Wednesday, January 25, 2017

"A 5 year U. of Alberta Study to determine how to best keep Grizzly Bears off of railway tracks has determined that giving grizzlies better travel paths and sightlines along rail paths is the best way to keep the bears safe from trains".................Suggested deterrents include---- 1) use electromats and fences around railroad lubrication stations where bears sometimes enjoy a good lick of grease, 2) trim vegetation that attracts bears near rail lines and open escape paths for them where trees and bush now block the way, 3) use prescribed burns to create more areas of good bear grazing away from train tracks, 4) utilize flashing lights and sounding alarms in areas that bears traverse so as to give them more warning of approaching trains

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/grizzly-bears-trains-banff-cp-rail-study-confusion-...
Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Greater Yellowstone biologists are suggesting that the Elk population that numbered some 19,000 at the time of the Gray Wolf re-introduction into the Yellowstone National Park(YNP) in 1995 has reached some type of rough equilibrium with some 5000-6500 Elk now in residence ................Additionally, some 89% of the Elk herd wintered outside the Park this year even though this Winter has not been overly severe...........Historically 30 to 40% of the Elk herd would leave the Park in Winter.................From their peak population of some 175 in 2003-04 and again in 2007, the Park's Wolf population has fallen and has averaged 100 strong over the past 7-year span 2009-16 ....................Is the 100 Wolf/5-6000 Elk paradigm what the YNP landscape prefers best as it relates to optimum biological diversity?.............Has the Wolf created a"LANDSCAPE OF FEAR" among the Elk inducing the significantly higher % of Winter migration outside the Park?

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http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/northern-yellowstone-elk-numbers-stable-more-migrating-into-montana/article_e1cee...
Monday, January 23, 2017

One of the most successful wildlife re-introductions in the USA is the Wild Turkey..........One of the reasons for our "wild gobbler's" rapid recovery throughout it's historic range is it's ability to live successfully in cold climates such as New York's Adirondack Mountain region.............."Despite the lack of feathers on its head, the turkey is able to hold its head close enough to its body for much of the day to reduce heat loss from the limited amount of exposed skin that occurs on its face and over its skull"....................... "A dense covering of plumage over the core of its body, along with a layer of fat, helps this bird effectively conserve body heat"..................."Should the turkey be unable to find its preferred foodstuffs including acorns, beechnuts and maple and ash keys during heavy winter snow and ice accumulation or should unrelenting wind and cold prevent this bird from leaving the shelter of its roost to search for food, it can quietly sit for days with its head tucked tightly against its body in order to wait until conditions become favorable again"

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http://adirondackexplorer.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f2786fbb7862339a0b90113d7&id=a5b9edce71&e=46b8d98c61 SATURDAY, JANU...
Sunday, January 22, 2017

For those old enough to remember the 1959 Saturday morning tv show, NORTHWEST PASSAGE, the new original series entitled FRONTIER(produced by DISCOVERY CANADA) provides the same realistic and entertaining "peak inside the window" of the pre colonial eastern wilderness, zeroing in on the Fur Trading business in the Hudson/James Bay region of eastern/central Canada sometime during the period of the early 1600's through the dawn ot the 19th century............We follow engaging characters in a rugged environment-----English and American Fur Merchants along with the French Canadian and Native trappers who seek wealth, posessions and status while simsultaneously bringing on mass die-offs of wildlife and First Nations peoples...........What is not conveyed in this show or for that matter most historical accounts of North American Native Peoples is that they were complicit and eager participants in the wanton slaughter of animals for their hides...........And as brought out in the ground breaking KEEPERS OF THE GAME(1978 book), professor Calvin Martin points to pre-contact European spawned diseases(via both people and animals) that severed the age old cosmic relationship that Natives had with animals..........."With the sudden emergence of epizootic destruction, the scarcity of game, and the contagiousness of the animals, the contractual relationship(that the natives had spirtually had with the animals) was severed"..................."These events happened before Indians were aware of the possible connection of the white man"............. "Indians treated the new disasters as the start of a war with animals, a war led by the beavers(and followed by the entire carnivore and hoofed browser suite)"................. "The (then rapid)arrival of western trade goods, the musket and the steel trap, at precisely the same time as a war with the animals was treated as divine intervention, simultaneously giveing the natives additional tools to particpate in the fur trade and seemingly (material)rewards to kill as many animals as possible.................A true "EVE OF DESTRUCTION" occurred when Europeans came in contact with native cultures

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TELEVISION Review: ‘Frontier’ on Netflix Offers a Frothy Look at the Fur Trade By  NEIL GENZLINGER JAN. 19, 2017 Continue reading th...