Thought to have been extirpated from Oregon by 1936, Wolverines might be beginning to recolonize parts of the State......The Wolverine in the picture below was inadvertantly caught(unharmed) in a bobcat trap this past Christmas...........It is possible that it is one of the three Wolverines that were "camera-sighted" last year by researcher Audrey Magoun..........Protected by Oregon law, Wolverines are perhaps our most "man-sensitive" carnivore, easily disturbed by our presence in their habitat........Biologists are speculating that there might be permanent Wolverine residents in the state and perhaps the beginning of a sustaining population

Trap meant for bobcat catches wolverine


Written by Observer staff reports;lagrandeobserver.com


Last winter wolverine researcher Audrey Magoun released photos, including this image, of three wolverines captured on game cameras located in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. According to Vic Coggins, ODFW Enterprise district manager, the significance of finding the wolverine in a trap is that it is one of the same wolverines seen in Magoun’s 2011 photos. AUDREY MAGOUN photo

The presence of wolverines in Wallowa County has put a whole new spin on winter trapping for area
trappers. A wolverine who stumbled into a bobcat trap Dec. 23 was successfully released by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists and wolverine experts Audrey Magoun and Pat Valkenburg.

Last winter, Magoun released photos captured on game cameras located in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of three different wolverines. According to Vic Coggins, Enterprise district manager, the significance of the finding the wolverine in a trap is that it is one of the same wolverines seen in Magoun’s 2011 photos. This may indicate that these wolverines are resident to the area and not just passing through.

To capture images of wolverines Magoun set up game cameras on trees across from trees with road kill deer attached as bait to attract the animals.

Wolverines have white markings on their chests and toes, and like snowflakes, no two are the same. These markings easily identify the difference between animals. Magoun also sets up bristly wire near the bait in order to capture hair for DNA testing. Both the photo and the DNA analysis proved that the animal caught in the trap was one of the same ones seen on video recordings last year.

Magoun and Valkenburg identified 30 sites for cameras, but only 16 were put up due to heavy snow. They were erected between 4,600 feet elevation and 6,300 in open meadow near avalanche chutes and in areas of large herbivore habitat such as elk and mountain goats.

Wolverines were detected at seven of the 16 sites. A report concluded last spring said that the DNA revealed the wolverines most likely dispersed from Idaho. Several sets of tracks were also seen from aerial surveys. The evidence of two sub-adult males suggest there could be a breeding pair in the Wallowas, though no females have been detected.

Wolverines are threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act and the agency applauded the trapper for contacting them immediately.  “This trapper did exactly what he was supposed to do following the capture of the wolverine,” said Tim Hiller, ODFW furbearer coordinator. “We appreciate that the trapper also voluntarily pulled all of his traps from the area afterwards.”

A letter to trappers dated Jan. 27, Fish and Wildlife reminded trappers to immediately contact the agency should they trap a wolverine and asked trappers to take special precautions when trapping in areas of known wolverine activity, encouraging them to avoid the use of lethal traps such as medium or large body-gripping traps. ODFW also recommended that trappers familiarize themselves with wolverine sign, especially tracks.
Bobcats and wolverines can sometimes be found in the same areas. However, deep snow usually forces most bobcats out of wolverine habitat and greatly decreases access to that habitat for trappers.
Most bobcat trappers have since voluntarily removed all of their traps from the area where the wolverine was trapped, according to Jim Soares, secretary/treasurer of the Northeast Oregon Trappers Association and member of the Oregon Trappers Association.

“Oregon trappers don’t want to capture wolverines or any non-target species,” said Soares. “The trappers I know are very aware of the diversity of wildlife in the area and take precautions to only trap animals they intend to trap.” In addition to talking with Northeast Oregon trappers, the state has also responded to Oregon Wild and TrapFree Oregon, organizations that expressed concerns about wolverines and trapping after hearing about the capture.

Fish and Wildlife informed these organizations of its communication with Northeast Oregon trappers and that the risk to wolverines from trapping activities in the area is low.  Trapping is a regulated activity in Oregon with special rules based on species, bag limit, season and species status. Since 1985, all first-time trappers and those born after June 30, 1968, have been required to pass an education course before they can obtain a trapping license. The course deals with topics like wildlife identification, trapping ethics, animal welfare, and setting traps so they catch target animals. Oregon currently has about 1,100 licensed trappers.

Bobcat season runs through Feb. 29 in Oregon. Many other seasons wrap up by that date as well.

Wolverines have been found in Oregon several times since 1936, when they had been thought to be extirpated from the state, in Linn Harney, Wheeler, Hood River and Grant counties

Ohio estimates their whitetail deer population at about 725,000.......That is roughly 18 per square mile(40,000 sq miles encompass the State)..............If you remove the urban centers of Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati,,,,,,,I am guessing that there is somewhere around 38,000 sq. miles of suburan/farm/forested landscape harboring a good 19 deer per square mile.............Based on pre-settlement(A.D. 1500) conditions where it is estimated that White Tail density in Eastern North America was 6 to 12 deer per square mile, it is readily apparent that while Coyotes, black bears and a returning bobcat population dots the landscape, plant and tree regeneration is being retarded in the Buckeye State inspite of 30% of the deer herd being killed by hunters annually(This season, 220,000 of the 725,000 total).........Pumas and Wolves are a very important missing ingredient of an optimum "heart healthy" and optimum functioning Ohio wildscape.

State hunters bagged 20,000 fewer deer this season

(source-Ohio Dept of Natural Resources)

COLUMBUS -- Ohio officials said the number of deer harvested in the most recent hunting season decreased by almost 20,000 compared with 2011, and those lower numbers also were reflected in many counties across the Scioto Valley.

The final count released Monday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shows almost 220,000 deer were killed statewide during the 2011-12 season, compared with slightly more than 239,000 the previous season.

The highest individual county totals were tallied in east-central Ohio. Coshocton County had the most deer taken at 7,969. Neighboring Licking County had 7,275 and Tuscarawas County had 6,950. Hunters in the Scioto Valley generally were unable to match 2011-10's numbers. In Ross County, 3,741 deer were bagged, down from 3,864 in 2010-11.

In Pickaway County, the 1,049 deer bagged was a 152-animal decline from 2010-11. Fayette County saw a 51-animal decrease, Jackson County a 256-deer drop-off and Highland County a 130-animal decline. Some local areas were exceptions, however. Pike County's numbers went from 2,304 deer bagged in 2010-11 to 2,367 this year. Vinton County's total increased by 130 animals and Scioto County's bag total was up by 73 deer.The numbers include all forms of hunting during the white-tailed deer season
                              ohio

The white-tailed deer is Ohio's most popular game animal, and the state ranks in the top 10 nationally in terms of annual hunting-related sales and related jobs, according to ODNR.The agency also reported the two new methods of reporting kills made available this year met with support from hunters. Since the season began Sept. 24, 44 percent of hunters called in their bag totals and 36 percent reported them online.Twenty percent reported their kills in person at a license agent location.

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2011 UPDATE and historical history of deer in Ohio

Although absent from the state for nearly 2 decades, the white-tailed deer, Ohio's only big game animal, now occurs in all 88 counties.  Differences in the amount of forest cover, agriculture, and human population density, however, have contributed to a patchwork of densities across the state. 

white tails

 In general, deer populations are highest in the state's southeast Hill Country, lowest in the farm counties of the west, and intermediate in the glaciated counties of the northeast.  Good numbers of deer and excellent public hunting opportunities make southeast Ohio the favorite destination of many resident and nonresident deer hunters.  This region also continues to be the best bet for a trophy whitetail. 

             wolves and pumas are key to a healthy Ohio landscape

 The fall herd is estimated at 725,000 deer.  This year's harvest should be up slightly from last year's harvest of 239,475 but most likely below the record harvest of 261,260 in 2009-10.  Ohio's deer herd remains healthy and disease-free.  In 2010, 471 road-killed and 588 hunter-harvested deer from 44 counties were tested for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).  Nearly all of the hunter-harvested deer were also tested for Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) as well.  We failed to detect these diseases in all samples.

