Hog-Wallows and Prairie Mounds

Distribution of Flodman's Thistle and Its Response to Different Disturbances

The importance of disturbance in prairie has long been recognized. Increasingly interest and research have focused on the action and interaction of multiple disturbances. The distribution of Flodman's thistle [Cirsiumflodmanii (Rydb.) Arthur] on ant mounds, badger mounds, buffalo wallows, and potholes and in a lightly and a moderately grazed pasture was compared at the Nature Conservancy's S. H...

Colonization of bison (Bison bison) wallows in a tallgrass prairie by Culicoides spp (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae).

Elk use of wallows and potential chronic wasting disease transmission.

Deposition of prions into the environment by infected animals may contribute to transmission and spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) among free-ranging cervids, and identification of such environmental sources may provide an avenue for managing CWD. We evaluated the role that wallow use by elk (Cervus elaphus) may play in CWD transmission by monitoring wallows with animal-activated cameras ...

Ant-mound Effects on Two Adjacent Prairies: Virgin and Plowed

Mound-building Fmmica ants may be important biotic factors within prairie restorations because mounds found in virgin prairies can exist for decades, with densities up to 1,148 mounds/ha (465 mounds/acre). Research on the effects of Formica ant mounds on a virgin and an adjacent restored prairie (treatments) was established in 2003 near Olathe, Kansas; and it was expected that percent soil mois...

Vogt: 3D Characteristics of Fire Ant Mounds 553 THREE-DIMENSIONAL SAMPLING METHOD FOR CHARACTERIZING ANT MOUNDS

A field-portable 3D laser scanner was employed as a means of digitizing the surface of fire ant ( Solenopsis invicta Buren) mounds for analysis of shape and orientation in Mississippi and Oklahoma. Estimates of above-ground mound volume obtained through manual measurements of mound length, width, and height were higher and more variable than estimates obtained by summing the area underneath int...