RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service | 5th cougar succumbs to plague found in Grand Teton National Park

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service
Budapest, Hungary

The fifth cougar to succumb to the plague in recent years was found at the southern end of Grand Teton National Park in recent days. The female cat was known in the area of Jackson, Wyoming for wandering around the region. The 6 year old cat found by biologists was tagged with a global positioning system collar. The plague is naturally occurring in the area. Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis. It is found in animals throughout the world, most commonly rats but other rodents like ground squirrels, prairie dogs, chipmunks, rabbits and voles. Fleas typically serve as the vector of plague. People can also get infected through direct contact with an infected animal, through inhalation and in the case of pneumonic plague, person to person.

Antelope are roaming Cheyenne, Wyoming neighborhoods early this year in search of food and shelter

Weather pushes big game into city

CHEYENNE - The pronghorns are in town early this year.

While it is not unusual for pronghorn antelope to come into Cheyenne and Laramie during the winter, folks at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said it is unusual for it to happen this early in the winter weather season.

They are, of course, looking for food and shelter, which is more readily available in town than out on the wind-blown plains.

Antelope have created some traffic hazards in Cheyenne.

"People just need to take their time and be careful" when they spot antelope on or near the street, said Cheyenne police Sgt. Nathan Buseck.

There haven't been any accidents, he said, and any traffic problems with the pronghorns have been "very minor" so far.

He said antelope have been in the area of Miller Elementary. A group have been roaming the neighborhood between Eighth Avenue and Pershing Boulevard and Evans and Central avenues.

In one subdivision in Laramie, more than 100 antelope have been chewing on trees and tall grass, according to The Associated Press.

"Wildlife are best enjoyed from a distance," said Bob Lanka, a regional information and education supervisor for the Game and Fish Department.

That is the first thing to keep in mind.

Approaching wildlife raises their metabolic rate and results in more energy being expended during a time when they need it.

The early cold weather has likely caused a higher rate of mortality among the pronghorns already, he said, though there is no data yet.

There are no laws against feeding big-game animals that wander into the city, said Scott Smith, city spokesman.

But feeding wild big-game animals is not a good idea, Lanka said.

Feeding concentrates wildlife, enhancing the spread of disease, attracting predators and diminishing the fear of people so that they may become more aggressive. Improper food also can cause illness or death.

For those who want to help decrease big-game mortality in winter, Lanka suggests:

-- Keep your distance and leave wildlife alone.

-- Keep pets confined and do not allow them to chase wildlife.

-- Slow your vehicle down, especially on icy roads and at dawn and dusk. Big-game animals forage near roads and regularly cross them in search of food.

-- Make fences as wildlife friendly as possible by allowing animals to move either over or under more easily.

The department has a brochure on fencing and wildlife available at regional offices.

-- Consider having one pasture where livestock will be confined in winter and leaving the rest of your gates open so that wildlife can move through if you own a ranch.

-- Pick up bailing twine, loose wire and other things wildlife may become entangled in.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2009/12/11/featured_story/01top_12-11-09.txt

MOSNEWS.comRussian geneticists suggest breeding mammoths to fight crisis

... In times of financial crisis, mammoth farms could be a real blessing, scientists say, as they would produce cheap meat, skins and precious mammoth ivory.

One average-sized mammoth of four or five tons would provide enough meat for a hundred people for a whole year.

Researchers also think the mammoth meat should have an excellent taste, as prehistoric people took pains to hunt the dangerous animals instead of opting for easier prey ...

READ MORE:

http://mosnews.com/weird/2009/07/30/breedingmammoths/

REUTERS/ Marko Djurica

A rare white tiger named Khane in his enclosure at the Belgrade Zoo.

Source:

http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20091127/157007817.html

BBC | Crime rings boost ivory smuggling

The number of seizures has gone up, and so has their average size

The last year has seen a major increase in the illegal ivory trade, with more involvement from organised crime.

November 11, 2009 - Figures compiled by Traffic, the agency charged with monitoring the trade, show a doubling in the volume of illegal ivory seized from 2008 to 2009.

Researchers believe most of it is poached in West and Central Africa, while China is the main destination.

Traffic says there is no evidence that last year's one-off legal sale of ivory in southern Africa boosted smuggling.

The volume of ivory seized is not a complete indication of the size of the illegal trade, because the effectiveness of police and customs authorities can vary from year to year and only a fraction of illegal consignments are discovered. FULL STORY

The Sydney Morning Herald | Koala numbers in free fall

KOALAS are rapidly vanishing from the Australian bush,and there may be as few as 43,000 left on the mainland, according to the biggest national survey of their populations attempted.

