Monthly Archives: January 2012

White Nose Syndrome Toll at Least 5.7 Million

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White nose syndrome has killed somewhere between 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats, biologists at the Northeast Bat Working Group’s annual meeting in Pennsylvania, which was held last week, estimated. The figures were released Tuesday afternoon.

Read the press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, here.

Not much out there about where these new estimates come from. A Washington Post article says, “The estimate was derived from winter trips to mines and caves through December 2011.” The innovation was counting the bats using digital imagery, rather than “counting noses,” as was done in the past, USFWS WNS coordinator Jeremy Coleman is quoted as saying.

Read the Washington Post article here.

In a Los Angeles Times article, coordination of survey strategies across the United States and Canada is credited for the new estimate.

Read the LA Times article here.

Photo credit: Jonathan Mays, Wildlife Biologist, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

USFWS: No More Snakes on Planes

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“The US Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule that would ban the importation and interstate transportation of four nonnative constrictor snake species,” a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The four snake species are: the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons.

The four species of snakes are listed as “injurious species” under the Lacey Act.

The press release notes: “The Burmese python has established breeding populations in South Florida, including the Everglades, that have caused significant damage to wildlife and that continue to pose a great risk to many native species, including threatened and endangered species. Burmese pythons on North Key Largo have killed and eaten highly endangered Key Largo wood rats, and other pythons preyed on endangered wood storks.”

Burmese pythons eat alligators. ‘Nuff said?

Florida’s congressional representatives have wanted the ban for years, says an article from the McClatchy news syndicate. A powerful pet snake lobby has stood in the way, the article says. Who would have thought that a story about nonnative snakes would require “following the money”?

Read the entire article — which includes a lovely graphic — here.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service release says that the ban of five more big, nonnative snake species is on the horizon. Read the entire press release here.

The service also gets in on “following the money.” Its handout on the cost of large constrictor snakes is here.

Photo: A Burmese python and an American alligator duke it out in the Everglades. Photo by Lori Oberhofer, courtesy National Park Service

USFWS: No More Snakes on Planes

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“The US Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule that would ban the importation and interstate transportation of four nonnative constrictor snake species,” a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The four snake species are: the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons.

The four species of snakes are listed as “injurious species” under the Lacey Act.

The press release notes: “The Burmese python has established breeding populations in South Florida, including the Everglades, that have caused significant damage to wildlife and that continue to pose a great risk to many native species, including threatened and endangered species. Burmese pythons on North Key Largo have killed and eaten highly endangered Key Largo wood rats, and other pythons preyed on endangered wood storks.”

Burmese pythons eat alligators. ‘Nuff said?

Florida’s congressional representatives have wanted the ban for years, says an article from the McClatchy news syndicate. A powerful pet snake lobby has stood in the way, the article says. Who would have thought that a story about nonnative snakes would require “following the money”?

Read the entire article — which includes a lovely graphic — here.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service release says that the ban of five more big, nonnative snake species is on the horizon. Read the entire press release here.

The service also gets in on “following the money.” Its handout on the cost of large constrictor snakes is here.

Photo: A Burmese python and an American alligator duke it out in the Everglades. Photo by Lori Oberhofer, courtesy National Park Service

Rare Birds: Dry or Oily?

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whooping cranes at Aransas NWR

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

During Texas’s last drought, 23 whooping cranes died while wintering in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, says an Associated Press story in the Tampa Bay Times. With another drought this year, wildlife managers can only watch and wait to see what happens.

The total population of wild whooping cranes is about 400. The only self-sustaining wild population is the one that migrates between Aransas in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada.

Read the story in the Tampa Bay Times, here.

In Colorado, St. Vrain State Park sits in the middle of a productive oil field. The state is short on funds. Oil companies are eager to expand into the park, which is home to bald eagles, American white pelicans and the state’s largest blue heron rookery.

Read about the conundrum in the Denver Post: This news story lays out the facts. This columnist explains the dilemma.

What’s a state to do? In Colorado, they said yes to limited drilling on 1/12. Read about the decision in the Denver Business Journal.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Rare Birds: Dry or Oily?

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whooping cranes at Aransas NWR

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

During Texas’s last drought, 23 whooping cranes died while wintering in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, says an Associated Press story in the Tampa Bay Times. With another drought this year, wildlife managers can only watch and wait to see what happens.

The total population of wild whooping cranes is about 400. The only self-sustaining wild population is the one that migrates between Aransas in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada.

Read the story in the Tampa Bay Times, here.

In Colorado, St. Vrain State Park sits in the middle of a productive oil field. The state is short on funds. Oil companies are eager to expand into the park, which is home to bald eagles, American white pelicans and the state’s largest blue heron rookery.

