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Teaching wolves not to eat cattle

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Mexican gray wolf at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (AP Photo)

Researchers in New Mexico are trying to teach captive Mexican gray wolves to dislike beef. The idea is to prevent the wolves from killing cattle once they’re reintroduced into the wild.

It’s an interesting premise, and it might just work on the wolves awaiting relocation. One wonders, though, if the offspring of those wolves would retain their parents’ distaste for beef. The researchers seem to think they would; frankly I have doubts.

Interesting reading, though, from the Associated Press’ Susan Montoya Bryan:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Wildlife managers are running out of options when it comes to helping Mexican gray wolves overcome hurdles that have thwarted reintroduction into their historic range in the Southwest.

Harassment and rubber bullets haven’t worked, so they’re trying something new — a food therapy that has the potential to make the wolves queasy enough to never want anything to do with cattle again.

As in people, the memories associated with eating a bad meal are rooted in the brain stem, triggered any time associated sights and smells pulse their way through the nervous system.

Wildlife managers are trying to tap into that physiological response in the wolves, hoping that feeding them beef laced with an odorless and tasteless medication will make them ill enough to kill their appetite for livestock.

Cattle depredations throughout southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona have served as an Achilles’ heel for the federal government’s efforts to return the wolves.

Conditioned taste aversion — the technical term for what amounts to a simple reaction — is not a silver bullet for boosting the recovery of the Mexican wolf, but some biologists see it as one of few options remaining for getting the program back on track after nearly 14 years of stumbling.

“Just the very fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying something new ought to send the message that they really are seriously concerned about the ranchers’ concerns,” said Dan Moriarty, a professor and chair of the psychological sciences department at the University of San Diego.

“We have to find a way to sort of peacefully co-exist,” said Moriarty, who has worked with captive wolves in California. “That’s my hope, that the taste aversion will be one more tool.”

Gray wolves have rebounded from widespread extermination throughout the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region. Since being declared endangered in 1974, the wolf population has grown fivefold — to about 6,200 animals wandering parts of 10 states outside Alaska.

After four decades and tens of millions of dollars, the federal government was recently able to remove the animals from the endangered species list in several states.

The case is much different in the Southwest, where the population of the Mexican wolf — a subspecies of the gray wolf — continues to be about 50 despite more than a decade of work. Biologists had hoped to have more than 100 wolves in the wild by 2006.

About 90 wolves and some dependent pups have been removed — in some cases lethally — from the wild since the program began due to livestock problems. For about four years, the Fish and Wildlife Service operated under a policy that called for trapping or shooting wolves if they had been involved in at least three cattle depredations.

The agency has since scrapped the policy, and ranchers have all but given up on keeping track of their dead cows and calves.

In the last year, monthly reports from the wolf program show wildlife managers investigated four dozen depredations in Arizona and New Mexico. They determined that wolves were involved in half of the cases.

Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Grower’s Association, said ranchers are frustrated.

“You really have no idea how bad it is when a dad calls you and says ‘There’s a wolf in my yard and my kids and my wife are stuck in the house. What can you do to help me?’

That’s the issue, Cowan said. “These animals are habituated to humans and until we can figure that out, I don’t know what you do.”

Cowan acknowledged, however, that getting wolves to stop preying on livestock would be a huge first step.

Biologists working at a captive breeding center at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in south-central New Mexico treated six wolves last April and another two in October. The animals were fed baits made up of beef, cow hide and an odorless, tasteless deworming medication that makes the wolves queasy.

Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Susan Dicks said the initial tests appear to be successful, with the wolves not wanting anything to do with the beef baits after their first serving.

The idea is that when wolves smell cattle in the wild, their nervous system and brain stem will kick into gear and override any desire they have to get near the cattle.

“We’re learning as we go, but so far we have seen some good aversions produced,” Dicks said. “Again, it’s impossible to say yet whether this translates to a livestock animal running around on the hoof.”

Wolf releases have been put off for the past year, and it’s unclear whether the agency will have the opportunity to release the treated wolves this year so the taste aversion treatments can be fully tested.

The work done with the Mexican wolves is based on decades of research conducted by Lowell Nicolaus, a retired biology professor from Northern Illinois University. He has seen it work with captive wolves and free-ranging raccoons and crows.

“It just takes one good illness,” said Nicolaus of Butte Falls, Ore. “Their avoidance is going to be expressed wherever they see the food or smell it. It doesn’t depend on when and where they first ate it or when and where they got sick.”

