Eric M. Hallerman

The gray bat (Myotis grisescens) is a cave-obligate species that has been listed as federally endangered since 1976, following population declines from human disturbance at hibernation and maternity caves. However, with cave protection, most gray bat populations have increased. As part of a project examining bat use of transportation structures as day-roosts, we continuously acoustically monitored 12 riparian sites within the Clinch River Watershed of southwest Virginia from March through November, 2018–2020. We used 15 different landscape and weather-related variables in...

The increasing importance of the walleye (Sander vitreus) fishery in the New River, Virginia, and recent research findings showing persistence of a presumptive native stock motivated a seven-year program of hatchery-based restoration of the native fishery. Candidate spawners were collected from spawning areas, and DNA from fin clips was genotyped at two microsatellite loci. Candidates exhibiting alleles at the Svi17 and Svi33 loci that characterize the presumptive native stock were spawned. Their young were reared at one of four fish hatcheries in Virginia and West Virginia. Approximately...

The increasing importance of the walleye (Sander vitreus) fishery in the New River, Virginia, and recent research findings motivated characterization of its genetic composition. Movements of radio-tagged fish suggested that walleyes living in Claytor Lake and the upper New River tend to spawn in different areas. In this study, allozyme, microsatellite DNA, and mitochondrial DNA genetic marker data were analyzed to assess population genetic differentiation among collections of New River walleye. The walleyes within Claytor Lake are a panmictic population, presumably resulting from years of...

Stomachs of 171 muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) ranging in length from 358 to 1270 mm were examined to evaluate fish diet and to estimate through bioenergetics modeling the predatory impact of muskellunge on smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) in the New River, Virginia. Fifty-five percent of muskellunge stomachs examined contained food. Ninety percent of muskellunge stomachs that contained food contained fewer than six items. Muskellunge exhibited an ontogenetic shift in diet at approximately 800 to 900 mm, changing from a diet consisting primarily of cyprinids to one consisting...

Briery Creek Lake was stocked with both the Florida and northern subspecies of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides floridanus and M. s. salmoides, respectively) at a ratio of 3 Florida to 1 northern bass following impoundment in 1986. Progeny of these stockings in the 1989 and 1990 year classes were sampled in October as age-0 and again the following May and electrophoretically assayed to assign phenotypes for comparison of overwinter survival, first-year growth, and relative weight. Subspecies as well as intergrade (F1 and Fx) phenotypes were present in both year classes. First-...