Read about the conundrum in the Denver Post: This news story lays out the facts. This columnist explains the dilemma.

What’s a state to do? In Colorado, they said yes to limited drilling on 1/12. Read about the decision in the Denver Business Journal.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Charity Permit Raffles

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Does setting aside big game permits for conservation organizations to raffle off:
(a) Give state wildlife agencies a way to support their conservation partners at no cost, or
(b) Give away an important public resource to favored groups, going against principles of fair government?

In Kansas, local nonprofit conservation organizations or Kansas chapters of national organizations based or operating in Kansas that actively promote wildlife conservation and the hunting and fishing heritage apply to receive one of seven big game permits to be raffled off. This year 98 organizations applied, according to a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism press release.

The release says: “After a permit is sold by an organization, the amount of the permit is subtracted, and 85 percent of the proceeds are sent to KDWPT to be used on approved projects. After the projects are approved, the money is sent back to the organization for the project. The other 15 percent may be spent at the organization’s discretion.”

In Arizona, the Game and Fish Department opposes a house bill in the state legislature that would reserve a “large number” (50 antlerless elk permits are just one item on a long list of permits) of big game tags for qualified organizations to resell at auction. The legislature has put a hearing on the bill on hold.

Read the Arizona Game and Fish Department press release, here.

Read Arizona House Bill 2072, here. (PDF)

Rare Birds: Dry or Oily?

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During Texas’s last drought, 23 whooping cranes died while wintering in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, says an Associated Press story in the Tampa Bay Times. With another drought this year, wildlife managers can only watch and wait to see what happens.

The total population of wild whooping cranes is about 400. The only self-sustaining wild population is the one that migrates between Aransas in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada.

Read the story in the Tampa Bay Times, here.

In Colorado, St. Vrain State Park sits in the middle of a productive oil field. The state is short on funds. Oil companies are eager to expand into the park, which is home to bald eagles, American white pelicans and the state’s largest blue heron rookery.

Read about the conundrum in the Denver Post: This news story lays out the facts. This columnist explains the dilemma.

What’s a state to do? In Colorado, they said yes to limited drilling on 1/12. Read about the decision in the Denver Business Journal.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Alaska and RI Ban Felt Waders

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On January 1, 2012, Alaska and Rhode Island became the third and fourth states to ban the use of felt-soled waders in an effort to reduce the spread of the invasive algae, Didymo, and other invasive and noxious aquatic species. (The first two states are Maryland and and Vermont.)

A Missouri rule banning the waders in the state’s trout parks goes into effect March 1, 2012

Read about the Alaska ban in the Alaska Native News, here.
Read about the Rhode Island ban in the Rhode Island Striped Bass blog. (This regulation was passed so stealthily that I haven’t been able to find a brick-and-mortar news organization that covered it.)

Read an older round-up of felt-soled wader news in USA Today, here.

Keep track of the news on felt-soled wader bans on a state-by-state basis at the Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species website, here. (And bookmark the site for future felt-soled wader ban questions.) 

Our previous coverage on the subject is here.

Photo: What’s on your waders? A biologist conducts a fisheries survey in Wyoming. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Getting the Lead Out of Eagles

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Every year wildlife rehabilitors work with bald eagles suffering from lead poisoning, says an article in the Chronicle Herald of Canada. The article profiles one bald eagle rehabilitator in Nova Scotia who gives a vivid description of an eagle suffering from lead poisoning and pleads for the ban of lead ammunition.

Read the whole article here.

An interesting addition is a comment on the ProMed listserv yesterday, that says that in northern climes, there is a distict season for lead poisoning in bald eagles, from mid-November to March. It’s not the lead shot from waterfowl hunting that does these eagles in, the commenter says. The waterfowl have already migrated south. It’s the lead fragments found in gut piles and abandoned carcasses from deer hunting season.

Read the entire comment here.

These two eagle rehabilitators are hopeful, but the uphill battle on lead shot is illustrated by Iowa’s back-and-forth over the issue. Here’s a recent article from the DesMoines Register.

Photo: Karen Laubenstein, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

EHD Impacts Deer Population in Northern Plains

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According to the Associated Press, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) has killed 90 percent of the white-tail deer along a 100 miles stretch in northeastern Montana. Other outbreaks were recorded in the Northern Plains states of North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Kansas.

The outbreak lead to a reduction in the number of white-tail hunting tags available in Montana, and a refund for tags already sold in North Dakota.

A wet spring and summer, plus a warm autumn meant that the biting midges that spread the disease were particularly numerous in the region this year.

Read the entire Associated Press story via the Yahoo! news site, here.

The silver lining, the article says, is that streamside cottonwood groves may be able to rebound while the white-tail deer population is in decline.

Photo: A biting midge, courtesy of USDA