Monthly Archives: March 2012

Minn. Nongame Supervisor Wins National Bird Award

Posted on by
Reply

Carroll Henderson, who has been supervisor of the Nongame Wildlife Program at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) since 1977, was awarded the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Gary T. Myers Bird Conservation Award at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Atlanta, Georgia last week.

A US Fish and Wildlife Service press release says that the award recognized Henderson for, “successful bird conservation initiatives involving research, endangered species protection and restoration, habitat preservation, collaboration with state and federal wildlife agencies, promotion of nature tourism, and educational efforts including more than 1,000 public presentations.”

Henderson has also written 11 books and has lead 49 international bird watching tours.

Read the US Fish and Wildlife Service press release about the award (and several other bird conservation awards), here.

Read the Minnesota DNR press release announcing the award, here.

To learn more about Henderson, and his experiences as a nongame program supervisor, read a Q&A with him on the Minnesota Trails website.

New Research on Avoiding Bear Attacks

Posted on by
1

Bear researcher Tom Smith of BYU“If you act appropriately and you carry bear spray, you are much better off than just blundering into bear country with a large firearm,” said Brigham Young University researcher Tom Smith in a university press release.

Smith has a paper out in early view in the Journal of Wildlife Management that details the findings of his research into bear attacks in Alaska. He believes his findings apply to bear attacks elsewhere too.

The research confirms some old tips (such as “hike in a large group”), but also has some findings that may be controversial regarding guns versus bear spray — a particularly important topic now that guns are allowed in national parks.

As reported in the Jackson Hole News & Guide, people carrying firearms were more likely to be injured by a charging bear than were people carrying bear spray. The amount of bluff charges against both people carrying either firearms and bear spray is reportedly equal. Apparantly, what happens during the bluff charge is key. And firing a gun seems to drive the bear into a real attack.

Smith says in two different newspaper interviews that when it comes to avoiding injury in bear attacks, it’s not which firearm you carry, but how you carry yourself.

Read one BYU press release with lots of tips through EurekAlert, here.
Read a BYU EurekAlert press release that focuses on debunking bear spray myths, here.
Read the Jackson Hole News & Guide article on the study here.
Read the article in the Billings Gazette, here.
Journal of Wildlife Management article here (fee or subscription required)

Photo: BYU bear biologist Thomas S. Smith published a study on the effectiveness of bear spray for deterring aggressive bears. Here he is pictured with an unconscious “mother” polar bear – “If she were conscious, she’d be holding me,” Smith said.  Credit: Thomas S. Smith

White Nose Syndrome in Alabama

Posted on by
1

Alabama white nose syndromeWhite nose syndrome was discovered in the Russell Cave complex in Jackson County, Alabama on March 1 by a team of surveyors from Alabama A&M University and the National Park Service and has just been confirmed by Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study unit at the University of Georgia, according to an Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources press release.

The finding was both disappointing and a bit of a surprise because scientists had thought that the South’s shorter winters would curtail the spread of the cold-loving fungus.

According to the Washington Post, no bats were found dead of white nose syndrome in the cave. This suggests a situation similar to the suspected case in Oklahoma (which was not confirmed), where white nose syndrome was found, but did not kill bats.

Alabama has many caves and is home to millions of bats, including the federally endangered gray bat.

The Washington Post article says: “[Alabama] State wildlife biologist Keith Hudson called Alabama the Grand Central Station for the endangered gray bat.”

Read the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources press release here.
Read the Washington Post article here.

Map: Showing the location of the white nose syndrome finding in Alabama. Map by Cal Butchkoski, PA Game Commission, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Last Minute Objections to New ESA Defination

Posted on by
Reply

On the last day of the comment period, a group of 97 conservation scientists sent a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) objecting to the proposed definition of “significant of portion of its range” in the Endangered Species Act.

The last day also saw a letter signed by 89 environmental organizations objecting to the new definition.

The most comprehensive article on the topic is from Environmental News Service.
Another article appeared in PlanetArk.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which took the lead among the environmental organizations commenting, also posted the letter from the scientists, here.

Photo: cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, Credit: Mike Wrigley/USFWS

Last Minute Objections to New ESA Defination

Posted on by
Reply

On the last day of the comment period, a group of 97 conservation scientists sent a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) objecting to the proposed definition of “significant of portion of its range” in the Endangered Species Act.

The last day also saw a letter signed by 89 environmental organizations objecting to the new definition.

The most comprehensive article on the topic is from Environmental News Service.
Another article appeared in PlanetArk.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which took the lead among the environmental organizations commenting, also posted the letter from the scientists, here.

Photo: cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, Credit: Mike Wrigley/USFWS

Maybe Bats Just Hit (or Get Hit by) Wind Turbines

Posted on by
Reply

Four years ago a science journal article was published saying that most of the bats found dead at an Alberta wind farm had no signs of external injuries, but their lungs were damaged. The verdict: barotrauma, damage caused by a sharp change in pressure. In humans the most common example is when you rupture an ear drum while on an airplane.

It was unexpected, it was weird, and it got plenty of coverage in the general media. (National Geographic News; Discover Magazine blog)

Now some Illinois scientists have published a paper in the journal Veterinary Pathology that says that damaged lungs can be an artifact of freezing specimens before examination, and that the bats they examined that were found dead at an Illinois wind farm showed every sign of plain old trauma. In fact, the paper says, the bats at the wind farm had more external injuries than the bats found dead in downtown Chicago that were assumed to have been killed by flying into buildings.