Nicolaus said taste aversion works because it’s an unconscious response, not a threat that wolves can overcome such as being hazed or shot at with rubber bullets.

The other benefit is biologists say wolves that have an aversion to cattle are likely to pass that on to their pups by teaching them hunting habitats that avoid cattle and focus on deer, elk and other native prey. They call that a feeding tradition.

Bill Given, a wildlife biologist who helped the Fish and Wildlife Service with the first batch of wolf treatments at Sevilleta, describes taste aversion as a natural solution that taps into an evolutionary defense mechanism that is common among all animals.

“You can build a great fence or you can have a dog as a shepherd, but none of those things can change the desire to consume the livestock,” he said. “They just make it challenging and then the predator has to work around that barrier.”

To ranchers, the wolves are “killing machines,” Cowan said.

The biologists don’t necessarily disagree.

“There’s no stopping the feeding and the sex drive. All life is about those two things,” Given said, noting that wildlife managers have an opportunity to gain some control through taste aversion.

The next challenge will be proving its value on the range by monitoring wolves that have been treated.

“I think it does have a lot of promise,” Dicks said. “And part of it is we’re willing to try anything to get these animals successfully on the ground without impacting livestock growers.”

Posted in Conservation, Wildlife | No Comments »

Panther births offset deaths, study shows

Monday, January 16, 2012

Florida panther cubs

Despite pressure from habitat loss and an ever-present highway hazard, Florida’s endangered panthers are managing to hold their own. From the Associated Press:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — State wildlife officials say the number of Florida panthers born last year appears to offset the number of documented panther deaths.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 32 of the endangered cats were born to 11 female panthers last year.

Biologists also documented 24 panther deaths in 2011. Nine deaths were caused by collisions with vehicles.

Officials say just 100 to 160 Florida panthers survive in the state. The population has been increasing since the 1970s, when fewer than 30 were found.

Three panther deaths have been recorded so far in 2012. Two deaths were caused by vehicle collisions. Biologists say the third death was caused by a fight with another panther.

Posted in Conservation, Wildlife | No Comments »

New snake species found, and it’s venomous

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Matilda's Horned Viper (AP Photo)

The good news is that so far it’s only been found in the African country of Tanzania. From the Associated Press:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The world’s newest snake has menacing-looking yellow and black scales, dull green eyes and two spiky horns. And it’s named after a 7-year-old girl.

Matilda’s Horned Viper was discovered in a small patch of southwest Tanzania about two years ago and was introduced last month as the world’s newest known snake species in an issue of Zootaxa.

Tim Davenport, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania, was on the three-person team that discovered the viper. Thanks to his daughter, the snake will always carry a family namesake.

“My daughter, who was 5 at the time, became fascinated by it and used to love spending time watching it and helping us look after it,” Davenport told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We called it Matilda’s Viper at that stage … and then the name stuck.”

Only three new vipers have been discovered across Africa the last three decades, making the find rare and important. The Wildlife Conservation Society is not revealing exactly where the snake lives so that trophy hunters can’t hunt it.

Davenport said he is not sure how many live in the wild because snake counts are hard to do. Twelve live in captivity and a breeding plan is being carried out.

Davenport, a Briton who has lived in Tanzania for 12 years, said that while many people fear snakes, most are harmless and help keep rodent numbers down. Matilda’s horned viper can grow to 2 feet (65 centimeters) or bigger, he said.

“This particular animal looks fierce and probably is venomous (though bush viper bites are not fatal),” Davenport told AP via an Internet chat. “However, it is actually very calm animal and not at all aggressive. I have handled one on a number of occasions.”

The Wildlife Conservation Society runs the Bronx Zoo and the Central Park Zoo in New York, and Davenport said it would be a “great option” to showcase the new horned viper at one of those locations, but that nothing has yet been decided.

Posted in Conservation, Wildlife | No Comments »

Researchers take aim at lethal bat disease

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Bats with white nose syndrome

White nose syndrome is a problem throughout the eastern half of the United States, so a research project being conducted in Tennessee could have a significant impact here in West Virginia and northward toward New York state, where the disease is devastating native bat populations.

From the Associated Press:

JELLICO, Tenn. (AP) — Researchers with the University of Tennessee and Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University recently visited Tennessee caves to collect 100 little brown bats for research aimed at combating white nose syndrome.

