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Camera trap study reveals the hidden lives of island carnivores
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 6 days ago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A gray wolf in 2015 on Stockton Island, Wisconsin. view more Credit: Photo courtesy Max Allen/Erik Olson/Tim Van Deelen CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers placed 160 cameras on 19 of the 22 Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin to see which carnivores were living there. After taking more than 200,000 photos over a period of three years, the team discovered that several mammalian predators are living on various islands in this remote archipelago in Lake Superior. Reported in the journal *Community Ecology*, the study revea... more »
Wolves stay put when it's snowing
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 week ago
Wolves travel shorter distances and move slower during snowfall events, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists. The effects were most pronounced at night, when wolves hunt, and behaviour returned to normal within a day. Wolf tracks across snow in northeastern Alberta. Wolf tracks across snow in northeastern Alberta. The study found that wolves travel shorter distances and move slower during snowfall. Photo credit: Amanda Droghini "Our findings suggest that there is something about actively falling snow that causes wolves to slow down," said Amanda Droghini, a ... more »
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Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 2 weeks ago
A future for red wolves may be found on Galveston Island Michigan Technological University [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a photographic comparison of coyotes, Galveston Island (GI) canids, and red wolves. view more Credit: Kristin Brzeski The American red wolf is one of United States' greatest wildlife conservation stories. Red wolves were on the brink of extinction along the American Gulf Coast during the late 1970s when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) made a bold decision to purposely remove all remaining red wolves from the wild. But over the past few years the wild... more »
Federal judge says endangered red wolves can not be shot
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 month ago
The critically endangered American red wolf might have been saved from extinction. In a scathing court decision Monday, a federal judge in North Carolina ripped the Interior Department’s management of the last red wolf population in the wild, saying that an agency sworn to uphold a congressional mandate to preserve the animals violated it over and over, and even gave private landowners the right to shoot them. Chief Judge Terrence W. Boyle reminded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which gave the authorization, of its own statement in 1999. “Wildlife are not the property of lando... more »
Grizzly bears living in and around Yellowstone National Park,
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 2 months ago
A U.S. District Court judge has restored federal protections to about 700 grizzly bears living in and around Yellowstone National Park, canceling planned hunts in Wyoming and Idaho and overturning a Trump administration finding that the iconic population had recovered. The ruling was based on his determination that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had illegally failed to consider how removing the Yellowstone bears from the endangered species list would affect other protected grizzly populations, and that its analysis of future threats to the bears was “arbitrary and capricious.”... more »
Martens recolonized Isle Royale in the '90s,
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 4 months ago
FULL STORY ------------------------------ Phil Manlick releases a collared marten on the west end of Isle Royale in March 2018. *Credit: Jonathan Pauli* After decades of trapping, the last known American marten was spotted on Isle Royale in 1917. Fifty years later, in 1966, the National Park Service planned to reintroduce martens to the national park situated in Lake Superior, but nobody knows if the agency ever followed through. Then, in 1993, martens were confirmed on the island for the first time in 76 years. Whether these small, forest-dwelling carnivores -- valued historically fo... more »
Wolf reintroduction: Yellowstone's 'landscape of fear' not so scary after all
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 5 months ago
------------------------------ Utah State University scientists have shown that a 'landscape of fear' does not keep Yellowstone elk from using risky habitats where wolves kill them. In an Early View online article of Ecological Monographs, the researchers discuss how elk use nightly lulls in wolf activity to safely access dangerous areas. *Credit: Chad Wildermuth* After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, some scientists thought the large predator reestablished a 'landscape of fear' that caused elk, the wolf's main prey, to avoid risky places wh... more »
After 60 years, Isle Royale continues world's longest predator-prey study
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 7 months ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *'After 60 years, the Isle Royale wolf-moose project continues. Today, wolves prosper again in several regions of North America. But our relationship with wolves in many parts of the world... view more Credit: Sarah Bird/Michigan Tech Researchers from Michigan Technological University have released the annual Winter Study report detailing updates on the ecology of Isle Royale National Park. For the third year in a row, the Isle Royale wolf population remains a mere two, while the moose population continues to stay above the historic average. Without the pressu... more »
The shrinking moose of Isle Royale
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The researchers measured the length, width and height of moose skulls to study the impact of climate change on the iconic Northwoods species. The team measured 662 moose skulls and... view more Credit: Sarah Bird/Michigan Tech Researchers from Michigan Technological University know the smartest way to know a moose is by its brain. Specifically, skull measurements reveal information about body size, physiology and the conditions of a moose's early life. Put together, measurements through time reveal the health of a population and even changes in their environm... more »
