Jinelle Sperry

• Researcher at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Invasive fruit-eating animals (hereafter frugivores) can form novel mutualisms with fruiting plants and alter seed dispersal. Plant-frugivore interactions are often linked to frugivore preference for certain fruit traits, but for invasive frugivores, it is uncertain if novelty—whether or not a fruit is familiar—impacts foraging decisions. We experi...

Detecting environmental DNA (eDNA) of numerous organisms from the same samples has been revolutionized by metabarcoding. However, utilizing the vast amounts of data generated from metabarcoding to predict occupancy probabilities for co‐occurring species is currently rare. Here, we demonstrate how metabarcoding data can be used to advance community...

Analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) has been successfully used across freshwater ecological parasitology to inform management of ecologically and economically important species. However, most studies have used species-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays to detect target taxa. While generally effective , this approach limi...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is an effective and non‐invasive technique for surveying and monitoring rare, threatened, or endangered (RTE) species. Compared to conventional capture‐based sampling, eDNA analysis may offer a more cost‐effective approach for surveying RTE species, yet few studies have compared their cost‐efficiency—a critical con...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, or the detection of trace DNA shed by organisms into their environment, has the potential to transform Army capabilities for threatened and endangered species (TES) and invasive species management by providing a rapid, noninvasive, and cost-effective option for monitoring wildlife. Despite these benefits, eDNA ana...

Objective: Gill lice Salmincola spp. are among the most widely reported parasites of freshwater salmonids and have been associated with recent declines in native Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis populations. Effective gill lice surveillance is vital for salmonid conservation success, but current survey approaches are often inadequate or problemati...

Rodents are among the most widespread and problematic invasive animals on islands worldwide contributing to declining endemic island biota through predation and disruption of mutualisms. Identifying what rodents eat is critically important to understanding their effects on ecosystems. We used DNA metabarcoding to identify the diets of three invasiv...

Many animal species exist in fission-fusion societies, where the size and composition of conspecific groups change spatially and temporally. To help investigate such phenomena, social network analysis (SNA) has emerged as a powerful conceptual and analytical framework for assessing patterns of interconnectedness and quantifying group-level interact...

Merkle et al. (2022) provide an excellent overview of, and valid arguments for, instances of maladaptive site fidelity in a world increasingly dominated by human induced rapid environmental change. We agree with the authors’ thesis and extend their discussion to further highlight potential consequences for populations that habitually and predictabl...

Context Understanding the temporal and spatial scales at which wildlife move is vital for conservation and management. This is especially important for semi-aquatic species that make frequent inter-wetland movements to fulfil life-history requirements. Aims We aimed to investigate the drivers of movement and space-use of the imperilled spotted tur...

Arthropods can strongly impact ecosystems through pollination, herbivory, predation, and parasitism. As such, characterizing arthropod biodiversity is vital to understanding ecosystem health, functions, and services. Emerging environmental DNA (eDNA) methods targeting trace arthropod eDNA left behind on flowers have the potential to track arthropod...

As keystone species, apex predators play a role in structuring most ecosystems through competition and facilitation, thereby affecting community structure, prey abundance and behavior, vegetation, and abiotic processes. Apex predators are also highly threatened and have been extirpated from much of North America, leading to mesocarnivores, such as...

As human-caused extinctions and invasions accumulate across the planet, understanding the processes governing ecological functions mediated by species interactions, and anticipating the effect of species loss on such functions become increasingly urgent. In seed dispersal networks, the mechanisms that influence interaction frequencies may also infl...

Managing wildlife populations in the face of global change requires regular data on the abundance and distribution of wild animals, but acquiring these over appropriate spatial scales in a sustainable way has proven challenging. Here we present the data from Snapshot USA 2020, a second annual national mammal survey of the USA. This project involved...

In altered communities, novel species’ interactions may critically impact ecosystem functioning. One key ecosystem process, seed dispersal, often requires mutualistic interactions between frugivores and fruiting plants, and functional traits, such as seed width, may affect interaction outcomes. Forests of the Hawaiian Islands have experienced high...

Insect and pollinator populations are vitally important to the health of ecosystems, food production, and economic stability, but are declining worldwide. New, cheap, and simple monitoring methods are necessary to inform management actions and should be available to researchers around the world. Here, we evaluate the efficacy of a commercially avai...

