SMALL MAMMAL MORTALITY CAUSED BY ROADSIDE CONTAINERS ON A HEAVILY TRAFFICED FOREST SERVICE ROADIN THE CHEROKEE NATIONAL FOREST

Brian DempseyFollow

Authors' Affiliations

1) Brian Dempsey, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. 2) Dr. Tom Laughlin, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Location

Ballroom

Start Date

4-5-2018 8:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2018 12:00 PM

Poster Number

6

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Brian Dempsey (McNair)

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Biological Sciences

Classification of First Author

Undergraduate Student

Type

Poster: Competitive

Project's Category

Natural Sciences

Abstract or Artist's Statement

Discarded containers along roadways trap and kill small mammals. Significant numbers of small-mammal remains were found inside containers along Cherokee National Forest roads in remotes areas in a previous study. In this study, we investigated the effects of containers along a 5.5 km stretch of a more heavily used 2-lane forest service road in the Cherokee National Forest. 308 containers were collected from five different pull-off sites and within those were 13 small-mammal skulls representing 5 species of mammals including Sorex longirostris (Southeastern Shrew) and Synaptomys cooperi (Southern Bog Lemming), which are deemed species of greatest conservation need and in need of management by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. Like the previous study, it was found that glass bottles disproportionately trapped more small mammals than plastic or aluminum. Additionally, we also discovered the orientation and can openings for all available containers and found that containers oriented upslope (>15°) were significantly more likely to have a mortality impact than any other container orientation.

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Apr 5th, 8:00 AM Apr 5th, 12:00 PM

SMALL MAMMAL MORTALITY CAUSED BY ROADSIDE CONTAINERS ON A HEAVILY TRAFFICED FOREST SERVICE ROADIN THE CHEROKEE NATIONAL FOREST

Ballroom

Discarded containers along roadways trap and kill small mammals. Significant numbers of small-mammal remains were found inside containers along Cherokee National Forest roads in remotes areas in a previous study. In this study, we investigated the effects of containers along a 5.5 km stretch of a more heavily used 2-lane forest service road in the Cherokee National Forest. 308 containers were collected from five different pull-off sites and within those were 13 small-mammal skulls representing 5 species of mammals including Sorex longirostris (Southeastern Shrew) and Synaptomys cooperi (Southern Bog Lemming), which are deemed species of greatest conservation need and in need of management by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. Like the previous study, it was found that glass bottles disproportionately trapped more small mammals than plastic or aluminum. Additionally, we also discovered the orientation and can openings for all available containers and found that containers oriented upslope (>15°) were significantly more likely to have a mortality impact than any other container orientation.