Monthly Archives: October 2013

Is Halloween Good or Bad for Bats?

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102610_batty_for_batsA press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife was titled, “Halloween Tradition Gives Bats a Bad Rap.”

True, all my Halloween decorations depict vampire bats flitting over bare trees, which shows a shocking disregard for true nature of vampire bat habitat. (Can you hear the geeky tongue-in-cheek in that sentence? Good.)

But is Halloween actually bad for bat conservation? As a wildlife conservation writer, I can tell you that my editors are always happy to have a bat story on Halloween, even when they may not be interested the rest of the year. I haven’t had the editor yet who is cheesy enough to require spookiness in that Halloween bat story.

Many state wildlife departments take advantage of the holiday link by sending out press releases debunking myths (as the California release did, when you get down to it) or just celebrate bats. Take, for example, this press release from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Given the popularity of zombies these days, being affiliated with the creepiness of Halloween could be giving bats some street cred. What do you think?

Photo: Who says bats aren’t cute? Art from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Batty for Bats! program.

No News This Week

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It’s not that there is no state wildlife research news out there this week  (although actually, the great bulk of press releases I’m receiving are about hunting), but other things have come up, so it’s another week without posts. Sorry.

There will be more later in the week, which will run in next week’s newsletter.

River Otters Exposed to Banned Chemicals

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otter teamRiver otters have made a remarkable comeback in the last few decades, particularly in Illinois, as we reported recently. However, those Illinois river otters have significant amounts of long-banned chemicals — such as PCBs and DDE (a chemical that results from the breakdown of DDT) — in their tissues, a recent study from the Illinois Natural History Survey has found.

A press release from the University of Illinois reveals that for one chemical, the concentrations were higher in the otters now than they were when the chemical was in legal use:

The researchers were surprised to find that average concentrations of one of the compounds they analyzed, dieldrin — an insecticide (and byproduct of the pesticide aldrin) that was used across the Midwest before it was banned in 1987 — exceeded those measured in eight river otters collected in Illinois from 1984 to 1989. Liver concentrations of PCBs and DDE (the latter a breakdown product of the banned pesticide DDT) were similar to those in the earlier study, the release says.

Scientifically, this is a mystery still to be solved. Were the chemicals used long after they were banned? Did it take decades for the chemicals to climb the food chain from algae to top predator? Are female otters passing the contaminants to their offspring in their milk?

But for wildlife managers, it has a lesson useful right now. When trying to find causes for unknown population declines, don’t dismiss the effects of toxic chemicals just because those toxic chemicals were banned from use decades ago.

The University of Illinois press release.
The paper, in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. It is a free access journal.

Photo: Samantha Carpenter (left), a wildlife technical assistant with the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS); Kuldeep Singh, pathobiology professor at the U. of I. Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory; Nohra Mateus-Pinilla, an INHS wildlife veterinary epidemiologist; and U. of I. animal sciences professor Jan Novakofski found that Illinois river otters are contaminated with banned pesticides and PCBs.  Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

California Bans Lead Bullets

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On Friday (Oct. 11), Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed the nation’s first law banning the use of lead bullets in hunting into law. The bill was written to slow the decline of the California condor, which ingests the lead bullets when scavenging at hunters’ gut piles or when eating the bodies of animals shot but not killed by hunters. The law contains an escape clause that will revoke the ban if the federal government bans non-lead bullets because of the armor-piercing abilities.

California had previously banned lead bullets in the areas of the state where there are condors. It is the first state in the nation to ban lead bullets.

One odd fact, the bill was signed in a group of 11 bills. Most of the other of the bills in the group focused on gun control. Protests against banning lead bullets for hunting have often portrayed the bill as a gun control measure rather than a wildlife conservation and human health measure.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.
Read the KCET blog post here.
Find a Google list of other news articles here.

Mapping Bears in Florida

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bear tracksThe Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking citizens to report sightings of black bears or their tracks to a new mapping website. It is particularly interested in reports of females with cubs or of cubs alone, a press release states.

“Our bear range data is 11 years old, and we are excited about getting the public’s help in identifying all the places where bears now live in Florida,” said FWC bear research biologist Brian Scheick in the press release. “What we learn from the new bear sightings Web page will inform the FWC’s efforts to document bear distribution and help with future bear management decisions,” Scheick said.

The citizen science bear mapping project follows on the heels of a successful FWC effort to map fox squirrels. We covered it back in October 2011. And a more recent mink mapping effort, that we covered in July.

Read the FWC press release here.
Read an article in the Orlando Sentinel here.
Go to the FWC black bear sighting registry, here.

Plague: Human Cases in NM, Squirrel Case in Cal.

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New Mexico has had all three cases of plague in humans that have occurred in the United States this year, a New Mexico Department of Health press release reports.

Read the press release here. (Will open a PDF.)

The bacteria that causes plague is endemic in the southwestern US. Wildlife cases are so common that I don’t report them here, but those cases can be an important warning to locals to take extra care to keep their pets away from wildlife and to avoid flea bites, and for wildlife managers and researchers to take precautions as well.

