Author Archives: MadelineBodin

New Spider Species Found in Oregon

Posted on by
Reply

In 2010 scientists found unusual spiders in caves in southwestern Oregon. This month they described those spiders as a new genus and a new species: Trogloraptor marchingtoni. The species was described in the journal ZooKeys (and in this case “open access” doesn’t mean free access to the journal. You must pony up 33 Euros to read the article.

The abstract says that spiders in this genus are “known only from caves and old growth forest understory in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of Oregon and California.”

Read ScienceNOW from AAAS for a great photo and a brief summary of the discovery.

If you can’t get enough of new spider species news, all the usual suspects have a news story on this species:
Discover
Scientific American
Wired.

Hunting and Fishing Up, Feds Say

Posted on by
Reply

A new report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service says that the number of hunters nationwide has increased nine percent 2006 to 2011 and the number of anglers increased by 11 percent. More than 71 million people watched wildlife in those five years.

Wildlife-related recreation makes up one percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, the report says. (Now you can say that you are part of the one percent.)

While the news on hunting represents the halt in a decades’ long decline, the report is not all good news for wildlife managers. Not only did the number of people who watched wildlife not increase from 2006 to 2011, but most wildlife watchers never leave home to do so. While “wildlife watching” includes photographing and observing, for 74% of all wildlife watchers, the wildlife activity enjoyed is feeding wildlife.

The 24-page preliminary report is available now. (Here.) A more detailed report will be available in November, and reports on each state will be released starting in December.
Get the highlights in the press release, found here.

Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Sage Grouse Faces Off With Energy in the West

Posted on by
1

Western states are trying to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list. Energy companies are trying to build transmission lines and wind facilities. Increasingly, those two goals are in conflict.

The Twins Falls Times-News takes a close look at the situation in southern Idaho, including providing a cool map. The article concludes that so far, the sage grouse are coming out on top, with regulators keeping their promises to prevent development in core sage grouse areas. Applications for high voltage power lines have dropped.

Read more in the Twins Falls Times-News, here.

Photo: Sage grouse by Stephen Ting. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

EHD Round-Up

Posted on by
1

It’s the season for epizootic hemorrhagic disease, and the states are reporting in. The disease has been found in deer in: (Click on the state name for more information on the local outbreak.)

Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Kansas
Nebraska

It’s suspected in Arkansas, according to the Baxter Bulletin. And a mystery disease of deer in Oklahoma may be epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or blue-green algae poisoning, or something else. Read more about the situation in the Tulsa World, here.

Photo: Healthy deer, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Birds and Windows: NPR Series

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday, NPR’s Morning Edition began a two part series on birds and windows. The focus of part one was on the Powdermill Avian Research Center in western Pennsylvania. Today’s story will be about “an architectural firm that’s leading the search for bird-friendly buildings.”

If you are familiar with the issues behind bird collisions with windows, the NPR story may not have news for you. But if you find yourself responding to a sudden increase in concern about bird collisions, this series during the AM drive-time may have inspired it. (It was one of the top emailed stories of the day.)

Read and listen to the NPR Morning Edition story, here. There are also photos.
You’ll find today’s story here, as soon as we get a link.

Snow Goose Origins

Posted on by
Reply

Snow geese present a tricky wildlife management situation. Their numbers have increased so much that they are harming the Arctic tundra where they raise their young.

Where are all these geese coming from? One theory says that they are fattening up on rice farms in the South. Since we can’t fly along with the geese as they migrate from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds, questions remain.

A paper in a recent issue of the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology shows how stable isotopes can be used to determine the wintering grounds of northbound migrant lesser snow geese in the Mississippi and Central flyways. The paper suggests that the same technique can be used to determine the summer location of southbound migrants in the fall.

Finally, the authors say that their techniques can also be used to determine critical habitat for other waterfowl species.

The Avian Conservation and Ecology paper is open access. Read it here.

Photo: Snow geese in Iowa. Photo by Dave Menke, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Snow Goose Origins

Posted on by
Reply

Snow geese present a tricky wildlife management situation. Their numbers have increased so much that they are harming the Arctic tundra where they raise their young.

Where are all these geese coming from? One theory says that they are fattening up on rice farms in the South. Since we can’t fly along with the geese as they migrate from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds, questions remain.

A paper in a recent issue of the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology shows how stable isotopes can be used to determine the wintering grounds of northbound migrant lesser snow geese in the Mississippi and Central flyways. The paper suggests that the same technique can be used to determine the summer location of southbound migrants in the fall.

Finally, the authors say that their techniques can also be used to determine critical habitat for other waterfowl species.

The Avian Conservation and Ecology paper is open access. Read it here.

Photo: Snow geese in Iowa. Photo by Dave Menke, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Light: The Forgotten Pollutant

Posted on by
Reply

Light pollution doesn’t get much respect. It is worst in urban areas, which most people in most places have pretty much given up on for wildlife conservation. Until recently, it hasn’t been well studied. And, like lots of other pollutants, human health and well-being are the focus of most of that research.

However, it seems likely that humans are among the species best adapted to light pollution (which may be why we create so much of it). It’s impact is more profound on other species.

A recent documentary, The City Dark, shown on PBS, focuses mostly on the human impacts of light pollution, but touches on wildlife issues as well. You can watch it on-line this weekend, here.

While we strive to give you “news you can use” in every post, this is more of a “something to  think about,” with extra appeal since it is watching TV instead of more science journal reading.

The City Dark, PBS web page.
The site for the film itself is here.
If you are interested in media coverage of the documentary, make sure to visit this post on the filmmaker’s blog.

Photo: Filmmaker Ian Cheney on rooftop, courtesy of Wicked Delicate Films

Not Seeing Spots

Posted on by
Reply

A designation as endangered or threatened for the Western population of the northern leopard frog was deemed “not warranted” by the US Fish and Wildlife Service late last year.

According to a US Forest Service report, the northern leopard frog is, however, “listed as a sensitive species by the Northern (Region 1) and Rocky Mountain (Region 2) regions of the USFS, and by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state offices in Wyoming and Colorado.”

The report also notes that, “Northern leopard frogs are considered to be of special concern in Idaho, Colorado, Indiana, and Connecticut, while Montana considers it endangered on the western side of the Continental Divide and of special concern to the east. It is protected in Oregon and classified as endangered in Washington.”

There are some dozen species of leopard frog, and sometimes there is confusion in sorting them out, as the discovery of a new species of leopard frog in New York City, announced in March, shows.

A close look at Northern leopard frog populations in Nevada, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in July, showed that the two remaining populations in the western part of the state are genetically distinct from populations in the eastern part of the state.

The work shows the difficulty of Northern leopard frog conservation.

Read the paper in Ecology and Evolution. (A fee or subscription is required.)

Photo: Northern leopard frog, from the western population in Arizona. Credit:Shaula Hedwall/USFWS