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2005

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

High-Resolution Ocean Color Remote Sensing Of Benthic Habitats: A Case Study At The Roatan Island, Honduras, Deepak R. Mishra, Sunil G. Narumalani, Donald Rundquist, Merlin P. Lawson Jan 2005

High-Resolution Ocean Color Remote Sensing Of Benthic Habitats: A Case Study At The Roatan Island, Honduras, Deepak R. Mishra, Sunil G. Narumalani, Donald Rundquist, Merlin P. Lawson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Natural resource managers clamor for detailed reef habitat maps for monitoring smaller scale disturbances in reef communities. Coastal ocean color remote sensing techniques permit benthic habitats to be explored with higher resolution than ever before. The objective of this research was to develop an accurate benthic habitat map for an area off the northwest coast of Roatan Island, Honduras, using high-resolution multispectral IKONOS data. Atmospheric (Rayleigh and aerosol path radiance) and water column corrections (water depth and water column attenuation) were applied to the imagery, making it a robust method for mapping benthic habitats. Water depth for each pixel was …


Blackhat Fingerprinting Of The Wired And Wireless Honeynet, Suen Yek Jan 2005

Blackhat Fingerprinting Of The Wired And Wireless Honeynet, Suen Yek

Research outputs pre 2011

TCP/IP fingerprinting is a common technique used to detect unique network stack characteristics of an Operating System (OS) . Its usage for network compromise is renowned for performing host discovery and in aiding the blackhat to determine a tailored exploit of detected OSs. The honeyd honeynet is able to countermeasure blackhats utilising TCP/IP fingerprinting via host device emulation on a virtual network. Honeyd allows the creation of host personalities that respond to network stack fingerprinting as a real network would. The nature of this technique however, has shown to provide inconsistent and unreliable results when performed over wired and wireless …


How To Build A Faraday On The Cheap For Wireless Security Testing, Suen Yek Jan 2005

How To Build A Faraday On The Cheap For Wireless Security Testing, Suen Yek

Research outputs pre 2011

The commonly known security weaknesses associated with the 802.11b wireless standard have introduced a variety of security measures to countermeasure attacks. Using a wireless honeypot, a fake wireless network may be configured through emulation of devices and the TCP/IP fingerprinting of OS network stacks. TCP/IP fingerprinting is one of the most popular methods employed to determine the type of OS running on a target and this information can then be used to determine the type of vulnerabilities to target on the host. Testing the effectiveness of this technique to ensure that a wireless honeypot using honeyd may deceive an attacker …


Artificial Neural Networks : A Comparative Study Of Implementations For Human Chromosome Classification, Nancy Akl Jan 2005

Artificial Neural Networks : A Comparative Study Of Implementations For Human Chromosome Classification, Nancy Akl

Theses : Honours

Artificial neural networks are a popular field of artificial intelligence and have commonly been applied to solve many prediction, classification and diagnostic tasks. One such task is the analysis of human chromosomes. This thesis investigates the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) as automated chromosome classifiers. The investigation involves the thorough analysis of seven different implementation techniques. These include three techniques using artificial neural networks, two techniques using ANN s supported by another method and two techniques not using ANNs. These seven implementations are evaluated according to the classification accuracy achieved and according to their support of important system measures, …


End User Preference Of Customisable Features Within A Course Management System, Diana Taylor Jan 2005

End User Preference Of Customisable Features Within A Course Management System, Diana Taylor

Theses : Honours

Customisation is the means by which people alter and change various elements of their environment with the purpose of making it more suited to their immediate needs. This aids in creating a more personalised experience. People are extremely diverse in terms of age, gender, nationality, and with the dominant presence of technology people also have various levels of computer skills and experience. In the context of computer environments, customisation provides the ability to cater for a diverse user group, providing tools and options that assist with specific tasks, improve accessibility and achieve greater user satisfaction. Carter, MacLean, Lovstard & Moran …


A Portable Traveler's Weblog, Feng-Chun Lung Jan 2005

A Portable Traveler's Weblog, Feng-Chun Lung

Theses Digitization Project

This project is a web based application tha provides a friendly and simple interface to let users easily record and modify their travel experiences anytime or anywhere.


