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2. vegetative characteristics <br /> a. Availability of important browse species <br /> b. Protection offered by shrub density and shrub height <br /> 3. Weather patterns <br /> a. Potential of site to accumulate deep snow during winter <br /> b. Exposure of site to prevailing wind <br /> 4. Availability of water <br /> Mk.'�'Lti1ALIANV PAMATOR SURVEY <br /> mammalian predators were surveyed during October, 1979 by the scent-station <br /> visitation technique (see Results, page 40) . The United States Fish and <br /> Wildlife Service (USFWS) has used this survey method for the past eight years <br /> to deternune indices of predator abundance in the western United States. <br /> The scent,-station visitation technique was developed in New York state by <br /> Cook (1949) , who suggested that records of fox sign at scent posts provided <br /> a practical index to the relative abundance of foxes between areas and from <br /> year to year. The scent-station visitation technique has been standardized by <br /> the Denver Wildlife Research Center (Linhart and Knowlton 1973) and has been <br /> used each year since 1972 to survey predators in 17 western states. The results <br /> of this program, including statistical analysis, are available from the Denver <br /> Wildlife Research Center and were compared to data gathered at the project site <br /> to determine predator abundance indices. <br /> The scent-station visitation technique consists of a survey route comprised <br /> of 50 scent stations, located 0.3 mi apart. Due to the small area encompassed <br /> by the Nucla Nine study area, the number of stations in the predator survey <br /> line was reduced to 45. This was the maximum number of stations that could be <br /> spaced at 0.3 mi intervals traversing all vegetation and topographic types on <br /> or with1_n 2 miles of the study area. <br /> -9- <br /> SUN i i i9so <br />