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Pika Monitoring in Banff National Park 2011 Pilot Study

Julie Timmins and Jesse Whittington

Banff National Park Resource Conservation

2011

.

Report prepared by: Julie Timmins and Jesse Whittington

Banff National Park Resource Conservation

Banff, Alberta

November, 2011

Please cite as: Timmins, J. and J. Whittington . 2011. Pika monitoring in Banff National Park : 2011 pi lot study. Banff

National Park of Canada, Parks Canada Agency. Banff, Alberta.

Reviewed by:

Bill Hunt

Resource Conservation Manager

Banff National Park

2 .? JA", 2012..

Date

Dr. David Hik Department of Biology, University of Alberta

Mike Mcivor Bow Valley Naturalists

Karsten Heuer Resource Conservation, Banff National Park

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Table of Contents Tables ............................................................................................................................................................ ii Figures ........................................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Why Pikas .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Pika Natural History .................................................................................................................................. 1 Objectives.................................................................................................................................................. 2

Methods ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Site Selection & Survey Techniques .......................................................................................................... 4 Occupational Health and Safety ............................................................................................................... 6 Power Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 6

Discussion ................................................................................................................................................... 11 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Literature cited ........................................................................................................................................... 12

Tables Table 1. Locations selected for the pika monitoring pilot project 2011 in Banff and Kootenay National

Parks. Locations are ordered west to east and north to south. ................................................... 7

Figures

Figure 1. North American distribution of the American pika (O. princeps) (Beever and Smith 2008) ........ 3Figure 2. Examples of pika habitat and hay piles in Banff National Park, AB. ............................................. 3Figure 3. Average predicted probability of pika extirpation from 2010‐2099 across the modeled current

distribution of the American Pika (from Loarie et al. 2009). .............................................................. 4Figure 4. Example of pika hay pile sites in the Wolverine Valley of Banff National Park. More than one

hay pile was associated with some sites. ........................................................................................... 5Figure 5. Pilot study areas for pika hay pile monitoring in Banff and Kootenay National Parks, 2011. ...... 8Figure 6. Number of active, inactive, and not found (pika observed but no hay pile found) hay piles for

each location surveyed. A total of 437 sites were recorded in summer 2011. ................................. 9Figure 7. Number of hay piles recorded per site, 2011. Greater than 1 hay pile was observed at 49% of

the sites. This analysis excludes 115 sites from the beginning of the study where we did not record the number of hay piles per site. ............................................................................................ 9

Figure 8. Pika hay pile sites (n=437 sites from 12 locations) included a wide variety of aspects, elevations, and slopes. ..................................................................................................................... 10

Figure 9. Power to detect a 20% decline in the number of active hay pile sites using single and double visit sampling techniques. Power was estimated using a false‐negative error rate (Type I error) of 0.05, an initial occupancy of 70%, and 437 sites within 12 locations. ............................................. 10

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Introduction

Why Pikas Two species of pikas occur along the spine of the Canadian Rockies. The Collared pika (Ochotona collaris) occurs north of Peace River and have been extensively studied in the Yukon (Franken and Hik 2004, Morrison and Hik 2007). The American pika (Ochotona princeps) occurs south of the Peace River including Banff National Park and their range extends throughout much of the western United States (Figure 1). Pikas occur along the interface between talus rocks and open meadows and are commonly found in alpine environments. They gather herbaceous plants and shrubs in vegetated areas and carry that food into the talus where they place it under overhanging rocks or into deeper crevasses to dry (Figure 2). Pikas are most commonly found in stable talus that does not shift a lot and in mixed sized talus where subnivean holes are small enough to protect them from most predators.