Read the article in Veterinary Pathology, here. (Fee or subscription required.)

Photo: Gray bat, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Research on the Hoof

Posted on by
Reply

A pronghorn is released in western ColoradoColorado Parks and Wildlife has announced surveys of bighorn, pronghorn and elk, and Washington State is examining the health of its elk herd.

A Colorado Division of Wildlife press release describes the bighorn and elk surveys as major research projects. The aim of the elk study is to get a better idea of the population and to find elk migration patterns. The bighorn study will investigate the decline of one of the three populations of sheep in the survey area.

Read the whole press release for more details about the Colorado bighorn and elk study, including survey methods.

The pronghorn study will investigate why fawn survival is so low in a population introduced into western Colorado about 10 years ago, another Division of Wildlife press release says. In related news, on March 1, 74 pronghorns were released to supplement a population in the Gunnison Basin.

Read the pronghorn press release here, for more details, including survey techniques.

Biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are examining elk organs and teeth submitted by hunters to determine the health of the herd, says an article in the Eugene Register-Guard. The teeth were used to determine the age of each animal. The organs are examined for fat, the article says. There’s a formula that converts the amount of fat observed on the organs to a percentage of fat on-the-hoof.

The fatter the better, since fat reserves are needed to get through the winter.

Read the whole article here.

Photo: A pronghorn antelope is release March 1, 2012, by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The pronghorn was captured in Limon earlier in the day and released near Delta to supplement a small herd in that area. Photo: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

For Better Genetics, Use Habitat Clusters

Posted on by
Reply

by Louise HuntHabitat clusters can improve the genetics of rare species, such as the Florida scrub jay, says a recent paper in Biology Letters.

The research focused on the genetics and available habitat for the Florida scrub jay, but the findings are applicable to other rare species, the paper says.

“We present a detailed case study of one highly fragmented, endangered species (Florida Scrub-Jay) showing the importance of keeping habitat gaps as narrow as possible, in order to maintain gene flow among populations,” says John Fitzpatrick, director of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and one of the authors of the paper. “Habitat gaps greater than a few kilometers separating two populations reduce movement of jays across them sufficiently to cause genetic isolation of the two populations. This highlights the importance of maintaining or restoring habitat ‘stepping stones.'”

Read the paper here — with subscription or fee.
Read the Cornell Lab of Ornithology press release here.
Read the Cornell Lab of Ornithology blog on the topic here.
Read the Volusia County (Florida) web page about the research, while it was in progress, here.

Photo: Florida scrub jay by Louise Hunt, courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Earthworms Cause Ovenbird Decline

Posted on by
2

A recent paper in Landscape Ecology confirms that ovenbirds are found in lower densities in sugar maple and basswood forests in Wisconsin where invasive earthworms are found.

Ovenbird numbers have been in decline for decades in the Northeast and Midwest. Habitat loss is typically named as the chief culprit, although non-native earthworms were known to be a contributing factor.

Ovenbirds are a ground-nesting, forest-interior species. They rely both on large tracts of forested land and plenty of leaf-litter from which to build their beehive-oven-shaped nests. Earthworms, which are not native to the northern parts of the United States, quickly chew up fallen leaves and other forest debris, leaving the ovenbirds with few places to hide and little to build with.

Read the paper in Landscape Ecology, here. (Fee or subscription required.)
Read the Smithsonian Institution blog post on the findings, here.

The Smithsonian information has been reprinted widely around the web. A quick survey showed only verbatim copies of the blog post, but the coverage does appear to be widespread.

Photo: Ovenbird, courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Climate Vulnerability of Taxa at the State Level

Posted on by
Reply

Clapper rail, California Fish and GameUsually it is hard enough figuring out what’s stressing species right now to figure out which may need protection. Predicting the future — such as how land uses might change — adds another level of complexity. Figuring out the impact of climate change, with its assortment of predictive models, is more complex still.

A team from PRBO Conservation Science, a non-profit bird ecology research organization, took on the challenge of predicting the vulnerability of California’s bird species to climate change at the behest of the California Department of Fish and Game. The results were released by the science journal PLoS ONE last week.

Instead of applying existing, national models of species vulnerability, the research team developed their own framework. They were able to do this because of the abundance of data unique to California, the paper says.

“What’s most exciting about the study is that our unique approach is one that other scientists and resource managers can duplicate to help them conserve wildlife in the face of climate change,” said Tom Gardali, an ecologist with PRBO Conservation Science and the paper’s lead author, in a press release issued jointly by PRBO and the California Department of Fish and Game.

Read the PLoS ONE paper here. (Open access.)
Read the California Fish and Game release here. (It includes a link to a complete list of vulnerability ratings, by taxa.)

What do the paper’s findings mean on the ground, for California’s birds? Wetland taxa are the most vulnerable, notes a KQED climate blog, and many of the birds found to be vulnerable are found in San Francisco Bay.

The KQED Climate Watch blog says:

“That’s primarily because of sea level rise and also because there are already so many imperiled species that use that habitat in the bay,” says Tom Gardali…

Photo: The clapper rail is one of the at-risk birds identified by the climate change study. Photo courtesy California Fish and Game