Fw: Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever!

HERE'S THE LATEST FACT'S AND FIGURE'S FROM OUR FRIEND'S AT : WOLVES,COUGARS,COYOTES FOREVER. --- On Mon, 5/28/12, Wolves, Wolf Facts, Cougars, Cougar Facts, Coyotes, Coyote Facts - Wolves, Cougars, Coyotes Forever <rick.meril@gmail.com> wrote: From: Wolves, Wolf Facts, Cougars, Cougar Facts, Coyotes, Coyote Facts - Wolves, Cougars, Coyotes Forever <rick.meril@gmail.com> Subject: Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever! To: RANDAL_MASSARO@YAHOO.COM Date: Monday, May 28, 2012, 4:06 PM Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever! Habitat, Habitat, Habitat----- Whether it be Canada, the USA or any other Country across the globe,,,,,, if we do not provide wildlife with large protected core reserves combined with secure corridor links between the reserves, then expect extirpation and extinction events to multiply in frequency...........35 species have been identified by the COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF ENDANGERED WILDLIFE IN CANADA as being at severe risk of depletion and extinction While conflicts between Wolves and Pumas have always taken place where the two carnivores share habitat, Wolves usually dominate the larger Pumas because of their pack behavior(too many wolves versus the solitary puma)..............Pumas can top off at 200 pounds whereas the largest Wolves(without their bellies full of deer or elk) tip the scales at roughly 120 pounds.........Bitteroot, Montana biologists have recently come across dead wolves that apparently were done in by Pumas,,,,,,,probably lone Wolves seeking to steal a deer carcass from a Puma cache...............Will the increased hunting and trapping of Wolves in the Rocky Mtn States result in fractured wolf packs disbanding and survivors getting into more conflicts with resident Pumas? By the looks of the article below, many folks in Alabama need some educating about how to coexist with Coyotes........While many Armed Forces bases around the Country have very forward thinking wildlife policies, Redstone Arsenal is on a wrongheaded course,,,,, trapping and killing them.............The City of Decatur is just plain misguided, thinking that there are "hundreds of them" within their city limits...........Town Fathers should create ordinances that do not allow cats and dogs to run free,,,,,,as well as guding their citizens on how to intimidate the coyotes rather than killing them(which just encourages younger and inexperienced Coyotes to reoccupy the vacancies created)............Kudos to the City of Huntsville where Officials have concluded that it is best to "pretty much leave them alone" Habitat, Habitat, Habitat----- Whether it be Canada, the USA or any other Country across the globe,,,,,, if we do not provide wildlife with large protected core reserves combined with secure corridor links between the reserves, then expect extirpation and extinction events to multiply in frequency...........35 species have been identified by the COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF ENDANGERED WILDLIFE IN CANADA as being at severe risk of depletion and extinction Posted: 27 May 2012 10:13 PM PDT Habitat matters for Canadian wildlife species By Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada OTTAWA, - Thirty-five Canadian wildlife species, from whales to mosses, were assessed as at risk at the recent COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, April 29-May 4, 2012. Once again, habitat loss emerged as the most common threat to Canadian wildlife, underscoring that all species, not just our own, need a healthy home in order to thrive. Fishes face increasing pressure from declining habitat Habitat loss and degradation are the most common cause of species decline worldwide and Canada's freshwater fishes are no exception. It's not just freshwater fishes that rely on streams and rivers; a very large fraction of Canadian biodiversity including birds, insects, plants and amphibians rely on healthy aquatic habitats. Seven freshwater fishes were assessed by COSEWIC as being at risk in Canada. These include the Northern Madtom, Blackstripe Topminnow, Pugnose Minnow and Silver Chub, all of which are found in southwestern Ontario. In this region, the Sydenham River alone is home to a number of additional species previously assessed as at risk by COSEWIC. These include three additional freshwater fishes, five mussels and the Spiny Softshell. In every case, loss or degradation of habitat was key to these designations. While some aspects of water quality in the Sydenham River have improved as a result of environmental regulation that limits industrial pollution of the river, the habitat of these non-commercial fishes and other species remains threatened by agricultural inputs and urbanization. The unique biodiversity of this region will only improve with careful monitoring and rigorous protection of fish habitat. Canada's prairie region     Canadian icon faces an uncertain future Few species can match the Grizzly Bear as an emblem of Canadian wilderness. While grizzlies are at least twice