This is year one of a three year project. Water developments have been, and continue to be the primary method to improve habitat and increase distribution and densities of chukar partridge in the western United States, including Utah. Over the years, Utah has installed more than 1,000 water developments for the benefit of various species. Of these, more than 400 have been built specifically with the benefit of chukars as a primary goal. Water developments have been shown to increase survival of adult chukars during dry summers, thereby increasing carry over to hunting season and the subsequent year's breeding population (Larsen 2008, Larsen et al. 2010). Most importantly, however, water developments may primarily benefit chicks, whose water demands are significantly higher than adults. The addition of water developments in otherwise dry areas may increase production and allow for increased success in the raising of broods in areas where they would otherwise fail. Despite the importance of water to chukars and the role it plays in their annual life cycle, very little is known about habitat selection and space-use patterns of this species in relation to available drinking water, water source density, and preferred habitat during the period of water use. Utah is leading the west in management and research of chukars (Alectoris chukar). Projects conducted over the past decade in Utah have dramatically improved our knowledge base concerning the management of this popular game bird. Moreover, knowledge gained from Utah's research efforts in the past decade contributed significantly to the Western States Chukar and Gray Partridge Management Guidelines (Knetter et al 2017). Although much progress has been made in the recent decade, this plan highlights the need to better understand habitat requirements, limiting factors, and seasonal distributions (Larsen et al. 2007, Robinson et al. 2009, Larsen 2008, Larsen et al. 2010). Work over the last decade with remote cameras has greatly informed our understanding of water use patterns by chukars. Analysis of these use patterns has helped develop guidelines to improve water development placement, however, there is not any research looking at brood habitat selection or space-use patterns. Knowledge of preferred brooding habitats and estimates of space use during the brooding period will enable managers to place guzzlers in locations that are preferred by chukars with broods, rather than having chukars move from preferred habitat to visit water sources. In addition, information on daily movement distances and seasonal space-use patterns will provide managers with information on minimum and optimum spacing of water sources. This knowledge will directly guide habitat management efforts for this species and provide needed justification to partner agencies for improving water availability. Increasing chukar range and density provides a direct benefit to hunters via increased opportunity. In Utah, over 6,000 hunters regularly pursue chukars, with significant potential to increase hunter numbers and success. Twenty percent of all upland game hunters pursue chukars each year and survey data suggest they are more satisfied with upland game management in Utah than pheasant hunters (USU, 2006). Chukars and chukar hunting in Utah have great potential to improve recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts because this upland game species can still increase in numbers and distribution. Chukars are especially important as a retention species that provide a continued but abundant challenge with a long season for experienced upland game hunters.

1. Develop detailed guidelines for optimal chukar water source placement and density to improve brood producing and survival. 1a. Evaluate habitat selection by chukars with broods during the summer and fall period when chukar water use is highest. 1b. Estimate space-use patterns (summer/fall home range size) during the water-use period. 2. Identify nest sites and develop methods for effective nest searches.

N/A

Strategic Management Plan for Chukar Partridge: Utah is the second driest state in the United States. Intuitively, it is thought that improved water resource development will create entirely new local Chukar Partridge populations in areas where there is no free or persistent water, and will increase populations in areas where the lack of persistent water sources has suppressed populations. Issues and Concerns: a. Determining Chukar Partridge distribution in Utah. b. Establishing and maintaining Chukar Partridge in Utah. c. Lack of sufficient data (population survey, harvest management strategy) to drive management decisions. Habitat Issues and Concerns: a. Understanding and defining the importance of water to Chukar Partridge in Utah. b. Understanding and defining the importance of wildfires, and the lack of rehabilitative management to re-establish shrubs, grasses and forbs in Chukar Partridge habitats. c. Delineating optimum Utah Chukar Partridge habitats.

N/A

This project will increase the quantity of water available on the landscape and the quality of the water source locations, after the guidelines are developed to indicate best placement and density.

UDWR will consult with federal partners before any actions are taken after the monitoring is complete. UDWR will work with BYU to mark chukars, gather data, and run analyses.