American pikas are an IUCN Red-Listed species that was classified as Least Concern in 2008 because of their wide spread distribution (Beever and Smith 2008). However, some subspecies are listed as Vulnerable or Near Threatened because of recent declines. Most of these declines have been caused by hotter, drier summers (Wilkening et al. 2010, Beever et al. 2011), low annual precipitation (Erb et al. 2011 in press), warming temperatures (Loarie et al. 2009), loss of vegetation (Wilkening et al. 2010), and timing of spring snow melt (Morrison and Hik 2007). While pikas are extremely sensitive to predation risk (Holmes 1991), population dynamics appear to be driven mostly by climatic factors (Morrison and Hik 2007). Given projected trends for warmer climates, pikas face high risk of extirpation in many areas (Figure 3) (Loarie et al. 2009). Most research on American pikas has been conducted in the Great Basin area of the United States and very little is known about American pikas occurring in Canada.

Pikas are not currently a component of the Mountain Parks (Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper, Glacier, Mt. Revelstoke, and Waterton Lakes National Parks of Canada) long-term ecological integrity monitoring program. However, stakeholders have expressed concerns regarding the lack of information about this species and the potential effects of changing climate on pikas and the alpine ecosystem. At the same time, research in other areas suggests that pikas could be monitored using low-cost, non-invasive techniques. As a result of public concerns and the potential for a citizen science based monitoring program, Parks Canada initiated a pilot study to examine the feasibility of monitoring pika population trends and growth.

Pika Natural History Pikas are members of the Order Lagomorpha as are hares and rabbits. They somewhat resemble guinea pigs but are in no way related. Pikas are also known as a cony or rock rabbits. Adult pikas weigh approximately 120 gms and are up to 20 cm (8 inches) long. They have short round ears and lack a visible tail. They give birth to 4-6 young and the female is tasked with responsibility of raising them on her own. The young are usually ready to set up their own territory by the end of July. Pikas lifespan is usually 3 to 4 years but can range up to 6 or 7 years.

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Pikas limit their time in the open areas to reduce their susceptibility to predation from weasels and birds of prey. As a result pikas rarely seek food more than 8-10 meters from the security of the talus. Pikas do not hibernate and have been observed scampering across the snow in the winter.

Pika diet depends on available vegetation and includes a wide variety of herbaceous plants and grasses. Pikas, like other lagomorphs, produce two types of fecal pellets. Pikas re-ingest their softer, glutinous excrement (an activity called coprophagy) because the pellets contain valued vitamins. Their harder fecal pellets are found in latrines or piles adjacent to central areas of activity. Lagomorphs obtain most required water from vegetation that they consume.

Pikas are highly territorial with very little overlap between male and female home ranges. They visit neighbouring pikas to mate or to steal hay from their neighbours hay pile! Individual pikas occupy a home range up to approximately 50 meters in diameter.

Objectives Pikas use the same hay pile storage sites within a talus slope for several generations and will re-use old hay pile storage sites after re-colonization. Therefore, annually counting the number of active hay piles could provide a good index of population trends and growth rates (Morrison and Hik 2008). Indices of population trends provide more power to detect trends and factors affecting trends than presence-absence or occupancy monitoring.

In summer 2011, we piloted a pika monitoring project in Banff and Kootenay National Parks. The project was a collaborative initiative between Parks Canada, Dr. David Hik at the University of Alberta, and the Bow Valley Naturalists. Our objective was to record the location of active and inactive hay piles in several valleys within the parks and then based on those results assess the potential of using hay piles as a simple and cost effective monitoring method for pikas in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

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Figure 1. North American distribution of the American pika (O. princeps) (Beever and Smith 2008)

Figure 2. Examples of pika habitat and hay piles in Banff National Park, AB.

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Figure 3. Average predicted probability of pika extirpation from 2010‐2099 across the modeled current distribution of the American Pika (from Loarie et al. 2009).

Methods

Site Selection & Survey Techniques We selected monitoring sites within Banff and Kootenay National Parks based on the following criteria:

• East-west gradient to capture range of precipitation • Elevation gradient for range of snow depth, temperatures, and precipitation • Distance from trail heads for accessibility • Citizen science potential • Outreach & Education potential • Number of pika subpopulations within a valley • Number of pikas (> 15) per subpopulation • Suitable talus for finding hay piles • Previous pika observations based on the Bow Valley Naturalist’s High Elevation Localized

Species (HELS) Database and Parks Canada’s Wildlife Observation Database

We strived to sample at least 10 locations to provide enough statistical power to make broad scale inferences about pikas. Within a valley, we defined the area searched based on the distribution of pika compatible talus and natural features such as forest, meadows, and cliffs (Figure 4). After an initial reconnaissance survey, most sites were revisited for a complete inventory of hay pile sites. Some sites were not completely searched because of lack of time.

