A new presidential term is driving some of the changes at the head of agencies and institutions important to wildlife research, but for others, it was just time.

Chief among those changes at the top is the news that Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar will step down.
Read about his term on the CNN website here.
A look at his legacy is on a New York Times blog here. (Wildlife is not mentioned.)

The Salazar announcement was preceded by the news that Jane Lubchenco would leave her post as the head of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. At the time of her appointment there was excitement that a research scientist of her caliber was taking such a high-level government post.
A Washington Post article on her departure, including the reprint of an email signed “Dr. Jane.”

Lost in the hubbub has been the news that the head of the U.S. Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt, is also leaving. The USGS is, after all, the federal agency that conducts wildlife research (a role that was stripped from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during the Clinton administration). Life is good when your agency doesn’t have any regulatory or management responsibilities, she says in an interview with the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Science Insider.
Read it here.

But all the changes have not been at the federal level. The Wildlife Society recently announced that Dr. Byron Kenneth (Ken) Williams will become its executive director. Williams has completed stints with the USGS and the USFWS.
Read the Wildlife Society announcement here.

Bat Conservation International is a significant partner in bat research in addition to bat advocacy, so it is worth noting that it recently named Andrew B. Walker as its executive director. (Also worth noting is the Walker will work out of Washington, DC, not Austin, TX.)
Read the BCI press release here.

Finally, not all changes go smoothly. In Idaho, the daughter of a California game warden is facing a confirmation fight in the state Senate over her appointment to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. At issue seems to be the fact that she has not held a hunting license every year since she her first in the state in 2002. Opponents to her appointment would prefer a more avid hunter and angler.
Read the whole story in the Spokane Spokesman-Review here.

What do you do when your collared foxes are missing? The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Investigations Lab has been tracking desert kit foxes to study an outbreak of canine distemper. Deana Clifford, the Wildlife Investigation Lab’s (WIL) wildlife veterinarian for non-game threatened and endangered species is running the project.

Over the summer, however, some of the collared foxes’ radio signals disappeared after flash flooding in the study area. After several attempts on foot, the researchers took to the air and found the missing foxes with an airplane equipped with a tracking antenna.

Lots of information on this project from CDFW WIL:
Here’s the blog post on the air search
Here’s the background on canine distemper in desert foxes.
And here’s an post about the first kit fox pup of the year.

Idaho Fish and Game is taking to the air, too. But this is just a routine big game survey, which they do in key hunt units every three years.
Read the press release here.

Photo: A remote camera photographs a radio collared fox in California’s Chuckwalla Valley – part of the Colorado Desert. Photo courtesy of David Elms from California’s Region 6 DFW office.

Three Florida panthers (Puma concolor) were hit and killed by vehicles in a one week period this November, the Naples News reports. That brings the Florida panther death total to 23 for the year. It’s possible that this year will tie or break the record number of panther deaths of 25, set in 2007. But more important, the trend of the total number of deaths each year generally increasing over the last 10 years.

What does it all mean? Another article in the Naples News quotes Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission panther team leader Darrell Land as saying the trend is no reason to worry. He says in the article that more panthers mean more deaths. He also says that known panther births are keeping pace with the panther deaths.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) does not agree, saying in a press release that something needs to be done to stem the mounting death toll of the federally endangered species.

However, it was the Naples News article that noted:

In 2004, PEER represented former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Andy Eller in an unsuccessful attempt to get his job back after he questioned the science his agency was using to approve development in panther habitat and was fired.

In other wild cat news, disease may not be the first thing you think of when you think of predators in urban areas. But Fluffy and Fido have to worry about catching (and giving) diseases to bobcats in addition to worrying about winding up as a bobcat’s dinner, a recent paper in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology says. Actually, the paper focuses on disease transmission between humans and bobcats, which may be farther off anyone’s radar, and the diseases mentioned are familiar to pet owners.

NBCNews.com has the LiveScience story, here.
You can find at least the abstract for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology paper, here. (Full access requires a subscription or fee.)

Finally, the ninth mountain lion (Puma concolor) confirmed in Kansas in modern times was seen in a trail camera photo this month, although the photo was taken in October, a press release from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says. Read the press release here.

Photo: courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

In 2005, the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries staff began investigating of the status of the Eastern indigo snake in the state. Two years of intensive field investigation did not discover any of this federally-listed species, so the department, along with several partners, began to reintroduce them.

Since 2010, 78 wild indigo snakes into the Conecuh National Forest in Alabama. According to the USDA blog:

Some of the released snakes were bred in captivity from wild-caught snakes from Georgia through the cooperation of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Fort Stewart. The snakes were raised at Auburn University and the Atlanta Zoo. Each captive-raised snake with this project has been implanted with a passive integrated transponder tag for permanent identification as well as a radio transmitter to track and assess their survivorship. Auburn University will monitor the snakes movements and survival in the Conecuh National Forest.

In 2011, the US Forest Service recognized the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries for their indigo snake restoration project. Other partners in the project include Conecuh National Forest, Auburn University, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The Orianne Society, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Zoo Atlanta, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Oh, and the average indigo snake is about seven feet long, making it one of the largest snakes native to North America. It is not venomous.

You can read more about the project in a press release from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, here. (And no, I don’t feel the slightest bit sheepish about mentioning this release 20 days later. The “recent” award was given in 2011, after all.)

Here’s the press release from the time of the first snake release.
And here’s the USDA blog, with more information.

Photo: Indigo snake, courtesy of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

In 2005, the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries staff began investigating of the status of the Eastern indigo snake in the state. Two years of intensive field investigation did not discover any of this federally-listed species, so the department, along with several partners, began to reintroduce them.

Since 2010, 78 wild indigo snakes into the Conecuh National Forest in Alabama. According to the USDA blog:

Some of the released snakes were bred in captivity from wild-caught snakes from Georgia through the cooperation of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Fort Stewart. The snakes were raised at Auburn University and the Atlanta Zoo. Each captive-raised snake with this project has been implanted with a passive integrated transponder tag for permanent identification as well as a radio transmitter to track and assess their survivorship. Auburn University will monitor the snakes movements and survival in the Conecuh National Forest.

In 2011, the US Forest Service recognized the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries for their indigo snake restoration project. Other partners in the project include Conecuh National Forest, Auburn University, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The Orianne Society, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Zoo Atlanta, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Oh, and the average indigo snake is about seven feet long, making it one of the largest snakes native to North America. It is not venomous.

You can read more about the project in a press release from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, here. (And no, I don’t feel the slightest bit sheepish about mentioning this release 20 days later. The “recent” award was given in 2011, after all.)

Here’s the press release from the time of the first snake release.
And here’s the USDA blog, with more information.

Photo: Indigo snake, courtesy of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

According to the Denver Post, a transmitter-equipped wolverine departed Wyoming, survived the Red Desert and has been located in Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado was once part of the ever-rarer creature’s range, but there hasn’t been a breeding population in the state since 1919, the article says.

In addition to its toughness, this wolverine has an incredible sense of drama and public relations skill: the US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering adding the wolverine to the endangered species list. A court has ruled that the decision must be made by January 2013. It could be the second animal (after the polar bear) to get a federal endangered species listing because of climate change, the article says.

Read the Denver Post article here.
Read an article in the Missoulian on the proposed wolverine Endangered Species Act listing here.
And here’s a link to a press release about the Wildlife Conservation Society paper about the wolverine’s denning habitat needs that is mentioned in the Denver Post article.

Photo: Wolverine, courtesy Mountain National Heritage Program and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks