Author Archives: MadelineBodin

Wildlife Flees Floods

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Today’s NOAA flood warnings

Wildlife is fleeing the major flooding along the Mississippi River. (There is also major flooding today on the James River in South Dakota and Lake Champlain in Vermont.)

–ABC News focuses on the danger of snake bites to residents in the flood zone.

-Articles in the The Desoto Times Tribune (Miss.) and the Natchez Democrat focus on deer fleeing the floodwaters, and quote state wildlife officials saying that all hunting regs still apply.

-One Louisiana parish is asking the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to double hunting fines during the flood emergency.

-A Vermont story focuses on flooding’s impacts on plant habitat, the threat to a rare tern, and the bumper crop of mosquitoes to come.

Map: NOAA. Purple means major flooding.

Wildlife Flees Floods

Posted on by
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Today’s NOAA flood warnings

Wildlife is fleeing the major flooding along the Mississippi River. (There is also major flooding today on the James River in South Dakota and Lake Champlain in Vermont.)

–ABC News focuses on the danger of snake bites to residents in the flood zone.

-Articles in the The Desoto Times Tribune (Miss.) and the Natchez Democrat focus on deer fleeing the floodwaters, and quote state wildlife officials saying that all hunting regs still apply.

-One Louisiana parish is asking the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to double hunting fines during the flood emergency.

-A Vermont story focuses on flooding’s impacts on plant habitat, the threat to a rare tern, and the bumper crop of mosquitoes to come.

Map: NOAA. Purple means major flooding.

State Wildlife Biologists Wanted for Bat Survey

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Mobile bat detector
A coalition of federal and state agencies is looking for wildlife biologists to lead and organize acoustic surveys of bats in all 50 states. (Actually, the program has at least some data from 24 states, but only New York is thoroughly covered, so more leaders are needed just about everywhere else.)

The coalition hopes to gather general population data on bats, particularly as these animals face two threats: white nose syndrome, and wind power development. Surveys specific to the sites of those threats don’t give needed information about bat population trends in general.

The survey protocol uses your real-time recording bat detector (such as those from Anabat or Binary Acoustic Technology) mounted to the roof of a car (with materials available cheaply from home improvement stores). The trickiest part may be planning the transect, which should be 20 to 30 miles long, and driven at very close to 20 mph. If it is a loop, it should be wide enough so that you are unlikely to encounter the same bat twice. The surveys should take place at sunset, on evenings that are over 50 degrees F, with low wind, and no rain.

Organizing a statewide survey is easy, say the organizers. New York covers the entire state with 80 volunteers and one coordinator. They cover 50 transects, two or three times a year.

Finding the citizen volunteers has been easy, but finding qualified wildlife biologists to lead state programs has been more difficult. Susi von Oettingen, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said in her presentation on the survey project at the Northeastern Fish and Wildlife Conference last month that state wildlife biologists are the ideal leaders.

Free training materials are available to leaders. For more information on the project, and how to get involved as a leader, visit the project’s Web site, which includes a video of a presentation of the project, plus a PowerPoint presentation.

Photo: Courtesy New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the bat survey coalition

State Wildlife Biologists Wanted for Bat Survey

Posted on by
2
Mobile bat detector
A coalition of federal and state agencies is looking for wildlife biologists to lead and organize acoustic surveys of bats in all 50 states. (Actually, the program has at least some data from 24 states, but only New York is thoroughly covered, so more leaders are needed just about everywhere else.)

The coalition hopes to gather general population data on bats, particularly as these animals face two threats: white nose syndrome, and wind power development. Surveys specific to the sites of those threats don’t give needed information about bat population trends in general.

The survey protocol uses your real-time recording bat detector (such as those from Anabat or Binary Acoustic Technology) mounted to the roof of a car (with materials available cheaply from home improvement stores). The trickiest part may be planning the transect, which should be 20 to 30 miles long, and driven at very close to 20 mph. If it is a loop, it should be wide enough so that you are unlikely to encounter the same bat twice. The surveys should take place at sunset, on evenings that are over 50 degrees F, with low wind, and no rain.

Organizing a statewide survey is easy, say the organizers. New York covers the entire state with 80 volunteers and one coordinator. They cover 50 transects, two or three times a year.

Finding the citizen volunteers has been easy, but finding qualified wildlife biologists to lead state programs has been more difficult. Susi von Oettingen, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said in her presentation on the survey project at the Northeastern Fish and Wildlife Conference last month that state wildlife biologists are the ideal leaders.

Free training materials are available to leaders. For more information on the project, and how to get involved as a leader, visit the project’s Web site, which includes a video of a presentation of the project, plus a PowerPoint presentation.

Photo: Courtesy New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the bat survey coalition

Swans were poisoned, not shot

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In January five trumpeter swans were found dead around the Dungeness Valley on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. One of them was believed to be shot because X-rays showed 41 shot ­gun pellets in the bird’s body. Trumpeter swans came near to extinction at the beginning of the 20th Century, and while they have recovered, the number of deaths in one area, and the possible shooting, were a concern.

However, further tests showed that all five of the swans had lethal levels of lead in their livers.

Local wildlife managers don’t know where the swans could have ingested the lead shot. Swans and other birds swallow stones and grit to help them grind up food in their gizzards. The wildlife managers will keep an eye out for further lead poisoning cases in the region in the future.

