Friday, February 23, 2018

So far, every confirmed Puma sighting and subsequent DNA identification in Wisconsin over the past decade has revealed the origen of the Cats to be from the Black Hills of South Dakota, some 500 miles West.................All of the Pumas have thus far been male dispersers with no evidence that there is a breeding population in the "Dairy State"............Click on the links below to see video evidence of the two most recent Puma sightings---both here in the month of February 2018 in suburbs West and South of Milwaukee

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The Cougar Network  is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research  organization dedicated to studying  cougar range expansion  in North America Ch...
Wednesday, February 21, 2018

400 Moose now call New York's Adirondack Mountains home.........Part of the fauna matrix found in New York State at the point of European colonization(circa AD1500), Moose, like Caribou were extirpated and fully gone from these parts by the Civil War (forest to farrmland conversion destroying ungulate habitat).........As populations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont rebounded, Moose began recolonizing the Adirondacks in 1980............. "As this Winter of 2017-18 got under way, Adirondack's Moose population appeared to be in good physical condition with many calves seen accompanying females each year."..........While farther south than their cousins in northern New England, Adirondack Moose thus far are less stressed by ticks and parasites-- 23% mortality due to winter tick and other parasite debilitation.........Auto Collisions account for a stunning 55% of all Moose deaths in NY State..............While Black Bears and Eastern Coyotes will opportunistically kill Moose Calves(calves have no odor and Bears and Coyotes literally only those they stumble over),.............. "Trent University biologists in 2013 documented four definitive cases of eastern coyotes and (or) eastern coyote × eastern wolf hybrids killing moose ≥1.5 years old"............ "Predation by coyotes and coyote × wolf hybrids probably does not represent a threat to moose population viability in central Ontario(and/or the Adirondacks)"

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view video of Adirondack moose by clicking on this link: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.democratandchroni...
Tuesday, February 20, 2018

"Wildfire is such a defining element of so many ecosystems around the world that it's impossible to imagine them – and their constituent creatures – without it"............"A remarkable share of ecological landscapes evolved under the regular influence of flame”............"Fire turns the kaleidoscope of habitat"............. "The post-burn environment favours some species, discourages others, which is why you want lots of patch burns so you have a good churn of habitat"............."Bigger mammals(e.g. Bison, Elk, Bears, Wolves, Coyotes, Bobcats, Lynx, Pumas) often escape fire because they're pretty good at galloping, loping, trotting, even plain sauntering away from flames"........... "The hair of mammals also provides a bit of a buffer against the extreme heat, especially longer and denser fur"........"They succumb to fire most likely when fire fronts are wide and fast-moving, fires are actively crowning, and thick ground smoke occurs"............."Smaller mammals such as rabbits and rodents may also run away ahead of the flame front, or retreat underground".......... "Ventilation is vital, though: mice have been found suffocated post-fire in burrows with only a single entrance"..........."Reptiles and amphibians may either flee fires or successfully endure them ensconced underground or within crevices, rotten logs and other cool, moist hidey-holes"................"Adult birds are pretty well set up to simply fly away from conflagrations, though eggs and chicks are vulnerable: surface or understory fires may destroy nests laid on the ground or in shrubs, while canopy broods go unaffected"......... "How significant the loss of a nest to fire is can depend on the species".........."Wild turkeys often don't re-nest if their brood is lost after a few weeks of incubation, whereas another upland game bird, the northern bobwhite, may re-nest several times a season"............"Roughly speaking, animals specially adapted to fire environments (pyrophytes), as well as generalist species, tend to be the short-term winners when the smoke clears, while those reliant on habitats or resources that are temporarily destroyed are the "losers".........."Woodland caribou lose out on winter lichen reserves for a time when their boreal woods burn; white-tailed deer and moose, meanwhile, do well on account of all the abundant post-fire shrubbery".......... "Beyond the short-term aftermath of burns, it's important to emphasise just how many animals depend on habitats maintained directly by fire"

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https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/wildfire-and-wild-things Wildfire and wild things Ethan Shaw; Feb 20. 2018...