The application period for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Deer Private Land Assistance Network grant program is now open.

This cooperative grant program, known as Deer PLAN, is designed to fund deer habitat improvement projects on private land in the northern Lower Peninsula. The awarded funds will be used to produce tangible, on-the-ground efforts that improve deer habitat and provide quality deer hunting locations.

Landowners with property in Alcona, Alpena, Crawford, Montmorency, Oscoda and Presque Isle counties are encouraged to apply for the Deer PLAN program. Read more

FAIRFAX, Va. – The National Rifle Association is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to assist in the recruitment, education, and retaining of sportsmen and women through NRA’s vast hunter education and outreach programs.“Together with the USFWS, the NRA has worked for decades to ensure as many outdoorsmen and women as possible can safely and responsibly enjoy our hunting heritage,” said Jason Ouimet, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “We look forward to a formalization of this longstanding relationship and thank Director Skipwith for her tireless work on this effort.” Read more

There are currently three populations of Whooping Cranes in North America, including the primary historic population that migrates from their nesting range centered in Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada, to their wintering area centered at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Texas, near Rockport. There are also 2 introduced populations of Whooping Cranes – one migratory population that nests in Wisconsin, and a non-migratory population in Louisiana.

The best information we have about the numerical size of these 3 populations of Whooping Cranes indicates the historic population numbers more than 500, with the last census information indicating 506 Cranes were present in coastal Texas a year ago, in February 2020, including 39 first year Whoopers. There are presently about 100 nesting pairs of Whooping Cranes in this population. Read more

Many birds migrate to warmer locations with more food options, they must endure long, often perilous migrations and increased competition. Some familiar feeder visitors like Black-capped Chickadees remain in northern latitudes year-round. Birds that stay north when the snow flies face 2 daily dilemmas – don’t freeze, and don’t starve. Most birds follow a simple winter survival formula: Maximize the calories of foods eaten while minimizing calories spent finding food, sheltering, and keeping from freezing in cold and even ultra-cold weather.

Small birds maintain an elevated body temperature to stay active – generally about 105°F – compared to birders who live in the north, with our 98.6°F body temperatures. Finding enough food is likewise paramount when most food supplies become greatly reduced during winter weather, just when food is required most to fuel their body and keep it warm.

Cold Feet

Black-capped Chickadees, like most birds that spend the calendar year in northern latitudes, contend with the winter with bare uninsulated legs and feet. Yet their toes remain flexible and functional at all temperatures; whereas our feet, if that small, would freeze into blocks of ice in seconds.

How do they do this? Read more

Wildlife managers have long used water, especially in the arid Southwest, as a tool to help support healthy animal populations. What began as a handful of managed water sites for quail and mule deer around 1940 blossomed into some 6,000 sites intended to increase populations and benefit overall health for dozens of mostly game species in 10 western states by the close of the 20th century. Provisional water – contained in troughs, large tires, basins, open tanks and dammed up pools – is now used to support a vast range of wildlife management and species conservation work, from increasing mule deer and other game populations to recovery efforts for endangered Sonoran pronghorn and desert bighorn sheep.

A new study, however, reveals that in some cases, use of the common wildlife management tool can be fine-tuned to optimize benefits for targeted species by reducing risk from predators that are likewise drawn to the same water sources. Published in PLOS One, the Public Library of Science’s peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal, the research represents significant implications for other like-minded wildlife management efforts.

Conducted by biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Defense and others, the study examined when endangered desert bighorn sheep, as well as deer, puma and coyote visit managed water sources (drinkers) in three distinct Southwestern desert ecosystems.

“Desert bighorn sheep visit water when it’s hot and dry,” says Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Grant Harris. “Mountain lions visit water year-round. Take home: Provide water only when bighorn sheep are likely to visit, which could reduce mountain lion range expansion and predation on sheep.”

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For six-and-a-half years, from July 2009 through December 2016, Harris and fellow researchers analyzed imagery from remote cameras set up at 105 drinkers throughout the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave deserts. By calculating the mean proportion of visits to water catchments per month for each site, the team was able to hone in on exactly when desert bighorn sheep, mule deer, coyote and mountain lions visited the sites.

The research revealed that in the Chihuahuan Desert, 70 percent of all desert bighorn sheep visits occurred from April through August; In the Sonoran, 85 percent of sheep visits occurred during May through August; And in the Mojave, 83 percent of sheep visits occurred from May through September. Read more