Wildlife Studies

For the purpose of evaluating the possible effects of dioxins and furans from the environment on the Tittabawassee River floodplain’s wildlife community, specific wildlife species, typically a top predator of a particular food chain, were selected as receptors to represent the species of the floodplain with similar feeding and nesting habits.

Eastern bluebirds, house wrens, tree swallows, and American robins were selected to represent the songbird species of the Tittabawassee River floodplain. Although each species is a representative of the same taxonomic order, the dietary item preference and nesting habitat selection vary significantly, which is ideal for evaluating the potential effects on the songbird community.

Wood ducks and hooded mergansers were selected to represent cavity-nesting ducks. These ducks have similar nesting habitat preferences but differ in dietary needs; wood ducks dabble on surface vegetation and invertebrates, while hooded mergansers dive for fish.

Great blue herons and belted kingfishers were selected to represent fish-eating birds of the floodplain. Nesting habitat varies significantly between these two species in that great blue herons nest high in trees communally in rookeries while belted kingfishers prefer to nest in subterranean burrows dug in the bank away from other breeding pairs in distinct foraging territories.

The American mink was selected to represent carnivorous mammals of the floodplain. The American mink forages in the river for fish and muskrat as well as along the river bank and the emergent forest for small mammals, such as mice.

The great horned owl was selected to represent carnivorous raptors of the Tittabawassee floodplain. The great horned owl diet consists of mammals of various sizes, usually no larger than a cottontail rabbit, and birds typically no larger than a duck.