The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) is a department within the government of New Hampshire in the United States. The Fish and Game Department manages New Hampshire's fish, game, and aquatic plant resources.
To establish the best approach for conserving a species, it is necessary to understand the biology of that species. To better understand the behavior of American black bears (Ursus americanus), we observed 246 black bears for 7950 h in nature over a 24-year period to quantify how the bears communicated. Black bears communicated using several different behaviors. These included thirteen types of vocalizations, eight olfactory behaviors, eight marking behaviors, sixteen different body postures and gestures constituting their body language, and various emotional expressions. Some behaviors appeared to be automatic, including facial expression, ear movements, some forms of body language, the intensity of various vocalizations, and various moans. Other behaviors appeared to be intentional, including mechanically generated sounds and actions that could be used to bluff or deceive, such as the chomping of teeth, huffing, swatting, false charging, and various vocalizations. The conservation of black bears can be improved by establishing management strategies that take into account the vocal and non-vocal communication of the bears. Conflicts and negative encounters between humans and bears can be reduced through behavioral modifications by humans based on our new understanding of the communication system of bears. Knowledge of the communication system of the black bear provides a basis for improved conservation through the non-lethal management of bears involved in bear-human conflicts.
Through the end of the 21st century, biodiversity is expected to markedly decline around the world due to climate change, habitat loss, and other factors. Thus, there is a growing need for more efficient, effective, and collaborative conservation efforts worldwide. While many global and national threat assessment databases exist, utility at regional and local scales is limited, yet on-the-ground conservation is most effectively implemented at these scales. To identify species risk at a regional scale, 14 northeastern United States state fish and wildlife agencies, along with other taxonomic experts across this region, developed the most recent Northeast Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) list. Comparing a preliminary list compiled from global and national datasets with the finalized RSGCN list after a three-part evaluation process conducted by regional and state fish and wildlife agency taxonomic experts, we found the global and national datasets accurately identified only similar to 55% of RSGCN statuses for the region, highlighting the importance of incorporating local and regional expertise with current data. Identifying the northeastern US RSGCN has resulted in specific, actionable information leading to beneficial conservation outcomes for species and habitats across the region, such as dedicated funding for regional initiatives, data sharing, and coordination among regional, state, and local conservation organizations. Furthermore, our process facilitated regional actions contributing to federal delisting or a listing finding of 'not warranted' for four species. The methods described serve as a framework for other regions to identify conservation targets using best available and localized landscape- and watershed-scale information.
Melanistic lesions, including non-raised black areas due to proliferations of melanocytes and melanomacrophages in the dermis and epidermis, as well as raised black areas consistent with melanoma, are described in brown bullhead (BBH) Ameiurus nebulosus from three water bodies in the northeastern United States and Quebec, Canada. First observed in the Vermont portion of Lake Memphremagog, Vermont, USA and Quebec, Canada, the prevalence of melanistic lesions during 2014-2020 was greater than 30% in BBH 200 mm and longer. In 2023, seven sites throughout the lake were assessed, and prevalence ranged from 18% to 42%. In Hermon Pond, Maine, the prevalence was 29% in 2024, and in Village Pond, New Hampshire, lesions occurred in 22% of BBH in 2025. Compared to skin from visibly normal BBH, skin with melanistic lesions had significantly higher concentrations of seven metals, including arsenic, a known carcinogen and zinc. Lesions associated with oxidative damage, such as the accumulation of ceroid/lipofuscin, were also observed in the gill, spleen and kidney tissue of both affected and visibly normal BBH. The progression of lesions, observed by histopathology, ranged from inflammation, signs of oxidative damage, proliferation and necrosis of club cells, and the presence of melanomacrophages and melanocytes in the epidermis to invasive melanoma and suggests chronic exposure of BBH to environmental initiators and promoters of carcinogenesis.
Context Accurate and precise estimates of wildlife abundance and distribution are critical for robust ecological inference and effective management. However, obtaining this information for mesocarnivores is challenging because they are elusive and highly mobile.Aims To compare four common population metrics (occupancy, local abundance, relative abundance, and density) for monitoring unmarked populations and the influence of three habitat covariates on these population metrics.Methods For five mesocarnivores species we used data collected at 74 camera traps deployed in the northeastern USA in summer 2021 to fit (1) models that estimated probabilistic occupancy, (2) Royle-Nichols models that estimated local abundance, (3) Poisson distributed general linear models that estimated relative abundance, and (4) random encounter and staying time (REST) models that estimated density. We also quantified habitat relationships across these four different models and compared the resultant inferences.Key results Density and relative abundance had the highest correlation (Pearson correlation (r) = 0.91), whereas occupancy and density had the lowest correlation (r = 0.19). Density estimates for all species were consistent with expectations and similar to those reported in previous studies. The effects of habitat covariates changed across metrics, such that a significant effect of a covariate on one metric was not indicative of a significant influence on the other metrics. There were only two instances of a significant effect of a covariate on all metrics, and two instances where the influence of a covariate had opposite, albeit insignificant, effects on two metrics.Conclusions Estimates of occupancy and local abundance for mesocarnivores derived from camera traps may not be reliable proxies for density. However, relative abundance, as derived from detection rates, could be a promising means of monitoring density with less intensive data processing. Mesocarnivore habitat relationships changed across these metrics.Implications When designing monitoring or research programs, practitioners should be cautious about assuming that inferences derived from camera trap estimates of these four population metrics are interchangeable. Further, we highlight how the REST model offers a promising new means for monitoring multiple mesocarnivores simultaneously, and likely other unmarked species, via density estimates.
The planktonic larvae of the American lobster (Homarus americanus H. Milne Edwards, 1837) in the Gulf of Maine typically hatch in the summer and are sensitive to conditions in the water column including temperature, salinity, and prey availability. Their ability to survive at this stage has both ecological and economic impacts to New England states and disproportionately in Maine. While monitoring surveys for all other life stages of lobster have occurred consistently throughout Maine, understanding the density and seasonality of the larval supply has been a persistent data gap for the past two decades due to the difficulty in sustaining a survey over the length of the larval supply season. Our study publishes the first six years of the newest lobster monitoring survey in Maine, which spans four fixed sites in midcoast Maine. We have revisited larval sites last sampled in 2001, added new sites, and expanded the data collected to comprehensively sample density, seasonality, larval carapace lengths, temperature, salinity, and the zooplankton community composition. We document an earlier peak in Stage I larval abundance compared with historical data, explore correlations in how food availability in early stages is related to later stage densities, record multiple peaks in both postlarval densities and fluctuations both seasonally and annually in their carapace lengths, and identify high densities of postlarval lobsters in 2023. We compare the measured density and carapace lengths of larvae with temperature, salinity, and preferred prey items to aid in explaining the patterns documented by this survey. This larval survey is anticipated to continue monitoring efforts and contribute an understanding of larval lobster patterns in the Gulf of Maine.
