DogTV is the cat’s meow

Test Subject: DogTV, the television channel for dogs.

The big picture: Making its cable-TV debut in San Diego, the recently launched DogTV channel was created to help soothe and distract dogs while their humans are away from home, or perhaps while their humans are too busy watching “Downton Abbey” in the other room to administer comforting belly rubs.

DogTV is an on-demand channel airing on Cox Cable on Channel 2635. Time Warner Cable customers in metro San Diego can find it by going to the On Demand area, then selecting “My Pet” or “My Home.” (The channel is not available to Time Warner’s North County customers.)

It is free for now, but the creators plan to make it a subscription channel with a fee of about $4.99 a month. Among DogTV’s selling points, no loud commercials to startle our furry friends and no episodes of “Toddlers & Tiaras” to undermine our already shaky reputation as the superior species.

San Diego is a pet-crazy city, but will San Diego’s pets be crazy about DogTV? I put in some viewing time with a few four-legged critics to find out.

Read about the tests:  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/18/dogtv-is-the-cats-meow/

Bugs at North Mianus school weren't bedbugs

The bugs found last month at North Mianus School weren't bedbugs after all, but instead a rare, closely related type of insect that feasts on the blood of birds.

The vampire-like critters are called chimney swift bugs (cimexopsis nyctalis), according to a letter sent by the school district to North Mianus parents last week.

The bugs are named after the type of bird from which they usually feed.

"It is in the bed bug family, but is not a `bed bug,' " states the letter, which was obtained by Greenwich Time. "It does not feed on humans; it feeds on birds. These bugs are very small and have very similar characteristics and are often confused with bed bugs."

Dr. Gail Ridge, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Department of Entomology, alerted the district about the type of bugs found in the school after the department received samples following the discovery.

The insects are not often seen, said Ridge, who explained that the department maintains an extensive collection of insects found in Connecticut. The last chimney swift bug sample to be collected dates back to 1942, she said.

"They're fast little runners," she said. "They have very short beaks, designed to go through the skin of birds. Basically, it's a portable straw."

Exterminators were called to the school Jan. 30 after the discovery of what were believed to be bedbugs, which feed on human blood. The first discovery came on Jan. 25, the same day the school district held a bedbug forum during which Ridge was a featured speaker.

The North Mianus findings were the first such discoveries of bedbug-like insects since last year, when bedbugs were found at Hamilton Avenue School on four separate occasions.

In a departure from their name, the insects found at North Mianus School were left behind not by chimney swifts, but by pigeons nesting in the school's exhaust and chimney.

"The chimney offered a vertical route for (the bugs) to move," said Ridge, who is also chair of the Connecticut Coalition Against Bed Bugs.

"It was kind of a treasure trove," she said of the discovery.

District spokeswoman Kim Eves said in late January that workers from Parkway Exterminating, based in Valhalla, N.Y., searched and treated the impacted area of North Mianus School. The insects were first found in a staff bathroom, and two days later, three other live bugs were found in a classroom, in and around carpet squares stored near a wall that separates the staff bathroom and the classroom. The exterminators discarded the carpet squares and also opened up a section of the wall between the two rooms to steam clean and vacuum it, Eves said.

The high heat from steam cleaning kills bedbugs and is often used to treat large areas, such as schools.

The school's vent and chimney were cleaned this week by an exterminator while students are on winter break, according to the letter from the school district. The exterminator will install a mesh barrier on the vent and chimney to prevent further nesting of birds.

The bathroom and classroom were closed Feb 1., Eves said.

"All expectations are that the students will be back in the classroom Tuesday," she said.

Active bedbug monitors placed in the school following the discovery revealed no evidence of insects Feb. 6, according to the letter.

Monitoring of the attic will continue until there is no further evidence of chimney swift bugs, according to the letter.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Bugs-at-North-Mianus-school-weren-t-bedbugs-3338906.php#ixzz1mjqAzBBI

Like magic, Harry Potter's owl spotted across US

LAKE ANDES, S.D. (AP) — Famous for its role as Harry Potter's companion in the books and movies, a species of majestic, mostly white owls is being sighted in abundant numbers this winter far from both Hogwarts and its native Arctic habitat.

It's typical for snowy owls to arrive in the U.S. every three or four winters, but this year's irruption is widespread, with birders from the Pacific Northwest to New England reporting frequent sightings of the yellow-eyed birds. As many as 30 were spotted in December around South Dakota's Lake Andes.

"Thirty in one area, that's mind numbing," said Mark Robbins, an ornithologist with the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute.

The arrival of the birds, which can top 2 feet in height with a wingspan of nearly 5 feet, is the result of a plentiful population of Arctic lemmings this summer, which led to a strong breeding season, said Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo, Mont.

Lemmings are snowy owls' main food source, and the baby boom is sending many of the youngsters across the border to scrounge for voles, field mice, rats, rabbits and shore birds.

"It's very unusual, because it's coast to coast," said Holt, who has been researching the owls' Arctic habitat for 25 years.

Snowy owls are drawn to frozen lakes, which remind them of their tundra back home in the Arctic, Robbins said.

"And if they're finding rodents there, they're staying there," he said. "And perhaps seeing a couple of more snowy owls there, they may think, 'OK, this is a hot spot.'"

