Grassland and other early successional songbirds, such as Northern Bobwhite, have declined more than any other group of birds in the past 60 years. Loss of habitat and connectivity have driven species declines with no sign of leveling off. We research how these birds respond to habitat, management, and other variables at varying spatial and temporal scales.

Ongoing work:

• Grassland/early successional bird response to fire and grazing in a longleaf pine savannah; led by MS student Natalie Lucero.

• Grassland/early successional bird habitat suitability quantified by remotely sensed data; led by PhD student Allison Dawn.

• Characteristics of nesting success and nest boxes of Eastern Bluebirds; led by MS student Morgan Warner.

• Grassland/early successional bird response to landscape scale management and conservation delivery across 4 states; led by PhD student Percy Marshall.

• Response of grassland/early successional birds to site scale habitat characteristics, management, and weather; led by PhD student Marisa Zimmerman.

Publications:

• Elmore JA, Londe DW, Davis CA, Fuhlendorf SD, Loss SR. 2023. Associations with landscape and local-scale wetland habitat conditions vary among migratory shorebird species during stopovers. Wildlife Biology, https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01132.

• Elmore JA, Fullerton MR, Fogarty DT, Loss SR. 2022. Assessing the influence of olfactory cover at Red-cockaded Woodpecker nesting cavity trees. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, https://doi.org/10.1676/21-00076.

Novel techniques can greatly advance the ability to monitor wildlife and estimate their populations, and while these techniques are advancing rapidly, they often lack standardization and development of best practices for their use. We research how to best standardize these methods, as well as cutting edge work for development.

Ongoing Work:

• Isolating vocalizations of individual birds; led by PhD student Allison Rees.

• Best methods for using ARUs to estimate bird populations; led by PhD student Marisa Zimmerman.

Publications:

• Murphy NK, Elmore JA, Boudreau MR, Dorr BS, Rush SA. 2024. Monitoring active Osprey nests with drones is more time-efficient and less disturbing than conventional methods. Wildlife Biology, http://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01341. 

• Jones LR, Mensah C, Elmore JA, Evans KO, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2024. Heating animal decoys to quantify bias in thermal drone surveys. MethodsX, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4727558. 

• Crumpton J, Pfeiffer MB, Samiappan S, Elmore JA, Jones LR, Krishnan-Boopalan S, Iglay RB, Fernandez-Juricic E, Blackwell BF. 2024. Relief displacement of airborne objects. Remote Sensing Letters, https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2024.2387131.

• Samiappan S, Krishnan BS, Dehart D, Jones LR, Elmore JA, Evans KO, Iglay RB. 2024. Aerial wildlife image repository for animal monitoring with drones in the age of artificial intelligence. Database, https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baae070. 

• Iglay RB, Jones LR, Elmore JA, Evans KO, Samiappan S, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF. 2024. Wildlife monitoring with drones: a survey of end users. Wildlife Society Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1533. 

• Macke EN, Jones LR, Iglay RB, Elmore JA. 2024. Effects of drone model, altitude, and flight characteristics on sound levels. Drone Systems and Applications, http://doi.org/10.1139/dsa-2023-0054.

• Lappin O, Elmore JA, Jones LR, Schultz EA, Iglay RB, McConnell M. 2024. Using drones equipped with thermal cameras to locate and count quail coveys; A case study using Northern Bobwhite in Mississippi, USA. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, http://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12306.

• Jones LR, Elmore JA, Krishnan-Boopalan S, Samiappan S, Evans KO, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2023. Controllable factors affecting accuracy and precision of human identification of animals from drone surveys. Ecosphere, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4657.

• Krishnan BS, Jones LR, Elmore JA, Samiappan S, Evans KO, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2023. Fusion of visible and thermal images improves automated detection and classification of animals for drone surveys. Scientific Reports, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37295-7.

• Elmore JA, Schultz EA, Jones LR, Evans KO, Samiappan S, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2023. Evidence on the efficacy of small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) as a survey tool for North American terrestrial, vertebrate animals: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-022-00294-8.

• Zhou M, Elmore JA, Samiappan S, Evans KO, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2021. Improving wildlife monitoring using small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (sUAS) and image classification techniques. Sensors, https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175697.

• Elmore JA, Curran MF, Evans KO, Samiappan S, Zhou M, Pfeiffer MB, Blackwell BF, Iglay RB. 2021. Evidence on the effectiveness of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) as a survey tool for North American terrestrial, vertebrate animals: a systematic map protocol. Environmental Evidence, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13750-021-00228-w.

Direct sources of mortality threaten a variety of wildlife and are often caused by humans, such as bird-window or bird-aircraft collisions, wildlife depredation by outdoor cats, or spread of novel diseases. These can often be easily prevented by good management or mitigation practices. We research the species impacted by these threats, how they are impacted, and how we can best mitigate those threats.

Ongoing Work: 

• Undergraduate student led bird-window collision research on Clemson University main campus.

Publications:

• Loss SR, Binbin LV, Horn L, Mesure M, Lei Z, Brys T, Dokter AM, Elmore JA, Gibbons RE, Houmayoun T, Horton KG, Inglet K, Jones B, Keys T, Lao S, Loss SS, Parkins K, Prestridge HL, Riggs GJ, Riding CS, Sweezey K, Vallery A, Van Doren BM, Wang J, Zuzula C, Farnsworth A. 2023. Citizen science to address the global issue of bird-window collisions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2614. 

• Coe ST, Elmore JA, Elizondo EC, Loss SR. 2021. Free-ranging domestic cat abundance and sterilization percentage following five years of a trap-neuter-return program. Wildlife Biology, https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00799.

• Elmore JA, Horton KG, Riding CS, O’Connell TJ, Loss SR. 2021. Predicting bird-window collisions with weather radar. Journal of Applied Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13832.

• Elmore JA, Hager SB, Cosentino BJ, O'Connell TJ, Riding CS, Anderson ML, Bakermans MH, Boves TJ, Brandes D, Butler EM, Butler MW, Cagle NL, Calderón-Parra R, Capparella AP, Chen A, Cipollini KA, April A.T. Conkey, Contreras TA, Cooper RI, Corbin CE, Curry RL, Dosch JJ, Dyson KL, Fraser EE, Furbush RA, Hagemeyer NDG, Hopfensperger KN, Klem Jr. D, Lago EA, Lahey AS, Machtans CS, Madosky JM, Maness TJ, McKay KJ, Menke SB, Ocampo-Peñuela N, Ortega-Álvarez R, Pitt AL, Puga-Caballero A, Quinn JE, Roth AM, Schmitz RT, Schnurr JL, Simmons ME, Smith AD, Varian-Ramos CW, Walters EL, Walters LA, Weir JT, Winnett-Murray K, Zuria I, Vigliotti J, Loss SR. 2020. Correlates of bird collisions with buildings across three North American countries. Conservation Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13569.

• Chiari Y, Moreno N, Elmore JA, Hylton A, Ray A, Burkhardt R, Glaberman S. 2017. Widespread occurrence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Southern Alabama, USA. Herpetological Review, 48(2), p. 356-359.