Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Since 1930 Virginia has either purchased deer for restocking or has carried out transplantation programs in various sections of the state. In 1967-68, detailed records of costs of a transplantation program indicate the average cost per head for white-tailed deer captured by box trap to be $51.68. This trapping program was initiated to, (1) alleviate an over population, (2) determine if malnutrition was evident, and (3) fill the demand for brood stock in under populated areas. Most southeastern states have, at one time or another, participated in similar transplantation programs with equal success and accrued costs. 'Other methods of capture were prohibited in the study area due to industrial working conditions and security measures required by the U. S. Army. Malnutrition was not evident in the confined herd. The program did alleviate the over population currently. Costs of $50.00 per head for transplanted deer is reasonable and justified in Virginia.

Between 1964 and 1968, diazepam, methohexital, methoxymol, secobarbital and tribromoethanol were administered on bait to free-feeding waterfowl of several species in Florida. Characteristics for each of five such agents include varying speed of induction, duration of anesthesia, toxicity, and other pharmacological considerations. Anesthesia was produced with several dosages of each compound, but additional tests are needed to refine dosage rates. Distasteful compounds were not readily ingested which may have biased results in a few cases. The use of anesthetic agents for zoo and domestic animals has been discussed by Lumb (1963), Lawrence and Bacharach (1964), and Barnes and Eltherington (1966), but little information is available about anesthetic agents for wild animals. Literature on the relatively few central nervous system depressants which have been used orally to capture wildlife is reviewed elesewhere in these proceedings (Crider, et aI, 19681.

Experimental dosages of alpha-chloralose, an odorless and nearly tasteless oral anesthetic, were administered on baits to 17 wild black bears (Ursus americanus) and two captive wild bears. Nine of the 17 were sufficiently narcotized to permit handling without mechanical restraint up to 48 hours later. The other free-living bears escaped in sub-effective narcosis or if anesthetized, were not located in the field. One bear died as a result of chloralose overdosage and another succumbed from an overdose of pentabarbital sodium administered after capture. Preliminary data on the application of the method and some suggestions for further research are presented. Investigations on bears sometimes involve trapping and handling for collecting data and marking. An initial step in such studies is to find or develop effective trapping techniques.

Since the summer of 1965, an alligator research program has been conducted in the Everglades of southern Florida. This report describes the progress of the program. Various capture and marking techniques are described and evaluated. Data on growth rates, movement, homing tendencies, and sex and age interpretation from approximately 1,000 tagged alligators are presented. Life history observations, including population trends, activity surrounding a "gator hole", and the effect of water level fluctuation are reported. Man's influences on the alligator population, both from the standpoints of habitat manipulation and poaching, are discussed.

The daily and seasonal variation in dove abundance along roads was studied on the AEC Savannah River Plant between May 3 and October 16, 1965. A 58-mile road census was conducted five days a week sampling all times of the day during each week. The effect of ten weather factors on daily dove counts was tested. Mourning doves were active primarily between the hours of 0530 to 0900 and 1600 to 1930. Within these periods, greatest numbers were observed from 0600 to 0700 and 1700 to 1800. This pattern was maintained throughout the study period and was not noticeably affected by the time of official sunrise and sunset. No doves were observed at night or during the early afternoon hours. Doves were most abundant in May during the spring migration, followed by a decrease to the summer breeding population in June. The number of doves increased with the addition of young until the end of August when the fall migration began.

A total of 500 male cottontail rabbits were collected over a two year period from the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Mountain physiographic regions of Georgia. Adult testes weight, volume, length, and diameter were recorded, epididymides checked for convolutions and presence of viable sperm, and relative condition of the testes noted as to flaccidity or turgidity and ascended or descended. Regression analysis was performed on young of the year testes growth (volume and weight) and increasing age (eye lens weight). The data revealed that weight and volume were more sensitive indicators of testes condition than length and diameter. No significant seasonal differences were noted in weight and volume between regions and between Georgia and northern states. A close correlation existed between testes volume and percentage of females pregnant. Males in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions were apparently capable of breeding by January of 1966 and 1967.

Brown shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) were marked with injections of biological stains and fluorescent pigments and released in the Swan Quarter Bay tributary of Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, to obtain population dynamics information including movement, migration, growth, and mortality. From July to September, 1967,6,163 shrimp were marked and released. Of these, 1,030 (16.7%) were returned. The average interval between release and recapture was 12 days, and the average distance traveled during this time was 3 miles. Only one shrimp was recaptured in the Atlantic Ocean. These data do not clearly indicate the most probable route or routes of movement from the study area to the ocean. Modes of size distribution curves were at 115 mm total length during the eight-week mark-release phase of the study, indicating an apparent "level of equilibrium" condition.

The toxicity of eight chemicals to one week old and one month old striped bass, Roccus saxatilis, was determined. These chemicals included malachite green, acriflavine, formaldehyde, Diquat, sodium chloride, zinc, copper, and sodium sulfate. In addition the toxicity of artificial sea water and oil field brine based on chloride content was determined for one month old striped bass. Tests were conducted in one gallon wide mouth jars containing two liters of water. Reconstituted water held at 70 degrees Farenheit was used as the diluent. A wide range in toxicity between the two age groups was recorded for acriflavine, Diquat, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. The one month old fingerlings were slightly more tolerant to malachite green, formaldehyde and copper than the larvae. Zinc was the only chemical tested that required a higher concentration to kill the larvae.