In altered communities, novel species’ interactions may critically impact ecosystem functioning. One key ecosystem process, seed dispersal, often requires mutualistic interactions between frugivores and fruiting plants, and functional traits, such as seed width, may affect interaction outcomes. Forests of the Hawaiian Islands have experienced high...

Behavioral interactions between conspecific animals can be influenced by relatedness and familiarity. Compared to other vertebrate taxa, considering such aspects of social behavior when housing captive reptiles has received less attention, despite the implications this could have for informing husbandry practices, enhancing welfare, and influencing...

Estimates of abundance and occupancy are essential for wildlife management, particularly for species of conservation concern such as eastern spotted skunks Spilogale putorius. Most studies of eastern spotted skunks rely on limited evidence for best monitoring practices, and while many studies use attractants to increase detections, previous studies...

For alien invasive plant species dependent on frugivores for seed dispersal, traits that influence consumption can be important determinants of invasion and spread. However, trait comparisons between native and invasive species have documented mixed results. In Hawai‘i, one of the most invaded systems in the world, nearly all frugivory, and thus se...

United States forestland is an important ecosystem type, land cover, land use, and economic resource that is facing several drivers of change including climatic. Because of its significance, forestland was identified through the National Climate Assessment (NCA) as a key sector and system of concern to be included in a system of climate indicators...

Significance Species invasions and introductions are reshaping ecosystems around the world. In such novel ecological scenarios, it remains unclear whether crucial ecosystem functions played by lost native species may be partially or fully replaced by introduced species. We show that introduced plants and seed dispersers may take over interaction ne...

Many species across taxa select habitat based on conspecific presence, known as conspecific attraction. Studies that document conspecific attraction typically provide social information (i.e., cues that indicate the presence of a given species) and then determine if a given species is more likely to settle at locations where the social information...

Abstract The widespread introduction of species has created novel communities in many areas of the world. Since introduced species tend to have generalized ecologies and often lack shared evolutionary history with other species in their communities, it would be expected that the relationship between form and function (i.e., ecomorphology) may chang...

Successful conservation of rare, threatened, or endangered (RTE) species is dependent upon rapid and accurate assessment of their distribution and abundance. However, assessments are challenging as RTE species typically exist as numerically small populations in often fragmented habitats and can possess complex natural histories. Environmental DNA (...

We opportunistically investigated predator visits to enclosed acclimation pens containing juvenile eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina) over a 34-d acclimation period using motion-triggered cameras. Daily visitation probability by raccoons (Procyon lotor) and fox squirrels (Sciurus niger; the only predator species observed visiting) decreased f...

en Researchers and managers have used the tendency of some species of birds to settle near conspecifics (i.e., conspecific attraction) to help establish or reestablish species of conservation concern in targeted habitats. However, most studies of conspecific attraction as a recruitment tool have been conducted with either migratory or colonial‐bree...

Determining sex is critical for demographic monitoring of endangered species, but this task can be particularly challenging in reptiles that are sexually monomorphic. Conventional sexing methods are invasive, often inaccurate, can cause injury, and, for sexually immature individuals, equivocal. Molecular approaches have been established as viable a...

Trapping is frequently implemented when sampling for herpetofauna, and efforts to improve welfare of trapped individuals are continually needed. We demonstrate use of a novel box trap that is inexpensive to construct (~$5 USD per trap) and may have potential to improve welfare of captured terrestrial herpetofauna, such as by decreasing injuries, b...

Although it is widely accepted that juvenile turtles experience high levels of predation, such events are rarely observed, providing limited evidence regarding predator identities and how juvenile habitat selection and availability of sensory cues to predators affects predation risk. We placed three‐dimensional printed models resembling juvenile bo...

Species are entangled within communities by their interactions in such a manner that their local extinction may unchain coextinction cascades and impact community dynamics and stability. Despite increasing attention, simulation models to estimate the robustness of interaction networks largely neglect the important role of interaction rewiring, that...

Raising captive animals past critical mortality stages for eventual release (head-starting) is a common conservation tactic. Counterintuitively, post-release survival can be low. Postrelease behavior affecting survival could be influenced by captive-rearing duration and housing conditions. Practitioners have adopted environmental enrichment to prom...

