No Room for Strutting
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle - WyomingNews.com
Jennifer Frazer
09 Oct 2006
Photo courtesy of WyomingNews.com
Scientists find new evidence that doom is closing in on Wyoming's declining sage grouse populations. The two main stressors: energy developments and West Nile virus.
Sage grouse mating rituals could be described as goofy, astonishing or even magical. The large, speckled birds faithfully return to their breeding grounds - called leks - every year in spring, where males gather early each morning to strut, fret and heave out their chests in search of a mate.
Birders and locals alike often flock to see the yearly ritual by a bird that a former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director called "as distinctively western as the Stetson hat." Yet if energy development continues as it is right now, there will be a lot less strutting in the future, according to new research by Wyoming and Montana scientists, and that could mean that environmental groups will again petition for the listing of the sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Should the bird be listed as endangered, ranchers, drillers and anyone else whose activities could impact sage grouse would be subject to much more stringent regulations. Several studies, released within the last year, are finding that sage grouse populations are declining in the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah Field in western Wyoming and Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming. Those are areas with gas and coal-bed methane development, seriously threatening the birds' future. Similar levels of oil and gas development are planned for other sage grouse strongholds, including the Red Desert of southern Wyoming.
South Bend Tribune - SouthBendTribune.com
08 Oct 2006
A viral disease called EHD appears to be infecting white-tailed deer in west central Indiana, according to a DNR report. EHD is normally not found in domestic animals, and isn't transmissible to humans. Hoosier hunters and hikers have been reporting an unusual number of dead wild deer in Greene, Clay, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion, Fountain and Vigo counties. As many as 30 dead deer were spotted by hikers and canoeists along stretches of streams.
Initial investigations by DNR biologists point to EHD (Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease), transmitted by small flying insects called biting midges. Biologists have submitted tissue samples to the Purdue Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab for confirmation. EHD causes severe, flu-like symptoms in the deer, including a high fever.
Infected deer seek open water in streams or ponds to cool off. Many of the dead animals were found near water. Sick deer may lose their appetite, coordination and their fear of normal dangers. Animals become dehydrated and progressively weaker, with mouth and eye tissue often showing a rosy or bluish color. A significant percentage of deer that contract EHD die within one to three days.
Making Peace with Geese Bay Area Prefers to Discourage Rather than Destroy these Prolific Picnic Party PoopersSan Francisco Chronicle
07 Oct 2006
Eileen Mitchell
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle
Ah, the lovely Canada goose. That symbol of grace, flight, freedom ... and feces? Stroll around any local lake, golf course or pond and that's what you'll find. Dodging the plethora of fist-sized goose poop is like tip-toeing across a mine field. Not surprising, since a single goose can produce up to 3 pounds of droppings (urine and excrement combined) per day. Multiply that times an average community of dozens of geese and you've got one gaggle of a conundrum.
One that is plaguing communities. Worries abound over disease transmission from fecal material or contaminated water. Beautiful shorelines, school yards, parks, golf courses and even cemeteries are drowning under a tsunami of excrement, thanks to what one writer called these "walking digestive tracts disguised as birds" that can reportedly defecate up to 92 times per day. And the irony is, they were invited.
"We've created goose nirvana," says Maggie Brasted, director of Urban Wildlife Conflict Resolution with The Humane Society of the United States. "We build a typical suburban homeowners park with great habitats like retention ponds and golf courses. We mow and fertilize the grass, which they love. The grass is near water, which they like because that's how they escape from predators. (Years ago) we introduced them to this perfect habitat and not only did they stay, but they reproduced and never learned to migrate. Now we're annoyed with them."
Cornell Lab Testing for Bird Flu
Press & Sun-Bulletin - pressconnects.com
08 Oct 2006
Dave Henderson
The New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell is, at last count, 544 birds into a projected 1,600-bird sampling of healthy wild birds for the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The birds have been collected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Unit, which take swabs in the field and take them to Cornell for testing. Sampling is expected to continue into February.
Part of a nationwide study, the sampling focuses on waterfowl, including Canada geese, mallards, and mute swans; but also includes other waterfowl as well as many species of gulls and shorebirds. In addition to the sampling of normal, healthy wild birds, DEC's Wildlife Pathology Unit has submitted samples from more than 1,000 birds of various species that were sick or found dead and had been submitted to the Unit for diagnosis.
Live birds as well as hunter-killed birds will be sampled. Only a simple swab is needed for testing so live birds are not harmed through the sampling. Neither the lethal H5N1 HPAI strain of virus circulating in parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, nor the low-pathogenic H5N1 strain of virus being found in other states has been found in New York. Low pathogenic strains of avian influenza commonly occur in wild birds and typically cause only minor sickness, or no noticeable signs of disease in birds. The highly pathogenic form of avian influenza still has not been detected in the more than 20,000 birds sampled across North America this year.
Maine Game Transport Law Upsets Hunters
Portsmouth Herald - Seacoast Online
08 Oct 2006
Elizabeth Dinan
Clayton Ferry needs a new butcher. President of the South Berwick Rod and Gun Club, Ferry recently learned that when Maine's deer hunting season opens Oct. 30, he and other hunters will be governed by a new law regulating they way they bring hunted deer, elk and moose into the state. Effective immediately, the law makes it illegal for hunters to bring the three species across any Maine border unless all bones and brain tissue are removed.
That means if Ferry bags a deer in one of his secret, out-of-state hunting haunts, it'll have to be butchered before he returns home to Eliot, and not by his favorite South Berwick butcher. Word of the new law has traveled slowly, if at all. Many who do know about it have filed complaints, including a beef about neighboring New Hampshire's far less-restrictive game transport law.
Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife reports the law was adopted to avoid the introduction of "chronic wasting disease" into the state. The fatal disease affects deer, elk and moose -- not humans -- and has been detected in 16 states, the closest being New York. It has not yet been detected in Maine during three years of sample testing.
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