Ranavirus Hits Maryland

Posted on February 15, 2012 by MadelineBodin

An “alarming number” of tiny box turtles have been found dead in Maryland during a highway-construction relocation study, The Washington Post reports. The cause of death for 26 of the 31 turtles found dead is ranavirus, which shows measles- or herpes-like symptoms in reptiles and amphibians, the article reports.

The virus has also effected local frogs and salamanders, but turtles are the big concern because they breed much more slowly, the article says.

Scott Smith, a wildlife ecologist for Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, is quoted in the article twice, including:

Smith of the Natural Resources Department said state wildlife officials are so concerned that they have applied for research funding from the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians. State budgets are too strapped to fund the necessary research, he said.

Read the entire Washington Post article, here. It includes a link to a video of a gasping box turtle. Seriously.

This Extinction Countdown blog post from Scientific American from 2010, points to these journal articles on ranavirus:
2010 – Animal Conservation
Archives of Virology
Journal of Wildlife Diseases

Photo: Box turtle by Laura Perlick, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Glutton for Punishment? Federal Budget

Posted on February 14, 2012 by MadelineBodin

A US Fish and Wildlife press release says that President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 discretionary budget request includes increases for endangered species, the National Wildlife Refuge system, and the cooperative landscape conservation and adaptive science program.

It proposes decreases for national fish hatcheries, the Fisheries Aquatic Habitat and Species Conservation program, and the Coastal Impact Assistance program.

Read the US Fish and Wildlife Service press release, here.

But don’t get too attached to this budget. Red state legislators hate endangered species, everybody loves fish hatcheries, and most of our nation’s population lives near a coast.

Kit Fox Disease and Solar Power

Posted on February 13, 2012 by MadelineBodin

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

When we covered the canine distemper outbreak in desert kit foxes in California a few weeks ago (read the story here), we didn’t mention the solar project that is being built nearby because it didn’t seem relevant.

But other people think that solar project is relevant. Chris Clarke, a Palm Springs-based environmental journalist got the ball rolling with a commentary on Southern California Community Television wondering if the distemper could have been spread by the coyote urine used to haze the kit foxes away from the construction zone.

Read his KCET commentary here.

Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, sent an email to ProMED saying that the coyote urine probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, since foxes and coyotes cross paths so often.

But if the solar project had any influence on the distemper outbreak, it was probably stress, said Deana Clifford, state wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game in an article on the solar project in the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times article has five paragraphs on the desert kit fox situation at the solar site on the first on-line page of the article. Read it here.

Oh, Deer. Disease

Posted on February 10, 2012 by MadelineBodin

There’s been no shortage of deer disease news recently.

In Kansas, three white-tailed bucks taken during the hunting season have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism announced in a press release yesterday. Kansas has had 43 confirmed cases of CWD since 2005.

Read the Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism press release, here.
Read the Wichita Eagle outdoor writer’s blog, here.

In Missouri, the CWD news came at the end of January. Two adult bucks shot in Macon County were found to have CWD. They first free ranging deer in the state to be found with the disease, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. Missouri saw its first CWD case, in captive deer, in 2010, according to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance website.

Read the Missouri Department of Conservation press release, here.

In Michigan, the problem is epizootic hemorrhagic disease. Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials say it may take five years for the deer herd to recover from this summer’s bout of the disease, according to an article in the Lenawee Daily Telegram. If the disease strikes again this summer, they hope to hear about it sooner.

Read the article in the Daily Telegram, here.

In Pennsylvania, a game farm elk that wandered into neighboring West Virginia won’t be allowed back in the state in an effort to protect Pennsylvania wildlife from CWD. (CWD has been found in West Virginia, but not Pennsylvania.) Read the story in the magazine OutdoorLife, here.

Photo of white-tailed buck by John Stehn, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Winter Research Roundup

Posted on February 9, 2012 by MadelineBodin

In New York State, a recent survey of the spruce grouse population revealed that there are not many of the birds left in that state. A revised management plan seeks to restore the population.
An Albany Times-Union article about the survey and results
A link to download the spruce grouse management plan.

New York State has also released a management plan for bobcats. The plan includes a survey of the state’s current bobcat population. Comments on the plan are being accepted until February 16.
Read an article about the plan in North Country News, here.
Here’s the state’s bobcat page, with a link to the management plan.

In California, the Department of Fish and Game is looking for volunteers over 16 years old and in good health to help count bighorn sheep in the San Gabriel Mountains on March 4. There is an orientation on March 3.
Read an article from KPPC, southern California public radio, here.
Go to a website dedicated to the count, here.

Also in California, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will review the status of the San Bernardino flying squirrel. It’s soliciting information about the flying squirrel and its habitat from state and federal natural resource agencies until April 2.
Read the article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise
The US Fish and Wildlife service press release is here.

