Monthly Archives: June 2013

Did Bear Poachers Retaliate?

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Black bearEarlier this month 11 defendants were sentenced as the result of a four-year undercover investigation of bear poaching in North Carolina and Georgia. The effort, known as Operation Something Bruin, involved two state and three federal agencies.

Of those defendants, only one was actually charged with poaching a black bear. Read the press release on the Operation Something Bruin website.

The Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times reports that authorities are investigating a bear that was killed, painted with the words “Whats Bruin” on its head and paws, and dumped in Buncombe County, NC. The authorities believe the phrase refers to the investigation, the paper says.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service are offering a $3,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction, the Citizen-Times reports, while the NC Wildlife Federation put up an additional $17,000.

Read the Asheville Citizen-Times article, here.
Read the Operation Something Bruin press release, here.

Photo: Just a random black bear. Courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Round-up of New Hamphire Nongame Programs

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nh logoThe N.H. Fish and Game’s Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. From a department press release, here are some of the projects that the program is involved with:

“KIDS FOR KARNERS” started in 2000 as a way to engage area school children in the Karner blue butterfly and Concord Pine Barrens project. Every winter, biologists go into classrooms where they talk to kids from pre-K through high school about the project. The students then plant wild lupine seeds and take care of the plants until May when they come to the Concord Pine Barrens to plant their wild lupine plants. Learn more at http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/Nongame/projects/karner_project.html.

PROJECT OSPREY: Fish and Game’s Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program joined forces with Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) and New Hampshire Audubon to work toward a full recovery of the state-threatened bird of prey by the end of 2005. Learn more at http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/Nongame/project_osprey.htm.

NH DRAGONFLY SURVEY started in 2007 as a partnership of NH Audubon, NH Fish and Game, and University of New Hamphire Cooperative Extension. Its goal is to gain a better understanding of the distribution of dragonfly species of conservation concern in New Hampshire. In the first four years of the project, over 200 people attended workshops intended to train volunteers in dragonfly biology and data collection methods. Learn more at http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/Nongame/dragonflies.html.

REPTILE AND AMPHIBIAN REPORTING PROGRAM (RAARP) encourages volunteers to report sightings of reptiles and amphibians from spring peepers to snapping turtles. These reports are extremely valuable to biologists. Observations are used to determine the distribution of reptiles and amphibians within New Hampshire. Verified reports of rare species locations are mapped and stored in a database used for land protection and conservation purposes. Learn more at http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/Nongame/reptiles_amphibians.htm.

TAKING ACTION FOR WILDLIFE is a collaboration between the NH Fish and Game Department and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension to help communities, conservation groups and landowners conserve wildlife and habitats in New Hampshire. The website contains many resources that can help you get involved in efforts to protect, restore and learn about wildlife and habitats. Visit http://extension.unh.edu/fwt/tafw/index.htm.

See more projects at http://www.wildnh.com/nongame.
Read an article in NH Wildlife Journal about 25 years of nongame programs, here.

 

Avian Salmonella in Montana

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Red_CrossbillThe Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks has reported an avian salmonella outbreak in Billings, Montana, the Billings Gazette reports.

Wildlife managers were tipped off to a problem by a large number of dead birds in people’s backyards, the article says. One homeowner found 50 dead birds. Some of the dead birds were sent to the US Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin and were diagnosed with avian salmonella.

Both the article and information from the National Wildlife Health Center say that humans are susceptible to some strains of salmonella that infect birds, so people should use caution when cleaning bird-feeders in a 10 percent beach solution — preferable in a bucket outside.

“Most of the dead birds are red crossbills.” the Gazette article says, noting that this species is particularly susceptible to salmonella.

Read the Billings Gazette article here.
Read the National Wildlife Health Center fact sheet here. (PDF)

Photo: This red crossbill is in the Deschutes National Forest Located in Oregon and does not have salmonella. By Dave Menke, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Bullfrogs Die From Fungus Too

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bullfrog OSUA recent study by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Pittsburgh shows that bullfrogs are not just carriers of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also called Bd or a chytrid fungus, but can die from it as well. The paper was published in the journal EcoHealth.

These researchers found that bullfrogs are not even a particularly good host for the fungus — although they say that this may depend on site-specific conditions.

The take-away? Scientists should keep searching for chytrid carriers, and wildlife managers in places where bullfrogs are native, should keep an eye on their populations. It wouldn’t be the first time a species was in trouble at home while being an invasive species elsewhere.

Read the Oregon State University press release here. (All other media coverage was just a reprint of the release.)

Photo: by Megan Cook, courtesy of Oregon State University

More Rattlesnake Fungus

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vt rattlesnake studyNashville Public Radio reports that two timber rattlesnakes with heads deformed from a fungus have been found in Tennessee. It’s unclear who the wildlife biologists who are reporting the fungus are (state? university?), but the story quotes Ed Carter, head of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and TWRA biologist Brian Flock.

