Category: Wildlife

Goldfinch

DNR: U.P. survey results indicate no significant change in Michigan’s wolf population

Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife division officials said today the size of the state’s wolf population has not changed significantly since the last survey was conducted in 2014.

DNR wildlife researchers estimate there was a minimum of 618 wolves in the Upper Peninsula this winter. The 2014 minimum population estimate was 636 wolves.

A wolf walks through the Upper Peninsula woodlands. “The confidence intervals of the 2014 and 2016 estimates overlap, thus we can’t say with statistical confidence that the population decreased”, said Kevin Swanson, wildlife management specialist with the DNR’s Bear and Wolf Program in Marquette.

Confidence intervals are a range of values that describe the uncertainty surrounding an estimate.

Swanson said, based on the 2016 minimum population estimate, it is clear that wolf numbers in Michigan are viable, stable and have experienced no significant change since 2014.

“Currently, deer numbers in the U.P. are at lows not seen in decades and we wondered if there would be a decline in wolf numbers as a result of this reduction in their primary source of prey,” Swanson said. “We also did not observe a significant difference in the number and average size of wolf packs as compared to 2014.” Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

The Magic & Myths of Fawns

GW:  This information is from QDMA’s Sam Leatherman and provides some facts we may not have known.

The Magic & Myths of Fawns

Photo by Ralph Hensley.

I always look forward to seeing the first newborn fawn of the year. Without fail, social media will begin to fill with pictures of these beautiful, wobbly-legged creatures, and understandably so. Very few things in nature are as beautiful as a newborn fawn in a lush, green field. But these photos are often accompanied by misinformation and bad advice. Let’s look at the magic and myths of whitetail fawns.

Magic: For the first seven to 10 days of life, a fawn will spend up to 95 percent of its time bedded. While bedded, a fawn has a very rapid heartbeat of around 175 beats per minute. When a fawn senses danger is close, it will lower its head and drop its ears, the heart rate will fall to around 60 beats per minute, and the breathing will become slower and deeper – all to try and avoid detection by predators. The first few days of a fawn’s life are a critical time. Most fawns that fall to predators die in their first 10 days of life.
Myth: “I found a fawn that didn’t run away. Something must be wrong with it.” More than likely you have found a very young deer. The fawn will lie perfectly still, barely even blinking, until you move on. Oftentimes, at this young age the fawn will even let you touch it or pick it up, but it is best not to. More on this in a moment.

Magic: Within a few hours of being born, Read more

Wildlife

Kirtland’s Warbler Alliance and Huron Pines seek volunteers for Jack Pine Planting Day


Volunteers are needed to plant jack pine trees to help the Kirtland’s warbler on the third annual Jack Pine Planting Day sponsored by the Kirtland’s Warbler Alliance and Huron Pines in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fairmont Santrol and Saving Birds Thru Habitat.This year’s event will be held Saturday, May 7. Volunteers will gather at the northeast corner of Crawford County Road 612 and Manistee River Road at 9 a.m. with the goal of planting about 2,300 trees over a 2-acre site in about three hours. The site is about approximately 4 miles west of Frederic, Michigan.

Read more

Wildlife

DNR produces map of 2015 burned areas to give folks a hand in their hunt for morels

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources provides an online interactive map that highlights the state’s 2015 wildfires and prescribed burns – each more than 10 acres in size – to help mushroom hunters in their quest for morels.

“Morel mushrooms are often found in locations where large fires occurred the previous year,” said Jim Fisher, resource protection manager for the DNR Forest Resources Division. “Each spring we get calls from people who are seeking details on those sites to hunt morels. We’ve enhanced the features of this map to give our customers the information they are looking for in a mobile-friendly, easily accessible package.”Morel mushroom hunting

The DNR’s interactive Mi-Morels map provides forest cover type information, latitude and longitude coordinates and state-managed land boundary information.

