Chinook Returning to Cedar River Big-Time
Seattle Post Intelligencer - seattlepi.com
04 Oct 2007
L Stiffler
Photo Courtesy of PJ Brown
Area: Washington, USA
Chinook salmon are returning to the upper reaches of the Cedar River in record numbers -- albeit a short record. This fall about 300 fish have returned, compared with 79 chinook four years ago, and the salmon should keep coming until late October. "We're not done with salmon recovery by any stretch of the imagination, but it's nice to see some success along the way," said Bruce Bachen, a director for scientific and technical services with Seattle Public Utilities.
In 2003, the utility completed an elaborate fish ladder on the Cedar to allow chinook, which are protected by the Endangered Species Act, to pass a dam used to divert drinking water. The $12 million project was part of a habitat conservation plan to help the fish pass the dam as adults and juveniles and to compensate for harm caused by removing water from the river.
Vulture Culture
The Economist - economist.com
04 Oct 2007
Area: India
At Last, India's Vultures Are Having Their Condor Moment
IMAGE is everything. Say “condor”, and people get dewy-eyed at the thought of magnificent birds soaring over mountain tops. That such a species could be allowed to become extinct is inconceivable—and, as a consequence, a big, expensive programme to save them is running in California. Say “vulture”, though, and the image is of something up to its neck in carrion.
Just like a condor when it is feeding, as it happens. But in the case of vultures, even in a don't-hurt-a-fly, Hindu-majority country like India, it has taken until now to try to stem what is probably the biggest avian population crash since the North American passenger pigeon went from 5 billion to zero between 1870 and 1914.
At Issue with Ben Merens [Radio Program]
Wisconsin Public Radio - wpr.org
04 Oct 2007
West Nile fever and Lyme disease are both pathogens that have jumped from animals to humans. After five, At Issue, Ben Merens and his guest discusss zoonosis, the transfer of diseases from animals to humans.
Guest: David Quammen, National Geographic Contributing Writer. His article, "Deadly Contact" (October issue).
Stakes High in Fight Against the Cattle Fever Tick: Pest Could Spread Coast-to-Coast
North Texas E-News - ntxe-news.com
05 October 2007
C Everett
Area: Texas
Livestock health officials say it could cost upwards of $13 million and take as long as two years to stop an incursion of fever ticks into the formerly fever tick free areas of five counties along the Texas-Mexico border. The fever tick, less than a 1/8-inch long, is capable of carrying and transmitting ‘babesia,’ a blood parasite deadly to cattle.
"For most of the country, the fever tick has been pushed out of sight, out of mind, since the 1940s. This tick, however, is capable of transmitting a foreign animal disease and it’s sitting in our backyard," said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency.
OTHER WILDLIFE DISEASE RELATED NEWS
- Emergency Mosquito Spraying for EEE Underway
- Bacteria in State Lake
- DNR to Monitor for Diseased Deer Near County
- Deer Herd Disease Update Given
JOURNAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Aquatic Ecotoxicology Approaches in Western Mexico [online abstract only]
Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A – Toxic/ Hazard Substances and Environmental Engineering. 2007 Aug;42(10):1503-11.
JL Zavala-Aguirre et al.
The Impact of Disease on the Survival and Population Growth Rate of the Tasmanian Devil [free full-text available]
Journal of Animal Ecology. 2007 Sep;76(5):926-36.
S Lachish et al.
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