Thursday, October 27, 2011

Newrfoundland(Canada) Moose are overunning the Forests of the region--no Wolves and Cougars to keep them in check............introduced to this region in the early 20th century, Parks Canada said it was forced to take action because of destruction that moose have caused to habitat for other species........."More and more you can see areas — not just small forest stands or individual, small clumps of trees but huge landscapes - that are starting to be essentially denuded of mature forest," said Peter Deering, a conservation manager at Gros Morne National Park............ "Bird communities will change............ Small mammal communities will change............. Even species of other shrubs and forest plants that grow on the forest floor will change," he said.

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Moose will soon be killed in two national parks in Newfoundland, with officials saying the population of the animals is destroying forests a...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Quebec, Canada residents are very concerned about the health of the remaining Woodland Caribou in their Province.

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New Poll Indicates Quebecer's are Concerned about Endangered Woodland Caribou NEMASKA, Eeyou Istchee - A recent poll by Leger Marketing ...

Is the Pine Bark Beetle infestation in the Intermountain West adversely impacting how Elk utilize the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming???..............Has the dying Pine trees impacted how hunters utilize the forest?...........Major impacts to consider include: (1) the ability of elk to move through the landscape due to fallen logs, increased vegetation regeneration or beetle kill management activities, (2) the ability of hunters to access elk hunting areas, (3) a loss of hiding cover, (4) increased harvest availability to hunters due to new logging roads constructed for harvesting of trees, (5) increased cripple loss due to longer shots and tougher tracking conditions, (6) decreased harvest availability by hunters due to closed roads and fallen trees, and/or (7) increased degradation of forest ecosystem health and wildlife habitat due to higher numbers of elk and a loss of hunter participation in beetle kill areas.

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Beetle kill may affect how elk use forest   BAGGS – A cooperative study between the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) and the U.S. For...

The most successful Grizzly rewilding Researcher in the World, Yellowstones' Chris Servheen, is in the process of a "recounting" the Yellowstone Griz population...........Servheen is a true conservationist but many feel he might end up wrongly upping the Griz population from the now stated 600 bears to a revised 843...............This would increase the number of bears that could be hunted in the planned 2012 Yellowstone Grizzly hunt.............Of course, all of the Wyoming Game & Fish folks think that the bear population is currently greatly undercounted and is cheering on the population modeling study that Servheen and his staff are in the process of completing................Can the Griz withstand the hunting pressure coming if the count is revised upward?.................Does the demise of the cutthroat trout and whitebark pine, two critical foodstuffs of the bears put a far too high pressure on their long term survival.?..........First law of management is to "do no harm" without careful evaluation of all consequences.................Is "do no harm" in effect for Yellowstone Grizzlies?

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Officials preparing for Yellowstone grizzly hunts Dave Smith There aren't enough grizzlies in the Yellowstone region to allow hunting t...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Black Bears adapting to acorn shortages in the Western North Carolina woodlands are wandering into human settlements in the region......The state does not capture and remove bears anymore,,,,,,,, there's simply nowhere to put them.......... Additionally, it is impossible to catch hundreds of bears......... The bottom-line on the issue, at least according to the state biologist and the region's other bear experts?........ We've got to learn how to live with black bears,,,,,,not feed them,,,,,not to put out bird food and dog food ,,,,, to slow down and watch out for bears on the highway, and do those other easy, sensible things that will allow bears and humans to peacefully coexist

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Bear encounters: Bears on the prowl for food lead to increased sightings  by Quintin Ellison A bad year for acorns in the higher elevation...

Another wisconsin Cougar in Wisconsin..........

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Trail Camera Captures Cougar Outside Mauston DNR: Photo Is First Confirmed Sighting Of Cougar In Juneau County MAUSTON, Wis. -- The state De...

Missouri has deer like Manhattan has rats--out of control and coyotes are not a sinking agent!

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According to the Insurance Information Institute, there are nearly 100,000 deer in Missouri. The animals aren't just in the woods.\ ...
Monday, October 24, 2011

4th oregon wolf Pack patrolling the Snake River Wildlife Mgmt Area in Northeast Oregon, bordering the Idaho Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

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  Snake River wolf pack 4th confirmed in Oregon Wolves throughout Oregon are protected by the state Endangered Species Act (ESA). West of ...

A viable Cougar sighting in Upstate NY(Glen Falls Adirondack region).......Remains of killed Goats up in a tree--classic Cougar kill behavior; will the trail camera footage verify or deny this sighting?