We will capture and mark a minimum of 40 chukar hens at two study sites (target 20 per site) using funnel walk-in traps placed at water sources and or capture via night lighting and netting during the winter prior to breeding. Following capture, chukars will be aged, weighed, sexed, and assessed for overall condition prior to release on site with a GPS data logger with VHF transmitter. Chukars will be marked with GPS-enabled data logging transmitters logging up to one location per hour during daylight hours. Birds/transmitter will need to be relocated and approached within 500 m for data download. Marked chukars will be distributed across two study areas with stable wild populations: 1) an area with relatively high density of water 2) an area with low water source densities. Marking chukars with GPS transmitters in both types of areas will allow us to make comparisons of space use and habitat selection across extremes of water source density. To identify preferred habitat, we will sample habitat at a minimum of 50 use (from the GPS coordinates) and 50 random locations within early (July/August) and late (September/October) brooding periods. Habitat measurements taken at each sampled site will include percent shrub cover (line intercept), percent tree cover (line intercept), slope (clinometer), obscurity measures (cover board or robel pole), distance to steep rocky escape terrain (rangefinder), and composition of understory vegetation (nested frequency or Daubenmire), etc. In the lab, we will use the field-based measurements in conjunction with remote sensing, GIS, and geostatistical analyses to model preferred brood habitat in relation to habitat variables across areas with very different water source densities. We will calculate estimates of space use using kernel densities or Browian Bridge Movement Models depending on data availability and frequency of fixes. Once estimates of space use are developed for each individual chukar, we will assess differences between areas using a linear model. In order to identify preferred habitat, we will use a resource selection function at both the 2nd and 3rd order (population level and within each individuals home range; Johnson 1980). Habitat variables will comprise the explanatory variables in mixed-effects models where use (coded as a 1) is compared to random (use-availability design; binomial distribution). We expect to incorporate a random effect for bird ID and fixed-effect of area along with habitat variables. We will follow best practices for model development and comparison using an information-theoretic approach and use of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) adjusted for small sample sizes (AICc) (Akaike 1973, Burnham and Anderson 2002). In the event of model-selection uncertainty, we will use model averaging for our inference (Burnham and Anderson 2002). Any recovered transmitters will returned to UDWR for reuse on this or other projects.

This project serves to monitor the chukar populations to assist in establishing best practices regarding water development and placement.

Brigham Young University Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Utah Chukar and Wildlife Foundation Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife

The results of this monitoring effort will ultimately shape the future of water developments for chukars, habitat projects targeting summer and fall ranges, estimating space-use patterns of chukars, and identifying nests and developing methods for effective nest searches.

Bolstering the chukar populations throughout Utah will result in increasing chukar range and density; this provides a direct benefit to hunters and recreational economies via increased hunting opportunity. In Utah, over 6,000 hunters regularly pursue chukars, with significant potential to increase hunter numbers and success. Twenty percent of all upland game hunters pursue chukars each year and survey data suggest they are more satisfied with upland game management in Utah than pheasant hunters (USU, 2006). Chukars and chukar hunting in Utah have great potential to improve recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts because this upland game species can still increase in numbers and distribution. Chukars are especially important as a retention species that provide a continued but abundant challenge with a long season for experienced upland game hunters.

07/01/2022

06/30/2023

2023

We utilized two different capture methods to capture wild chukar in the Utah West Desert. The method we primarily utilized is referred to in the literature as the "Utah funnel trap method" which relies on placing a wire cage over or blocking a guzzler that is frequented by chukar partridge. A wire funnel serves to allow the birds into the cage, but often results in birds remaining in the cage for a short period of time. A second experimental method was tested and utilized that employed a captive "Judas bird" that called out to wild birds to draw them in. The Judas bird was held in a wire cage and surrounded by leg-noose carpets. Adult birds were gendered according to their weight and shank length, checked for a brood patch, and banded. Female adults additionally received a 12g Geotrak PTT GPS transmitter in most instances. Transmitters were placed on the back of the birds and attached using a backpack style. Reconyx wildlife cameras were additionally placed on guzzlers and water sources within the study site. They were placed close to the water source and at a low profile to target capturing images of chukar partridge. The settings were set to take pictures when motion was detected, two at a time with a quiet period of 5 minutes. Study Site Selection In a meeting in March 2023 conducted with BYU professor Randy Larsen, graduate student Jake Barnes, Division of Wildlife Resource employees Heather Talley, Avery Cook and Jason Robison it was determined that the study site will be comprised of the Fish Springs Mountain Range, Dugway Mountain Range and Thomas Mountain Range. The Fish Springs Range will serve as a reference site for an area with a low amount of artificial water sources accessible to chukar, while the Dugway and Thomas Ranges will serve as an area with a high concentration of artificial water sources.

