Research

About | Zone 6 Marbled Murrelet Landscape Management Plan | Research | Keep it Crumb Clean Campaign | Forestry Management |

The finding of the first marbled murrelet nest in Big Basin during the summer of 1974 was the start of many murrelet related studies and management actions. First, a version of what we now call Audio Visual Surveys were done in different areas and expanded to include surveys At-Sea and Radar at river mouths. Eventually as predators and their potentially significant impact was known we also began surveying Corvids such as the Steller’s Jay, Ravens and Crows, more recently Peregrine falcons.

The Landscape Management Plan includes a summary of all significant Audio Visual (AV) surveys history in Table 2-7. The surveys completed on State Parks are available below.

Additional information about the marbled murrelet can be found on the California Department of Fish and Wildlifes BIOS page. Click on the BIOS Viewer (Public & Secure) link, type marbled murrelet into the pages search bar and you can seemaps of critical habitat map, predicted habitat and range. Murrelet occurrences are available through CNDDB/RareFind (available to the public with a subscription). RareFind allows you to query specific species occurrences.

Murrelet Research

 

Audio Visual Reports

2001-2011 Big Basin, Portola, Butano 2012-2013 No surveys conducted

2014-2019 Big Basin, Portola, Butano - including Gazos Mountain Camp 2009-11 Gazos Mountain Camp (in Butano State Park) 2007-11 Girl Scout Property Excel Data File 2014-2018
Visibility Measuring for AV Stations

At-Sea Reports

This now includes the compiled 1999-2017 database of all survey data (routes, tracks, observations, metadata for all standardized zig-zag surveys).
You can find the report at our USGS publications warehouse and the data release on our Sciencebase page

Radar Reports

Here is the data file for all the radar surveys ever done in the Santa Cruz Mountains with the exception of the 2010 surveys at Gazos.

Predator Research

Corvid Reports

2010 and 2011 Corvid Surveys not conducted with same methodology.

Steller’s Jay Reports

Elena West PhD from University of Wisconsin along with fellow researchers looked at Steller’s Jay ecology in Big Basin, Butano, Jedidiah Smith and Prairie Creek in Northern California.

Behavioral mechanisms leading to improved fitness in a subsidized predator.

The research was published in Oecologia, June 2017.

Influence of food subsidies on the foraging ecology of a synanthropic species in protected areas.

This research was published in Ecosphere, October 2017.

A final paper from this work is expected in 2018/2019.

Currently, research continues on Steller’s Jays, 2018 was the second year of field work evaluating the success of a suite of recent Steller’s jay management actions implemented by California State Parks, including the Crumb Clean Campaign, controlled taste aversion (the deployment of noxious mimic eggs), and improved trash management. 

Reports will be posted as they are available.

Peregrine Research

 

We have also begun Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA) which tries to use the intelligence of jays to train them not to eat marbled murrelets.

Research/Management
2012 Conditioned Taste Aversion Research
2013 Conditioned Taste Aversion Research
2015 Conditioned Taste Aversion Research
2016 Conditioned Taste Aversion Research
2017-2018 No CTA occurred.