Just such a warning is in place in Palomar, California, where ground squirrels at a campground have been diagnosed with plague.

Read the story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Plague: Human Cases in NM, Squirrel Case in Cal.

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New Mexico has had all three cases of plague in humans that have occurred in the United States this year, a New Mexico Department of Health press release reports.

Read the press release here. (Will open a PDF.)

The bacteria that causes plague is endemic in the southwestern US. Wildlife cases are so common that I don’t report them here, but those cases can be an important warning to locals to take extra care to keep their pets away from wildlife and to avoid flea bites, and for wildlife managers and researchers to take precautions as well.

Just such a warning is in place in Palomar, California, where ground squirrels at a campground have been diagnosed with plague.

Read the story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

New Loon Study Announced

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loonThe Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) of Gorham, Maine announced yesterday that it will begin the largest loon conservation study in North America.

The announcement was made in Wyoming, an interesting choice, since it is not exactly a hotbed of loon activity. Wyoming is, however, home to one of the many ventures of the study’s funder, Joe Ricketts. BRI was awarded a $6.5 M grant from the new Ricketts Conservation Foundation for the study.

A press release about the announcement sent to Society of Enviromental Journalist members said: “Underlying the Foundation’s mission is the reality that government no longer has sufficient resources to deal effectively with the growing environmental challenges we face. As a result, private individuals and corporations must increasingly shoulder the responsibility of conserving our wildlife and wilderness areas. www.joericketts.com” (The website says, among other things, that Ricketts is a part owner of the Chicago Cubs.)

 

The press invitation also says: “The loon is a key bioindicator of aquatic integrity for lakes and near shore marine ecosystems. These iconic birds are becoming more exposed and susceptible to serious threats from type E botulism, mercury pollution, lead poisoning, oil spills, and over development.”

Visit the BRI website’s loon program page, here.

Photo: Loon, courtesy of the State of Minnesota, where the loon is the state bird.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Gov’t Shutdown News

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Because the federal government shutdown has shutdown not only the USFWS website, but all the DOI websites, here is the USFWS press release announcing its operations or lack there of during the shutdown:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Suspends Operations Due to Federal Government Lapse in Appropriations

Because of the shutdown of the federal government caused by the lapse in appropriations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will suspend most programs and operations, including public access to all National Wildlife Refuges and all activities on refuge lands including hunting and fishing.

“Closing off public access to our national wildlife refuges and public lands is the last thing we want to do, but is consistent with operations called for during a government shutdown” said Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Dan Ashe. “This is difficult news for the families, birdwatchers, hunters and anglers, and recreationists who enjoy the great outdoors on the refuges – as well as for the many local businesses who depend on the tourism and outdoor recreation economy they generate. I think it’s most difficult for the thousands of furloughed Service employees who are impacted in carrying out their mission to protect our nation’s resources and providing for their families.”

Main impacts to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from the lapse in appropriated funding include:

• All 561 National wildlife refuges are closed to public access. Visitor centers and other buildings are closed.

• The National Wildlife Refuge System hosts more than 46.5 million people per year, and generates more than $342 million in local, county, state and federal tax income. Refuges also support more than 35,000 private-sector jobs.

• All activities on federal lands and in public buildings are canceled. This includes hunting and fishing activities on refuge lands.

• No permitting work or consultations will occur with respect to the Endangered Species Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, the Lacey Act or the National Environmental Policy Act.

• The shutdown will affect more than 7,000 Service employees, who are furloughed until an appropriation is passed.

• Employees and others may not volunteer their services on behalf of Service functions or on federal lands.

Services and programs that will remain operational fall into the following exempted categories:

• Programs financed by sources other than annual appropriations.
• Activities expressly authorized by law.
• Activities necessary to protect life and property.
• Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration and Sport Fish Restoration.
• Natural Resource Damage Assessment Fund activities
• Refuge Law Enforcement emergency operations
• Firefighting emergency operations
• Care and feeding activities at hatcheries and captive breeding facilities.

Because the website will not be maintained, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website will be down for the duration of the shutdown. Additional information will be available at www.DOI.gov/shutdown as well as at OPM.gov, which will contain information about the government’s operating status on Tuesday, Oct.1, 2013, and the days following.

New Python Trap From APHIS

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wp_c_python_trap_image006It’s got to be a really big snake to trip the trap recently patented by the US Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC). But that’s the point. The idea is to live trap invasive pythons in Florida while leaving the native snakes alone. One difference between the native snakes and the non-native pythons is that the pythons tend to be a lot bigger.

“Though the trap is based on a standard live trap design, the Large Reptile Trap is the first to require two trip pans to be depressed at the same time in order to close the trap door. The pans are spaced such that non-target animals are unlikely to trigger the trap,” said NWRC wildlife biologist and trap inventor John Humphrey in a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) press release.

The big question now is: will it work?

Read more about the trap and the invasive python problem in Florida in the Christian Science Monitor, here.Or read the APHIS press release here.

Photo: New python trap. Courtesy USDA APHIS.