Las Animas County Research Articles

Response of mule deer to habitat modification near natural gas development

Mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ) are known to shift habitat use in response to environmental modifications, including those associated with energy development. Their specific behavioral responses, however, and capacities to habituate to particular aspects of energy development have not been effectively studied. We examined mule deer response to habitat alteration near natural gas wells in Las Animas County, Colorado, USA in 2008—2010, an area experiencing development for extraction of natural gas. We created 10-1 ha openings in forests adjacent to 10 wells by removing standing trees in 2008, with concomitant establishment of 10 1-ha control sites adjacent to the same wells. On each site, we estimated deer use, indexed by pellet density, before and after tree removal. Concurrently, we measured plant production, cover, nutritional quality, species composition and biomass removed by deer and other large herbivores. Species richness and diversity and graminoid and forb cover and biomass increased on cut sites following tree removal. Use increased following tree removal on cut and control sites, but was greater on cut sites in 2010. Herbivores removed negligible quantities of vegetation on control sites in both years, suggesting that control sites may have been used primarily for concealment. Mule deer demonstrated the behavioral capacity to habituate to habitat modifications and other environmental changes associated with development for the extraction of energy. Managing forage and habitat availability appears to have the potential to affect the type of response and degree of habituation by mule deer to such development.

Response of Elk to Habitat Modification Near Natural Gas Development

Elk (Cervus elaphus) are known to shift habitat use in response to environmental modifications, including those associated with various forms of energy development. The specific behavioral responses underlying these trends, however, have not been effectively studied. To investigate such effects, we examined elk response to habitat alteration near natural gas wells in Las Animas County, Colorado, USA in 2008-2010. We created 10 1-ha openings in forests adjacent to 10 operating natural gas wells by removing standing timber in 2008, with concomitant establishment of 10 1-ha control sites adjacent to the same wells. On each site, we estimated elk use, indexed by pellet density, before and after timber removal. Concurrently, we measured plant production and cover, nutritional quality, species composition and biomass removed by elk and other large herbivores. Species richness and diversity, graminoid and forb cover, and graminoid and forb biomass increased on cut sites following tree removal. Differences were greater in 2010 than in 2009, and elk and deer removed more plant biomass in 2010 than 2009. Elk use of cut sites was 37% lower than control sites in 2009, but 46% higher in 2010. The initially lower use of cut sites may be attributable to lack of winter forage on these sites caused by timber removal and associated surface modification. The increased use of cut sites in 2010 suggested that elk possessed the behavioral capacity, over time, to exploit enhanced forage resources in the proximity of habitat modifications and human activity associated with maintenance of operating natural gas wells.

Pattern-Class D of Parthenogenetic Aspidoscelis tesselata (Sauria: Teiidae) in Las Animas County, Colorado

Abstract The diploid, parthenogenetic, whiptail lizard Aspidoscelis tesselata is represented by two distinctive variants of color pattern in southeastern Colorado. Pattern-class C has been recorded from several sites in the canyonlands of Otero, Las Animas, and Baca counties and D has been recorded from four sites north of the Purgatoire River near Higbee, Otero County. We report a specimen of A. tesselata D collected in 2008 south of the Purgatoire River in Las Animas County, which represents a significant range extension for this distinctive parthenogen.

Serologic Survey for Canine Infectious Diseases among Sympatric Swift Foxes (Vulpes velox) and Coyotes (Canis latrans) in Southeastern Colorado

Swift foxes (Vulpes velox) and coyotes (Canis latrans) are sympatric canids distributed throughout many regions of the Great Plains of North America. The prevalence of canid diseases among these two species where they occur sympatrically is presently unknown. From January 1997 to January 2001, we collected blood samples from 89 swift foxes and 122 coyotes on the US Army Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, Las Animas County, SE Colorado (USA). Seroprevalence of antibodies against canine parvovirus (CPV) was 71% for adult (> 9 mo old) and 38% for juvenile (< or = 9 mo old) swift foxes. Adult (<1 yr old) and juvenile (<1 yr old) coyotes had a seroprevalence for CPV of 96% and 78%, respectively. Presence of antibodies against canine distemper virus (CDV) was 5% for adult foxes and 0% for juvenile foxes. Seroprevalence of CDV was 46% for adult coyotes and 18% for juvenile coyotes. No swift foxes had canine adenovirus (CAV) antibodies, whereas 81% and 63% of adult and juvenile coyotes, respectively, had antibodies for CAV. Seroprevalence of antibodies against Yersinia pestis was 68% among adult foxes and 34% among juvenile swift foxes. Seroprevalence of Y. pestis antibodies was 90% and 70% for adult and juvenile coyotes, respectively. No swift foxes had antibodies against Francisella tularensis, whereas seroprevalence was 4% among both adult and juvenile coyotes. Antibodies against CPV and plague were common in both species, whereas antibodies against CDV and CAV were more prevalent in coyotes compared to swift foxes.

