Thursday, September 10, 2015

Burial records of colonial New Mexicans reveal a number of cases in which the cause of death is rattlesnake bite............ Frontiersman Nelson Lee, in his memoirs, tells of a cure that saved his life in the 1850s: a poultice made of the flesh of the rattler that bit him............ It is likely that the Spanish settlers knew numerous folk remedies for snake bites, among them a poultice made by cooking cockleburs................It is known that Anglo fur trappers spit tobacco juice on a fresh bite, convinced somehow that it diluted the venom............... Another remedy, universally prescribed on the frontier, was the drinking of whiskey.............. While it might temporarily ease the pain, in the long run alcohol caused the bite victim more harm than good. him.............In cold weather, Cowboys on the trail were known to surround their blankets with a prickly hair rope............They felt that the snakes would not go over the rope because they did not like the way the rope bristles felt against their undersides...........The bottom line is that Europeans of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, never ever let a snake go if they found one---A bullet to the head or an axe to the head was always the response...............No different now is it?-------The source of all these comments are from the writings of Folklorist J. Frank Dobie and his book entitled: RATTLESNAKES

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/trail_dust/trail-dust-rattlesnakes-are-subject-of-much-southwestern-lore/article_b112b062-3bc2-5df5-9a23-028212559f88.html#.VevKlW5AsNY.mailto

Trail Dust: Rattlesnakes are subject of much Southwestern lore

Posted: Friday, September 4, 2015 7:00 pm | Updated: 12:12 am, Sat Sep 5, 2015.

By Marc Simmons | 0 comments

Rattlesnakes are not one of my favorite creatures in this Southwestern homeland. But I’ll be the first to admit that they add something of interest to the region. Around them, a huge body of lore has accumulated.

Most people, I suppose, have a natural fear of rattlers, because they are venomous and so kill human beings from time to time.

In fact, the 16-year-old son of my great uncle was struck in the calf by a Texas diamondback down along the Nueces River. It happened in a remote area, and before they could get the boy to a hospital, he died.

I thought of that once when I was hiking on rough trail in the Canadian breaks of the Panhandle. Suddenly, I heard a loud whirring, and there coiled on a rock was the largest rattlesnake I’d ever seen.

It was as thick as my upper arm and would probably have measured 6 to 7 feet stretched out. Wanting to avoid a second snake death in my family, I made a wide detour around him.

During my cowpunching days in Wyoming, I would sometimes have to drive cattle through thick stands of buckbrush. You could hear the buzzing of rattlers to the right and left, but seldom see them. They would be on my mind, and sometimes when I had bedded down by the campfire, I dreamed that a snake had crawled under my saddle, which I was using as a pillow.

I’d awake suddenly and come flying out of the blankets. Then I would make a search to be sure Mr. Serpent was not sharing my bed.

That sometimes happened to old-time cowboys, especially when they were camped out in cold weather. Rattlers, seeking warmth, would move into their bedding and go to sleep.

To discourage that, the men often surrounded their blankets with a prickly hair rope, laid on the ground. They firmly believed that snakes would avoid slithering over such a rope, since the scratchy bristles tickled their bellies.

I never put much faith in that old superstition. And besides, my up-to-date catch rope was made of smooth nylon, so it wouldn’t have been much use as a snake shield.

In going through the burial records of colonial New Mexico, I’ve noticed a number of cases in which the cause of death is rattlesnake bite. The Spanish settlers must have known numerous folk remedies for such biittes, but the only one I have discovered is a poultice made by cooking cockleburs.

At a later day, Anglo fur trappers spit tobacco juice on a fresh bite, convinced somehow that it diluted the venom. Another remedy, universally prescribed on the frontier, was the drinking of whiskey. While it might temporarily ease the pain, in the long run alcohol caused the bite victim more harm than good.

Frontiersman Nelson Lee, in his memoirs, tells of a cure that saved his life in the 1850s. He had just dismounted from his horse in a mesquite thicket when an enormous rattlesnake struck him in the ankle.

As he recounted it: “A sickening, dreadful sensation came over me, terrible beyond all force of language to convey. With the prospect of dying in such an abominable way, my nerves became completely unstrung.”

According to Nelson, a Spaniard in his party who had witnessed the incident came up and quickly killed the snake. Then he began cutting portions of flesh from the still wriggling monster and applying them to the bite.

“I could feel the reptile’s flesh draw, and in a few minutes the white poultice thus applied changed to a perfect green. These applications proved effectual, inasmuch as I suffered nothing from it afterwards save a slight soreness.”

