WILDLIFE OF THE MINK CREEK DRAINAGE, IDAHO, 2018–2019

Ecological perturbations, like urban encroachment, anthropogenic climate change, livestock grazing, and human recreation, often have negative impacts on the distribution and abundance of wildlife. Prolonged ecological degradations can diminish wildlife populations and subsequently alter the human perception of what constitutes an intact ecosystem. The phenomenon of shifting baselines may result when humans become accustomed to degraded ecosystems and manage landscapes to retain a diminished system instead of working to restore ecosystems closer to a natural, undiminished state. We employed camera traps, small mammal live-trapping, and avian surveys to quantify mammalian and avian abundance in a western public forest adjacent to a mid-sized urban area. Specifically, we sampled in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, adjacent to the City of Pocatello in southeastern Idaho, USA. Despite a persistent human presence, we found that the forest supported robust communities of wildlife including at least 24 species of mammals and 59 species of birds. Shannon-Weiner diversity indices ranged from 0.000 to 1.267 for small mammal sampling areas and 0.377 to 2.760 for avian areas. Simpson diversity indices ranged from 0.000 to 0.687 for small mammal areas and 0.219 to 0.922 for avian areas. Because forest community composition is likely to change in coming decades, accurate assessments of current species diversity, such as this one, will provide a basis for understanding forthcoming transformations under new anthropogenic and climate regimes.