Author Archives: MadelineBodin

Whitney Named Georgia Wildlife Assistant Director

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MarkWhitney2013According to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources press release:

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division recently appointed Mark Whitney as Assistant Director. He assumes the position left vacant by Terry West, who recently was promoted to DNR Administrative Services Director.

Mark Whitney began working for the agency in 1997 as a wildlife biologist. He most recently held the position of chief of the Game Management Section. His work career included serving as a game management region supervisor in Northeast Georgia and program manager of the Private Lands Program. He has a master’s degree in Forest Resources from the University of Georgia. Whitney lives in Covington with his wife, Shawn.

More info on the position and on Whitney can be found in the press release, here.

Photo: Mark Whitney, courtesy Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division

Grizzly News

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Yellowstone grizzlyThere’s lots of news about grizzly bears out there this month.

Is the Kangal, a Turkish breed of dog, more effective in protecting livestock from grizzly bears and wolves than the breeds traditionally used in the United States, such as Great Pyrenees and Akbash? A Utah State University doctoral student is studying the issue, with funds from National Wildlife Research Center, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. Read the story in the Great Falls Tribune.

In Montana, the use of electric fences is increasing to protect livestock, bee yards and other attractants from grizzly bears. The NGO Defenders of Wildlife helps fund the fences, which have proven to effectively deter grizzly bears. Read the story in the Great Falls Tribune.

An editorial in the Caspar Star-Tribune says that Wyoming governor Matt Mead needs to have some facts to back up his wish to have grizzly bears removed from the federal list of threatened species and he needs to share those facts with the public. Read the piece in the Caspar Star-Tribune.

Scientists from Oregon State University and Washington State University have published a paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology showing that the return of wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem has meant more berries for bears. Read the press release on EurekAlert here.

Alberta Environment, Alberta Parks, Parks Canada and the University of Alberta are studying grizzly bear population, density and distribution in an area of Alberta. DNA analysis has already revealed 100 grizzly bears in the region. Read the story in The Western Producer.

Shoshone National Forest officials have temporarily banned soft-sided tents at campgrounds because of more grizzly bears than usual in the area. Read a very brief article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Photo: Grizzly walking in flowers in Yellowstone by Terry Tollefsbol

Video Stardom Doesn’t Mean More Bears

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dumpster bearIt may seem like there are more bears in Colorado because there seem to be more bear conflicts. Especially this week, when a video of a dumpster-pushing black bear seems to be all over the Internet.

But no, says an article in the Denver Post. The bear population in Colorado has remained steady. It’s technology and the ability to share the misdeeds of bears that has increased, the article says.

The article quotes Randy Hampton, spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as saying that the recent spate of bear sightings in Colorado is due to a lack of seasonal crops and other reasons. Rain will allow berries to ripen, and provide wild food for bears, the article says.

The article goes on to list the various human-bear encounters that have occurred in Colorado recently.

Read the Denver Post article here.
Visit Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Living With Bear web page here.

Photo: Not “the” dumpster bear, but a bear and a dumpster. Courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

White Nose Syndrome Fungus in Arkansas

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No bats have died yet, but the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has issued a press release noting the presence of the fungus that causes white nose syndrome in bats in two Arkansas caves.

Low levels of the fungus were detected from swab samples taken from hibernating bats in February 2012 and January 2013 at cave at Devil’s Den State Park in Washington County and a private cave located in southern Baxter County. Both are in northern Arkansas.

Arkansas had closed Devil’s Den Cave and Ice Box Cave at Devil’s Den State Park, and War Eagle Cave at Withrow Springs State Park to the public in 2010 to protect the bats there from white nose syndrome carried in from other infected locations by visitors.

Once the cold-loving nature of the white nose fungus became known, wildlife managers have hoped that the shorter, warmer winters in the south would protect the bats there from the syndrome. This Arkansas finding doesn’t change the assumption that shorter, warmer winters curtail the fungus’ effects. After all, no bats have died in these caves, and there has been no mention even of symptoms.

Read the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission press release here.
Most of these news reports are straight from the press release:
KNWA
THV 11
KUAR

New Name for White Nose Fungus

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WhiteNoseBat_scientist08DNA analysis has revealed the the fungus that causes white nose syndrome in bats is not closely related to the other Geomyces species found in caves. The researchers, who are with the US Forest Service, say that the fungus should be in the genus Pseudogymnoascus instead.

