Graham Red Squirrel Research Articles

Using a substitute species to inform translocation of an endangered territorial mammal.

Substitute species can inform management strategies without exposing endangered species to unacceptable risk. Furthermore, experimental approaches may help to identify the causes of translocation failures, improving the chances of success. We used a surrogate subspecies, Tamiasciurus fremonti fremonti to test different translocation techniques to inform on potential management actions with regards to the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis). Individuals of both subspecies defend year-round territories in similar mixed conifer forests at elevations between 2650-2750 m, where they store cones to survive over winter. We fitted VHF radio collars to 54 animals, and we monitored their survival and movements until individuals settled on a new territory. We considered the effect of season, translocation technique (soft or hard release), and body mass on survival, distance moved after release, and time to settlement of translocated animals. Survival probability averaged 0.48 after 60 days from the translocation event and was not affected by season or translocation technique. 54% of the mortality was caused by predation. Distance moved and number of days to settlement varied with season, where winter was characterized by shorter distances (average of 364 m in winter versus 1752 m in fall) and a smaller number of days (6 in winter versus 23 in fall). The data emphasized on the potential of substitute species to provide valuable information for possible outcomes of management strategies to closely related endangered species.

Characterizing the reproductive biology of the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis) managed in human care

Characterizing the reproductive biology of the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis) managed in human care

Potential of Small Culverts as Wildlife Passages on Forest Roads

Roads and traffic can cause animal mortality. Specifically, roads serve as barriers by impeding animal movement, resulting in demographic and genetic consequences. Drainage structures, such as culverts, can provide linkages between habitat patches. However, the potential of small culverts with diameters of <60 cm (e.g., wildlife passages that facilitate movement on forest roads) are relatively unknown. In this study, we used trail cameras to monitor the use of 14 small culverts, by mammals, along forest roads on Mt. Graham, home of the critically endangered Mt. Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis), in southeastern Arizona, USA. From 2011 to 2013, we only recorded 20 completed road crossings through culverts. More than half of culvert uses were by striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), followed by the rock squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus) and the bobcat (Lynx rufus). The Mt. Graham red squirrel was the only species that was common along the roads, but never crossed the roads. Culverts with higher usages were characterized by shorter culvert lengths and absence of accumulated soil inside the culverts. Our study shows that small-dimension drainage systems may provide alternative pathways for wildlife crossing roads, especially for slow moving and ground dwelling species. However, the potential of small culverts assisting wildlife crossings can only be maximized when culverts are accessible year-round.

Endemic Population Response to Increasingly Severe Fire: A Cascade of Endangerment for the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel

Abstract Drought, past fire suppression, insect invasion, and high-severity fire represent a disturbance cascade characteristic of forests in the western United States. The result is altered forest ecosystems diminished in their function and capacity to support biodiversity. Small habitat specialists are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of disturbances because of their limited movement capacity and high site fidelity. Research suggests that small mammals suffer limited direct mortality from fire but are increasingly vulnerable to local extirpation because of secondary impacts that include habitat loss and reduced food availability, survival, and reproduction. We examine the direct and secondary impacts of increasingly severe fire events on the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel—a model system to demonstrate how disturbances can threaten the persistence of range-limited species. We document survival, space use, and displacement prior to and following fires and discuss implications for conservation. We suggest that management plans address future threats, including disturbance-related habitat loss.

Timing of Resource Availability Drives Divergent Social Systems and Home Range Dynamics in Ecologically Similar Tree Squirrels

