Wyoming Studies Mountain Goats

mtn goat wyomingThe Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently captured four mountain goats in the western part of the state as part of an on-going study into the animals’ travel between Idaho and Wyoming, says an Associate Press article in the Billings Gazette.

An article in the Caspar Star-Tribune adds that, “the goats were tranquilized while biologists collected nasal and tonsil swabs, blood and fecal samples.”

Mountain goats are not native to Wyoming, the articles state. But apparently, they are native to adjoining Idaho. After being reintroduced to Idaho, some of the mountain goats wandered over to Wyoming.

Photo: Mountain goat, courtesy of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Mountain Lion Research

mo mountain lionWhen it comes to mountain lions making use of suburban habitats, there is no difference between males and females, or resident and transient animals, but sub-adult mountain lions were more likely to be found in the suburbs, a study published in the Journal of Mammalogy found. The study was conducted in western Washington State.

The study suggests targeting problem individual mountain lions, maintaining older age structures and other methods to decrease contact between humans and mountain lions.

Read the Journal of Mammalogy paper, here. (Subscription or fee required for full text.)

Wolves seem to be knocking back the mountain lion population in Wyoming’s Teton Mountains, and they seem to be targeting mountain lion kittens, says Mark Elbroch, a researcher with the Teton Cougar Project in an article in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. It’s competition, not predation, the article states.

The Teton Cougar Project both collars mountain lions and observes them through video cameras set up at bait stations. The article reports that project scientists will publish three papers in the coming year. Read more about the research in the Jackson Hole News & Guide article, here.

The Teton Cougar Project is a partnership between Panthera and Craighead Beringia South.

Photo: Mountain lion, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Northern Rocky Mtn. Wolf Population Is Down

The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2012 Annual Report for the Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) Gray Wolf Population shows fewer wolves in more packs. The overall decrease in the number of wolves is seven percent, the report found. It’s the first decrease in wolf population since wolf collaringrestoration efforts in the region began.

An Associated Press story that ran in the Helena (Montana) Independent Press and elsewhere noted that wolf populations were down 16 percent from 2011 in Wyoming, four percent in Montana and eight percent in Idaho. There were population gains in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, the article says.

An article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review sites a slightly different number, an 11 percent decrease, and says that state wildlife managers had hoped for a larger decrease in the population.

Read the 2012 Annual Report for the Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) Gray Wolf Population here. (13-page PDF)
Read the US Fish and Wildlife Service press release here. (It is a less a summary of the report than support for current management strategies.)

Read the AP story in the Helena Independent Record, here.
Read the Spokane Spokesman-Review article, here.

Montana Wolf Management Advisory Council also met on the same day the report was released. It suggested a bounty system and creating a list of trappers among other things. Read the article in the [Montana] Missoulian, here.

Photo: National Elk Refuge biologist Eric Cole removes a whisker from a male yearling wolf. The sample can be used for a sample isotope analysis to learn about the animal’s diet. Credit: Lori Iverson / USFWS

Yellowstone Wolf Study Threatened

Gray_wolfThe loss of several collared wolves to hunters has put a decades-long study in Yellowstone National Park in jeopardy, the Great Falls Tribune reports. “So far this year, hunters have killed 12 percent of the park’s wolf population…” the article states.

Because humans have been no threat to wolves for decades inside the national park, the wolves are naive when they encounter hunters just outside its borders. Some are dead within hours of leaving the park, the article says. Montana has allowed wolf hunting since 2009, Wyoming introduced wolf hunting this year.

The research conducted on collared wolves in the park has resulted in 68 papers in peer-reviewed journals, the article says. It also notes that the death of a few key wolves has threatened the existence of entire packs within the park.

Read more in the Great Falls Tribune.

Photo: Gray wolf by Gary Kramer, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Great Gray Owl Study in Wyoming

great gray owlIt seems to be Wyoming week here at State Wildlife News. I hope you’ll forgive one more Wyoming story: The Wyoming Game and Fish Department are partnering with Craighead Beringia South, a non-profit research institute (yeah, them again) to study great gray owls in the Teton/Jackson Hole region, an article in the Jackson Hole News and Guide says.

“Great grays are probably the least-studied species of raptor in North America,” says Bryan Bedrosian, a researcher with Craighead Beringia South, in the article.