Wildlife translocations can have conservation value but results have been mixed regarding animal behavior and survival post-release. Practitioners have adopted antipredator training, environmental enrichment, and soft release as pre-release conditioning tactics to encourage adaptive behavior and improve post-release survival, but their utility has...

Animals across a range of taxa use social information when foraging. Fruit‐eating vertebrates are no exception and use social information to find fruit, which may ultimately affect plant populations via seed dispersal. In many systems, mutualistic relationships between fruiting plants and frugivores are critical to maintain ecosystem functioning, e...

Novel ecosystems have become widespread created, in part, by the global spread of species. The non‐native species in these environments can be under intense evolutionary pressures that cause rapid morphological change, which can then influence species interactions. In Hawai'i, much of the native frugivore community is extinct, replaced by non‐nativ...

Invasive birds spread native seeds When humans introduce exotic species to sensitive ecosystems, invasion and extinction of native species often follow. The resulting ecological communities can develop unusual interactions between the survivors and newcomers. Vizentin-Bugoni et al. analyzed the structure of seed dispersal networks in Hawai'i, where...

Head-starting is a conservation strategy that entails releasing captive-reared animals into nature at sizes large enough to better resist post-release predation. However, efforts to maximize growth in captivity may jeopardize development of beneficial behaviors. Environmental enrichment can encourage natural behaviors before release but potentially...

Temporal variation in avian brood parasite condition and reproduction seem to affect host-parasite dynamics. Few studies, however, consider dynamics from the perspective of the parasite. Here we examined how brood parasite body condition and reproductive output vary both seasonally and annually and investigate the resultant impacts on nest parasiti...

The ability of wildlife populations to mount rapid responses to novel pathogens will be critical for mitigating the impacts of disease outbreaks in a changing climate. Field studies have documented that amphibians preferring warmer temperatures are less likely to be infected with the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). However, it...

Because body size affects nearly all facets of an organism’s life history, ecologists have long been interested in large-scale patterns of body-size variation, as well as why those large-scale patterns often differ between sexes. We explored body-size variation across the range of the sexually dimorphic Ratsnake complex (species of the genus Panthe...

Habitat choice has broad repercussions for animals, but mechanisms influencing such choices are generally not understood. When conducting conservation translocations using captive-reared animals, elucidating mechanisms influencing habitat preference pre-release could inform rearing methods and post-release behavior. We raised 32 captive-born easter...

Nonnative rodents pose a grave threat to many species on islands where they have been introduced. We surveyed accumulated food contents of husking stations, sheltered areas that rats use to process their collected food items, to gain insight into diets of invasive rodents and their potential effects on plant communities on the Hawaiian island of O'...

Black-capped Vireos (Vireo atricapilla) and White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus) are closely related and ecologically similar. Despite these similarities, the White-eyed Vireo is widely distributed and common, whereas the Black-capped Vireo has a restricted breeding range and is currently federally endangered in the United States and Mexico. Here we a...

Terrestrial habitats are frequently managed to improve perceived economic or aesthetic value of the land and to improve habitat quality for wildlife species. In central Texas, removal of native Juniperus asheii (Ashe Juniper) is a common landscape-management practice due to the species' propensity for invasion of rangeland, vigorous growth leading...

Many snake species substantially shift their daily activity patterns throughout the year. Understanding if, when, and why these changes occur can improve our understanding of snake ecology and conservation. However, quantifying these fine-scale activity shifts is logistically difficult as manual radio-telemetry provides little information on what a...

Amphibian populations are declining worldwide, with habitat loss and alteration being a primary driver of many declines. Management strategies to mitigate these declines include translocation and creation or restoration of breeding habitats, yet these techniques are not always effective. We examined whether conspecific attraction—a management tool...

Urbanization has profound effects on the presence and distribution of wildlife species. Although numerous studies have been conducted to inform our understanding of the effects of urbanization on wildlife, studies of urban wildlife communities in the tropics are especially rare. Here, we investigated the bird community assemblage and distribution a...

Context Wildlife translocation is a conservation tool with mixed success. Evidence suggests that longer time in captivity may negatively affect an animal’s post-release behaviour and survival. However, environmental enrichment may reduce the deleterious effects of captivity for animals that are going to be released into the wild. Aims The aim of t...