Intraspecific variation in home range size has important implications for the distribution of animals across landscapes and the spatial structuring of population, community and ecosystem processes. Among species of similar trophic guild and body mass, differences in home range size can reflect extrinsic variables that exert divergent selective forces upon spacing behavior and social organization. We tested predictions about how resource availability and timing influence social system, home range size and territoriality in two tree squirrel species of similar size and ecological niches but that differ in foraging strategy and social organization. We estimated home range size and intraspecific home range core overlap in the Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis; Arizona USA; MGRS) and the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris; Alps, Italy; ERS) as functions of species, sex, season, and individual’s body mass. However, body mass did not explain differences found between the two species. We found MGRS home ranges being 3 times smaller with higher core area exclusivity compared to ERS in all seasons. In fact, territorial MGRS evolved in a system of brief resource pulses and are larder hoarders, whereas ERS experience prolonged resource availability and are non-territorial. Only male MGRSs increased their home range during the breeding season, reflecting interspecific differences in social organization and mating behavior. Male ERS home ranges always overlap with several females to enhance mating success, while male and female MGRS maintain nearly exclusive territories throughout the year. Only during spring and summer males temporarily leave their food-based territory to increase mating opportunities with neighboring estrus females. Home range comparisons between ecologically similar species emphasized the importance of divergent extrinsic factors in shaping variability in body size – home range size scaling relationships. Timing in resource availability influenced the social structure and space use in tree squirrels of similar body size, highlighting how the coevolution of arboreal squirrels with conifer tree species has shaped their natural history.

Does caching strategy vary with microclimate in endangered Mt. Graham red squirrels?

Food hoarding is a common behavior used by a variety of animals to cope with periods of low food availability. At the retreating edge of species' distribution, the stressful environment and unfavourable climate conditions may impose severe costs on hoarding behavior. Since relict populations are hotspots for evolution and adaptation, and considering that food hoarding behavior has a strong evolutionary basis, we decided to evaluate the occurrence of behavioral variability in the amount of food cached by the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis). We tested the variation in cache size in response to microclimate, soil relief, vegetation, food availability and squirrel sex. The number of pits excavated by squirrels to cache cones was used as a proxy of cache size and was affected by mountain slope aspect and density of trees. More pits were excavated in the northeast facing slopes. The density of trees negatively affects the cache volume on southwest slopes, but not on northeast slopes. The sex of the resident squirrel also affects the number of pits in the squirrel midden, with males excavating 47% more pits than females. Males and females also presented different responses to the mountain slope aspect, with females excavating more pits on northeastern slopes than on southwestern slopes, whereas male cache size did not vary with the slope aspect. Finally, the squirrel's caching behavior did not vary in response to midden microclimate variation, a result with possible implications for the survival of the Mt Graham red squirrels, given the predicted temperature increases in the region due to climate change.

Experimental removals reveal dietary niche partitioning facilitates coexistence between native and introduced species.

Niche overlap between native species and ecologically similar invaders can lead to competitive exclusion of threatened native species, but if two such species also co‐occur naturally elsewhere, interactions between native and introduced populations may mirror coevolved niche partitioning that reduces competition and promotes coexistence.A single, insular population of Fremont's squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti) the Mount Graham red squirrel (MGRS; T. f. grahamensis) in the Pinaleño Mountains, Arizona, USA, is critically endangered and resource competition with introduced Abert's squirrels (Sciurus aberti) may threaten its long‐term persistence. The species are naturally synoptic in other mountain sites, and both consume diets comprised primarily of conifer seeds and fungi.We conducted experimental removals of introduced Abert's squirrels and used stable isotope analysis of diets before and after removals, and of diets in naturally syntopic populations to test the hypothesis that dietary niche partitioning can facilitate coexistence between native and introduced species. We also developed a novel approach to determine the influence of fluctuating food availability on carbon enrichment in consumers.Mount Graham red squirrels and introduced Abert's squirrels partitioned the dietary niche similarly to naturally syntopic populations. Removals had no apparent effect. Diet of MGRS was more closely linked to availability of resources than to presence of Abert's squirrels.Flexible dietary niche of introduced Abert's squirrels may have allowed them to exploit a resource opportunity in syntopy with MGRS. Variable food production of MGRS habitat may intensify competition in poor years, and territorial defense against non‐native Abert's squirrels likely imposes fitness costs on individual MGRS. Similarity in our model species’ diets may make MGRS more vulnerable to competition if climate change eliminates the advantages of larder‐hoarding. Where introduced populations of ecologically similar species are better adapted to changing conditions, they may ultimately replace southern peripheral populations of native species.

