Author Archives: MadelineBodin

Salamanders Shrink in Texas Drought

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220px-Eurycea_tonkawae_IMG_3631Nathan F. Bendik of the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department and Andrew Gluesenkamp, the state herpetologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, were not surprised when the tails of an endangered salamander, Eurycea tonkawae, were thinner when measured during a drought.

Their mark-and-recapture survey was able to compare measurements of individuals, not just the population as a whole of this spring-dwelling salamander. They knew that the salamanders store fat in their tails, and that when times are tough, the tails are thinner.

It was a surprise, however, that the total length of the salamanders shrank during the drought. Once the water flow in the spring resumed, however, the salamanders grew again.

Their observations are now an article in the Journal of Zoology. Read the abstract here. The full article requires a subscription or fee.

Photo by Piers Hendrie of a Jollyville Plateau Salamander (Eurycea tonkawae), Travis County, Texas. Used through Wikimedia Commons.

Reindeer Games

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Yes, we’re falling for it. When a wildlife conservation organization calls caribou “reindeer” on the day before Christmas, we are going to run with it. ‘Tis the season, after all.

What really happened was that the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada received a three-year grant to work in Ontario’s Far North and Northern British Columbia/Southern Yukon. The grant is from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.

Now you see, caribou live in this region, and caribou, when domesticated in Eurasia, are called reindeer. Interesting trivia: while reindeer are culturally vital on the Russian side of the Bering Straight, native North American people didn’t domesticate caribou, and didn’t show much interest in raising reindeer when they were introduced in the region. (These facts from the National Museum of Natural History’s Arctic Studies Center.)

As for the grant: “The conservation challenges in Canada’s north are ever increasing and the supporters of those challenges are dwindling,” said Dr. Justina Ray, Executive Director of WCS Canada in the press release. It comes at a good time.

The Gift of Wildlife

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2013_Calendar_cover_thumbPsst. Looking for a last-minute gift idea? Well, your state fish and wildlife (or game or natural resources) department has just the thing.

Never mind that the gift of wildlife doesn’t fit under a tree. Lots of state departments have sent out press releases with their own suggestions.

Oregon Fish and Wildlife suggests a hunting or fishing license. There is some fine print, however: “If you are giving a license as a gift, make sure you have the hunter’s or angler’s full name and date of birth (day, month, year). If the person has previously had a license, make sure you have their ODFW hunter/angler ID number, which is found at the top of their license. If you are purchasing a license for someone who has never had a license, you will have to provide his or her social security number in compliance with Federal and State laws.”

Uhhh. Better make that a gift certificate for a license. That’s what the Indiana Department of Natural Resources suggests. Just keep in mind that it can’t be returned. Idaho Fish and Game wants you to give a chance at a Super Hunt tag. Win and you can participate in any hunting season in Idaho. Lose, and… oh, never mind.

Who has calendars?
New Hampshire Fish and Game
The Missouri Department of Conservation

What about a magazine subscription?
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Arizona Game and Fish Department
(There are many wonderful state wildlife magazines out there. These are just the ones we received press releases from suggesting holiday giving. Same goes for calendars.)

Missouri and Minnesota are promoting their gift shops. With the Missouri Department of Conservation, you can shop on-line. (Navigate to different product types using the dark blue bar near the top.) The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a gift shop in a state park. You need to go there in person, but there’s a big holiday sale.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has a free National Wildlife Refuge app, that it is suggesting for loading on that iPad that you’re giving.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is playing it the other way, and suggests that you donate to its Michigan Nongame Fish and Wildlife Fund. North Carolina suggests the same, with a donation to its Wildlife Diversity Endowment Fund.

What’s the most unique gift item available from your state wildlife department? Leave a comment and let us know.

Photo: New Hampshire Fish and Game’s 2013 wildlife calendar.

Windrows Help Mammal Diversity in Clear-cuts

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slash in california m_martinA study out of British Columbia, published in the Journal of Mammalogy, says that creating either large piles or windrows of coarse woody debris during timber harvesting helps forest-specialist small mammal species, such as the red-backed vole, stick around after a clear-cut.

The study found that the piles or windrows of branches and twigs should be at least two meters (six feet) tall and five meters (25 feet) wide to be effective. The piles and windrows were more effective than scattering the branches and twigs evenly across the clear-cut space, the paper says.

Carnivores, such as coyotes, lynx and weasels, were also more likely to stick around in clear-cuts were woody debris had been placed in piles or windrows, the study found. The study also found that there were just as many small mammals in the clear-cuts as there were in the uncut forest. The difference was that in the clear-cuts there were many more generalist species, such as white-footed mice, while the forest specialists had disappeared.

The paper is open access, so read the whole thing in the Journal of Mammalogy, here.

Photo of woody debris or slash being used to stop sediment from flowing into a trout stream. By Jon Jue, courtesy of US Forest Service.

Moose of “Special Concern” in Minn.

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mooseThe the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ list of endangered, threatened and special concern species is due to get its first update since 1996, a DNR press release reports. While 302 Minnesota species will be affected, moose are getting all the attention.

The iconic north woods animal is proposed for listing as a species of special concern. The designation reflects a 50 percent decline in the number of moose in the state since 2005, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. There are now about 4,000 moose in the state.

What is causing the rapid decline is still a bit of a mystery, but a combination of disease, parasites and a warming climate appear to be the causes, the Star-Tribune notes.