Wolves hunting moose undeterred by tailings ponds and pit mines
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Wolf behavior undeterred by tailings ponds and pit mines Study shows wolves hunt moose as usual in the Athabasca Oil Sands University of Alberta [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Two wolves peer into a wildlife camera in Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands region. view more Credit: Wildlife Habitat Effectiveness and Connectivity, 2014 Wolves do not avoid areas of human disturbance when hunting moose in Alberta's oil sands region. New UAlberta research shows that predation rates of moose have increased near areas of high human disturbance, but low human activity, such as tailings ponds and pit mine... more »
An alternative to wolf control to save endangered caribou
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Mountain Caribou in British Columbia, Canada observed during a population census. view more Credit: Robert Serrouya What happens when invasive and native species are eaten by the same predator? If the invasive species is abundant, the native species can go extinct because predator numbers are propped up by the invading species. This process is called "apparent competition" because on the surface it "appears" that the invading and native prey directly compete with each other, but really the shared predator links the two prey. Apparent competition is an incr... more »
Baits may be bolstering bear populations
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
New research reveals that baits used by hunters have become a substantial portion of black bears' diets. In northern Wisconsin, over 40% of the diet of harvested animals consisted of bait subsidies. The widespread availability and consumption of these calorically rich baits--often high-sugar foods, such as cookies, donuts, and candies--may be bolstering the bear population density in the region. Thirty states permit hunting black bears, 12 of which allow baiting prior to the opening of the hunting season. However, the findings indicate that the goals and consequences of baiting pol... more »
Study doesn't support theory red and eastern wolves are recent hybrids, researchers argue
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
A team led by University of Idaho researchers is calling into question a widely publicized 2016 study that concluded eastern and red wolves are not distinct species, but rather recent hybrids of gray wolves and coyotes. In a comment paper that will publish Wednesday, June 7, in the journal *Science Advances*, the team examines the previous study and argues that its genomic data and analyses do not definitively prove recent hybridization -- but rather provide support for the genetic and evolutionary distinctiveness of red and eastern wolves. "The history of these species is complex... more »
Wolves need space to roam to control expanding coyote populations
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Wolves and other top predators need large ranges to be able to control smaller predators whose populations have expanded to the detriment of a balanced ecosystem. That's the main finding of a study appearing May 23 in *Nature Communications* that analyzed the relationship between top predators on three different continents and the next-in-line predators they eat and compete with. The results were similar across continents, showing that as top predators' ranges were cut back and fragmented, they were no longer able to control smaller predators. "Our paper suggests it will require ma... more »
Measuring the impact of a changing climate on threatened Yellowstone grizzly bears
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Climate change is altering the environment in Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding region and scientists at the University of California San Diego and Unity College are studying its impacts on the diets of threatened grizzly bears. A study published May 11 in *PLOS ONE* focused on modeling the diets of grizzly bears in Cooke City Basin, Montana, part of an area designated as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Evidence from the team's research in the study area and a recent habitat-selection study by Montana State University indicates that grizzly bears continue to f... more »
Only two Isle Royale wolves
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
For the second year in a row, the Isle Royale wolf population remains a mere two. Researchers from Michigan Tech say that as the wolf population stays stagnant, the moose population will continue to grow at a rapid pace. And this could have a significant impact on the island's famed forests. According to Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Tech and co-author of the report, the Isle Royale wolves are no longer serving their ecological function as the island's apex predator--the creature at the top of the food chain. With only two wolves left on the island, the moose popul... more »
Wolves often rely on human foods
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
On landscapes around the world, environmental change is bringing people and large carnivores together--but the union is not without its problems. Human-wildlife conflict is on the rise as development continues unabated and apex predators begin to reoccupy their former ranges. Further complicating matters, many of these species are now reliant on anthropogenic, or human, foods, including livestock, livestock and other ungulate carcasses, and garbage. Writing in BioScience, Thomas Newsome, of Deakin University and the University of Sydney, and his colleagues use gray wolves and other... more »
Coyotes can't match wolves' hunting prowess
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Eastern wolves once roamed forests along the Atlantic coast, preying on moose, white-tailed deer and other hooved mammals collectively known as ungulates. As the wolf population plummeted via the rifle and the trap, however, the eastern coyote inherited the status of apex predator in those habitats. But a study from John Benson and colleagues provides evidence that the eastern coyote hunts moose and other large prey far less frequently than does the eastern wolf -- instead preferring to attack smaller game or scavenge human leftovers. The findings help resolve long-standing questio... more »
