SUPPORT: DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP SAN ANDRES NWR
Description: This announcement is for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Region 2, San Andres National Wildlife Refuge (San Andres NWR,New Mexico), FY 2008. San Andres NWR is managed largely for the state-endangered desert bighorn sheep, a species of special concern throughout the Southwest United States and Mexico. Recovery of the bighorn population on San Andres NWR has been slow since reintroduction in 2002, despite management strategies (i.e., predator control, prescribed burning) designed to benefit bighorn sheep. Effects of predation on bighorn sheep are a contentious management issue. Since 2002, 29 pumas have been lethally removed from the refuge by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), yet the population of bighorn sheep continues to display low or negative annual growth rates. The ecological effects of puma removal are unknown, but the magnitude (&gt; 25 pumas removed from an area thought to have a population of &gt; 5) of removal has certainly had profound effects on puma populations and social organization on San Andres NWR and adjacent areas. Further, few of these removals were pumas that killed bighorn sheep, so removals of the level seen on the refuge may actually increase puma predation on bighorn sheep by increasing overall puma numbers as established adults are removed from the population and replaced by juveniles that do not maintain as large a territory. This project provides an opportunity to more specifically document puma prey selection, puma kill rates, puma population status and social organization, and vulnerability of bighorn sheep to puma predation on San Andres NWR. The latter is especially critical, as modeling of kill sites to identify habitat features that increase bighorn sheep vulnerability can provide an alternative management option to decrease puma predation (besides lethal removal of pumas). By using real time satellite GPS collars on pumas, numbers of kill sites could be increased substantially allowing much more precise identification of habitat attributes associated with increased vulnerability of bighorn sheep. Justification for Single Source Determination - In accordance with Department of the Interior guidance (505 DM 2.14) the USFWS provides notice of its intent to make a single-source award in the amount of $32,000 via a cooperative agreement with the USGS New Mexico Wildlife and Fisheries Cooperative Research Unit at New Mexico State University. This project will maintain a collaborative working relationship between San Andres NWR, Kofa NWR (Arizona), USGS, New Mexico State University, and White Sands Missile Range. Overall, this project provides sound methodology and quantitative data to allow USFWS to either (1) defend current puma control, or (2) demonstrate that current control measures are ineffective or unnecessary, (3) develop habitat management strategies to decrease vulnerability of bighorn sheep to puma predation, and (4) improve bighorn sheep and pumas management to better steward their relationship and the Chihuahuan ecosystem under our charge. This increases USFWS vulnerability to any potential litigation over puma control for bighorn sheep, from little reliable knowledge on the need, efficacy, or design of lethal puma removal actions. These data also enable generating comparisons between puma prey selection, bighorn sheep vulnerability, and parameters dictating these relationships between San Andres NWR and Kofa NWR. Such information improves our understanding of the associations and ecological relationships between bighorn sheep and pumas across contrasting environments that in turn assists in better managing bighorn sheep and pumas elsewhere. New Mexico State University is uniquely qualified to perform the role of project coordinator for this effort due to being centrally located in the project area to minimize travel to participating refuges, containing the unique data management capability (spatial and large data sets), maintaining White Sands Missle Range security clearance to access San Andres NWR, and has both the administrative and scientific staff required to successfully manage the project in full consultation and cooperation with project partners. These factors together provide the USFWS with an opportunity to address predator control issues with significantly less staff and funding than would be possible otherwise. There is no Full Announcement associated with this notice of a single-source award.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Mara_Weisenberger@fws.gov
GrantorContactText: Mara Weisenberger &lt;br/&gt;Wildlife Biologist &lt;br/&gt;Phone 575-382-5047