The fast-spreading fungal disease infects bats while they hibernate and has killed more than one million bats across the northeastern U.S.

“One of the issues for white nose syndrome research is that a lot of the work has to be done in labs where they can control the variables, so they have to have bats,” Cory Holliday, cave specialist for The Nature Conservancy told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “In the Northeast, they’re literally running out of bats due to the epidemic, so they come here.”

Tennessee is home to 15 bat species, three of which are known to be infected with white nose syndrome, but so far the disease has not spread across the state as rapidly as was feared.

Amanda Janicki, a graduate student in the UT Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology was on the recent research expedition. She injected some of the bats with implants of antifungal medicine. Those bats were then rushed to Bucknell University, where they’d be infected with the white nose syndrome fungus.

“This is a clinical trial to see if it works,” Souza said. “If it comes down to species survival, we could bring the bats into captivity and treat them with the implants, which involves less handling than if we gave them daily injections. It’s having to treat bats on an individual basis, but at this point we’re willing to try anything.”

Posted in Conservation, Wildlife, Wildlife Diseases | No Comments »

Trail cameras track rare Javan rhinos

Friday, December 30, 2011

A video capture of a rare Javan rhino (AP Photo)

More and more, biologists are using hunters’ trail cameras to find rare or endangered animals. Case in point: Researchers in Indonesia have used the technology to capture video evidence of 35 endangered Javan rhinos.

From the Associated Press:

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Dozens of camera traps installed in an Indonesian national park earlier this year captured images of 35 critically endangered Javan rhinos, including five calves, officials said Thursday. It’s still possible that more of the animals live in the Ujung Kulon National Park — the animal’s original habitat — said Bambang Novianto, director of biodiversity conservation at the forestry ministry.

And the presence of young ones was welcomed as a rare piece of good news for the dying species.

The Javan rhino — once the most widespread of Asian rhinoceroses — was nearly wiped out when the Krakatau volcano erupted in 1883, spawning a 120-foot (40-meter) tsunami that not only killed tens of thousands of people, but inundated the park on Java island’s western tip.

The greatest threat they face today is from poachers, habitat destruction and fierce competition for food with other animal species.

Experts say there may be only 40 to 60 Javan rhinos left in the wild.

The video cameras yielded 160 clips of rhinos in total, said Novianto.

“Scientists studying the images were able to identify at least 35 different rhinos — 22 males and 13 females,” he said.

The presence of at least five calves, despite harsh conditions they are facing, “raised hope for the conservation of the Javan rhinos,” added Yanto Santosa, a lecturer of biodiversity conservation and adviser to the project.

It’s not clear, however, if the government will reach its target of increasing the population of Javan rhinos to 70 to 80 by 2015.

Last year, three Javan rhinos were found dead within the 297,881-acre (120,551-hectare) park, and one of them was suspected to be the victim of poachers.

The last known Javan rhino in Vietnam was found dead in April, apparently after poachers killed it for its horn.

Posted in Conservation, Wildlife | No Comments »

Governor spars with feds over wildlife shipments

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bison near Gardiner, Mt. (AP Photo)

This issue has the potential to get very interesting before everything gets settled. Can you say “states’ rights?”

From the Associated Press:

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s governor on Tuesday issued an executive order blocking the Interior Department from transporting fish and wildlife anywhere within the state or across state lines — raising the stakes in his ongoing tussle with federal officials over their management of wildlife.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he was concerned the federal agency’s actions have allowed animal diseases such as brucellosis and chronic wasting disease to spread across the region.

He also said he wants to halt the transfer of bison to other states from the National Bison Range. Because those bison have traces of cattle genes, the Democratic governor said the animals were “genetically impure mongrels” that should not be used for conservation purposes.

Interior officials earlier this month rebuffed a proposal from Schweitzer to relocate dozens of bison from Yellowstone National Park onto the bison range near Moiese. The agency cited worries over brucellosis despite repeated tests on the Yellowstone animals to ensure they were disease-free.

But the governor said the agency’s rejection marked only the latest in a string of confrontations he has had in recent years with federal officials over wildlife. The order will remain in place until federal officials show cooperation with Montana over wildlife, he said.

“It’s their cavalier disregard for wildlife genetics and disease,” Schweitzer said. “They don’t seem to be interested in changing their behavior.”