Morel mushrooms commonly sprout in locations burned by wildfires or prescribed burns with a tree canopy; grass or sunlit open areas are less likely to produce the tasty fungi. Read more

Wildlife

A Song of Ivory and Fire: Why destruction of ivory stockpiles might not be a good idea

From SCI…

As Kenya prepares to destroy its entire wildlife products stockpile–an estimated 100 or more tons of elephant ivory, rhino horn and parts from other species–at the end of April, some are welcoming this move as a bold display of defiance against trafficking of wildlife products. Billionaires, Hollywood celebrities, and other ill-informed individuals are expected to attend and cheer as flames transform ivory into ashes. But beyond a grand gesture, what are the deeper implications of ivory stockpile destruction? The potential negative consequences of such stockpile destruction events deserve closer scrutiny.

StockpileKenya was the first nation to publicly destroy ivory, back in 1989, in the lead-up to the global ban on commercial ivory trade. Since then several other nations have followed suit, and Kenya itself has followed up with additional ivory burns. Since 2011, at least 15 nations, including the United States, have held public events to eliminate ivory stockpiles–destroying an estimated 65 tons or more of ivory. Each has been touted as a public show of disdain for illegal ivory trafficking, a statement to ivory traders that the world will no longer tolerate the slaughter of elephants for their ivory. Defenders of stockpile destruction say that it takes ivory “beyond economic use.”

Yet how many of these events have been accompanied by a transparent and independent audit to verify that the amount claimed to have been destroyed was actually destroyed? Is it unreasonable to imagine a scenario in which criminal networks in countries that consistently rank among the world’s most corrupt nations could conspire to make a grand display of “destroying” 20 tons of ivory, but then burn only a token few pieces of ivory atop 10 tons of scrap wood? Such a move would then take 10 tons or more of ivory off the record books and free it up for sale on the black market. Without credible independent verification, who is to say whether the ivory has actually been destroyed versus having been shifted into the hands of corrupt officials to be sold for their own personal enrichment? Officials from the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) can inspect official ivory stockpiles at any time. If those stockpiles no longer “officially” exist, then there’s no longer anything to inspect.

RhinoThe fundamental principle of supply and demand also poses a formidable challenge to the assertion that taking ivory “beyond economic use” somehow reduces demand for ivory. Ivory consumers are certain to perceive the loss of tons of ivory as a signal that their favored commodity is in increasingly short supply, thus driving up demand. Read more

Wildlife

HSUS’s CEO May Be Coming to Your Town

This from HumaneWatch.org

Humane Society of the United States CEO Wayne Pacelle has a new book coming out today called The Humane Economy. You don’t need to have read it to be familiar with his general goal: A “humane economy” to Wayne Pacelle is one that doesn’t use animals. After all, Pacelle has said, “I don’t want to see another cat or dog born” and he has been a vegan for about 30 years.

Pacelle’s book follows 2011’s The Bond—an odd title for a guy who said “There’s no special bond between me and other animals.” For that book, Vain Wayne started off with a dozen-city or so tour—before expanding it to a months-long, 100-city international tour. We went to one event and weren’t particularly impressed with the turnout.

If Pacelle is coming to a town near you, we encourage readers to show up and ask him a tough question. He’s slick—but we’d like to see him talk his way out of these. HSUS supporters deserve answers. And if you do ask him, take a video on your cell phone if you can.

Five Questions for Wayne Pacelle:

  1. How can you justify HSUS sticking over $100 million into Caribbean investments between 2012 and 2014 when animals are suffering now?
  2. Why should anyone trust a man who, when asked if he envisioned a future without pets, said, “If I had my personal view perhaps that might take hold. In fact, I don’t want to see another cat or dog born.” (Note: If Wayne tries to dismiss these quotes as “things on the Internet,” they come from a published book.)
  3. You criticize companies for being motivated by profit—yet you yourself recently bought a house for over $1 million in cash and have made over $4 million in compensation from HSUS over your tenure. Aren’t you motivated by money as well?
  4. Whenever we tell people that HSUS has nothing to do with your local “humane society,” most people are completely surprised. How can you honestly claim that your members are aware of the difference?
  5. Whenever there’s a natural disaster HSUS’s fundraising kicks into high gear. You raised over $2 million off of Hurricane Sandy, but only spent one-third of that on Sandy relief. How do you justify the slick, emotional marketing when you know the money will likely not be used for that specific issue?

 

Pacelle’s tour schedule (may be updated periodically): Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

First eaglet hatches at Platte River State Fish Hatchery

GW:  I love this technology…unimagined only a few decades ago.