The owls have been regular visitors to Boston's Logan Airport, and one even showed up just after Thanksgiving in Hawaii. Chicago's Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary has become a haven for the creatures, with "countless sightings" this season, said Matthew Cvetas, an Evanston, Ill., birder.

"It's just been really incredible," he said.

Cvetas said owl sightings are exciting for birders, as the creatures are mostly nocturnal and difficult to spot. Though snowy owls hunt day and night, the allure of their plumage helps make them a prize sighting.

"Here's the largest North American owl in terms of weight, a near all-white ghost of a bird for an adult male," said Cvetas, who has spotted four snowy owls since November. "For me, it symbolizes wilderness at its best."

Missouri and Kansas typically draw just a few snowy owls every three or four years, but reports this year have been widespread, Robbins said.

Birders spotted three snowy owls sitting on an irrigation unit west of Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri's borders with Nebraska and Iowa, and there have been five of the birds hanging around Smithville Lake just outside of Kansas City.

"In Missouri, I don't think there's ever been two at a single site," he said.

People have always had a fascination with owls, but the book and 2001 film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," in which a snowy owl named Hedwig first appeared as Harry's companion and mail courier, thrust the species in the spotlight. Holt said the movie series helped land the winged creature a December 2002 National Geographic cover story.

"We were inundated with phone calls from people about all these kids wanting to have pet snowy owls," Holt said. "It just went crazy for a while there."

Snowy owls begin life with a mix of white and dark brown feathers. Males, which tend to be smaller, lose their dark feathers as they age, with many winding up pure white. Their lifespan is not known, but Holt estimates that snowy owls can likely survive 10 to 15 years in the wild and three decades in captivity.

There's no good estimate on the size of their population. Holt recalls a study in which researchers working on a Canadian island found thousands of snowy owls one year, only to follow up the next year to find not a single one.

"They're too spread out and they move around too much," Holt said.

Holt said snowy owls are remarkable predators, nearing flying speeds of 70 miles per hour with the ability to attack and eat creatures as large as Canada geese and great blue herons. Yet despite that diverse diet, their breeding seems dependent on a single food source — the Arctic lemming.

He said this year's influx is following in Harry Potter's footsteps to return the snowy owl into the public spotlight, which is great for the species and his research.

"It's wonderful," Holt said. "It's great for snowy owls. It's great PR."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzVbbLZXqxf-7Jrq9VCEZR0T4K6A?docId=06beaec5b2c14199b566ecfac40d08b1

27 wolves confirmed in Washington State

Annual survey confirms 27 wolves, including three breeding pairs, in Washington - Possibly more
January 2012. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) year-end survey of the state's five confirmed wolf packs has found three successful breeding pairs totalling at least 27 wolves. 

The tally, conducted through field work and aerial monitoring, found two of the successful breeding pairs in the Eastern Washington wolf-recovery region and one in the North Cascades recovery region. A successful wolf breeding pair is defined as an adult male and female with at least two pups that survive until the end of the calendar year. 

There also is evidence of unconfirmed packs in the Blue Mountains of south-eastern Washington and at Hozomeen in the North Cascades, as well as transient single wolves, according to Rocky Beach, WDFW's wildlife diversity program manager. 
"We will continue to follow up on all reports of possible wolf sightings," Beach said. "We will be working again this spring and summer to confirm new packs and pups and to capture and fit additional wolves with radio collars for monitoring." 
The radio collars use Global Positioning System (GPS) and Very High Frequency (VHF) technology. 

15 breeding pairs is the target
Under the recently adopted Washington wolf conservation and management plan, wolves will be removed from the state's endangered species list once 15 successful breeding pairs are documented for three consecutive years among three wolf-recovery regions (four pairs in Eastern Washington, four pairs in North Cascades, four pairs in South Cascades/Northwest Coast, and three pairs in any recovery region). 

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) currently is protected by the state as an endangered species throughout Washington and is federally listed as endangered in the western two-thirds of the state. 

LAST MONTH'S SURVEY WORK YIELDED THESE DETAILS ABOUT WASHINGTON'S FIVE CONFIRMED WOLF PACKS:

• Diamond Pack, in Pend Oreille County and Idaho, numbers 10 wolves, including a breeding pair with at least two pups. A 2-year-old, radio-collared, female wolf was legally trapped and killed in Idaho in December before the count was made. Another radio-collared female from the pack was last located in November in Idaho and is currently missing; a third radio-collared female remains with the pack. 
• Smackout Pack, in Stevens and Pend Oreille counties, numbers five wolves, including a successful breeding pair with three pups. None have radio collars. 
• Salmo Pack, in Pend Oreille County and British Columbia, includes three wolves. One wolf with a VHF radio collar is still being monitored. 
• Teanaway Pack, in Kittitas County, numbers seven wolves, including a successful breeding pair with at least two pups. The breeding female is equipped with a GPS radio collar and still is being monitored. 
• Lookout Pack, in Okanogan County includes two wolves with no pups; neither has a functioning radio collar.


http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/washington-wolves2012.html

Dead blackbirds fall again in Arkansas town

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.


Police in Beebe said dozens of blackbirds had fallen dead, prompting officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks Saturday night. It wasn't immediately clear if fireworks were again to blame, but authorities weren't taking a chance.

