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Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2011 9:10 AM
Subject: Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever!

Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever!

Yellowstone wolves average a 6 year lifespan but research reveals that just as the typical professional baseball player sees his hitting skills diminsh past the age of 28, Wolves ability to kill prey peaks between the ages of 2 and 3.........When older wolves can no longer hunt successfully, younger wolves share their kill with them, in what Yellowstone Field Biologist Dan MacNulty describes as a lupine version of Social Security............ While a high ratio of old-to-young wolves may benefit elk, it could strain the wolf population because there aren't enough workers to support retirees............With Officials in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming instituting expansive wolf hunts with the goal of signifiantly reducing populations, this will leave the remaining packs with younger wolves, which could mean more deaths, not fewer, for the elk

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 10:50 PM PST

Wolves Lose Their Predatory Edge In Mid-Life, Study Shows

Although most wolves in Yellowstone National Park live to be nearly six years old, their ability to kill prey peaks when they are two to three, according to a study led by Dan MacNulty, Field Biologist at the Park..

The finding challenges a long-held belief that wolves are successful predators for their entire adult lives. It now appears that like human athletes, they are only at the top of their game for about 25 percent of that time. It also shows that physiology can limit predation.

"Wolves are not perfect predators," says MacNulty, a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Biological Sciences' Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "They lack physical characteristics to kill prey swiftly, so they rely on athletic ability and endurance, which diminishes with age. They're like 100-meter sprinters. They need to be in top condition to perform."By comparison, mountain lions, with their short snouts, powerful muscles and retractable claws, are designed to kill, MacNulty says. Not surprisingly, they live and hunt alone.In Yellowstone, wolves, who hunt in packs, depend on elk for survival. The finding is timely because the park's elk population is shrinking and wolves are being blamed. Wolves were hunted out of the area in the 1930s and re-introduced in 1995. But the study shows there isn't a strong correlation between the number of wolves in the park and the number of elk killed.MacNulty says that number fluctuates based on the age structure of the wolf population at any given time. The higher the proportion of wolves over age three, the lower the rate at which they kill elk. For every 10 percent rise in the proportion of wolves older than three, the kill rate declined 10 to 15 percent. He notes that the drop in the elk population is also attributable to drought and to Grizzly Bears."Wolves are not the sole factor limiting Yellowstone's elk population," MacNulty says.When older wolves can no longer hunt successfully, younger wolves share their kill with them, in what MacNulty describes as a lupine version of Social Security. While a high ratio of old-to-young wolves may benefit elk, it could strain the wolf population because there aren't enough workers to support retirees.Montana legalized hunting wolves after they were removed from the endangered species list in 2007. Although hunting is prohibited in the park, packs wander beyond it boundaries and radio-marked wolves have been killed. MacNulty says hunting won't put the species at risk, but it actually skews the population towards younger wolves, which could mean more deaths, not fewer, for the elk.MacNulty became a field biologist at Yellowstone after graduating from the University of Colorado in 1995, the year wolves were reintroduced, and focused his doctoral studies on their predatory behavior. He has continued tracking Yellowstone's wolves as a University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher for Craig Packer, the world's foremost authority on lions.MacNulty's next step is to create mathematical models to study the long-term effects of fluctuations in the age structure of Yellowstone's wolf population on the elk population. His collaborators include Douglas Smith (Yellowstone Center for Resources); John Vucetich, Michigan Technological University) David Mech (US Geological Survey); Daniel Stahler (Yellowstone Center for Resources) and Craig Packer (University of Minnesota).

Once near extirpation, Florida's Alligators have recovered nicely............A hunting season resumed in 1988 and last year a quota of 7700 gators was issued by Fish & wildlife.......12,000 of the prehistoric reptiles were allowed to be taken this year with no official count yet revealing how many were actually taken out of the 1.3 million estimated state-wide population...........Charles Lee, advocacy director for Audubon of Florida, said the alligator appears to have stood up well,,,,,"but the population remains too low in some regions, including possibly the Everglades"

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 10:45 PM PST

Florida looks to ease alligator hunting law

Gator Hunter Mark Dombroski, 44, of Royal Palm Beach unloads one of the two alligators that his father, Bob Dombroski, harpooned on opening night of alligator season on the south end of Lake Okeechobee in this 2006 file photo.

