Symposia

Burrowing Owls

Description: The Burrowing Owl symposium will bring together scientists across the North American range of the Burrowing Owl to explore datasets that could contribute to one or more integrated population models (IPM) of the species to better understand population dynamics and causes of population declines. Speakers will present on their datasets that could contribute to this collaborative effort. Data sets will include count data, survival data (adult and juvenile), nest survival and productivity. This symposium will include a half day of presentations and a half day closed meeting to plan the collaborative effort. Length of presentations will be determined based on the final set of presenters.

Organizers: Dr. Martha Desmond, New Mexico State University

Advances In Raptor Health

Description: The importance of wildlife health has become more striking lately, with the SARS-CoV-2 (covid) pandemic and other zoonotic disease outbreaks around the world. Specifically, the health of raptors has gained attention, with disease fallout from catastrophic vulture declines, economic effects of the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), the ongoing issue of lead toxicosis, and the emerging concern of anticoagulant rodenticide toxicosis. Although disease and toxicity may be the first things that come to mind in relation to “health,” traumatic injuries come under this umbrella as well, and trauma is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for birds of prey worldwide. While renewable energy development is critical for conservation, mortality of raptors and other birds from wind turbines is an increasing cause for concern. Building strikes, gunshot wounds, and other trauma are also major causes of injury for raptors. Efforts are being made by veterinarians, epidemiologists, wildlife biologists, wildlife rehabilitators, and many others to enhance the health of raptors at the individual, population, regional, and global levels. The goal of this symposium is to bring together a diverse group of researchers and clinicians who are working towards improving raptor health in various fields. There will be a focus on the ongoing North American outbreak of HPAI, including regional epidemiology and necropsy findings. Key topics in raptor health, such as rodenticide and lead toxicity, will be covered, as well as other issues of broad concern in the field. Nonclinical topics, such as the importance of partnerships and collaborative work, as well as communication channels and disease surveillance, will be included.

Organizer: Dr. Christine Fiorello, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACZM

Registrants wishing to obtain CE credit from ACZM for attending this symposium $30

Registrants wishing to obtain CE credit from ACZM for attending the workshop $70

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF NORTH AMERICAN RAPTORS

Description: This symposium is based on the premise that a history of pesticide use, persecution, and land management practices resulted in birds of prey being a substantive conservation and management concern for state and federal agencies in the 1970 -1990s. During this period, the wildlife profession played a critical role in recovery and management of numerous raptor species, and many state and federal agencies even had dedicated raptor biologists employed to address these issues. Over the last two decades, however, attention to applied raptor conservation and management has declined within agencies. While attention continues to be given to some long-standing issues such as barred owl-spotted owl conflicts, and wind-energy conflicts, there appears to be a general impression that the ‘big issues’ having been resolved. This has been concurrent with a decline in funding and loss of dedicated raptor biologists in management agencies. Additionally, many current management practices and approaches are steeped in a history of recovery efforts for threatened or diminished raptor populations, which does not reflect that many contemporary raptor management issues are not due to scarcity but rather to that of abundance and the problems this creates, and to anthropogenic driven influences such as a changing climate. We suggest there is a need to raise awareness of contemporary challenges facing applied raptor conservation and management. The symposium will focus on four topic areas: a history of raptor management in North America, contemporary anthropogenic driven influences on raptor populations, climate driven issues impacting raptor populations, and applied management issues, many of which are driven by conflict and abundance of raptors.

Organizers: Clint Boal and Brent Bibles

FIRE-RAPTOR INTERACTIONS: EMERGING SCIENCE FOR CONSERVATION IN THE PYROCENE

Description: Anthropogenic influences on land-use and climate are driving rapid changes in fire regimes worldwide. The unanswered questions on management implications and ecological tradeoffs in the face of this increased pressure is creating conservation challenges. The arid southwestern forests of the US are at the forefront of this change- fire regimes are shifting from frequent and low intensity fires to large, homogeneous high intensity fires. Due to the increased wildfire risk to human communities, preventative fuel-reduction activities are a high priority for land managers. While fire is an important ecological driver of diversity, the influence of fire on raptors and other taxa, particularly in light of the changing climate, remains an understudied topic. Many raptors have evolved to be resilient to and even benefit from historical fire-regimes, yet the future footprint of fires has the potential to reach beyond their adaptive capacity. In this context, understanding the nuanced effects of fire on raptors is integral to balancing their future conservation alongside wildland fire mitigation. Our symposium highlights the latest scientific research on this topic, followed by a panel of experts discussing the needs and knowledge gaps that should lead future work.

Organizers: Marion Clément, Gavin Jones, Shaula Hedwall, Marilyn Wright