The Inconsistent and Inefficient Constricting Behavior of Colorado Western Terrestrial Garter Snakes, Thamnophis elegans

The Inconsistent and Inefficient Constricting Behavior of Colorado Western Terrestrial Garter Snakes, Thamnophis elegans

Alcohol, Handguns, and Homicide in the American West: A Tale of Three Counties, 1880-1920

T HE TRINIDAD CHRONICLE-NEWS HEADLINE on 18 August 1913 was typical homicide reporting in Las Animas County, Colorado: Union Miner Killed; Detective Shot, in Pistol Duel on Crowded Street.' In this particular case, G. W. Belcher and Walter Belk challenged union organizer Gerald Lippiatt on North Commercial Street in downtown Trinidad.2 All three drew revolvers, and the shooting ended with Lippiatt dead in the street from seven bullet wounds.3 Belcher received a graze on the leg. Holding to the code of the West, a coroner's inquest found the killing justifiable and released Belcher and Belk.4

A Predictive Site Location Model on the High Plains: An Example with an Independent Test

Models of archaeological site location that have a predictive capacity formed an integral part of the Pinon Canyon Archaeological Project, located in Las Animas County, southeastern Colorado. The models were developed through a focus on settlement theory and previous archaeological work, and through a combination of techniques and technologies including multivariate statistics, decision theory, principles of pattern recognition, image classification, and the computer science domain known as Geographic Information Systems. One previously undescribed model for a portion of the Pinon Canyon study region is examined. This model, although it performs at only a moderate level, is noteworthy be cause a completely independent survey of that region recently has been conducted, allowing a iCblind test of its performance. We may therefore compare the predicted performance of this model against ac tual circumstances allowing an objective assessment of the utility of predictive modeling at Pinon Canyon. Over the past decade there have been numerous studies devoted to the development of archaeological site location models that have a predictive capacity (e.g. Kohler and Parker 1986, Judge and Sebastian 1988; Scholtz 1981). A variety of such models were developed from 1983-1985 at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, a large U.S. Army base encompassing nearly 1,000 square kilometers in Las Animas County, southeastern Colorado. The purpose of these models was to contribute to a description and understanding of prehistoric locational be havior, to guide subsequent survey efforts to those regions where sites were most probable in order that a significant portion of the limited amount of survey to be performed would be con ducted in the most archaeologically sensitive areas, and to provide a planning mechanism that would aid in the future management of cultural resources by indicating where sites were likely to be located in unsurveyed areas. Thus, predic tive site location modeling constituted an impor tant aspect of the Pinon Canyon Archaeological Project and, consequently, a rigorous, no-non sense modeling approach was required that would provide a useful, defensible, and testable outcome. Saddled with this grave responsibility as director of the modeling efforts, I decided to employ a proven methodology developed by scientists at NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and elsewhere: tech niques of pattern recognition and classification of features in remotely sensed satellite images (Moik 1980; Schowengerdt 1983). By treating various characteristics of the Pinon Canyon landscape as images, and known samples of archaeological site-present and site-absent locations discovered by our survey crews as the features of interest, these methods could be employed to develop a feature classification model that could be mapped over the entire Pinon Canyon landscape to indicate site-likely and site-unlikely regions, thereby yielding a predictive capacity (Kvamme 1988). The path toward achieving this outcome was long and tedious and involved not only knowledge of geographical and anthropological settlement theory and the local archaeological situation, but also multivariate statistical methods, decision theory, principles of pattern recogni

Drilling for Methane Gas in Fishers Peak Area, Las Animas County, Colorado: ABSTRACT

