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The Arizona Game and Fish Department is forwarding this Grand Canyon National Park news release to constituents who may have an interest in this opportunity

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — The National Park Service, in cooperation with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), seeks skilled volunteers to assist with the removal of bison on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in the fall of 2021. Interested parties should carefully read this announcement and the information in the links below.

Given the current distribution, abundance, density and the expected growth of the bison herd on the North Rim, the NPS is concerned about increased impacts on park resources such as water, vegetation, soils, archaeological sites and values such as visitor experience and wilderness character. Reducing the herd size will protect the park ecosystem, resources and values.

Individuals who are interested in applying to be volunteers can submit an application on the following website (www.azbisonstewards.com) beginning at 12 a.m. (Arizona time) on May 3 through 11:59 p.m. on May 4, 2021. Read more

Ramsey, MN- A commercially available test that can be used to analyze deer urine for the presence of CWD prions before its distribution to the public has been in use by Wildlife Research Center® and Tink’s® for a year, and most of the major scent companies are also adopting this technology in 2020. Real Time Quaking Induced Conversion, RT-QuIC ™ for short, is a proven and reliable method for detecting the misfolded proteins that cause CWD.

A commercial laboratory began testing deer urine for the scent companies in 2019, enabling two of the industry’s largest manufacturers to test 100 percent of their natural deer urine products before releasing them to the marketplace. The laboratory company CWD Evolution has expanded and is testing products for many of the commercial scent manufacturers. Products that have been tested will be authorized to include the “RT-QuIC Tested“ logo. [See attached] Read more

By — Ben Ikenson

Sound wildlife management requires good data. By helping determine animal population sizes, wildlife surveys are vital to effective stewardship strategies, whether for the benefit of game management or the conservation of endangered species.

“But counting animals is no simple task,” says David Stewart, a statistician for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Surveys must contain desirable properties, and should produce an estimate that is consistent, unbiased and precise, and, most important, be easy to compute.”

For six months in 2017 and 2018, Stewart and other biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish addressed the issue, and produced some promising results. Their research, recently described in Scientific Reports, pioneers an innovative new method to count animals by estimating their population sizes simply, safely, and affordably.

When it comes to being surveyed, all animals are not created equal. Those with distinct markings, such as ocelots or giraffes, make for more convenient individual identification, and therefore easier population surveys. Similarly, animals living in open areas, like Serengeti grasslands or arctic tundra, are readily observed and counted from small aircraft. Obviously though, many species don’t have distinctive spots or inhabit open landscapes — and a simple process is needed for counting them too. Read more