A generation after Florida reopened alligator hunting, state wildlife managers plan their first review ever of the law that has allowed thousands to pursue the state's most famous reptile with gaffs, bangsticks and harpoons.Alligator hunting resumed in 1988, after this former endangered species rebounded so vigorously that it was showing up in backyards, parking lots and playgrounds. The number of alligators killed — and transformed into gator nuggets, shoes and wallets — rose steadily as quotas expanded, from 2,551 in 2000 to 7,736 last year.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, at its most recent meeting, authorized its staff to begin working on a package of amendments to the alligator hunting law to be presented to the state Legislature. Harry Dutton, coordinator of the alligator management program, said the review may simply streamline a statute that was probably overloaded with rules because of the sensitivity of hunting a former endangered species. "It was a time when the alligator was just considered fully recovered and there was a lot of concern," he said. "It's been 23 years now. It's probably long overdue."

Charles Lee, advocacy director for Audubon of Florida, said the alligator appears to have stood up well. But he said the population remains too low in some regions, including possibly the Everglades.And he said the tendency of hunters to go for trophy prey has deprived many parts of the state of the huge, decades-old alligators that had been a part of Florida's natural heritage. "They are an iconic feature of the natural landscape, so I lament the areas I go to where these big, grandfather alligators have been snuffed out," he said. "They're pretty rare these days, and I think hunters had something to do with that."Under the current hunting program, the state establishes quotas for different lakes, rivers and regions to prevent excessive hunting in particular areas. A drawing is held for permits, with more than 6,000 issued for the statewide hunt that ran from Aug. 15 through Nov. 1. Each permit holder may kill up to two alligators.The hunt is tightly controlled, with tags and forms required for each kill.Al Hernandez, a Dania Beach electrical contractor who has been hunting alligators for about 12 years, said the state's hunting program appears to have made little dent in alligator populations."When I go up the Kissimmee River I see easily 100 gators," he said. "On Lake Okeechobee some nights I see 50 or 60." Hernandez hunts after midnight, when the alligators are hunting. On one occasion, he encountered a 10-footer consuming a smaller alligator. "You could hear the crunching of the bones," he said.

On a recent hunt on Lake Okeechobee, he saw a nine-footer head out to hunt. He brought his boat behind the gator, and when it turned he snagged it with a hook, used a bangstick to fire a shotgun charge into its brain and — just to be safe — severed its spine at the neck.He takes his gators to a processing plant that yields gator cubes, which he deep fries with Cajun seasoning.There are about 1.3 million alligators in Florida swamps, rivers and lakes, with the number fairly stable over the past few years, Dutton said.Nuisance alligator complaints are up sharply over the past 20 years — from 11,965 in 1991 to 14,418 last year — although they're down from their peak of 18,307 in 2006.Dutton said the review may result in the removal of extra rules that aren't applied to game animals such as deer. For example, the review may remove the rule requiring minors hunting with a parent to have a separate license, he said. And it may remove the lifetime ban imposed on anyone with a poaching violation.But he said the review was unlikely to result in an increase or decrease in hunting. The review will begin with internal staff work as well as public outreach sessions. The aim is to bring proposals late next year to the wildlife commission, a seven-member board appointed by the governor. If the commission approves the proposals, they would go to the new recommendations.

New York's Adirondack State Park is actually a larger protected area than Yellowtone.......This beautiful region in the Eastern section of the USA is experiencing rapidly warming temperatures..........Naturalist Jerry Jenkins saids: "Nothing we see here is found at temperatures 10 degrees warmer, and very little makes it to five degrees warmer"....... Mr. Jenkins said that if things contnue as they have been going, in short order "We will be in a climate that this community has never known in its history..... One has to go back to world climate levels we haven't seen in 15 million year." ...........".Northern mammals like moose and pine martens are holding steady, though they, too, are sure to suffer..... "They are both at their thermal limits here".....It is not just "city folks" saying that there is a frightining warming taking place,,,,Loggers have told Mr. Jenkins that their winter operating season — the period when they haul timber over frozen earth — has been shortened by almost six weeks!!!!!

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 08:20 AM PST

Savoring Bogs and Moose, Fearing They'll Vanish as the Adirondacks Warm

A full moon rising over Osgood Pond near Paul Smiths, N.Y. More Photos »

By LISA W. FODERARO

Published: December 1, 2011

PAUL SMITHS, N.Y. — Jerry Jenkins, an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, narrates with encyclopedic precision the serene, timeless landscape of the Osgood River, as he moves past it with each dip of his canoe paddle.