Two Purified Domains Of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Reconstitute Sequence-Specific Interactions With Rna, C. M. O'Connor, Cary K. Lai, Kathleen Collins Jan 2005

Two Purified Domains Of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Reconstitute Sequence-Specific Interactions With Rna, C. M. O'Connor, Cary K. Lai, Kathleen Collins

Biology Faculty Publications

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and telomerase RNA (TER) function together to create a uniquely specialized polymerase. Here we have described for the first time domains of bacterially expressed Tetrahymena TERT that interacted directly with TER in the absence of assembly chaperones. We used quantitative binding assays to define TER sequence requirements for recognition by the high affinity RNA binding domain and an independent N-terminal RNA interaction domain. The TERT RNA binding domain and N-terminal RNA interaction domain had distinct, nonoverlapping requirements for TER sequence and structure that together accounted for all of the sites of TER contact inferred for full-length …


Smart Card Authentication For Mobile Devices, Wayne Jansen, Serban Gavrila, Clément Séveillac Jan 2005

Smart Card Authentication For Mobile Devices, Wayne Jansen, Serban Gavrila, Clément Séveillac

Research outputs pre 2011

While mobile handheld devices provide productivity benefits, they also pose new risks. User authentication is the best safeguard against the risk of unauthorized use and access to a device’s contents. This paper describes two novel types of smart card with unconventional form factors, designed to take advantage of common interfaces built into many current handheld devices.


Refuge Update – January/February 2005, Volume 2, Number 1 Jan 2005

Refuge Update – January/February 2005, Volume 2, Number 1

RefugeUpdate (USFWS-NWRS)

Table of Contents:

Dozen Students Awarded Centennial Scholarships
Focus on . . . Science in the Refuge System
Wildlife Refuge: Tourism Hot Spot
Seeking to Save the Sparrows


Monitoring Temporal Change In Riparian Vegetation Of Great Basin National Park, E. A. Beever, D. A. Pyke, J. C. Chambers, F. Landau, S. D. Smith, K. Murray Jan 2005

Monitoring Temporal Change In Riparian Vegetation Of Great Basin National Park, E. A. Beever, D. A. Pyke, J. C. Chambers, F. Landau, S. D. Smith, K. Murray

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Disturbance in riparian areas of semiarid ecosystems involves complex interactions of pulsed hydrologic flows, herbivory, fire, climatic effects, and anthropogenic influences. We resampled riparian vegetation within ten 10-m × 100-m plots that were initially sampled in 1992 in 4 watersheds of the Snake Range, east central Nevada. Our finding of significantly lower coverage of grasses, forbs, and shrubs within plots in 2001 compared with 1992 was not consistent with the management decision to remove livestock grazing from the watersheds in 1999. Change over time in cover of life-forms or bare ground was not predicted by scat counts within plots in …


Challenges Of Invasive Reptiles And Amphibians, William Pitt, Daniel Vice, Mike Pitzler Jan 2005

Challenges Of Invasive Reptiles And Amphibians, William Pitt, Daniel Vice, Mike Pitzler

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Although worldwide distributions of many amphibians and reptiles are declining, a handful of species are spreading rapidly throughout tropical regions of the world. The species that have the greatest effect tend to be generalist feeders, have high reproductive rates, attain large population sizes, and often due to their behavior and or small size, are easily transported or are difficult to detect. The most notable of these species include the coqui frog, cane toad, bullfrog, brown tree snake, and Burmese pythons. The effect of a few individuals typically is small but the combined effect of large populations can be devastating to …


Feral And Introduced Carnivores: Issues And Challenges, Gary Witmer, Bernice Constantin, Frank Boyd Jan 2005

Feral And Introduced Carnivores: Issues And Challenges, Gary Witmer, Bernice Constantin, Frank Boyd

