Monthly Archives: October 2011

Google Maps for Cit Sci Apps

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is using a Google Maps application to gather basic information about the locations of fox squirrels in that state. Fox squirrel distribution is patchy, and there hasn’t been a distribution survey since 1997.

See the form here.

University of Florida wildlife ecology graduate student Courtney Hooker, who is overseeing the survey, was inspired by another Google Maps application that she had used herself: The South Carolina-based Center for Birds of Prey’s swallow-tailed kite project.

See that form here.

Hooker says the fox squirrel application has worked well since going on line in August 2011. “Most people are familiar with Google Maps, since they use it to get directions,” she says. The project has received over 600 reports so far, and has received a lot of media coverage.

Although the directions for logging a fox squirrel sighting on the site is only three short steps, Hooker says that she may make them even shorter and simpler. Many people aren’t reading them. Also, she prefers the way the swallow-tailed kite map allows users to right-click on the location they saw the bird. The fox squirrel map asks users to drag a red balloon to the site, which is a little confusing. 

Hooker says that part of the success of the project is due to the fact that the fox squirrel, which is twice the size of the familiar gray squirrel, is such a striking species. “It’s an identifiable species and it’s a beautiful species. People tend to remember it.”

One of the few questions on the sighting form ask if the observer is a wildlife professional or not. Hooker was curious to see if a particular group was more responsive to the survey. So far, she says, about 95 percent of the respondents have been citizen scientists.

Many of the reports have been acommpanied by photos, she says, so Hooker has been able to confirm that they are indeed fox squirrels and not another species.

Hooker says that while the project is expected to help state biologists better understand the distribution of the fox squirrel throughout Florida, it’s also helped educate the public. “Some people have said that they had never seen one before.”

The Florida Wildlife Commission press release.

An article from TampaBay.com
And another article from Florida Today.

Photo: Fox squirrel, courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Good News for Trumpeters in Montana

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“Something went right” on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have been re-introducing trumpeter swans there for more than a decade. This year the reservation was home to eight breeding pairs, just short of the tribes’ goal of ten breeding pairs. Over 100 cygnets have been hatched on the reservation during the program.


The program’s success was in the spotlight this week when the Trumpeter Swan Society held a conference in Montana.

Read the story in The Missoulian here.


Background on the trumpeter swan from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s All About Birds.

Photo: Alaskan trumpeter swans. Photo by Donna Dewhurst, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Endangered Species Act Findings Roundup

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Spurred by a legal settlement with two environmental groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been cranking out the 90-day and 12-month findings. We had been bypassing the individual announcements as being of interest only to small groups of people, but as a whole, they do warrant your attention.

Click on the action to go to the USFWS press release for more information.

Sept. 26. Maybe to 374 aquatic species
Oct. 3. No to kokanee salmon in Lake Sammamish
News story.
Oct. 3. Yes to eight freshwater mussels in south Alabama and northwest Florida (endangered and threatened)
Oct. 4. No to Oklahoma grass pink.
Oct. 5. No to northern leopard frog
News story.
Oct. 5. No to cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl
Oct. 5. “Sort of” to five central Texas freshwater mussels, including the Texas fatmucket

Oct. 5. Yes to Ozark hellbender.
Previous coverage.
Oct. 6. No to 11 aquatic species
Oct. 7. No to California golden trout
News story.

Oct. 7. Yes to Altamaha spinymussel (endangered)
Oct. 11. No to three Arizona plants: the Santa Rita yellowshow, Huachuca milk-vetch, and Fish Creek fleabane
Oct. 12. “Sort of” to north Oregon coast population of red tree voles. (“Warranted but precluded” aka candidate species)
USFWS info
News story

Photo: California golden trout, by Kevin Aceituno, USFWS 

Endangered Species Settlement Spreadsheet

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The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s legal settlement with WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity covers hundreds of species in nearly every region of the country. If your reaction to the news late last month that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needed to take action on over 700 species in one day under the agreement was, “I need a spreadsheet for that,” you are not alone.

To help, we created an Excel spreadsheet with all the actions listed in appendices of the WildEarth Guardians motion. You can find it here. To find what what species in your state are covered, sort by Regional Office (first column) and work from there.

(There are only 170 rows of entries because some single entries are something like: “42 species of Great Basin springsnails.”)

Find the data we worked from in the motion (pages 21 – 23), here.

If you like this whole spreadsheet idea, the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also created that spreadsheet, of the 251 species on the “candidate” species list (those were found warranted for listing, but precluded for lack of funding), which you can download here: spreadsheet. That spreadsheet comes sorted by state.

Read the Associated Press article on the big Sept. 30, 2011 deadline. (The most complete version I found was on Newser.)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Web page on the cases, including links to press releases.

An excellent summary of the whole federal Endangered Species Act listing process is in the PDF presented by USFWS’s Edith Erfling at a freshwater mussel summit in Texas.

Photo: The Hermes copper butterfly happens to be the first species listed in the first appendix of the WildEarth Guardians settlement. Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Endangered Species Settlement Spreadsheet

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The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s legal settlement with WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity covers hundreds of species in nearly every region of the country. If your reaction to the news late last month that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needed to take action on over 700 species in one day under the agreement was, “I need a spreadsheet for that,” you are not alone.

To help, we created an Excel spreadsheet with all the actions listed in appendices of the WildEarth Guardians motion. You can find it here. To find what what species in your state are covered, sort by Regional Office (first column) and work from there.

(There are only 170 rows of entries because some single entries are something like: “42 species of Great Basin springsnails.”)

