Deer Health

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced the first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer there last week. As you may guess from the state department issuing the news, CWD was found in captive deer.

CWD had been found in New York, which borders Pennsylvania, several years ago and is believed to be eradicated there. But there have been more recent incidents in West Virginia and Maryland, which also border the state.

(My rough measurements show the Pennsylvania case as being about 40 miles from where CWD was found in Maryland and West Virginia.)

Read the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture press release here. (It’s a PDF).
Read an article in the Lehigh Valley Morning Call, here.

In other deer health news, Louisiana State Wildlife Division chief Kenny Ribbeck told the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission last week that Hurricane Isaac killed up to 90 percent of the deer fawns in the Maurepas Basin, according to an Associated Press article that you can read in The Oregonian. Deer hunting in the region has been adjusted as a result.

And in the category of “when is no news actually news” the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre notes in its blog that epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) came awfully close to Canada this year. The midge that spreads EHD is not found in Canada, it says, but the disease may move north with the midge because of climate change. It also notes that because the disease has never struck there, the outbreak may be severe.

Read the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre blog post, here.

Photo: Joe Kosack/Pennsylvania Game Commission

More Whooping Cranes in Louisiana

Whooping cranes in LouisianaFourteen additional whooping cranes will be re-introduced to southwestern Louisiana in late November, according to an Associated Press article. These whooping cranes will join the survivors of two other groups of whooping cranes that had been reintroduced in February and December 2011.

According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the last record of a whooping crane in Louisiana dates back to 1950. That bird was moved to Texas to join others of its kind. Fittingly, the first birds re-released in Louisiana were located where the last one had lived. Only three of the first group of 10 whooping cranes survived their first year, and 12 of the second group of 16 have survived until now.

Read the AP story in the Houston Chronicle, here.
Read information from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, here.

Photo: Whooping cranes are habituated in Louisiana in 2011 before release. Courtesy Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Alligator Violations Soar in Louisiana

The number of alligator related hunting violations has jumped from 60 five years ago to 98 just this year, says an article in Houma Today. Most of the violations are for hunting out of season and for hunting without a license. The article says that most of the violations are in the Terrebonne-Lafourche region, as well as in the parishes of Assumption, St. James, St. John, St. Mary and St. Martin — areas that did not see many violations five years ago. (Parishes are the Louisiana equivalent of counties.)

The article fingers the reality TV show “Swamp People” as the culprit in the rise in scofflaws. The show features alligator hunting, and some of the suspects have admitted to mimicking the behavior of the show’s subjects, while clearly missing some of the, erm, finer details.

If that theory is true, the risk for an increase in alligator hunting violations extends beyond Louisiana to just about everywhere there are alligators in the wild and television sets that get cable channels.

Read the whole article in Houma Today.

Photo: Alligator, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Alligator Violations Soar in Louisiana

The number of alligator related hunting violations has jumped from 60 five years ago to 98 just this year, says an article in Houma Today. Most of the violations are for hunting out of season and for hunting without a license. The article says that most of the violations are in the Terrebonne-Lafourche region, as well as in the parishes of Assumption, St. James, St. John, St. Mary and St. Martin — areas that did not see many violations five years ago. (Parishes are the Louisiana equivalent of counties.)

The article fingers the reality TV show “Swamp People” as the culprit in the rise in scofflaws. The show features alligator hunting, and some of the suspects have admitted to mimicking the behavior of the show’s subjects, while clearly missing some of the, erm, finer details.

If that theory is true, the risk for an increase in alligator hunting violations extends beyond Louisiana to just about everywhere there are alligators in the wild and television sets that get cable channels.

Read the whole article in Houma Today.

Photo: Alligator, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Swine vs. Alligator

Back in the ’70s, ’80s ad ’90s studies showed that feral swine were not major predators of alligator nests, says a paper in the current issue of Southeastern Naturalist. More recently, however, alligator farmers have been complaining that a regional increase in feral swine has lead to an increase in alligator egg predation.

About 590 alligator nests were destroyed on 36 different properties, the paper says. The paper also mentions that trying to reduce the number of feral swine on a property does seem to help alligator nest survival rates.

A PDF on feral swine from the US Geological Survey also includes this statistic as well as a photo of an alligator nest after predation by feral swine.

Read the Southeastern Naturalist article here.
Read the US Geological Survey article here.

Photo: Alligator nest after predation by feral swine. Photo by Jeff Donald, courtesy US Geological Survey

Swine vs. Alligator

Back in the ’70s, ’80s ad ’90s studies showed that feral swine were not major predators of alligator nests, says a paper in the current issue of Southeastern Naturalist. More recently, however, alligator farmers have been complaining that a regional increase in feral swine has lead to an increase in alligator egg predation.

