Saturday, July 27, 2013

Our good friend Coyote biologist Jon Way has been consistently focused and deeply involved in the the discussion of the "what, where, why, how and when" regarding the emergence and persistence of the canid animal in northeastern North America variously called Coydog, Eastern Coyote, Tweed Wolf, Brush Wolf , Northeastern Coyote, Coyote, New Wolf, and Coywolf.............In Jon's most recent peer reviewed paper published in the THE CANADIAN FIELD NATURALIST entitled TAXONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC DIFFERENCES IN NORTHEASTERN COYOTES(COYWOLVES), WESTERN COYOTES AND EASTERN WOLVES, his stated purpose is to 1) add to the knowledge of northeastern Coyote systematics by conducting a comparison of northeastern Coyote body mass to those of both western Coyotes and Eastern Wolves, 2) compare northeastern canids mtDNA haplotypes with mass, and 3) review the literature and describe northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) as the 5th major Canis grouping in North America----------Jon's very readable and highly informative "deep dive" reinforces and reveals that northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) are statistically intermediate in size between Western Coyotes and Eastern Wolves,,,,e.g that adult male Eastern Wolves are 71% heavier than Northeastern Coyotes and that Northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) are 35% heavier than adult male Western Coyotes.........From an appearance standpoint, Northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) appear more wolf-like than Coyote-like.....................Northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) are hybrids between Western coyotes and Eastern Wolves...................Northeastern Coyotes)Coywolves) do kill and eat deer to greater degrees than Western Coyotes..................That Northeastern Coyotes(Coywolves) do not fulfill all of the ecological functions that Eastern Wolves fulfill such as killing Moose...............That the Northeastern Coyote(Coywolf) has an elevated survival and fitness level compared to the Western Coyote due to the Eastern Wolf genes it carries, thus making it better adapted to fulfilling the ecological function of deer predation in the human altered environment of the northeastern USA.........................Thus, Jon concludes that the 5 types of Canis species found in North America are the Western Coyote, the Northeastern Coyote(Coywolf), the Eastern Wolf(including the Red Wolf), the Great Lakes Wolf(Gray Wolf/Eastern Wolf hybrid) and the Gray Wolf................Blog readers, Jon's paper is an outstanding synthesis of the "CANID SOUP" discussion currently taking place in North America today.................I come out in favor of Jon's conclusions...................Read his entire paper by clicking on the link that he provides below

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i   Eastern Coyote Research is pleased to announce the publication and posting of ...
Thursday, July 25, 2013

The "Landscape of Fear" paradigm that states that prey animals do not stand their ground for long periods of time when predator species occupy that same region,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and that prey animals will often choose to spend their days in less than optimum feeding locales when predators are present is reinforced strongly by the fact that less carbon is filtered into the atmosphere when predators occupy an ecosystems services-level population in a given region................Yale School of forestry researchers have found that when spiders were present in an ecosystem, they drove up the rate of carbon uptake by plants by about 1.4 times more than when just grasshoppers were present................ . It was also revealed that the pattern of carbon storage in the plants changed when both herbivores and carnivores were present................ Grasshoppers in the ecosystem were afraid of being eaten by the spiders and therefore they consumed less plant matter when the predators were around............. The grasshoppers also shifted towards eating more herbs instead of grass under fearful scenarios..................At the same time, the grasses stored more carbon in their roots in a response to being disturbed at low levels when carnivores were present

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Predators Affect the Carbon Cycle, Study Shows sciencedaily.com — A new study shows that the predator-prey relationship can affect the...

An unmistakable Eastern Coyote(Coywolf) roaming a farmers field in Bridgehampton, Long Island, on June 24.....................We humans should be as tenacious in solving our economic and social problems as our Coyotes are in figuring out how to colonize every state in the USA....................."The Island" was the last region in America where the Coyote had not found his way to.....................And over one of the bridges from the Bronx or Manhattan or across one of the waterways from Connecticut, our "never-say-die" Songdog found a way to make Long Island theirs........

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Coyote sighting in Bridgehampton. Long Island newsday.com Photo credit: Rick Wesnofske | The state Department of Environmental Conser...
Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Our friends at COUGAR REWILDING forcefully and in clear prose outline their rejection of Nebraska's new plans to kill off 18-27% of the 15-22 Pumas occupying the Pine Ridge National Forest..............We have discussed the insanity of hunting this small population(the most Eastern lying of a Puma breeding population in the USA) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Proven Science states that killing off more than 14% of a Puma population leads to a slippery slope downward in the # of animals, disrupts their social order and increases the likelihood of conflicts with people and livestock...............As Chris Spatz of Cougar Rewilding states in the article below: "The safest way to manage any cougar population is to leave it alone" – "cougars police themselves" ..............Nebraska should only kill those Pumas that actually cause problmems, not instituting a trophy hunting season without rhyme and reason!