Read more info in this report from a local radio station. And in this article from the Peninsula Daily News.

I tried really hard to work in an “eat lead” joke here, but I just couldn’t do it.

Photo: Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Swans were poisoned, not shot

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In January five trumpeter swans were found dead around the Dungeness Valley on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. One of them was believed to be shot because X-rays showed 41 shot ­gun pellets in the bird’s body. Trumpeter swans came near to extinction at the beginning of the 20th Century, and while they have recovered, the number of deaths in one area, and the possible shooting, were a concern.

However, further tests showed that all five of the swans had lethal levels of lead in their livers.

Local wildlife managers don’t know where the swans could have ingested the lead shot. Swans and other birds swallow stones and grit to help them grind up food in their gizzards. The wildlife managers will keep an eye out for further lead poisoning cases in the region in the future.

Read more info in this report from a local radio station. And in this article from the Peninsula Daily News.

I tried really hard to work in an “eat lead” joke here, but I just couldn’t do it.

Photo: Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Banning felt waders

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Maryland, Vermont, and Alaska are the first states to ban felt-bottomed fishing waders in an effort to slow the spread of the algae known as didymo, and other invasive species. (Well, the Alaskan ban doesn’t take effect until next year, but it is on the books.)

Idaho and Oregon tried to ban felt waders, but the legislation didn’t pass, reports this USA Today story on the wader ban. Nevada will consider a ban as part of an invasive species plan, the article says.

Missouri has taken another route. It is using wader washers at the state’s four trout parks. Read all about it in the Missouri Department of Conservation press release. Info about the wader wash stations is half-way down, below the list of phone numbers. One Ozark skeptic opines here, but gives many more details about Missouri’s attempt to slow didymo by educating anglers.

Photo: What’s on your waders? A biologist conducts a fisheries survey in Wyoming. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Spring research round-up

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Black duck
The New York State Department of Envirnmental Conservation and the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (located at Cornell University) are conducting two black bear research projects in south-central New York this season. One study will estimate bear population density using a genetic (DNA) identification technique. The other will study bear movements and habitat selection in core bear ranges and fringe areas. Read more.
Also this spring, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program is teaming up with Montclair State University and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey for the state’s first broad-based scientific study of chytrid fungus. The study seeks to find out if chytrid fungus is having an impact on the state’s amphibian populations. More info from the State of New Jersey.
This winter the Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife Department studied black ducks along the state’s coast. The department is concerned about the birds because their numbers have been declining. Read about the study in this article from the Cape Codder, via the WickedLocal Eastham blog. The study will continue for three more years.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife recently completed catfish research in the Wabash River. There had been no harvest limits on large catfish in the state, and the public had expressed concerns about fishing pressure. The state is looking into regulating the fishery. Some info on the regs from the Indiana General Assembly. A report on catfish in the Wabash River.
Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Dept.

Alaska says: Please don’t taze the bears

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The State of Alaska has made it illegal for the public to use a Taser on wildlife. The stated fear is “catch and release” hunting — that someone would stun a moose or a bear long enough for a photo op, then release the animal, an article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

The Taser X3W

You might think that the inevitable injury to the “hunter” would nip this practice faster than any law would, but with yet another Jackass movie coming out in a few months, what more proof do you need that some people never learn?

The Alaska law seems wiser with the knowledge that Taser International recently introduced the Taser X3W Wildlife Electronic Control Device, a stun gun specifically designed for wildlife management. (The company’s press release for the product is here.)

It can, and has been, used to haze bears, but it can also be used in place of tranquilizer darts under certain conditions. One suggested use is to stun an animal so that a tranquilizer can be injected more accurately. Another use is to stun the animal briefly (15 seconds is one time I saw), for quick actions like taking a chicken feeder off a moose’s head. (As mentioned in the newspaper article.)

The magazine Wildlife Professional has a review of the use of stun guns on wildlife in its current issue. You can read it here. That article contains a link to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s operating procedures for stun guns.

Photo: TASER International

Pick Your Battles With Invasive Shrubs

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Multiflora rose

Think before you raze a stand of autumn olive, multiflora rose, or buckthorn, urged John Litvatis of the University of New Hampshire at a well-attended session at the Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference this week.

For over a decade, most wildlife management agencies have had a policy of removing invasive species whenever they are found. Sometimes, though, the removal can do more harm than good. For example, the prickly tangle created by a stand of multiflora rose provides good habitat for the imperiled New England cottontail. Take away the rose bushes, and the cottontails might be quickly gobbled by predators.

If there was nothing but multiflora rose as far as the eye could see, though, then that monoculture would almost certainly need to be restored to some sort of balance, Litvatis said. But in many cases the aggressive — and reflexive — suppression of invasive shrubs may not be necessary.

Litvatis knew he was suggesting something against accepted wisdom, so he repeated that he was not advocating planting invasive species, just a more thoughtful approach to their removal, including the idea that sometimes it is best to leave things alone.

Litvatis flashed a slide with the names of other biologists in the Northeast who are with him in urging a more thoughtful approach to the management of invasive species. The audience stayed well into the break after the session, and not a single commenter attacked the idea or dismissed it out of hand. Food for thought.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons. JoJan