The research will be published in the journal Fungal Biology. The authors note that the difference between the white nose fungus and native fungal species supports the idea that the fungus is not native to North America.

“This research represents more than just a name change,” said Bat Conservation International  director of conservation Mylea Bayless in a US Forest Service press release. “Understanding the evolutionary relationships between this fungus and its cousins in Europe and North America should help us narrow our search for solutions to WNS.”

Read the Fungal Biology paper abstract here. (Fee or subscription required for the full article.)
Read the US Forest Service press release here.
Read the Bat Conservation International newsletter article here.

Photo: courtesy USGS National Wildlife Health Center

Citizen Science Works in NH

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black racer NHLots of state wildlife agencies have residents counting turkey broods, and New Hampshire does too. But, says an article in the Eagle-Tribune, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has also been successful getting residents to survey the state’s dragonflies and its reptiles and amphibians.

The dragonfly count has been good news for the scarlet bluet, a rare damselfly that had only been spotted in the state five times before. During the citizen science dragonfly survey, there were 40 reports of the species, the article says.

“It was incredible,” Preston said. “We know so much more about dragonflies than we ever have before,” Emily Preston, a wildlife biologist for New Hampshire Fish and Game is quoted as saying in the article.

Citizen surveys of reptiles and amphibians have also turned up new locations for the endangered Blanding’s turtle and the threatened black racer, a snake.

Butterflies may be next, the article says.

Read the Eagle-Tribune article here.

Photo: Black racer, courtesy of NH Fish and Game

Decline in Bee Diversity Leaves Gap

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A Colorado study showed that when a single species of bumblebee was removed from an area, the remaining bumblebees foraged more generally. That would be good news, except for none of the bumblebees were interested in one of the flowers, the tall larkspur.

Read the abstract from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, here.
Read an article on the paper in the New York Times, here.

Minnesota Withdraws Bear Researcher’s Permit

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Black bearThe Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has not renewed the research permit of an Ely man because he hand-feeds the bears he studies and has not published a peer-reviewed article in the 14 years that he has held the permit, an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press says.

The researcher hosts popular live Internet broadcasts of bear activities. He has argued that feeding bears is not harmful and is actually helpful to the relationship between humans and bears. At least one of his neighbors disagrees, the article says.

The DNR has told the man he must remove his collars from the bears by July 31.

Get all the details in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, here.
Minnesota Public Radio did a piece that was more sympathetic to the researcher, here.
See other stories here.

Photo: Not a bear from the study, or even Minnesota. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

River Otters Have Cat Disease

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euro_otter_by_Catherine_TriggYou may remember toxoplasmosis being the key factor in the deaths of sea otters a few years ago. (If not, find a refresher here.) But what about river otters?

A recent paper in the journal Parasites and Vectors found that 40 percent of the river otter carcases tested in England and Wales were positive for toxoplasmosis. None of the river otters in the study had died of the infection. (The concern, of course, is any sub-lethal effects.)

You can find the full text of the paper in Parasites and Vectors, here.
You can read the press release from the American Bird Conservancy, here.

A similar study on US river otters, specifically North Carolina river otters, was published in 1997. There, 46 percent of the tests were positive. Read the abstract, here.

Ten years later, another study, this one in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, found that river otters who feed in the ocean are more likely to be infected with various human pathogens, including the one that causes toxoplasmosis, if they lived closer to urban areas. You can read the abstract, here.

Photo: Eurasian otter by Catherine Trigg, used courtesy of the American Bird Conservancy

Fingers Crossed for East Coast Salmon

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Dams — some built over 200 years ago — cut off Atlantic salmon from their spawning grounds from central Maine to Connecticut. An attempt to bring back the Connecticut River’s salmon has not been successful, but in Maine, on the Kennebec River, salmon surged back when dams were removed.

On the Penobscot River, also in central Maine, a few Atlantic salmon had always returned to the river, but dams blocked the way to most of their spawning grounds, in spite of a fish elevator that helped them past the first dam.

When first two dams on the river are removed, the way will be clear for the salmon to get to most of their historic spawning streams in New England’s second-largest watershed. Here’s a Nature Conservancy Magazine article detailing the situation three years ago.

Here’s an Associated Press story about the removal of the dam, scheduled for Monday, July 22.
And here’s a story from the Lewiston Sun Journal.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s northeastern section blog covered it here and here.

Find stories on last summer’s removal of the Great Works Dam, the second dam upstream from the ocean, here.