In July and August 1978, two holes were drilled in the Raton basin 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Trinidad, Colorado, for measuring methane gas in coal beds. The sites are near the Morley mine, where the presence of abundant methane gas had been reported during mining operations. The principal objective was the Morley coal, located just above the Trinidad Sandstone. The geology, drilling procedures, coal beds encountered, tests for gas, and experience gained are described. The amount of methane, although lower than expected, is consistent with the correlation of coal rank to gas yield. The coal is classed as high volatile A; the ratio of fixed carbon to volatile matter is 1.69. Strong shows of methane are known in other parts of the basin where thicker, more consistent coal sections of higher rank occur. Such localities will most likely prove the importance of the region for methane gas production by future exploration and drilling. End_of_Article - Last_Page 675------------

Sympatry of Pocket Gophers on Mesa de Maya, Colorado

Geographic and ecologic relationships among the four species of pocket gophers that occur in Colorado have stimulated considerable interest (see, for example, Miller, 1964), but much remains to be learned about their distribution and natural history. The purposes of this note are to report new distributional data in Colorado for Thomomys bottae and Pappoge(mys c astanops and to document the second known instance of sympatry between those species. In summer of 1978, specimens of T. bottcle and P. ( astclnops were trapped on Mesa de Maya, a relatively large? isolated mesa in a sparsely populated region of southeastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico? and the northwestern part of the panhandle of Oklahoma (see detailed description by Rogers, 1953). Neither species previously was known from the mesa although peripheral populations of both had been reported in Las Animas County, Colorado (Armstrong 1972: 150-152, 168), and Union Countyz New Mexico ( Findley et al . ? 1975: 147150, 154155) . Specimens of T. bottcle were obtained at the following localities in Las Animas Co., Colorado: 9 mi. S, 16 mi. W Kim (5 specimens); 9 mi. S, 151/2 mi. W Kim (2); 91/2 mi. S, 16 mi. W Kim (1); 91/2 mi. S, 15 mi. W Kim (I); 91/2 mi. S, 14 mi. W Kim (1); 91/2 mi. S, 131/2 mi. W Kim (1). Specimens of P. cclstnops likewise were obtained at the following localities: 81/2 mi. S, 10 mi. W Kim (1); 91/2 mi. S, 14 mi. W Kim (1); 91/2 mi. S, 13 mi. W Kim (2); 10 mi. S, 13 mi. W Kim (2). These localities lie approximately along an east-west transect, the western end of which apparently was occupied only by T. bottcle and the eastern end only by P. ( clstunops . However specimens of both species were trapped (from mounds about 20 m apart) at the site 91/2 mi. S, 14 mi. W Kim, and the distributions of the two species overlapped geographically by approximately one-half mile at that location. Sympatry of Thomomy5 and Pclppogeomya is thought to be rare (Russell, 1968:758-759). To the best of our knowledge the only published reports of sympatry of these genera are in Michoacan (Hall and Villa, 1949:451-452; Russell, 1968:758-759) and western Texas (Reichman and Baker, 1972) and the latter of these is the only documented instance of sympatry between T. bottclf and P. (c*tcxnop. Best (1973:1316) studied pocket gophers in north-