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Figure 4. Example of pika hay pile sites in the Wolverine Valley of Banff National Park. More than one hay pile was associated with some sites.

Surveyors, preferably 2 to 4 people, spread out and systematically searched for pika hay piles and pika individuals within 30m of the talus edge. Ideally, surveyors walked 5 metres and then completed a 360o visual survey for pika hay piles. Similarly, visual and audio observations of pikas would often lead to hay piles. The location of hay pile clusters was recorded with a GPS (UTM Zone 11 NAD83). We also recorded whether any of the hay piles were active, the number of hay piles within a 15 m radius, and whether a pika was observed at the site. GPS waypoints captured these attributes using 4 sequential characters in the following manner: Hay piles (H)

Were any of the hay piles active (A, O, or N)

Number of active and inactive hay piles (number)

Was a pika observed (Y or N)

Hay Active 0 – 10 Yes Old No None For example, HA3N would indicate 3 active hay piles with no pikas observed and HN0Y would indicate that no hay piles were found but a pika was observed. We did not record the size of hay piles. Active hay piles ranged in size from a small bowl to a mattress of hay that a 10 year old child could lie on. These larger piles were often found without ‘satellite’ piles. Small hay piles were often associated with multiple satellite piles.

Pika territories in other study areas were approximately 50 m in diameter. Territories included talus and vegetated areas and hay piles did not necessarily occur in the centre of their territory. In our study area, each territory often contained multiple hay piles and it was sometimes difficult to define the boundary between two pika territories. Therefore, we set 15 m as the threshold distance required to delineate two pika territories. When we located a hay pile, we counted all the hay piles within 15 meters of that hay pile. Hay piles beyond 15 meters were assigned to another site. 15 m is much smaller than the radius (25 m) of a pika territory, but we thought it would be better to double count some pikas (higher Type I error, lower Type II error, and increased power to detect

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trends) rather than miss pikas (lower Type I error, higher Type II error, and decreased power to detect trends) because our objective was to monitor pika trends over time.

Occupational Health and Safety Surveying pika hay piles required travel over challenging terrain. Study areas typically contained medium to large size talus which was sometimes unstable. Surveyors, therefore, risked injury due to loss of balance caused by shifting or slippery talus. As well, surveyors were often required to travel through areas with high quality bear habitat. Appropriate precautions should be taken for travelling in these locations.

As a result we recommend the following to minimize the risk of injury. • Surveys should not occur during or immediately following rain or snow events. • Sturdy footwear should be worn, not light hikers. • All surveyors should carry bear spray. • People with pre existing injuries or medical conditions or lacking sure footedness should

not endeavour to participate in these surveys. • Hiking pole may increase stability although free hands are sometimes required for balance.

