Thursday, December 26, 2013

There is a direct correlation of increasing Puma hunter kills in Washington State with a decreasing Puma population..............Kills have increased 40% since 2010(108 shot or trapped in 2010 versus 156 in 2012)................Since peaking in the mid 90's at about 2000 animals, the past decade has the Puma population sinking back to the approximate 1500 animals thought to have inhabited the state in the mid 70's................Almost every wildlife resarcher feels this number puts the population in jeopardy of not being sustainable longe term............ Despite the "Puma Friendly" slogan of the Washington Dept. of Wildlife("ENSURE HEALTHY, PRODUCTIVE POPULATIONS"), anything but that is in practice being carried out day in and day out

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WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE      NEWS RELEASE 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091        ...

Just as snowmobile trails often allow Wolves to penetrate deeper into forest interiors and thus ante up their predatory influence on Caribou, so do these same trails heighten the impact that Coyotes can have on Canada Lynx(and I am guessing Bobcats as well).......Where snow accumulations were significant, these trails provide travel routes (that in the absence of them) would have not allowed Coyotes access ................."While direct impacts of snowmobiles on lynx were not documented in a recent Study of this subject by biologist Eric Gese(USDA Utah State Unitveristy), the potential impacts of a main competitor, the coyote, is evaluated intesively.................. "Due to their use of snowmobile trails, coyotes have the potential to access areas of habitat that might normally be too energetically difficult to access in deep snow"............... "Lynx, with their superior body mass to footload, can access habitats containing deep snow that coyotes might typically avoid"............. "In addition, expansion of current winter recreation use areas may create persistent travel corridors that could be utilized by coyotes"................ "Since coyote use of snowmobile trails was related to how much was available, coyote movements could possibly be altered by limiting snow compaction".-----Eric Gese......................A number of researchers are suggesting minimizing or rotating compaction areas (thereby limiting potential impacts by coyotes) as a strategy for management agencies concerned with protecting Lynx......................Read biologist Eric Gese' full peer reviewed paper on this subject by clicking on the link just above the Abstract commentary below

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The Influence of Snowmobile Trails on Coyote Movements during Winter in High-Elevation Landscapes Eric M. Gese ...
Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Blog Reader Dave Messineo asked me the following question last week----"I have heard coyotes howling in Yellowstone, Arizona, Florida, etc. as well as right here around my home in central New York".......... "Perhaps I can be enlightened by some one but I have never heard a coyote during the day or at dusk or dawn i.e. crepuscular"............ "Coyotes in my experience only howl during the night, well after dusk and well before dawn"............ "Often during the night here in New York I awaken to what sounds like scores of howling coyote howling all around my house".. I would be interested to hear if indeed they do howl at dusk or dawn in other areas(of the Country)"...................Dave, From the articles below, it does appear that both Wolves and Coyotes do howl during daylight hours------Gary Clancy is a hunter and writes a column called SPORTSMANGUIDE.COM------He writes: "Coyotes are most vocal from sunset until an hour after dark and again in the morning just before the first break of day, although they will howl off and on all night long"............"I have heard coyotes howl during the middle of the day on a few different occasions, but this is not common"..............From FREEWEBS.COM comes these statements: "While howling, wolves often alter their voices considerably"........... "As a result people are often "fooled" into believing that there are more wolves present than there really are when they hear wolves howling"................. "People have often guessed, based on listening its howls, that a pack of wolves contained up to 20 individuals, when there were only 3 or 4"............"Also, wolves do not howl only at night"........."They will howl during the daytime, evening or early morning".................From WOLFPARK.ORG comes this commentary---"Despite the assertions of popular mythology, the wolf does not howl only during the full moon"............ "Wolves howl during the day, at night, and any time of year, no matter what the moon is doing".................." Wolves howl most often at dawn and dusk, when they are most active, and during late January and early February, the breeding season"-------Dave, hope this sheds some further light on Wolf and Coyote HOWLING-----Best to you and all our readers for a Merry and a Happy!

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Why do wolves howl? Scientists unravel mystery. http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0822/Why-do-wolves-howl-Scientists-unravel-mystery?cmp...
8 comments:
Monday, December 23, 2013

Calgary Grizzly Bear Deaths have hit 29 for the year, twice the number of last year,,,,,,,,,,,,,and the highest death total of the last decade..........The Griz population of this region continues to shrink with an estimated 700 or so Bears still remaining............The advocacy Group, YELLOWSTONE TO YUKON is calling on the Province to update and implement a Grizzly management plan that will minimize human caused deaths caused by road collisions and infrastructure building............

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http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Province+urged +boost+protection+grizzlies/9202572/story.html Province urged to boost prote...

Anne Raver writes a periodic Nature Column in the New York Times that never fails to get my attention for it's tendency to revolve about the natural beauty of our land............Last week, she focused on a Virginia couple who over the past 20 years has rewilded their once 100 acre abandoned farm field and brought back many of the native plants and animals that call the Virginia Commonwealth home................Part of why I started writing this blog revolved around my own ambition to one day re-wild my own 100 acres, perhaps in Vermont.............Enjoy this article..........For those of us who feel the tug of the land and all of it's creatures, this read bottles the Christmas and holiday spirit like a fine bottle of wine

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Sent by rick.meril@gmail.com: ...

It is hard for me to be optmistic about what seems to be the foregone conclusion of the USFW wanting to delist Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone System.........Yes, Chris Servheen and his Grizzly Bear Recovery Team has done a stellar job increasing Griz numbers over the past decades..................And equally YES is the Wyoming/Montana/Idaho State Game Commissions "peddle to the metal" track record on hunting Wolves much too hard and often since their delisting,,,,,,,,,,,, disrupting Pack dynamics and having many(including this blogger) asking why did we go to such great lengths to bring back these keystone Carnivores if the moment there are a few thousand of them around, we go about blasting away at them like they are vermin??????------Hard to believe that anything will be different for the Grizzlies once these States take control of their fate

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http://missoulian.com/tncms/asset/editorial/ce22e896-578a-11e3-9760-001a4bcf887a/#.Uq6b-oavtJo.email Much work remains to build on grizz...
Sunday, December 22, 2013

At what point will we require the lawmakers that we elect to State and Federal Offices to read up on the measures and positions that they take................Pennsylvania is acutally considering wasting money on a Coyote bounty when even their own State Game Commission has told them that you would have to kill 70% of the Coyote population into perpetuity to reduce their density--- A HORRIBLE WASTE OF MONEY..............JUST SO WRONG AS IT RELATES TO THE HEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA WOODLANDS AS THE COYOTES AND BLACK BEARS IN THIS STATE ARE NOT DENTING THE DEER POPULATION AND ACCOUNT FOR A MINESCULE % OF FARMER LOSSES OF LIVESTOCK

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http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20131222/pas-crafty-coyotes-expanding-their-range#.UreYD14KxoA.email CLICK ON LINK ABOVE TO READ ABO...