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Feral and invasive carnivores have been intentionally or unintentionally introduced to many parts of the world for a variety of reasons. Once established, they have often caused significant impacts to endemic species because of their predatory nature and, in numerous cases, have altered ecosystem structure and function in important conservation areas. They can also cause competition for native predators, hybridization with native species, losses to livestock and companion animals, and disease hazards. We provide examples of the extent of introductions, resulting impacts, and efforts to control or eradicate these populations. Working with introduced or feral carnivores presents many challenges to …


Alien Birds In North America – Challenges For Wildlife Managers, Michael L. Avery, Eric A. Tillman Jan 2005

Alien Birds In North America – Challenges For Wildlife Managers, Michael L. Avery, Eric A. Tillman

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

In Executive Order 13112 “Invasive Species”, an alien species is defined as one “that is not native” to a particular ecosystem. In North America today, there are nearly 100 alien bird species with self-sustaining populations. These include numerous game birds (primarily gallinaceous birds) and escaped pet birds (primarily psittacine species). Others, such as house sparrows (Passer domesticus), European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and mute swan (Cygnus olor), were originally introduced for aesthetic reasons or to control agricultural insect pests. The establishment of alien bird populations through purposeful or accidental introductions has resulted in numerous problems …


Overview Of Impacts Of Feral And Introduced Ungulates On The Environment In The Eastern United States And Caribbean, Martin Lowney, Paul Schoenfeld, William Haglan, Gary Witmer Jan 2005

Overview Of Impacts Of Feral And Introduced Ungulates On The Environment In The Eastern United States And Caribbean, Martin Lowney, Paul Schoenfeld, William Haglan, Gary Witmer

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Non-native wild and feral ungulates have been introduced throughout the world for many centuries. Often the reasons for introductions were narrow in scope and benefits or the ungulates escaped or were released. Justifications for some introductions have included providing hunting opportunity, meeting cultural and dietary needs of people, fund raising, and aesthetics. Evaluations about the impacts to the environment, native wildlife, livestock, and people were most likely looked at in a narrow prism or not fully evaluated. Ungulates commonly introduced in the Eastern United States and Caribbean islands over the last 150 years included white-tailed deer, sika deer, hogs, horses, …


Management Of Wolf-Livestock Conflicts In Minnesota, William Paul Jan 2005

Management Of Wolf-Livestock Conflicts In Minnesota, William Paul

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

In 1975, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) population in Minnesota was protected by the federal Endangered Species Act (USA). At that time, there were 500-750 wolves. By 2004, the population had grown to an estimated 3,020 wolves. Over time, conflicts between wolves and livestock increased. Wolf depredation control programs have been conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1975-1986) and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program (1986 to present). In 1978, Minnesota’s wolves were reclassified from endangered to threatened which allowed authorized federal agents to lethally remove wolves that had depredated on livestock or …


The Role Of Raccoons In The Ecology Of Bovine Tuberculosis, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Holly Smith, Justin Stevenson Jan 2005

The Role Of Raccoons In The Ecology Of Bovine Tuberculosis, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Holly Smith, Justin Stevenson

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Bovine tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial disease that has had significant socioeconomic impacts on the region of northern lower Michigan. The role raccoons may play in the ecology and maintenance of the disease on farms in the core disease is unknown. Preliminary results of 61 radio collared raccoons have yielded a better understanding of raccoon movement and habitat use within an agricultural complex. Preliminary analysis of raccoons suggests annual home range sizes of .824 km2 and .608 km2 for males and females, respectively. Additionally raccoons and cattle have been documented at resource interfaces, further illustrating the potential for …


Taking An Endemically Infected Bovine Tb Area Through To Livestock Clearance. A Case Study Of West Taupo, New Zealand, Kevin Nicholas Jan 2005

Taking An Endemically Infected Bovine Tb Area Through To Livestock Clearance. A Case Study Of West Taupo, New Zealand, Kevin Nicholas

