Group Claims Rat Poison Is Killing Golden Gate Park Wildlife
Bay City News (Posted by fogcityjournal.com)
16 Mar 2007
B Begin
Area: San Francisco, CA USA
A San Francisco wildlife rehabilitation group plans to release a red-shouldered hawk into the wild this morning following a six-week recovery from what they believe is the secondhand ingestion of rat poison. The hawk was lucky to survive, according to Jamie Ray with the Rescued Orphan Mammal Program (ROMP), who claims that two hawks and a fox have been found dead near rodent bait boxes in Golden Gate Park's botanical garden. Ray also said that a third hawk was found dead this week across the street from the Japanese Tea Garden. But Rose Dennis, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, disputes these reports.
"We had an incident six months ago, which we suspected that poison might have played a role," Dennis said. "The raptor survived, and I don't know of any other cases." Both agree that the birds of prey are not feeding on the bait traps. Ray said that rats eat the poison but it takes around five days to work. When hawks eat the rats, however, the poison may still take effect, a process called secondary ingestion.
Japan Detects H5N1 Strain In Eagle Body
Xinhua News (Posted by chinaview.cn)
19 Mar 2007
Area: Japan
Japan's environment ministry said Sunday that it detected the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in the body of an endangered eagle in southern Japan's Kumamoto prefecture. The mountain hawk eagle, which was found to be ailing in the village of Sagara on Jan. 4 and died shortly afterward, has been confirmed to have contracted the virus, after being examined by a university laboratory, Kyodo News reported. The environment ministry has planned to catch wild birds and collect bird droppings around the area where the bird was found, to find out if there was spread of the virus.
Earlier this year, several bird flu outbreaks occurred in different chicken farms in southern Japan, some of which were involved with the H5N1 strain. The H5N1 strain is a subtype of the influenza A virus that can cause illness in humans and many other animal species. It is feared that the bird-to-bird disease of avian flu could mutate into a virus transmissible between humans and lead to a pandemic.
The Mystery of Missing Grebes
Mail Tribune
16 Mar 2007
C Dunagan
Area: Washington, USA
Scientists work to refine transmitter technology so they can more effectively track this declining Western seabird
Wildlife veterinarian Joe Gaydos pulled the squawking, sharp-beaked bird from its cage as he prepared to take a blood sample. Less than pleased with its surroundings, the white-throated Western grebe poked the air with its beak and then deposited a messy gift on the floor of the wildlife trailer. Not all birds give up their secrets easily — even if the research is for the good of their species. More than a dozen species of seabirds are in serious decline along the West Coast.
Biologists studying their habits and migration patterns are beginning to understand why the birds are struggling to survive. Reasons vary. In some cases, the decline appears related to a disruption of their natural habitats or food supplies. Tiny transmitters, developed over the past few years, are proving essential in tracking all kinds of birds being studied.
Authorities Warned of Shellfish Parasites
The Vancouver Sun
16 Mar 2007
L Pynn
Area: British Columbia, Canada
A veterinarian says marine mammals have been found with disease-causing organisms
Health authorities responsible for quality assurance in shellfish harvested in the shared waters of B.C. and Washington state should begin monitoring for giardia and cryptosporidium, a wildlife veterinarian said Thursday following new research confirming the presence of the parasites in marine mammals. "We don't want to start a scare," Joe Gaydos said in an interview from his Orcas Island office in Washington. "But it is something our departments of health should check into. We're opening a Pandora's box." Gaydos said both parasites, known for causing intestinal ailments, can survive in their infective stages in the ocean for one year and can concentrate in filter-feeding bivalve shellfish.
Studies of oysters in Chesapeake Bay on the U.S. east coast and oysters and mussels off California have found evidence of the parasites, he said. Levels tend to increase with heavy rains, suggesting the two parasites are being washed into the ocean from the surrounding land. Gaydos' own research in Puget Sound has found evidence of giardia in four per cent of 78 gulls sampled, 19 per cent of 57 marine-foraging river otters, and 43 per cent of 99 harbour seals. Cryptosporidium cysts were detected in seven per cent of the river otters, but not detected in gulls or seals.
Ghosts in the ThicketsThe Boston Globe
18 Mar 2007
M Carpenter
Illustration by E Rodriguez
Area: New England, USA
The Bush White House has protected the fewest species of any administration since the Endangered Species Act became law in 1973. That puts the fast-disappearing New England cottontail in the cross hairs of a heated debate.
New England cottontails are archetypal Yankees. For centuries, they thrived in all six New England states and, except for a sliver of New York, nowhere else. They maintain low profiles, scratch their livings out of marginal habitats, and are a bit fussy. Though they’ve got the extraordinarily productive reproductive tracts typical of rabbits – a female can bear up to 24 young a year – New England cottontails are not breeding like rabbits.
In fact, their populations have plummeted in recent years. As I toured one of the cottontails’ diminishing habitats this winter in Durham, New Hampshire, I saw no sign of the furtive rabbits. True, the ground was bare of snow in the thorny, tangled thickets near the railroad tracks, the type of habitat New England cottontails need, so it was not ideal tracking conditions (they drop about 60 pellets an hour, which show up best on snow). And the rabbits are notoriously reclusive.
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