About 590 alligator nests were destroyed on 36 different properties, the paper says. The paper also mentions that trying to reduce the number of feral swine on a property does seem to help alligator nest survival rates.

A PDF on feral swine from the US Geological Survey also includes this statistic as well as a photo of an alligator nest after predation by feral swine.

Read the Southeastern Naturalist article here.
Read the US Geological Survey article here.

Photo: Alligator nest after predation by feral swine. Photo by Jeff Donald, courtesy US Geological Survey

“Profound Setback” in Whooping Crane Recovery

A pair of teenagers shot two of the 10 whooping cranes released in Louisiana, hampering an attempt to establish a third population of the endangered bird, says an article in the Montreal Gazette.

The article gives the details of the whooping crane recovery program, which spans the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on Canadian contributions. It includes the fact that there were just 22 whooping cranes in 1941. The population has now rebounded to about 400 of the cranes in the wild.

The article says that state wildlife officials had created an education campaign before this fall’s goose and duck hunting season in an attempt to prevent hunters accidentally shooting the whooping cranes. The article doesn’t mention what the teenagers’ motives were.

Read the article in the Gazette here. 

Whopping cranes had a happier visit to Missouri last week. A hunter, believing he heard someone in distress, investigated and found instead a pair of migrating whooping cranes. The cranes stayed in the agricultural field long enough for a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staffer to arrive on the scene and confirm the sighting. Local bird-watchers were able to get a glimpse of the radio-tagged adult-and-juvenile pair too.

Read the MDC press release here.

Photo: Whooping cranes. Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

“Profound Setback” in Whooping Crane Recovery

A pair of teenagers shot two of the 10 whooping cranes released in Louisiana, hampering an attempt to establish a third population of the endangered bird, says an article in the Montreal Gazette.

The article gives the details of the whooping crane recovery program, which spans the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on Canadian contributions. It includes the fact that there were just 22 whooping cranes in 1941. The population has now rebounded to about 400 of the cranes in the wild.

The article says that state wildlife officials had created an education campaign before this fall’s goose and duck hunting season in an attempt to prevent hunters accidentally shooting the whooping cranes. The article doesn’t mention what the teenagers’ motives were.

Read the article in the Gazette here. 

Whopping cranes had a happier visit to Missouri last week. A hunter, believing he heard someone in distress, investigated and found instead a pair of migrating whooping cranes. The cranes stayed in the agricultural field long enough for a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staffer to arrive on the scene and confirm the sighting. Local bird-watchers were able to get a glimpse of the radio-tagged adult-and-juvenile pair too.

Read the MDC press release here.

Photo: Whooping cranes. Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Wildlife Disease Roundup

Dozens of white-tailed deer in Montana have died of a mysterious ailment which is suspected to be epizootic hemorrhagic disease. The Great Falls Tribune has a brief item. Check out this item on ProMed-mail for a helpful reference to the no-see-ums that transmit the disease.

[ADDITION: The day after this was posted, the state of New Jersey announced epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer in that state. You can read the press release here.]

A feral hog in Midland County, Michigan has tested positive for pseudorabies. Read the article on Michigan Live, here. Sounds ridiculously scary until you find out that porcine pseudorabies has nothing to do with rabies. It’s a herpes virus, and it doesn’t effect humans, but it does kill dogs and other animals, wild and domestic. Once again, ProMed-mail has the needed explanation. Read it here.

Also in the catagory of “needed explanations” and “wildlife disease” is a recent report in the Los Angeles Times of the “first U.S. transmission” of rabies linked to a vampire bat. Uh, no. Even the article says the man was bitten by a vampire bat in Mexico, then traveled to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story was also picked up on the gossip site Gawker.com. Here’s the LA Times story. And here’s a debunking from a biology professor at Long Island University

Finally, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently launched a new Web site on chronic wasting disease, aimed at hunters. Find the Web site at http://www.knowcwd.com/ And find an article about the Web site and Wisconsin’s “Know CWD” campaign in the Houston Chronicle.

There were just no pretty pictures for this one. Not even a nice picture of a virus available.

More Wildlife in Floods

by Ken Lund

According to the Los Angeles Times, when flooding hit the Atchafalaya River Basin, wildlife headed for high ground — the levees. It says that even a turtle has been spotted escaping the flood waters on drier ground. The problem, says the article, is that when people head down the levee to get a look at the flooding, they scare the animals back into the water.

Read the article here.

The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger says that while wildlife in the region continues to be stressed by the floods, a recent check-in by biologists showed that the black bears are doing just fine. Read the rest here. 

Finally, not a single state wildlife biologist is mentioned in this article in The New York Times, about wildlife rehabilitators in Louisiana rescuing baby ospreys from alligators in the flood. The article suggests that denying the gators their raptor snacks is all good. Read the article here.

Photo: Atchafalaya River, in drier times.