Wildlife Dietary Needs: Native Plants and Animals
Michael Lachance
Virginia Cooperative Extension
(434) 263-4036
lachance@vt.edu
I. How to Study Wildlife Nutrition
Wildlife Food Studies startup in 1885 with Federal Wildlife Food habits research
 Field studies
 Laboratory work
Wildlife in a changing world
Losers
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Passenger pigeon
Carolina parakeet
Bison
Beaver
Elk
Winners
 Fox
 Raccoon
 Coyotes
 Robins
 Bluebirds
Outcome based on food habits. Population increased for species that were able to adapt to a
human dominated landscape.
Species Destructive to Crops
 Farm Crops
o Bobolink
o Crow
o Ducks
 Mallard
 Pintail
 Wigeon
o Canada Goose
 Orchards
o House finch
o Purple finch
o Blue jay
o Robin
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Meadowlark
English sparrow
Ring-neck pheasant
Redwing
Deer
Raccoon
Woodchuck
o
o
o
o
Sapsucker
Starling
Deer
Brown thrasher
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o Waxwing
o Moles
o Voles
Gardens
o Deer
o Crows
o Voles
Forests
o Sapsucker
o White-footed mouse
o Meadow mouse
o Sparrows
o Rabbit
o Gray squirrel
o Rabbit
o Deer
Food and Wildlife
 Exponential and Logistic Growth Rates
 Carrying capacity
Carrying Capacity Examples for Birds
 Dry western Plains
0.5 – 1 per acre
 Cultivated eastern farmland
1 - 3 per acre
 Deciduous eastern forests
1.5 – 10.5 per acre
Vegetation mapping and landscape assessment
 Virginia Museum of natural History
 Virginia Natural History Society, “Banisteria”
 Virginia Academy of Science, Natural History and Diversity Section
 Junior Virginia Academy of Science, Natural History and Diversity Section
Negative impact of energy production and urban structures
Impact of cultivation
 Benefit for species that thrive on border
 Beneficial for species adapted to crops and weed associates
Plants as wildlife foods
 Fleshy nuts
 Nuts
 Seeds
 Vegetation
Important issue is availability of plant parts in winter when there is snow cover, also importance
of cover.
 Hedge rows can provide both.
Food Selection by Wildlife
 Preferred foods
 Second choice foods
 Starvation foods
Wildlife Nutrition
 Emerging field
 Syllabus for college course: http://users.tamuk.edu/david_hewitt/
 Availability of protein a large concern, thus diets switch often to insects in the springtime
Knowledge of nutrition important to know how to enhance or restrict a species
 Predator – Prey
 Competition
 Commensalism, etc
Field Studies
 How, where, when food is taken
 % depletion of food supply
 Stomach contents don’t show environmental impact of animal presence and disturbance
Difficulty of field studies
 Skill and experience of observers differ
 Value of “bird in hand”
 Statistical problems
 Lack of voucher specimen
 Stomach content data often needed to exonerate claims of damage
Laboratory studies look at:
 Crops
 Stomachs
 Droppings
 Caches
 Cheek pouches
 Den and nest materials
Curate the collection
 Reference material useful when identifying fragments
 Organs removed, wrapped in gauze with water proof label attached
 Tools
o Sieves
o Forceps
o Scalpel
o Blower
 Storage liquids
o Formalin (10% formaldehyde)
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o 70% ethyl alcohol
Bulky contents, soak in formalin and dry out
Seeds, dry and add insecticide
Record Keeping; format of data card
1. Name of Species
2. Specimen Number
3. Date
4. Where collected
5. Where killed
6. Hour of death
7. Person making dissection and date
8. Condition of stomach
9. Condition of gullet
10. Percentage of:
a. Animal matter
b. Vegetable matter
c. Gravel, etc.