Snow leopard and Himalayan wolf diets are about one-quarter livestock
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Around a quarter of Himalayan snow leopard and wolf diets are livestock, the rest being wild prey, according to a study published February 8, 2017 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Madhu Chetri from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway, and colleagues. Killing livestock creates conflicts between top predators and pastoral communities, and is a main challenge for conserving snow leopards, which are endangered, and Himalayan wolves, which are rare. These wolves prefer the open grasslands and alpine meadows that are also frequented by pastoral herders, and snow ... more »
Brown bears reduce wolf kill rates says USU ecologist
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Contrary to popular assumptions, researchers on two continents find wolves kill less often in the presence of brown bears UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: IN NORTH AMERICA'S YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, HUNGRY WOLVES WAIT TO ACCESS THEIR ELK KILL AS BROWN BEARS FEAST ON THE SPOILS. UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY ECOLOGIST AIMEE TALLIAN AND COLLEAGUES REPORT... view more CREDIT: DANIEL STAHLER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LOGAN, UTAH USA - If you've ever been elbowed out of the way at the dinner table by older, stronger siblings, you'll identify with wolves competing... more »
Machu Picchu in Peru is home to a biologically important species: the Andean bear
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
A recent wildlife survey led by SERNANP (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado) and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) in the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu in Peru has confirmed that the world-famous site is also home to a biologically important and iconic species: the Andean bear (*Tremarctos ornatus*). Funded by the Andean Bear Conservation Alliance, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the year-long survey revealed the presence of Andean bears in more than 95 percent of the 368-square-kilometer stu... more »
The Eurasian grey wolf, Canis lupus lupus, has spread across Germany
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
Since the year 2000, the Eurasian grey wolf, Canis lupus lupus, has spread across Germany. For Ines Lesniak, doctoral student at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), and her colleagues, a good reason to have a closer look at the small "occupants" of this returnee and to ask the question whether the number and species of parasites change with an increasing wolf population. This was the case, because the number of parasite species per individual wolf increased as the wolf population expanded. Furthermore, cubs had a higher diversity of parasite species th... more »
Tigers could roam again in Central Asia
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 1 year ago
SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THIS IS AN ARTIST'S DEPICTION OF A CASPIAN TIGER. view more CREDIT: HEPTNER AND SLUDSKIY 1972 Caspian tigers, some of the largest cats that ever lived -- up to 10 feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds -- met a grim end in the middle of the 20th century. Until the mid-1960s when they were designated as extinct, they ranged from modern-day Turkey through much of Central Asia, including Iran and Iraq, to northwestern China. The reasons for their extermination are many: poisoning and trapping were promoted by bounties paid in the form... more »
Arguments for removing gray wolves from endangered species protection are incorrect
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 2 years ago
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Los Angeles who investigated the genetic ancestry of North America's wild canines have concluded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's scientific arguments for removing gray wolves from endangered species protection are incorrect. The study, which contradicts conventional thinking, finds that all of the continent's canids diverged from a common ancestor relatively recently and that eastern and red wolves are not evolutionarily distinct species but a hybrid of gray wolf and coyote ancestry. The study will appe... more »
Management efforts for elk and deer may not benefit all wildlife
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 2 years ago
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THIS IS TRAVIS GALLO, PH.D. STUDENT, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY. view more CREDIT: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY It's no surprise that most conservation efforts in the United States focus on animals that are hunted. But a new study from Colorado State University researchers found that improving habitats for game animals has mixed consequences for other animals in the same setting. The study calls for more scrutiny of and a more holistic approach to current management efforts. Hunting provides substantial economic be... more »
A changing season means a changing diet for bison
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
North American bison adjust their diet seasonally in order to take full advantage of the growing season when grasses become less nutritious, a new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered. The findings, which were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, indicate that bison are not entirely reliant on grass for their nutritional needs and can selectively expand their foraging to include woody shrubs and flowering plants during the spring and fall. The study sheds new light on variations in the large herbivore's eating habits and may have fut... more »
Cougars, aka mountain lions and pumas, likely to recolonize portions of habitat in the middle part of the United States
