Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Global Warming Linked To Caribou-calf Mortality
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
1 May 2008
Area: Greenland

Fewer caribou calves are being born and more of them are dying in West Greenland as a result of a warming climate, according to Eric Post, a Penn State associate professor of biology. Post, who believes that caribou may serve as an indicator species for climate changes including global warming, based his conclusions on data showing that the timing of peak food availability no longer corresponds to the timing of caribou births.

Caribou -- which are closely related to wild reindeer -- are dependent on plants for all their energy and nutrients. Throughout the long Arctic winter, when there is no plant growth, they dig through snow to find lichens; however, in spring they rapidly switch to grazing on the new growth of willows, sedges, and flowering tundra herbs. As the birth season approaches, they are cued by increasing day length to migrate into areas where this newly-emergent food is plentiful.

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Fish and wildlife showing adverse effects of drug contamination in waterways
examiner.com - www.examiner.com
2 May 2008

On this brisk, glittering morning, a flat-bottomed boat glides across the massive reservoir that provides Las Vegas its drinking water. An ominous rumble growls beneath the craft as its two long, electrified claws extend into the depths. Moments later, dozens of stunned fish float to the surface. Federal scientists scoop them up and transfer them into 50-quart Coleman ice chests for transport to a makeshift lab on the dusty lakeshore.

Within the hour, the researchers will club the seven-pound common carps to death, draw their blood, snip out their gonads and pack them in aluminum foil and dry ice. The specimens will be flown across the country to laboratories where aquatic toxicologists are studying what happens to fish that live in water contaminated with at least 13 different medications - from over-the-counter pain killers to prescription antibiotics and mood stabilizers. More often than not these days, the laboratory tests bring unwelcome results.

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Related Link
More on Story - Editoral Note

Powwow Pond fish kill worse than Country Pond Officials think natural causes to blame
Eagle Time-Tribune - www.eagletimetribune.com
2 May 2008
M Sullivan

Area: Powwow Pond, New Hampshire, USA - Map It

A state Fish and Game pathologist said yesterday he counted hundreds of dead fish in a small section of Powwow Pond on Wednesday. State officials are now considering management plans for Powwow Pond and Country Pond, where dozens of dead fish were found along the shoreline Friday. But the state doesn't plan to restrict fishing or water use, Dr. Joel Bader said. "This is not a complete disaster," Bader said.

He said some fish have survived in Powwow Pond, based on his interviews with fishermen. For the time being, state officials are operating on the theory the fish died due to severe winter weather, which lowered or eliminated oxygen in the water, and created toxic conditions for aquatic life. "We have every reason to believe this is a natural occurrence," Bader said.

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Fungus threatens state's frogs, salamanders
The Seattle Times - seattletimes.nwsource.com
2 May 2008
S Doughton

Area: Ellensburg, Washington, USA - Map It

Dead frogs rarely tell tales. The delicate corpses usually decompose or are gobbled up so quickly researchers never find them. So Steven Wagner was intrigued when one of his students spotted a body floating belly-up in a lake near Snoqualmie Pass. "I told him to bring it over," said Wagner, associate professor of biology at Central Washington University. "Then I looked down at my feet and saw another one."

Over the next few days, Wagner and his class collected 85 dead frogs and salamanders at Swamp Lake. What they found in their post-mortem exams sent a chill through the state's small cadre of amphibian experts: the first evidence that frogs in Washington are being attacked by a fungus blamed for wiping out amphibian populations around the globe.

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Ocean Dead Zones Growing; May Be Linked to Warming
National Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com
1 May 2008
J Owen

The world's hypoxic zones—swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms—are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise, a new study suggests. Researchers have tracked a decline in dissolved oxygen levels since 1960 in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which has extended the size of these undersea deserts and intensified their effects.

The oxygen level in these zones "is below the critical oxygen level for fish and other large marine animals," said team leader Lothar Stramma, of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel in Germany. The team constructed a time line of oxygen concentrations at depths of between 985 and 2,295 feet (300 and 700 meters) using oxygen data records going back 50 years. The results fit predictions of the effects of global warming.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans - Science. 2008 May
02; 320 (5876): 655-658

More Information
>>> Low-Oxygen Zones Spreading to Deep Ocean [Audio broadcast 4 min 23 sec]
>>> Marine Life Gasping for Breath?

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image Courtesy of Dave Siddon/wildlifeimages.org