Low survival, high predation pressure present conservation challenges for an endangered endemic forest mammal

Knowledge of which population parameters and mortality risks contribute most to population decline and endangerment is necessary to develop informed and actionable conservation plans for threatened and endangered species (Rushton et al., 2006). The federally endangered Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis) is restricted to the Pinaleño Mountains, in southeastern Arizona, USA. The population is critically threatened with extensive habitat loss from fire as well as by an introduced non-native squirrel species, the Abert's squirrel (Sciurus aberti). Recovery is challenged by low survival and poor reproduction, such that the subspecies is functionally semelparous. We calculate survival rates and cause-specific mortality hazards from known-fate individuals to understand the impact of predation on survival and demography in this peripheral population. We document the lowest survival and highest rates of mortality in any population of North American red squirrels in both adult and juvenile age classes (mean annual survival: adults = 0.32, juveniles = 0.26). We attributed the majority of confirmed deaths to avian predation (adults 65%, juveniles 75%), and the daily hazard rate for avian predation was 15 times higher than for mammalian predation and 2 times higher than death from unknown causes. It is likely that the presence of an ecologically similar, non-native tree squirrel subsidizes a diverse avian predator guild, which includes two raptor species of conservation concern. In addition to efforts to remove the non-native Abert's squirrel, we recommend immediate forest restoration efforts in the long term, and habitat augmentation to increase structural complexity, cover, shelter, and food resources in the short term.

Differential response to fire by an introduced and an endemic species complicates endangered species conservation

Fire is a natural component of and serves as a tool for the restoration of forested ecosystems worldwide; however, disturbance due to fire also has been implicated in the proliferation of invasive species. How these fires affect occupancy and use of the forest by wildlife is of great concern, in particular, the differential response of non-native and native species. In the American Southwest, prior to European settlement, frequent wildfires helped to maintain forest structure. We examined the effect of a large wildfire on an introduced population of the Abert’s squirrel ( Sciurus aberti ) that has invaded the high elevations inhabited by the critically endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis ). We found that introduced Abert’s squirrels were more common than native red squirrels in burned areas. Abert’s squirrels did not abandon burned areas but nested, foraged, and tended to have small home ranges in burned areas. This suggests that invasive Abert’s squirrels are better able to exploit burned areas than are native red squirrels and that fire can favor non-native species. This interaction between non-native species, native species, and fire adds new insight into the complexities of conservation and restoration of ecosystems and helps to inform conservation activities worldwide.

Altered natal dispersal at the range periphery: The role of behavior, resources, and maternal condition.

Natal dispersal outcomes are an interplay between environmental conditions and individual phenotypes. Peripheral, isolated populations may experience altered environmental conditions and natal dispersal patterns that differ from populations in contiguous landscapes. We document nonphilopatric, sex‐biased natal dispersal in an endangered small mammal, the Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis), restricted to a single mountain. Other North American red squirrel populations are shown to have sex‐unbiased, philopatric natal dispersal. We ask what environmental and intrinsic factors may be driving this atypical natal dispersal pattern. We test for the influence of proximate factors and ultimate drivers of natal dispersal: habitat fragmentation, local population density, individual behavior traits, inbreeding avoidance, competition for mates, and competition for resources, allowing us to better understand altered natal dispersal patterns at the periphery of a species’ range. A juvenile squirrel's body condition and its mother's mass in spring (a reflection of her intrinsic quality and territory quality) contribute to individual behavioral tendencies for movement and exploration. Resources, behavior, and body condition have the strongest influence on natal dispersal distance, but affect males and females differently. Male natal dispersal distance is positively influenced by its mother's spring body mass and individual tendency for movement; female natal dispersal distance is negatively influenced by its mother's spring body mass and positively influenced by individual tendency for movement. An apparent feedback between environmental variables and subsequent juvenile behavioral state contributes to an altered natal dispersal pattern in a peripheral population, highlighting the importance of studying ecological processes at the both range center and periphery of species’ distributions.

Evidence of natal habitat preference induction within one habitat type.

Natal habitat preference induction (NHPI) is a mechanism for habitat selection by individuals during natal dispersal. NHPI occurs in wild animal populations, and evidence suggests it may be a common, although little studied, mechanism for post-dispersal habitat selection. Most tests of NHPI examine the influence of distinct, contrasting natal habitat types on post-dispersal habitat selection. We test the hypothesis that NHPI can occur within a single habitat type, an important consideration for habitat specialists. The Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) is an endangered forest obligate restricted to a single mountain primarily within mixed-conifer forest. We test for NHPI by comparing intra-individual differences in natal and settlement habitat structure and composition to expected random pairwise differences. Dispersing juveniles appear to select settlement locations that are more similar to natal areas than expected in several forest structure and composition variables that include canopy cover and live basal area. Our results provide support for NHPI as a mechanism for post-dispersal habitat selection in habitat specialists that occupy a single vegetation community type.