as strong as the average human, in reality they are likely to pay with their lives when our two species interact. Over the past century, human-caused mortality and declining habitat have reduced the Grizzly Bear's global range by more than 50%. Today, Canada has a major responsibility for safeguarding remaining grizzly populations. In the southern part of their range, where they are in regular contact with humans, many populations are declining. In the north, the impacts of ongoing and escalating extraction of natural resources are a cause for concern. Considering these threats, the Grizzly Bear was assessed as Special Concern by COSEWIC. This assessment concludes a two-year process incorporating science and Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge. Enigmatic American Eel swims against the current American Eels are remarkable fish. They spend most of their lives in freshwater then return to the sea, migrating from streams and rivers that span Greenland to South America to spawn in the mid-Atlantic Sargasso Sea. Young eels journey over 7000 km to rivers and streams where they live for up to 20 years before starting their downstream migration to the sea. This complex lifestyle exposes the eels to a variety of threats over large areas and timespans, which resulted in a Threatened designation. American Eels that migrate to Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River have declined drastically over the past 40 years. Despite improvements to hydroelectric dams that reduce risks to young eels migrating upstream, older eels still suffer high mortality during the downstream migration. In Atlantic Canada, existing fisheries place additional pressure on the American Eel. Canada's other beaver can't handle the heat While nearly all Canadians can recognize the North American Beaver, its distant relative, the Mountain Beaver is probably unknown to most. Mountain Beavers occur in Canada only in the Coast Mountains and south of the Fraser River in British Columbia. Mountain Beaver, the last living representative of an ancient lineage of rodents, was assessed as Special Concern. These beavers live in underground dens built in deep, loose soil along the edges of cool, forested streams. These sites can be degraded by forestry practices that compact the soil. Mountain Beavers are highly intolerant of heat and drought, and are especially sensitive to climate change. The Magnum Mantleslug, another wildlife species assessed as Special Concern, is similarly restricted to edges of cool streams and seepages and also faces threats from logging and climate change. Canada's Boreal Forest("the lungs of the the north") No avoiding human impacts Northern and ocean-dwelling species should be buffered from human activity because more than two-thirds of all Canadians live within 200 km of our southern border; this is not true for many Canadian wildlife species. As with the grizzly, whose movements are increasingly disrupted by human encroachments into boreal and arctic regions, other northern and marine species live under the specter of human activities. For the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, a shorebird assessed as Special Concern, increased resource exploration on their Canadian Arctic nesting grounds poses a threat. The Marbled Murrelet, assessed as Threatened, is a charismatic diving bird that occurs in Canada along the BC coast where it is vulnerable to the loss of ancient forests where it nests. In the marine environment where murrelets feed, proposed increases in shipping traffic pose an additional threat. On the Atlantic coast, Leatherback Sea Turtles encounter fishing gear while feeding in Canadian waters. Entanglement with fishing lines and ropes attached to traps pose a key threat to this wildlife species, assessed as Endangered by COSEWIC. These species demonstrate how Canadian wildlife depends critically on habitat protection. Next Meeting COSEWIC's next scheduled wildlife species assessment meeting will be held in Ottawa, ON, in November 2012. About COSEWIC COSEWIC assesses the status of wild species, subspecies, varieties, or other important units of biological diversity, considered to be at risk in Canada. To do so, COSEWIC uses scientific, Aboriginal traditional and community knowledge provided by experts from governments, academia and other organizations. Summaries of assessments are currently available to the public on the COSEWIC website (www.cosewic.gc.ca) and will be submitted to the Federal Minister of the Environment in late summer 2012 for listing consideration under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). At that time, the full status reports and status appraisal summaries will be publicly available on the Species at Risk Public Registry (www.sararegistry.gc.ca). There are now 650 wildlife species in various COSEWIC risk categories, including 287 Endangered, 161, Threatened, 179 Special Concern, and 23 Extirpated (i.e. no longer found in the wild in Canada). In addition to these wildlife species that are in COSEWIC risk categories, there are 15 wildlife species that are Extinct. The