Officer John Weeks said the first reports of "birds on the streets" came around 7 p.m. as residents celebrated the year's end with fireworks in their neighborhoods.

"We started shutting down fireworks," he said. "We're working on cleaning up the birds now."

He said police were working with animal control workers and others to remove the birds and determine a death count.

"We're not sure if they're going to continue to fall throughout the night. I can't tell you," Weeks said.

Scientists say the loud cracks and booms from celebratory fireworks likely sent the birds into such a tizzy that they crashed into homes, cars and each other before plummeting to their deaths last New Year's Eve. The birds landed on roofs, sidewalks, streets and fields. One struck a woman walking her dog. Another hit a police cruiser.

The blackbird die-off, coupled with tens of thousands of dead drum fish that washed up on the shores of the Arkansas River, flung the state into the national headlines and drew conspiracy theorists and filmmakers to the town about 30 miles northeast of Little Rock that shares Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe's last name.

Some people speculated that the birds had been poisoned; others said their deaths marked the beginning of the apocalypse.

"It's just got to be a pain in my career," Beebe Police Chief Wayne Ballew said.

Prior to this New Year's Eve, Ballew said he wouldn't be surprised if people sit out on their front porches in case the winged creatures fall from the sky again.

"I guess we could have an annual blackbird watch," he said with a laugh. "People can just bring their umbrellas, open them up and walk through the neighborhood and hope they don't get hit."

Charles Moore didn't plan to have an umbrella at the ready, but said he would have his camera out on New Year's Eve. Last year, he drifted off to sleep before the ball — and birds — dropped.

"When we got up on New Year's Day and walked out to get the paper, we saw all the carnage out there," he said. "So we thought we would be on the watch for it this time."

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20111231/39122abf-b7f4-4f2c-a053-77d63d97828c

Lone Gray Wolf On The Move

A lone gray wolf, fitted with a GPS collar by Oregon Department of Fish and Game, has been tracked crossing into northern California, report biologists from the golden state.

The two and a half year-old male wolf was fitted with the collar in Oregon last February and has been tracked wandering more than 300 miles from its original location. Its movement into California was widely anticipated as it approached the border just before Christmas, ABC News reports.

Department of Fish and Game Director Charlton H. Bonham released a statement saying, “Whether one is for it or against it, the entry of this lone wolf into California is a historic event and result of much work by the wildlife agencies in the West. If the gray wolf does establish a population in California, there will be much more work to do here.”

Gray wolves are a designated a federally endangered species and there is conflict between wolves and ranchers across western states as the animals are reintroduced into wilderness areas.

Whether the wolf will remain in California or wander back to Oregon or on to Nevada is not known, it is typical for young male wolves to wander.

California authorities expect a slow wolf migration in the future after the 1995 introduction of a Canadian gray wolf pack to Idaho and areas around Yellowstone National Park. Wolves first re-entered Oregon in 1999.

New packs could become established if more wolves migrate, “If the gray wolf does establish a population in California, there will be much more work to do here,” Bonham said.

Any gray wolf that returns to California is protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Based on experience from states where substantial wolf populations exist, officials said, wolves pose little risk to humans, however the Department of Fish and Game recommends that people never approach or feed a wolf, reports Cathy Locke for the Sacramento Bee.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112447431/lone-gray-wolf-on-the-move/

Lone wolf outfoxes hunters in 1,000km quest for mate

A young wolf has become a US celebrity while evading capture – dead or alive – in an epic search for a mate.
The animal has traced a zigzag path across 1,200km (730 miles) of mountains, deserts and highways, from Oregon to the California border.
He left his home turf on September 10 just before state officials issued a death warrant on members of his pack – including his alpha male father – for killing cattle.
The fear is that the wanderer, known only as OR-7, may be the target of a poacher, rancher or government hunter.
His progress has been tracked thanks to a GPS collar he was fitted with by a state biologist last February.
His appearance startled lodge owner Liz Parrish who locked eyes with him on the edge of Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. ‘I was stunned – it was such a huge animal. We had a stare-down, then he just evaporated into the trees,’ she said.
But her neighbour, cattle rancher Nathan Jackson, said: ‘We worked hard to exterminate wolves 50 years ago or so. They don’t seem so beautiful and majestic when they are ripping apart calves and colts.’
While wolves are state protected in Oregon, federal protection has been lifted in the east of the state.
One government hunter shot at but missed him before conservation groups won a stay-of-kill order.
OR-7 is following a well-worn instinct to strike out alone when reaching the age of two in the search for empty territory and a mate.
His meandering route from home has taken him across numerous county lines and each time he enters a new area, he makes it on to the local news.
Oregon wolf co-ordinator Russ Morgan said he was surprised by the way the public and media have embraced the wolf. ‘People have taken a shine to him,’ he said.
However, not everyone feels the same way, so a competition has been launched to change his name to something more people-friendly – and make him too famous to be shot.
The first entry, from a little girl in OR-7’s home territory, is already catching on: Whoseafraida.


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883181-lone-wolf-outfoxes-hunters-in-1-000km-quest-for-mate#ixzz1fBk67tKF

Bat killer cause confirmed as fungus (via Dawn Holloway)

White-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease rampaging its way through the bats of North America, is caused by a fungus, scientists have confirmed.