Up to 12 owls will be fitted with GPS backpacks for the study, which will evaluate a US Forest Service project that will clear brush and remove dead trees in the region.

Read the Jackson Hole News and Guide article here (on the Craighead Beringia South website).

Photo: Great gray owl in Oregon, by Don Virgovic, courtesy US Forest Service

Wyoming Bighorn Down and Up

Big Horn SheepA bacteria that often signals a pneumonia outbreak in bighorn sheep was found in 10 of the 14 bighorn sheep tested, says an article in the Jackson Hole News and Guide. The sheep were tested, the article says, because of a high mortality rate in bighorn sheep in the region. Scientists couldn’t test the dead sheep, the article notes.

The Jackson Hole bighorn sheep herd was struck by pneumonia in 2002, the article says, and dropped to just half its number.

There are lots of details in the Jackson Hole News and Guide article, here.

Just to the east, in Dubois, Wyoming, the news for bighorn sheep is better. According to County 10, Greg Anderson, wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported that the local bighorn herd’s numbers are stable and there was good lamb survival this year. The report was part of an annual meeting at the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretative Center.

Read the County 10 article here.

Photo: Bighorn in Montana. by Ryan Hagerty, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Two Golden Eagles Killed; One Was In Study

golden eagle usfwsThree golden eagles were recently caught in snare traps in Montana. Two of the eagles were killed, and one of the dead eagles was part of a research project by Craighead Beringia South, a wildlife research and education institute based in Kelly, Wyoming.

The Jackson Hole Daily reports that the dead eagle was one of six golden eagles wearing a GPS backpack since 2010 in a project designed to study golden eagle migration corridors.

An article in the Ravalli Republic says that one of the golden eagles was found dead, the other had to be euthanized and the third is being rehabilitated. The article also notes that golden eagles have been in sharp decline in the region.

Read the Jackson Hole Daily article here.
Read the Ravalli Republic article here.

Photo: Golden eagle in Alaska, by Donna Dewhurst, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Two Golden Eagles Killed; One Was In Study

golden eagle usfwsThree golden eagles were recently caught in snare traps in Montana. Two of the eagles were killed, and one of the dead eagles was part of a research project by Craighead Beringia South, a wildlife research and education institute based in Kelly, Wyoming.

The Jackson Hole Daily reports that the dead eagle was one of six golden eagles wearing a GPS backpack since 2010 in a project designed to study golden eagle migration corridors.

An article in the Ravalli Republic says that one of the golden eagles was found dead, the other had to be euthanized and the third is being rehabilitated. The article also notes that golden eagles have been in sharp decline in the region.

Read the Jackson Hole Daily article here.
Read the Ravalli Republic article here.

Photo: Golden eagle in Alaska, by Donna Dewhurst, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Wyoming Funding Woes

Think your fish and wildlife department’s funding would be secure, if only hunting and fishing license sales were healthy? It seems that even excellent hunting and fishing license sales don’t guarantee a healthy budget, as the situation in Wyoming seems to show.

A Caspar Star-Tribune editorial says that tourism is Wyoming’s number two industry, and many of those tourists come to hunt and fish in the state. Still, that doesn’t prevent the state Game and Fish department from going hat-in-hand to state legislators when they need raise license fees to keep up with inflation. When Fish and Game makes an unpopular decision, the legislature just says, “no.”

That may be a problem that many state fish and wildlife departments would rather deal with than the funding problems they have now in their own states, but it does show that things are rough all over.

Read the entire editorial in the Caspar Star-Tribune, here.

Wyoming Won’t Cull Deer After CWD Found

deer with chronic wasting diseaseChronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease affecting deer, has been found in a new region of Wyoming, about 40 miles away from an area in Utah where CWD had recently been found.

A Wyoming Game & Fish Department press release says that the state will not try to reduce the number of deer in the area where the diseased deer was found. This technique was successfully used in New York State, which may be the only place CWD has been eradicated after it had been found in wild deer populations.

The Wyoming release cites research from Wisconsin and Colorado showing that the technique doesn’t work as its reason for not using it.

Read the press release here.

Photo: deer with chronic wasting disease. It’s teeny tiny because nobody wants to get a good look at a sick deer. Courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture