Robb S. A. Kaler

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Alaska’s Changing Environment 2.0 highlights environmental changes and extremes that impact Alaskans lives and livelihoods. The report provides people with timely, reliable and understandable information on topics ranging from temperature and precipitation changes to salmon and polar bears. The report was led by the Alaska Center for Climate Asses...

Rapid warming due to human-caused climate change is reshaping the Arctic, enhanced by physical processes that cause the Arctic to warm more quickly than the global average, collectively called Arctic amplification. Observations over the past 40+ years show a transition to a wetter Arctic, with seasonal shifts and widespread disturbances influencing...

About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality. Thr...

The Kittlitz’s murrelet Brachyramphus brevirostris is a small, noncolonial seabird endemic to marine waters of Alaska and eastern Russia that may have experienced significant population decline in recent decades, in part because of low reproductive success and terrestrial threats. Although recent studies have shed new light on Kittlitz’s murrelet n...

Island populations and populations established by reintroductions are prone to extinction, in part because they are vulnerable to deterministic and stochastic phenomena associated with geographic isolation and small population size. As population size declines, reduced genetic diversity can result in decreased fitness and reduced adaptive potential...

Monitoring wildlife populations often involves intensive survey efforts to attain reliable estimates of population size. Such efforts can increase disturbance to animals, alter detection, and bias population estimates. Burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) are declining across western North America, and information on the relative effects of potentia...

We developed procedures for successful capture, holding, transport, and release of ptarmigan (Lagopus spp.) based on field work in Colorado and Alaska during the last four decades. Use of improved translocation protocols led to successful establishment of new popula-tions of White-tailed Ptarmigan (L. leucura) in four states, and reintroduction of...

Abstract. Evermann’s Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta evermanni) are endemic to the Near Islands of the western Aleutian Archipelago, Alaska, but introductions of nonnative arctic foxes extirpated ptarmigan from all islands except Attu Island. Fox removals were completed at Agattu Island in 1979 but natural recolonization did not occur, and 75 ptarmiga...

We report results of a 4-year translocation effort to reestablish a breeding population of Evermann’s Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta evermanni) in the Near Islands group of the western Aleutian Archipelago. Habitat restoration was completed by eradication of introduced foxes from Agattu Island by 1979. We captured and moved 75 ptarmigan from Attu Isl...

The Kittlitz's Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a poorly-known species of alcid and a seabird of conservation concern. Nesting murrelets were discovered at Agattu Island in the western Aleutian Islands, and a field study provided new information on nest site selection, chick growth rates and reproductive success. Twelve ground nests were lo...

Translocations are a useful management tool for restoring wildlife species to their native ranges, but require post-release monitoring to determine project success. We report results of a 4-year effort to reestablish a breeding population of Evermann's Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus evermanni) on Agattu Island in the Aleutian Archipelago, Alaska. Th...