Wildlife Disease News Digest

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"Wired" Irish River Detects Pollution in Real Time
National Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com
06 Dec 2009
C Dell'Amore
Photo credit: A Lawlor/DEPLOY Project

Nature has gone wireless in Ireland, where scientists have outfitted a major river with sensors that detect spikes in pollution in real time.

. . . Called the DEPLOY project, the program was developed as a cheaper alternative to sending out scientists to collect water samples several times a day.

In addition, the technology can identify a disastrous influx of pollution, such as toxic industrial-chemical spills, before fish go belly up.

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Texas group to sue over whooping crane deaths

The Houston Chronicle - www.chron.com (Source: Associated Press)
08 Dec 2009
Photo courtesy of The Chattanoogen

A conservation group says state regulators are to blame for last year's record die-off in the world's only natural flock of endangered whooping cranes, alleging water-use policies dried up food and water supplies in their drought-stricken South Texas winter habitat.

. . . The commission has allowed too many water permits for the booming areas along the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers, resulting in high salinity in marshlands and estuaries, the group said.

That led to widespread malnutrition and 23 deaths among the crane population during the November to March period — the most deaths in one winter since 1938 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began keeping record of the cranes at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christi.

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Raccoons in Central Park Raise Rabies Concerns
The New York Times - www.nytimes.com
08 Dec 2009
AG Sulzberger
Photo credit: A Vernon/Flickr

Location: New York, New York, USA - Map It

City health officials are warning visitors to Central Park to avoid contact with wild animals and to keep their dogs on a leash following the discovery of three rabid raccoons, two in the last week.

The discovery was a surprise because, in the previous six years, only one rabid animal had been found in Manhattan, with the majority of rabies cases in the city isolated to Staten Island and the Bronx.

Another rabid raccoon that was found earlier this year, near the northernmost tip of Manhattan, was believed to have crossed over from the Bronx on a railroad bridge.

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