Partnership Highlight: Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

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Together with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, SEFS hosts the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (WACFWRU), part of a national network of research cooperatives founded to bring federal resources to bear on state wildlife management issues. WACFWRU was founded as a fisheries research unit in 1967 and became a combined fish and wildlife research unit in 1989. The Coop Unit is a unique resource for bringing federal, state, and university partners together to address complex wildlife issues across the state of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.

grassy slope in front of mountainsCurrently, there are 42 Cooperative Research Units in 40 states, each consisting of a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey, a host university, one or more state agencies, and the Wildlife Management Institute. In addition to the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, WACFWRU cooperators include the University of Washington, Washington State University, Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and the Wildlife Management Institute.

The Unit Leader of the Coop Unit is Sarah Converse, a UW Associate Professor with appointments in SEFS and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS). She and two Assistant Unit Leaders – SEFS Assistant Professor Alex McInturff and SAFS Associate Professor Mark Scheuerell – are U.S. Geological Survey research scientists as well as UW faculty. They guide the Coop Unit in the three components of the Coop Unit’s mission. “Our mission includes training the next generation of leaders in fish and wildlife science and management, conducting research that helps agencies make decisions about fish and wildlife, and providing technical assistance to meet our state partners’ needs through activities such as providing training and participating on advisory boards,” said Converse.

With the ability to direct federal and state funds to university researchers and students and bring together cooperative partners throughout the state, region, and country, WACFWRU is a valuable resource for advancing fish and wildlife decision-making.

“This tight integration between our faculty, our students, and agency cooperators positions SEFS in the center of wildlife management and policy in the State of Washington. We are at the heart of many of the decisions that federal and state agencies are making, and I think that’s thanks to the close relationships between our faculty and students, and the agency scientists and policymakers,” said McInturff.

Graduate students within the Coop Unit are able to connect with agency scientists and conduct research that directly impacts fish and wildlife management decisions. “It’s really important to be able to be part of those conversations, to provide the best available science, and to see our work get put into action on some of the biggest issues facing the state, the region, and the country,” said McInturff.

WACFWRU has a rich history of partnership and collaboration with the cooperating agencies that have shared research interests across Washington’s diverse ecosystems. The WACFWRU also has a long history of working beyond Washington’s borders, in the Pacific Northwest, throughout the US, and internationally. 

“I believe WACFWRU is a valuable asset to state agencies such as the Washington Department of Natural Resources. It is rare to have a combination of highly productive and intelligent scientists who are also down-to-earth and have a strong interest in conducting highly relevant research for managers,“ said Josh Halofsky, a cooperator with the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

Many SEFS faculty members work through the Coop Unit to produce research that addresses wildlife management needs in the state, including L. Monika Moskal, Aaron Wirsing, Beth Gardner, Josh Lawler, Brian Harvey, Laura Prugh, and Dave Butman. The projects that SEFS faculty pursue through the WACFWRU are diverse, from investigating the vulnerability of wetland habitats to climate change, to helping agencies understand how emerging infectious diseases will affect public perceptions of wildlife. 

This summer, the Washington Coop Unit will introduce some new policies that will make it easier for state agencies to contract with faculty members. “We’ve been working hard on ways to streamline the contracting between the university and state agencies, and we’re looking forward to rolling out some new approaches that will improve that process,” said Converse. “We encourage agency employees and university researchers to reach out if they want to learn more about working with us.” 

There are several opportunities to learn more about WACFWRU, including the bi-weekly Fish and Wildlife Ecology Seminar and the Annual Graduate Student Symposium hosted in October. You can learn more at https://depts.washington.edu/wacfwru/.

SEFS graduate student theorizes uncommon color trends for urban wildlife in recent paper

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For most urban wildlife, elements of a city environment such as built environments, limited predation pressure, and highly fragmented habitats pose conditions that they would be unlikely to face in the wild. But could altered selection processes in urban environments lead to a rise in uncommon fur and feather coloring for species that dwell there? A recent study led by SEFS graduate student Samantha Kreling conceptualizes how wildlife in metropolitan or suburban areas could develop different coloration patterns from their neighbors in non-urban areas in response to the differing environmental conditions they face.

coatis (small mammals) on a grass field
Coatis on a golf course in Mexico. Image: Samanta Kreling

Kreling first arrived at this question while watching a group of coatis, a raccoon-like mammal native to South America, Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States, on a golf course in Mexico. Several young individuals in the group had light coloring compared to the rest due to a condition called leucism resulting from decreased melanin production. In the wild, the conspicuous coloring would likely attract predators, but on the relative safety of the groomed course, the coloring could have neutral or even beneficial effects.

“I visited Mexico when I was 19 or 20, and thought, I don’t think this would happen in a place with more predation. The photos of those coatis inspired me on this paper,” said Kreling.

Kreling theorized that factors for urban wildlife such as different predation patterns, exposure to chemicals, low-nutrition diets, limited gene flow with larger populations, and the effect of human presence or domestic species could create an environment that serves as hotspots for rapid evolution. Where it may be beneficial for animals to blend into their surroundings in natural environments, standing out in urban environments could help individuals avoid vehicle collisions, tolerate heat, or even receive preferential treatment such as feeding from humans. 

“Color in mammals and birds has largely been studied in naturalized systems where we understand that it’s caused a combination of avoiding detection by predators and prey, sexual selection, and thermoregulation, among other things. But the constraints that would have led to evolutionary colorations aren’t necessarily upheld in urban areas,” said Kreling.

The study, published this week in Bioscience, theorized that the varying selection pressures in cities may be working against each other, limiting the benefits of certain colorations and making it less likely for them to persist. Because physical appearances in wildlife serve distinct and important purposes, the benefits of atypical coloration in a species could be outweighed by other factors.  For example, lighter colorations could give a thermoregulatory advantage to urban-dwelling individuals but might be detrimental for sexual selection.

In situations where uncommon colorations in wildlife are protected based on human interests, such as laws protecting albino species of squirrels or deer for tourism purposes, this human-driven selection could have unintended consequences for those populations. In some species, leucism and albinism have been linked to negative health attributes in wildlife, such as weakened feathers in birds.

Cities are a relatively new landscape from an evolutionary perspective, and there is little research on the coloration of wildlife in urban and non-urban areas outside of a few key species. Further research on how urban wildlife species adapt to changing environmental conditions could shed light on species resiliency and the survival and reproduction rates of species.