Long-term monitoring project

In August 2023, the  Mohave Ground Squirrel Conservation Council  was awarded a grant from the  Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB)  for Long-Term MGS Population Monitoring for a 5-year period.

1. Manage the project

• Provide leadership for the overall program.
• Administer the grant and grant reporting.
• Manage contractors required for the program.

2. Monitor MGS Population and Habitat

• Establish spatially explicit clustered survey grids of camera-traps.
• Live-capture and temporarily mark a portion of MGS via fur-dying and/or fur-shaving patterns for individual identification in camera-trap photographs.
• Permanently mark live-captured MGS with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags and attempt to passively detect PIT-tag-marked and released squirrels with a PIT tag reader array
• Collect tissue samples from live-captured MGS for population genetics analyses.
• Experiment with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to elicit and detect MGS vocalizations.
• Collect high resolution vegetation data using UAV.
• Collect high resolution vegetation data using traditional on-the-ground methods of vegetation quadrats and transects.
• Design and implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to increase the efficiency of photographic reduction into analyzable data.
• Design and implement a data management plan for all forms of data, including photographs, genetic samples, and artificial individual identity marks.