Author Archives: MadelineBodin

Wildlife Rehabilitators Decline

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Newspapers all over the country picked up this Associated Press article about the decline of wildlife rehabilitators in Wisconsin. The story says that half as many people are licensed as wildlife rehabilitators as were 12 years ago. In 2001 there were 225 organizations licensed and today there are 113.

The AP story did not dig deeper, but an article in the Press of Atlantic City that reported a similar trend in New Jersey back in February, did. It found that rehabilitator numbers are down in Florida and California as well.

Not having enough wildlife rehabilitators puts a strain on police, who must respond to distressed animal calls instead of a trained rehabilitator, and is, in general, a public relations black eye for state wildlife departments, who often must kill ill or injured animals when rehabilitation is not an option.

In New Jersey, a Wildlife Rehabilitator’s Act aims to increase the number of rehabilitators in the state by reducing red tape (by creating a licensing committee that is “in but not of” the state wildlife department) and changing the training requirements for rehabilitators. But the various bills put forward in the state senate and assembly have been controversial.

The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife has created a wildlife rehabilitators advisory committee in attempt to get things on the right track. You can read agendas and minutes for the committee here.

Read the AP story on Wisconsin rehabilitators, here.
Read the Press of Atlantic City article, here.

American Midland Naturalist

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Here are some articles of interest in the current issue of American Midland Naturalist. (Fee or subscription required to read the full text.):

The Impact of Exotic Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) on Wetland Bird Abundances. Some wetland bird species do well when loosestrife increases, this study found. It urges land managers to take care when removing loosestrife so as not to harm those species.

Use of Camera Traps to Examine the Mesopredator Release Hypothesis in a Fragmented Midwestern Landscape. Coyotes don’t like deep forests and red foxes don’t like urban landscapes, this study found. The presence of coyotes only scared off other mesopredators a little.

Lots more on invasive species. Including papers on garlic mustard and the types of plants that grow in contaminated roadside soil.

 

Deer Health

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The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced the first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer there last week. As you may guess from the state department issuing the news, CWD was found in captive deer.

CWD had been found in New York, which borders Pennsylvania, several years ago and is believed to be eradicated there. But there have been more recent incidents in West Virginia and Maryland, which also border the state.

(My rough measurements show the Pennsylvania case as being about 40 miles from where CWD was found in Maryland and West Virginia.)

Read the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture press release here. (It’s a PDF).
Read an article in the Lehigh Valley Morning Call, here.

In other deer health news, Louisiana State Wildlife Division chief Kenny Ribbeck told the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission last week that Hurricane Isaac killed up to 90 percent of the deer fawns in the Maurepas Basin, according to an Associated Press article that you can read in The Oregonian. Deer hunting in the region has been adjusted as a result.

And in the category of “when is no news actually news” the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre notes in its blog that epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) came awfully close to Canada this year. The midge that spreads EHD is not found in Canada, it says, but the disease may move north with the midge because of climate change. It also notes that because the disease has never struck there, the outbreak may be severe.

Read the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre blog post, here.

Photo: Joe Kosack/Pennsylvania Game Commission

Penn. Abandons Bat Petition

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little brown bat with white nose syndrome on cave wallThe article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette seemed a little harsh, claiming that the Pennsylvania Game Commission caved to industry pressure when it abandoned its petition to list bat species that had been affected by white nose syndrome. A tiny bit of digging turned up the PGC press release, which pretty much admits to just that:

“Through this process, we heard from various wildlife organizations and representatives from the timber, oil, coal and gas industries, as well as legislators.  At the present time, it is clear that more discussion, research and coordination need to be done on WNS and the other outside factors that are impacting our bat populations, as well as how we can craft solutions that protect bats without threatening the industries that employ thousands of Pennsylvanians.”

Read the PGC press release here.
Read the article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.
Read a press release from the Center for BioDiversity here.

Photo: little brown bat with white nose syndrome, courtesy of Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Game Checkpoints Provide Data on Human Diseases

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Hunter check-ins have always provided a bounty of information on the health of individual animals and the population profile of the species. In Maine this year and for the last few years, they are providing more. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has teamed up with the Maine Medical Center Research Institute’s Vector Borne Disease Lab to provide blood samples from moose, white-tailed deer and even some turkeys for the lab’s surveillance mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, according to a story from WSCH TV in Portland, Maine.