Researchers from a number of US institutions infected healthy bats with the fungus Geomyces destructans, and found they did develop the disease.

The team also showed that the fungus can pass from one bat to another.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say WNS "has the potential to decimate North American bat populations".

So far, the disease has killed more than a million bats in the eastern US and Canada since it was first identified in New York state in 2006.

G. destructans is usually found on the animals' snouts, where it causes a characteristic white colouration and, more significantly, lesions in the skin.

Although the fungus has been suspected as the disease's primary cause, researchers have not been able to prove it definitively.

Animals sometimes contract fungal diseases when their immune systems have been compromised, perhaps by a different infection, and this has been seen as a possibility for WNS as well.

The research group, led by David Blehert from the National Wildlife Health Center at the US Geological Survey, appears to have proven the primary role of the fungus.

No 'magic bullet'
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15460894

Read on ...

Genetic study of cave millipedes reveals isolated populations and ancient divergence between species

Last week the International Journal of Myriapodology published the first population genetic study of cave millipedes. This research highlights an important challenge in the conservation of cave biodiversity – that for many species caves are 'islands' of habitat that support isolated and genetically distinct populations.

The southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee and Alabama, USA is known for its high cave density. In addition, it has the highest cave biodiversity of any region in North America. Millipedes of the genus Tetracion range across this biodiversity hotspot. These millipedes, which can grow up to 8 cm in length, are common scavengers in cave communities. Like many cave animals, Tetracion millipedes have reduced pigmentation and non-functional eyes.

The authors used genetic techniques to compare Tetracion populations and species. They found that Tetracion populations were generally isolated from one another. In addition, divergence between Tetracion species was high, suggesting that members of the genus diverged several million years ago.

Original source: Loria, S.F., K.S. Zigler and J.J. Lewis. 2011. Molecular phylogeography of the troglobiotic millipede Tetracion Hoffman, 1956 (Diplopoda: Callipodida: Abacionidae). International Journal of Myriapodology 5:35-48. doi: 10.3897/ijm.5.1891

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/pp-gso101711.php

Endangered species: Mystery as New England cottontail rabbits disappear from East Coast

The New England cottontail rabbit, in sharp decline for decades throughout the Northeast, is on the verge of disappearing from several states, with the reason somewhat a mystery, wildlife experts say.

The once prolific breeder, already no longer found in Vermont, has nearly vanished from Rhode Island and New Hampshire and exists in only negligible populations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New York, according to biologists and U.S. officials.

The New England native apparently has been supplanted by a look-alike competitor -- the abundant eastern cottontail, of which more than 200,000 were introduced locally in the early 1900s for hunters, a Rhode Island study found this week.

Habitat loss and predation could partly explain this disappearing rabbit trick, although the eastern cottontail variety relies on similar habitats and must contend with the same predators, said the report's co-authors, Thomas Husband, natural resources science professor at University of Rhode Island and Brian Tefft, a state wildlife biologist.

After studying the rabbits for almost 20 years, they say the New England cottontail looks close to being wiped out in Rhode Island.

A statewide survey of its habitat and breeding sites has found evidence of only one remaining animal.

A possible cause is predators including coyotes and bobcats returning in large numbers, lured by plentiful eastern cottontail for them to feed on, said Mr Husband in a statement.

Another possible cause is subtle differences in the bunnies' bodies.

New England cottontails have smaller eyes placed farther forward on their heads than their eastern cousins, giving them poor peripheral vision with which to spot predators.

The eastern type also runs from approaching predators sooner than does the New England variety.

'But it's all speculation as to whether or not that's a factor,' Mr Husband added.

A new survey will be done in 2012 to confirm results, but biologists are brainstorming how to reintroduce the species.

One possible future refuge could be on Patience Island in the middle of Narragansett Bay, which has never hosted a population of either cottontail in the past.

The New England cottontail, which was named as a candidate for the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2006, is listed as endangered in Maine and New Hampshire.

Its entire range has shrunk by 86 per cent since 1960 in areas east of the Hudson River in New York and across into New England, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Its numbers are so diminished that it is no longer found in Vermont, and it exists in just a handful of smaller populations in its historic range, the FWS says.

Federal and New Hampshire officials in April pledged to help restore New England cottontail habitat on private and state-owned lands over the next 50 years.

The animal prefers early so-called successional forests, or 'thickets', with dense and tangled vegetation.

Once the forests age beyond 25 years and trees become larger, the shrub layer thins out, making the habitat unsuitable for the New England cottontail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038754/Endangered-species-Mystery-New-England-cottontail-rabbits-disappear-East-Coast.html#ixzz1YOr0X9cN

Documents Show Feds Believed in the Yeti (via Chad Arment)

Paul Bedard, Lauren Fox
September 2, 2011

Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time Uncle Sam's belief that the Abominable Snowman roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that has shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.

Long written off as a myth—it was never caught or photographed—the documents provided by the National Archives show that officials in the State Department, Foreign Service, and U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, not only believed in "Yeti," but endorsed rules for American expeditions to follow when hunting the toothy monster down.

"There are, at present, three regulations applicable only to expeditions searching for the Yeti in Nepal. These regulations are to be observed," said a memo from the embassy written on State Department letterhead. [Read: National Archives Recovers Stolen Lincoln Documents.]