A study was made by the USDA, Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with the Georgia Game and Fish Commission and the USDA, Forest Service in the summer months of the years 1964-67. The purpose was to determine the extent of thermal pollution in the tailwater and the effect of this pollution on rainbow trout. The study was made at a single-purpose, Public Law 566 floodwater-retarding structure on Hall Creek, which is a tributary of Hightower Creek in Towns County, Georgia. The conservation pool has 4.3 surface acres and is 17.5 feet deep. Normal streamflow is discharged through a bottom water overflow that extends down from the pool surface 10 feet. The structure contains 27 acre feet of stored water in the conservation pool; inflow is approximately 2.5 efs at low flow during summer droughts and normal inflow is 5.7 cfs. The structure is located at 2,228 feet above mean sea level.

Collections of the fishes in the tailwaters of Beaver Reservoir were made during the spring and summer of 1968. The present study is a continuation of an investigation designed to follow the development of the ichthyofauna in the cold tailwaters below Beaver Dam, Arkansas. A total of 527 fishes representing 21 species, 12 genera, and 7 families has been identified. Eight species collected in 1968 were not reported by Brown, et al. (1967) and 7 species reported in the 1967 publication were not collected in this study. Campostoma anoma/um was still the most abundant cyprinid collected and darters were also abundant. In the 1968 study more species of centrarchids were collected than previously reported. Both Sa/mo trutta and Sa/mo gairdneri are now present in the tailwaters of Beaver Dam.

Length-weight data from 196 fish and spine samples from 125 fish taken August 5, 1965 were used to determine growth and age composition of blue catfish in the upper Tombigbee River in Western Alabama. Mortality rates were calculated in an effort to determine the abundance of harvestable age classes of fish. The 1964 year class was represented by one specimen and no fish of the 1965 year class were taken in the sample area. The year classes prior to 1964 were well represented in the sample. The length-weight relationship indicates that weight increments increase rapidly after fish reach 25 inches total length.

One phase of an evaluation of antimycin as a piscicide in ten ponds and lakes in the Southeast involved a study of its effect on plankton and bottom organisms. Net zooplankton in the groups Cladocera, Copepoda, Rototaria and nauplii larvae were enumerated before and after the application of 5.0 ppb antimycin. All groups were severely reduced and some disappeared following the treatment. Bottom organisms in the groups Tendipedidae, Ceratopogonidae and Culicidae were enumerated. Bottom organisms in these groups did not disappear following antimycin applications. Probably reasons are discussed.

Two lots of the Arkansas strain of cha.nnel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, containing both albino and ngrmal fish, were acclimated in the laboratory at a constant temperature of 30.0 C. Samples of albino and normal fish were exposed to a lethal temperature of 39.0 o C. The albinos from both lots had the highest mean survival time, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Nitrogen content of fertilizer formulations influenced the amount of organic and inorganic phosphorus found in the bottom soil of fish ponds flooded with water of medium hardness and alkalinity.

Threadfin shad. Dorosoma petenense. were first introduced into Bull Shoals Reservoir in 1961. Based on fish collected in 1966 and 1967. weighted average calculated total lengths of females at the end of each successive year of life were 66. 118. 134 and 141 millimeters. and of males 64. 118 and 123 millimeters. Growth of threadfin shad in Bull Shoals was slower than in more southern and temperate regions, but life span was longer. A strong year class in 1964 was indicated by the Presence of a relatively high number of 2-year-old fish in 1966 and 3-year-old fish in 1967. The ratio of females to males in cove rotenone samples was 3.8 to 1. while in midwater trawl samples the ratio was 1.0 to 1. Threadfin shad comprised 80 percent of the total shad population by number. but only 17 percent by weight.

A year-round creel census was conducted on Lake Fort Smith, Arkansas from August, 1957 through December, 1961. Typically, maximal fishing pressure began in March and April and terminated in May when turbidity from heavy runoffs made the lake less desirable for fishing; substantial pressure returned in July but dwindled by October. Yearly pressure varied from 12.72 to 28.70 man-hours/acre/year; largemouth bass dominated the catch. Fishing pressure was correlated with fishing success indicating the localized nature of the fishermen using the lake.

Man's overall manipulation of land and water resources has not always been in the best interests of recreational or aesthetic values. This will bear particular emphasis where the wildlife and fisheries aspects of recreation are concerned. Governmental agencies designated to perform specific functions in land and water management have pursued their objectives with vigor and ever increasing efficiency but nevertheless with singleness of purpose. In delta regions, wildlife, fish and related recreational activities have, for the most part, been ignored in a vast plan of agricultural improvement which has transformed even the most remote niches of wildlife habitat into intensively farmed "biological deserts". Streams are channeled to provide accelerated drainage and wetlands and natural lakes are dried up by this form of progress.