Find the data we worked from in the motion (pages 21 – 23), here.

If you like this whole spreadsheet idea, the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also created that spreadsheet, of the 251 species on the “candidate” species list (those were found warranted for listing, but precluded for lack of funding), which you can download here: spreadsheet. That spreadsheet comes sorted by state.

Read the Associated Press article on the big Sept. 30, 2011 deadline. (The most complete version I found was on Newser.)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Web page on the cases, including links to press releases.

An excellent summary of the whole federal Endangered Species Act listing process is in the PDF presented by USFWS’s Edith Erfling at a freshwater mussel summit in Texas.

Photo: The Hermes copper butterfly happens to be the first species listed in the first appendix of the WildEarth Guardians settlement. Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Desperately Seeking Stable Corridors

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Researchers from Northern Arizona University are looking for wildlife corridors to study — but not just any corridors. They are looking for long ( from half a kilometer to 100km), wide (more than 100 meters) corridors of natural habitat through human dominated landscapes. These corridors need to have similar unconnected sites nearby to serve as a reference or control site.

For a detailed description of the ideal study site, visit this page on the study’s Web site. It even describes the wiggle room for good, but not perfect, sites.

So far, all the research on wildlife corridors has focused on short ones. There’s lots of talk about establishing longer corridors, particularly to conserve wildlife during a period of rapid climate change, but no research proving those long corridors will work, the researchers say. This study will fill that research gap.

The researchers will accept study sites in any part of the world, and are offering a reward to the first person who tells them about a suitable site that is used in the study.

Please visit docorridorswork.org for more information on the project (including links to scientific papers describing corridors and the research parameters) or to suggest landscapes for the research. Contact: Dr. Andrew Gregory, Andrew.Gregory@nau.edu 1-928-523-2167

Controversy in NC Deer Killing

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On September 20 North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission officials killed seven fallow deer and two white-tailed deer being held in an unlicensed deer rehabilitation facility in Randolph County. (More here.) In August they killed two fawns being held without a permit or rehabilitator’s license in Surry County.

(Story on the fawns, here.)

The locals are pretty steamed. There’s a petition posted in the local grocery store. (Read about it here.) And one on-line.

The controversy was fed by conflicting reports of the exact method used to kill the deer: shotgun, rifle or bolt. Also, two “uniformed officials” demanded that the grocery store petitions be taken down. (Story here.) Although, that could have been anyone, including some Frito delivery guys.

The flames have been fanned by the local Fox News outfit, which has done several stories on the situation, including one, just to make it fair and balanced, with the Commission’s defense of the shootings. 

Rounding out the coverage was a story on the lawsuit filed against the state by the couple who were illegally holding the deer.

A copy of what is supposed to be an NC Wildlife Resources Commission press release has been posted by the Fox station, but is not available through the Commission’s Web site. Read it here. A different statement from the Commission appeared on the Ammoland blog, which frequently posts press releases from state wildlife agencies. Read that one here.

Enforcing captive wildlife laws has always been sensitive. This is all food for thought as society moves farther away from understanding animals as wildlife, and only relates to them as pets or food. (Does anyone remember Pete the Moose?)

(And in a weird co-incidence, Pete the Moose died around Oct. 14, shortly after we posted that aside. Read the story in the Burlington Free-Press.)

Photo: Lots of photos of cute fawns illustrated the Fox stories on the controversy. This cute fawn picture is not of any of the animals involved. It’s by Tom Stehn, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ozark Hellbender Federally Endangered

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Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Ozark hellbender as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). It also announced its decision to list the Ozark and eastern hellbender in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which will mean that international sales of the creatures will be monitored.

The Ozark hellbender is found only in a small region in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. There are about 590 of the salamanders left in the wild.

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

The more widespread eastern hellbender, which shares a genus and several conservation issues with the Ozark hellbender is not included in either listing. The eastern hellbender is listed as endangered in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana; threatened in Alabama; and is a species of special concern in New York. It is found in parts of 16 states.

Read the excellent backgrounder on eastern hellbenders from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, here.

Map: Courtesy of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Ozark Hellbender Federally Endangered

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Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Ozark hellbender as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). It also announced its decision to list the Ozark and eastern hellbender in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which will mean that international sales of the creatures will be monitored.

The Ozark hellbender is found only in a small region in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. There are about 590 of the salamanders left in the wild.

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

The more widespread eastern hellbender, which shares a genus and several conservation issues with the Ozark hellbender is not included in either listing. The eastern hellbender is listed as endangered in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana; threatened in Alabama; and is a species of special concern in New York. It is found in parts of 16 states.

Read the excellent backgrounder on eastern hellbenders from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, here.

Map: Courtesy of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

When Deer Attack

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On September 30, a woman was attacked by a mule deer buck in southeast Idaho and was severely injured. She was rescued by a man, who was also injured, and his teenage daughter. I saw this press release from the Idaho Fish and Game Department yesterday, but didn’t think it was worth your time. These things happen, occassionally.

However, the story has been picked up by the Washington Post, Forbes and other major news outlets (which are all picking up the same Associated Press story). It has the potential to be one of those media-created issues (the New Year’s Eve blackbird “Aflockalypse” comes to mind), so you, as a state wildlife biologist, should know about it before you start getting phone calls. (And yes, I write that knowing that I am part of the media.)

Photo: Not guilty. These mule deer were photographed in California by Tupper Ansel Blake, and appear courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service for illustrative purposes. They didn’t attack anyone (that we know of).