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A groundbreaking new study shows that cougars, also known as mountain lions and pumas, are likely to recolonize portions of habitat in the middle part of the United States within the next 25 years. It is the first study to show the potential "when and where" of the repopulation of this controversial large predator. The study, led by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will be published soon in the international journal *Ecological Modelling*. This is the first, large-scale population viability study on cougars. The research exami... more »
Mad cow disease changed the diet of the Galician wolf
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
The Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease crisis in Europe was a turning point for the diet of the Galician wolf in Spain, which until the year 2000 had primarily fed on the carrion of domestic animals. A new study shows that, after European health regulations made it illegal to abandon dead livestock, wolves started to consume more wild boars, roe deer and wild ponies, but also began to attack more cattle ranches when faced with food shortages in certain areas. With the arrival of bovine spongiform encephalopathy - commonly known as mad cow disease - in Europe, the European Community had to e... more »
Black bears in Yosemite forage primarily on plants and nuts
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Black bears in Yosemite National Park that don't seek out human foods subsist primarily on plants and nuts, according to a study conducted by biologists at UC San Diego who also found that ants and other sources of animal protein, such as mule deer, make up only a small fraction of the bears' annual diet. Their study, published in this week's early online edition of the journal *Methods in Ecology and Evolution*, might surprise bear ecologists and conservationists who had long assumed that black bears in the Sierra Nevada rely on lots of protein from ants and other insects because t... more »
Recovering predators create new wildlife management challenges
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
The protection and resurgence of major predators such as seals, sea lions and wolves has created new challenges for wildlife managers, including rising conflicts with people, other predators and, in some cases, risks to imperiled species such as endangered salmon and steelhead, a new research paper finds. The study by scientists from NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center and the University of Washington examines recovering predator populations along the West Coast of the United States and in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and the conflicts surrounding them. The st... more »
Down to 3 wolves on Isle Royale
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
*CREDIT: ROLF PETERSON* Only three wolves seem to remain in Isle Royale National Park. Researchers from Michigan Technological University observed the wolves during their annual Winter Study, and the lone group, at an unprecedented low, is a sharp decline from nine wolves observed last winter. The study's report, released today, marks the project's 57th year of observing wolves and moose in Isle Royale. It is the longest running predator-prey study in the world. This year, along with the three resident wolves, scientists estimated 1,250 moose on the island and observed two visi... more »
Lethal control of wolves backfires on livestock
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
*WSU researchers find shooting carnivore leads to more dead sheep and cattle* Washington State University researchers have found that it is counter-productive to kill wolves to keep them from preying on livestock. Shooting and trapping lead to more dead sheep and cattle the following year, not fewer. Writing in the journal *PLOS ONE*, WSU wildlife biologist Rob Wielgus and data analyst Kaylie Peebles say that, for each wolf killed, the odds of more livestock depredations increase significantly. The trend continues until 25 percent of the wolves in an area are killed. Ranchers and wi... more »
Must See Video On Wolves and Ecology In Yellowstone
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
*Here*
Scientists Call for Increased Conservation Efforts to Save Black Bears
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Between 1880 and 1920, the Central Interior Highlands (CIH), consisting of Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, saw the height of deforestation that also decreased the habitat for black bears and other forest species. To combat the decline of black bears and repopulate the mountainous region, more than 250 bears from Minnesota and Manitoba were relocated to Arkansas in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have analyzed genetic diversity in black bears in the CIH and have determined that coordinated conservation management is still needed to maintain healt... more »
Grizzly bear 'highway' in coastal British Columbia
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A novel, First Nations-led research collaboration has revealed a previously undocumented grizzly bear aggregation in coastal British Columbia, one of the most southerly aggregations of salmon-feeding grizzlies in North America. Using non-invasive DNA analysis, the authors describe a grizzly bear "highway," identifying nearly 60 individual bears, many who travelled hundreds of miles from surrounding areas to feed on autumn-spawning salmon in the Koeye River. The research was guided by the customary law and cultural practices of the Heiltsuk First Nation and recently published in the... more »
Research indicates coyote predation on deer in East manageable
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
*IMAGE:* This is an Eastern coyote. Coyotes are a major predator of white-tailed deer across the East, especially fawns born each spring, but wildlife managers nonetheless are able to stabilize and even grow deer herds, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Coyotes -- *Canis latrans* -- are a relatively recent arrival to eastern North America, appearing first in the region in noticeable numbers in the 1970s. They are a significant source of deer mortality and most often prey on whitetails in the earliest months of their lives. Coyotes have long... more »
Inbred wolves struggle, moose proliferate at Isle Royale National Park