Algonquin pond and eastern forest region of Canada COSEWIC comprises members from each provincial and territorial government wildlife agency, four federal entities (Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canadian Museum of Nature), three Non-government Science Members, and the Co-chairs of the Species Specialist and the Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittees. Definition of COSEWIC Terms and Status Categories: Wildlife Species: A species, subspecies, variety, or geographically or genetically distinct population of animal, plant or other organism, other than a bacterium or virus, that is wild by nature and is either native to Canada or has extended its range into Canada without human intervention and has been present in Canada for at least 50 years.Extinct (X): A wildlife species that no longer exists.Extirpated (XT): A wildlife species that no longer exists in the wild in Canada, but exists elsewhere.Endangered (E): A wildlife species facing imminent extirpation or extinction.Threatened (T): A wildlife species that is likely to become Endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction.Special Concern (SC): A wildlife species that may become Threatened or Endangered because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats.Not at Risk (NAR): A wildlife species that has been evaluated and found to be not at risk of extinction given the current circumstances.Data Deficient (DD): A category that applies when the available information is insufficient (a) to resolve a wildlife species' eligibility for assessment or (b) to permit an assessment of the wildlife species' risk of extinction.Species at Risk: A wildlife species that has been assessed as Extirpated, Endangered, Threatened or Special Concern. Visit http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com

While conflicts between Wolves and Pumas have always taken place where the two carnivores share habitat, Wolves usually dominate the larger Pumas because of their pack behavior(too many wolves versus the solitary puma)..............Pumas can top off at 200 pounds whereas the largest Wolves(without their bellies full of deer or elk) tip the scales at roughly 120 pounds.........Bitteroot, Montana biologists have recently come across dead wolves that apparently were done in by Pumas,,,,,,,probably lone Wolves seeking to steal a deer carcass from a Puma cache...............Will the increased hunting and trapping of Wolves in the Rocky Mtn States result in fractured wolf packs disbanding and survivors getting into more conflicts with resident Pumas? Posted: 27 May 2012 10:21 PM PDT Mountain lions kill collared wolves in Bitterroot « » Mountain lions have killed several wolves in the Bitterroot in recent months. By PERRY BACKUS -missoulian.com Mountain lions are taking a toll on Liz Bradley’s collared wolves in the Bitterroot this year. Since January, two wolves radio-collared by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wolf biologist have been killed by mountain lions.Last week, she found the latest dead wolf in the Warm Springs area, west of Sula.Like all the others she’s investigated since 2009, the wolf’s skull showed a severe puncture wound – a trademark of a lion kill. In the Sula case, the lion ate a good portion of the wolf and then covered the carcass with debris. “It’s hard to say what happened,” Bradley said. “There was no elk or deer carcass nearby that they may have been competing over.”There was, however, a deer carcass near the dead wolf she found in the Carlton Creek area west of Lolo in January. In that case, the wolf wasn’t consumed, but it did have the same canine tooth puncture through the skull.“That one was probably a conflict,” she said. Last year, Bradley found two dead wolves that were probably killed by mountain lions. One was in Davis Creek, east of Lolo, and the other was south of Conner.In both cases, the carcasses were too far decomposed for positive identification on the cause of death. Both had clear puncture wounds through the top of their skulls. In 2009, the first apparent lion-killed wolf was discovered in the West Fork area. The number of wolf and lion encounters is unusual. “I haven’t heard of it happening anywhere else,” Bradley said. “It’s pretty interesting that the Bitterroot has had so many.” Large predators sometimes do kill each other. There have been documented cases of that happening in many places around the West.“They compete for the same resource,” she said. “When there is overlap in areas where you have lots of prey, conflicts occur.”Four of the five wolves that Bradley knows were probably killed by mountain lions were fitted with a radio collar.“It’s too bad because we don’t have those now,” she said. At the end of last year, Bradley had collars in seven packs in the Bitterroot. She’s now down to four. “Ideally, we would have at least half of the packs collared in the Bitterroot,” she said. Bradley estimates there are 14 packs in the Bitterroot, which includes the area around Lolo all the way down the east and west forks of the Bitterroot River.On average, pack sizes are smaller in the Bitterroot following last year’s hunting season. The largest pack now has nine wolves. Most have four to seven adults, with several including just a male and female. Going into the pup season, Bradley estimated that there were between 60 and 70 adult wolves in the entire Bitterroot area.