Tag Archives: 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.

Moose Have Deer Parasite in Maine

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The lungworms found in Maine deer are more closely related to the lungworms of red deer and fallow deer in Sweden and New Zealand than they are to the lungworms previously found in moose, a Bangor Daily News article reports.

The DNA analysis was done by a University of Maine undergraduate as a senior project, but it has lead to an invitation to present her results at a national conference, the article states.

Read the Bangor Daily News article, here.
Read the paper itself, here.

In other lungworm news (and it is hard to believe that there could be other lungworm news), the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Center reports in its blog that a new species of lungworm has been discovered in northern Canada’s caribou, muskox and moose.

Read the blog post here.

Photo by by Alan Briere, NH Fish and Wildlife (I wanted a picture of a lungworm, but couldn’t find one. You can thank me later for not running one.)

 

Chad Bishop To Lead Colorado Wildlife Branch

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From a press release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife:

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Rick Cables has announced the selection of Chad Bishop to serve as Assistant Director for Wildlife and Natural Resources.

In his new role as assistant director, Bishop will oversee the biological units of the agency as well as the units that manage real estate and water resources. Since 2009, Bishop has headed the Mammals Research Program, which includes 18 research projects that address ecology and management of cougar, black bear, elk, mule deer, lynx and other species in the state. Bishop has recently been serving as acting manager of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Terrestrial Section.

Bishop is an avid sportsman and has lived in Colorado since 1999. He has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management from Montana State University, master’s degree in wildlife resources from University of Idaho, and a doctorate in wildlife biology from Colorado State University. Bishop started with the former Colorado Division of Wildlife as a wildlife researcher in 1999. As a researcher, he studied mule deer for a decade before becoming head of the Mammals Research Program in 2009.

“I’m excited for this new opportunity to serve Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the citizens of Colorado,” said Bishop. “Colorado boasts a wealth of fish, wildlife and natural resources. I’m looking forward to helping manage and preserve those resources for our State’s residents and visitors, now and into the future.”

Read the entire release, here.

Avian Malaria in Alaska

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Human beings do not get avian malaria, which is a good thing for the human beings in Alaska. Avian malaria is, however, caused by a parasite that is closely related to the one that causes human malaria, and that might be a good thing, too. Of course, the news for birds is bad all around.

A study by San Francisco State University researchers, published in the journal PLoS ONE, collected blood samples from birds in Alaska over a latitudinal gradient in Alaska, from 61°N to 67°N, and found the avian malaria parasite as far north as 64°N.

This is a huge threat to the Arctic’s rich bird life, because the birds there have never been exposed to avian malaria and they may be highly susceptible to it, says San Francisco State University Associate Professor of Biology Ravinder Sehgal, one of the study’s co-authors.

The finding may supply medical researchers with a valuable model of human malaria and climate change. The spread of malaria (the human kind) is one of the most threatening aspects of climate change on human health.

For anyone charged with managing populations of wild birds — whether they are songbirds, water fowl or upland game birds, the presence of avian malaria at up to a latititude of 64°N is worth noting in hunting plans, endangered species recovery plans, and when investigating disease outbreaks in birds.

Read the PLoS ONE paper, here. (This is an open access journal.)
Read the SF State U press release, here.
Read a brief analysis of the findings in Climate Central, here.

Photo: SF State Associate Professor of Biology Ravinder Sehgal holds a Common Redpoll, one of several bird species in Alaska researchers discovered were infected with malaria. Credit: Ravinder Sehgal, SF State.

Condor Reintroduction Reviewed

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According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department:

A review of the 2007-2011 period of the California condor reintroduction program in northern Arizona and southern Utah was recently completed and identifies a number of successes, including an increase in the free-ranging population, consistent use of seasonal ranges by condors and an increased number of breeding pairs. However, exposure to lead contamination from animal carcasses and gut piles left in the field continues to limit the success of the program. The team made several recommendations to address the lead issue.

You can read the rest of the press release on the AZGFD website, here. It’s the third item on the page.

Go straight to the news with this Peregrine Fund press release. (I think it says exactly the same thing.)

On Saturday (Sept. 29), the reintroduction continues with 17th public release of condors in Arizona since the recovery program began in 1996. At this event three endangered California condors will be released to the wild.

Read more about it in the AZGFD’s Wildlife News. It’s the sixth item from the top and is followed by another release praising Arizona hunters for voluntarily reducing their use of lead bullets to help the condors survive.

Photo: California condor, courtesy Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Fast(er) WNS Test

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little brown bat with white nose syndrome on cave wallGeomyces destructans, the fungus that causes white nose syndrome in bats, is difficult to identify. The parts that are external to an infected bat, brush off easily, and DNA tests have a hard time discerning G. destructans from other fungi in the genus, which are soil-dwelling organisms that are very common in caves.

The journal Mycologia has published an on-line before print article describing a TaqMan polymerase chain reaction test to identify the fungus’s DNA. The key to not picking up any of the 43 other fungi in the genus (or other closely-related fungi) appears to be focusing on the multicopy intergenic spacer region of the rRNA gene complex.

This innovation should allow diagnostic laboratories to identify G. destructans more quickly.

Read the Mycologia article (requires subscription or fee).

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