Diseases threat to rare wildcats
BBC News - news.bbc.co.uk
14 Apr 2008
Area: Scotland United Kingdom
A vet has urged cat owners to neuter and vaccinate their pets against diseases in an effort to help protect Scotland's rare wildcat population. Jane Harley, who is based in the Cairngorms National Park, said the species was at risk from picking up highly contagious conditions. Her warning came ahead of a major conference on wildcats in Aviemore. The park authority said it was the first step of a conservation project for the mammals. It has been estimated that there are 400 wildcats, but their survival has been threatened by interbreeding with domesticated cats and diseases they could be carrying.
Keizer lake's dead geese raise alarm
Statesman Journal - www.statesmanjournal.com
15 Apr 2008
A Gustafson
Area: Oregon United States
Large numbers of Canada cackling geese keep dying at Staats Lake in Keizer. It's a mysterious trend that alarms some people who live near the private lake and hate to see the waterfowl sanctuary become a graveyard. "We feel kind of like it's the canary in the coal mine," Keizer resident Debbie Lowery said. "It's a sign to me that something in our ecosystem is not quite right." About 60 dead geese were recovered at the lake from Friday through Monday, said Brad Bales, the migratory game bird coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Laboratory testing of goose carcasses will be done at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. Results from the federal lab should be known within 10 days, Bales said Monday. Newspaper reports indicate that large die-offs of geese previously occurred at Staats Lake in 2007, 2005, 2001 and 2000. Bales said the lake itself doesn't appear to be the culprit. Previous investigations linked bird fatalities to aspergillosios, a fungal infection of the lungs, and to pesticide contamination, he said. "In the past, it has not been anything directly related to Staats Lake," he said. "It's just that it's a heavy goose-roosting area. They may be sick when they get there and that's just where they seem to perish."
Summit Daily News - www.summitdaily.com
14 Apr 2008
B Berwyn
Photo courtesy of Bob Berwyn
Area: Colorado United States
Biologists seek to raise awareness of amphibian extinctions
The endangered boreal toad is filing getting its awareness campaign, as zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums around the world have designated 2008 as the year of the frog. As part of the global campaign to draw awareness to the rapid extinction of amphibian species — including the locally-threatened boreal toad — those willing can download a frog mating call as ring tone for your cell phone. But the chirps, ribits and croaks that have long been such an integral part of the soundscape in ponds and wetlands are quickly going silent in nature. Up to 50 percent of the known 6,000 species of amphibians are threatened with extinction, including Colorado’s boreal toads, once plentiful across the state’s mountains, but now found only in a few isolated spots.
Nobody knows for sure why amphibians are dying off so suddenly. The most recent research suggests a fungus is one of the main factors, but water pollution and habitat loss also play a role. Whatever the cause, scientists are doing all they can to slow the loss, described as the most sudden wave of extinction ever seen. Summit County was once considered a stronghold for boreal toads, with several breeding populations that persisted through the initial wave of chytrid infection.
Algae Toxins Found in Yellow Perch on Klamath River ReservoirsCentral Valley - www.indybay.org
10 Apr 2008
D Bacher
Photo courtesy of the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources
Area: California United States
A new report issued by the Karuk Tribe of California shows that the flesh of yellow perch, a popular game fish found in PacifiCorp’s Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs, is contaminated by the algal toxin microcystin. The report concludes that the public should by warned by health officials to not eat fish from the reservoirs during summer months when algae blooms are most pervasive. "Microcystin levels in freshwater mussel samples exceeded the allowable seasonal intake level for children by as much as 66 fold," according to the report.
"Toxin levels in yellow perch exceeded the allowable seasonal intake level for children by as much as 10 fold. Acute, or one-time intake levels, were also exceeded for many of the samples." The report was released as a broad coalition of Indian Tribes, fishing groups and environmental organizations is engaged in a campaign to remove four of PacifiCorp's dams on the Klamath River. The dams are owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Corporation. To date, Buffett has refused to meet with dam removal proponents.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo courtesy of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
Experts discuss bats, rabies- Tree frog found alive in packet of spinach
- Fur Seals' Decline Puzzles Aleuts, Scientists [includes audio broadcast]
- Emissions a threat to hunters - Report: Climate change on track to devastate hunting and fishing grounds
- Dangerous animal virus on US mainland?
- Two More Freshwater Fish Added to High-Mercury List
- Man bitten in attack by rabid fox
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