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Mountain lion sighting updated in Upstate NY I've heard from a lot of people over the years who swear they have seen mountain lions in ...

Epic wolf hunt caught on camera in Alberta, Canada............click on link below to view

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The extraordinary endurance hunting of grey wolves has been recorded by BBC filmmakers in Alberta, Canada.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/...
Sunday, October 23, 2011

Brooks Fahy of PREDATOR DEFENSE sent me this informative article that quotes Duane Diefenbach(Professoor of Wildlife Ecology, Penn State) definitive conclusion that Coyotes are not sinking the Deer population in Pennsylvania:......." Fawn-predation rates were normal here(since 2002), and I don't have any evidence that anything has changed since then — no available data, such as changes in hunter-success rates in harvesting deer, suggest that coyote predation is increasing..... "If it is, then hunters should be harvesting fewer young deer, and we are not seeing that"........""Peoples' natural reaction to hearing and seeing coyotes, and knowing that they are everywhere in Pennsylvania, is to wonder how many fawns they kill, but I don't know what we would learn if we conducted another fawn-survival study, especially because of what we already know about deer-coyote ecology"........ "I am advising a graduate student right now who is evaluating the assumptions and methods that we use to track and monitor deer-population trends in this state"........ "His research is focused on the validity of the model we use to manage deer"...... "All of his work done so far — both in the field and with computer simulations — doesn't show any evidence of a decline in deer numbers because we are not recruiting fawns into the population."..............Blog readers, like in most of the USA, we need wolves and cougars back on the ground eating their share of deeer so as to help regenerate our woodlands and prairies back into a state of health!

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Coyotes Not Decimating Deer Numbers According to Expert    By Chuck Gill and Jeff Mulhollem, Penn State University UNIVERSITY PARK – It...

Missour Ozark Cougar sightings have increased with frequency since 1996....9 sightings alone in the past 10 months..........Male emigrees from the Black Hills of South Dakota looking for mates and new territories to call their own.........A very slight chance that Lions were never extripated from the State........The use of game cameras might also be a factor in the increased sightings of late............Whatever the case, as we always say, "where are the lady Cougars to create a breeding "Show-Me" State population"?

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Mountain Lion sightings on the rise in the Ozarks Linda Greer Numbered in sequence, the map shows confirmed mountain lion sightings since ...

Seamus McGraw has been writing a series of article for the NY Times evaluating the consequences of his selling the underground mineral rights to Natural Gas firms who are drilling in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, NY and South to Kentucky.....Sean discussed the disaster to the land that is about to take place: "It takes as many as 400 truck trips to complete a single well, and that's not even counting the fuel-guzzling equipment needed to alter the ancient land to carve out the three- to five-acre drill pad itself........ Once that's done, the diesel drill rigs arrive, towering diamond-tipped syringes that work round the clock, often for two weeks at a stretch, to bore down 7,500 feet or so into the Marcellus before making a 90-degree turn to bore another mile and a half laterally........ It's a dirty, noisy, energy-intensive process, and despite the industry's boast that natural gas burns 30 percent cleaner than oil, in the Marcellus the hunt for it is still fueled almost entirely by diesel.....It takes millions of gallons of water to break up the shale, and at least 30 percent remains underground forever........ The rest of it, along with the slightly radioactive, highly saline and heavy-metal-laden water that has existed alongside the shale for 400 million years, flows up to the surface over the lifetime of the well"........Sean then states: "Is it worth it"? ...........It's an obvious NO as far as I am concerened......RISK VERSUS REWARD ANALYSIS OVERWHELMINGLY SHOWS THE RISK AND THE DAMAGE JUST TOO TOO HIGH WITH PERMANENT ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL LIVING THINGS

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Drilling Down on the Family Farm PREV Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Piotr Redlinsk...
Saturday, October 22, 2011

Coyotes are efficient deer scavengers and when researchers examine their stomach contents, invariably, deer turn up as a very high % of consumed foodstuffs............Yes, Coyotes kill fawns and in small groups take down adult deer..............It is also true that they are the ultmiate deer scavengers and clean up road kill, hunter kill, disease and weather kill deer on a very regular basis............I think all the deer hunters who claim coyotes are the reason for deer declines misleadingly use these researcher stomach content counts to beat the drums for killing as many "songdogs" as possible----NOT RIGHT!!!!!!!!