Read the Nashville Public Radio story here.
A condensed version of the story was distributed by the Associated Press. Read it on the WBIR website, here.

The rattlesnake fungus has devastated the rattlesnake population in neighboring New Hampshire, so the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife isn’t waiting around to find out what’s going on with its own rattlesnakes, which are only found in one area in the western part of the state.

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department rattlesnake project leader Doug Blodgett says in a department press release that lesions have been found in rattlesnakes last year and in several other species of snakes in the state.

Read the Vermont Fish and Wildlife press release here.

Photo: Vermont Fish & Wildlife biologist Doug Blodgett carefully examines a timber rattlesnake icheck it for signs of snake fungal disease. Photo by Tom Rogers, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.

Delaware Studies Owls; Montana Builds Nest

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Barn_owlDelaware Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists began banding barn owls at the beginning of June. Since the annual banding project began in 1996, the biologists have banded 598 barn owls, a division press release says.

The bands let the scientists collect data on the birds’ life span, home range, nest site fidelity, and migratory patterns, and also allow them to estimate population size. Birds banded in Delaware have also been spotted in Maryland and New Jersey.

Read the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife press release here.
See the action on the Delaware DNREC YouTube channel, here.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks teamed up with the Audubon Society to rebuild a great horned owl nest in a state park this season. Great horned owls don’t build their own nests, the article in the Seattle Post-Intellingencer explained. The nest the owls had been using for years was falling apart.

Normally, a great horned owl pair would move on to a more freshly built nest, at this point, but visitors enjoyed have the owls nesting in the park, so a new nest was built. The Associated Press article, which ran in the Seattle paper, reports that the owls approved of the new nest. They raised three owlets in it this season.

Read the AP story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer here.

Photo: Barn owl by Dr.Thomas G. Barnes/University of Kentucky, used courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Geolocators in The Auk

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Auk 4 13 coverGeolocators are a relatively new tool that allows researchers to track the movements of small animals, such as birds.

Instead of sending and receiving a radio signal, geolocators record the angle of sunlight at given hours of the day. You must collect the geolocator unit to retrieve the data. Without the send and receive functions, the unit can be much smaller than other tracking devices. Geolocators have been used even on small songbirds. An algorithm lets you translate the sun angle at a given time into a latitude.

Clearly, it’s a technology with a lot of potential and a lot of limitations. If you are interested in how geolocators can inform your own research, check out the April issue of The Auk, which contains two special sections on geolocator research. The issue’s introductory article is a primer on geolocators, and it’s open access. Read it here.

Geolocators in The Auk

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Auk 4 13 coverGeolocators are a relatively new tool that allows researchers to track the movements of small animals, such as birds.

Instead of sending and receiving a radio signal, geolocators record the angle of sunlight at given hours of the day. You must collect the geolocator unit to retrieve the data. Without the send and receive functions, the unit can be much smaller than other tracking devices. Geolocators have been used even on small songbirds. An algorithm lets you translate the sun angle at a given time into a latitude.

Clearly, it’s a technology with a lot of potential and a lot of limitations. If you are interested in how geolocators can inform your own research, check out the April issue of The Auk, which contains two special sections on geolocator research. The issue’s introductory article is a primer on geolocators, and it’s open access. Read it here.

Alligators in New York

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Seventeen alligators, all about four feet long, have been found on New York’s Long Island in the past 10 months, including three alligators turned in at a reptile pet amnesty event in April. New York Department of Environmental Conservation personnel likely never thought they would become expert alligator handlers.

The most recent alligator sighting was in Calverton, NY on Friday. Read and watch the story from Hudson Valley News 12, here.

But this is only the latest alligator sighting on the eastern end of Long Island. Back in May, the New York Post reported on the cluster of alligator sightings and captures. Read that story here. At the very end there is a map of all the sightings.

The NY Daily News did a story on the three alligators turned in at an amnesty day for illegal reptile pets in April. Read the Daily News story here.

A press release from the NYS DEC is here.

 

Alligators in New York

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Seventeen alligators, all about four feet long, have been found on New York’s Long Island in the past 10 months, including three alligators turned in at a reptile pet amnesty event in April. New York Department of Environmental Conservation personnel likely never thought they would become expert alligator handlers.

The most recent alligator sighting was in Calverton, NY on Friday. Read and watch the story from Hudson Valley News 12, here.

But this is only the latest alligator sighting on the eastern end of Long Island. Back in May, the New York Post reported on the cluster of alligator sightings and captures. Read that story here. At the very end there is a map of all the sightings.

The NY Daily News did a story on the three alligators turned in at an amnesty day for illegal reptile pets in April. Read the Daily News story here.

A press release from the NYS DEC is here.