Bobcat Trapping Curtailed Around Joshua Tree

NYS bobcatIt all began, says the High Country News Goat blog, when a California man found a bobcat trap on his property next to Joshua Tree National Monument. He had not given the trapper permission, so he sought relief from the local police. The police told the man that not only had the trapper not done anything illegal, but he had better give the trap back, or he would be the one doing something illegal, the blog says.

On January 1 a new law in California prohibited the trapping of bobcats in the area adjacent to Joshua Tree went into effect. Bobcat trapping in the area had recently doubled because of demand for bobcat furs in Asia, the blog says.

January 1 also saw the enactment of a new law limiting when and where nuisance mountain lions in the state can be killed.

Read the High Country News Goat blog detailing the new bobcat law, here.
Read a round-up of new California laws, including the bobcat and mountain lion laws, from KQED here.
And read a short item on the mountain lion law in Field & Stream, here.

Photo: Bobcat in New York State, courtesy of NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

Bobcat Trapping Curtailed Around Joshua Tree

NYS bobcatIt all began, says the High Country News Goat blog, when a California man found a bobcat trap on his property next to Joshua Tree National Monument. He had not given the trapper permission, so he sought relief from the local police. The police told the man that not only had the trapper not done anything illegal, but he had better give the trap back, or he would be the one doing something illegal, the blog says.

On January 1 a new law in California prohibited the trapping of bobcats in the area adjacent to Joshua Tree went into effect. Bobcat trapping in the area had recently doubled because of demand for bobcat furs in Asia, the blog says.

January 1 also saw the enactment of a new law limiting when and where nuisance mountain lions in the state can be killed.

Read the High Country News Goat blog detailing the new bobcat law, here.
Read a round-up of new California laws, including the bobcat and mountain lion laws, from KQED here.
And read a short item on the mountain lion law in Field & Stream, here.

Photo: Bobcat in New York State, courtesy of NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

10 Red Wolves Shot

red wolfTen red wolves have been shot on North Carolina’s northeastern coast in the past year, the Times News reports. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently expanded coyote hunting in the region to include night hunting with spotlights. There is an open season on coyotes in the five counties where 100 or so red wolves are found.

Conservation groups said immediately that the expanded hunting of coyotes would harm the red wolves, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been working to restore in the area. The two species look very much alike.

The Commission recently defended the loosening of the coyote law, and said it would defend itself against a lawsuit brought by conservation organizations to stop the coyote hunting. That case will be heard in February.

Read the Times-News article, here.
Read a Charlotte Observer article on the lawsuit, here.

Photo: Red wolf by John Froschauer PDZA, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife

Miss. Dept. Wildlife: Alligators Not Property, Not Nuisance

alligatorThe Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks says that alligators are under its authority, and a Wilkinson County couple should not be able to sue ExxonMobil over the alligators on the oil company’s property because wildlife is not private property, and managing wildlife is the department’s domain, an Associated Press article says. Furthermore, the article says, the department said that, “wild alligators living in their natural habitat do not constitute a nuisance that should be abated.”

The Mississippi couple had filed suit when they found out that the alligators that were coming on to their property were traveling there from the ExxonMobil refinery waste disposal site next door. (Seriously, they bought property next to a refinery waste disposal site and they are worried about… alligators?)

Read the entire AP story in the Columbus Indiana Republic, here.

Photo: courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

LA Mtn. Lions Need Overpass

mo mountain lionThere is a small population of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, just northeast of Los Angeles. The problem is, an article in the LA Times says, the population is hemmed in by highways, agricultural fields and the ocean, and is too small to be self-sustaining. Wandering male mountain lions typically die in traffic before reaching the enclave, causing inbreeding.

The solution, say some area conservationists, is a highway overpass. Twice before, funding for a wildlife tunnel under the roadways was rejected. The overpass would cost a lot more. The next step is funding from a local conservation group for the California Department of Transportation to study the overpass option.

Read the article in the Los Angeles Times, here.

Photo: courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Are There Wolves in Maine?

Gray_wolfIt’s not news. Every once in a while someone sees something that either looks like a wolf or is proven to be a wolf in northern Maine. Sometimes this matters, such as when, as it did about 20 years ago, the US Fish and Wildlife Service kicks around the idea of returning wolves to Maine. Sometimes it doesn’t really matter. Most of the time, actually.