Survey details and historical data can be found in the Forest Wildlife Overview section of the 2010-2011 Wildlife Population Status and Hunting Forecast.

Habitat degradation, maturing timber stands, disease, auto collisions cause most whitetail deer mortality........Bear, wolf, puma and coyote predation rates on whitetails are higher in forested land than in agricultural areas, possibly because young deer in open forests are just easier to find......... They have far less cover and are more vulnerable to predation than those fawns born in the thicker and more diverse habitat found in farm country........... But even where predation was higher, it had no effect on overall deer numbers, according to a Pennsylvania Game Commision Study.......... Another study of predation, this one conducted in Ohio between 2001 and 2003, found similar results........... Coyotes did kill lots of fawns, but there is no shortage of whitetails in Ohio's and the overall deer population is still increasing.......... Experts generally agree that unless pressure on coyotes and other predators is intense and sustained, it will have little impact on overall prey populations.......... Most does in any areas drop their fawns within a short window, a phenomenon known as “prey swamping,” creating a huge food source for bears, coyotes, wolves and mountain lions all at once............ During that short period when young fawns are most vulnerable, predators do indeed feed heavily on whitetail fawns............. However, because the woods are filled with newborn deer, plenty will — and do — survive......But instead of focusing on removing predators for the sake of helping your deer herd, put your efforts into managing the habitat for overall optimum biodiversity

Does Predator Control Help Your Deer Population?

Does a liberal predator control program have a positive effect on your land's deer population?

by David Hart
grandviewoutdoors.com

whitetails in winter("White on White" as Marty Stouffer saids)

A coyote trotting through the Eastern hardwoods is becoming a common sight these days, and hunters are beginning to wonder if the predators are having an effect on deer numbers. In some places, whitetail populations have indeed slipped while coyote populations have increased. Hunters in parts of western Virginia and western North Carolina, for example, have seen success rates fall and in some cases, bag limits reduced. Biologists, however, blame the decline in deer numbers directly on the loss of good habitat, not on coyotes. National forests throughout the East are experiencing a decline in suitable habitat as a result of decreased timber harvest, said North Carolina Wildlife Resources biologist Gordon Warburton.

coyote in virginia

“Cutting timber creates excellent browse and high-quality fawning areas,” he said. “As the forests mature, we have less and less quality habitat because environmentalists have succeeded in stopping timber cutting on public lands.”

Aside from those public lands, however, few areas are suffering from a lack of deer. One biologist from a southeastern state quipped that he wished coyotes would kill more deer, because hunters aren’t taking enough.

After hunters in Pennsylvania voiced concern over the increase in coyotes and an apparent decrease in deer numbers in some parts of the state, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission conducted a lengthy study to determine fawn mortality and predation. The results weren’t necessarily earth-shaking. It found that nearly half of all fawns in agricultural landscapes died from a variety of causes within 34 weeks of birth, while a whopping 62 percent died in forested habitat. Of those that died, over 46 percent were killed by predators. The rest fell to disease, cars and a variety of other causes. Nearly 37 percent were killed by coyotes, but almost as many, 33 percent, were killed by black bears.

The study determined that predation rates are higher in forested land than in agricultural areas, possibly because young deer in open forests are just easier to find. They have far less cover and are more vulnerable to predation than those fawns born in the thicker and more diverse habitat found in farm country. But even where predation was higher, it had no effect on overall deer numbers, according to the study. Another study of predation, this one conducted in Ohio between 2001 and 2003, found similar results. Coyotes did kill lots of fawns, but there is no shortage of whitetails and the state’s overall deer population is still increasing.


Will Killing Coyotes Help Your Deer Poulation?

Experts generally agree that unless pressure on coyotes and other predators is intense and sustained, it will have little impact on overall prey populations. Most does in any areas drop their fawns within a short window, a phenomenon known as “prey swamping,” creating a huge food source for bears, coyotes and mountain lions all at once. During that short period when young fawns are most vulnerable, predators do indeed feed heavily on whitetail fawns. However, because the woods are filled with newborn deer, plenty will — and do — survive.

So is it a good idea to kill a coyote when you see one? Not if you’re doing it in the name of saving your deer herd. Killing a coyote as it passes under your deer stand might remove one from the population, but there are plenty more to take its place. Mike Bodenchuk, Texas state director for the USDA’s Wildlife Services, said coyotes have a 60 percent annual mortality rate in some cases, whether they are hunted or not. In order to have an impact, it’s vital to remove either 70 to 80 percent of the entire population, or to remove the right coyotes at the right time. He said breeding pairs are responsible for the highest predation on mule deer and antelope, and removing them during the coyote breeding season can help decrease predation and therefore increase fawn survival. Most hunter-harvested coyotes are taken in the fall and winter as incidental kills by deer hunters.

He did note that when prey populations are low, removing coyotes can help deer and other mammals increase in numbers. That’s because deer populations can’t climb out of what Bodenchuk calls a “predator pit.” Their numbers become so depressed that they can’t produce enough fawns to rebuild their populations. Coyotes simply eat too many fawns, keeping the overall deer population low.

Randomly killing the occasional predator might help in such extreme situations. However, it’s critical to maintain a high level of predator management for several years in order to have a lasting impact.

 Researchers working on the National Bison Range in Montana found that deer and antelope fawn mortality increased substantially only a few years after coyote control efforts stopped, because coyotes filled the void left by those taken out of the population. When coyote numbers fall, they tend to produce larger litters to make up for the decrease in adults. And other coyotes will move in from surrounding areas. Killing a couple of coyotes in a single season will likely have little noticeable effect on your deer numbers or the quality of the bucks.

That’s not to say shooting coyotes is bad. Anyone who has attempted and succeeded at calling in one of these predators will tell you just how exciting it can be. If hunting them in the name of deer management will keep you in the woods, have at it. But Experts generally agree that unless pressure on coyotes and other predators is intense and sustained, it will have little impact on overall prey populations. Most does in any areas drop their fawns within a short window, a phenomenon known as “prey swamping,” creating a huge food source for bears, coyotes and mountain lions all at once. During that short period when young fawns are most vulnerable, predators do indeed feed heavily on whitetail fawns. However, because the woods are filled with newborn deer, plenty will — and do — survive.

That’s not to say shooting coyotes is bad. Anyone who has attempted and succeeded at calling in one of these predators will tell you just how exciting it can be. If hunting them in the name of deer management will keep you in the woods, have at it. But instead of focusing on removing predators for the sake of helping your deer herd, put your efforts into managing the habitat. Give your deer a variety of foods, offer them bedding and fawning areas and manage your herd to reach its full potential through selective harvest.

