Christine Sandbach

USU grad student studying beaver translocation

[Julie K. Young, Ph.D. @DrJulieKYoung]

👀Check out our website page for the Urban Canid Project in Wichita, #Kansas. HUGE thanks to the folks working on urban canids elsewhere who allowed @NFTaraporevala to pick their brains about a reporting page! Check it out & report what you see @TheKDWP https://t.co/9DLCsuagY4

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@LaraIsNatasha @DrJulieKYoung Hi Lara, most beaver translocation projects (at least in the US) aim to release beavers in areas far from urban areas to avoid human conflict. These folks https://t.co/SsdrOwtXfr might be a good starting point for your research. I bet @wildmalves
knows more.

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

(1/6) Beaver translocation is popular for stream restoration projects, but little is known about the factors influencing translocation success. We investigated whether behavioral traits of 🦫 influence survival & site fidelity (staying put) after release. #beavers #AnimBehav2023

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@SarahLJacobson1 Yes, all of the tests we conducted are quick, simple & would be easy to implement. We just recently completed our initial analysis, so no restoration programs are using them yet. Hopefully we will have a publication detailing our results so they can be implemented in the future.

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@GrapeSodaGod In this initial analysis, survival & site fidelity were combined, and we haven't separated them yet. We will explore that question in the future!

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@LaraIsNatasha My labmate Emma Doden has published 2 papers on our study (https://t.co/8eV4nMdZ0x) & (https://t.co/XesQvxIvoM) I'm also happy to discuss more with you if you'd like to message me!

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@asafiyaclay @DrJulieKYoung @phaedrabudy @UtahDWR @USGS @BLMNational @usbr @QCNRUSU All our beavers were released on BLM land far from human settlement. The human interaction test serves as a measure of behavior in novel situations, so my thought is that staying calm in these situations improves survival. We are currently working on more analysis of these data!

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

@Cassie_Raby @DrJulieKYoung @phaedrabudy @UtahDWR @USGS @BLMNational @usbr @QCNRUSU Nonreaction was the most common response (35% of occurrences), with fearful as a close second (34%). Curious made up 20% and aggressive was 11%.

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

(6/6) Special thanks to the TONS of partners, techs, and funders who made this research possible! @DrJulieKYoung @phaedrabudy @UtahDWR @USGS @BLMNational @usbr @QCNRUSU #AnimBehav2023

[Christine Sandbach @CE_Sandbach]

(5/6) What does this mean?

It’s better to be a chill beaver!

We hope that our findings can be used to inform future beaver translocation projects. Behavioral tests may help choose the best beavers for restoration goals! #AnimBehav2023