The Australian Koala Foundation said its research showed the furry icons were suffering from urban development and climate change, and that the Federal Government should list the species as vulnerable.

The group, which used data from more than 1000 forest surveys, said the mainland population had fallen to between 43,000 and 80,000. The number of wild koalas in NSW, where they are already listed as vulnerable, could have dropped to as few as 8000, the group said.

FULL STORY

Rense.com - Patricial Doyle, PhD | Ferret Dies of H1N1 Swine Flu in Nebraska - virus is widening its host range

Ferret Dies of H1N1 Swine Flu in Nebraska,
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
11-2-9

Hello Jeff - I think we are on the brink of a very different outbreak. The virus is widening its host range, and is transmitting a tamiflu resistant strain H2H in the US.

Patty

http://vetmedicine.about.com/b/2009/11/01/h1n1-swine-flu-ferret-dies-in-nebraska.htm

VetMedicineAbout.com | H1N1 (Swine Flu) News - Ferret dies from H1N1 infection in Nebraska

Sunday November 1, 2009

A news station in Hastings, Nebraska (KHAS) has reported that Stormy the ferret, one of four ferrets in a family of humans sick with the flu, has died from the H1N1 virus.

According to the news report:

Testing was done by the University of Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Lab where the ferret tested positive for H1N1. The state public health veterinarian said it is not unexpected, but it is rare. Only 2 ferrets in the nation have died from H1N1. That includes Stormy.

A second sample has been sent to a national laboratory for confirmation of H1N1 infection.

Thaindian.com | Man-animal conflict: Villagers poison elephants in Assam

By Syed Zarir Hussain

Guwahati, Oct 25 (IANS) Wildlife authorities in Assam have warned that the human-elephant conflict has reached alarming proportions with villagers poisoning to death at least four wild elephants in the past three weeks by lacing toxic chemicals in homemade moonshine.

According to wildlife officials, the latest incident of an adult male poisoned to death was reported Saturday from village Chechapani in Goalpara district, about 170 km west of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

“Preliminary investigations revealed locals in the area killed the elephant using some toxic chemicals mixed with country liquor to avenge the death of a villager trampled to death by elephants recently,” a wildlife official said.

This is the fourth elephant to have been poisoned to death in Assam during the past three weeks - the other three deaths were reported from northern Assam’s Udalguri district.

“The modus operandi is the same with locals either mixing poisonous substances in country liquor or mixing it with jackfruit, sugarcane and other eatables fancied by elephants,” the official said.

During the past two months, herds of wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in several parts of Assam with the jumbos fancying the paint-peeling moonshine that many of the villagers brew from fermented rice.

Experts say wild elephants have been moving out of the jungles with people encroaching upon animal corridors leading to an increasing number of elephant attacks on villages.

“A shrinking forest cover and encroachment of elephant corridors have forced the pachyderms to stray out of their habitats into human settlement areas and more often attracted by the smell of locally brewed rice beer,” A. Das, owner of two tamed elephants, said.

In 2001, close to 40 elephants were poisoned to death allegedly by the villagers.

“The battle between humans and elephants is very serious with the beasts killing people and destroying properties and locals attacking the elephants and causing heavy casualties,” the wildlife official said.

A report by the wildlife department said wild Asiatic elephants have killed about 260 people in Assam since 2001, while 280 elephants have died during the period, many of them victims of retaliation by angry humans.

Satellite imagery shows villagers encroached on about 280,000 hectares of thick forests in Assam. Villagers in the past drove away marauding herds by beating drums or bursting firecrackers. Now they poison the animals.

“We have found that some elephants were brought down with poisoned-tipped arrows,” the official said.

The last elephant census carried out by wildlife authorities recorded about 5,500 elephants in Assam, more than half of India’s count of 10,000.

RELATED

Assam is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur located in the Guwahati city. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra and the Barak river valleys and the Karbi Anglong and the North Cachar Hills with an area of 30,285 square miles (78,438 km²). Assam is surrounded by the other six of the Seven Sister States: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. These states are connected to the rest of India via a narrow strip in West Bengal called the Siliguri Corridor or "Chicken's Neck". Assam also shares international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh; and cultures, peoples and climate with South-East Asia—important elements in India’s Look East policy.

