American black bear (Credit:John Sullivan/Wikimedia)
Montana Houndsmen Support Bear Hunting, Oppose Mountain Lion Trapping
(Billings Gazette via Missoulian)
Montana houndsmen turned out in force to oppose a bill that would allow trapping of mountain lions and support one that would allow the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission to authorize hunting black bears with hounds. Supporters of House Bill 144 touted the use of hounds to hunt black bears as a way to promote family time together, remove bears that are preying on elk calves, remove dangerous bears and those causing problems with homeowners and beekeepers. More
Wisconsin Cuts Harvest Quota for Bears
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Record kills by hunters in recent years have reduced the black bear population in Wisconsin, prompting wildlife officials to reduce the harvest quota and the number of permits available in 2013. The Natural Resources Board approved a plan to cut the bear harvest quota by 13 percent and issue 5 percent fewer kill permits. Wildlife managers had recommended the reductions based on preliminary estimates of a bear population study and data from recent hunting seasons. More
Mercury Emissions Threaten Ocean, Lake Food Webs
(Environmental Health News)
As United Nations delegates end their mercury treaty talks, scientists warn that ongoing emissions are more of a threat to food webs than the mercury already in the environment. At the same time, climate change is likely to alter food webs and patterns of mercury transport in places such as the Arctic, which will further complicate efforts to keep the contaminant out of ?people and their food. More
California Senior Community to Sterilize Deer Population
(The Oakland Tribune)
They?re chewing through the landscape and becoming bolder by the day. So frustrated management officials in San Jose, Calif., insist it?s time to take action and sterilize a deer population that has doubled in the past two years at a gated senior community. The deer have grazed there for years, and it?s not the first time the idea of curbing the population has been floated ? a plan to use archers to thin the herd in 2007 was derailed after a week of angry protests. More
Residents of Polar Bear-Besieged Canadian Village Cry Out for More Hunting
(Anchorage Daily News)
Polar bear season used to be an autumn thing in Arviat, an Inuit village in southern Nunavut on Hudson Bay. But changes in sea ice brought on by climate change mean polar bears now show up any time of year in Arviat. Frightened residents say bears have stalked them, peered in their windows and killed their sled dogs. But scientists and the Canadian government, fearing the bears are endangered by global warming, are reluctant to take drastic action. More
More Bald Eagles Being Seen in Central Nebraska
(The Independent)
Residents at the Nebraska?s Grand Island Veterans Home have been visited by a national symbol recently as a bald eagle has been spotted at the pond on the property in northern Grand Island. The noble visit shouldn?t come as too big of a surprise, however. Mick Bresley, wildlife biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in Kearney, said bald eagles are doing ?really well.? ?We have lots of them around this time of year,? Bresley said. More
Senator Joins South Florida War on Pythons
(The Daytona Beach News-Journal)
?Pythons proved to be elusive in the warm weather. None caught today.? That was the message on U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson?s Twitter feed. His disappointment was evident. Still, the visuals ? your action senator in knee-high rubber boots, machete in hand, tromping through the sawgrass, hunting monster snakes in the Everglades?? should go down in Florida political lore. More
Survey: Bighorn Sheep Numbers Up on Kofa Refuge
(Yuma Sun)
A recently completed survey of the desert bighorn sheep population on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?s Kofa National Wildlife Refuge indicates the herd has grown slightly in size over the past two years, putting it at the highest it has been since a 2007 survey. According to the survey?s results, there are an estimated 428 sheep now on the refuge, slightly up from a 2010 survey which estimated the herd size to be at?402 sheep. More
(NBC News)
Thousands of dead fish washed up on a mile and a half stretch of beach in South Carolina on Tuesday, officials said, at least the second such occurrence in the region in a week. Roughly 30,000 to 40,000 menhaden fish, 6 to 8 inches long, were spread along the shore from DeBordieu Beach in Georgetown County, S.C., to Pawleys Island, a town on the state?s Atlantic Coast, and thousands more were expected, Pawleys Island Police Chief Michael Fanning said. More
(PLoS ONE)
Using top predators as sentinels of the marine environment, mercury contamination was investigated within the large subantarctic seabird community of Kerguelen Islands, a remote area from the poorly known Southern Indian Ocean. Chicks of 21 sympatric seabirds presented a wide range of mercury concentrations, with the highest contaminated species containing about 102 times more feather mercury than the less contaminated species. More
(NCBI)
In order to determine the extent of Trichinella infection in carnivores in northeast Iran, researchers collected muscle tissue from 120 stray dogs, 26 wold boars, 25 rodents, two foxes, and two hyenas captured in Mashhad City. Trichinella larvae identified as T. britovi were detected in three of the stray dogs. More
Australia?s Wombats Struggling to Survive
(BBC)
The wombat is in trouble. Some are dying in bushfires, or being shot by farmers. Others are scratching themselves to death because of a mite infection. Only 115 of one species ? the northern hairy-nosed wombat ? remain alive in the wild. ?He was quite some flatmate ? he took over the house, moved my fridge, re-arranged the furniture and then dug a hole right through the living room floor,? said Ian, a wildlife volunteer near Sydney. More
Tiger Smuggling Ring Busted in Nepal
(Wildlife News)
Nepalese police have arrested seven people involved with tiger smuggling in the country and recovered seven tiger skins, hundreds of tiger parts and bones. Two operations were undertaken by the Nepalese authorities following specialist intelligence training by Interpol in December. The first operation was on Jan. 11. Officers of Manaslu Conservation Area seized four tiger skins, 117 pounds of tiger bones and arrested four people who were allegedly trying to smuggle the tiger parts into Tibet, China. More
Australian Conservation Bodies Race to Save Great Barrier Reef from World Heritage Status Delisting
(International Business Times)
Racing overtime, the World Wildlife Fund and the Australian Marine Conservation Society have merged together to create a conservation campaign, primarily geared towards political leaders, in a futile attempt to save the Great Barrier Reef from being delisted off its World Heritage status. Saying since 2013 is an election year for Australia, it would be best if political wannabes include in their agenda the deteriorating state of the reef as well as how to prevent it and preserve it. More
Animal Kingdom is Smaller Than We Thought (But That?s Good News)
(The Independent)
How many species are there? It was a question that fascinated Charles Darwin, and generations of biologists who followed him, with recent estimates ranging from a few million to as many as 100 million ? now scientists believe the true number of animals and plants is nearer to 5 million. The incredible diversity of life on Earth and the sheer scale of the taxonomic problem have mesmerized biologists trying to figure out the total number of living species. More
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