Eagle and eaglet in nest at Platte River State Fish Hatchery

One of two eaglets has hatched at the eagle’s nest on the grounds of the Platte River State Fish Hatchery. It hatched in the early hours today, April 19.

Viewers may want to glue themselves to the Carbon TV Eagle Cam. The second eaglet hopefully will hatch at any moment, as pips (small holes pecked into the shell of an egg from a parent eagle’s beak) are now present on the egg in the nest on the grounds of the hatchery.

Viewers can watch the action unfold live in real time on CarbonTV.com. Read more

Wildlife

Maine Supreme Court Sides with Sportsmen

After nearly a year and a half of fighting in court, and more than $100,000 spent, sportsmen in Maine were victorious today against a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Today’s victory was the latest in a long line of victories by the Maine Wildlife Conservation Council and the Sportsmen’s Alliance in this case.

In early 2015, Maine Superior Court Justice Joyce Wheeler sided with sportsmen and dismissed a lawsuit aimed at silencing Maine’s wildlife professionals on grounds that it was moot. Today’s Supreme Judicial Court ruling upheld that decision, effectively ending the issue. Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

DNR wildfire pilots have stressful, rewarding jobs

Experts tell us that stress is a killer.

Yet, the small handful of pilots who fly missions for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said they wouldn’t trade their high-pressure occupations for anything.

Soaring above the smoke and flames of raging wildfires, searching for moose, elk and wolves or aiding investigating conservation officers as eyes in the skies, these pilots are a talented breed.

Flames shoot toward the smoke-filled skies in an aerial photo of a wildfire in the Upper Peninsula.And while these aviators do a lot of work for a number of DNR divisions, their main job is to look for, report on and guide ground personnel who fight wildfires.

Think of any of the state’s most notorious recent blazes – Sleeper Lake, Meridian Boundary, Duck Lake and 4-Mile – these pilots have been there for all of them.

“It’s really the bread and butter of what we do,” said Bill Green, the chief pilot at the DNR. “However, it’s not always the majority of our flight hours because fire detection and suppression is weather related.” Read more

General, Wildlife

Sportsmen’s Community Opposes Proposal to Restrict Scientific Fish and Wildlife Management in Alaska

GW:  Centralized government’s big nose and the push for more control over its subjects.  Let the individual states manage their own affairs and stick to more important matters such as sidling up to Cuba or getting Hillary off the hook.

In recent weeks, a wide array of key entities, including the state and national sportsmen’s community and members of Alaska’s Congressional Delegation, have highlighted concerns with proposed rules from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that would severely restrict the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADFG) ability to carry out traditional, effective wildlife management techniques on National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) lands in Alaska. The FWS rule docket, titled “Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska (proposed rule),” would severely inhibit ADFG’s ability to engage in predator management practices that have historically been used to sustain populations of key big game species critical to subsistence users in Alaska.

Among the chief concerns expressed by the aforementioned parties are that the proposed FWS rules:

  • Run counter to Congressional direction on fish and wildlife management authority given to FWS in both the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (NWRSIA);
  • Abridge wildlife management primacy given to the state of Alaska in both the Alaska Constitution and the federal Alaska Statehood Act;
  • Constitute an arbitrary assertion that managing for “natural” diversity takes precedence over all other management considerations, despite the fact that no scientific justification for the rules was ever provided or demonstrated by FWS, and that humans are considered by ANILCA to be a natural part of the environment;
  • Did not take into any real consideration feedback and concerns expressed by ADFG on the negative consequences that the proposed rules would have for scientific fish and wildlife management efforts in the state;
  • Would almost certainly have a negative impact on populations of key big game species in Alaska, which constitute a critical component of the diet of the many subsistence-based users that reside in the state;
  • If passed, would represent a dangerous precedent for federal overreach into the fish and wildlife management duties that have traditionally been carried out by state fish and wildlife agencies, the primary managers of fish and wildlife resources in the United States; and
  • Run directly counter to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, the unique and hugely successful ethic that has guided fish and wildlife management in the United States for over a century by relying on science-based management efforts carried out by trained professionals. Read more
Fishing, Hunting, Wildlife
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