Our good friend, biologist Jon Way, is one of the East Coast's authorities on the Eastern Coyote(Jon prefers Coywolf)............He has penned a useful, easy-to-understand and extremely informative paper on Eastern Coyote/Coywolf ecology...........It is attached below for your easy referencce..........Also, Jon has a great website of his own(http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com) which I urge all blog readers to frequent often on for updates on his in-the-field research on all things Coywolf

From: Jon Way


To: Camilla Fox ; Meril, Rick
Cc: Frank Vincent
Sent: Tue Feb 07 18:41:51 2012

Subject: NewEastern Coyote(Coywolf) paper

Hi All,

In addition to the box trap paper that just came out (available on my website) I also have a new paper under the "Eastern Coyote Research" logo that gives a summary to eastern coyote/coywolf ecology in a short succinct 4-5 pages. I get lots of questions related to this and how eastern coyotes are different so thought I would do this.

click here for the lifecycle paper on Eatern Coyotes/Coywolves
http://easterncoyoteresearch.com/downloads/EasternCoyoteLifeCycle.pdf

Cheers, Jon

Please visit my new website "My Yellowstone Experience" (http://coywolf.org/), as well as my eastern coyote/coywolf site (http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/) where you can purchase my book Suburban Howls (http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/Store.html) and support creating a wildlife watching refuge in the town of Barnstable (http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/supportECR.html

eastern coyote(coywolf) --larger30-50 pounds than its western coyote counterpart(20-35 pounds)

eastern coyote(coywolf) hunting

eastern coyote(coywolf) pair

Rick Hopkins of the COUGAR FUND quotes Teddy Roosevelt so appropriately in his editorial entitled: GAME & FISH FUEL FEARS OF COUGARS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NO AMERICAN BEAST HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SO MUCH LOOSE WRITING OR OF SUCH WILD FABLES AS THE COUGAR"..............Our former President knew the Puma as a trophic carnivore, not the man-killing marauding beast that so many of us Americans claim it to be...........Catering to these prejudices and fears, the Wyoming Fish & Wildlife folks last week moved a mother Puma and her two cubs out of the Cache Creek Drainage region of the State simply based on "what if's" because ranchers claimed that the Puma family could attack and hurt humans.............Meanwhile, the "Cats" were minding their own business, feeding on deer and fulfilling their trophic heritage............Moving the Pumas subjects them to a potential death sentence as they are bound to be tresspassing on another Pumas home turf ,,,,,,,,,,Conflict and potential death the outcome of such a translocation..................Rick writes eloquently of the need for education, tolerance and sound science in fostering a meaningful co-existance regimine with our "Ghost Cat"..................click on the full editorial below

click to read Rick Hopkins editorial:"Game & Fish fuel fears of Cougars"


The Puma

First Nations and indigenous people througout the world used dogs to help them hunt...............Understanding their need to eat and sustain themselves, using every available means to secure foodstuffs seems logical and necessary........In 2012, the use of dogs in hunting does not compute.............."Fair chase" in my mind means using your wits and accumulated tracking skills to stalk and kill an animal,,,,,,,,,,not having your dog tree or run an animal until they collapse from exhaustion.............The Kentucky State Game Commission plans to vote on whether hunters can use dogs to both chase and assist in their killing bears---SAY NO KENTUCKY!!!!

wlwt.com

Kentucky Could Allow Hunting Bears With DogFRANKFORT, Ky. --

Dogs could be used to chase black bears in Kentucky under a newly unveiled proposal that's being heralded by hunters and assailed by animal rights activists. 

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission could vote as early as next month to establish a roughly six-week season beginning in August for hunters to chase bears but not kill them, and another limited season in December in which hunters could shoot the bears that their dogs bay.
Kentucky Houndsmen Association member Doug Morgan said the proposal will not only provide hunters with more opportunities but will also instill a fear of people in some of the more brazen bruins that have moved into the state's mountain region.

The Humane Society of the United States criticizes chasing bears with hounds as cruel and unsporting.

Birds appear to learn which tree species harbor the most caterpillars and zero in on them to get their needed daily dose of protein...........Trees like Black Cherry are very tasty food for caterpillars,,,,,These choice trees increase the odds of the caterpillars becoming a tasty treat for birds.....A 3 year Wesleyan University study in Connecticut illustrated a stark choice between caterpillars gaining strength through a good diet but simultaneously becoming more vulnerable to bird predators

For the Birds: Winged Predators Seek Certain Trees When Foraging for Caterpillars

ScienceDaily  — Location matters for birds on the hunt for caterpillars, according to researchers at UC Irvine and Wesleyan University. Findings suggest that chickadees and others zero in on the type of tree as much as the characteristics of their wriggly prey.

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Unfortunately for caterpillars, munching on tree leaves that are healthy and tasty can dramatically boost their own risk of becoming food. Study results, published online this week in The American Naturalist, show that dining on the trees that are most nutritious for caterpillars -- such as the black cherry -- can increase by 90 percent their chances of being devoured by a discerning bird.

"The jump in risk is surprising," said co-author Kailen Mooney, assistant professor of ecology &; evolutionary biology at UCI. "It shows that for caterpillars, moving from one tree to the next can mean the difference between getting eaten and surviving."

bluebird with worm

The findings indicate a "neat potential pest control system," because the healthiest tree species harbor the greatest number of caterpillars, thereby offering the easiest pickings for winged predators, said lead author Michael Singer of Wesleyan. "Our study addresses basic theoretical questions in ecology, but we also want forest managers and conservation biologists to take away practical knowledge."
Mooney, who specializes in the ecology of predatory birds, said tree identification is probably learned by birds, not genetic. He added that Southern California bird species probably do the same with coastal sage scrub, determining which types of bushes afford a better chance of tasty insect treats.
With help from a small army of students, the scientists conducted a two-year experiment in Connecticut forests involving hundreds of tree branches either covered with bird-proof netting or left bare.

Mooney noted that the results illustrate a stark choice between gaining strength through a good diet but being more vulnerable to predators and remaining weaker and hungrier but more safe.
"If a caterpillar could feed on nutritious, high-quality tree species and be left alone, this would be the best of all worlds," he said. "Instead, it's faced with a trade-off. Overall, it appears that it's better to feed on poor-quality tree species and have fewer caterpillars around you than to be on a nutritious plant with many others."

The relatively snowless Winter has kept the annual Minnesota Moose survey count from getting started.........Finally, with 8 inches of new powder, biologists are about to get underway and determine if the Moose population is continuing to slide downward due to winter tick maladies as well as brainworm disease that is transmitted to Moose from a growing whitetail deer population

With snowfall, aeriel survey of moose in northeastern Minnesota begins

Recent snowfall in northeastern Minnesota has allowed for the start of the 2012 aerial moose survey, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
 
By: News-Chronicle, Lake County News Chronicle

Thanks to recent snowfall, the 2012 aerial survey of moose in northeastern Minnesota began. The survey is done to determine the size of the moose population in the area to set the number of moose hunting permits. Photo by Mike Schrage, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewaw.

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The annual survey, which has been conducted every year since 1960, provides critical data needed to determine the size of the moose population and to set the number of moose hunting permits.
Observers from the DNR Fish and Wildlife Division, the 1854 Treaty Authority, and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa gathered in Ely to begin the survey, which is expected to last two to three weeks, depending on the weather.

Forty-nine survey plots randomly scattered across the survey area will be flown. This includes the addition of nine specially selected "habitat" plots that will be studied to determine how moose respond to recent wildfires, prescribed burns and timber management. Survey plots measure approximately three miles wide by five miles long.

"We are glad to see the snow and get the survey started," Tower Area Wildlife Manager Tom Rusch said. "We plan to fly two aircraft and survey up to eight plots per day. We're flying over some of the most rugged areas of the state during these surveys, so safety and weather conditions are always a concern for our crews."

Until recently, only 2 to 4 inches of snow covered the ground in some of the western portion of the survey area, which caused a three-week delay. Snow cover of at least 8 inches is needed to cover rock outcroppings and allow field observers to identify moose in heavy cover.

Once all of the plots have been flown, the data will be analyzed to estimate the total number of moose in the area, the level of reproduction, and the ratio of adult bull and cow moose. Data from the survey will be used in the process to set permit numbers for the 2012 hunting season.

Melissa Grigione, a responsible and knowledgable Environmental Professor at Pace University in New York seems to have been taken out of context in her statements about the alleged Puma that was spotted in Pleasantville NY this past week............While it is possible that another Dakota Puma has wandered East, most biologists believe that the animal seen in this New York town was a bobcat...........

Wildlife Expert: Mountain Lions May Roam Area

by Robert Michelin dailysomers.com

A wild mountain lion(puma)

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – Melissa Grigione, a local expert in wildlife and large felines, said mountain lions in Pleasantville could be more common than most would think, especially with the warmer winter weather as of late.

