Potential Effects of Winter Navigation on Movements of Large Land Mammals in the Eastern Lake Superior and Saint Mary's River Area, 1981-82 Supplemental Report. Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway Navigation Season Extension Program

摘要

This report describes a third consecutive winter of observations of movements of mammals across the St. Mary's River. The main objective of the studies was to describe travels of mammals on the ice in the absence of winter shipping in order to evaluate potential effects of shipping on such movements. Emphasis during the winter of 1981-1982 was on deer movements in the Neebish Island area, where previous studies had shown that more than 90 percent of winter mammal activity on the ice occurs. Methods included ground and aerial surveys, description of movements of individual deer by radio-telemetry, pellet survey to estimate deer numbers, and systematic ground search to locate dead deer for determining extent and causes of deer mortality. (fr)