d. Unknown material
11. Contents description area
a. Include number of individuals in stomach by species and
b. Each percent contribution to the contents
12. Person making the examination and date
13. Location of voucher materials
Insure an adequate sample
 Sample size or number
 Regional differences
 Seasonal differences
Data
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Weight of animal
Contents
o Estimated visually
o Measured volumetrically
o Counted out by kind, especially for predators
o Presence/absence
Best to report by occurrence, numbers, and % of volume
II. 4H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program, Learning to Characterize
Habitats
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Wildlife Management Concepts
Wildlife Management by Regions
Wildlife Management by Species
Wildlife Management Practices
Activities
a. Wildlife Foods
b. Interpreting Wildlife Habitat by Aerial Photographs
c. On-Site Habitat Management Recommendations
d. Wildlife Management Plan
e. Urban Landscape and backyard Habitat Plan
Wildlife Management Concepts
1. Habitat Requirements
2. Featured Species
3. Species Richness
4. Plant Succession and Effects on
Wildlife
5. Vertical Structure (Layering)
6. Arrangement and Interspersion
7. Edges and Contrast
8. Area Sensitive Species
9. Migration and Home Range
10. Carrying capacity
11. Pond Dynamics and Balance
12. Wildlife Damage Management
13. Food Webs
Habitat Requirements
 Food
 Water
 Usable Space
 Cover (Shelter)
 Subject to seasonal change
Featured Species
 Two goals
o What is best for the “species of interest”
o Support species richness
 Select practices that address what is most lacking for that species
Species Richness
 Manage landscape to accomplish
o As many species as possible
o Optimal populations within each species
 Characteristics of areas with high species richness
o Mixture of different successional stages
o Balance of edges with unbroken blocks of vegetation in one successional stage
o Unbroken areas of more than 10 to 40 acres
o Edges with low contrast
o Wide variety of vegetation layers within the area
Plant Succession and effects on wildlife
1. Bare Ground
2. Annual forbs and/or grasses
3. Perennial forbs and grasses
4. Shrubs
5. Young woodland or trees (<70 yrs)
6. Mature woodland or trees
Vertical Structure (Layering)
1. Tree Canopy
2. Shrub layer
3. Herbaceous layer
Arrangement and Interspersion
 Different successional areas close to each other
 Corridors to allow for safe travel among them
Edges and Contrast
 Abrupt or gradual
 Stage of growth between areas noted by contrast
 Edge effects can hinder some species
Area Sensitive Species
 Some species require a great deal of land in one successioal stage
 May be 100 acre or more than a 1000
Migration and Home Range
 Migration is seasonal
 Home range is area of constant use, e.g. 80 acres for northern bobwhite
Carrying capacity
 Limit to number of animals an area can support
 Long term increase in population can be accomplished only by increasing the habitat’s
carrying capacity.
Pond Dynamics and Balance
 Management to improve
o Water quality
o Dissolved oxygen
o Alkalinity
o Hardness
o pH
 Enhance plankton
o Improve fish populations
o Attract wildlife
 Balance between predator and prey species
Wildlife Damage Management
 Health or safety hazard
 Livestock and crop damage
 Nuisance
 Compensation?
Food Webs
 Trophic levels
 Relative populations
o Broad at base
o Narrow at the top
Activities: Learning to identify foods
Aquatic Plants: a plant that grows partly or wholly in water, whether rooted in the mud,
or floating without anchorage; plants that require constantly moist conditions without
standing water are included in this group; for the purpose of this contest, only examples
from the following genera will be considered.