"Mountain lions used to be native to this area and they're starting to try and come back here and become familiar with the area. It's sort of an eastward bound movement that they're going through now," said Grigione, an associate professor and director of the Graduate Program in Environmental Science at Pace University. "Now that it's been warmer here too there's more forage, which means more deer around, which is tempting to them." 

Grigione has studied mountain lions for nearly 20 years in areas of the world such as California and Chile. On Wednesday evening, two Pleasantville residents said they spotted a mountain lion on Heritage Drive in Pleasantville. Chief Louis Alagno of the Mount Pleasant Police Department said Thursday morning that, after further interviews with the residents, they determined the animal was most likely a bobcat. 

bobcat

Grigione said that in all her years of studying mountain lions, she rarely saw one face-to-face in the wild.  "I was in areas where mountain lions were all over the place and it was a really rare occurrence that I would actually see one," Grigione said.  "I would see tracks or fecal matter and stuff like that but they tend to stay far away from human contact."

Grigione said the reason for this is that mountain lions may actually be more afraid of humans than humans are of them. "They are a predator but, for the most part, they don't want to be around humans at all," Grigione said.  "Only in the rare occurrence that you came across a female with cubs would they really be in a defensive or attacking state." 

A clearheaded editorial about the fact that "end-around", political monkeywrench maneuvers by "bought and paid for politicians who seek to assist Ranchers and Hunters in killing Wolves is JUST PLAIN WRONG AND CANNOT BE TOLERATED.....Oregon State Representative Cliff Bentz is in fact trying to get a law passed that would retrograde the sound Wolf management plan that the State previously put in place..... His bylaw would allow for additional wolf killing ....In 2011, Lawmakers wisely rejected several of these type gerrymandering type bills that would have undermined the wolf-­management plan and the recovery of wolves in Oregon...... They should do the same in 2012, starting with Bentz's bill.

EDITORIAL: Kill anti-wolf legislation

Proposal would undermine state's management plan

registerguard.com

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Once again gray wolves are in the cross hairs of the Oregon Legislature, and lawmakers should kill a retrograde proposal to increase the state's authority over the predators.

The proposal by Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, would sidestep the Oregon Endangered Species Act. Despite the denials of its supporters, the legislation also would undermine the state's wolf plan, which is the result of years of negotiations by a coalition of scientists, economists, conservationists, ranchers and hunters.

What critics of the wolf plan, including the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, really want is to turn back the clock on wolf recovery to the early 20th century, when the animals were eradicated by bounty hunters through a state-sponsored extermination plan.

Whether ranchers like it or not, the majority of Oregonians are happy about the return of Canis lupus, the North American gray wolf. Many eagerly followed the recent travels of the restless predator, formally designated OR-7 but since nicknamed Journey, whose quest for a mate took him more than 700 miles from Northeastern Oregon into California.


oregon wolf pack

The state's wolf plan allows a small number of wolves to repopulate the east side of the state. While no one is certain of the current count, it is believed that there are currently four packs of wolves in the state, with a total of 29 wolves.

The plan gives state wildlife biologists the authority to decide when wolves need to be killed because they are preying on livestock. It's a necessary safety valve that, when applied judiciously, provides protection for ranchers and keeps more Oregonians from turning against wolves.

Last fall, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a kill order for two wolves from the Imnaha pack that roams Wallowa County. Pro-wolf groups filed a lawsuit accusing the department of yielding to pressure from livestock groups and ranchers. The Oregon Court of Appeals issued an order temporarily halting the hunt, angering anti-wolf groups that are eager to blame wolves for every livestock death in Eastern Oregon.

Bentz says his bill is an attempt to pre-empt a court ruling that might prohibit the state-ordered killings of wolves that feast on livestock. But conservation groups that participated in the creation of the wolf plan acknowledge the need for lethal measures to solve depredation problems. They want to make sure that the state has exhausted nonlethal means of predator control before issuing kill orders, and that the wolf plan retains its intended balance between wildlife conservation and the interests of ranchers.

Meanwhile, lawmakers approved a bill last year compensating ranchers for livestock killed by wolves. Now, the state has a tax-supported compensation fund that protects ranchers from financial losses and requires Oregonians throughout the state to share the burden of the cost of restoring their population.

Also in 2011, lawmakers wisely rejected several bills that would have undermined the wolf-­management plan and the inspiring recovery of wolves in Oregon. They should do the same in 2012, starting with Bentz's bill.

Jefferson County, Montana Ranchers are trying "an end around"(Superbowl appropriate term today) in seeking to institute a wolf bounty in their region.........This, on top of the draconian State Wolf kill quota that went into effect upon Federal delisting this year............It goes to show that State management of trophic carnivores is problematic as it relates to it being based on sound scientific criteria..........Because the Montana Game Commisisoners are politically appointed by the Govenor,,,,, who in turn is beholden to affluent Rancher and Sportsmen Groups,,,,, the Jefferson County folks feel that they can up the ante on wolf killing and trapping and get on with the business of raising cattle the way they want to------getting rid of the wolves that they see as vermin......State Game Commisioner Leonard Wortman saids that there is a "51% loophole clause" in the State Wolf quota plan that makes it ok for bounties and additional wolf kills in a given County if the majority of livestock producers want that accomplished---TALK ABOUT FANNY MAE AND FREDDY MAC TYPE CORRUPTION AND YOU HAVE THE MONTANA SYSTEM OF MANAGING WOLVES

Stakeholders tackle proposed wolf bounty in Montana

    gantdaily.com  Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor

Helena, MT, United States (AHN Sports) – To address problems by some livestock owners in Montana, a bounty on large predators, such as wolves and mountain lions, in Jefferson County was proposed. The commissioners discussed the possibility of using tax money as a reward for killing wolves and mountain lions at the county meeting Tuesday. By statute, livestock producers would tax themselves and use the money as a bounty.

But the proposal has put state and federal officials in a quandary.The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is tasked to manage game animals, and mountain lions and gray wolves fall within the ambit of its jurisdiction. These large predators have recently been removed from the list of endangered species.

The state agency sets quotas and hunting seasons, hence, shooting game animals like wolves and lions outside of the seasons is illegal.Also, the taking of these said predators without the required permits or killing more than the established quota is illegal under its regulations.

According to Commissioner Leonard Wortman, their hands are tied if more than 51 percent of the livestock producers in the county petition for instituting the bounties. The alarming concerns from livestock owners over depredation in Jefferson County has been the driving force in the proposal.
On one hand, there were hunters who pleaded with the Jefferson County Commission Tuesday to reconsider the move to put bounties on these predators, and allow the FWP time to formulate means to better manage them.

The statute also provides a bounty on pups and kittens, a proposal which has elicited moral concerns from those opposed to the move.

Utah State Wildlife Professor Daniel MacNulty has studied Yellowstone Wolves for 16 years............He revealed to National Geographic that the depiction of Wolf behavior in the theatrical film, THE GREY, is complete and total b.s. and misrepresentative of how wolves behave...."would wolves see men as prey and stalk them in the wild?",,,,,,"In my 16 years of studying wolves in Yellowstone National Park, I have never been approached by a wolf or wolf pack. On the contrary, when I've inadvertently bumped into wolves they turn and run away—which is a problem when my objective is to observe them!"

WOULD REAL WOLVES ACT LIKE THOSE IN THE THEATRICAL FILM, "THE GREY?"

Nationalgeographic.com
Marc Silver

The nominal star of The Grey, America's top-grossing film, is Liam Neeson. The real stars are the hungry wolves that pursue him and his fellow plane-crash survivors through Alaska's pristine wilderness. The CGI-enhanced wolves are big, smart, and scary.