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Coyotes scavenge for deer in the area(New York State) Rick Brockway With the strong winds and rather unpleasant weather, I didn't go o...
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Natural Resources Defense Concil Bear expert, Louisa Wilcox, having some differing opinions from USFWS Grizzly Bear Coordinator Chris Servheen on whether the public will support Griz conservation if additional litigation keeps the bears on the Endangered Species list rather than being delisted............Both Louisa and Chris are ardently pro bear...........Two passionate and professional "wildlifers" coming down somewhat differently from each other with all good intent for the bears

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More misleading statements about grizzly bears by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | Louisa Wilcox, NRDC The October 2nd article in the Misso...
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The North Georgia Black Bear population is expanding and pushing young bears to find territories in and around suburban Atlantla...............Kicked out of their dens in their second year by their mothers, and possibly pushed out of the North Georgia mountains by older dominant males, youngsters may be seeking new territory to the south.And to a bear.......... The Atlanta area is a big all-you-can-eat buffet of bird seed, pet food and garbage........That's one of the biggest problems with bears in metro area........If a bear in the mountains gets into someone's trash, usually you can deal with it by getting residents to remove food sources........But in the metro area, with people and pets and houses and bird feeders, there's just so much there, it's just an endless supply of food...

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In metro Atlanta, that bear out there may be a year-round neighbor   A trail camera belonging to Johns Creek resident John McCormick captu...
Friday, October 21, 2011

Norm Bishop sent me some excellent communication from Doug Smith(Yellowstone Wolf Studies) and John Byers U. Of Idaho) discussing what we reported on the other day about the North Dakota Pronghorn population downward spiral(severe winter weather blamed)...............As Norm notes,,,,,,,we know that coyotes inhabit North Dakota and likely take a fair share of pronghorn calves out of the population......... In Yellowstone, we know that wolves decrease the coyote population and that as a result, there is less coyote predation on pronghorn..................If North Dakota Game Officials were "thinking like a mountain", they would restore wolves to their landscapes, which would likely help to some degree mitigate the pronghorn losses that are incurred by the cold winter weather

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The following note is personal communication from Doug Smith, who, with John Byers, observed that wolves appeared to benefit pronghorns by e...
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THE MOUNTAIN LION FOUNDATION rightly questioning why every time cougars, bears or wolves show up near human dwellings, the kneejerk reaction is to kill the animals.............even if they are not being aggressive toward humans

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Why won't the California Department of Fish and Game Protect Our Lions? Due to what appears to be bad decisions made on the part of Ca...
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The more Oil and Gas fields per square mile, the greater the probability that certain species of birds will see serious population declines............The disturbance of Sagebrush, whether that be due to home building or energy development adversely effects Brewers and Sage Sparrows either through direct habitat disruption or by creating edge effects that allow generalist predators to successfully increase nest predation of the birds..........Whether it be visual blight of the land(windmilles/panels)or outright habitat alteration(oil, gas coal digs), fossil fuel as well as industrial windmill and solar installations cannot be our ultimate answer to powering up our nation....................Certainly, these type projects should be limited to land that we have already ripped up rather than bulldozing additional forest, farm, desert and prairie habitat.

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Songbirds decline as Wyoming oil and gas soars: study By Laura Zuckerman  Key populations of songbirds are in decline in the sagebrush pl...
Thursday, October 20, 2011

Even with no wolves on the scene, the North Dakota Pronghorn population seems to be in a severe downswing, off 30% from year ago count........4500 animals making this the smallest population in the State since the 1950's.........3 consecutive severe winters a big factor in the decline.......Weather and disease like in domestic livestock, the biggest "culling agents" of "browsers" of all sorts,,,,,,,,,,,,,Carnivores play a role but are too often blamed for downward spikes of prey when other natural factors(and man made disturbance) are the critical "sink" culprits

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Pronghorn Population Remains Low North Dakota Game and Fish Department biologists recently completed the 2011 pronghorn population survey, ...

Oklahoma black bear quota reached in one weekend-31..........1 shy of year ago take...........

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While one popular Oklahoma hunt took only two days to fulfill, several other big-game hunting opportunities await Oklahoma sportsmen and non...

Norm Bishop and George Wuerthner sent me this insightful and I will say "courageously" penned article where Mary Scott, Grand Teton Park Superintendent speaks forthrightly about how the killing of wolves outside her Park can cause great social discord in the remaining pack members............year round dispersal necessary and the Wyoming wolf hunting and trapping plan is virtually a year round affair-------let the wolves beware

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---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Norman Bishop < nabishop@q.com > Date: Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 1:02 PM Subject: Fwd: GT...