Barrier effects of roads on an endangered forest obligate: influences of traffic, road edges, and gaps

Habitat fragmentation and destruction caused by development of infrastructure such as roads threaten biodiversity. Roads act as barriers by impeding animal movements and restricting space use. Understanding factors that influence barrier effects is important to discern the impacts of habitat fragmentation and to develop appropriate mitigations. We combined telemetry and demographic data in 2008 to 2012 with remote sensing imagery to investigate barrier effects of forest roads and assess effects of traffic, road edges, and canopy gaps on space use of an endangered, endemic forest obligate, the Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis). We mapped low to high traffic roads, road edges, canopy gaps, and random lines in forests to serve as references. We determined if red squirrels included these linear features in their total and core home ranges, and used this metric as an indicator of crossing and preference for habitat adjacent to the linear features. Forest roads acted as barriers regardless of traffic volume and had long-term impacts on animal space use. Animals did not avoid entering roadside areas, and probability of crossing linear features in the forest was not affected by distance to roads. In contrast, greater canopy cover increased probability of crossing, and gaps in canopy impeded animal movements. Higher likelihood of road crossing was associated with more variable tree height and mating activity. We demonstrated that narrow forest roads with low traffic volume were barriers for forest dependent species, and suggest that gap avoidance inhibits road crossings.

Differential Effects of Roads and Traffic on Space Use and Movements of Native Forest-Dependent and Introduced Edge-Tolerant Species.

Anthropogenic infrastructure such as roads and non-native species are major causes of species endangerment. Understanding animal behavioral responses to roads and traffic provides insight into causes and mechanisms of effects of linear development on wildlife and aids effective mitigation and conservation. We investigated effects of roads and traffic on space use and movements of two forest-dwelling species: endemic, forest-dependent Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) and introduced, edge-tolerant Abert’s squirrels (Sciurus aberti). To assess the effects of roads on space use and movement patterns, we compared the probability that a squirrel home range included roads and random lines in forests, and assessed effects of traffic intensity on rate of road crossing and movement patterns. Red squirrels avoided areas adjacent to roads and rarely crossed roads. In contrast, Abert’s squirrels were more likely to include roads in their home ranges compared to random lines in forests. Both red squirrels and Abert’s squirrels increased speed when crossing roads, compared to before and after road crossings. Increased hourly traffic volume reduced the rate of road crossings by both species. Behavioral responses of red squirrels to roads and traffic resemble responses to elevated predation risk, including reduced speed near roads and increased tortuosity of movement paths with increased traffic volume. In contrast, Abert’s squirrels appeared little affected by roads and traffic with tortuosity of movement paths reduced as distance to roads decreased. We found that species with similar body size category (<1 kg) but different habitat preference and foraging strategy responded to roads differently and demonstrated that behavior and ecology are important when considering effects of roads on wildlife. Our results indicate that roads restricted movements and space use of a native forest-dependent species while creating habitat preferred by an introduced, edge-tolerant species.

Seed Removal Increased by Scramble Competition with an Invasive Species.

Competition for seeds has a major influence on the evolution of granivores and the plants on which they rely. The complexity of interactions and coevolutionary relationships vary across forest types. The introduction of non-native granivores has considerable potential to alter seed dispersal dynamics. Non-native species are a major cause of endangerment for native species, but the mechanisms are often unclear. As biological invasions continue to rise, it is important to understand mechanisms to build up strategies to mitigate the threat. Our field experiment quantified the impact of introduced Abert’s squirrels (Sciurus aberti) on rates of seed removal within the range of critically endangered Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis), which consumes similar foods. In the presence of invasive Abert’s squirrels, the time cones were removed was faster than when the invasive was excluded, accounting for a median removal time of cones available to red and Abert’s squirrels that is 32.8% less than that of cones available only to the rare native red squirrels. Moreover, in the presence of Abert’s squirrels, removal rates are higher at great distance from a territorial red squirrel larderhoard and in more open portions of the forest, which suggests differential patterns of seed dispersal. The impact on food availability as a result of cone removal by Abert’s squirrels suggests the potential of food competition as a mechanism of endangerment for the Mount Graham red squirrel. Furthermore, the magnitude and differential spatial patterns of seed removal suggest that non-native granivores may have impacts on forest regeneration and structure.