But is their behavior based in reality? To parse wolf fact from fiction, Pop Omnivore caught up with Daniel MacNulty, a wildlife-ecology professor at Utah State University whose research on Arctic wolves is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

First off, would wolves see men as prey and stalk them in the wild? I'd think that in a remote area like this one, wolves might fear or avoid humans.
In my 16 years of studying wolves in Yellowstone National Park, I have never been approached by a wolf or wolf pack. On the contrary, when I've inadvertently bumped into wolves they turn and run away—which is a problem when my objective is to observe them!

One of the characters in the movie says these wolves a) have a 300-mile hunting radius, b) will attack anything that comes near their den, and c) "are the only animal that will seek revenge." Is any of that that true?
No. Nonsense, all of it.

Would a wolf attack a man standing next to a fire, with other men nearby, as happens in The Grey?
Not a chance.

At one point two men are running alongside a riverbank in the middle of the day. Two wolves race out of the trees and charge them. Possible?
No.

Some of the wolves in the movie are huge—not Twilight size, but larger than I'd expect. How big can a gray wolf get?
In Yellowstone, the average weight of adult male wolves ranges between 100 and 120 pounds. The average weight of adult female wolves ranges between 84 and 93 pounds.

Do wolf eyes really glow in the dark, as they do in this movie?
The eyes of wolves and many other wildlife appear to "glow in the dark" because of a layer of tissue in the eye called the tapetum lucidum. It reflects visible light back through the retina, which improves vision in low-light conditions. So when light shines into the eye of an animal [with] a tapetum lucidum, the pupil appears to glow.

The cooperative hunting nature of the pack is played up a lot in this film. Is that accurate? The extent to which wolves cooperate while hunting in a pack is greatly exaggerated. In a recent study, I showed that wolves are often freeloaders. That is, most wolves keep up with a hunt simply to be on hand when a kill is made. Imagine tackling a moose or bison with only your teeth, and you can start to appreciate the incentive a wolf has to hold back during a group hunt.

Speaking of cooperation, in one scene a lone wolf enters the men's nighttime camp. The protagonist says it's an omega wolf "sent in" by the alpha wolf to test the humans' defenses. Does anything like that ever happen with wolf packs?
No. This is pure fiction.

At the end of the movie, the hero finds himself in the wolves' den. It's littered with bones and carcasses. Is that a realistic depiction?
In the dens I've examined, most of the bones and carcass remains are on the outside of the den rather than in the inside.

In the final scene, the protagonist prepares to fight the alpha wolf. He tapes broken mini liquor bottles to his hands. Would that give him a chance against a large male gray wolf?
If I was lucky enough to encounter a large male gray wolf in the wild, he would turn and run before I could tape the first bottle to my hand. Most people don't realize this, but wolves are wimps.

U. of Alberta biology student Sarah Rovang is conducting an Alberta, Canada Grizzly Bear study in the hopes of helping the Province increase the population(roughly 700 bears remain) of the "threatened" bruin .........Rovang does not believe in invasive capture and release analysis but prefers the less invasive and less costly "hair snag" DNA testing procedure and has designed a barbed wire corral that she baits with beef blood, canola oil, logs and moss...........

Local works to improve grizzly research

By Paul Grigaitis; edsonleader.com

A graduate of Edson's Parkland Composite High School is now analyzing grizzly bear DNA collected using a method she hopes to prove will save conservation groups and government money.

Sarah Rovang, now a masters student studying conservation biology at the University of Alberta, worked in the Hinton, Robb and Cadomin areas throughout the summer collecting hair from grizzly bears using barbed-wire corrals baited with rancid beef blood mixed with canola oil, logs and moss.
The data is used to determine what is happening with the grizzly bear population in Alberta. In 2010, the Alberta government designated the grizzly bear as a threatened species under Alberta's Wildlife Act.

Rovang tells the Leader that the population of grizzly bears in Alberta is in its hundreds.
"We really don't know since then if the population has been increasing or decreasing or remaining constant. That's pretty important to know when you are trying to make conservation or management decisions. So we really would like to know that," she said.

Collecting hair snags for DNA is not new. It is considered less invasive than drugging, capturing and collaring animals. However, the practice has been to use mobile plots, Rovang explained, which is costly because it uses expensive equipment such as helicopters.

"The research that was done before to get those estimates kind of required substantial resources – time and money. You can't just go out and do the same thing and to get information. So to understand what the population is doing, we had to kind of take a step back and try a cost-effective way to monitor."

Rovang believes a fixed method of gathering DNA samples could be just as effective but less costly.
"To come up with those initial estimates they did use a hair snag method similar to mine but they had mobile plots where they would set up hair snags, they would detect a grizzly bear, or not maybe, but they would check that site and then take it down and they would move it somewhere else and they would just keep doing that –setting them up and taking them down. That's pretty effort intensive and costly. So I was testing this modified hair snag method where we just had a network of permanent plots."

The challenge is making sure the permanent plots are well placed, she explained. She said she would compare her data with previous research to determine if there is some money to be saved. Rovang had collected 664 tufts of hair through the summer.

"We're hoping to investigate kind of a trade off between the monitoring costs and how well we detected grizzly bears. We're trying to figure out what time of year is best to do it and where exactly we should be placing these relative to habitat and answering those types of questions. Hopefully, these results can kind of form the basis for a cost-effective and long-term monitoring program."

Rovang worked out of the Foothills Research Institute in Hinton during the summer. Gordon Stenhouse is a research scientist and leader of the grizzly bear program at the Foothills Research Institute.

He said the estimated population of grizzly bears in Alberta in 2010 was about 730. He said the biggest threat to the grizzly bears population is human contact."Biologists for the most part agree that the current population size and status is a direct result of excessive human caused mortalities – bears dying at the hands of people."

He said Rovang's work is important in understanding the trends in grizzly bear populations.
"Her work ties directly into the management of this species in the province," Stenhouse said.
Rovang is 22 years old. She graduated from Parkland Composite High School in 2007 and has since earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in conservation biology from the University of Alberta. This is her first year as a masters student.

While a new study funded by The National Science Foundation et al has shown that when domestic cats reside in areas where Pumas, Bobcats and Lynx are present, wildlife diseases like Bartonellosis,Toxoplasmosis and Feline immunodefiency virus can be spread from housecat to humans........"As human development encroaches on natural habitat, wildlife species that live there may be susceptible to diseases we or our domestic animals carry and spread," said Kevin Crooks, a biologist at Colorado State and co-leader of the project.........."At the same time, wildlife can harbor diseases that humans and our pets can in turn get. Diseases may be increasingly transmitted as former natural areas are developed." The way I see it, it is incumbent upon us to keep our cats on a leash and not let out to run wild in the woods........Not only are our cats killing untold number of birds and small critters, but by us letting them into wild spaces, we are condeming our native wild cats to destruction from disease as well as ignorant folks calling for the wild cats to be killed(with the excuse being that Pumas, Bobcats and Lynx are killing our pets)

http://www.nsf.com/

Domestic Cats, and Wild Bobcats and Pumas, Living in Same Area Have Same Diseases

May bring them into human homes, bridging "infection gap" between people and wildlife

Mountain lion photographed by a motion-activated camera, Uncompahgre Plateau, Colorado.

Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases.
And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.

Initial results of the multi-year study are published today in the scientific journal PLoS One by a group of 14 authors.The joint National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program funded the study. Scientists at Colorado State University and other institutions conducted the research.

It provides evidence that domestic cats and wild cats that share the same outdoor areas in urban environments also can share diseases such as Bartonellosis and Toxoplasmosis. Both can be spread from cats to people. "Human-wildlife interactions will continue to increase as human populations expand," said Sam Scheiner, program director for EEID at NSF.

"This study demonstrates that such interactions can be indirect and extensive," said Scheiner. "Through our pets we are sharing their diseases, which can affect our health, our pets' health and wildlife health."

The study looked at urban areas in California and Colorado. Its results show that diseases can spread via contact with shared habitat.