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

The Pest Management Strategy for Bovine Tuberculosis (Tb) in New Zealand aims to achieve efficient freedom from Tb by 2013 and to eradicate the disease from livestock and wildlife. The West Taupo area, in the central North Island of New Zealand, was chronically infected with Tb in both domestic livestock herds (cattle and deer) and within wildlife populations (brushtail possum, ferret, feral deer and pigs). Through the development and implementation of a technically innovative management plan, this area is now approaching Tb free status. The case study / management plan reported here discusses the operational techniques and strategies that were …


Fence-Line Interactions Among Farmed And Free-Ranging Cervids: Preliminary Results, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Justin Fischer, Robert Pooler, Michael J. Lavelle, Greg Phillips Jan 2005

Fence-Line Interactions Among Farmed And Free-Ranging Cervids: Preliminary Results, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Justin Fischer, Robert Pooler, Michael J. Lavelle, Greg Phillips

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Occurrences of disease outbreaks within and near captive cervid (mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni)) farms have recently drawn attention to these facilities. Some state wildlife and agricultural agencies have pondered making double fencing mandatory or otherwise increasing regulation of captive operations. Diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Bovine Tuberculosis (bovine TB) are a threat to captive and free-ranging cervid populations. Concerns over these and other diseases being transmitted from captive to wild cervids, and vice versa, have increased. In most cases, captive …


Preliminary Serologic Survey Of Selected Diseases And Movements Of Feral Swine In Texas, A. Christy Wykoff, Scott Henke, Tyler Campbell, David G. Hewitt, Kurt C. Vercauteren Jan 2005

Preliminary Serologic Survey Of Selected Diseases And Movements Of Feral Swine In Texas, A. Christy Wykoff, Scott Henke, Tyler Campbell, David G. Hewitt, Kurt C. Vercauteren

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) populations occur throughout eastern, central, and southern Texas, and their populations appear to be increasing. Despite their abundance and wide distribution, little is known about their range and interaction with domestic animals. In the last decade the national pork production industry has enforced an eradication program for economically detrimental swine diseases such as pseudorabies and brucellosis. It is hypothesized that feral hogs can be reservoirs that could reintroduce diseases to disease-free domestic swine herds. The objectives of this on-going project are to determine the prevalence of selected swine diseases that exist within feral hog …


The Eradication Of Bovine Tuberculosis From Infected Wildlife Populations: A New Zealand Scenario, Gary J. E. Knowles, Mark Hunter, Amy Rush Jan 2005

The Eradication Of Bovine Tuberculosis From Infected Wildlife Populations: A New Zealand Scenario, Gary J. E. Knowles, Mark Hunter, Amy Rush

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

The Animal Health Board (AHB) is the agency responsible for controlling bovine tuberculosis (Tb) in New Zealand. In 2000, the AHB embarked on a strategy designed to reduce the annual period prevalence of Tb infected cattle and farmed deer herds from 1.67% to 0.2% by 2012/13. Under current rules of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) this would allow New Zealand to claim freedom from Tb. The epidemiology of Tb in New Zealand is largely influenced by wildlife reservoirs of infection and control of Tb vector populations is central to the elimination of Tb from New Zealand’s cattle and deer …


Estimating Drc-1339 Mortality Using Bioenergetics: A Case Study Of European Starlings, H. Jeffrey Homan, Randal S. Stahl, John Johnston, George M. Linz Jan 2005

Estimating Drc-1339 Mortality Using Bioenergetics: A Case Study Of European Starlings, H. Jeffrey Homan, Randal S. Stahl, John Johnston, George M. Linz

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

We developed a bioenergetics model for European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) that estimated mortality from baitings with CU Bird Carrier pellets treated with 1% DRC-1339 Concentrate and diluted 5:1 (untreated:treated pellets). A bioenergetic analysis of heat and radiative energy exchanges between the starling body surface and surrounding environment was converted to daily caloric demand based on a steady-state energy balance. The amount of Bird Carrier eaten per starling was governed by subroutines in the model that used probability distributions to simulate variability in dietary intake at the bait site. Mortality was estimated through dose-response regression analysis. Compared to onsite …


