News Release

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UNC researcher receives $1.5 million grant
to study rare and endangered animals

CHAPEL HILL - Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the North Carolina State, Duke and Virginia Tech universities have received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the federal government to study habitat conservation of rare and threatened animals on and around Fort Bragg, N.C.

Dr. Aaron Moody, associate professor in UNC's geography department in the College of Arts and Sciences, leads the five-year study. He and his team will study the habitat needs of four animals: the red-cockaded woodpecker and a small brown butterfly called the St. Francis' satyr, both considered endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the eastern tiger salamander, a species considered threatened by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission; and the Carolina gopher frog, which is on the state's threatened list and is a "species of concern" to the federal government.

The Department of Defense, which is providing this grant through its Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, funds research on conservation and other topics at military installations around the country, Moody said.

The Defense Department currently obtains conservation easements on lands adjacent to installations where threatened or endangered species live. But, Moody said, "the conservation value of such lands depends on how well these species disperse through them and the degree to which these lands protect habitat and promote 'habitat connectivity'."

This research will identify these animals' habitats by quantifying their movement behavior through observation, experimental release and radio telemetry. The researchers will integrate the animals' behavior with data about the landscape and dispersal models, which will enable the military to more selectively purchase property for conservation, while ensuring that the species' habitats remain contiguous, Moody said.

Several factors make Fort Bragg an ideal study system for this research. For example, it harbors multiple species that are both of conservation concern and for which dispersal is of major importance. Also, the installation contains a dwindling part of long-leaf pine forests, the woodpecker's preferred habitat.

"Long-leaf pine forests once extended almost continuously from southeast Virginia to eastern Texas," Moody said. "Most long-leaf pine forest was harvested for timber, converted to agriculture, cleared for development or ruined by fire suppression. There are scattered bits of the forest type throughout its historic range, but not much, about 3 percent."

The forest exists also on Camp Lejeune. That U.S. Marine Corps facility will be included in the study in 2010.

Dr. Nick Haddad, associate professor of zoology at N.C. State, said the project is an example of how nearby universities can combine resources for research that benefits the management of the area's natural resources.

Other study participants are Dr. Jeff Walters, Harold Bailey Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech; Dr. Bill Morris, associate professor of biology at Duke; and Dr. Larry Crowder, Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke.

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Note: Moody can be reached at (919) 962-5303 or aaronm@email.unc.edu

Photo URLs: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/research/cgf.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/research/ets.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/research/sfs.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/research/RCW1.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/research/longleafpinewoodland.jpg

News Services contact: Clinton Colmenares, (919) 843-1991, clinton_colmenares@unc.edu