Monday, November 23, 2015

"There are a lot of reasons why the song dogs(Coyotes) sing".............. "Seasonal and diet patterns. Lunar phase. Social status"................ "The music plays a role in territorial maintenance and family-unit spacing, signals the sex and motivation of the caller"............ "In one study, scientists documented 11 distinctive vocalization patterns, each with its own behavioral context".......... "In another, they noted that barks were used to convey alarm or agonistic intentions, while howls were used to convey more general information over long distances"........... "That the songs often contain barks and howls gives some sense of how rich and detailed this language is"............. "This is who I am, this is where I am, this is what I’m doing, this is how I’m feeling"

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http://northernwoodlands.org/editors_blog/article/song-dogs#.VlP9hCzNuKU.email Song Dogs Dd by Dave Mance III Editor's Bl...
Sunday, November 22, 2015

Rupert(Rupe) Cutler is one of our Blog readers with solid carnivore and land protection credentials..........He has taught environmental planning at Michigan State University, supervised the U.S. Forest Service as assistant secretary of agriculture, headed Defenders of Wildlife, and currently serves on the board of the Blue Ridge(Virginia) Land Conservancy..........Rupe's fine Op Ed piece focusing on the possibility of Pumas returning to the Appalachians appeared in Sundays ROANOKE(VIRGINIA) TIMES.......Most Puma researchers and carnivore spcialists(including Rupe) feel it will take decades( perhaps a 100 years?) for puma recolonization of the east...... As Females do not readily leave their natal birth regions and with the most easternmost Puma breeding colonies in the Dakotas and Nebraska under intense human hunting pressure, I think we will have to transplant females into the Appalachians if in fact we want a breeding population to once again call the east home during our lifetime

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http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/cutler-are-there-mountain-lions-in-virginia/article_7adb662c-ecd8-52bc-a948-d319c1e34956.html ...
Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Fungus OPHIDOMYCES OPHIODICOLA is as lethat as they come causing 100% mortality in snakes that get infected east of the Mississippi.............Impacting all species of snake, researchers state that this fungus has always existed in the soil...........What exactly has caused it to become a death sentence for snakes is not currently known..............The damage the disease does is brutal and recognizable, with severe skin lesions, swelling, and contortion after an infection reaches the bones of its victims............... This disease has already spread to at least 15 states and is believed to attack the snakes as they come out of hibernation, a time when their immune systems are at their weakest..............Like White Nose fungus in Bats and the fungus infecting frogs and salamanders, is the snake fungus now a killer due to our land changing and climate changing activities?

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http://app.getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=LvKLO&mc=IC&s=9yWxmR&u=Yy3s&y=P& Researchers Confirm Snake Fu...