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COUGAR REWILDING'S RESPONSE TO NEBRASKA'S PLAN TO HUNT PUMAS   Nebraska Game & Parks concludes their  2013 Recommend...

Is TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE really going to allow deer hunters to use dogs to track down deer that have been shot.................Texas currently does not allow hunters to use dogs to hunt deer by running them down.........................But realistically, if you allow dogs in the woods and fields, how do you realistically stop hunters from crossing the line and using their dogs unfairly(having them chase deer)?....................We urge the Lone Star State Game Commissioners to take the "dogs in the woods" option off of the table and ensure that "Fair chase" continue to be the only option when hunters go into the woods to hunt this Fall

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Trailing deer with dogs could be returning to East Texas   ketknews.com     TYLER TX —   Using dogs while deer hunting ha...

Large swaths of open space with connective corridors is the foundation for protecting and encouraging native wildlife to thrive and prosper...............The Crown of the Continent region that stretches north from Montana's Glacier Park into British Columbia's Banff and Waterton Parks supports one of the most diverse mosaics of native wildlife in North America............THE WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY(WCS) has long been advocating for the permanent protection of open space between Banff and Waterton Parks---This type protected space would optimize the gene flow of all creatures back and forth from Montana into the interior of Alberta and British Columbia.............Esteemed Scientist Dr. john Weaver states that protecting 257,000 ha. of this land would conserve 66% of the vital habitats of Grizzly Bears, horn Sheep, Bull and Westlope cutthroat Trout, Wolverines and Mountain Goats..............The WCS Report is the first step in getting British Columbia to seriously consider what would be a bold and far-sighted conservation initiative------We stand by to hear of the next steps to be taken.

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Wildlife: Protecting and Connecting Headwater Havens sciencedaily.com — A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WC...
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Grizzly Bears know how to "have fun in the sun" just like we humans do.................. A great series of snapshots(below) show one particular Griz up in the GROUSE MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE REFUGE in British Columbia(Canada) showing off his(her) back float and sidestroke skills...............Do we have a future "olympian" in the making????????? :)))))))))))))))

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The bear necessities of cooling down: Grizzly puts his feet up as he floats on his back in Canadian lake and plays by himself dailymail.c...

The "big mountain section" of Pennsylvania's Northern Tier is "prime Pennsylvania timber rattlesnake country...................Situated in the gas rich Marcellus Shale(northeastern Pennsylvania) region, can the snakes possibly avoid the habitat alteration that is taking place in the region as the woods get ripped up in pursuit of "GAS TO POWER AMERICA"?

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PENNSYLVANIA RATTLESNAKES--CAN THEY PERSIST INTO THE FUTURE? KANSASCITY.COM James Chestney, the venomous species coordi...

Black Bears were brought back to Arkansas in a rewilding program in the 1960's.............Those pioneer Bears have gradually seen their offspring multiply to the extent that neighboring Missouri now houses several hundred bears.........Biologists are now testing the Missouri population to see if any the bruins actually come from a different gene pool than those found in Arkansas, a finding that would say that the SHOW-ME-STATE never completely wiped out its bear population.............As we all know, the more genes in a given population, the more likely that population is able to fend off disease and environmental stress---thus optimizing it's chances of long term sustainability

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Black bears return to Missouri indicates healthy forests For nearly a century, the only bears known to reside in Missouri were o...
Monday, July 22, 2013

Normally I tend to agree with the outdoors writer Ted Williams as he opines on wildlife issues across the spectrum............I am disappointed that he seems to "throw up his hands", worn out by the tirades pro and con back and forth between "haters and lovers" of wolves..........................Ted is usually a man guided by best science and by simply implying that we should wildly celebrate that there are now 1600 wolves in the Rocky' Mountains today versus a handful in 1995 ignores their ecosystems functions, their social fabric and the need for these "top dogs" in many other sectors of the USA where there is peer reviewed viable habitat to house them..................To throw up your hands because "you are tired of the fight"(think boxer Roberto Duran and his "No Mas" declaration when fighting Roberto Duran) feels and sounds like a serious cop out, not what we have come to expect from a "LEOPOLD-TYPE" environmental crusader

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Should Wolves Stay Protected Under Endangered Species Act? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stirred controversy with its pr...
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