The dread and loathing of rattlesnakes experienced by most men meant that the creatures were usually killed on sight. Drovers walking beside their ox teams kept an eye peeled for snakes, and upon spotting one would skillfully take off the head with a well-aimed snap of their heavy bullwhips.

Early-day prospectors along the Pecos River were always poking into shallow caves in the cliffs, looking for signs of minerals. Sometimes they would encounter a snake cave, filled with a seething mass of rattlers.

The usual response was to toss a stick of dynamite into the opening, reducing the rattlesnakes to hamburger. To what extent the long war against rattlers has depleted their numbers, we can only guess.

Folklorist J. Frank Dobie once wrote a book called simply, Rattlesnakes. It is the most readable source I know dealing with snake lore in the Southwest, and I can recommend it to all those with an interest in pursuing the subject.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The fact that Polar Bears are extremely smart(as is all the bear family) and opportunistically feed on caribou, geese and eggs does not mean that all is well in their Arctic ecosystem............As Seals become less and less a dietary staple for the bears due to decreasing ice flows (climate change), the fact that the bears start dining on alternative foods will put pressure on the entire natural system(other carnivores, herbivores, plants et al?), likely sending ripple effects across a myriad of other plant and animal life..............There will be losers that result from the bears need to stary alive and it might take hundreds of years for this new system to rebalance itself under the new set of top down pressures that the bears are placing on the system

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0906/Polar-bears-to-humans-Relax-we-ve-got-this?cmpid=addthis_mailto

Polar bears to humans:

Relax, we've got this

Polar bears may be more resilient to the effects of
climate change than scientists had feared, according
to a new study.

By Annika Fredrikson, Staff SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Do these Polar Bears really have a chance to survive
climate change even with their elastic dietary abilities?

Does the need to switch to alternate prey like goose and
Caribou impact other members of the bears system adversely?

The article above(click link to open) seems simplistic and
the researcher's hypothesis of the bears being able to adapt
under the melting of the ice seems extremely narrow to me
based on ecosystem science.............Your thoughts?

Last year was first step of a multi-year research initiative in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Washington to map the distribution of wolverines south of the Canadian border............... Generally, the Northern Rockies in Idaho and Montana and the North Cascades in Washington are considered to be occupied wolverine range............. Much of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, however, shows up on the maps as “unknown status.”..........This year, 5 locations in Yellowstone revealed Wolverine evidence,,,,,,Burro Flat, Clear Creek , Moon Lake, Gros Ventre and Bonneville Pass...........Unfortunately, the Tetons which had harbored 4 adults during 2001-2008 were only able to locate one past his prime 14 year old male there this year...................Where are the Females in the Yellowstone and Tetons?,,,,,And where are they breeding in the rest of the Rocky Mountain West?

Biologists find wolverines in their surveys - Jackson Hole News

Biologists find wolverines in their surveys

Gulo gulo detected at five of 18 study sites, including a first-time sighting in Gros Ventres.

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 4:30 AM

By Mike Koshmrl | 0 comments

An effort to determine where wolverines roam in the American West has confirmed the presence of the scarce mustelid in the Gros Ventre Range for the first time.

A wolverine was also potentially documented outside the species’ known turf in the northern Wyoming Range, but a nighttime photo snapped of the specimen was too dark to make an identification with certainty. The wolverine detection in the Gros Ventre was in the far east edge of the mountain range in the Tosi Creek area.

“They could have been there before, but at least now we have proof that they’re there right now,” said Zack Walker, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s nongame bird and mammal supervisor.

“We now know they’re in the Wind River Range, the Gros Ventre and the Absarokas and there was a possible wolverine sighting in the Wyoming Range,” Walker said. “They’re at least in the core western mountains.

“I don’t know if they’re going to be in the southern Wyoming Range, and we certainly don’t know if they’re going to be in the Bighorns,” he said.

Last year was first step of a multi-year research initiative in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Washington to map the distribution of wolverines south of the Canadian border. Generally, the Northern Rockies in Idaho and Montana and the North Cascades in Washington are considered to be occupied wolverine range. Much of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, however, shows up on the maps as “unknown status.”

In the Equality State, Gulu gulo is managed as a species of “greatest conservation need.” The 20- to 50-pound cousin of the weasel was once extirpated from the Lower 48.

Two years ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protecting wolverines through the Endangered Species Act, but the next year the federal agency abandoned plans to pursue listing. Wolverines had been a candidate for protection because scientists expect that their breeding grounds — which depend on deep spring snows — will retract significantly as the world warms during this century.