Animal occurrence and space use change in the landscape of anthropogenic noise

Habitat fragmentation, destruction, and disturbance are major threats to biodiversity. Global road networks represent one of the most significant human impacts on ecosystems, and a spatially extensive source of anthropogenic disturbance and noise. We developed a novel approach by combining traffic monitoring with noise mapping on the basis of a standardized traffic-noise stimulus generated by controlled vehicle operation to investigate temporal and spatial heterogeneity of traffic noise. We used animal presence or absence, radio-telemetric monitoring of space use, and remotely sensed habitat characteristics with occupancy modeling and spatial analysis to assess influences of distance from roads, habitat characteristics, and traffic noise level on site occupancy and space use of Mt. Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis). Traffic noise had spatially extensive and negative effects on site occupancy. Animal occurrence decreased as traffic noise increased after accounting for distance from roads. Traffic noise levels in animal core home ranges were lower than noise levels within total home ranges. Our study disentangled effects of traffic noise from confounding environmental characteristics and demonstrated the chronic impacts of traffic noise on animal distribution. We highlight the importance of incorporating spatial and temporal heterogeneity of traffic noise at a local scale when investigating effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife.

Mapping and monitoring Mount Graham red squirrel habitat with Lidar and Landsat imagery

The Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) is an endemic subspecies located in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeast Arizona. Living in a conifer forest on a sky-island surrounded by desert, the Mount Graham red squirrel is one of the rarest mammals in North America. Over the last two decades, drought, insect infestations, and fire destroyed much of its habitat. A federal recovery team is working on a plan to recover the squirrel and detailed information is necessary on its habitat requirements and population dynamics. Toward that goal I developed and compared three probabilistic models of Mount Graham red squirrel habitat with a geographic information system and logistic regression. Each model contained the same topographic variables (slope, aspect, elevation), but the Landsat model contained a greenness variable (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) extracted from Landsat, the Lidar model contained three forest-inventory variables extracted from lidar, while the Hybrid model contained Landsat and lidar variables. The Hybrid model produced the best habitat classification accuracy, followed by the Landsat and Lidar models, respectively. Landsat-derived forest greenness was the best predictor of habitat, followed by topographic (elevation, slope, aspect) and lidar (tree height, canopy bulk density, and live basal area) variables, respectively. The Landsat model's probabilities were significantly correlated with all 12 lidar variables, indicating its utility for habitat mapping. While the Hybrid model produced the best classification results, only the Landsat model was suitable for creating a habitat time series or habitat–population function between 1986 and 2013. The techniques I highlight should prove valuable in the development of Landsat- or lidar-based habitat models range wide.

Cultural Survival in Action: Ola Cassadore Davis and the Struggle for dzi nchaa si'an (Mount Graham)