The selection of breeding habitat has broadscale implications for species distributions and community structure and smaller-scale ramifications for offspring survival and parental fitness. In anurans, offspring deposition is a decisionmaking process that involves the assessment of multiple factors at a breeding site, including the presence of preda...

Survival estimates for juvenile birds are rarely empirically derived and have been typically estimated as some percentage of adult survival. In particular, little information is available on survival when juveniles are independent of parental care or whether juvenile survival is sex biased. Additionally, little information is available about behavi...

Identifying nest predators is of fundamental importance to understanding avian breeding ecology and can contribute to identifying broadscale nest-predation patterns. We reviewed 53 North American nest-predator studies, comprising more than 4000 camera-monitored nests, to explore geographic patterns in predator identity and how predation varied with...

Relatively little is known about the ecology of free-ranging Corn Snakes (Pantherophis guttatus), although they have been implicated as regionally important avian nest predators. We used nest camera data from 97 snake predation events, 25% of which were attributable to Corn Snakes, to assess how the ecology and behavior of nest predation by Corn Sn...

Appendix S1. Study Site Figure and Location of Nests and Automated Radiotelemetry Towers.

Avian nest success often varies seasonally and because predation is the primary cause of nest failure, seasonal variation in predator activity has been hypothesized to explain seasonal variation in nest success. Despite the fact that nest predator communities are often diverse, recent evidence from studies of snakes that are nest predators has lent...

The Third National Climate Assessment (NCA) process for the United States focused in part on developing a system of indicators to communicate key aspects of the physical climate, climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and preparedness to inform decisionmakers and the public. Initially, 13 active teams were formed to recommend indicators in a range of ca...

Predation involves costs and benefits, so predators should employ tactics that reduce their risk of injury or death and that increase their success at capturing prey. One potential way that predators could decrease risk and increase benefits is by attacking prey at night when risks may be reduced and prey more vulnerable. Because some snakes are fa...

Climate change threatens biodiversity globally, yet it can be challenging to predict which species may be most vulnerable. Given the scope of the problem, it is imperative to rapidly assess vulnerability and identify actions to decrease risk. Although a variety of tools have been developed to assess climate change vulnerability, few have been evalu...

Conspecific cues have been shown to influence habitat selection in many different species. In anurans, conspecific chorus sounds may facilitate location of new breeding ponds, but direct experimental evidence supporting this notion is lacking. We conducted an experimental field study on American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) and Cope’s gray tree frog...

The cost of brood parasitism favors the evolution of host behaviors that reduce the risk or expense of being parasitized. Endangered Black-capped Vireos (Vireo atricapilla) have likely coexisted with brood-parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) for more than 10,000 yr, so it is likely that they have evolved anti-parasitic behaviors. We mo...

If differences in ecological requirements result in juvenile birds using different habitats from breeding birds, then habitat management to protect those birds must protect both breeding and post-breeding habitats. We examined habitat selection by juvenile black-capped vireos (Vireo atricapilla) following their independence from parental care, in 2...

1 Anthropogenic alteration of landscapes can affect avian nest success by influencing the abundance, distribution, and behavior of predators. Understanding avian nest predation risk necessitates understanding how landscapes affect predator distribution and behavior. 2 From a sample of 463 nests of 17 songbird species, we evaluated how landscape fea...

Predation is the leading cause of nest failure for most birds. Thus, for ornithologists interested in the causes and consequences of variation in nest success, knowing the identity and understanding the behavior of dominant nest predators is likely to be important. Video documentation of nests has shown that snakes are frequent predators. Here we r...

First-hand observations of predation by Pantherophis alleghaniensis on mammal nests. Correct order of authors: DeGregorio, B.A., S.R. Wendt (Boone), P.J. Weatherhead, J.H. Sperry

Diel activity patterns are often fixed within species such that most animals can be classified as diurnal, crepuscular, or nocturnal, and have sensory abilities that reflect when they are active. However, many snake species appear capable of switching between diurnal and nocturnal activity. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that some species are con...

As wildlife populations decline or disappear, wildlife professionals are using management tools such as translocation to maintain viable populations, often with mixed results. Wild-to-wild translocations are often more successful than when captive animals are released, raising concerns that captivity may have deleterious effects on animals. althoug...