All three diseases the scientists tracked--Toxoplasmosis, Bartonellosis and FIV, or feline immunodefiency virus--were present in each area.

The research also demonstrates that diseases can be clustered due to urban development and major freeways that restrict animal movement. "The results are relevant to the big picture of domestic cats and their owners in urban areas frequented by wild cats such as bobcats and pumas," said Sue VandeWoude, a veterinarian at Colorado State and co-leader of the project.

"The moral of this story is that diseases can be transmitted between housecats and wildlife in areas they share, so it's important for pet owners to keep that in mind."

Lynx

housecat

The researchers followed wild and domestic cats in several regions of Colorado and California to determine whether the cats had been exposed to certain diseases.The effort includes data from 800 blood samples from felines of all sizes, including 260 bobcats and 200 pumas, which were captured and released, and 275 domestic cats."As human development encroaches on natural habitat, wildlife species that live there may be susceptible to diseases we or our domestic animals carry and spread," said Kevin Crooks, a biologist at Colorado State and co-leader of the project.

"At the same time, wildlife can harbor diseases that humans and our pets can in turn get. Diseases may be increasingly transmitted as former natural areas are developed."
The project also looked at whether bobcats in southern California were segregated into different populations by major highways.
By analyzing genetic and pathogen data, the scientists found that bobcats west or east of Highway 5 near Los Angeles rarely interbred, but that the bobcats did cross into each other's territory often enough to share diseases such as FIV.

Bobcat

"The evidence suggests that bobcats are moving across major highways, but are not able to easily set up new home territories," said VandeWoude. "They can, however, spread diseases to one another when they cross into each other's territories. This could result in inbreeding of the bobcats trapped by urban development and end up in the spread of diseases."

VandeWoude and Crooks say that the results don't necessarily mean that all domestic cats that are allowed to roam outdoors are at a high level of risk. They plan further studies to better assess that risk.

It does mean that domestic cats and wild cats who share the same environment--even if they do not come into contact with each other--also can share diseases.

The findings show that pumas are more likely to be infected with FIV than bobcats or domestic cats. While FIV cannot be transmitted to people, it is highly contagious among felines.The rate of Toxoplasmosis was high in pumas and bobcats across Colorado and California. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite that, when carried by healthy people, has no effect but that can cause complications for infants and adults with compromised immune systems.

Cats only spread Toxoplasmosis in their feces for a few weeks following infection with the parasite. Like humans, cats rarely have symptoms when first infected. Bartonellosis is a bacterial infection also called cat scratch disease. If someone is scratched by a cat with Bartonellosis, the scratch may become infected, but the infection is usually a mild one.

Other studies underway include a fine-scale analysis of urban landscape features that affect disease incidence; evaluation of pathogen exposure and transmission in bobcats; and a survey of domestic cat owners about their attitudes toward risks for pets from wildlife.

Large-scale projects looking at movement patterns of bobcats and pumas in Colorado, and a motion-activated camera analysis of human and wildlife interactions along urban areas, are also in progress.
The take-home message, the researchers say, is that life in the wild may not be so wild after all.
In addition to VandeWoude and Crooks, co-authors of the paper are: Sarah Bevins, Scott Carver, Mo Salman and Michael Lappin of Colorado State University; Erin Boydston, Lisa Lyren and Robert Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey; Mat Alldredge and Kenneth Logan of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife; Seth Riley of the National Park Service in Thousands Oaks, Calif.; and T. Winston Vickers and Walter Boyce of the University of California at Davis.

A resurgence in Fox pelt prices in the Northwest Territories(up 3 to 5 times over the previous several years) has the Government wanting trappers to "target foxes",,,,,,so that there will not be "problem wildlife".........So whether you are in New York State(see below this one) or up in the "Territories", "kill the critters" continues to be the mantra...........You can understand the ignorance of previous generations of men 100, 200 and 300 years ago as it relates to killing carnivores,,,,,,,,,,,,,,But with all that has been written and discussed since World War 2 about how Carnivores are so critical to maintaining healthy systems, it is astounding and sad that we choose to put the "blinders on" and continue to "kill baby kill" in the name of the economy or our supposed "god given right" to take what we want from the earth-----WAKE UP, WE MUST, IF 7 TO 10 BILLION OF US ARE GOING TO LIVE COMFORTABLY ON THIS PLANET OF OURS WITH FINITE RESOURCES

Record fox fur prices prompt N.W.T. trapping hopes

The Canadian Press;CTV news.com;

A section of the MacKenzie Delta is shown in this undated handout photo.

YELLOWKNIFE — The Northwest Territories government is hoping record prices for fox fur pelts will encourage northern trappers to target the critters and keep a check on the burgeoning population.

The price doubled at a recent auction in North Bay, Ont., with cross fox pelts going for $100, more than triple the average price. White fox pelts went for $200 -- up from $40 in previous years.


what some trappers refer to as the "crossfox"

Francois Rossouw, with the territory's Industry Department, said that kind of price for fox is unheard of.
"We really hope the prices will get people targeting foxes," Rossouw said. "Every community in the North has their own resident fox it seems. Instead of having problem wildlife, we would prefer to have them harvest the foxes humanely and pelt them up properly and put them into the market."

Fur has garnered above-average prices this year compared to years past, Rossouw said. Wild fox is particularly in demand from Chinese buyers. China controls about 90 per cent of the market and has a large, growing middle-class that is starting to covet fur as a luxurious accessory, Rossouw said. Appetite for ranch fox has been growing and now that demand is spilling over into wild pelts.

Record prices might be enough to tempt trappers such as Fred Mandeville. The Hay River, N.W.T., man has been out on the traplines for more than 60 years. He said he's never gone after foxes before.
"We don't bother them," Mandeville said. "They get caught sometimes in the trap."

Trappers are more interested in catching lynx and marten -- pelts that can bring up to $1 million into the territory annually, he said. That could change if prices for fox pelts stay high, Mandeville suggested. There are plenty of foxes around -- especially closer to Yellowknife -- and there are fewer lynx.

Prices would have to stay pretty high to make it worthwhile for trappers because the business is getting more expensive, he added."The price of gas is so high. That's where the money goes most of the time. They use snow machines nowadays not like the old days...with dog teams. You didn't have to worry about anything."
If trappers start targeting northern foxes, they will have the blessing of some environmentalists who study the population. Peter Ewins, director of species conservation at World Wildlife Fund Canada, said the fox population can boom in the North, especially when there are lots of lemmings for the animals to feed on.
Trapping foxes is a sustainable hunt which tends to regulate itself, he said.

"The trappers will be the first ones to tell you when numbers are in decline because they won't get so many pelts," Ewins said. "There is a lot of work involved to run the trapline. If you keep coming back in after two or three weeks without more than a couple of foxes, it's not worth your while, so you will ease up."
Even if this year's fox prices don't drive trappers to look for foxes, Northwest Territories government officials say the high prices are good news. The numbers indicate animal rights activists haven't put much of a dent in the demand for fur, Rossouw said.

"Everybody thinks the anti-fur movement has clobbered fur and people don't like fur anymore," he said. "At the end of the day, it's still the best fibre to use when it's cold. There is no two ways about it."

-- By Chinta Puxley in Winnipeg

New York State Bobcats appear to be expanding their range southward toward Pennsylvania.........Of course, as soon as a carnivore has some success recolonizing a region, State Game Commissions immediately institute hunting and trapping...........As George Wuerthner so often points out,,,,,,,,,,as long at State Game Commisisions are (1)funded by hunting fees and... (2)Commisioners picked by Govenors who hand out these appointments to ranchers and farmers who either donate heavily to their campaigns or who have great influence on election outcomes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,then Carnivores are going to be trimmed to numbers that do not always have the health of the land as the key population determinant.............