Jerry Jenkins, an ecologist, on the Osgood River. More Photos »

That is sphagnum moss carpeting the banks of a bog that stretches across hundreds of acres, a signature feature of northern landscapes. Those are tamaracks and black spruces — cold-tolerant conifer trees found mostly in Canada — rising from the shores. A pair of gray jays alights on a branch: they, too, are at the southern end of their range. Mr. Jenkins, who is the author of the book "Climate Change in the Adirondacks: The Path to Sustainability," spends much of his time on the water and in the woods, documenting the ecosystem with a notebook and a camera. He thus brings an unusual perspective to the scene. Where a casual observer might behold diversity and continuity, he projects decades into the future and finds absence and loss. "Nothing we see here is found at temperatures 10 degrees warmer, and very little makes it to five degrees warmer," Mr. Jenkins said matter-of-factly on a mild fall day. "We will be in a climate that this community has never known in its history. One has to go back to world climate levels we haven't seen in 15 million years." Such warming is what scientists' temperature models forecast if significant steps are not taken, and soon, to cut carbon emissions. The Adirondack Mountains, host to two Winter Olympics, could lose much of their ice and snow by the end of the century. A rise of 10 degrees in temperature would put the six-million-acre state park, a mix of public and private lands, in the same climate zone as the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia. So while Mr. Jenkins pursues his field studies and lectures, he also makes time to capture the present, taking some 30,000 photographs in recent years. "Maybe it's a baseline measurement, or maybe it's an elegy," Mr. Jenkins, 68, said of his photographic record of alpine flowers and mighty pines. "We may be the last generation to see the big bogs and the boreal creatures." A major study of the impact of climate change on New York State drew similar conclusions. In a 600-page report published last month, scientists from Cornell and Columbia Universities, as well as the City University of New York, said that temperatures would rise as much as nine degrees by the 2080s. They also projected the decline and eventual loss of spruce-fir forests and alpine tundra in the Adirondacks. Mr. Jenkins has yet to detect signs of stress in trees and plants, which respond slowly to alterations in temperature. Northern mammals like moose and pine martens are holding steady, though they, too, are sure to suffer. "They are both at their thermal limits here," he said. Yet there is ample evidence elsewhere that the region is already reacting to a warmer climate. "For the hunters, farmers, hikers and birders, the change in the climate, especially in the past 10 to 15 years, is just too great to write off," he said. Hard frosts that a generation ago came in mid-September now arrive in October. Lake Champlain, a huge freshwater body that divides New York and Vermont, once froze over completely every winter, but now remains open in the middle some years. Ornithologists have recorded recent declines in northern bird species like the black-backed woodpecker, olive-sided flycatcher and rusty blackbird. Loggers have told Mr. Jenkins that their winter operating season — the period when they haul timber over frozen earth — has been shortened by almost six weeks. Until recently, Mr. Jenkins said, he thought climate change would have its initial impact on nature, and only later would it affect environments made by people. But then came Tropical Storm Irene in August. In the High Peaks region, up to 10 inches of rain sent boulders, trees and torrents of water down mountainsides, destroying roads and houses. That storm followed persistent flooding last spring that devastated farms in the Champlain Valley. (Scientists say intense rainfalls are a hallmark of climate change.) From a young age, Mr. Jenkins was captivated by nature. The son of an Air Force pilot and a nurse's aide, he grew up mostly on Long Island. "My mother, bless her soul, read me 'The Boys Book of Snakes' and books about the seashore," he recalled. He took to the mountains at Williams College in western Massachusetts, where he was admitted at 15, studying philosophy, math and physics. Despite the fact that he is missing his right forearm, a result of a birth defect, Mr. Jenkins became an outdoorsman. Even now, he spends days camping alone — "I've never had an intense experience in a motel," he said — and can hoist a three-man canoe over his head by himself.

."He knows everything about everything," said David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell who worked on the climate study. "He's that old-fashioned sort of naturalist who, through detailed observation and having a breadth of knowledge, can put all the pieces together. There are fewer and fewer people like that out there."

After doing freelance work for government and conservation groups for 35 years, Mr. Jenkins joined the staff of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Adirondack program in 2005. He lives south of the Adirondacks, in White Creek, where his 160-year-old farmhouse is heated by a wood stove and powered by solar panels. He recently bought a Prius. During his climate presentations, Mr. Jenkins tries to end on an upbeat note. He caps his alarming assessment — illustrated with charts and maps and landing like a punch to the solar plexus — with a prescription for personal change. His book on Adirondack climate, published last year by Cornell University Press, lays out strategies for residents, business owners and local officials. He recently spoke at a youth climate summit at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. Despite the audience's consumerist tendencies, he preached thrift. "Thrift means not buying stuff, turning down the heat, not making five trips to town a week," he said. "The easy things help pay for the hard things, like solar panels and hybrid cars." In his private moments, however, Mr. Jenkins admits to pondering this time in history with an existential foreboding. And he speaks of the Adirondack landscape with a certain wistfulness, waxing lyrical about conifers and sedges, long vistas and light on water, "peacefulness and oldness." Then he goes back to work.

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