Fox Distemper Study Details

Desert kit fox

Collared desert kit fox, courtesy California Department of Fish and Game

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is investigating the death of seven desert kit foxes from canine distemper in eastern Riverside County (which is in the southeastern part of the state, inland of Los Angeles, abutting Arizona) according to its own press release. (Read it here.)

Sometimes canine distemper cycles through wild canine populations, and sometimes dogs pass the infection along, the press release reminds us.

Generally, the death of such a small number of animals is not notable, but what I really like about the press release is the detail given about the methodology of the follow-up study — in which researchers tagged 39 foxes and collared 12.

A few more details, about the susceptibility of various canine species to distemper is found in a ProMED announcement.

Rethinking Rattlesnakes

coiled timber rattlesnake

Courtesy Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

In 1967 a young man was bitten by a rattlesnake in Evans County, Georgia, and survived. Despite the happy outcome, the locals still thought there were just too many rattlesnakes in the region. In February 1968 a Rattlesnake Roundup was organized, and 48 rattlesnakes were turned in. There’s been an annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Claxton, Georgia ever since.

This year, however, there is a change. It’s no longer the Rattlesnake Roundup, but the Rattlesnake Festival, according to the Claxton-Evans County Chamber of Commerce website and WTOC.

Rattlesnakes will be celebrated, but not bought and sold. Part of the reason is that pharmaceutical companies no longer buy rattlesnakes to milk for venom antidotes, says an article on the Care2 website. That article helpfully includes a link to a list of rattlesnake roundups nationwide (with a rattlesnake race and rattlesnake derby thrown in for good measure, find it here).

This is good news for rattlesnakes, whose numbers have been declining.

A 2009 paper in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology found that rattlesnake roundups do indeed impact local rattlesnake population levels. The Claxton roundup was one of those studied.

Rethinking Rattlesnakes

coiled timber rattlesnake

Courtesy Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

In 1967 a young man was bitten by a rattlesnake in Evans County, Georgia, and survived. Despite the happy outcome, the locals still thought there were just too many rattlesnakes in the region. In February 1968 a Rattlesnake Roundup was organized, and 48 rattlesnakes were turned in. There’s been an annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Claxton, Georgia ever since.

This year, however, there is a change. It’s no longer the Rattlesnake Roundup, but the Rattlesnake Festival, according to the Claxton-Evans County Chamber of Commerce website and WTOC.

Rattlesnakes will be celebrated, but not bought and sold. Part of the reason is that pharmaceutical companies no longer buy rattlesnakes to milk for venom antidotes, says an article on the Care2 website. That article helpfully includes a link to a list of rattlesnake roundups nationwide (with a rattlesnake race and rattlesnake derby thrown in for good measure, find it here).

This is good news for rattlesnakes, whose numbers have been declining.

A 2009 paper in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology found that rattlesnake roundups do indeed impact local rattlesnake population levels. The Claxton roundup was one of those studied.

Wetlands Are Not (Re)Created Equal

A study by a Stanford ecologist recently published in PLoS Biology says that restored wetlands are 25 percent less productive than natural wetlands, even 100 years later.

The study is a meta-analysis of 621 natural and restored wetlands from 124 previously published studies. Wetland restoration and the creation of artificial wetlands has been a popular method of mitigating wetland development for decades.

The study found that wetlands with a higher flow of water (think rivers and tidal areas) recovered faster, as did areas with warmer climates. Smaller wetlands recovered more slowly than larger ones. Woe to the prairie pothole on the northern plains and to the New England bog.

Read the open access paper in PLoS Biology, here.
A detailed report in The New York Times Green blog is here.
You can find the press release from Stanford on EurekAlert, here.

Photo: Small wetlands in colder climates with limited water flow, like this Vermont wetland, recover their productivity more slowly. Courtesy Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation

Media Buzz: Lions and Wolves and Bears (and Owls)

The past 30 days have been rich in wildlife stories that may geA male wolf from Oregonnerate questions in your state and influence public opinion:

This past weekend the birth of two (or possibly three) cubs to a black bear named Jewel in Ely, Minnesota was captured on a solar-powered video camera.

A report from WCCO, a CBS television station says that 500 schools were following the video feed. (Which makes it unfortunate that the cubs were born on a Sunday.) It also says that:

 “Jewel is the younger sister of Lily, who gave birth before the Internet in 2010. One of the bears that Lily gave birthto was Hope, who is believed to have been killed by a hunter last year.”

See the whole story, including video, on the station’s website, here.

In Florida, 2012 has been a bad year for the endangered Florida panther. Four of the animals have been killed so far this year, says an article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. In 2011, the article says, the 24 Florida panther deaths were off-set by the 32 panther cubs that were born.

Read the whole article, here.
When Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued a press release on Jan. 12, only 3 panthers had died. Read that press release, here.

