OpportunityTitle: Notice of Intent to Award to Peregrine Fund
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This single-source determination is in accordance with criteria #4, Unique Qualifications, under Department of Interior guidance in 505 Departmental Manual 2 at 2.14.  This guidance has established that The Peregrine Fund is uniquely qualified to perform these activities based upon their technical expertise and cost-sharing abilities.  The funding obligation in FY 2011 is expected to total approximately $260,700. In addition, The Peregrine Fund will be matching this amount for this project.  We would not be able to conduct the project without these matching funds.  The objective of this Cooperative Agreement between the Peregrine Fund and the Service is to benefit the aplomado falcon by conducting reintroductions and monitoring.  This mitigation project, funded by Customs and Border Protection, will contribute toward recovery of the northern aplomado falcon, New Mexico&apos;s most highly endangered species affected by Department of Homeland Security projects conducted under waiver of some environmental law requirements.  Northern aplomado falcons and suitable habitat occur in the vicinity of the project area in southern New Mexico.    Reintroduction of northern aplomado falcons in southern New Mexico would be conducted as part of an ongoing program by the Peregrine Fund, the expert organization that raises and reintroduces northern aplomado falcons into their historic range in the United States.  This procedure gradually reintroduces falcons into highly suitable grassland habitat over a period of several weeks while the young birds are provided with supplemental food by human attendants.  This method has been used by the Peregrine Fund to re-establish a self-sustaining population in south Texas, where native aplomado falcons were extirpated.  In addition, monitoring and telemetry of reintroduced northern aplomado falcons would be conducted to ascertain their habitat use, movement patterns, and survival.    For over three decades, expert raptor biologists from The Peregrine Fund have developed methodology and acquired the expertise to successfully accomplish this technically complex reintroduction and monitoring project.  Telemetry monitoring at this level of detail is very skilled and labor-intensive.  Use of the unique and advanced technical expertise of The Peregrine Fund would greatly enhance the likelihood of success for this important endangered species project and thereby contribute to the recovery of the species.    Regarding cost-sharing ability, The Peregrine Fund will match this award with an equal amount of funding that supports other necessary aspects of this reintroduction and monitoring program.   In addition, long-standing, positive working relationships between The Pergrine Fund and numerous private and public agency biologists, scientists, veterinarians and other cooperators have facilitated continuous and substantial donations of materials and in-kind highly skilled labor to this non-profit organization.  Such in-kind services would also be requested and utilized during implementation of this project.
Description: Northern aplomado falcons (Falco femoralis septentrionalis) once nested in many areas of the northern Chihuahuan Desert, but were extirpated from the United States after 1952 in response to increases in livestock grazing and other human-related changes (Keddy-Hector 2000, Macias-Duarte et al. 2004). This project will benefit the northern aplomado falcon by supporting reintroduction and monitoring that will contribute to the recovery of the species. Reintroduction of northern aplomado falcons will be conducted as part of an ongoing program by The Peregrine Fund, the expert organization that breeds northern aplomado falcons in captivity and reintroduces them into their historic range in the United States. This procedure gradually reintroduces falcons into highly suitable grassland habitat over a period of several weeks while the young birds are provided with supplemental food by human attendants. This method was used by The Peregrine Fund in the 1990s through the early 2000s to re-establish a self-sustaining population in south Texas. The Peregrine Fund began releasing captive-bred northern aplomado falcons in Trans-Pecos Texas in 2002 and southern New Mexico in 2006. To date, 667 young falcons have been released in Trans-Pecos Texas and 258 in southern New Mexico, into habitat considered to be highly suitable using criteria provided in Young et al. (2004). Little is known about the fates of young aplomado falcons after they leave their release sites. Telemetry and monitoring of reintroduced northern aplomado falcons will be conducted to determine their habitat use, movement patterns, and survival. Therefore, this project