Open AccessBiogeography of Mammals in Rocky Mountain National Parks
Author(s) -
Susan M. Glenn,
Ian S. Butler,
Brian R. Chapman,
Rebecca Rudman
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
annual report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2693-2407
pISSN - 2693-2385
DOI - 10.13001/uwnpsrc.1992.3059
Subject(s) - national park , habitat , geography , range (aeronautics) , ecology , biogeography , mammal , species distribution , land cover , archaeology , land use , biology , materials science , composite material
The first phase of the project was to determine which mammal species may have gone locally extinct from the national parks and which of these extinctions were in populations at the edge of their range. Susan Glenn met with Robert Schiller in the NPS Regional Office in Denver in July 1992. During this meeting, the validity of the park species lists was discussed. Only verified species records were being used and some groups of species had not been thoroughly inventoried in many of the parks. Species lists have not been obtained from some parks. Problems in species lists has been documented by the National Park Service (Stohlgren and Quinn 1992). Therefore, it cannot be assumed that all species that are missing from the park lists have gone locally extinct. Species habitat requirements are being analyzed to determine if the parks are likely to maintain populations of the missing species. We acquired 3-arc second digital elevation data of the study area from Rocky Mountain Communications Inc. on CD-ROM. This data was merged for the Rocky Mountain region of the project. A VHRR satellite data has been obtained for mapping land cover. These auxiliary data layers will be used to refine the mammal distribution maps. In order to use these data, we have developed a database in dBase on habitat, and elevation range tolerance of each species. Brian Chapman, Warren Drummond and Susan Glenn visited several parks to obtain habitat information and verify species lists.