The first rule required that expeditions buy a permit. The second demanded that the beast be photographed or taken alive. "It must not be killed or shot at except in an emergency arising out of self defense," wrote Embassy Counselor Ernest Fisk on November 30, 1959. And third, any news proving the existence of the Abominable Snowman must be cleared through the Nepalese government which probably wanted to take credit for the discovery.

Archivist Mark Murphy said he couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the long-ignored papers written at the end of the Eisenhower administration.. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "These documents show that finding the Yeti was a big deal in the 1950s. It goes to show the government was taking this seriously."

How seriously?

One foreign service dispatch from the Embassy of New Delhi dated April 16, 1959 describes the many American expeditions involved in mountaineering and monster hunting in Nepal. [Read about other uncovered political archives.]

"American resources in the last two years have been concentrated on efforts to capture the abominable snowman," the record reads.

Tom Slick, a millionaire with a specialized interest in cryptozoology paid for three separate expeditions in Nepal to find the snow beast, immortalized in the 1964 Christmas classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Slick never found it and he went onto pursue bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/09/02/documents-show-feds-believed-in-yeti

Verified cougar in Louisiana (via Chad Arment)

Verified Cougar Sighting in Vernon Parish, Louisiana
August 31, 2011

In this age of trail cams and cell phone cameras, it's getting more difficult for Bigfoot or any other wild creature to roam the earth undocumented. Mountain lions – particularly young males searching for a place to call their own – keep showing up in photographic evidence, such as this one that comes to us from Louisiana.

Cougars are both feared and marveled at, so we thought you might like to read this report...

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has received photographic evidence of the presence of a cougar in Vernon Parish.

A private citizen sent LDWF a trail camera picture taken Aug. 13, 2011. LDWF Large Carnivore Program Manager Maria Davidson and biologist Brandon Wear conducted a site investigation that confirmed the authenticity of the photograph.

"It is quite possible for this animal to be captured on other trail cameras placed at deer bait sites," Davidson said. "Deer are the primary prey item for cougars; therefore, they are drawn to areas where deer congregate."

It is unlikely this cougar will remain in any one area longer than it would take to consume a kill. Cougars do not prefer to eat spoiled meat and will move on as soon as the Louisiana heat and humidity take its toll on the kill.

"It is impossible to determine if the animal in the photograph is a wild, free-ranging cougar, or an escaped captive," Davidson added. "Although it is illegal to own a cougar in Louisiana, it is possible that there are some illegally held 'pets' in the state."

LDWF has documented several occurrences since 2002. The first cougar sighting was in 2002 by an employee at Lake Fausse Point State Park. That sighting was later confirmed with DNA analysis from scat found at the site. Three trail camera photos were taken of a cougar in Winn, Vernon and Allen parishes in 2008. Subsequently on Nov. 30, 2008, a cougar was shot and killed in a neighborhood by Bossier City Police Department.

The mountain lion, cougar, panther or puma are names that all refer to the same animal. Their color ranges from lighter tan to brownish grey. The only species of big cats that occur as black are the jaguar and leopard. Jaguars are native to South America and leopards are native to Africa. Both species can occur as spotted or black, although in both cases the spotted variety is much more common. Although LDWF receives numerous calls about black panthers, there has never been a documented case of a black cougar anywhere in North America.

The vast majority of these reports received by LDWF cannot be verified due to the very nature of a sighting. Many of the calls are determined to be cases of mistaken identity, with dog tracks making up the majority of the evidence submitted by those reporting cougar sightings. Other animals commonly mistaken for cougars are bobcats and house cats, usually seen from a distance or in varying shades of light.

The significant lack of physical evidence indicates that Louisiana does not have an established, breeding population of cougars. In states that have verified small populations of cougars, physical evidence can readily be found in the form of tracks, cached deer kills, scat and road kills.

The recent sightings of cougars in Louisiana are believed to be young animals dispersing from existing populations. An expanding population in Texas can produce dispersing individual cougars that move into suitable habitat in Louisiana. Young males are known to disperse from their birthplace and travel hundreds of miles seeking their own territories.

Cougars that occur in Louisiana are protected under state and federal law. Penalties for taking a cougar in Louisiana may include up to one year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine. Anyone with any information regarding the taking of a cougar should call the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-442-2511.. Callers may remain anonymous and may receive a cash reward.

http://outdoornews.com/news/article_88cd008e-d3dd-11e0-b214-001cc4c002e0.html

Bryan’s shearwater, new Hawaiian seabird species, discovered (via Chad Arment)

For the first time in decades, researchers have found a new bird species in the United States. Based on a specimen collected in 1963 on Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, biologists have described a new species of seabird, Bryan's shearwater (Puffinus bryani), according to differences in measurements and physical appearance compared to other species of shearwaters. Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute analyzed the specimen's DNA to confirm that it is an entirely new species.

"Usually we see a species split into two because we find that one of them has a very different DNA than the other, without other indicators," said Rob Fleischer, head of SCBI's Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics. "It's very unusual to discover a new species of bird these days and especially gratifying when DNA can confirm our original hypothesis that the animal is unique. This bird is unique, both genetically and in appearance, and represents a novel, albeit very rare, species."

