Friday, October 25, 2013

Brooks Fahy of PREDATOR DEFENSE shared this CBC News article with me which documents the first study that has shown Eastern Coyotes as capable killers of Moose............While we know that the Theberge biologist studies in Algonquin National Park in Eastern Canada showed that Eastern Wolves dined on Moose as a secondary dietary staple(Whitetail Deer, their primary source of protein), it was not thought that the Eastern Coyote(Coywolf as Massachusetts biologist Jon Way has named them) was not large enough to take down adult Moose.............Sure, a Coyote might get lucky and pluck a newborn Moose calf for dinner in the Spring, but to take down a 1000 pound adult Moose, NO WAY!...........Former Trent U. Grad student John Benson just published his accounting of 4 confirmed kills made by a two party Coyote pair over the 12 months spanning January 09-January 10...............As Benson observed, "It's unlikely that coyotes are making much of a dent in the moose population"............. "For one thing, all the adult moose that the coyotes killed were either inexperienced young adults between one and two years old or very old moose (more than 20 years old)"......... "In addition, a moose-tracking study taking place in the same area and at the same time as the coyote-tracking study showed that the moose population is actually growing"............There are no other studies that I could find showing that Western Coyoes(15-25 pounders on average) dine on Moose the way their Wolf/Coyote hybrids(Estern Coyote a.k.a. Coywolf) seem to be doing................Can any of you Blog Readers add anything to this unfolding development of the "canid soup" stpry that is unfolding in Eastern Canada and the USA?

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Coyotes are moose killers, study finds Study reports 4 confirmed cases of adult moose killed by coyotes and coyote-wolf hybrids cbcne...
Thursday, October 24, 2013

Fantastic news coming out of Oregon's Central Cascade Range since April of this year with 5 documented accounts of Wolverines in the Wallowa Mountains being confirmed.................Thought to have been extirpated in this part of the world since the 1930's, isolated accounts of Wolverines kept popping up right up through the 1990's..................It now appears a breeding population has the beginning of a toe hold in the state.........................The species became a candidate for federal Endangered Species Act protections in December of last year................Wolverines are a harbinger of climate change due to the fact that they require deep snow that must persist into the Spring months for successful denning and pup weaning to take place

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WOLVERINES FOUND IN OREGON dailyastorian.com Even mild-mannered scientists get excited. Audrey Magoun, a 35-year veteran of fiel...
Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A "shout out" of congratulations to Princeton, New jersey for seeking to co-exist successfully with Coyotes............. As part of its education campaign, the town wants to stress that residents should not leave out pet food that coyotes could eat................... Member of the town's Animal Control Advisory Committee did some research online finding out, among other things, that culling an area of coyotes only invites other coyotes to come in from other places as well as remaining Coyotes having even larger litters of pups to compensate for the killing of resident Coyotes..................Camilla Fox and Project Coyote should reinforce with Princeton that they should stick with this sound plan and not abandon it next year as some in the Village are suggesting

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PRINCETON: Coyotes off kill list for this year Princeton will not cull coyotes but instead seek to educate the public on how best to l...
Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Are so many of us hoping beyond hope that wild North American Pumas still call the Southern Appalachians home that we have willed ourselves into believing the "wives tales" of their existence when in fact three decades of intensive "sherlock holmes" detective work by Dr Donald Linzey of Wytheville Community College has thus far not revealed a shred of evidence that Pumas still prowl Virginia and Tennessee?........................Intensive interviewing of those who felt they saw a big cat, DNA analysis of hair samples and motion sensor camera analysis saids that our GHOST CAT is in fact currently in ghost status in southeastern America..................The last verified Puma sighting in Virginia was in 1882, in Abingdon............... The last sighting in the Great Smoky Mountains was in 1920 and in West Virginia, 1887.................But a lack of proof does not deter Linzey, who continues to hunt Pumas................I think we are going to need USFW intervention in the form of rewilding if Dr. Linzey(and I) hope to see a breeding Puma population east of the Mississippi in our lifetime...

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Researcher still hunting cougars           Millie Rothrock;tricities.com Dr. Donald Linzey keeps waiting. He wai...
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Monday, October 21, 2013

The "Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve" is my "neighbor" abutting Western Los Angeles and Eastern Ventura Counties......................Coyotes and Bobcats along with Black tail Deer and the occasional wandering Puma grace these 2600 acres.................It is my window into what was the Oak Savannah and Chaparral environment that once harbored the densest population of Grizzly Bears in the USA prior to the Bruins being exterminated after the 1850 Goldrush period in this part of the world..................Click on the picture below for a great video presentation on the region

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