Power Analysis The objective of pika monitoring is to determine population trends and factors affecting population growth rates in Banff and Kootenay National Parks. Power to detect trends will be affected by classification error rates. Surveyors may incorrectly classify active hay piles as inactive because of lack of search effort or GPS error. The best way to address detection rates and to provide confidence intervals for annual population estimates is to use a double sampling technique (Royle and Dorazio 2008). With this technique, each site would be surveyed twice per year by two independent surveyor teams. Differences in classification between the two independent survey teams can be used to estimate detection rates and the true number of active hay piles with confidence intervals. However, surveying each pika site twice requires twice as much effort. Therefore, we explored the effects of detection rate on statistical power using both single and double sampling techniques. For both approaches, we set the starting occupancy level at 70% (based on having 63% of our hay pile sites classified as active and assuming 90% detectability), assessed detection rates between 60 and 90%, and simulated a 20% decrease in the number of active hay piles. With these scenarios, each pika site had a 70% chance of being occupied, a specific probability of being detected, and a 20% chance of becoming vacant. For each scenario, we simulated 1000 data sets with 437 pika sites distributed among 12 locations, which is the number of sites and locations surveyed in 2011. For each simulated data set, we compared models with and without the effect of year using likelihood ratio tests. We then estimated power as the percentage of simulations where the p-value was less than 0.05 (Type I or false negative error rate). For the double sampling approached, we compared two multi-season occupancy models that estimated and accounted for detection rates (Fiske and Chandler 2011). For the single sampling approach, we compared two generalized linear mixed effects models (GLMM) with a poisson link and a random effect for location (Bates et al. 2011). We used a poisson link because the response variable (number ~ exp(Byear x Year) works for count data, which is always greater or equal to zero and for which variance increases with number of hay piles. We used a random effect for location to account

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for hay pile changes within each location (similar to a paired t-test). Analyses were conducted in R 2.14 (R Development Core Team 2011) .

Results

We surveyed 12 locations within 9 valleys for pikas hay piles in Banff and Kootenay National Parks (Table 1, Figure 5). Each location contained between 12 and 61 hay pile sites (Figure 6). We recorded 437 sites of which 63, 30, and 7% were active, inactive, and not found respectively. We recorded one hay pile at 58% of the sites and 2 to 9 hay piles at 42% of the sites (Figure 7). Our 12 locations included a wide variety of aspects, elevations, and slopes (Figure 8).

Pika dispersal was likely within each location. Six of the 12 locations consisted of multiple talus patches separated by up to 20 m of vegetation. The ability for pikas to disperse between locations varied widely. Cascade Amphitheater North and South were separated by 170 m of vegetation and forest; the three Egypt locations were spaced 1.8 km apart; and other locations were spaced between 3.9 and 40 km apart.

Most locations required vehicle travel to trailheads with hiking times of up to two hours. The combined driving and hiking times often left approximately 3 hours to complete a survey. As a result, it was more efficient and effective to have a minimum of two and ideally 4 surveyors. The Egypt Lake and Bryant-Allenby locations required multi day trips in to the backcountry. For these locations, surveyors based out of National Park cabins.

We assessed power to detect a 20% decline in the number of active hay piles using single and double sampling techniques. The single sampling technique had high power, but only when detection rates exceeded 80% (Figure 9). The double sampling technique consistently had high power for detection rates ranging above 60%. The double sampling power estimates may be biased high because the analyses did not account for autocorrelation within the 12 locations. The autocorrelation was offset by using a stringent Type I (falsely significant) error of 5%.

Table 1. Locations selected for the pika monitoring pilot project 2011 in Banff and Kootenay National Parks. Locations are ordered west to east and north to south. Location Field

Unit Elevation

(m) Aspect Number

Hay Piles

Thorough Survey

Description

Bow Summit LLYK 2308 E 23 Yes Open alpine

Wolverine Valley LLYK 2292 SW 57 Yes WNW facing valley

Stanley Glacier LLYK 1944 NW 42 Yes NW facing valley

Egypt Lake Talus Banff 2076 W 25 Yes Talus tongue below tree line

Egypt Pharoah/Blackrock Banff 2251 E 29 Yes Lakes at tree line

Egypt Whistling Pass Banff 2275 SSE 21 Yes Open alpine

Simpson Pass Rock Band Banff 2210 NW 24 Yes Below steep rock band (50-75 m high)

Cascade Amphitheater N Banff 2127 SW 61 Yes West facing basin

Cascade Amphitheater S Banff 2169 NE 30 Yes West facing basin

C - Level Cirque Banff 1968 SE 25 Yes SE facing basin

Allenby Pass Banff 2390 Flat 12 No Below NE facing slopes

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Bryant Creek Shelter Banff 1846 SW 35 Yes Subalpine

Figure 5. Pilot study areas for pika hay pile monitoring in Banff and Kootenay National Parks, 2011.