NAIS 1:2 FALL 2014 Cultural Survival in Action 151 JOEL T. HELFRICH Cultural Survival in Action: Ola Cassadore Davis and the Struggle for dził nchaa si’an (Mount Graham) I’m just a little bitty lady. I’ve never grabbed anyone before. But he [Senator Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.] is working for us in Arizona. He doesn’t scare me because I know I’m doing the right thing—standing up for my people. —OLA CASSADORE DAVIS MOUNT GRAHAM, an ecologically unique mountain range in Arizona, is one of the mostwritten-aboutand contendedoverIndigenous sacredsitesglobally.1 It is an oasis in the middle of a desert, an exceptional “sky island” ecosystem that possesses the most life zones or biotic communities of any solitary mountain in North America, and the home of at least 18 endemic species, especially the imperiled Mount Graham red squirrel. Mount Graham, or dził nchaa si’an (“big seated mountain”) in the Apache language, is the only place where Western Apache (Nneé) people collect certain plant and animal resources for use in ceremonials, learn how to live, and go to understand their cosmology— all of which are central to their culture and sovereignty.2 The landscape that has encompassed the “traditional Western Apache” homeland is diamond-­ shaped and includes Mount Graham, San Francisco Peaks, the White Mountains , especially Mount Baldy, and the Mazatzal Mountains.3 A sacred place since “time immemorial” to the Western Apache people, Mount Graham has been a site of struggle since the 1870s when it was removed from reservation lands by U.S. presidential order, but especially since the 1980s as a consortium of international research institutions led by the University of Arizona (UA) has sought astrophysical development opportunities. The struggle for this mountain has been long and contested. In the early 1980s, UA and its research partners selected Mount Graham as the location for a new generation of telescopes. Soon afterwards, environmental groups not only began to protest and litigate but also to point out the Apache connections to the mountain. In early 1987, Paul Pierce, a Tucson businessman and Director of the Coalition for the Preservation of Mount Graham, wrote to the Coronado National Forest. He pointed out the sacredness of the mountain and its present-day use by Apaches of the mountain: “We have since identified a group of San Carlos Apache people who are still using the high peaks Joel T. Helfrich NAIS 1:2 FALL 2014 152 of [Mount Graham] for religious reasons. Evidently this religious use of the mountain is contemporary and has been happening over the last few hundred years,” a comment that is supported by ethnohistorical records from approximately 1910 to 1940. Pierce stated that Mount Graham is sacred to members of the San Carlos Apache tribe and was still being used for religious rites. “The proposed development is viewed as potentially damaging to the Apache religion and the ceremonies that take place,” argued Pierce. He urged that the Forest Service address the potentially harmful impacts of UA’s astrophysical development. However, UA decided habitually to ignore and fight against ecological facts, Apache spiritual and tribal concerns, and its own data regarding the usefulness of its site selection and the limited astrophysical value of the mountain.4 In the face of legitimate concerns and strong opposition from both environmentalists and Apache people, UA lobbied the U.S. Congress in 1988 in order “to establish an international astronomical observatory on Mount Graham.”5 UA became the initial academic institution to achieve several dubious firsts regarding U.S. environmental, cultural, religious, and human rights law in its pursuit of astronomical excellence. Before it obtained an exemption from federal environmental and cultural laws, UA was the first university to lobby against the creation of a national wilderness (Mount Graham Wilderness Area) in 1984 and the first university to fight against the listing of an endangered species in 1986.6 UA obtained the additional recognition of being the first university to lobby and secure not one, but two, precedent-­ setting congressional exemptions (1988 and 1996) to subvert American Indian cultural and religious protection law, as well as U.S. environmental law; to promote a project whose biological approval was...

Severe reduction in genetic variation in a montane isolate: the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis)

The Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis; MGRS) is endemic to the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona at the southernmost extent of the species’ range. The MGRS was listed as federally endangered in 1987, and is currently at high risk of extinction due to declining population size and increasing threats. Here we present a genetic assessment of the MGRS using eight nuclear DNA microsatellite markers and a 472 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. We analyzed 34 MGRS individuals and an additional 66 red squirrels from the nearby White Mountains, Arizona (T. h. mogollonensis). Both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analyses revealed an extreme reduction in measures of genetic diversity relative to conspecifics from the White Mountains, suggesting that the MGRS has either experienced multiple bottlenecks, or a single long-term bottleneck. Additionally, we found a high degree of relatedness (mean = 0.75 ± 0.18) between individual MGRS. Our study implies that the MGRS may lack the genetic variation required to respond to a changing environment. This is especially important considering this region of the southwest United States is expected to experience profound effects from global climate change. The reduced genetic variability together with the high relatedness coefficients should be taken into account when constructing a captive population to minimize loss of the remaining genetic variation.

The Last Refuge of the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel: Ecology of Endangerment

The Last Refuge of the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel: Ecology of Endangerment

Response of the Mount Graham Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) to Postfire Conditions

To assess response of Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) to postfire conditions, we monitored size of home ranges and core areas and characteristics of vegetation at middens in an area of low-intensity burn. For a larger-scale assessment, we monitored mountain-wide occupancy of middens. Although red squirrels selected unburned locations as sites for middens, mean size of home range in a lightly burned area decreased over time, suggesting high availability of resources in lightly burned areas.