Thursday, August 22, 2019

While Gray Wolves will and do kill Coyotes, famed Wolf researcher Paul Paquet studies in Manitoba, Canada revealed that "there was no evidence that Wolves actively searched for Coyotes to kill"..........."In the area where Paquet conducted his study, elk served as the major winter food for both wolves and coyotes"............"Wolves killed elk while coyotes scavenged the remains"............"In this regard, coyotes weren't dumb"............."As Paquet notes, "Because predation on [large prey] involves considerable risk of injury and is likely energetically expensive owing to a low rate of success, there is no apparent advantage in killing prey if good quality food can be scavenged"............Pacquet goes on to say: "If Wolves and Coyotes co-exist in a region where the smaller bodied deer is the main prey for both canids, "then coyotes lose the opportunity to scavenge wolf kills because wolves preying on deer leave few remains"........."In Montana, Researchers ERic Gese and Todd Atwood Atwood and Gese located 92 wolf kills (presumably elk and deer), 85 percent of which were visited by coyotes"............"They witnessed 36 conflicts, involving 6 different coyote packs and the Bear Trap wolf pack, at wolf-kill sites"............"Although coyotes gained possession of the contested carcass on 17 occasions, all such carcasses were already nearly depleted"............"During the course of study, wolves killed one adult coyote and 2 pups, whereas 3 adult coyotes were killed by cougars; all such mortalities occurred within 200 meters of a wolf-killed deer or elk"................Atwood and Gese concluded the following: "Coyotes do not perceive wolves as a threat requiring generalized spatial avoidance"..........."Rather, the threat of aggressive interactions with wolves is spatially discrete and primarily contained to areas adjacent to carrion resources"

›
by John Ozoga May 01, 2012           Gray Wolves will sometimes kill Coyotes                                  that seek to scavenge  ...
Thursday, August 15, 2019

"In the face of danger, some animals will enter a tonic state(Thanatosis) as a last-ditch shot at survival".............. "In fact, playing dead" can be a life-saving behavior"............."Opossums sell their performance by releasing a foul odor during thanatosis that suggests they've been rotting for days".............."The eastern hog-nose snake uses a similar, smelly defense mechanism while laying motionless, and has also been known to spit up blood"............."Playing dead can also be used as a mating strategy"............."The nursery web male spider offers a silk-wrapped insect to a female"............"The male plays dead and allows himself to be dragged along with the package"............"He revives himself when the female starts to feed-----An ingenius way to make your own bed, getting to sleep in it!"

›
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-some-animals-play-dead-373909 Why Some Animals Play Dead 2/2/18; Regina Bailey A number of animals ...
Wednesday, August 14, 2019

"The Cascades run from Canada‘s British Columbia through the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon to Northern California"............"The range is 700 miles north-to-south and 80 miles east-to-west".............."The highest peak in the range is Mount Rainier in Washington at 4,411 feet above sea level".............."Mt. Rainier is a large active volcano and is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world"..........."The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean"............."In early 1792, British navigator George Vancouver explored Puget Sound and named the mountains"............."In 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through the Cascades on the Columbia River"............"American settlement of the flanks of the Coast Range did not occur until the early 1840s".............."The Cascade mountain range is named for its waterfalls"..........."Multnomah Falls is located on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States"..........."Native Americans called the Cascades home and their legends speak of them as a refuge from a great flood as well as the mtns. as god-like chiefs who made war by throwing fire and stone at each other"".............."Black bears, coyotes, bobcats, cougars, foxes, beavers, porcupine, skunk, marmot, deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and a few wolf packs returning from Canada live in the Cascades alongside 50 grizzly bears"

›
http://justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-the-cascade-range/ THE GRANDEUR OF THE CASCADES ...
Tuesday, August 13, 2019

"Urban Norway and black rats are the source of a number of pathogens responsible for significant human disease and death in cities around the world"............."These pathogens include zoonotic bacteria, viruses and parasites"............."City rats typically move about the space of a city block".............. "To remove rat-associated disease risks, efforts have focused on eliminating rats at a single property"............... "However, this approach has failed because rats and rat colonies are often not restricted to a single property"..............."For control efforts to be effective, they must encompass the genetic group, termed an eradication unit"............."The scale of the unit varies by location due in part to barriers to movement such as roadways or rivers"............"For example, in Vancouver a genetic cluster of related rats occupies an entire block, or spans several blocks"................ "By comparison, researchers have found that an eradication unit might encompass an entire "valley" in Salvador, Brazil"..............."The common thread was natural or man-made barriers that kept the groups of rats apart"............... "And that is good information because it offers city planners ammunition for controlling rat populations"............. "That is the ultimate goal, after all, in most rat studies"............"Instead of taking the whack-a-rat approach to eradication, it might make more sense to learn how humans make life easier for the rats, versus what makes it more difficult for them to survive among us and then utilize control measures across the entire geographical unit of those genetically similar rat populations"

›
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-rat-dna-uncover-rats-scurry.html Rat detective uses DNA to uncover how rats scurry around cities by Kayle...
Monday, August 12, 2019

"Maine's North Woods comprises around 11 million acres of largely unbroken forestland"..............."This makes it the heart and soul of the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest — the largest intact temperate forest in North America, and perhaps the world".............."The largest moose population in the lower 48 states roams here, as does the nation's largest population of Canada Lynx and its second largest population of Common Loons (after Minnesota)"..............."Maine's North Woods is the only place in the east to host a full complement of predators, from coyotes to weasels(Wolves, Pumas and Caribou all long gone)"............."In spring and summer, it becomes a veritable "baby bird factory" for many of our resident and migratory songbirds, making it the largest globally significant Important Bird Area in the continental U.S."................"It is the largely unfragmented, undeveloped nature of this landscape that creates such invaluable habitat connectivity and biodiversity"............."Western and far northern Maine have been identified by the Staying Connected Initiative as an internationally significant wildlife corridor, and much of the North Woods has been identified as a highly resilient landscape by The Nature Conservancy"

›
https://www.maineaudubon.org/news/diverse-resilient-intact-the-unique-nature-of-maines-north-woods/ DIVERSE, RESILIENT, INTACT: THE UNIQU...