“That’s a little bit lower than what we had in 2011,” she said. “We had about 80 last year. We had some mortality.”Bradley won’t know this year’s numbers of pups until sometime later this summer. She is asking the public for help in locating packs for collaring this spring, especially in the Darby and Sula areas, as well as the north Bitterroot Valley.Sightings can be reported by going to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks website under the wolf section. For recent wolf sightings of multiple animals, Bradley asks that people call her cell phone at (406) 865-0017 “I’m especially interesting in hearing about sightings in the Sula area right now,” she said. If anyone stumbles across a dead wolf or mountain lion, she would be interested in hearing about that too. Visit http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com

By the looks of the article below, many folks in Alabama need some educating about how to coexist with Coyotes........While many Armed Forces bases around the Country have very forward thinking wildlife policies, Redstone Arsenal is on a wrongheaded course,,,,, trapping and killing them.............The City of Decatur is just plain misguided, thinking that there are "hundreds of them" within their city limits...........Town Fathers should create ordinances that do not allow cats and dogs to run free,,,,,,as well as guding their citizens on how to intimidate the coyotes rather than killing them(which just encourages younger and inexperienced Coyotes to reoccupy the vacancies created)............Kudos to the City of Huntsville where Officials have concluded that it is best to "pretty much leave them alone" Posted: 27 May 2012 10:18 PM PDT Coyote sightings increasing in North Alabama as municipalities grapple with shooting vs. trapping Deborah Storey  Huntsville TimesThe Huntsville Times A coyote on the Indian Creek Greenway. . They won't be using Acme bombs or anvils like in Road Runner cartoons, but Redstone Arsenal has announced it is "taking measures" to control the coyote population, measures that will kill at least some of them. The move raises questions about the coyote population of North Alabama in general. When do coyotes become a problem? Do you kill them? Move them? Leave them alone? Let citizens trap them? The arsenal Directorate of Emergency Services issued a press release earlier this month saying ongoing control measures haven't kept up with the animals' population growth. Arsenal game warden Kelly Smith confirmed an upswing in sightings. "It was not uncommon to see a coyote on occasion, but over the last four, five, six months they started becoming more regular in their appearances," he said. Smith said the animals are getting "comfortable" around people and that's a concern. Although he will trap skunks and raccoons and release them elsewhere on post, that's not practical with coyotes. He's killed eight in the last month or so. "It gives me no joy to do that," he added. "With some of these coyotes my only option is to shoot them and remove them that way," Smith said. They are first caught in live traps (like cages)."I think it's very important to say that coyotes have their place in the ecosystem. I have no desire whatsoever to eliminate coyotes from Redstone Arsenal."We just have a few too many in some places that just can't hold that number of them." In Decatur Decatur, too, is dealing head-on with what city animal cruelty investigator Miles Naylor calls a "huge problem." "At last count we were up to almost 60 pet deaths" in the last year, Naylor said last week. "I had one report today of two pets killed last night. It just keeps coming." Asked if he thinks coyotes are solely to blame, Naylor replied: "No, I know. I can look and hear the description and tell you that's exactly what that is. There's a certain way they kill and way they attack."In a typical year in the past, Decatur had seen about five or six pet deaths. "Once you get 40 pets that are killed by a wild animal, how can you (tell) those 40 citizens that they have to hire somebody? They've only got the legal right to tell the person that they can use their small plot of land" to set traps, he said. Since last July, 22 coyotes have been killed in the Decatur city limits -- a number that also includes road kill and attacks by dogs. The city catches them live in traps and puts them down, Naylor said. None have been rabid. He estimates there are hundreds around. Several factors contribute to the coyote boom, he said, including less hunting and more animal rights activism. Yes, humans have encroached on their territory, "but we've also put less pressure on them. "My personal opinion is that the state gives you the regulations, licenses and permits to deal with them. At what point do you deal with them? I feel like for the citizens that was