White Nose in New Locations

cumberland gap wns batA scientist says that he’s “99 percent sure” that a bat found on Prince Edward Island, in Canada, was killed by white nose syndrome, reports CBC News. The article notes that bats typically don’t over-winter on Prince Edward Island and that this one may have blown in from New Brunswick.

Read the CBC News article here.

Bats in yet another national park, Cumblerland Gap National Historical Park, have been stricken by white nose syndrome, the National Park Service reports. For those of you keeping score, that brings the number to 10 parks where white nose syndrome has struck.

Three bats tested positive for the disease, the press release says, and two had visible signs. At least one of the bats was an eastern pipistrelle. The park contains more than 30 caves.

The park press release has the most information. Read it here. (PDF)
General information about WNS in national parks is in this press release.
An article in the Marietta Daily Journal summarizes the press release. Read it here.

Photo: An eastern pipistrelle bat found at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park shows visible signs of white-nose syndrome. Courtesy of the National Park Service.

Trail Cam as PR Assistant

Do you have an under-used wildlife refuge that you would like to promote? A bit of wildlife habitat that needs protecting, but has been forgotten? Strap some trail cameras along likely wildlife corridors and let the resulting photos help you get the word out.

People believe what they see, and photos can show the wildlife diversity in a particular area. And people generally love pics of either cute or scary creatures, so media looking for a “brite” love animal pics.

This story in the San Francisco Chronicle has some trail cam shots, and some wonderful wildlife shots from what must be professional photographers. And yes, the Point Reyes National Seashore is hardly a forgotten wildlife refuge (it has 2.5 million visitors annually), but the pictures make a point. The story, meant to celebrate the seashore’s 50th anniversary, got a lot of play from the Chron and on the Internet. Read the story here.

Photo: A black-tailed deer inspects a trail camera at Point Reyes National Seashore. Photo courtesy of Point Reyes National Seashore.

True Wildlife Crime Saga: Grizzly Edition

Yellowstone grizzly

A grizzly in Yellowstone, but NOT the one in the Slate article

On Oct. 2, 2011 a grizzly bear known as the Wapiti sow was put to death for the crime of killing two humans in Yellowstone National Park. The decision to kill the grizzly sow did not come easily and was dependent on DNA evidence that put her at the scene of both deaths.

In this thoughtful, lengthy article in Slate, senior editor Jessica Grose looks at the entire process, from the humans’ deaths to the grizzly’s. It features US Fish and Wildlife ServiceĀ  grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen and Yellowstone bear manager Kerry Gunther. It’s worth your time, especially if you’ve ever been the one to make the tough decision to kill an animal in the hope of keeping the public safe.

Read it here: A Death in Yellowstone.

Photo by Terry Tollefsbol, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

True Wildlife Crime Saga: Grizzly Edition

Yellowstone grizzly

A grizzly in Yellowstone, but NOT the one in the Slate article

On Oct. 2, 2011 a grizzly bear known as the Wapiti sow was put to death for the crime of killing two humans in Yellowstone National Park. The decision to kill the grizzly sow did not come easily and was dependent on DNA evidence that put her at the scene of both deaths.

In this thoughtful, lengthy article in Slate, senior editor Jessica Grose looks at the entire process, from the humans’ deaths to the grizzly’s. It features US Fish and Wildlife ServiceĀ  grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen and Yellowstone bear manager Kerry Gunther. It’s worth your time, especially if you’ve ever been the one to make the tough decision to kill an animal in the hope of keeping the public safe.

Read it here: A Death in Yellowstone.

Photo by Terry Tollefsbol, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

WNS Surveillance Concept

If your state has not yet been struck by white nose syndrome (WNS), or if you are in an area of your state not yet struck by WNS, you’ve probably needed to develop a system of surveillance that isn’t intrusive on hibernating bats and doesn’t take up a ton of staff time.

The favored method of WNS surveillance — sending staffers to known bat hibernation sites to observe and survey bats — is both intrusive and time consuming.

Scientists from the National Parks Service and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study describe a new surveillance concept in a letter to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

To survey the region around Mammoth Cave National Park, the national park service used bats that had previously been collected for rabies testing and had been proven not to have rabies.They narrowed their search by testing only bat species known to be susceptible to WNS and only those collected from November to April, when WNS is more likely to be detectable.

In a pilot test, the technique did detect one WNS-positive bat.

Read the letter to Emerging Infectious Diseases, here.

It’s important to keep in mind that the external parts of the WNS fungus can be brushed off at any contact, so that the tell-tale fuzzy white fungus may not be visible on bats that have been previously handled.

This Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation paper tells you what the lab should be looking for under the microscope. There is also a PCR test for the fungus.

Photo: Bat with white nose syndrome in a mine in Vermont. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Parks, Trails and Wildlife

We generally think of any wildlife population inside of a national park as being safe from human disturbance. That, however, is not quite true, according to a study published in the journal Ecology and Society last month.

The study, which used data from three Canadian national parks, Banff, Kootenay and Yoho, found that when hiker traffic increased on a trail, both wolves and elk avoided the area. In areas where hiker traffic was less than two people per hour, elk made themselves at home, while wolves stayed away, creating a predator-free refuge for the elk.

There was a brief story in the Toronto Globe and Mail. The Sierra Club blog summarizes the research along with other, similar findings. And there is a press release in ScienceDaily.

But read the paper itself in Ecology and Society. The devil is in the details, and the details weren’t necessarily parsed in the news stories. How these findings will apply to trails and parks in your state likely depends on a lot of things — from ecosystem type to the level of development around the park to average level of hiker traffic — and particularly to increases in the numbers of hikers.

Photo: This trail is in a US National Wildlife Refuge. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

More Bird Species Found When Willows Rebound

A paper in the September issue of Ecological Applications says that when previously stunted willow trees near rivers in Yellowstone National Park started to grow, the diversity of songbird species found within the willow stands increased.

The study grouped the willow stands into three types: suppressed (likely by over-browsing and -grazing by elk and bison), released (where the willows had begun to grow), and previously tall. The “released” and “previously tall” willow stands had similar range in vegetation heights, but were not distributed over the landscape in the same way.

Because the diversity of songbird species in both the released and previously tall willow stands were similar, the researchers concluded the vertical complexity was more important to supporting that diversity than horizontal complexity.

The study has implication for other places where tree growth has been stunted by over-browsing by deer, moose, elk, or other animals.

The study does not address the reason why the willows started to grow (“…a possible consequence of wolf [Canis lupus] restoration, climate change, or other factors.”), so no help there. But if you need more data on the connection between tree height and songbird diversity, you can get it in this paper.

Abstract and access to the article through subscription or fee, here on the Ecological Applications site.

A free look at the paper on a researcher’s Web site, here.

Photo: Willow catkins in Yellowstone National Park, J. Schmidt, courtesy of National Park Service.