Southern NY tier sees increase in bobcat population

DEC proposes expansion of hunting area

Written by

Steve Reilly; http://www.stargazette.com/

When a bobcat shot through the beam of Barbara Brown's headlights as she drove down AirporRoad in the Town of Union last month, she was stunned. "It just shocked me," said Brown, of the Town of Maine. "You don't see something like that around here. I could see if it was Utah, but not around here."

Reports of bobcat sightings have surged in the Southern Tier and elsewhere over a few short years, spurring state officials to propose a dramatic expansion in the swath of New York where the rare felines can be hunted and trapped.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation's five-year bobcat management plan, released late last month, proposes a harvest expansion area that includes parts of 24 counties. The proposed new hunting area cuts across the Southern Tier from Lake Erie to Broome County before reaching up into central New York. According to the DEC, there have been 332 reported bobcat sightings in the expanded harvest area over the past five years.

"What began as occasional sightings along the New York/Pennsylvania border has progressed to large numbers of observations, trail camera photos, and incidental captures and releases by trappers," the DEC document states.

bobcat in NY woodlands

It is legal to hunt and trap bobcats in northern New York and parts of the Hudson Valley.
According to DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach, the proposal to expand the harvest area is due to population growth coupled with interest from hunters and trappers who covet their valuable pelts.
Eastern or northern U.S. bobcat pelts range in price from around $50 to more than $200, although values fluctuate from year to year.

"In response to this interest, we compiled all available data on bobcat observations in New York," Rosenbach said. "Based on that information, we concluded that bobcat populations are increasing and expanding throughout New York state outside of their historic core range in the Taconic, Catskill and Adirondack mountains and into central and western New York."

Where are all these bobcats coming from? The Keystone State is at least partly to blame. Migration of bobcats from Pennsylvania has likely contributed to the growth of the population across the Southern Tier.
"We certainly have high bobcat densities along the northern tier of Pennsylvania," said Matt Lovallo, supervisor of the game mammal section at the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

More than 1,000 bobcats are taken each year in Pennsylvania, he said. Populations are growing in that state as well. "It's just a function of increasing populations, and the natural dispersal of those populations as they increase," Lovallo said. "We've just reached that point where areas of good habitat are saturated and bobcats are striking out to find new areas where they can thrive."

According to the DEC report, bobcats are about twice the size of domestic cats. An average male weighs 21 pounds and has a body length of 34 inches; females average 14 pounds and 30 inches.

John Elms, president of the Broome County Sportsmen's Association, said the proposed change would benefit local hunters who currently have to travel north to find bobcats. "It'll give the predator hunters one more thing to go after," he said.

Predictably, there is opposition to the plan. Anne Muller, president of Hudson Valley-based Wildlilfe Watch, said DEC's hunting regulations exploit wildlife and manipulate populations. The group opposes all forms of sport hunting."Our concern is for individual animals, and the pain and the suffering that they endure," Muller said.

The proposal to expand the hunting area is subject to public comment and review.
Comments may be sent to NYSDEC, Bobcat Management Plan, 625 Broadway, Albany, N.Y. 12233, or by e-mail to fwwildlf@gw.dec.state.ny.us. The comment period ends Feb. 16.

If the proposed changes take effect, there would be two sets of regulations for bobcat hunting/trapping, depending on the area. Standard trapping and small game hunting licenses would be required to pursue bobcat in the current harvest area, and an additional trapping or hunting permit specific to bobcats would be necessary in the expanded harvest area.

"Bobcat population trends in New York also reflect general trends across the United States," Rosenbach said. "We believe the population of bobcats in the proposed area can sustain some harvest by trappers and hunters."

While there are a few scientists who somehow feel that it is ok for the environment to absorb non native species, virtually all ecologists come out very strongly on perpetuating and restoring native associations of plants and animals.............This blog is very comfortable with pushing for the restoration of native plants and animals that were found in North America at the time of European contact; circa AD 1500........When introduced "exotics" enter our systems, the potential for havoc and destruction is high,,,,,,the Giant Python snakes now amuck in The Florida Everglades are a "Frankenstein" engine of destruction for species ranging from birds to Pumas.

Severe Python Damage to Florida's Native Everglades Animals Documented in New Study



ScienceDaily  — Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a study by Michael Dorcas, an associate professor of biology at Davidson College, and colleagues. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in the 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected, but some Everglades pythons are as large as 16 feet long, and their prey have included animals as large as deer and alligators.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park and justifies the argument for more intensive investigation into their ecological effects, as well as the development of effective control methods," said Dorcas, lead author of the study and author of the 2010 book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

He continued, "Such severe declines in easily seen mammals bode poorly for the many species of conservation concern that are more difficult to sample but that may also be vulnerable to python predation."

giant python caught in the Everglades

The most severe declines, including a nearly complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits and opossums, have occurred in the remote southernmost regions of the park, where pythons have been established the longest. In this area, populations of raccoons dropped 99.3 percent, opossums 98.9 percent and bobcats 87.5 percent. Marsh and cottontail rabbits, as well as foxes, were not seen at all.
The researchers collected their information via repeated systematic night-time road surveys within the park, counting both live and road-killed animals. Over the period of the study, researchers traveled a total of nearly 39,000 miles from 2003 to 2011 and compared their findings with similar surveys conducted in 1996 and 1997 along the same roadways before pythons were recognized as established in Everglades National Park.

The authors also conducted surveys in ecologically similar areas north of the park where pythons have not yet been discovered. In those areas, mammal abundances were similar to those in the park before pythons proliferated. At sites where pythons have only recently been documented, however, mammal populations were reduced, though not to the dramatic extent observed within the park where pythons are well established.

"Pythons are wreaking havoc on one of America's most beautiful, treasured and naturally bountiful ecosystems," said U.S. Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt. "Right now, the only hope to help halt further python invasion into new areas is swift, decisive and deliberate human action."

The authors suggested that one reason for such dramatic declines in such a short time is that these prey species are "naïve" -- that is, they not used to being preyed upon by pythons since such large snakes have not previously existed in that ecosystem.

"It took 30 years for the brown treesnake to be implicated in the nearly complete disappearance of mammals and birds on Guam; it has apparently taken only 11 years since pythons were recognized as being established in the Everglades for researchers to implicate pythons in the same kind of severe mammal declines," said Robert Reed, a USGS scientist and co-author of the paper. "It is possible that other mammal species, including at-risk ones, have declined as well because of python predation, but at this time, the status of those species is unknown."

Another coauthor of the study was John Willson '02, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University who has worked with Dorcas on several studies, and co-authored the book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

Willson commented, "Our research adds to the increasing evidence that predators, whether native or exotic, exert major influence on the structure of animal communities. The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound, but are probably complex and difficult to predict. Studies examining such effects are sorely needed to more fully understand the impacts pythons are having on one of our most unique and valued national parks."
On January 23 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule in the Federal Register that will ban the importation and interstate transportation of four non-native constrictor snakes that threaten the Everglades, including the Burmese python. These snakes are being listed as injurious species under the Lacey Act.

In addition to Dorcas and Willson, authors of the study are Robert N. Reed, USGS; Ray W. Snow, NPS; Michael R. Rochford, University of Florida; Melissa A. Miller, Auburn University; Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., State Museum of Pennsylvania; Paul T. Andreadis, Denison University; Frank J. Mazzotti, University of Florida; Christina M. Romagosa, Auburn University; and Kristen M. Hart, USGS.

Lynx in New Hampshire documented for the first time in years..............Now, a Lynx shows up in Idaho for the first time in 15 years.............transient or resident?........Only 40 Lynx have been recorded in east central Idaho since the late 19th century.............Would be truly a great thing for a lynx revival to occur

First Canada lynx in 15 years found in Idaho

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A Canada lynx has been documented in Idaho for the first time in over 15 years when the imperiled cat was inadvertently caught in a foot-hold trap in the Salmon-Challis National Forest, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

"It's a very rare occurrence," Tom Keegan, regional manager with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said about the incidental capture last week of the high-elevation, forest-dwelling cat.