The first year the wolverine distribution research in Wyoming was contracted out to the Wolverine Initiative, but Game and Fish will handle the study internally going forward. The change occurred because Bob Inman, who headed the initiative, took a job at Montana State University.

In the pilot season, the nonprofit research group set out 18 infrared cameras in high-elevation areas throughout the Wyoming portion of the Greater Yellowstone. Baited with deer remains hung in trees and fitted with hair snares, the stations were located in the Absaroksa, Wind, Gros Ventre, Salt and Wyoming ranges between 7,000 and 10,500 feet in elevation.

Collectively, the wolverine detection stations ran for nearly 2,000 “trap nights,” according to an August progress report completed by the Wolverine Initiative. Some 8,200 photos of wolverines were acquired and 65 genetic samples gathered between February and June.

Five of the 18 stations turned up evidence of wolverines. Three stations in the Winds — at Burro Flat, Clear Creek and Moon Lake — documented wolverines, as did the Gros Ventre station and another located near Bonneville Pass in the southern Absarokas.

Before the study, there had been only a dozen “verifiable wolverine occurrence records” in Wyoming, the progress report says.

“Of the 12 current records, nine occurred in the Teton Range and were made via capture during a radio-telemetry study,” the report says. “Of the four remaining records in Wyoming over that 44-year period, one was a roadkill of a young female near Kemmerer in 2004 and one was an incidental capture of a male by a fur-trapper near Cheyenne in 1996. Both individuals could have been dispersers traveling long distances. The other two records appear to have come from near the northern border of Yellowstone National Park and near Jackson Hole.”

While the research didn’t extend into the Tetons this spring, Walker said Game and Fish will survey the range this winter. The Wind River, Gros Ventre and Wyoming ranges will also be searched, he said.

Next winter, if funds are secured, the distribution research will extend to another 20 to 25 sites in the Bighorn Mountains and Absaroka Range.

When wolverine researchers headed by Inman studied the Tetons between 2001 and 2008, they discovered four adults regularly inhabiting the range. Young wolverines, in years that kits were reared, boosted the population up to about seven animals in the 40-mile-long range, biologists found.

But wildlife researchers trying to determine the effects of winter recreation on Teton Range wolverines more recently had trouble finding the far-ranging species.

Kim Heinemeyer, of Round River Conservation Studies, spoke about the study at Teton County Library in late August.

“In the Tetons, historically, there was a nice population and it was kind of considered a cornerstone of wolverine presence and occupation for the Yellowstone region,” Heinemeyer said. “But we only found one male.”

The Tetons’ lone Gulo gulo, nicknamed Jed for “Jedediah Smith,” is 14 years old — ancient by wild wolverine standards. Jed had been a research subject in the earlier Inman study.

“We would have expected him to be replaced by now with a young, more vigorous animal,” Heinemeyer said. “But he seems to be the only one home that we could find in the Tetons, and we looked pretty hard for two years. We didn’t find any females.”

A focal point of last winter’s Wolverine Initiative survey was to determine the distribution of female wolverines — it’s in the title of the progress report. Determining the gender or reproductive statuses, however, proved problematic, and no new animals were sexed the first go-around.

Going forward, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington are going with field-research techniques that will not distinguish between males and females, Walker said.

“The future work will not be using run poles and looking for signs of female reproduction,” Walker wrote in an email. “However, when we submit hair to the genetics lab we will have the option of determining gender. I am not sure on the cost of this, and how far we will proceed down that path.”

If enough funding is secured, Game and Fish will “try to get as much information out of the hair samples as possible,” Walker said. Genetic data acquired could verify that an animal is a wolverine and confirm its sex and individual identity, he said.

The Wolverine Initiative progress report called the pursuit of information on the whereabouts of females “important.”

“In areas on the periphery of the currently documented wolverine range, determining whether wolverines are reproducing would benefit wildlife managers,” the report says.

At her Teton County Library talk, Heinemeyer also stressed the importance of knowing where wolverines are breeding versus being seen. Her study struggled to find females in historically occupied areas such as the Tetons and mountain ranges in Idaho.

“It seems we can easily make assumptions on where there’s reproducing populations of wolverines based on historic evidence,” Heinemeyer said. “But we’re not finding those animals now, and we should just be cautious about the assumptions we make about how the species is doing.

“If you hear rhetoric currently, it’s often that wolverines are doing fine or expanding because you get these males that disperse long distances and end up in Colorado, or the Uintas or California,” she said. “But those are just single male animals of a species that do big dispersals.”