Development Of Diazacon™ As An Avian Contraceptive, Christi Yoder, Kimberly Bynum, Lowell Miller Jan 2005

Development Of Diazacon™ As An Avian Contraceptive, Christi Yoder, Kimberly Bynum, Lowell Miller

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Due to increasing human-wildlife conflicts with birds and growing opposition to lethal techniques, nonlethal methods need to be developed to help manage bird populations. DiazaCon™ is a promising oral contraceptive that acts by directly inhibiting the conversion of desmosterol to cholesterol. Because cholesterol is essential for the production of the steroid reproductive hormones testosterone, progesterone, and estradiol, DiazaCon™ also indirectly inhibits the formation of these hormones. These hormones are essential for sperm and egg production, and the production of egg yolk precursors in the liver. Because DiazaCon™ is cleared slowly from the liver, its contraceptive effects are long-lasting. Initial research …


Effectiveness Of Milorganite® As A Repellent To Protect Ornamental And Agronomic Plants From Deer Over-Browsing, Odin Stephens, Michael Mengak, George Gallagher, David Osborn, Karl Miller Jan 2005

Effectiveness Of Milorganite® As A Repellent To Protect Ornamental And Agronomic Plants From Deer Over-Browsing, Odin Stephens, Michael Mengak, George Gallagher, David Osborn, Karl Miller

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

When deer populations become locally overabundant, browsing of ornamental and agronomic plants negatively affects plant establishment, survival, and productivity. Milorganite® is a slow-release, organic fertilizer produced from human sewage. We tested Milorganite® as a deer repellent on chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemums morifolium) in an urban/suburban environment, and soybeans (Gycine max) in a rural agriculture environment. Six beds of chrysanthemums at two sites were monitored for 28 to 35 days. Treatment plants received a top dressing of 104 grams of Milorganite® (1120.9 kg/ha). Milorganite® treated plants had more (P < 0.001) terminal buds and achieved greater height (P < 0.002) compared to controls at one site, however damage observed was similar at the second site. In a second experiment, 0.2-ha plots of soybeans (Glycine max) were planted on five rural properties in …


Initial Development Of A Web-Based Tool To Increase Hunter Harvest Of Female Ungulates, James Knight, Marc Kenyon, Linda Keddington Jan 2005

Initial Development Of A Web-Based Tool To Increase Hunter Harvest Of Female Ungulates, James Knight, Marc Kenyon, Linda Keddington

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Landowners and agencies have expressed difficulty finding hunters willing to harvest the female portion of the ungulate populations, and likewise, hunters have expressed difficulty achieving access to private lands. Since 2003, the Montana “DoeCowHunt” website (www.doecowhunt.montana.edu) has provided an avenue to improve hunter-landowner contact and wild ungulate population management. A product of Montana State University Extension Wildlife Program, this website provides a means for hunters and landowners in Montana to contact each other by listing contact information (email address, physical address, and telephone number) for the purpose of harvesting antlerless ungulates. In the first year over 10,000 users visited the …


Use Of Confined Dogs For Reducing Deer Damage To Apple Orchards, Paul D. Curtis, Regina Rieckenberg Jan 2005

Use Of Confined Dogs For Reducing Deer Damage To Apple Orchards, Paul D. Curtis, Regina Rieckenberg

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

We assessed the efficacy of free-ranging dogs, confined by buried fences and electronic collars, for reducing deer damage to apple trees in three commercial apple orchards in Oswego County, New York State. During 1995 and 1996, we monitored paired dog-protected and control plots in each orchard. Within dog-protected areas, the percentage of damaged buds was lower, and fruit yield was higher in both 1995 and 1996 than for control plots. Gross economic returns were higher from dog-protected than control plots in both 1995 (by 51%) and 1996 (by 184%). After two seasons of growth, trees planted in May 1995 had …