He said a man walking his dogs spotted the lynx on Thursday in the rugged mountains of east central Idaho in a legal trap set for bobcat and notified state wildlife officials. They released the animal unharmed.

The last lynx confirmed in the 4.3 million-acre forest surrounding Salmon was in 1991, when one was accidentally trapped. The cats were documented elsewhere in Idaho during the 1995-1996 trapping season, after which trapping lynx was outlawed.

Lynx were designated in 2000 as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species in the lower 48 states, where they roam the high country from Maine to Washington and south through the Rocky Mountains.

The animals have long legs and large, well-furred paws, making them highly adapted for hunting in deep snow for preferred prey like snowshoe hares, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Lynx are infrequently sighted. Biologists mostly rely on tracks and scat to document the reclusive animal's presence.

Just 40 lynx have been recorded in east central Idaho since the late 1800s, according to Fish and Game.

A DNA sample collected from the recently captured cat will be analyzed to verify it is a wild lynx and to gain knowledge about its possible origins, Keegan said.

Like wolverines and other elusive forest carnivores, lynx can travel long distances, even hundreds of miles, he said.

Keegan said it was too early to say whether the lynx found in the Salmon-Challis forest was a sign of the animal's return to its historic range or if it was a random event.

"There's all kinds of speculation. It may be a transient animal or a resident animal," he said.

The Great Lakes delisting of Wolves creates a hybrid management situation for North Dakota with the eastern portion of the State under a delisting paradigm and the western part of the State(West of Hwy 83 and the Missouri River) having wolves still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act .......Stephanie Tucker who is the state furbearer biologist for North Dakota claims that since (in her opinion) there is not enough suitable habitat for wolves to create a breeding population in North Dakota, she has the necessary madates in place for landowners to destroy any transient wolves that are deemed "threatening".......She of course wants delisting throughout the State so that North Dakota never has to worry about a breeding population somehow carving out a toehold........Colonizers from the Western States need to get into North Dakota quickly, create a few packs and thus forcing Ms. Tucker and colleagues to re-evaluate their current mgmt plans to prevent populations from falling under a sustainablwe long-term level

Gray Wolf Delisting Complicates Situation for North Dakota


By Greg Freeman, North Dakota Game and Fish


BISMARCK - The recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the Great Lakes population of gray wolves from federal protection might not seem as important in North Dakota as some of the other states in the Midwest, but it is significant nonetheless. Stephanie Tucker, North Dakota Game and Fish Department furbearer biologist, said this development is important because it means the Great Lakes population has recovered enough to no longer warrant protection by the Endangered Species Act.

 "However, the Great Lakes population region delisting only includes the portion of North Dakota east of U.S. Highway 83 and the Missouri River, thus complicating their management status in our state," Tucker said. Due to this action, the management of wolves found roaming through the eastern portion of the state will fall back to the State Game and Fish Department under state management guidelines as a protected furbearer. The complicating aspect of the decision is that wolves moving through western North Dakota (west of Highway 83 and the Missouri River) still remain under federal protection because that area falls between the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountain boundaries.

 "Although we do get rare sightings in North Dakota, we don't have a resident wolf population in the state, or enough suitable habitat to support one; therefore, we have no plans to allow a hunting season on wolves at this point," Tucker said. "The upside is that under state management, we now have the flexibility to deal with any issues that may arise with the occasional transient animals moving through North Dakota." State law provides a provision for landowners to protect their property from depredation by a state-managed furbearer. Therefore, landowners in eastern North Dakota could shoot a wolf posing a threat to livestock. However, west of highway 83 and the Missouri River, wolves are still an endangered species under stricter federal protection. Subsequently, landowners in that part of the state must first contact proper federal authorities before taking action on their own.

 "Our hope is that in the near future, additional delisting action by the Fish and Wildlife Service will address western North Dakota," Tucker said. "Then the confusion over split management status in our state will be eliminated."

The Northeast is experiencing an aberant Winter weather year with temperatures up +5 degrees above the 100 year avearage............As a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal by distinguished clmatologists today stated,,,,,, Nearly every climate expert in the world has concluded that we are warming the earth through fossil fuel burning.........The result this year is that Black Bears will come out of their dens in mid Feb rather than in late March seeking food wherever they can find it(near homes and business), lyme disease carrying ticks will be more prolific and looking for hosts even on warm Winter days,,,,,,,,,,,,mosquitoes will be rampant as cold weather has not been here to knock down their populations(and bats are not around to eat them due to the plague of white nose syndrome)............We are screwing with the natural cycle and there will be adverse natural world consequences to deal with as a result

The Jumanji effect? Extra warm winter playing havoc with hibernating animals

By Jeremy A. Kaplan

| FoxNews.com

Suburban bear sightings are up nationwide. Ravenous black bears scurrying through trash cans for dinner, mosquitoes swarming in the early grass, amorous deer behaving like, well, rabbits. Creatures great and small are being thrown for a loop this winter as the unusually warm climate stirs all forms of wildlife from their natural hibernation and reproduction cycles. 

Call it the "Jumanji effect."It will cause bat populations to crater and had famous groundhog Punxsutawney  Phil stirring early. And rather than hibernating through the freezing snowstorms typically seen from October to March, black bears are likely to wake early -- and they'll be ravenous, said Paul Curtis, a professor of natural resources and wildlife specialist with Cornell University.

"They'll be hungry when they come out of their dens after hibernating all winter," Curtis told FoxNews.com. "Their fat reserves will be gone and they'll be looking for easy food." Thanks to a winter that has averaged at least five degrees above normal, according to Art DeGaetano, a climatologist and the director of the NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center -- above-average temperatures that will continue through April, per the National Weather Service's long range forecasts -- Black bears could show their faces in the next few weeks.

"By mid- to late February, black bears will be coming out of their dens," Curtis said. They'll most likely go after bird feeders and other human-created food sources -- up to 80 percent of the omnivorous species' diet is plant material, he explained.

But other animals do have a blood lust, and thanks to the warm weather, they may attack like the plague this summer."This year, lots and lots of hungry ticks will emerge even on warm winter days," said Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, a professor of entomology and a specialist with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. The boom in ticks is partly thanks to a soaring deer population, which will have survived the mild winter in record numbers. And where deer numbers are up, so are ticks.

Other blood-thirsty pests will make the summer of 2012 one for the record books as well, again thanks to the odd weather. The extreme cold snaps typical in many U.S. states have yet to surface -- weather that typically kills a good portion of the dormant mosquito population. "I anticipate the mosquito problems we normally see to be much more intense and begin earlier than usual if the weather continues to be mild," Gangloff-Kaufmann said. "Even the fleas have had a boost so far this winter and many people are complaining about flea problems right now, in the middle of winter."

Still another climate-related factor will cause mosquito swarms to inflate: a serious dip in bats. Mosquito-munching bats have been dying off, due to a fungus that has decimated the population."We may have lost five and a half to six and a half million bats in eastern North America in the last five years," Curtis said. The fungus may be causing them to wake early, itching and hungry. And when they emerge unexpectedly in January or February looking to feed, they starve to death. Will anything save us from the coming mosquito onslaught? Ironically, a lack of precipitation may be our savior as the summer nears.

"Mosquitoes need standing water for breeding," Curtis told FoxNews.com. April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring swarms of mosquitoes in June, July and August. If we have early spring storms and wet weather, Curtis warned, watch out. But a dry spring may cut down on the swarms.

For the time being, Curtis is more concerned with the bears. Scientists typically take advantage of the snows and cold to study hibernating bears in February."Usually, there's snow on the ground, making February an ideal time for studying them," he said.  "If we're going to do winter den work, we have to do it early in the year."