CBC News reports University of Minnesota Duluth biologist Ron Moen as saying that wildlife managers in Ontario should keep an eye out for their own moose. The southern part of western Ontario shares a border with Minnesota.

As for why the gray wolf’s delisting in the other direction, from special concern to not on the list, is not receiving much attention, that’s because this year’s wolf hunting season (and the federal delisting) packed more punch than this proposed delisting.

Read the Star-Tribune article here.
Read the Minn. DNR press release here.
Get more details about the list changes, here.

Photo: Moose, courtesy MN DNR

Bat Fungus Sticks Around

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WhiteNoseBat_scientist08Wisconsin researchers have confirmed that Geomyces destructans, the fungus that causes white nose syndrome (WNS) in bats, persists in caves long after all the bats in the cave have died off.

A paper published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology also says that because the fungus has been found in all the caves that have had WNS outbreaks, but is not found in caves beyond the region where WNS has been found, the findings support the hypothesis that the fungus is an exotic species in North America.

The paper is particularly bad news in light of recent reports of bats repopulating caves where WNS had struck years ago.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison press release offers one tiny bit of good news. Bats that hibernate in near-freezing conditions seem to fare better than bats hibernating in conditions a few degrees warmer. David Blehert, a microbiologist at the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison and a lead researcher on the paper, says that the fungus grows much slower at those low temperatures.

Read the abstract in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. (The full article requires a subscription or fee.)Read the University of Wisconsin press release here.

Photo: A biologist takes samples from a cave in an early attempt to determine the cause of the deadly white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats. Courtesy of  USGS National Wildlife Health Center

Michigan Confirms U.P. Mountain Lion Photos

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cougar_mqt_county_nov_2012_404621_7Not sure how we missed this in our recent wild cat news round-up, but a Michigan Department of Natural Resources press release says:

Three recent trail camera photos of cougars in the Upper Peninsula have been verified by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Two of the photos, both of a cougar with a radio collar, were taken in October in Menominee County – one near Cedar River and one near Menominee just north of the Wisconsin border. The third photo was taken in northern Marquette County in November. The cougar in the Marquette County photo is not wearing a radio collar.

The DNR does not place radio collars on cougars; North Dakota and South Dakota are the nearest states where wildlife researchers have placed radio collars on cougars to track their movement. The DNR has not yet been able to determine the origin of the radio-collared cougar that is in Michigan.

Cougars are otherwise known as mountain lions, Puma concolor to scientists.

Read the Michigan DNR press release here.
Read the UpNorthLive.com report here.
And read The Mining Journal article here.

Photo: trail cam photo of a mountain lion courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Montana Surveys Bats

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gray batThe Montana Natural Heritage Program is collecting baseline information on the state’s bats that will be vital if the state is ever struck with white nose syndrome (WNS), an article in the Flathead Beacon reports.

The survey has lead to the discovery of three additional bat species in Glacier National Park, the article says. The project has been assisted by the North Rocky Mountain Grotto caving club and the Bigfork High School cave club.

According to information from the Montana Natural Heritage Program, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is a partner in the project.

Read the Flathead Beacon article here.
Read more information about the project, plus additional bat research being conducted by the Montana Natural Heritage Program here.

Photo: bat, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Florida Announces Python Contest

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python challenge logoNon-native Burmese pythons are disrupting the south Florida ecosystem by devouring native wildlife. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and its partners have used just about every tool in the box to try to control Burmese pythons in the state. Now it is trying one of the oldest wildlife control methods out there: competitive harvesting.

The FWC says, in a press release that the goal of the 2013 Python Challenge is to increase public awareness of this ecological threat. The contest will last a month, beginning January 12, 2013, and will award $1,500 dollars for the most Burmese pythons collected and $1,000 for the longest Burmese pythons in two categories of contestant, the general public and state python permit holders.

Contestants must complete on-line training to identify Burmese pythons and pay a $25 registration fee. The prize money, a Miami Herald article reports, will come from the entry fee and commission partners.

Now for a bit of editorializing: if it works, it will be the best $5,000 the commission never spent. But the risks are alarming. The on-line training appears insufficient (find it here). The better of the many possible poor outcomes is that the prize money won’t inspire enough people to scour south Florida’s public wetlands for what can be a dangerous snake. Part of the contest rules require that you own a GPS device or a smart phone to track your own movements during the python hunt, which is yet another barrier to participation.

At worst, greed and inexperience will mean people are hurt and native snakes slaughtered. Let’s hope FWC got it exactly right. If they did, it could provide a valuable model for other invasive species efforts.

Read the FWC press release here.
Read the Miami Herald article here.
Find the Python Challenge website here.

Raptor-Killing Poison Ban Starts Soon in Canada

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Bald_EaglePotent second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs; aka, rat poisons) kill birds, particularly raptors in the United States and Canada. Canada will ban sales of these poisons on January 1, while in the U.S. talk of banning consumers from using the poisons has been around for a while, but never seems to be enacted.

“In a study of more than 130 dead birds of prey found in and around Vancouver, Canada, ‘virtually 100%’ of the owls and a large proportion of the hawks had residues of at least one second-generation AR in their livers,” said a news story in the journal Nature last month.

The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre blog illustrates just how tough it can be to diagnose AR poisoning in raptors. A toxics screen of the bird’s liver may be the only sign that AR poisoning was the cause of death, the blog says.

Read the Nature article, here.
Read the CCWHC blog post, here.

We’ve covered this subject before. Read one of our previous posts, here.

Photo: bald eagle by Dave Menke, USFWS