It was not immediately clear what effects Tuesday’s move could have.

Interior Department spokesman Adam Fetcher said agency officials were reviewing the order after receiving a copy of it late Tuesday.

Besides the 18,500-acre bison range, the Interior Department operates fish hatcheries, wildlife refuges, national parks and other lands and facilities in Montana. Federal hatcheries near Kalispell and Ennis combined distribute more than 1 million trout annually to stock waterways across the state — activities now presumably prohibited under Tuesday’s order.

Previously, Schweitzer has called on the federal government to stop the artificial feeding of animals at the National Elk Refuge in neighboring Wyoming. Biologists have said the practice concentrates wildlife populations and increases the chances of disease transmission.

Brucellosis — one of the two diseases cited in Schweitzer’s order — can cause infected pregnant animals to miscarry. It has been eradicated nationwide from livestock but persists in elk and bison in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological affliction found in elk and deer. Similar to mad cow disease, chronic wasting causes an animal’s body to sharply deteriorate, leading to behavioral abnormalities and eventually death.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — part of Interior — manages about 400 bison at the Moiese range in concert with bison populations at refuges in Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. The agency occasionally moves animals from refuge to refuge, FWS spokeswoman Diane Katzenberger said.

“We will move bison between these isolated meta-populations to ensure genetic diversity,” Katzenberger said. “But we have no plans to move any bison within the next year.”

Besides the National Bison Range, FWS manages bison populations at Sullys Hill National Game Preserve in North Dakota, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado and Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska.

Katzenberger said the federal agency does not move any other wildlife across state lines.

Schweitzer rejected that claim and said there was a long history of the Fish and Wildlife Service transporting bighorn sheep from Montana to others states across the West.

Posted in Conservation, Government Follies, Wildlife | No Comments »

Some answers on that national park issue

Sunday, December 11, 2011

For this week’s Gazette-Mail column, I went to Judy Rodd, the principal source for the push to create a national park and preserve in West Virginia’s northeastern highlands. Judy was able to answer some of the existing questions, but not all. Here’s the column.

Last week, when news broke that much of West Virginia’s northern Allegheny Highlands might be considered for national park and preserve status, sportsmen raised a ton of questions:

How big would the park be? Would hunting be outlawed? Would trout stockings be curtailed? Who would manage the fish and wildlife? And what would become of trapping, ramp digging and ginseng hunting?

We have answers now for at least some of those questions. Earlier this week, I spoke with Judy Rodd, a spokeswoman for Friends of High Allegheny National Park and Preserve, who clarified some of the murkier points.

The preserve, as currently envisioned, would be pretty darned big – roughly 750,000 acres.

Rodd said it would start at Cathedral State Park in Preston County and extend southward to Cass in Pocahontas County. Its western boundary would start at Shavers Mountain near Elkins and would extend eastward to include current units of the George Washington National Forest in Hardy and Hampshire counties.

“All the lands that would be included in the preserve would be lands that are current state parks or are part of the Monongahela and George Washington national forests,” Rodd explained. “No private lands would need to be purchased.”

She added that only a portion of the land would be considered a full-fledged national park.

“The main units of the national park portion would include Cathedral, Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley state parks, and some portion of the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area,” she said.

“The Park Service folks have said units of the park could be spread apart like that. The rest of the land in the Allegheny Highlands – the vast majority of the land under consideration – would be in preserve status, where hunting and fishing would be encouraged.”

Rodd said she wasn’t sure if the Park Service would allow trapping on the preserve. However, a subsequent Internet search of several preserves’ websites showed that trapping is allowed on most of them.

The question of ginseng hunting caught Rodd by surprise; she said she “would have to talk the Park Service about that.” As to ramp digging, she harbored a rather strong opinion: “I dig them too, so naturally I would want [that] to be allowed.”

One of the more ticklish questions surrounding the preserve concept would be whether the state Division of Natural Resources or the National Park Service would have primary control of fishing-related issues.

In the New River Gorge National River, for example, DNR officials manage fisheries as they see fit. One sticking point has arisen, though. Park Service officials several years ago asked that non-native fish – rainbow and brown trout, specifically – not be stocked within the park’s boundaries. Stockings continue to this day.

In the state’s mountain highlands, trout fishing is a big issue. Most of the state’s most popular stocked-trout streams and rivers are in the preserve area, and most of the fish stocked are rainbows and browns. Rodd said she didn’t know whether DNR or Park Service policies would prevail.