The Lesser Prairie Chicken in Colorado

Lesser prairie chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), now rare though increasing in numbers in Colorado, were once fairly common in the southeastern part of the state, particularly in the area south of the Arkansas River. Information indicates that this species was probably once found in at least six counties: Baca, Prowers, Bent, Kiowa, Lincoln, and Cheyenne. Populations are thought to have occurred in earlier days in both the mixed prairie plant communities and the sand sagebrushgrassland plant communities. The species has been observed in Colorado during the period 1959 through 1962 only within the sand sagebrush-grassland plant communities and bordering cultivated fields. A major reduction in lesser prairie chicken range and numbers in Colorado apparently coincided with the general pasture depletion during the dust-bowl conditions of the 1930's. Populations have been censused through spring counts of cocks on booming grounds from 1959 through 1962. The numbers of cocks counted on the grounds have steadily increased over the 4-year period from 6 on three grounds in the spring of 1959 to 104 on thirteen grounds in the spring of 1962. Practices which have benefited the species in recent years include improved grassland management through rotation of pastures, moderate livestock use, and grass reseeding programs. Improved moisture conditions have also benefited the species. This paper presents the results of a basic inventory study on the lesser prairie chicken in Colorado. The investigations resulted from a lack of knowledge of the species by the Colorado Department of Game, Fish and Parks and from interest in the species by U. S. Forest Service personnel of the Comanche National Grasslands, with headquarters in Springfield, Colorado. The U. S. Forest Service controls approximately 260,000 acres of grazing lands in southern Baca and southeastern Las Animas counties. These lands were purchased from private landowners during the dust-bowl days of the 1930's. Many of these tracts are located within historical lesser prairie chicken range. Scattered sightings of prairie chickens by landowners and others during recent years indicated the species was still found in some areas in southeastern Colorado prior to the initiation of the study. I wish to thank E. E. Miller, U. S. Forest Service, Springfield, Colorado, and J. H. De Vore, U. S. Forest Service, Elkhart, Kansas, for their interest and assistance during the study; W. D. Snyder, Colorado Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Springfield, Colorado, for assistance in the field work of locating and counting populations; F. F. Copelin, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, for va uable advice on census techniques and habits of the species; and Dr. A. M. Bailey, Denver Museum of Natural History, for historical information.

Correlation of Paleozoic Rocks Across Las Animas Arch in Baca, Las Animas, and Otero Counties, Colorado

The Skelly Oil Company's Hankins well No. 1 in southeastern Baca County, Colorado, low on the southeast flank of the Las Animas arch, penetrated a sequence of Paleozoic rocks about 5,500 feet thick, before being abandoned at a depth of 6,171 feet in the Arbuckle limestone. The sequence is, in general, similar to that present in southwestern Kansas, and includes formations of Permian, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, Ordovician and Cambrian age. Nearly three-fourths of the sequence is absent in the Marland Production Company's Mesa well No. 1 and the Phillips Petroleum Company's Haskins well No. 1 near the crest of the arch. There, beds of Permian age overlie a thin remnant of the Arbuckle limestone which, in turn, overlies rocks of pre-Cambrian age. Pennsylvanian rocks of co siderable thickness are present on the west flank of the arch, as revealed by the Carter Oil Company's stratigraphic test No. 1 in southwestern Otero County. The Mississippian formations, and the Viola limestone and Simpson group of the Ordovician system are absent in the Carter well, however, and beds of Morrowan age overlie the Arbuckle limestone which, in turn, overlies rocks of pre-Cambrian age.

Paleozoic Correlations from Southern Rocky Mountain Front Range to Oklahoma-Texas Panhandles: ABSTRACT

By means of measured sections and well logs tentative correlations are made from Colorado Springs to the Amarillo Arch. While these correlations are not absolute they are presented in the hope that they may be of use to geologists working in the areas or with the formations involved. The crinkly limestones of the Front Range are believed to represent a zone, rather than definite beds which may be followed continuously. This zone is believed to correlate, at least in part, with the Blaine gypsum, and San Andres and Kaibab limestones. The Lyons sandstone, the age of which has been a serious problem because of lack of fossils, is provisionally correlated with the Glorietta of New Mexico and the Duncan sandstone of the Panhandles. By means of well logs and cuttings the Ston Corrall anhydrite and dolomite is carried from the Texas Panhandle into Baca and Las Animas counties in Colorado. Its probable equivalent is shown in well logs to extend into the area between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, where its identity is lost in the upper part of the Fountain arkose. According to this interpretation the Fountain formation would range in age from Cherokee, or perhaps even pre-Pottsville, to Permian. Evidence presented tends to indicate that the Amarillo Mountains may have been uplifted beginning in early Pennsylvanian time and continuing until late Pennsylvania time and that the Marmaton was a period during which great sheets of arkose were deposited in widely scattered areas in central Kansas, along the ancestral Rocky Mountains in Colorado and northeastern New Mex co, and along the flanks of the Amarillo Mountains in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, their distribution being controlled by streams rather than offshore currents. The arkoses of the Oklahoma Panhandle may be the attenuate edges of the arkose sheets of the Texas Panhandle or they may have had a more proximate source. End_of_Article - Last_Page 939------------