For many amphibian species, particularly those that rely on ephemeral ponds for reproduction, population persistence can be dependent on landscape hydrology with years of suboptimal rainfall resulting in reproductive failure. Therefore, in order to accurately predict population persistence under future climate scenarios, it is necessary to incorpor...

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We evaluated an automated telemetry system that can dramatically increase the amount of activity and spatial data collected for snakes. We developed methods for analyzing data from single automated receiving units (ARUs) and ARU arrays, compared results from ARUs with conventional hand tracking, and assessed previously untested assumptions used in...

Nocturnal activity is important for many animals, but difficulty in documenting that activity has hampered efforts to understand factors that influence when animals are active at night. We used automated radiotelemetry to provide the first detailed tests of the hypothesis that the nocturnal activity of free-ranging snakes should be influenced by te...

Seasonal variation in nest success is well documented for many bird species. Predator behavior has been suggested as a mechanism behind these seasonal patterns, but this hypothesis has received little attention. Here we test the hypothesis that predator behavior produces seasonal patterns of nest success by relating nest success of northern cardina...

Behavioral thermoregulation is expected to be critical in determining the capacity of reptiles to respond to climate warming and how that response will vary with latitude. We used radio-telemetry to compare behavioral thermoregulation among ratsnake (Elaphe obsoleta) populations in Texas, Illinois, and Ontario, a latitudinal distance of >1500km. De...

Most research on the winter ecology of temperate‐zone snakes is restricted to aspects of hibernation, because that is largely how snakes spend the winter. At lower latitudes, however, the same snake species may be active during winter, although why they are active and how much individuals vary in activity is unknown. We used radio‐telemetry data fr...

A recent study of Ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta) in Texas found that adult mortality was higher for females than males, consistent with the cost of reproduction in snakes being higher for females. To determine whether the same pattern prevailed in a northern population of Ratsnakes, we used data collected using radio-telemetry to test several predicti...

The ecology of ectotherms should be particularly affected by latitude because so much of their biology is temperature dependent. Current latitudinal patterns should also be informative about how ectotherms will have to modify their behavior in response to climate change. We used data from a total of 175 adult black ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta) radio...

Brush pile creation is a common habitat management method used to attract wildlife. However, there is a paucity of data regarding effectiveness of brush pile creation and the indirect effects of brush piles on multi-species interactions. Here we document use of man-made brush piles by Texas ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta), examine mechanisms behind tha...

Nest predators can adversely affect the viability of songbird populations, and their impact is exacerbated in fragmented habitats. Despite substantial research on this predator-prey interaction, however, almost all of the focus has been on the birds rather than their nest predators, thereby limiting our understanding of the factors that bring preda...

La serpiente (Elaphe guttata emoryi) es una especie muy poco conocida de la parte central y sur de los Estados Unidos. Capturamos 24 E. g. emoryi en Fort Hood, Texas, durante 3 años y usamos radiotelemetría en cinco serpientes macho adultas para determinar su uso de hábitat y su actividad estacional. Las E. g. emoryi mostraron afinidad hacia estruc...

We compared abundance, daily survival rate, nest site characteristics, food availability, nest activity, and nestling size of Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hymenalis) between burned and unburned mechanically-thinned ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest units. Dark-eyed Junco territory density, number of detections in point counts, and daily nest survi...

Parasites are a health concern of many wildlife species, although their effect on reptiles is poorly studied. Here we examine effects of hemogregarine and external parasites on Texas ratsnake Elaphe obsoleta white blood cell (WBC) concentrations, WBC differentials, heterophil/lymphocyte ratios, packed cell volume (PCV), corticosterone concentration...

Une prédation plus importante des nids d'oiseaux est souvent associée à la fragmentation de l'habitat et à la présence de bordures, mais peu de recherches ont été effectuées dans le but de savoir si ces patrons de prédation résultent de l'utilisation non aléatoire de l'habitat par les prédateurs. En utilisant 2 espèces d'oiseaux menacés, le viréo à...

Sex differences in behavior associated with reproduction often result in sex-biased mortality. Male-biased mortality appears to be the prevalent pattern for birds and mammals, but recent work suggests that higher female mortality may be the norm for snakes, at least for viviparous species. Here we used radio-telemetry to examine sex-biased mortalit...