Assam became a part of India after the British occupied the region following the Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826. It is known for Assam tea, large and old petroleum resources, Assam silk and for its rich biodiversity. Assam has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the tiger and numerous species of birds, and it provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for wild-life tourism, and Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites. Assam was also known for its Sal tree forests and forest products, much depleted now. A land of high rainfall, Assam is endowed with lush greenery and the mighty river Brahmaputra, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a unique hydro-geomorphic and aesthetic environment.

Times of India | China turning blind eye to tiger trade: Report

Wright said: "Although Chinese law has banned the use of tiger derivatives in traditional medicines, the existence of tiger breeding farms in the country ...

News1130.com | Baby giraffe born at Greater Vancouver Zoo - Yet to be Named

It's a girl! (Photo: Courtesy Greater Vancouver Zoo)

ALDERGROVE (NEWS11130) - The Greater Vancouver Zoo is celebrating the birth of a six-foot tall baby girl!

The zoo welcomed a new-born Rothschild's giraffe into the world Sunday evening.

The little giraffe is already standing on her own and is being nursed by a surrogate mother. The zoo is yet to choose a name for the latest addition. The baby giraffe will be making her debut at the zoo on Friday, when the public will be allowed to view her from the windows of the giraffe house from 1 to 2 P.M.

(Photos: Courtesy Greater Vancouver Zoo)

AP | Virginia may fill its own hills with Rocky Mountain elk

Hunting has been banned in parts of Austria after freak storms with tennis ball-sized hailstones killed up to 90% of the wild game population

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/6377192/Hunting-banned-in-parts-of-Austria-after-hailstones-kill-90pc-of-wild-game.html

October 19, 2009 - Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts.

In the country's rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms.

Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said : "Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so."

Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings.

This Xinhua news agency photo taken on Thursday Oct. 15, 2009 shows a baby monkey, born two months ago, at Xishuangbanna Dai Park in Xishuangbanna, southwest China's Yunnan province.

(AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Yunsheng)

MORE PHOTOS:
http://english.sina.com/life/p/2009/1015/277951.html

A 12-day old male reticulated giraffe calf, seen next to its mother Camerun, at Rome's zoo, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009. The nameless calf is 1.70 meters tall (5.5 feet) and was born at the Rome zoo on Monday Sept. 28, 2009. The Rome zoo launched a contest amongst the capital's children to find a name for the giraffe calf.

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Yamal Peninsula in Northern Russia.

The Yamal Peninsula in Northern Russia. Map design - John Prusinski

The Yamal Peninsula (Russian: полуо́стров Яма́л), located in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwest Siberia, Russia, extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea, Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east. In the language of its indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets, "Yamal" means "End of the World".

The peninsula consists mostly of permafrost ground and is geologically a very young place —some areas are less than ten thousand years old

Barents Observer | TNK-BP goes for Yamal oil

2009-10-09

The board of the oil company TNK-BP has approved a USD 400 million investment plan at three oil fields at the Yamal Peninsula.

The investment is for the initial phase of the exploration and construction of the Suzun, Tagul and Russkoye fields at Yamal, reports Dow Jones Newswire. The initial phase includes early production activities.

TNK.BP is a joint venture between British BP and a group of Russian investors. The company is Russia’s third biggest oil producer.

Background information

The Yamal Peninsula has seen the discovery of 11 gas and 15 oil and gas condensate fields. The aggregate reserves of Yamal’s largest fields - the Bovanenkovo, Kharasavey and Novoportovskoye fields. These account for 5,9 tcm of gas, 100.2 mln t of condensate and 227 mln t of oil.

The fields are 100-percent owned by Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom dobycha Nadym.

The Bovanenkovo field is planned to be in production in year 2011. The field will be linked with a western-bound pipeline. In addition south-bound railway line is to be connected to the field.

The Yamal Peninsula, located in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwest Siberia, extends roughly 700 km and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea, Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east.

The peninsula is the place where traditional large-scale nomadic reindeer husbandry is best preserved in Russia. On the peninsula, several thousand Nenets and Khanty reindeer herders hold about 500,000 domestic reindeer.

A herd of deer grazes on pasture ground on the Yamal peninsula, north of the Arctic circle Picture: REUTERS

Baby mammoth unearthed in Yamal is 37,000 years old - scientists

Ice Baby — National Geographic Magazine, May 2009

A Nenets boy tentatively examines Lyuba outside Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard, Siberia. Some of his elders still hold to the Nenets tradition that touching a mammoth, a creature they believe roams the spirit underworld, will bring bad luck.