Algae, various genera
American lotus, Nelumbo
Arrowhead/duck potato,
Saggitaria
Big duckweed, Spirodela
Bladderworts, Utricularia
Bulrushes, Scirpus
Burreeds, Sparganium
Cattails, Typha
Coontail Cerratophylum
Cordgrass, Spartina
Duckweed, Lemna
Floating hearts, Nymphoides
Naiads, Najas
Pondweed, Potomageton
Rushes, Juncus
Sedges, Carex
Smartweed, Polygonum
Spikerush, Eleocharis
Waterlily, Nymphaea
Watermeals, Wolffia
Watermilfoil, Myriophyllum
Waterprimrose, Ludwigia
Waterweed, Elodea
Bark: tough outer covering of trees and shrubs
Birds: may be represented by feathers, bones, skulls, feet or any part that distinguishes the
Class
Buds: a small protuberance on a stem or branch, sometimes enclosed in protective
scales and containing an undeveloped shoot, leaf or flower; the bud may be represented
on the branch or stem, or removed from the branch or stem
Carrion: stinking, rotting flesh; to be considered in this group, the item must have a definite
odor of decomposition, be presented in a plastic bag or have the words “this stinks” on the display; a dry
bone, a dry skin, or other body part does not represent carrion, but
will represent other food groups; maggots are a natural occurrence with decomposition
and may be present on the carrion, but they should not be considered in grouping
the specimen as carrion
Centipedes and Millipedes: elongated arthropods having many body segments; millipedes
have pairs of legs
Crayfish: small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster; regionally, they
have many names including crawdads and crawdaddys
Earthworms: terrestrial worm that burrows into and helps aerate soil; often surfaces when
the ground is cool or wet; used as bait by those who fish
Eggs: only the eggs of vertebrate species (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish)
are considered in this category; invertebrate eggs (insect and spider) represent the
group of the adult invertebrate
Ferns: flowerless, seedless vascular plants with roots, stems and fronds; reproduce by
spores; may be represented by the whole plant or a part of the plant that defines it
Fish: a poikilothermic (cold-blooded) waterdwelling vertebrate with gills
Forbs: broad-leaved herbaceous plant, not including grasses, sedges, rushes or ferns;
forbs may be represented by a single leaf or by the entire plant including the flower
Frogs and Salamanders: may be represented by the organism in any life stage except the
egg
Fruit and Berries: display must include the soft, fleshy, pulp-covered seed
Fungi: kingdom of plantlike spore-forming organisms that grow in irregular masses without
roots, stems, leaves and that lack chlorophyll
Grains: will include only wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice and corn; may be represented by
the seed, seed head or entire plant including the seedhead
Grass: leaves of grasses are usually tall and thin with a mid-rib and parallel veins; grasses
may be represented by the entire plant including the seedhead, or by a single leaf or group of leaves
Hard mast: includes nuts from walnut, hickory, oak, beech, pecan, almond, and common
hazel; may be shown with or without the husk
Insects: small invertebrate (without a backbone) animals, except for spiders, centipedes and
millipedes, which are segmented
Leaves and Twigs: this food group is represented by leaves and/or twigs of woody species
only; not forbs, grasses or other herbaceous plants
Lichens: a fungus that grows symbiotically with algae, resulting in a composite organism that
characteristically forms a crust-like or branching growth on rocks or tree trunks; lichens may be shown
with a rock or branch or without
Lizards: lizards are reptiles of the order Squamata, which they share with the snakes
(Ophidians); they are usually four-legged, with external ear openings and movable
eyelids
Mammals: any mammal regardless of size fits in this category; may be represented by a
photograph, live animal, museum mount or any part of the mammal representative of the
class, such as teeth or hair
Mussels: freshwater mollusks that may be represented by the whole organism or just a
single shell or group of shells
Nectar from flowers: represented by the flower with no other plant parts present
Scorpions: arachnid having a long segmented tail ending in a venomous stinger
Seeds: a fertilized ovule containing an embryo, which forms a new plant upon germination
Snails: applies to most members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled
shells
Snakes: cold-blooded legless reptiles, which share the order Squamata with lizards
Spiders: arachnid that usually has silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they
spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey
Tubers: represented by either the nutlet of the yellow nutsedge (chufa) or by potato
Turtle and Tortoise: animals with a special bony shell developed from their ribs; “turtle”
is often used for aquatic species, but aquatic freshwater turtles are also often called
“terrapins;” in North America, “turtle” is usually used to refer to all members of the order,
including tortoises, which are predominantly land based
F. Wildlife Management Practices to Enhance
G. Interpretation of Aerial Images
Activities: Evaluating Habitats from Aerial Photographs
Bibliography of Presentation
1.