By using blood samples from hunter check-ins, the lab is able to get information from remote areas that are difficult (and expensive) to monitor through traditional methods. And, according to the WSCH story, they are finding a surprising amount of these diseases out there.

Read and watch the story from WSCH TV here.

Old-timers Keep Mountain Lions Stable

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In January, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will begin using “equilibrium management” to determine the number of mountain lions (or cougars, Puma concolor) taken by hunters in each management unit, according to a press release from Washington State University. This will limit the take to the natural amount of reproduction — 14 percent, according to the release.

Research by Washington State University’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab has found that mature, adult male mountain lions are the lynchpin of the species’ population dynamics. According to the press release, mature males will kill younger males to protect their territories, keeping the overall population low. The mature males are also less likely to prey on livestock.

There is no word, however, on how using equilibrium management will prevent hunters from killing all the mature males in an area, therefore releasing the less stable younger males.

Several news outlets have published the press release with no additional reporting. Read the press release here.
Find the current studies of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, including many studies on Puma, here.

Photo courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Vermont Eagle Population Soars

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Vermont has long lagged behind the other New England states in bald eagle populations. Even when bald eagle populations in neighboring states recovered to the point where they had dozens of nesting pairs, Vermont was still not home to eagles that were successfully raising young.

That changed in 2008, when a single pair fledged a single chick. In 2009, the state did its best to help a second breeding eagle pair that lost their nest when the tree it was in fell down. Now, just four years after that first eagle fledged, 23 eagles were fledged in 15 Vermont nests this year, reports the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Read the Vermont Fish and Wildlife press release, here.
Read Vermont’s bald eagle recovery plan, here.

State Wildlife Departments Are No Longer Game

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In January, the California Department of Fish and Game will become the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. With that change, only 12 state wildlife management entities will continue to use the term “game” in their names, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee.

The title of the Bee article is “California sporting groups leery of department name change,” which about sums it up.

The article notes that the name change came from the state legislature, not from the department itself and that California created the nation’s first state fisheries commission, back in the 19th century.

Read the Sacramento Bee article, here.

And, of course, you will want to know which states still have “game” in the name of their wildlife management agency or department. The Sacramento Bee’s information came from the membership rolls of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.Those 12 members are: Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

However, several states list their agencies of natural resources as members, when those agencies also have a department for managing wildlife. For example, Alaska has a Department of Fish and Game (number 13!), whose relationship to the listed Agency of Natural Resources is hard to parse. (It is not listed among the agency’s departments on its website.) Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources has a Department of Fish and Wildlife.

State Wildlife Departments Are No Longer Game

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In January, the California Department of Fish and Game will become the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. With that change, only 12 state wildlife management entities will continue to use the term “game” in their names, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee.

The title of the Bee article is “California sporting groups leery of department name change,” which about sums it up.

The article notes that the name change came from the state legislature, not from the department itself and that California created the nation’s first state fisheries commission, back in the 19th century.

Read the Sacramento Bee article, here.

And, of course, you will want to know which states still have “game” in the name of their wildlife management agency or department. The Sacramento Bee’s information came from the membership rolls of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.Those 12 members are: Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

However, several states list their agencies of natural resources as members, when those agencies also have a department for managing wildlife. For example, Alaska has a Department of Fish and Game (number 13!), whose relationship to the listed Agency of Natural Resources is hard to parse. (It is not listed among the agency’s departments on its website.) Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources has a Department of Fish and Wildlife.

New EHD Occurrences Slow

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Cooler temperatures mean fewer flying bugs. Outbreaks of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) typically start to fade this time of year in places that are experiencing their first frosts of the season. That decline is also reflected in the number of states reporting EHD for the first time this year. There are just two: Wyoming and Florida.

The Billings Gazette is calling the EHD outbreak in Wyoming the worst deer die-off in decades. Read the story here.

In Florida, there are just two confirmed and 10 suspected cases of the disease. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) press release quotes Mark Cunningham, FWC wildlife veterinarian, as saying the outbreak won’t harm the overall deer population. Read the release, here.