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Author ORCID Identifiers
Dylan M. Osterhaus:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9044-1090
Description
Avian populations have experienced widespread declines with mortality attributable to a range of factors. Within our study region, cCarcass surveys have been employed to document and quantify avian mortality in both infrastructure-related and non-infrastructure-related scenarios. To improve the accuracy of mortality estimates obtained from carcass surveys, correction factors can be used to control for sources of bias such as the removal of carcasses by scavengers. However, given the differences in how carcasses appear on the landscape between infrastructure-related mortality and non-infrastructure-related mortality events , such as mass avian mortality events, it is possible that estimates of carcass persistence from infrastructure-focused studies may not be relevant for all mortality monitoring. To address this research gap, weWe conducted a study of carcass persistence on White Sands Missile Range in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico, simulating mortality unrelated to infrastructure. We placed and monitored 214 avian carcasses over two seasons, determined how long each carcass persisted prior to being scavenged, and examined the influence of habitat, temporal, and scavenger guild variables using Weibull survival models. We found that 211 of the 214 placed carcasses were scavenged and median persistence time was 1.53 days. Our analysis showed that the null model was the most competitive and the 85% confidence intervals for all predictor variables overlapped zero, indicating none were informative for carcass persistence times. Overall, our findings suggest persistence times in a non-infrastructure related mortality scenario are similar to those associated with infrastructure, underscoring the need to account for rapid scavenger removal when designing mortality monitoring programs.
Document Type
Dataset
Publication Date
2-12-2026
Publisher
New Mexico State University
Keywords
Avian Conservation, Avian Mortality, Carcass Persistence, Carcass Scavenging, Carcass Surveys, Scavengers, Scavenger Removal
Disciplines
Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Department / Organizational Unit
Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Ecology, Department of Biology
Copyright Statement
© Author(s), reuse allowed according to Creative Commons license
License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Funder
White Sands Missile Range, Avian Migration Program at New Mexico State University funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Hispanic Serving Institution Program
Grant / Award Number
UDSA NIFA HSI Award #2022-77040-37638
Recommended Citation
Huycke, Thomas; Osterhaus, Dylan M.; Boland, Kelley C.; Abadi, Fitsum; and Desmond, Martha J., "Data and Code from: Rapid Scavenging of Avian Carcasses in the Desert Southwest: Implications for Mortality Surveys Not Associated with Infrastructure" (2026). Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Ecology: Datasets. 1.
https://digitalcommons.nmsu.edu/fish-wildlife-conservation-data/1
Comments
This dataset includes one R Markdown code file "Carcass Persistence Analysis.Rmd", and a folder named "Data". The code file includes code needed to recreate all analysis and figures included in the associated manuscript. The data file includes all data used by the code file to recreate all analyses and figures included in the associated manuscript. All variables included in the data file are described and defined in the manuscript.