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
During their annual Winter Study at Isle Royale National Park, scientists from Michigan Technological University counted nine wolves organized into one breeding pack and a second small group that is a remnant of a formerly breeding pack. In the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study’s annual report released today, the researchers say that over the past three years, they have tallied the lowest numbers of wolves ever: nine in 2011–12, eight in 2012–13 and nine in 2013–14. During the same period, predation rates—the proportion of the moose population killed by wolves—also dropped to the low... more »
Australia's 1 million feral camels
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A new study by a University of Exeter researcher has shed light on how an estimated one million-strong population of wild camels thriving in Australia's remote outback have become reviled as pests and culled on a large scale. Sarah Crowley, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus, explored the history of the camel in Australia, from their historic role helping to create the country's infrastructure through to their current status as unwelcome "invader." The deserts of the Australian outback are a notoriously inhospitable environme... more »
Yosemite bears and human food: Study reveals changing diets over past century
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
*Management strategies implemented since 1999 have successfully limited the availability of human food to black bears in Yosemite, but problems remain* Black bears in Yosemite National Park and elsewhere are notorious for seeking out human food, even breaking into cars and cabins for it. A new study reveals just how much human food has contributed to the diets of Yosemite bears over the past century. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, were able to estimate the proportion of human-derived food in bears' diets by analyzing chemical isotopes in ... more »
Cougars Are Re-Populating their Historical Range
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
American mountain lions, or cougars, are remerging in areas of the United States, reversing 100 years of decline. The evidence, published in *The Journal of Wildlife Management, *raises new conservation questions, such as how humans can live alongside the returning predators. The reintroduction of mountain lions across the mid-western United States has made species management an urgent area of research for conservationists. A report in the *Wildlife Society Bulletin* explores the fatal cost of human interaction with cougars and asks what state agencies can do to protect both spe... more »
Teaching young wolves new tricks
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Although wolves and dogs are closely related, they show some striking differences. Scientists from the Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have undertaken experiments that suggest that wolves observe one another more closely than dogs and so are better at learning from one another. The scientists believe that cooperation among wolves is the basis of the understanding between dogs and humans. Their findings have been published in the online journal PLOS ONE. Wolves were domesticated more than 15,000 years ago and it is widely assumed that the... more »
Study Shows Large Carnivore Numbers and Range Declining Worldwide
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
New research co-written by University of Montana scientists finds steep declines in the worldwide populations and habitat range of 31 large carnivore species. The analysis, published Jan. 9 in Science, shows that 77 percent of the studied species – including tiger, lion, dingo and puma – are decreasing in number. Associate Professor of ungulate habitat Mark Hebblewhite and John J. Craighead Chair and Professor of Wildlife Conservation Joel Berger, both of the UM College of Forestry and Conservation, co-wrote the study with scientists from Oregon State University, the University of ... more »
Paper predicts a future without carnivores would be truly scary
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A fascinating paper released today from a team of leading scientists, including Dr. Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society and University of Montana, reports on the current status of large carnivores and the ecological roles they play in regulating ecosystems worldwide, and finds that a world without these species is certainly scarier than a world with them. From sea otters that keep sea urchins in check and enable the rise of kelp beds thus increasing the productivity in inland coastal areas to pumas that mediate the browsing of mule deer and thus enhance the growth and ... more »
Plan to delist gray wolf endangers other threatened species, researchers find
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
The federal government's proposal to discontinue protection for the gray wolf across the United States could have the unintended consequence of endangering other species, researchers say. As written, scientists assert, the proposed rule would set a precedent allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to declare habitat unsuitable for an endangered animal because a threat exists on the land – the exact opposite of the service's mandate to impose regulations that reduce threats against imperiled species. The FWS has "conflated threats with habitat suitability" by stating that ... more »
Climate change has silver lining for grizzlies
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Global warming and forest disturbances may have a silver lining for threatened species of grizzly bears in Alberta, Canada. In a 10-year study that monitored 112 bears in Alberta's Rocky Mountain region, University of Alberta biologist Scott Nielsen and his colleagues found that warmer temperatures and easier access to food associated with forest disturbances helped the grizzlies to build more body fat, known to increase the chances of successful reproduction for mothers. The resulting 'silver spoon effect' shows that bears born into these favourable conditions have a head-start i... more »
Coyote more likely to make a meal out of moose than we thought: Study
