SGS-LTER Graduate Student Research: Cattle use of prairie dog towns on the shortgrass steppe of Colorado

This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83512.
We investigated the use of prairie dog towns by cattle (Bos taurus) on the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado by conducting surveys of cattle and vegetation from June to August 1999. Cattle presence and behavior were recorded 3 times a week during driving surveys of 15 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns. A subset of 3 pastures with prairie dog towns was intensively surveyed twice weekly wherein the habitat and activity of a randomly chosen focal animal was recorded every 6 minutes for 3.5 hours. Bite and step counts of other individuals were recorded for 5-minute intervals. Vegetation height and cover data were collected monthly on each of 6 habitats. Results from driving surveys and intensively surveyed pastures were similar; cattle neither significantly preferred nor avoided prairie dog towns. Bare ground cover on prairie dog towns did not significantly differ from most other habitats, but vegetation on prairie dog towns was significantly shorter on (mean = 6.7 cm) than that off (mean = 11.9 cm) prairie dog towns. Nevertheless, foraging observations indicated that there was no significant difference between cattle foraging rates on swales (70.9 bites/min) and prairie dog towns (69.5 bites/min). Thus, cattle on the shortgrass steppe appear to use prairie dog towns in proportion to their availability and, while there, they graze as intensively as they do on habitats not inhabited by prairie dogs. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Website Pointer to html file. File Name: Web Page, url: https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?scope=knb-lter-sgs&identifier=526 Webpage with information and links to data files for download

本数据包由致力于科罗拉多州立大学管理的短草草地长期生态研究项目（SGS-LTER）的研究者们所创建。该项目长期数据集及背景资料（包括提案、报告、照片等）收录于科罗拉多州数字收藏馆的全面项目收藏之中（http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429）。该数据表及其关联的元数据文档，采用生态元数据语言生成，可能通过服务于生态研究社区的其它数据存储库获得，并代表SGS-LTER项目收藏库的组成部分。更多信息和参考文献可查阅：http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83512。

我们通过对1999年6月至8月期间在科罗拉多州东北部短草草地进行的牛（Bos taurus）和植被的调查，研究了牛对草地松鼠城镇（Cynomys ludovicianus）的利用情况。在为期三周的驱车调查中，每三天记录一次牛和植被的存在及行为，调查对象为15个黑尾草地松鼠城镇。在3个带有草地松鼠城镇的牧场中，对其中一部分进行了密集调查，每周两次，随机选取焦点动物，每6分钟记录其栖息地和活动情况，持续3.5小时。其他个体的咬合和步数每5分钟记录一次。对6个栖息地中的植被高度和覆盖度数据每月收集一次。驱车调查和密集调查牧场的结果相似；牛既没有显著偏好也没有回避草地松鼠城镇。草地松鼠城镇上的裸露地表覆盖度与其他大多数栖息地没有显著差异，但草地松鼠城镇上的植被显著短于非草地松鼠城镇（平均值为6.7厘米，而后者为11.9厘米）。然而，觅食观察表明，在沟壑（每分钟70.9次咬合）和草地松鼠城镇（每分钟69.5次咬合）上的牛的觅食率没有显著差异。因此，在短草草地上，牛似乎根据草地松鼠城镇的可用性来利用它们，并且在它们那里觅食的强度与在无草地松鼠栖息地上的觅食强度相当。本数据集包含的资源：资源标题：指向html文件的网站指针。文件名：网页，网址：https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?scope=knb-lter-sgs&identifier=526 包含信息和下载数据文件的链接。