Our Lniiii^ Rc.\<uircc.\ — BirJ.\ 



75 



References 



Austin, G.T. 1471. Roadside distribution of the coninion 

 raven in the Mohave Desert. California Birds 2Mi\. 



Belluomini, L.A. 1991. The status of the California least 

 lern at Camp Pendleton. California during the breeding 

 season of IWO. Natural Resources Management Branch. 

 Southwest Division Naval Facilities Engineering 

 Command. San Diego. CA. 77 pp. 



Berrv. K.H. 19S5. Avian predation on the desert tortoise in 

 California. Report to Southern California Edison. Co. 

 Bureau of Land Management. Riverside. CA. 20 pp. 



BLM. 1990. Draft raven management plan for the 

 California Desert Conservation Area. Bureau of Land 

 Management, Riverside. CA. 59 pp. 



BLM. 1994. Environmental assessment for 1994 experi- 

 mental program to shoot ravens. Bureau of Land 

 Management. Riverside. CA. 8 pp. 



Boarman. W.L 1993. When a native predator becomes a 

 pest: a case study. Pages 191-206 in S.K. Majunidar. 

 E.W. Miller. D.E. Baker. E.K. Brown. J.R. Pratt, and R.F. 

 Schmalz. eds. Conservation and resource management. 

 Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences. Easton. 



FaunaWest Wildlife Consultants. 1989. Relative abundance 

 and distribution of the common raven in the deserts of 

 southern California and Nevada during spring and sum- 

 mer of 1989. Bureau of Land Management. Riverside. 

 CA. 60 pp. 



Federal Register 1990. Endangered and threatened wildlife 

 and plants: determination of threatened status for the 

 Mojave population of the desert tortoise. Federal 

 Register 55:12178-12191. 



Heinrich. B. 1989. Ravens in winter. Summit Books. New 

 York. .^79 pp. 



Knight. R.. and M. Call. 1980. The common ra\en. Bureau 

 of Land Management Tech. Note 344. 61 pp. 



Knight. R.. and J. Kawashima. 1993. Responses of raven 

 and red-tailed hawk populations to linear right-of-ways. 

 Journal of Wildlife Management 57:266-271. 



Larsen. K.H.. and J.H. Dietrich. 1970. Reduction of a raven 



population on lambing grounds with DRC-1339. Journal 



of Wildlife Management 34:200-204 

 Robbins. C.S.. D. Bystrak. and PH. Geissler 1986. The 



Breeding Bird Survey: its first fifteen years. 1965-1979. 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Resour. Publ. 157. 196 pp. 

 USFWS. 1994. Desert tortoise (Mojave population) recov- 



erv plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Portland. OR. 



73 pp. 



Common raven (Conns cnrax). 



For further information: 



William I. Boarman 



National Biological Service 



Desert Tortoise Research Project 



6221 Box Spnngs Blvd. 



Riverside. CA 92507 



Resident sandhill eranes formed a continuous 

 population in Georgia and Florida and 

 widely separated populations along the Gulf 

 Coastal Plain of Texas. Louisiana. Mississippi, 

 and Alabama (Figure). The Mississippi sandhill 

 crane (Griis canadensis pidla) was one of the 

 widely separated populations on the Coastal 

 Plain that bred in pine savannas in southeastern 

 Mississippi, just east of the Pascagoula River to 

 areas just west of the Jackson County line. 

 south to Simmons Bayou, and north to an east- 

 west line 8-16 km (5-10 mi) north of 

 VanCleave. 



Agricultural and industrial development 

 including World War II ship building, fire sup- 



Figure. Range of Mississippi sandhill cranes. 



pression, and forestry practices destroyed much 

 of the sandhill crane's habitat in Jackson 

 County. Mississippi. The U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service (USFWS) added the 

 Mississippi sandhill crane to the endangered 

 species list in 1973 and established the 

 Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife 

 Refuge in 1974. The USFWS began captive 

 breeding at the Patuxent Wildlife Research 

 Center (PWRC) in 1965 to protect the sub- 

 species during habitat restoration and to provide 

 stock for reintroduction. 



Moiphological, physiological, and genetic 

 differences exist among crane subspecies 

 ( Aldrich 1972). Mississippi birds mature earlier 

 and begin egg production about 6 weeks later 

 than Florida sandhill cranes. Genetic studies 

 (Dessauer et al. 1992; Jarvi et al. 1994) show a 

 level of heterozygosity (see glossary) in the 

 wild Mississippi population about half that in 

 other sandhill cranes. As in other small popula- 

 tions, cranes seem to have genetic weaknesses. 

 In the captive population, for example, 17% of 

 all birds die from detectable heart murnnirs and 

 when released to the wild, 36% with heart mur- 

 inur and 83% without heart murmurs survive 

 for 1 year after release. 



Mississippi 



Sandhill 



Cranes 



by 



George F. Gee 



National Biological 



Service 



Scott G. Hereford 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife 



Service 