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
It has long been believed that coyotes were incapable of taking down an adult moose, but researchers have recently discovered that eastern coyotes and coyote × wolf hybrids (canids) have preyed on adult moose in central Ontario. Their findings were published today in the Canadian Journal of Zoology. Researchers Dr. John Benson, a PhD student in the Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program at Trent University when he conducted the research, and Dr. Brent Patterson, a research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough, documented instances where... more »
Of bears and berries: Return of wolves aids grizzly bears in Yellowstone
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A new study suggests that the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is beginning to bring back a key part of the diet of grizzly bears that has been missing for much of the past century – berries that help bears put on fat before going into hibernation. It's one of the first reports to identify the interactions between these large, important predators, based on complex ecological processes. It was published today by scientists from Oregon State University and Washington State University in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The researchers found that the level of berries consum... more »
Mercury Pollution Threatens Arctic Foxes
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
New scientific results show that arctic foxes accumulate dangerous levels of mercury if they live in coastal habitats and feed on prey which lives in the ocean. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Moscow State University and the University of Iceland just published their discovery in the science online journal PLOS ONE. Mercury is usually transferred across the food chain, so the researchers checked which items were the main source of food and measured mercury levels in the main prey of Arctic foxes. The scientists compared three fox populations in... more »
Bear baiting may put hunting dogs at risk from wolves
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Bear hunters will tell you that a good way to attract a bear is to put out bait. And in 10 states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, that's perfectly legal. Hunting dogs are another useful technique in the bear-hunter's toolkit, and 17 states say that's just fine. But who else likes bear bait? Gray wolves, that's who. And wolves that are feeling territorial about a bear bait stash can—and sometimes do—kill hunting dogs released at the bait site. Like most interactions between wildlife and human beings, wolf attacks on hunting dogs illustrate a tangled trade-off: attracting bears fo... more »
Black Bears: Here, Gone, and Back Again
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
A new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Nevada Department of Wildlife ( NDOW) has pieced together the last 150 years of history for one of the state’s most interesting denizens: the black bear. The study, which looked at everything from historic newspaper articles to more recent scientific studies, indicates that black bears in Nevada were once distributed throughout the state but subsequently vanished in the early 1900s. Today, the bear population is increasing and rapidly reoccupying its former range due in part to the conservation and management efforts ... more »
Carnivores, livestock and people manage to share same space study finds
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
In the southern Rift Valley of Kenya, the Maasai people, their livestock and a range of carnivores, including striped hyenas, spotted hyenas, lions and bat-eared foxes, are coexisting fairly happily according to a team of coupled human and natural systems researchers. “I wouldn’t call the results surprising,” said Meredith Evans Wagner, a visiting scholar from the University of Florida in the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) at Michigan State University and part of the research team. “Other research has shown that people and carnivores can coexist, but ther... more »
Why Wolves are Forever Wild, But Dogs Can Be Tamed
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Dogs and wolves are genetically so similar, it’s been difficult for biologists to understand why wolves remain fiercely wild, while dogs can gladly become “man’s best friend.” Now, doctoral research by evolutionary biologist Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests the different behaviors are related to the animals’ earliest sensory experiences and the critical period of socialization. Details appear in the current issue of Ethology. Until now, little was known about sensory development in wolf pups, and assumptions were usually extrapolated from what is kno... more »
Italian wolves prefer pork to venison
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Some European wolves have a distinct preference for wild boar over other prey, according to new research. Scientists from Durham University, UK, in collaboration with the University of Sassari in Italy, found that the diet of wolves was consistently dominated by the consumption of wild boar which accounted for about two thirds of total prey biomass, with roe deer accounting for around a third. The study analysed the remains of prey items in almost 2000 samples of wolf dung over a nine year period and revealed that an increase in roe deer in the wolf diet only occurred in years whe... more »
Elk bones tell stories of life, death, and habitat use at Yellowstone National Park
Jonathan KantrowitzatBears, Wolves And Ecology - 3 years ago
Josh Miller likes to call himself a conservation paleobiologist. The label makes sense when he explains how he uses bones as up-to-last-season information on contemporary animal populations. Bones, he says, provide baseline ecological data on animals complementary to aerial counts, adding a historical component to live observation. In his November cover article for the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecology, he assesses elk habitat use in Yellowstone National Park by their bones and antlers, testing his method against several decades of the Park Service's meticulous obser... more »
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