Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Looks like our Puma kittens recently born in the Santa Monica Mountains ringing Los Angeles are growing fast and healthy on the Mule Deer that inhabit SoCal woodlands................Environmental Advocates of my fair city.......Time for us to ban together and pool our resources to build that desperately need wildlife underpass/overpass at the Lost Hills or Liberty Canyon Exists on the 101 Freeway which would connect these kittens and their mother in Malibou with other Pumas to the East in the Simi Hills and beyond-----Gene transfer so necessary for long term persistence of Pumas in Los Angeles!

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http://fw.to/SJKCisK Mountain lion cubs caught on remote camera are 'nice and fat' Comments 7 Email ...
Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A 2nd day of a historical look back at the fauna encountered by early white explorers, hunters and frontiersmen----This time we move from what became the Oklahoma Territory and eventually to become known as 'The Sooner State" all the way east to the Carolina's where Indian Trader John Lawson in 1709 had the following to say about the fauna of our southeastern states--------"When we were all asleep, in the Beginning of the Night, we were awaken’d with the dismall’st and most hideous Noise that ever pierc’d my Ears"......: "This sudden Surprizal incapacitated us of guessing what this threatning Noise might proceed from; but our Indian Pilot (who knew these Parts very well) acquainted us, that it was customary to hear such Musick along that Swamp-side, there being endless Numbers of Panthers, Tygers, Wolves, and other Beasts of Prey, which take this Swamp for their Abode in the Day, coming in whole Droves to hunt the Deer in the Night, making this frightful Ditty 'till Day appears, then all is still as in other Places".............................Lawson never ventured farther West than North Carolina and further went on to say about Jaguars being present in the 16th and early 17th Century in southeastern America----------“Tygers(The name American tiger was formerly used for jaguar), are never met withal in the Settlement; but are more to the Westward, and are not numerous on this Side the Chain of Mountains"............ "I once saw one, that was larger than a Panther(Puma or Cougar or Mountain Lion) and seem’d to be a very bold Creature"................ "The Indians that hunt in those Quarters, say, they are seldom met withal"............. "It seems to differe from the Tyger of Asia and Africa"

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Indian Trader John Lawson’s Journal of Carolina, 1709 Tragically, contact between Indians and the Europeans extended beyond just trade ...
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Monday, February 24, 2014

The first White Settlers in the land we now call Oklahoma did not occur until 1889, basically at the tail end of the frontier period...........So Wildlife observations by those Settlers of greatly reduced populations of Wolves, Pumas, Black Bears and Elk cannot really provide us with what this piece of America looked and felt like 200 and 300 years prior(as many other historical accounts of other USA regions do)................Below are some earlier observations from various Explorers who traversed Oklahoma in the period spanning the early 18th century up through the mid 19th century..................Wolf packs frequently accompanied herds of bison and elk.................. In 1820, Long, traveling along the Canadian River in central Oklahoma, stated: "The bison and wolves moved slowly off to the right and left leaving a lane for the party to pass".... . . . And on the Chisholm Trail between the Cimarron River and the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, Borroum wrote in 1871: "Buffalo, horses, elk, deer, antelope, wolves ... were all mixed together and it took several hours for them to pass". ..............It seems that not only Red Wolves and Coyotes called Oklahoma home as the following passage indicates----In 1718, de la Harpe while traveling through Muskogee County near the present town of Haskell, wrote: "One buffalo herd was followed by a pack of wolves as large as those in France"(the large gray wolves of Europe)..........And indeed, only the Gray Wolf is large enough when surrounded by pack mates to down Bison-----Seven times in The Rambler in Oklahoma, Latrobe referred to wolves.............. He noted their interaction with bison in the prairie habitat: "The wolves hunt the straggling cows and calves in packs"..............Gould asserted that the gray wolf was still present in Oklahoma as late as 1900....... According to McCarley, full-blooded red wolves (C. rufus) were completely extirpated from the state by 1950......Equally vibrant first-hand accounts of Pumas, Black Bears, Elk and Pronghorn are all included in the article below(even possible mention of the Jaguar) with references cited for further investigation by blog readers

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digital.library.okstate.edu/.../p51_55nf.html Historical Accounts of Several Large Mammals in Oklahoma Jack D. Tyler and Wendy J. And...
Sunday, February 23, 2014

The "Garden State", New Jersey, had grown it's Black Bear population to some 3400 Bruins in 2009..........60 years ago, there were a scant 100 Bears in the state.............Outstanding as this all is, the last 4 years of hunting has knocked the Bear population down by roughly 30% to 2500..................State biologists will tell you that from an ecological services and carrying capacity based on available food and habitat, New Jersey could harbor well over 3400 Black Bears.............The ever ready argument of State Game Commissions including NJ is that from a "human social carrying capacity", 2500 Bears are more than enough for the state's forest and fields.............Hogwash I say,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Instead of killing the bears to satisfy the hunting community, why not be teaching NJ residents how to properly dispose of garbage so that the Bears do not become a nuisance.............As we have heard from many experts on this blog, killing Carnivores to keep their numbers down can lead to increased conflict with us due to creating younger and more inexperienced bear populations---These "adolescents" will take greater chances around human habitation, creating chaos with residents...............Wake up the "State-of my growing-up-years................Do the right thing and finance wildlife management through vehicle license sales and proceeds from state sales taxes, not through hunter killing license tags

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