Bobcat photo courtesy of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Deep Snow Means Moose Troubles in Alaska

Posted on February 8, 2012 by MadelineBodin

Alaska is on pace to have twice as many moose die from being struck by cars and trains than in a typical year, an article in the Anchorage Daily News says. Deeper-than-typical snow cover is luring the moose on to plowed roads and railroad tracks, where walking is easier, so they burn fewer calories.

Read the article from the Anchorage Daily News here.

Some 600 moose have been killed by cars and trains in just the south-central region of state this winter, says another Anchorage Daily News article. That article says that the Department of Fish and Game issued a permit to the Alaska Moose Federation to feed the moose hay, and to create trails between natural feeding areas in an attempt to keep the moose out of the roads and off the railroad tracks.

The issue is public safety, the article says. Alaska has plenty of moose, but the danger to human life and property from moose collisions is severe.

Read the other article from the Anchorage Daily News, here.

With the balmy winter weather in the lower 48 this year, Alaska’s moose problem may seem exotic, but you never know where and when the snow might fall or what cervid might take to the roads in response.

** More on Moose **

Read much more about the Alaska moose-in-roads issue in the outdoors column of the Alaska Dispatch. This lengthy article is filled with details about the moose feeding action, including Norway’s very different take on the problem, and offers links to articles in the Los Angeles Times and Charleston Gazette that had a “save the moose” angle.

Photo: This moose was photographed in the parking lot of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Anchorage office in 2006. Photo by Ronald Laubenstein, courtesy of the USFWS

WNS Found in Another KY County

Posted on February 7, 2012 by MadelineBodin

Green = 2011 WNS finding; Red = 2012

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that it has confirmed white nose syndrome in three caves in the state. Three common bat species in those caves were found to have the syndrome.

Read the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife press release, here.

The caves are in a different county than the one where bats with WNS were found last year. (On our map, last year’s outbreak is in green; this year’s in red.)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service map had not yet been updated at the time we published this, so the map here is our own. Check the official WNS map, here.

Federal News Roundup

Posted on February 7, 2012 by MadelineBodin

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period on the draft policy defining the phrase “significant portion of its range” in the Endangered Species Act, to March 8.
Read the USFWS press release announcing the extension, here.
Read our previous coverage of this topic, here.

The first week in March (March 5) is also the deadline to comment on the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy.
You can visit the NFWP Climate Adaptation Strategy website, here.
You can read the entire 115 page public review draft document, here. (PDF)
Or just read the executive summary, here.
Read a Miami Herald article on the subject, here.

At the USDA, the Forest Service has released a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for land management planning for the National Forest System. McClatchy Newspapers article says that the new plan is stronger is some ways, but has a key provision that weakens protection for wildlife. This rule expected to become final in early March.
Read the McClatchy article, here.
Read the Forest Service’s material on the new plan, here.

WNS Expands in Ohio, New Brunswick

Posted on February 6, 2012 by MadelineBodin

Green = 2011 detection; Red = 2012 detection

While it is still early in white nose syndrome detection season, so far in 2012 white nose syndrome has not been found in a single new state or province. However, it has been found in new locations in Ohio and New Brunswick, Canada, where white nose syndrome was first found last winter.

In Ohio, most news reports have merely reprinted the Summit County Metro Parks press release. Read it here.

This article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer adds that the disease was first detected in Ohio in March, in an abandoned mine in Wayne National Forest. Read the entire Plain Dealer article, here.

White nose syndrome was also first detected in the Canadian province of New Brunswick in March 2011. This winter, an article in The Epoch Times reports, it has spread to three new sites in that province. (I found it a little worrisome that I couldn’t find other articles on this, but at least here is the press release from the New Brunswick Museum.)

Perhaps there is a quantum link between white nose syndrome in Ohio and New Brunswick. We also covered its discovery in both places in a single post last year. Read that post here.

Map: courtesy US Fish and Wildlife. Find entire map here.

Bosses say: Don’t Talk; Don’t Conserve

Posted on February 3, 2012 by MadelineBodin

In South Carolina, a member of the state’s wildlife commission has told a member of Department of Natural Resources to stop participating in the state’s Savannah River Maritime Commission, which is charged “to represent this State in all matters pertaining to the navigability, depth, dredging, wastewater and sludge disposal, and related collateral issues in regard to the use of the Savannah River.” (See full text of S.C. state code, here.)

It’s also one of several entities suing to stop the dredging of the Savannah River, The State newspaper of South Carolina reports.

Read all the details in The State article, here. (As well as some details about the sudden retirement of the state’s DNR chief after 37 years on the job.)

In Alaska, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Natural Resources wants to remove the words “conserve,” “enhance,” and “future generations” from the department’s mission statement, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Since the the old mission statement said (according to KSKA, Alaska public broadcasting) that the department’s mission is: “To develop, conserve and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans,” That leaves, “To develop natural resources for present Alaskans.”

The change was proposed on Jan. 17.

State Wildlife Research News

Tools for wildlife management in the public interest

Monthly Archives: February 2012