Janine M. Benyus. 1989. Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Eastern USA.
Fireside Press. 336 pp. $15. A noted outdoors expert and an acclaimed illustrator create a stunning
picture of the wildlife in the eastern half of the United States. Complete with observation tips. 75
illustrations. Especially good for characteristic plants of different habitats.
2. Eastman, John and Amelia Hansen. Stackpole Books.
a. The Book of Forest and Thicket: Trees, Shrubs, and Wildflowers of Eastern
North America. 1993. $17
b. The Book of Swamp and Bog: Trees, Shrubs, and Wildflowers of the Eastern
Freshwater Wetlands. 1995. $17
c. The Book of Field and Roadside: Open-Country Weeds, Trees, and Wildflowers
of Eastern North America. 2003. $19
References take an ecological approach, providing complete descriptions of plants found in diverse
communities as well as wildlife communities associated with them. Books help readers identify plants as well
as what other organisms, plant and animal, might be found in the same area, and explains why. Plant lore also
provided.
3
David W. Ehrenfeld. The Arrogance of Humanism. Oxford University Press. 1981.
304 pages. $20.
Reviews: "An outstanding source of ideas for those interested in systematically thinking through the issues
surrounding the increasing rate of the distintegration of social and physical organizations and the destruction of
nature in the world today." –Choice "Ehrenfeld provides a fascinating and extraordinarily topical tour de
force on the present discrepancy between the worldwide humanistic faith in reason, science, and technology and
the living reality of the human condition." --American Scientist
Product Description: Attacks nothing less than the currently prevailing world philosophy--humanism, which
the author feels is exceedingly dangerous in its hidden assumptions.
4. Godfrey, Michael A. 1997. Field Guide to the Piedmont: The Natural Habitats of
America’s Most Lived-in Region, From New York City to Montgomery, Alabama. 2nd
edition, Chapel Hill Books. 536pp. $19.
Focusing on plant succession, geology, soils, climate, and the plants and animals with which we share the land,
this book is an informative guide to the region's habitats, ecosytems, and rich botanical communities. It features
180 illustrations identifying principal flora and fauna of mesoseres, xeroseres, and hydroseres. Book is
recommended for discussion of role of succession in Piedmont landscape and ecology of cultivated areas. Also
has inventories of Lepidoptera, reptiles, amphibians, birds (incomplete), and mammals. Discusses food choices
only in general terms.
5. Martin, Alexander C. et al. 1951. American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide To Wildlife
Food Habits. Dover Press. 500 pp. $20. Food habits of more than 1,000 species of mammals, birds,
fish, plus important plants as food researched by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 300 illustrations, maps.
6, Young, James A. and C. G. Young 2009. Seeds of Woody Plants in North America:
Revised and Enlarged Edition. Timber Press. 416 pp. $50. A greatly revised edition of Agriculture
Handbook 450 issued by the US Forest Service in 1974, this A–Z encyclopedia of woody plant seeds covers
386 genera, adds more than 1,000 literature citations to the original, and treats all aspects of collection, storage,
and germination.
Electronic Resources
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7.
Humboldt Field Research Institute and Eagle Hill Foundation , “Northeastern (&
Southeastern) Naturalist”: http://www.eaglehill.us/programs/journals/nena/northeasternnaturalist.shtml
Natural Resources Conservation Services Programs for wildlife conservation:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/
Natural Resources Conservation Services Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP):
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/whip/
Natural Resources Conservation Services Pollinator Enhancement Activity (PLT01):
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/new_csp/2010/ranking_period_two/jobsheet_pdfs/plt/1
0_R2_PLT01_Pollinator_Habitat_Establishment.pdf
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/aboutus/
4-H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program: http://www.whep.org/