will also seek information on causes of mortality, such as potential starvation, predation, or drowning in steep-sided metal stock tanks.PROJECT DESCRIPTIONEstimated Start Date: FY2011 Projected Finish Date: FY2013Task 1. Radio-tag and reintroduce northern aplomado falcons. Prior to transport to a reintroduction site, each young northern aplomado falcon will be fitted with a telemetry transmitter attached by Teflon ribbons in backpack configuration according to methods reported by Hunt et al. (2009). Transmitter weight will not exceed 2.3 percent of body weight. From May through August 2011, The Peregrine Fund will reintroduce approximately 60 falcons in groups of five to seven individuals, up to 25 per site, at two locations in Trans-Pecos Texas and at four locations in southern New Mexico. Attendants will monitor and supply the falcons with Coturnix quail that have been produced and processed in captivity. Food will be gradually reduced and then stopped at 6 weeks after the falcons were initially released. In the summers of 2012 and 2013, northern aplomado falcons will continue to be reintroduced and fitted with transmitters in southern New Mexico at the numbers and locations described above.All released falcons will be fitted with transmitters. Battery-powered VHF transmitters will be applied to approximately 50 individuals in southern New Mexico. Solar-powered PTT satellite-reporting transmitters will be applied to approximately 10 individuals in Trans-Pecos Texas. Battery life for both instruments should exceed 6 months. Satellite-reporting transmitters with GPS capability are currently too heavy for use on aplomado falcons. Satellite transmitters will be used in Trans-Pecos Texas because of the predominance of private lands, whereas most of the study area in southern New Mexico is public land or large private ranches that have allowed access for aplomado falcon reintroductions. Task 2. Radio-track northern aplomado falcons by airplane. During the falcon dispersal period, the location of each of the 50 VHF-tagged falcons in southern New Mexico will be periodically located: twice each week for the first two months of independence, once a week for the third and fourth months, and twice each month thereafter throughout the lives of the transmitters. A pilot with a dual-yagi-equipped fixed-wing airplane at a central airport in New Mexico will be contracted and will be accompanied during survey flights by an experienced Peregrine Fund biologist. Trackers will record the GPS coordinates of each falcon&#239;&#191;&#189;s last known location and pass the data to a single coordinator who will develop GIS map-itineraries of each falcon and associated data. The coordinator will communicate the map and coordinates to the aerial tracker prior to each survey. Ground trackers will attempt to observe as many tagged falcons as possible for the purpose of recording habitat use, foraging behavior, prey selection, hunting success, interaction with potential mortality agents (e.g., dangerous power lines, cryptic fence lines, great horned owl habitat), and to locate falcons that have died or become injured. As falcons disperse, the airplane survey will be used to establish the locations of all birds beyond the reach of ground tracking. Isolated individuals beyond the practicality of air-monitoring will be monitored by local cooperators to record positions and activity. The air survey will be conducted along transect grids covering all areas of significant size deemed suitable as aplomado falcon habitat, and the pattern of the survey will develop according to the movements of falcons.Task 3. Track PTT-tagged falcons. The ten satellite-reporting transmitters to be used in Trans-Pecos Texas are comparable in weight and method of attachment to conventional transmitters. The transmitters will send periodic messages to orbiting satellite arrays that will report the approximate locations of aplomado falcons based on dopler shift calculations with variable precision. These location estimates will be transferred from the internet to computerized topographical maps. Task 4. Determine causes of mortality. If possible, the VHF and PTT transmitters will contain mortality-switches that alert trackers to transmitters that cease to move. Otherwise, trackers will attempt to verify that each relocated bird is alive, either by visual observation or by determining that it has moved from its last-recorded location. Immediately upon suspecting a fatality, the transmitter will be tracked in order to determine the fate of the falcon. In case of mortality, the cause of death will be ascertained when possible, including by necropsy from a veterinarian.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: E-Mail
GrantorContactText: Patricia Zenone &lt;br/&gt;Project Officer &lt;br/&gt;Phone 505-761-4718