Thursday, March 28, 2013

Elk vanished from Wisconsin in the 1800s due to hunting and shrinking habitat as prairies became farmland.................... The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point reintroduced the animal in 1995, setting 25 Michigan elk loose near Clam Lake in Ashland County................. The DNR adopted a management plan in 2000 that called for growing the herd to 1,400 elk...............At this point only about 175 of the animals roam Wisconsin and the Dept. of Natural Resources will not authorize any type hunt until the herd reaches at least 200 strong.....Habitat constraints(a lack of young Aspen trees which are a favorite food of Elk), car collisions, several hard winters and carnivore predation have combined to create a slow-growth paradigm for the Elk

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DNR: No elk hunt this year By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press sfgate.com Wisconsin law prohibits e...
Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Very slow progress(but progress nonetheless) over the past 16 years for the once plummeting Pronghorn population in Mexico--170 animals in 1997-----close to 300 today getting protection in the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve..................Much more needs to be done on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border in terms of habitat protection(and border fence openings) for this fleet- of- foot browser to be free and clear of an extinction crisis

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Pronghorns making a comeback in Mexico globalpost.com Desierto de El Vizcaino,  Mexico ,- The pro...

Our friend and former U.S. Wildlife Services employee and the author of WOLFER,,,,,,,,,,,,,Carter Niemeyer is as "up close and in personal" as anyone in North America can be on Wolf restoration and the anti-Wolf movement in the Rocky Mountain West.......................Carter is dismayed to hear himself admit to the fact that in his opinion, "state legislatures have gone off the deep end in persecuting wolves"................ "Wolves can take a lot but then what do the legislatures have on their agendas in coming years - maybe drones, maybe poison, maybe bounties, maybe year round denning of wolf pups"............ "I absolutely believe that legislatures will take it that far".......... "Payback to the feds and the wolf advocates, all based on anecdotal bullshit that wolves are impacting livestock, pets and ungulates"............While I hate myself for saying this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I HAVE TO AGREE WITH CARTER............Unless some type of "hail mary" 11th hour negotiated plan between state righters, Enviros and the Feds can be brokered, it appears that under the most progressive minded President ever(OBAAMA), 50 years of species restoration and pro biological diversity headway is going to come to a screeching halt.................Carter, than you as always for your candor and insights

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From: Niemeyer  Subject: : Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus signs on the Gray Wolf Letter - Who would have guessed...........? ...

George Wuerthner and Norm Bishop shared this Journal of Applied Ecology Abstract entitled FEMALE ELK SURVIVAL ACROSS WESTERN NORTH AMERICA............As we know, severe winter weather ups the ante on how successful carnivores like Wolves and Pumas will be preying on Elk............Cause-specific mortality analyses showed that wolves and all carnivore species combined had additive effects on baseline elk mortality, but only reduced survival by 2%................ When human factors were included, 'total' adult mortality was solely related to harvest; the influence of native carnivores was compensatory........ Annual total mortality rates were lowest in populations sympatric with both pumas and wolves because managers reduced female harvest in areas with abundant or diverse carnivores............Bottom line is that if Game Managers effectively moderate human hunting of Elk, they will generally fare very well in a multi-carnivore natural system

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Female elk survival across western North America Journal of Applied Ecology Volume 50 ,  Issue 2 ,  pages 295–305 ,  ...
Tuesday, March 26, 2013

I know that biologist John Laundre is shaking his head as he reads this article...........As he will tell you,,,,,,If you keep shooting Pumas into oblivion, eventually, fewer and fewer Cats there will be...................Is the South Dakota Game Commission that clueless that they put on a straight face and boldly tell us that there will not be 100 Pumas killed when the hunt closes down next week..................Guys, you are killing them faster than they can reproduce..............Put a lid on it!!!!!!

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Mountain lion totals may fall short of season limit blackhillsfox.com There's one week left in the 2013 South Dakota mountain...

As we have been following the plight of the Wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan, we know that have been struggling for years with inbreeding and may now be unwilling or unable to mate, said John Vucetich, who leads the world's longest study of predators and prey in a single ecosystem.........Scientists who visited the island found no evidence that pups were born during the past year – the first time the wolves have failed to produce offspring since biologists began monitoring their reproduction in 1971.............While their are female Wolves among the 8 remaining, "Next year will be very telling," Vucetich said in a telephone interview. "If they don't reproduce two years in a row ... it would seem the end is imminent."

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APNewsBreak: No pups born to Isle Royale wolves By John Flesher, Associated Press;ksl.com e T...

Since being re-elected, President Obama has had a "loud voice" regarding Immigration Reform and Gay Marriage rights.................On arguably a larger issue that impacts all current American Citizens, clean air, clean water and biodiversity(the health of the land), barely a loud whisper has been heard from him...........Obama's land preservation and Parks record is the worst of any President, Democrat or Republican since 1960...............When it comes to making a case on behalf of the rest of creation besides man, not a peep is to be heard from the President..............Day in and day out, fringe groups yelling states rights and poking adverse holes in the Endangered Species Act-----Now the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is bowing to this pressure and discussing declaring Wolves across the USA to be federally delisted,,,,,,,,,doing a reverse course in their stated mission of recovering species where suitable habitat exists, regardless of whether a current population of a particular species exists currently...................This would be a disaster for Wolf restoration East of the Mississippi where scientifically identified and suitable Wolf habitat like the North Woods of New England and New York and the Southern Appalachians fanning out from the Smokey Mountains is just waiting for the howl of the Wolf to be heard once more...............Both of Obama's Secretary of the Interior choices have been anything but "Babbitt-like"(President Clinton's superior Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt)...............Mr. President, the National Enviro Organizations just do not have the firepower alone to stem the anti-wolf, anti carnivore reactionary fever that seems to becoming pandemic in nature..............We need you to be a Mariano Rivera(NY Yankee Great relief Pitcher) coming out of the bullpen in our 9th inning to shut down the subversives!

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Western Environmentalists Oppose Wolf Delisting   By BEN NEARY Associated Press;abcnews.go.com CHEYENNE, Wyo. W estern environme...