Sixth Annual
C
of
I
S
T
U
D
E
N
T
R
E
S
E
A
R
C
H
C
O
N
F
E
R
E
N
C
E
2011 Archive
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Author(s): Rachel Campbell
Presentation: poster
Badgers (Taxidea taxus) are ecological engineers that benefit other species by construction of tunnels and mounds. Walker and Brotherson (1982) observed a close association between badger digs and presence of Great Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus) in Utah. Great Basin wildrye was an important grass in presettlement times and covered thousands of hectares. I wanted to determine if a similar relationship between these two ecologically important species also existed in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. I used 10 pairs of 10x10 m quadrats and counted numbers of both species. I predicted that there would be more badger digs in quadrats with Great Basin wildrye (GBW) and that there would be a positive correlation between number of badger digs and percent cover of GBW. There was a trend toward more badger digs in quadrats with GBW ( Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test, U=27.500, p=0.085) and a strong positive correlation between numbers of badger digs and GBW cover (Spearman rank correlation, rs = 0.592, p = 0.00597). These results imply that there may also be an association between these two species in southwestern Idaho. The consistency and reasons for the association need investigation.
The College of Idaho 2112 Cleveland Blvd Caldwell, ID 8360 USA 208-459-5011 800-2C-IDAHO