Researchers have rarely discovered new species of birds since most of the world's 9,000-plus species (including about 21 other species of shearwaters) were described before 1900. The majority of new species described since the mid-1900s have been discovered in remote tropical rain and cloud forests, primarily in South America and southeastern Asia. The Bryan's shearwater is the first new species reported from the United States and Hawaiian Islands since the Po'ouli was described from the forests of Maui in 1974.

The Bryan's shearwater is the smallest shearwater known to exist. It is black and white with a black or blue-gray bill and blue legs. Biologists found the species in a burrow among a colony of petrels during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program in 1963. Peter Pyle, an ornithologist at the Institute for Bird Populations, recently examined the specimen and found that it was too small to be a little shearwater (P. assimilis) and that it had a distinct appearance.

According to Fleischer and Andreanna Welch, a former graduate student and Smithsonian predoctoral fellow at SCBI who worked on the genetic analysis, the Bryan's shearwater differs genetically to a greater degree than found between most other species of its genus, and is distantly related to another similar-looking species, the Boyd's shearwater (P. boydi). Based on this DNA evidence, researchers estimate that the Bryan's shearwater separated from other species of shearwaters perhaps more than 2 million years ago. These findings have been published in a paper, A new species of Shearwater (Puffinus) recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in the current issue of The Condor.

Researchers do not know where Bryan's shearwaters breed. According to Pyle, shearwaters and other seabirds often visit nesting burrows on remote islands only at night, and researchers have not discovered the breeding locations of many populations. Individual seabirds from colonies also often "prospect" for new breeding locations, usually far from existing colonies. Bryan's shearwater could conceivably breed anywhere in the Pacific Ocean basin or even farther afield.

Given that Bryan's shearwaters have remained undiscovered until now, they could be very rare and possibly even extinct.

"If we can find where this species breeds, we may have a chance to protect it and keep it from going extinct," Welch said. "Genetic analysis allows us to investigate whether an animal represents an entirely different species, and that knowledge is important for setting conservation priorities and preventing extinction."

Bryan's shearwater is named after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr., who was curator of collections at the B.P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu from 1919 until 1968.

http://smithsonianscience.org/2011/08/bryan%E2%80%99s-shearwater-new-seabird-species-from-northwestern-hawaii-discovered/

First vampire bat bite death in U.S. reported

The United States has now recorded its first death from a vampire bat bite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    
On July 29, 2010, a young Mexican migrant showed up to work at a Louisiana sugar cane plantation. He worked one day and then complained of fatigue, shoulder pain and numbness. By August 3 he’d been sent to a New Orleans hospital.

When he developed a fever and an elevated white blood cell count, doctors thought he might have encephalitis, or maybe meningitis. He didn’t. Doctors tested for HIV, syphilis, herpes, arboviruses, Lyme disease, autoimmune neuropathies and all came back negative.

Meanwhile, the 19-year-old was deteriorating. When he had trouble breathing, doctors placed a tube down his throat to help.

Despite “True Blood’s” Louisiana setting, nobody thought of vampire bats because there are no vampire bats in the United States outside of zoos. But the young man had only just arrived in the United States. As an investigation later discovered, he had been bitten on the heel of his foot on July 15 while sleeping back home in Michoacán, a state in Mexico’s southwest.

The bat had transmitted rabies, a common complication from vampire bat bites in central and South America. Doctors did begin to suspect rabies — and the state’s public health office was duly notified, but it wasn’t until August 20 that rabies tests came back positive. He died on August 21.

Every person who had been in contact with him had to be found and notified. Some who had shared drinking vessels with him, for example, could have caught the disease. But according to CDC, so far there is no evidence anybody did.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44112941/ns/health-health_care/

Another Mountain Lion Sighting Reported In Greenwich (via Chad Arment)

By DAVID OWENS, The Hartford Courant

http://www.courant.com/community/greenwich/hc-greenwich-mountain-lion-0812-20110811,0,2187802.story

GREENWICH There's a report of another mountain lion sighting in Greenwich.

Managers at a gated community in "backcountry Greenwich" sent a letter to residents telling them to take care with young children and dogs.

The letter, sent to residents of The Chieftains by officials at McGrath Management Services, says someone reported seeing a mountain lion last week. It also urged caution when walking at dusk or dawn, when mountain lions are active.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman Dennis Schain said the agency still believes there is no native mountain lion population in the state.

"We respect fact that people believe they saw something unusual, which they identified as a mountain lion," Schain said. "Absent any physical evidence, such as a good photo, paw prints or scat, it is impossible for us to determine the credibility of this report.

"We have … received from time to time reports of alleged mountain lion sightings from all parts of the state. The number of them did grow in the time period around the sightings in Greenwich and the mountain lion being struck and killed by a car in Milford. Reports have now settled down to a more typical pattern. We continue to believe that there is no native population of mountain lions in Connecticut and that it is not likely another one made its way here from faraway places in the west where they do live and breed.

In late spring there were several reports of mountain lion sightings near Greenwich. In June, a mountain lion was struck and killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford.

DNA testing of the cat revealed that it had probably traveled about 1,500 miles from its birthplace in the Black Hills of South Dakota to Connecticut.

Greenwich police said they have received no reports of a mountain lion sighting since before DEEP released its report about the cat killed in Milford.

