Wildlife Rehabilitators Decline

Posted on October 18, 2012 by MadelineBodin

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.

New EHD Outbreaks and Other EHD News

Posted on September 25, 2012 by MadelineBodin

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) has been reported in Missouri and Wisconsin.

Find more information about the situation in Missouri through the Missouri Department of Conservation press release, here. In Wisconsin, the cause of death of 31 deer has not been confirmed, but EHD is suspected. If it is EHD, it will be the first outbreak since 2002 says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Read the blog in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, here.

In South Dakota, the EHD outbreak has been severe enough to curtail deer hunting licenses, according to the Mitchell Daily Republic. South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department is removing all the unsold hunting licenses from several of the state’s hunting units and is offering refunds to hunters who would like to voluntarily turn in their licenses. Read the whole story in the Mitchell Daily Republic.

Map: Antlered deer harvest in South Dakota in 2010. Darker color is higher number of antlered deer per 100 square miles. Courtesy South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

CWD Hunting Season Too “Confusing” For Wisc.

Posted on August 28, 2012 by MadelineBodin

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wants a four-day antlerless deer hunt as part of its strategy against Chronic Wasting Disease. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has cancelled that hunt, reports the Pierce County Herald, saying that he is bowing to the wishes of the state’s hunters, who found the extra deer hunting season confusing and felt it took the fun out of the November season.

Read the very short piece in the Pierce County Herald.

Of course, Governor Walker has already made what he thinks of his state’s employees abundantly clear. Why hunters who don’t like the added season can’t simply not participate in it is not as clear.

Photo: Michigan does, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife

Citizen Science Season: Turtles, Birds, and Disease

Posted on May 8, 2012 by MadelineBodin

avian boultism monitoring volunteer Where did the turtle cross the road? A citizen scientist has the answer, particularly in Massachusetts, where over the last few years citizen scientists have been tracking turtle crossings as part of the Turtle Roadway Mortality Monitoring Program. Volunteers are trained by Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife, a partnership between Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW), Department of Transportation (DOT) Highway Division and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

The training will take place next week.

Get more info on Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife, here.
Read the press release in iBerkshires.com

Next week is also when Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control wildlife biologist Matthew Bailey will introduce volunteers to monitor the state’s endangered piping plovers and other beach-nesting birds, and protect them from disturbance.

There will be lots of training sessions for avian botulism monitors on Lake Michigan, perhaps because avian botulism is no where near as cute as either a piping plover or a turtle and you need to cast a wider net to get people to volunteer. Still, 44 citizen scientists volunteered with the US Geological Survey’s avian botulism monitoring program last year.

Changes to Wisconsin Endangered Species List

Posted on April 30, 2012 by MadelineBodin

Snow Egret The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has proposed changes to the state’s endangered species list.

According to a DNR press release, it recommends removing seven animals from the list: greater redhorse (fish), barn owl, snowy egret, and Bewick’s wren, pygmy snaketail (dragonfly), Blanding’s turtle and Butler’s gartersnake. The proposal recommends nine plants also be removed from the list: American fever-few, bog bluegrass, Canada horse-balm, drooping sedge, hemlock parsley, prairie Indian-plantain, snowy campion, yellow gentian, and yellow giant hyssop.

The state is also recommending that eight other species are in need of greater protection by being listed as endangered or threatened. Those species include: three birds — black tern, Kirtland’s warbler, upland sandpiper; one freshwater mussel — fawnsfoot; and four insects — beach-dune tiger beetle, ottoe skipper, a leafhopper (Attenuipyga vanduzeei), and an issid planthopper (Fitchiella robertsoni).

The DNR will host two open house discussions of the proposal in early May.

Read the DNR press release here.

Photo: Snowy egret, photo by Lee Karney, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Earthworms Cause Ovenbird Decline

Posted on March 6, 2012 by MadelineBodin

A recent paper in Landscape Ecology confirms that ovenbirds are found in lower densities in sugar maple and basswood forests in Wisconsin where invasive earthworms are found.