“That’s too technical an issue for me,” she said.

Rodd said provisions to address any or all of sportsmen’s concerns could be written into legislation that would establish the park.

“That’s a long way off, though,” she said. “The [upcoming] study is called a reconnaissance study. If it finds that the area is unique enough to be included in the national park system, a resource study would follow. And then there would be a period of time to write the legislation and get it passed. Park and preserve status is still years away.”

Posted in Conservation, Fishing, Hunting, West Virginia | 3 Comments »

An update on that national park announcement

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Oh my.

It appears one of my humble blog posts touched a nerve, and a rather sensitive one at that.

In Wednesday’s post, I detailed how national park designation for West Virginia’s northern Allegheny Highlands might cause the area to be closed to hunting, and might affect trout stockings too. Within hours, Judy Rodd, the source quoted in Paul Nyden’s original Gazette story about the potential park, posted a reply to the blog, which read as follows:

Hunting would be allowed in the proposed High Allegheny Park and Preserve and in fact would be encouraged. Fishing would also be a main attraction. — Judy Rodd, Friends of High Allegheny National Park.

Not long after that, I received a phone call from Marni Goldberg, press secretary for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

Ms. Goldberg explained that Sen. Manchin would never support legislation that might curb hunting in West Virginia’s mountain highlands or anywhere else. She said Manchin was willing to consider the area as a preserve, but not as a full-fledged national park. She offered to e-mail me a formal statement from the senator, which read as follows:

“Senator Manchin is a lifelong hunting enthusiast and is committed to making sure that the Alleghany Highlands remain open to hunting if the area receives a new designation from the National Parks Service.”

So apparently the idea is to create in northeastern West Virginia something akin to the New River Gorge National River in the south — an area administered by the National Park Service, but not a full-fledged no-hunting national park.

I find it intriguing that Rodd’s reply to the blog post referred to the proposed area as “High Allegheny Park and Preserve,” while her signature line affiliated her with an entity called “Friends of High Allegheny National Park.” Did the word “preserve” only recently get added to the name, and if so, why?

I also find it intriguing that the original Gazette story sent shock waves through the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. My sources there say interoffice e-mails were flying fast and furious. Apparently they didn’t get the “hunting will be allowed” memo, either.

I might be wrong, but my reading of the tea leaves is that proponents of the “High Allegheny Park and Preserve” didn’t adequately address the question of hunting in their early public-relations efforts, or possibly they failed to gauge the backlash that would result from a push for a full-fledged national park.

According to the National Park Service’s own website, a “preserve” designation is possible for lands where hunting is important to the local populace. Hunting is allowed on reserves. The Denali and the Wrangell-St. Elias parks in Alaska are examples, as is the Big Cypress Reserve in Florida.

The website also says that when lands receive the full “National Park” designation, hunting is not allowed.

The Park Service’s study of the High Allegheny National Park and Preserve issue will begin soon. My guess is that the issues of hunting and fishing will be adequately addressed.

Posted in Conservation, Fishing, Hunting, West Virginia | 6 Comments »

National park could halt hunting in W.Va. highlands

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tuesday’s article by Gazette colleague Paul Nyden focuses on a soon-to-begin National Park Service study to determine whether sizable chunks of West Virginia’s Randolph, Tucker, Pendleton and Pocahontas counties should be designated a national park.

While park status would certainly add another layer of environmental protection for what are currently U.S. Forest Service lands and designated federal wilderness areas, it could put an end to deer and turkey hunting in a part of the state where people pursue hunting with an almost religious fervor.

Read Paul’s story to get an idea of the scope of the proposed park:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Next month, the National Park Service will begin conducting a survey to determine if some areas within the Monongahela National Forest should be made into a national park – something West Virginia doesn’t currently have.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., requested the survey, which is scheduled to be completed by September 2012.

On Monday, Manchin said he “is pleased that the National Park Service is undertaking this survey to evaluate whether this beautiful part of our state should be designated as a national park.”

In a recent news release, the NPS said the survey would “determine whether the historic, natural and recreational resources in the project area are ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’ to meet Congressionally-required criteria for a national park.

Judy Rodd, executive director of the group Friends of Blackwater Canyon, said the proposed High Allegheny National Park would be formed from “lands in the northern area of the Monongahela National Forest, which is already federal land,” as well as Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley state parks.