Young male cougars often roam up to 100 miles in search of breeding opportunities, open habitat and food resources, said Paul Rego, a DEEP wildlife biologist. Rego said the Milford cat's journey was an anomaly, more than double the longest previously documented journey of about 640 miles.

Genetic testing revealed that the big cat came from a wild breeding population of about 250 mountain lions in the southwest corner of South Dakota, the Black Hills area, results released Tuesday afternoon revealed.

No one knows why the animal - a lean, 140-pound male between 2 and 4 years old - journeyed across the continent. But its travels were documented through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and biologists speculate that the cat then wandered through southern Ontario and New York before reaching Connecticut.

Nicknamed the St. Croix mountain lion during his time in Wisconsin, the cat was definitively linked to four sites in the two states through genetic testing of scat, blood and hair found in the snow during late 2009 and early 2010. He also was captured on video by trail cameras. Additional mountain lion sightings were confirmed at eight other sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but could not be linked to the same animal.

The DEEP said that a necropsy in Connecticut turned up no evidence that the mountain lion had ever been a captive creature - he had no microchip, nor was he neutered or declawed. His stomach was empty at the time of his death, although porcupine quills were found in his subcutaneous tissue, an indication that he had spent time in the wild, said Rego.

The results surprised DEEP officials and biologists across the country, said Rego, who originally believed the mountain lion was a captive animal that had escaped or was released.

"It is a testament to the adaptability of this species that it could travel from South Dakota to Connecticut," Esty said. "It is a symbol, perhaps a signal of a stronger bounce back of some of our wildlife species."

Although biologists do not know how the mountain lion got from Wisconsin to Connecticut, Rego said it is more likely that it moved through southern Ontario, rather than going into the populated area south of Lake Michigan.

Scientists may never determine why the big cat roamed so far, but DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette said ongoing tests may reveal details of his travels, including the food he ate as he moved east. The animal was not rabid and did not have any physical abnormalities that might explain the extreme roaming, said the DEEP.

The June 5 sighting of the mountain lion in Greenwich, confirmed through DNA testing to be same animal killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway on June 11, was the first confirmed sighting in the state since the 1880s.

Despite a number of reported sightings over the years (the state receives 10 to 12 unconfirmed reports each year), the DEEP says that there are no native mountain lions in Connecticut. The Eastern mountain lion was declared extinct in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mountain lions are regularly reported throughout the Northeast and other areas where the animals are not known to live, but besides the mountain lion killed in Milford, the only concrete evidence of an animal in the recent past was a skull found in Massachusetts.

Adrian Wydeven, a mammal ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said that mountain lion populations are higher now that at any other time over the past 100 years, and that Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, without native populations, are now seeing some mountain lions.

As to the far-roaming animal's future, Rego said, several museums have expressed interest in displaying the animal after a taxidermist has preserved the body. The body is now in a freezer pending further tests, and no decisions have been made, he said.

An Associated Press report was included in this story..
 

Stimulus money spent on monkeys?

IMMOKALEE, Fla. - Stimulus money being spent on monkeys?

A Fox 4 investigation has one lawmaker taking action after we discovered the government is using more than a half-million dollars in stimulus money - money meant for saving and creating jobs - to buy monkeys for flu vaccine experiments.

"What makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years," said Pres. Barack Obama, on Feb 17, 2009, after signing the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the stimulus, into law.

"It's that we're putting Americans to work, doing the work America needs done," the president said.

But two years later, people like David Ligthner aren't seeing any signs of that big stimulus.

"We're struggling," said Lightner, the owner of Jack Queen Construction. "There's no help out there for us."

Jack Queen Construction is one of Immokalee's oldest construction companies. But since the Recovery Act passed, they have had to lay off 40 people.

"Have you received any help from the government?," asked Fox 4 reporter Matt Grant.

"Nothing," said Lightner. "They have not helped me in one way, shape or form...they're giving money to everybody except the people that need it."

So who is getting that money?

Our search for that answer takes us down a dirt road seemingly into the middle of nowhere. Rolling past the Hendry County Prison, we are looking for a company called Primate Products, which was awarded nearly $538,000 of your money.

The company imports animals from all over the world for scientific testing.

They have become a frequent target of animal activists who point to leaked photos showing mutilated monkeys in what appears to be a surgical setting.

"We've got rampant unemployment," said Don Anthony, with the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, an activist group. "And they're putting this money to such bad use."

Lat fall, the federal government used $537,560 in stimulus money to buy 108 monkeys from Primate Products.

The monkeys will be used for flu virus experiments, which federal health officials say can save human lives.

"I think people are going to be disgusted when they find out their hard earned tax money is not going where it was supposed to go," said Don Anthony, "to help unemployed Americans."

The stimulus had three main goals: to create or save jobs, to spur economic growth and to be transparent.

So did this money create any jobs?

The president of Primate Products, Don Bradford, declined our request for an on-camera interview. But in a series of e-mails, says there are no "stipulations" the money be "directly spent on wages."

According to Recovery.gov, the government's own stimulus tracking Web site, it shows Primate Products didn't create a single job with the money here in Florida.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD), which bought the monkeys, calls this "important research" and says "investing in public health" has "created tens of thousands of jobs nationwide."