Ovenbird numbers have been in decline for decades in the Northeast and Midwest. Habitat loss is typically named as the chief culprit, although non-native earthworms were known to be a contributing factor.

Ovenbirds are a ground-nesting, forest-interior species. They rely both on large tracts of forested land and plenty of leaf-litter from which to build their beehive-oven-shaped nests. Earthworms, which are not native to the northern parts of the United States, quickly chew up fallen leaves and other forest debris, leaving the ovenbirds with few places to hide and little to build with.

Read the paper in Landscape Ecology, here. (Fee or subscription required.)
Read the Smithsonian Institution blog post on the findings, here.

The Smithsonian information has been reprinted widely around the web. A quick survey showed only verbatim copies of the blog post, but the coverage does appear to be widespread.

Photo: Ovenbird, courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Midwest Wolf Delisting Expected to Stick This Time

Posted on December 28, 2011 by MadelineBodin

The final rule to remove the western Great Lakes population of the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act is expected to be published in the Federal Register today (Dec. 28, 2011).
The rule will take effect 30 days after publication, so if all goes as planned, that will be Jan. 27, 2012.

The rule applies to gray wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and “portions of adjoining states,” according to the US Fish and Wildlife press release announcing the final rule.

A map from the US Fish and Wildlife Service of the “Western Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment” of gray wolves suggests that the adjoining states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and the tiniest slivers of Indiana and Ohio.

More information about this population segment, including lots of links, is available from the Midwest region of the USFWS, here.

The USFWS species profile of the gray wolf is here.

Here’s a draft of the Federal Register rule.

Read the USFWS press release for details such as the total population in the area (4,000, with more than half in Minnesota).

This is the third time in the past five years that Minnesota’s wolf population has been delisted, notes the Saint Cloud Times. This time, the ruling is expected to stand, the article says. Read the rest here.

Map: courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Cougars on the Move

Posted on November 18, 2011 by MadelineBodin

Cougars, also known as mountain lions, pumas and by several other names, have been in the news in Kansas and Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin and young mountain has been photographed by trail cameras three times in recent weeks. A press release from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reminds deer hunters that they can only shoot the animal in self-defense or in the defense of another human.

A TMJ 4 news report couches the news as a warning: hunters should stay in groups if a cougar has been spotted, and be aware that they have been known to steal deer carcasses. That may be because it was couched as a warning in an earlier Associated Press report.

In Kansas, a mountain lion was photographed on a game camera. Footprints confirmed that it was indeed a mountain lion, the sixth confirmed in the state since 2007. Read the Kansas Department of Parks, Wildlife and Tourism press release here.

Photo: Mountain lion in Wisconsin, courtesy of the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources

Asian Carp Found in Wisconsin

Posted on August 12, 2011 by MadelineBodin

A bighead carp caught by an angler, and traces of silver carp DNA found in tests means that Asian carp have expanded beyond the Mississippi River, where they were first found in Wisconsin 1996, into Wisconsin tributaries, a recent release from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reports. The silver lining is that no evidence of the carp reproducing has been found.

The department is asking anglers to report and bring in (on ice) any Asian carp caught.

Read the WDNR release here — with a nice graphic (keep scrolling down).

The Wall Street Journal picked up the Associated Press’s article on the story. Read it here.

This short item was posted on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blog. Read it here.

Photo: Yes, those are Asian carp behind that boat, but the boat is not in Wisconsin. Chris Olds, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Wildlife Pathology Solves the Case

Posted on June 23, 2011 by MadelineBodin

Shotgun blast or virus? Who done it? Or what done it? You may have turned to the U.S. Geological Service’s National Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madison, Wisc. to answer some of your most pressing wildlife mysteries. Here’s a view behind the scenes at the lab, with a focus on veterinary pathologist Carol Meteyer, in the current issue of Miller-McCune Magazine.

Read the story here.

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