The hunt is on in Custer State Park, both for trophy elk and for a disease that might be causing a 50 percent decline in elk-calf numbers.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/09/27/news/top/doc4abec1c08965a791165989.txt

Scientists hunt for clues to elk loss- Custer State Park asks hunters for help in disease check

Sunday, September 27, 2009 - Park officials are getting help from hunters in the elk seasons that began in the park this fall. Along with the regular requirement that bagged elk must be checked in with Game, Fish & Parks officers, elk hunters in the park are also being given needles and vials to use to take blood samples immediately after they shoot an elk.

The blood is then tested for a variety of diseases that could be affecting reproductive rates and calf survival.

"We've had a couple years of poor calf production, so we're going to look first at the bulls and later on at the cows," park resources program manager Gary Brundige said. "We don't have an idea that we have a disease issue, other than the fact that we've had poor calf production. We want some idea of why that production is down."

The herd in the park is down dramatically from a high of more than 1,100 elk a decade ago to about 450, based on a survey last February. The 1,100 level was considered to be too many elk, based on the management plan for the herd and carrying capacity of the habitat in the park.

Full Story

Received from a friend | Mexican Gray Wolves

Please do not allow your children to watch this video sent to us by the Gila Livestock Growers Association. This is the sixth attack on the same ranch by the same pack, and the NMF&G refuses to remove the pack. Usually, you see photos of the already dead. This film will show you that wolves do not kill outright. They eat their victims alive. This video is graphic, but it gets the point across. Next time you see a photo of an animal “killed” by Mexican Gray wolves; remind yourself that this is how the animal actually died.

Maybe now some of you will understand why we have built “cages” for our children to wait for the school bus in the morning, and to wait for Mom or Dad in the evening. Many of the children have been prey tested and stalked from the bus stops. Wolves show up at the bus stops because they have come to understand that big yellow bus means “dinner.”

High pitched voices of small children excite wolves the same way the high pitched cries of a wounded animal attracts wolves.

Please help us in our cause to fight this unconstitutional program. Visit our website at www.amprowest.org and make a donation or become a member.

Cari Gillespie, Secretary

APWE

Video of attack number 6 by the Middle Fork pack. There are currently 8 confirmed kills placed on the adult wolves. Federal Wildlife Service is making out that only the adults are involved in killing cattle. There were pup bites on the yearling in the video, so clearly the pups are involved in the kills as well. We are getting the usual run around from FWS and New Mexico Game and Fish are still insisting on leaving these animals on the ground regardless of the damage they are doing and the damage to their pups training them to subsist on livestock. At last report the wolves were moving a little bit west onto the O Bar O Ranch, whether they will stay there and kill livestock remains to be seen. Please say a prayer for your Gila ranching neighbors, it is pretty rough to take week after week. Laura

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0UGixipVRg

WLWT.com | Kittens Born With 6, 7 Toes - Polydactyl Cats Have Special Abilities

AMELIA, Ohio -- You've heard of cats with nine lives … but how about seven toes?

A litter of kittens born in Amelia has one unusual distinction. Two of the kittens have more than the usual four toes on their paws.

The two kittens are called polydactyl cats. They have six toes on their hind paws. One of the kittens has seven toes on its front paws.Karen Fulton said her son was the first to notice the unique features."He comes to me in bed and says, 'Mom, I just checked the kittens and they got six toes on the front foot,'" said Fulton. "I said, 'Go get me one' and sure enough. I said, 'Go get me the other ones,' and we noticed the other two were exactly alike.

"Polydactyl cats can often do things other cats can't do, like open latches and catch items with one paw.

Charleston Gazette | West Virginia's wildlife faces winter of food shortages

A serious shortage of mast -- nuts, fruits and other wildlife foods -- promises to make the road-kill situation worse than it otherwise might be. ...

Examiner.com | Dog Breeds 101: How can I protect my pet during a disaster?

Many of us have plans that are set aside in case of disaster, such as a fire or flood, etc. According to a study done by the American Kennel Club (AKC) only 61% of people in the US include their pet in their emergency plans. And while 91% of people say that they will take their pet with them if they have to evacuate, there are countless examples of pets being left behind for whatever reason. As a pet owner, you are responsible for your pet despite emergency situations.

So what do you do?

Typically there are two major scenarios that cover all disasters. Either you are confined to your house for an uncertain length of time (with or without water, electricity, etc.) or you are forced to evacuate. When planning for either of these scenarios, be sure to include your pet........