But now that the US Fish and Wildlife Service may remove all gray (aka timber) wolves from the federal endangered species list, it may matter if there are wolves in Maine. It may also matter if those wolves are gray wolves or eastern wolves (sometimes known as eastern Canadian wolves).

This column in the Bangor Daily News addresses the questions of whether there are wolves in Maine, whether the wolves that may wander into Maine occasionally are eastern wolves or something else, and why any of this matters.

A blogger for the Boston Globe tackled a similar set of issues back in September.

Read the Bangor Daily News story here.
Read the Boston Globe blog here.

Photo: A gray wolf. Not in Maine. Gary Kramer, USFWS

Another CWD Deer in Pennsylvania

white_tailed_deer_buckChronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was first detected in Pennsylvania in 2012 at a captive facility in Adams County. Subsequently, three free-ranging deer harvested by hunters during the 2012 season tested positive for CWD. Now, a Pennsylvania Game Commission press release reports, a white-tailed deer that was killed by a vehicle this fall has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD).

The latest case is in the same county as one of the previous wild deer cases. Apparently, that’s the first report of CWD in Pennsylvania in 2013 (even though the press release came out in 2014, which makes things a little confusing).

Read the Pennsylvania Game Commission press release, here.
Read a brief article in PressConnects.com, a Gannett publication, here.

Photo: A (very) healthy deer. Joe Kosack/Pennsylvania Game Commission

Western Pond Turtle Diseases Studied

wpt-measured_csilbernagelWhy are western pond turtle populations declining? The focus has been on habitat decline and competition from non-native red-eared sliders. Recently, researchers from University of California at Davis, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and US Fish and Wildlife Service teamed up for the first study of western pond turtle diseases.

They found that both the western pond turtles, and the red-eared sliders carried a virus known to cause respiratory infections, especially in southern California. They also found that the turtles were free of herpesvirus, ranavirus and the bacteria salmonella.

Read more about the study on the CDFW Wildlife Investigations Lab blog, here. It includes a link to the abstract of the journal article about the study.

Photo: A western pond turtle is being measured as part of a collaborative study to examine their health. (Photo courtesy of C. Silbernagel, UC Davis)

NY Halts Hunting of Free-Range Boar

feral swine pigletIn an attempt to stop the spread of free-range Eurasian boar, the State of New York has proposed to ban the public from hunting or trapping them. Public comments are open until January 25, 2014.

The press release says: “Hunters pursuing wild boars in locations where baited traps have been established by DEC or USDA can also undermine these costly and labor-intensive capture efforts. Shooting may remove one or two animals but the rest of the sounder [pack] scatters and rarely comes back together as a group, thereby hampering eradication efforts.”

In the press release, NY State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens is quoted as saying, “Many hunters have offered to assist our efforts by hunting for boars wherever they occur, but experience has shown this to be counter-productive,” Martens said. “As long as swine may be pursued by hunters, there is a potential conflict with our swine eradication efforts.

Read the NYS DEC press release, here.

Photo: A feral swine piglet. By Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Wyoming Studies Mule Deer and Burbot

wrmdh-deer-on-mat-up-close-gov-del_originalWyoming Game and Fish Department personnel, researchers with the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming, personnel from the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, and many volunteers are trapping mule deer for two research projects in southwest Wyoming, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) press release says.

In one region, the department would like to know how many deer travel between Wyoming and Colorado, an important point of information for managing mule deer in both states. In that study, mule deer are netted when they feed at a bait of apple pulp and are fitted with bright yellow numbered ear tags and white vinyl visual collars. Some bucks are fitted with VHF ear tags.

In another region, the deer are netting by helicopter and fitted with GPS collars.

Read all the details, including the time frame of these multi-year studies, in the WGFD press release, here.

WGFD has also teamed up with researchers from the University of Idaho and Trout Unlimited to learn more about an illegally introduced population of burbot (a fish) in the Green River, according to another WGFD press release.

The tricky part is that burbot are native to some watersheds in Wyoming. The research, says the press release, “aims to study the effectiveness of various sampling gears for capturing burbot in flowing water, learn more about how they are potentially affecting this world-class sport fishery and what actions can be taken to prevent such negative impacts.” It notes that in some parts of its native range, burbot are in decline.

Read more in the WGFD press release, here.

Photo: a Wyoming mule deer captured in the second study. Courtesy of Wyoming Game and Fish.