Criticisms biologically unwarranted and analytically irrelevant: Reply to Rominger et al.

Journal of Wildlife Management
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Abstract

The criticisms of Rominger et al. (2008) of our retrospective analysis of desert bighorn sheep (DBS; Ovis canadensis mexicana) dynamics in the San Andres Mountains of south-central New Mexico, USA, contained many biological errors and analytical oversights. Herein, we show that Rominger et al. (2008) 1) overstated both magnitude and potential effect of predator removal; 2) incorrectly claimed that our total precipitation (TP) model did not fit the data when TP correctly classed ???66 of subsequent population increases and declines (P ??? 0.063); 3) presented a necessary prerequisite of the exponential model (serial correlation between Nt and Nt1) as the key relationship in the DBS data, when it merely reflected that DBS are strongly K-selected and was irrelevant to our hypothesis tests specific to factors affecting the instantaneous rate of population increase (r); 4) greatly oversimplified relationships among precipitation, arid environments, and DBS; and 5) advocated a time for collection of lamb/female (L/F) ratio data that was unrelated to any meaningful period in the biological year of DBS and consequently presented L/F ratio data unrelated to observed dynamics of DBS. In contrast, the L/F ratios used in Bender and Weisenberger (2005) correctly predicted annual changes and were correlated with long-term population rates of change.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Criticisms biologically unwarranted and analytically irrelevant: Reply to Rominger et al.
Series title Journal of Wildlife Management
DOI 10.2193/2008-219
Volume 73
Issue 5
Year Published 2009
Language English
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Journal of Wildlife Management
First page 806
Last page 810
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