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Figure 6. Number of active, inactive, and not found (pika observed but no hay pile found) hay piles for each location surveyed. A total of 437 sites were recorded in summer 2011.

Figure 7. Number of hay piles recorded per site, 2011. Greater than 1 hay pile was observed at 49% of the sites. This analysis excludes 115 sites from the beginning of the study where we did not record the number of hay piles per site.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Allenby

Bow Summit

Bryant Shelter

Cascade Amphitheater North

Cascade Amphitheater South

C‐Level Cirque

Egypt Pharoah and Black Rock

Egypt Talus

Egypt Whistling Pass

Simpson Pass Rockband

Stanley Glacier

Wolverine

Active

Inactive

Not Found

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Figure 8. Pika hay pile sites (n=437 sites from 12 locations) included a wide variety of aspects, elevations, and slopes.

Figure 9. Power to detect a 20% decline in the number of active hay pile sites using single and double visit sampling techniques. Power was estimated using a false‐negative error rate (Type I error) of 0.05, an initial occupancy of 70%, and 437 sites within 12 locations.

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Discussion Our objectives for this pilot project were to develop and assess monitoring techniques for pikas in Banff National Park. Our reasons for piloting the pika monitoring project were:

• Pikas may be susceptible to climate change. • Banff National Park has few monitoring measures for the alpine ecosystem. • Pikas can be monitored with non-invasive techniques that can estimate demographic rates. • Low cost. • The project has high citizen science potential.

Our goal was to sample 10 locations with at least 10 pikas so that we could make broad scale inferences about pikas. We sampled 12 locations in a wide variety of terrain, aspect, and elevations (Figure 8). Most locations did not occur near weather stations, but seasonal snow cover and plant phenology could be estimated using MODIS and LANDSAT satellite imagery. The two largest challenges incurred were: 1) Individual pikas had multiple hay piles and it was difficult to define the boundary between territories and 2) Pika hay piles were difficult and sometimes impossible to find, especially in large, blocky talus. The magnitude of these two challenges will directly affect the precision of population estimates and power to detect trends. Our power to detect trends will likely be high, but additional field work is required to estimate detection rates and to calibrate the number of hay pile sites with the actual number of pikas.

Our approach for pika monitoring was to record all pika hay sites with a GPS and then re-visit the sites during subsequent summers. Complete census surveys might be required every 5 years to identify newly developed sites. The success of the program depends on ability of surveyors to return to sites and that in turn depends currently on GPS error. GPS error is likely to be less than 5 m most of the time, but that 5 m error is compounded by error when the location was recorded and error in the revisiting team’s GPS. Moreover, GPS error sometimes exceeded 5 m. Unobtrusive markings at hay pile sites would increase the ability of surveyors to revisit marked sites.

We sampled a wide variety of pika habitats. Additional areas that could be sampled and that have high citizen science and education potential include: rock talus near the confluence of the Bow and Spray Rivers (a low elevation site), Lake O’Hara, Lake Louise, and Moraine Lake.

The pika monitoring project has high citizen science potential because monitoring occurs within a short time frame once per year (end of August to early September). Several local citizens in the Bow Valley helped survey and record the location of hay piles. Revisits in subsequent years should be easier and less time consuming. Thus, we plan to involve more citizen scientists in the project next year.

Our next steps for the project are to review our 2011 results with the Bow Valley Naturalists, David Hik from the University of Alberta, and with other Mountain National Park monitoring specialists. Based on these discussions, we will make a plan on how to proceed in subsequent years.

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Acknowledgements Thank-you to the following people for their help setting up the pilot project and for surveying pika hay piles: Mike McIvor, David Hik, Karsten Heuer, Renee Franken, Alan Dibb, Helene Galt, Dan Rafla, Simon Ham, Diane Volkers, Chuck O’Callaghan, Jeannette O’Callaghan, Kelly Wilson, Melissa Wilson, and the Bow Valley Naturalists (HELS observations).

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