Thermal Imaging Applications In Urban Deer Control, Earl Hodnett Jan 2005

Thermal Imaging Applications In Urban Deer Control, Earl Hodnett

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Control of burgeoning populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is a challenging endeavor under the best of circumstances. The challenge is further complicated when control programs are attempted within an urban or suburban area. Wildlife managers often consider management techniques and equipment which have a proven track record. New challenges require new and innovative techniques. The deer management program in Fairfax County, Virginia has employed thermal imaging technology in a variety of ways to better address these unique challenges. In addition to the more commonly used aircraft-mounted FLIR (forward looking infrared), this program utilizes vehicle-mounted and hand-held thermal …


Wildlife Damage To Seedlings In Reforested Hardwood Sites In Mississippi, Amy Barras, Jeanne Jones, Dale L. Nolte, Curtis Culpepper, Lawrence Shearer, Jarrod Fogarty Jan 2005

Wildlife Damage To Seedlings In Reforested Hardwood Sites In Mississippi, Amy Barras, Jeanne Jones, Dale L. Nolte, Curtis Culpepper, Lawrence Shearer, Jarrod Fogarty

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Herbivory assessments were conducted on seven reforested sites that were less than one year old in the following Mississippi counties: Bolivar, Leflore, and Attala. At each site, 100ft. x 100 ft. plots were established and randomly selected seedlings were marked and measured to determine seedling species, height, condition, survival, and type and extent of animal feeding sign. Surveys were conducted in March/April, May, and August 2004. Herbivory rates were highest during May with approximately 47% of seedlings showing signs of herbivory. In March/April and August, the percentage of seedlings exhibiting signs of herbivory was 37% and 30%, respectively. Foraging by …


Evaluation Of Livestock Protection Dogs For Deterring Deer And Cattle Interaction, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Greggory Phillips, Robert Pooler, Michael J. Lavelle Jan 2005

Evaluation Of Livestock Protection Dogs For Deterring Deer And Cattle Interaction, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Greggory Phillips, Robert Pooler, Michael J. Lavelle

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Bovine Tuberculosis (bovine TB) in northern Michigan has proven a dilemma necessitating aggressive measures including depopulation of livestock operations, culling of wildlife, banning the feeding of wildlife, and fencing livestock feed with high fences. Bovine TB is believed to be transmitted from white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to domestic cattle through feces, urine, saliva, and nasal secretions on contaminated feed (indirect transmission) and from animal to animal (direct transmission). Effective methods for excluding deer from cattle enclosures would minimize the potential for indirect and direct transmission of bovine TB between infected deer and cattle. We combined an idea used …


Hunters----Can They Do The Job?, Paul D. Curtis, David Drake, Jody Enck, Gary San Julian, David Taylor Jan 2005

Hunters----Can They Do The Job?, Paul D. Curtis, David Drake, Jody Enck, Gary San Julian, David Taylor

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Management of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herds at the landscape scale is increasingly difficult. The future of eastern hardwood forests is threatened by inadequate regeneration of valuable timber species, due in large measure to deer browsing. In the northeast, deer damage to crops, landscaping, and vehicles costs more than 640 million dollars annually. Nationally, hunter ranks are decreasing. In the east , white-tailed deer numbers are increasing; state wildlife agencies have expanded season lengths, and increased deer bag limits. While venison is still a highly prized meat, the average hunting family wants to use about 2 deer per …


Nutria: An Invasive Rodent Pest Or Valued Resource?, Susan Jojola, Gary W. Witmer, Dale Nolte Jan 2005

Nutria: An Invasive Rodent Pest Or Valued Resource?, Susan Jojola, Gary W. Witmer, Dale Nolte

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Nutria or coypu (Myocastor coypus), semi-aquatic rodents native to southern South America, are an invasive species having detrimental impacts mainly in the southern and eastern United States. Nutria were introduced into the U.S. in 1899 for fur farming and became established in several states. Nutria dispersals resulted primarily from releases by fur farmers, escapes during hurricanes or rising floodwaters, or as translocations in an attempt to control nuisance aquatic vegetation. The ravenous appetite of these herbivores can cause damage to agricultural crops and aquatic vegetation, and can alter aquatic ecosystems. Their burrowing habits can weaken irrigation structures and …