On Dec. 28 an Oregon wolf crossed the state border into California, making it the first wild wolf known in the state in nearly 90 years. The young, male wolf’s location is known because it has a GPS collar. It is officially known as OR7, but has been nicknamed “Journey.”

Read more in the Los Angeles Times, here.

Finally, the news reports on the irruption of snowy owls, continue. We reported on this nearly two months ago (read that post, here), but new outlets continue to report on it, including, last week, The New York Times. You can read the NY Times story here.

Photo: Not necessarily OR-7, but another light-colored, collared male wolf in Oregon. Courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Monofilament Recycling Danger

Recycling fishing line is a great idea. It prevents wildlife from dieing or being injured by getting tangled in discarded line, a process that can sometimes be slow and painful.

Unfortunately, the most common kind of monofilament fishing line recycling bin — a PVC pipe capped with an elbow, is creating its own danger to wildlife, the Missouri Department of Conservation has revealed. Cavity nesting birds are entering the pipes, getting tangled in the fishing line, and dying.

In other places, uncapped PVC pipes, used as boundary markers and in irrigation systems are trapping and killing birds and lizards. We’ve written about that before. (Here.)

That the elbow-capped pipes are also a danger is a surprise. Kudos to the Missouri Department of Conservation for retro-fitting its monofilament recycling bins with a rubber covering over the opening– and especially for getting the word out on the danger of this design.

-Read the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) press release, here.
-Get all the details on the MDC blog. (It includes a video)
-More information is available from the MDC’s Stream Team, here.
The press release includes a link to more info from Audubon California. Find it here.

 Photo of dead tree swallows above courtesy of Dianne Fieri

Fish + Fire = Comeback

We won’t blame you if you think that the combination of fish plus fire equals dinner. But a recent study in the Intermountain West confirms earlier findings that native fish, particularly native salmonids, thrive in the decades after a forest fire.

The study was published in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. To read the paper, go to this US Forest Service summary page, then click on the PDF link.

A US Forest Service fisheries biologists has continued the study, and is giving talks on the results. Read the article about his talks in the Ravalli Republic.

As for fish and fire: sure, the first few years after a forest fire are tough for the fish. But the introduction of trees into the stream is such a habitat boost that after a few years, native fish populations start to grow. Shrubs and other low plants growing streamside also provide food and shelter for native fish.

This Bitterroot Mountain study confirms the findings of studies done after the 1988 Yellowstone fires, that also found that native fish populations rebounded after the fire.

You can read an article on the talk, here.

Photo: Brook trout, like this one, don’t fare well after fires in the Intermountain West, because they are not native and therefore not adapted to the region’s fire-fueled ecology. Photo by , courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife ServiceEric Engbretson

Florida’s Researcher Spotlight: Jim Rodgers

As we begin a recurring feature, profiles of state research biologists, we find that the state of Florida has already been profiling their own researchers for quite some time. So why not get the party started early, with this profile of Jim Rodgers, ornithologist.

Jim Rodgers has always wanted to be a wildlife biologist, well, either that or a professional surfer or fishing boat captain. He’s adjusted his career goals only slightly since his mid-teens, switching from marine biology to birds.

Consistency has paid off: Rodgers has studied wood storks and snail kites, two of the continent’s most fascinating bird species. Up next? Gull-billed terns.

Read the entire profile on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website, here.

Nutria in Delaware: They’re Back

An alert fur-buyer tipped off the Delaware Department of Natural Resources to a breeding population of nutria just barely on the Delaware side of the state’s border with Maryland in the northern part of the Delmarva Peninsula.

Nutria, an invasive, nonnative rodent, have been found in the Chesapeake Bay/Delmarva Peninsula region for decades. But mostly they are in Maryland, and in 2002, Delaware thought it had eradicated the last of the its own breeding population of the animal.

Read the Delaware Department of Natural Resources press release on the find, here.

Read a news-story from Delaware Online, a Gannett Company, here. The story includes a link to a Google map showing the pond where the nutria group was found.

Find out more about nutria in the region from the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, here. This Web site has a map of nutria presence on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlilfe Service

DNA Helps Find Rare Aquatic Species

You may be able to hang up your snorkel and flippers. Dutch researchers have found that even rare and endangered animals leave enough DNA in their freshwater ecosystems to be detected in even small amounts of water from that ecosystem. (As little as 15 milliliters, or about a tablespoon.)

This makes DNA analysis much quicker and more thorough than electrofishing, or the ever-popular snorkel survey.

The study tested six different species, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. The team found that an animal’s DNA only persisted in the environment for about two weeks, so when the animal was removed, the DNA was soon gone too.

The catch: high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques are required.

The paper will be published in the journal Molecular Ecology. The entire article is available with a subscription, or for a fee, here.

Or you can read the ScienceDaily report on the paper, here.

Coincidentally, a French team seems to have come to a similar conclusion. Their paper is in PLoS ONE and is open access. Read it here.

Photo: Federally endangered clubshell mussel, photo by Craig Stihler, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service