“It would not cost anything,” Rodd said.

The new park would offer visitors a unique ecology, the chance to see a wide variety of beautiful and rare birds, as well as historical battlefields and forts from the Civil War era, Rodd said. Lands in the proposed park would also include those improved during the Great Depression, under projects run by the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps.

The proposed new national park would include lands east of Elkins, north to the towns of Thomas and Davis, east to Petersburg, and south to Seneca Rocks and Franklin.

The park could also include well-known sites such as Spruce Knob, Seneca Rocks, Blackwater Falls, the Otter Creek Wilderness, Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Dolly Sods.

The headwaters of the Potomac, Monongahela and Greenbrier rivers would all be within the park. Recreational activities available to visitors could include hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing, horseback riding, rock climbing and spelunking.

Last year, T. Destry Jarvis, president of Outdoor Recreation and Park Services LLC, prepared a report given to Manchin that stated, “The High Allegheny Plateau, currently a portion of the Monongahela National Forest, is the best preserved and least ‘developed’ region of the state.

“The High Allegheny Plateau offers outstanding scenery, composed of nationally significant natural features and cultural sites, abundant wildlife and rare species of plants and animals — as well as the hospitable, well-cared-for communities that offer the service amenities needed by the recreational visitors [and] tourists,” Jarvis wrote.

“This would help put West Virginia on the map as a place to visit. It would be an economic engine for the highlands,” said Rodd.

We’re talking about a big chunk of land here. I’m sure I’m a little off here and there, but it appears to me that the park would start in Randolph County somewhere east of Elkins — possibly in the vicinity of Shavers Mountain — and extend eastward into Pendleton County’s Seneca Rocks – Spruce Knob area. From its northern terminus at Thomas in Tucker County, it would extend southward through the Blackwater Canyon and Canaan Valley all the way to Durbin in northern Pocahontas County.

If the area becomes a true national park, managed under the rules established in parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Great Smoky Mountains and others, most of West Virginia’s northern Allegheny Highlands (minus private in-holdings, of course) would become a no-hunting zone overnight.

Of course, lawmakers being lawmakers, it’s always possible for them to create a special rule that would keep the lands open to hunting. When members of Congress voted to designate the New River Gorge area as a National River, they did just that.

Equally worrisome to sportsmen should be the National Park Service’s attitude toward trout stockings. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Park Service officials are attempting to eradicate rainbow and brown trout from streams where native brook trout can live. It’s not difficult to imagine a scenario whereby trout stockings might be prohibited for the Blackwater River, the North Fork of the South Branch, Seneca Creek, Gandy Creek, Dry Fork, Glady Fork, Shavers Fork and the East and West forks of the Greenbrier.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting…

Posted in Conservation, Fishing, Hunting, West Virginia | 12 Comments »

What’s happening to our golden-winged warblers?

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Golden-winged warbler

Is it a lack of timber cutting? Is it nest-stealing by cowbirds? Is it cross-breeding with other warbler species? A pair of researchers at West Virginia University are trying to pin the causes down. From the Associated Press:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Two researchers at West Virginia University want to find out why the golden-winged warbler population has declined in recent years.

Petra Wood and Kyle Aldinger plan to conduct a study that they hope will offer solutions to help preserve the songbirds. They will monitor the state’s golden-winged warbler population, along with associated bird species living in high elevation pasturelands.

The U.S. Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife has awarded a $16,000 grant for the study.

One likely factor in the golden-winged warble population decline is a change in the birds’ breeding habitat, Wood said in a news release.

“Hybridization with blue-winged warblers, a closely related species, as well as nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbirds also contribute to the problem,” said Wood, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and adjunct professor of wildlife in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.

The songbirds breed in areas of growing grasses, forbs, shrubs and trees known as early successional habitats where different plants replace one another gradually and regularly. Without maintenance such as mowing or burning, these habitats eventually become forests.

“Even with its recent population decline, West Virginia still represents one of the strongholds of golden-winged warbler populations in the Appalachian region,” said Aldinger, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in forest resources science. “Since they only breed in early successional habitats and generally at higher elevations greater than 700 meters, their habitats are quite rare and unique in West Virginia as it’s predominantly a forested state.”

Aldinger said the information that will be gathered will help guide conservation and habitat management for the songbirds.

Posted in Conservation, West Virginia, Wildlife | 1 Comment »