the responsible move. We're a lot smaller than Huntsville. We had to address the issue." Tracking coyotes is a "nightmare in the city," Naylor said, because they are observational learners. He makes them sound downright devious. "A coyote will watch you pull up to your trap every day and know that you're going to be there at that time. That's how they get the pets. They watch your house every day, and once they know you leave at daylight, they don't come back until dark. Your little Chihuahua is out in the back, and it's their next meal. "It's pretty amazing to me that you think you're safe from an animal that can jump 14 feet" by having a 4-foot chain-link fence, he said. Not a protected species Jud Easterwood, biologist at the state wildlife management office in Tanner, said "I can assure you coyotes are becoming a problem" and are clearly having an impact on wildlife. The animals vary in color -- brown and even black -- and some people think they're seeing a red wolf when it's really a coyote, he said. Coyotes aren't a protected species and there's no hunting limit."They're open for the take," he said, during daylight hours in proper hunting areas. Lee Kasmeier, a spokesman for North Alabama Wildlife Rehabilitators, said there are places where coyotes could be released in the wild -- such as Bankhead National Forest -- instead of killed."We have plenty of people who would go out of their way to help" relocate them, he said. In Decatur, Naylor said some people have encouraged him to leave the critters alone."I've had some threats," he said. "I've had some people follow me. If we don't do something, you're going to have citizens shooting irresponsibly or dangerously through the city or setting traps or poison or different illegal means," he said."The last thing you want is a bunch of folks with 30-ought-sixes in your neighborhood shooting at coyotes at night." In Huntsville Urban coyotes are common in Huntsville, where they're pretty much left alone.Dr. Karen Hill Sheppard, director of Huntsville's Animal Services department, said there aren't necessarily more but they "have definitely become more visible.It's been pretty stable the 10 years I've been here," she said. "We know where people are most likely to see them -- anywhere along the mountains." That includes "green corridors" near Monte Sano, Green and Huntsville mountains, plus the golf course on Bailey Cove Road, along Green Cove Road, in ditches along Carl T. Jones Drive and the Research Park area. Some communities like Monte Sano have become quite used to seeing coyotes, she said. In other areas, people are "shocked, like they saw a polar bear." In consulting with wildlife control experts in other states about the growing number of coyotes, Sheppard learned that "what everyone is doing, by default, is nothing." Tracking them down "is not a wise use of taxpayer resources," she said. "We were never able to trap coyotes, and we're not going to shoot them. They don't go into traps. They are smart, smart, smart, smart. "Most of our urban coyotes, what they do is stop and stare at you," she said. "I tell people to throw a rock at them, or yell at them. They think they're about to get taken out by a coyote, but they're not." Sheppard heard about a woman walking a female dog (in heat) and two coyotes followed her. She was also carrying food. Andy Prewett, land manager for Huntsville Land Trust's roughly 6,000 acres, heard a similar report about a hiker with a dog on Monte Sano. The idea of menacing coyotes traveling in packs is "not realistic," he said. Coyotes will run off with cats and dogs under 10 pounds, especially old or young ones, Sheppard said. If a dog is just injured, though, it's likely something else did it."The coyote would have eaten your dog," she said.Some residents have threatened to shoot coyotes. "We don't recommend that," Sheppard said flatly. It is illegal to fire a gun in the city limits, police spokesman Dr. Harry Hobbs confirmed, punishable by a $500 fine or up to a year in jail.If people are determined to get rid of coyotes, city animal control suggests they hire a private critter-catching company. 'Getting braver' Chris Banks of Tennessee Valley Wildlife Control, which sells wildlife/pest removal services in North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, said he's probably killed "a couple hundred" coyotes in the last four or five years."They are eating a lot of cats," he said. "They are getting braver." Near a horse ranch in Madison, he used foot traps and caught a male and a female the first night. "If you see their tracks, I can peg 'em." He figures coyotes live 10 or 12 years with a good food source. "They are going to keep multiplying and die of old age," he said. "I caught one that looked like a wolf, and one that was as big as I was," he said. When he held the animal up by its legs, "its head was hanging past my feet." That was near Elk River. Something else to think about: Banks figures he's killed 40 or 50 bobcats, too. Visit http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com

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