News from Scientists at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Monday, May 3, 2004
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PWRC Hosts Fourth Annual Meeting about Monitoring and Management of Reconstructed Wetlands in Anacostia River The USGS PWRC hosted the fourth annual meeting concerning the monitoring and management of the reconstructed wetlands in the Anacostia River, Washington, D.C.. The meeting was held in the 'new' conference room of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Beltsville Lab in conjunction with the Baltimore District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Other particpants included the National Park Service, District of Columbia, Fish Wildlife Service, University of Maryland, Anacostia Watershed Society and the Bladensburg Waterfront Park. The meeting consisted of an extensive series of data and project based presentations which served as the basis for discussion. An output from the discussion was a management scheme for the next couple of years. Contact Dick Hammerschlag, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5555 USGS
and Smithsonian Cooperate in Assisting Military Aircraft Safety in Iraq Neal
Woodman and Suzanne Peurach of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center’s Biological Survey Unit in the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of Natural History, assisted colleagues from the Smithsonian
Feather Identification Lab by identifying remains of a Golden Jackal that
was hit in March by a departing C-17 cargo aircraft on a runway at Balad Air
Base, Iraq. Although civilian
and military aircraft more commonly strike birds, mammals also can pose a
threat. Since 1988, for example,
white-tailed deer have been responsible for more than $344 million in
damages to military aircraft alone. Suzanne
previously has identified bats struck by airplanes in a variety of
countries, most recently a pipistrelle that was struck by an aircraft
involved in the war effort in Iraq. Because
of the speed at which many aircraft fly, birds and mammals can inflict
serious, costly damage, loss of lives, and in several cases, have been
responsible for the downing of multi-million-dollar jet aircraft.
In the incident involving the jackal, the C-17 was unharmed, but even
the slightest modification to a military sortie creates severe problems to
mission accomplishments. Once
the species involved in an aircraft strike is identified, steps can be taken
to avoid future accidents by modifying habitats near a runway, keeping
aircraft out of known migration routes or altitudes at particular times of
the year, or, as in the case of the jackal, moving garbage dumps or other
attractants. Contact
Neal Woodman and Suzanne
Peurach, Washington, DC, 202-786-2483 |
Cooperative Effort between USGS Biological Survey
Unit and the U.S. Army Robert Fisher (USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center, Biological Survey Unit) consulted with Drs. Brandolyn Thran and
Keith Williams of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive
Medicine (USACHPPM) last year to assist them with honing their skills at
identifying small mammals from several areas that they intended to study.
This project has developed into a cooperative effort in which the
Biological Survey Unit verifies identifications and vouchers specimens that
are provided to us by the USACHPPM team. The USACHPPM has begun Environmental Health Risk
Assessment Programs on Army artillery ranges in Indiana, Maryland, Texas,
Louisiana and New Mexico thus far, and they hope to apply their techniques
to study more areas in the U.S. as well as abroad to determine health risks
on army installations. Munitions contamination levels are measured in area
groundwater, surface water and soil. Ecological
health risks are calculated by using Rodent Sperm Analysis (RSA) as an
assessment tool. At each site,
an initial mammal inventory is done and specimens are vouchered to document
which species occur as well as which species are most common on each study
site. Small mammals are trapped
and males are sacrificed and processed in the field.
USACHPPM staff collects sperm samples and evaluates motility, count,
and morphology of sperm from each individual.
Internal organs are also harvested to determine organ to body weight
ratios and to perform histopathological analysis.
Frozen whole animals are then shipped to the Biological Survey Unit
and prepared as voucher specimens by Suzanne Peurach.
Robert Fisher provides final specimen identifications and vouchers
are cataloged and installed into USNM collections to voucher the study. Preliminary results of the Rodent Sperm Analysis
Assessment will be presented by Dr. Brandolyn Thran and Dr. Keith Williams
in a Zoology Seminar at the National Museum of Natural History, Waldo
Schmidt Room W218b, Washington, DC, on July 7th entitled:
Rodent Sperm Analysis: A
Novel Approach to Evaluating Ecological Impacts on Army Installations. Contact: Robert D. Fisher or Suzanne Peurach, Washington, DC, 202-357-1865. |
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