Assessment of Native Species and Ungulate Grazing in the Southwest: Terrestrial Wildlife [Évaluation de l'effet du pâturage des espèces indigènes et des ongulés dans le Sud-Ouest: Faune terrestre].

Résumé

Range managers in the Southwestern States are increasingly being required to develop management strategies that take into consideration the conservation of wildlife populations. However, information on many aspects of the fundamental biology and impacts of grazing on individual species is still lacking in the scientific and government literature. This report documents a project designed to assemble this information for terrestrial wildlife in Arizona and New Mexico that have the potential to be negatively impacted by grazing or range management practices. To achieve this, a two-stage panel process was developed that employed a variety of wildlife experts to create a list of potentially vulnerable species and to develop an informational database. Panelists first reviewed and assessed all terrestrial vertebrates in the region to develop an initial list. In the second stage, the panelists refined the list, reviewed published information drafted into individual species accounts, and then augmented these accounts with information from their own experience and observations. The resulting database contains accounts for 305 species and subspecies of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including a computer database that allows managers to search and query the species accounts based on geographic distribution as well as shared ecological and life history characteristics.