TOP STORIES
San Francisco Chronicle - www.sfgate.com
01 Jul 2009
J Kay
Photo credit: Nicole Laroche / UC Santa Cruz
Area: California, USA
Sea otters along the California coast are dying off faster than at any time since the late 1990s, a disturbing trend that experts say is partially due to human-caused water pollution, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Tuesday.
A spring census of the threatened otters found only 2,654 otters along 375 miles of coast, a 3.8 percent drop from the year before.
"We know the problem is not one of reduced reproduction. It's one of elevated mortality," said Tim Tinker, a wildlife biologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center at the UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab.
Elk refuge ‘imperiled’
Jackson Hole News - www.jacksonholenews.com
20 Jun 2009
C Hatch
Area: Wyoming, USA
An environmental group named the National Elk Refuge as one of the country’s ten most imperiled refuges Thursday, indicting the 20,000-acre property’s crowded feedlines for problems with disease and habitat degradation.
The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility chose the top ten list from more than 540 refuges in all 50 states.
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said that many refuges on the top ten list, including those in Alaska, Hawaii and California, face threats from climate change. However, on the National Elk Refuge, politics are driving decisions that make the animal and plant life vulnerable.
National HPAI Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) UpdateNBII Wildlife Disease Information Node
01 Jul 2009
Area: United States
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) is an avian influenza data sharing repository. NBII and a network of partners across the nation have created HEDDS to hold data from different surveillance strategies and to provide a comprehensive view of national sampling efforts.
Recent HEDDS Activity
- Jun 26, 2009: 16 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2008. Total is now 78,625.
- Jun 26, 2009: 379 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2009. Total is now 758.
- Jun 15, 2009: 16 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2009. Total is now 379.
Fish virus could be headed this way
Parker Pioneer - www.parkerpioneer.net
30 Jun 2009
J Gutekunst
Area: Arizona, USA
A virus that has killed thousands of carp in Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu is expected to reach the Parker Strip and Lake Moovalya, although wildlife officials don't know just when.
The Koi Herpes Virus is harmless to humans. However, it has led to thousands of dead carp floating to the surface and washing up on the shores Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.
There have been so many fish dying that clean-up efforts have been difficult. Large numbers of dead fish have been reported on beaches and in popular areas of both lakes.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Reuters
World's most endangered feline back from the brink
- Invasive Salamander Carries on Endangered Genes While Killing off Natives
- Feeding wildlife attracts predators, urban biologists say
- U of M researcher spearheads first-of-its-kind study [how people are affected by CWD]
- First Inspiring Video of North America's Amazing Birds
- Sudden collapse in puffin numbers baffles scientists [United Kingdom]
- Huge declines in woodland birds [United Kingdom]
- Bird infected with West Nile found in WVa county - Hancock County, West Virginia, USA - Map it
- Peregrine falcons found dead [United Kingdom]
- Coral Fights Antibiotic Resistance
- Is Ocean Zoning the Solution to Dying Marine Ecosystems?
- Vital marine habitat under threat [seagrass]
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Browse complete Digest publication library here.
Spatial and temporal patterns of chronic wasting disease: fine-scale mapping of a wildlife epidemic in Wisconsin
Ecological Applications. 2009; 19(5): 1311-1322
EE Osnas et al.
Magnitude of the US trade in amphibians and presence of Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis and ranavirus infection in imported North American
bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) [pdf]
Biological Conservation. 2009; [Epub ahead of print]
LM Schloegel et al.
Impacts of the West Nile Virus Epizootic on the Yellow-Billed Magpie, American Crow, and Other Birds in the Sacramento Valley, California
Condor. 2009; 111(2):247-254
KS Smallwood and B Nakamoto