But when pressed about the number of jobs actually created as a result of the Primate Products purchase, be it research or otherwise, a spokesperson told us: "This particular contract is not associated with job creation."

"I think it's great that you're doing the story and that you've uncovered this," said southwest Florida Rep. Connie Mack.

Our findings shocked Mack, who conducted his own investigation and discovered Primate Products actually received $1.3 million.

So what's wrong with the government doing animal experiments if it could save so many lives?

"Again this came out of the stimulus, package. We were told the stimulus package was going to create jobs, " said Mack who talked to us via satellite from Washington. "This is what people are so frustrated about - that the government is spending money on things that the people don't need, don't want and don't deserve."

Dave Lightner believes southwest Floridans like him deserve better.

Talking to us in his now empty construction yard, Lightner still wears his American flag hat with pride.Even as he watches his American dream, and any hope of a stimulus life raft, slip away.

"And you need this money?," asked Grant.

"Oh man, geez tell me about it," said Lightner. "I could put six, seven people to work Monday morning."

Mack says the government shouldn't be monkeying around with the money.

In a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calling for a "thorough review" of the Primate Products contracts along with a "detailed report" as to how this money fits in with the goals of the stimulus.

"Aside from reporting their awards to the Recovery.gov website," Mack wrote, "we have yet to find evidence that these four contracts accomplish any of these goals."

Read about the Primate Product contracts: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/TextViewProjSummary.aspx?data=recipientAwardsList&State=FL&AwardType=CGL&RecipName=Primate%20Products

MATT GRANT, REPORTER
mgrant@fox4now.com

http://www.fox4now.com/news/toprotator/126293983.html

Great white sharks amass off Martha's Vineyard

Gathering by the shores of Monomoy Island near Martha's Vineyard, where much of the movie "Jaws" was filmed, great white sharks have people on notice in the Northeast.


The sharks make a pilgrimage to this region every year to feed, but a particularly large gray seal population has become an enticing magnet for the large, toothy predators. The presence of the sharks has created a booming tourism business as well as some jitters in the area.

"Gray seals have a lot of blubber and meat, so they are a high efficiency preferred menu item of great white sharks," New England Aquarium spokesperson Tony LaCasse told Discovery News. "Somehow the word is out in the great white world that this is the place to be."

He added, "Humans are not on their menu because we are a completely inefficient meal, since great white sharks are looking for maximum calories per kill."

Federal protection of marine mammals has been in place since 1972, and has led to the recovery of gray seals in the area, which are larger and fattier than Harbor seals that are in the waters off of Cape Cod. LaCasse suspects it took this long for gray seals to build up their population.

When seal numbers were down, the great white sharks mostly fed on dead whale carcasses, called "floaters." LaCasse said just this May, a fisherman went to explore a dead Minke whale near Martha's Vineyard and was surprised by a great white shark that swam out from under the whale "and checked him out.” The fisherman escaped without injuries.

Monomoy Island, where the great whites have been spotted, is an 8-mile spit of sand extending southwest from Cape Cod, and a national wildlife refuge, where access is limited. This has helped to keep people safe from the sharks. A booming tourism industry, with great white sharks as the No. 1 draw, has emerged in nearby Chatham, Mass. Tourism dollars are down by 4 percent in the Cape as a whole, but Chatham has seen a 15 percent uptick, especially now that it's the summer vacation season. LaCasse said during one recent tour, "a great white took a free-swimming seal" in a bloody, violent battle viewed by families riveted to the real life event.

Recent research supports the rise in great white shark numbers off of Cape Cod. A tagging project led by Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), succeeded in tagging six white sharks, ranging from 10 to 18 feet in length, off the coast of Monomoy Island. The DMF notes there has been a "recent increase in shark sightings," mentioning "the growing population of gray seals."


Not everyone appears to be pleased by the changes. In the past several weeks, five adult gray seals were found shot on Cape Cod beaches from Dennis to Chatham. Some local fishermen have expressed concern over the seals' presence, which has decreased the prevalence of certain fish. It remains unclear, however, who shot the seals.

No shark attacks have been reported off of Massachusetts this year, according to Bethan Gillett, a technician at the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

She did indicate there's been a modest rise in attacks nationwide since May, with seven happening that month, seven reported in June, and three occurring in July so far.


"I don't think we are seeing a spike in attacks, though," Gillett told Discovery News. "The attacks are correlated with more people in the water for recreational activities."

One shark victim was a 12-year-old boy who was bitten in the foot by a bull shark off the Texas Gulf coast. The boy has endured several surgeries and requires more, but he is expected to make a full recovery.

"This was very unusual for Texas," Mike Cox, a spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told Discovery News. "We haven't had a fatality due to shark attack since 1962, so no one feels this is cause for panic or alarm. You are more likely to be hit by lightning than to be bitten by a shark."

LaCasse pointed out that bull sharks can be particularly tenacious, since they have the highest measured testosterone of any animal. To avoid encountering one, or any shark, he advises, "If you see a seal in the water, you should not be in the water. We're poor swimmers, and when sharks see us thrashing around, they can confuse us for their desired prey."

He also advises not to swim alone in deep water and not to swim at dusk, when visibility is down and shark numbers might be up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43797180/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/great-white-sharks-amass-marthas-vineyard/