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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Domestic livestock grazing is the dominant land use on much of the current range inhabited by greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) in the western United States. Nonnative feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) also inhabit important sage-grouse seasonal habitats. Overabundant feral horse populations and improper grazing by domestic cattle (Bos taurus) can impact the health of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) and desert shrub rangeland communities and native wildlife. These impacts to sage-grouse can be exacerbated when they affect late brood-rearing habitat, which provide the forbs and arthropods required to fledge broods. Managers require better information regarding the extent of these impacts. In 2020, we assessed the potential impact of feral horses and domestic cattle on sage-grouse late brood-rearing habitats in western Utah and eastern Nevada, USA. We acquired late brood-rearing location data from sage-grouse marked with global positioning system and very-high frequency radio-transmitters from 2016 to 2020 for North Utah data, 2017 to 2018 for South Utah data, and 1961 to 2017 for both east and west Nevada data to delineate late brood-rearing habitats. Using these location data, we compared 8 sites (4 pairs) within horse and non-horse use areas to assess sage-grouse habitat quality characteristics between areas that have been predominantly horse and cattle grazed versus sites that have been predominantly cattle grazed. For each pairing, 1 site was located within and the other outside of a Bureau of Land Management herd management area boundary, and both sites shared similar habitat characteristics (i.e., topography, dominant vegetation, soils, and climate) and selection probability for broods. We collected vegetation and dung count data at each site to assess characteristics related to habitat quality for sage-grouse brood-rearing, based on ungulate presence. We used a mixed model analysis of variance to detect differences between each paired site comparison (α < 0.01). Horses or evidence of horse presence (i.e., dung) were not detected at our non-horse sites allowing for an unbiased comparison between paired sites. Cattle presence was noted at all our paired sites. Average annual grass frequency was 0.74 in horse and 0.17 in non-horse use areas (P = 0.20), and average annual grass cover was 4.0% compared to 0.2% in horse use areas (P = 0.32). Average annual grass biomass was 0.45 kg/ha in horse and 0.04% in non-horse use areas (P = 0.34). Vegetation height was 44.2 cm in non-horse compared to 34.5 cm in horse use areas (P = 0.23). These results suggest that increased ungulate grazing and year-long use of late brood-rearing habitat by feral horses coupled with livestock grazing may impair habitat suitability, particularly considering ecological impacts from invasive plant species. Our results suggest that managing late brood-rearing habitats to reduce the frequency and intensity of year-long grazing by feral horses can be best accomplished by reducing horse numbers and the seasonal distribution of grazing by domestic livestock.

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