Chukars had previously been captured within the field site in small numbers to verify that using a GPS transmitter would not seriously impact or inhibit the behavior and survival of chukar. Individuals equipped with a GPS transmitter appeared to survive at rates higher than expected in pilot tests. While most of the chukars with transmitters from 2022 and 2021. had died prior to the calendar year, 3 transmitters were recovered from birds that died in January in the months of February-March. Two of the recovered transmitters were from birds that were predated, but the third transmitter was recovered from a whole carcass chukar. Due to concerns of avian influenza spreading to chukar populations within the state this chukar carcass was sent to Spanish Fork to receive a lab necropsy. The report from the lab showed that the carcass did not have evidence of avian influenza and cause of death was likely starvation. We decided that moving forward if whole carcasses were recovered from a marked bird we will also seek to test for any liver or bone lead to test for lead poisoning as a cause of mortality. Past research has revealed that chukar often swallow lead BBs to aid in the crushing of food within the gizzard. Efforts during the months of March-April were largely spent visiting and getting familiar with the study site, locating chukar coveys within the field site, constructing traps, and researching and preparing for the summer field season. Poultry feed and game cameras were placed in a few areas known to have chukar in an effort to try to bait in chukar. This proved unsuccessful. Spring Captures Chukar researchers have struggled to conduct chukar captures outside of summer months and away from water sources. Multiple methods have been attempted to capture chukars such as baiting and spotlighting, but the only temporally efficient method for captures relies on placing funnel traps over guzzlers and other water sources during periods of water usage by chukars. This "watering period" is usually restricted to June-September, when temperatures peak in Utah. Because chukar partridge are not a long-lived species and have a low survival from year to year, data from transmitters is often lacking or minimal during winter and spring months due to low numbers of chukar surviving into that period from the previous summer's captures. The ability to capture chukar in winter or spring months, as well as having the flexibility to conduct captures away from a water source could prove significant for a number of reasons. We sought to develop a new method of capture that would allow for chukars to be trapped at any inhabited location (not dependent on being located on a water source). We constructed leg noose carpets similar to those used to capture American Oystercatchers by tying leg nooses made from fishing line to sheets of hardware cloth. Four carpet mats were placed around a wire cage that housed a live chukar in areas where chukars were observed and were known to frequent. We sought to use the live bird as a Judas bird that would call in wild chukar individuals who would approach the captive bird and snare their leg in a leg noose. We tested out this methodology in May and were successful. To fully understand the efficacy of this method and improve success further study and experimentation will be required, but results were encouraging. The most common problem we ran into with this capture method was lack of calling from the Judas bird. Later research revealed that covering the transport cage of the decoy bird along with utilizing the same individual bird and giving it practice and experiences acclimatizing to new environments would likely aid in making a decoy bird comfortable enough to call. Summer Captures Beginning in late June as chukar began to utilize guzzlers frequently, we began summer trapping. We utilized what is referred to in the literature as the Utah funnel trap. Throughout our captures on water sources prior to July 1, 2023 we captured 4 female adult chukars. Each adult caught had a brood patch and was captured with downy young. Each adult was gendered by obtaining a shank measurement and weight and given a leg band. Recaptured birds were checked for abrasions and irritation from the transmitter and transmitter straps, but little to no abrasions were observed. No injuries were observed from placing bands on chukar as well. Water Source Monitoring In addition to collecting data from GPS transmitters, we also sought to monitor water sources within our field site. We placed motion sensing game cameras on 25 different guzzlers throughout the Fish Springs, Dugway and Thomas Ranges. Most cameras were placed in early June so as to capture the first utilization of water sources of chukar in each area and were continuing to capture photos at the time of this report. These game cameras were spread between 6 springs and 5 guzzlers, most of which have historically had some amount of chukar activity. Pictures received from these water sources will serve to provide additional information on the current chukar population of the area, population trends, recruitment, etc. We did not conduct any captures on Keg Mountain.

We will seek to quickly recover GPS transmitters after a mortality to assess cause of death. This data will be recorded and tracked and could potentially be used for survival analyses. When transmitters are recovered from mortalities, we will seek to capture new individuals as soon as possible to place transmitters back out to continue collecting spatial data. We will be obtaining GPS coordinates from all transmitters. We will seek to make maps using ArcGIS as well as create models using Rstudio that specifically analyze habitat and spatial use during the brood period. We will seek to better understand the habitat that is selected both for and against by chukar partridge during this period in an effort to better understand where to place future guzzlers and water projects targeted for chukar use. Our spatial analysis will likely not be limited to brood locations in relation to artificial water sources, but this will be the primary focus. As the study continues, we may seek to interpret spatial datasets to understand other ecological concepts. In addition to gathering spatial data, we will seek to gather information from the game cameras placed on guzzlers and springs. Banded and transmitted birds will be able to serve as markers to reveal how often specific individuals are visiting water sources, if they are visiting one or multiple water sources through the watering period, if individuals have periods of nonuse, changes in covey composition, etc.