Wildlife News Roundup (April 6-12, 2013) | The Wildlife Society News

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell (Credit: DOI)

Sally Jewell Wins Confirmation as Interior Secretary
(The Washington Post)
By a vote of 87 to 11, the Senate approved Recreational Equipment Inc. cief executive Sally Jewell as the next Interior secretary. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told his colleagues that Jewell had demonstrated ?the kind of leadership? that could reconcile the competing environmental and energy interests any Interior secretary must manage. More

NEWS FROM NORTH AMERICA

Florida Commission Targets Illegal Dolphin Feeding
(The News Herald)
The dolphin etiquette class held in Panama City Beach, Fla., did not involve porpoises perfecting their table manners. Instead, it addressed a serious issue plaguing the species in the Bay County area. The Panama City area has been branded a ?hot spot? for illegal dolphin interaction, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in partnership with local businesses, is working to change that. More

President Requests $1.6 Billion in 2014 for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(The Chattanoogan)
The president?s fiscal year 2014 discretionary budget request provides $1.6 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an increase of $76.4 million over the 2012 enacted level, to fund the agency?s high priority needs. The budget also includes approximately $1.2 billion available under permanent appropriations, most of which will be provided directly to states to support fish and wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation. More

Grand Teton Wildlife on the Move During Annual Spring Migration
(Yellowstone Gate)
With the arrival of spring weather, warmer temperatures and the first shoots of green grass, animals are on the move from their winter ranges to their summer haunts in Grand Teton National Park. Herds of elk recently moved off the National Elk Refuge and fanned out across the sagebrush flats, according to a statement released by the Grand Teton public affairs office. More

Washington, D.C., Area Braces for Cicadas? Return
(The Washington Post)
They?re back. Seventeen years after a major swarm of bug-eyed cicadas staged one of nature?s weirdest ? and loudest ? mating rituals, their offspring are preparing to rise in Washington?s suburbs and the Mid-Atlantic. Once the ground temperature hits 64 degrees, it?s on. A swarm of cicadas known as Brood II will climb from buried lairs from North Carolina to Connecticut with a very short to-do list: find a mate, make babies and die. More

Merlot vs. Moose: Global Warming Pits Wine Against Wildlife
(MSN)
Merlot or moose? Wine aficionados and wildlife lovers could soon butt heads as global warming forces vineyard owners to look for new, ecologically sensitive areas to grow their succulent grapes. ?Climate change is going to move potential wine-producing regions all over the map. These global changes put the squeeze on wildlife and nature?s capacity to sustain human life in some surprising places,? said Lee Hannah, an ecologist with Conservation International. More

How Open-Source Software Could Help Save Endangered Animals from Poachers
(Slate)
No one is going to tell you we?ve been winning the battle against the illegal wildlife trade. In most cases, we?re outmanned, outgunned and, probably most of all, out-spent. That?s why an alliance of six conservation organizations have come together to build an anti-poaching tool designed to bridge the technological gap between poachers and wildlife rangers. ?Poaching is becoming a lot more organized and technologically advanced,? said Barney Long, Asian species expert for the World Wildlife Fund. More

WILDLIFE HEALTH AND DISEASE NEWS

Scientists to Investigate Coral Crisis on Kauai?s North Shore
(Hawaii News Now)
Look beneath the surface of Kauai?s north shore and you?ll see what marine biologists are calling an epidemic. Video taken from Anini on Kauai?s northeast coast shows coral covered with white bacteria, which is deteriorating much of the reef. ?The disease is a tissue-loss disease,? said USGS Wildlife Disease Specialist Thierry Work. ?If you look at these corals, they are losing tissues and we think it?s associated with a cyanobacteria, which is a type of algae that is eating the coral basically.? More

Deadly Bat Fungus will be Tracked Across Canada
(CBC)
Canadian scientists have planned a national response to combat white-nose syndrome, a disease that?s wiped out entire bat colonies across the Maritimes. Environment Canada has offered $300,000 in funding and that will allow the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre to hire a central planner, who will coordinate the work of universities, provincial and federal scientists studying the white-nose syndrome. More

Report on 3 in China Who Died from Bird Flu Points to Severity of Strain
(The New York Times)
A report on three of the first patients in China to contract a new strain of bird flu paints a grim portrait of severe pneumonia, septic shock and other complications that damaged the brain, kidney and other organs. All three died. So far, the disease has killed 10 people in China and has sickened more than 20 others in the last two months, and new cases are reported every day. The illness is caused by a virus that patients contract from birds but that does not seem to spread from person to person. More

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Australia to Face Japan Over Whaling in UN Court
(BBC)
The UN?s International Court of Justice has set dates for public hearings on Australia?s challenge against Japan?s whaling program in Antarctica. The hearings will start in June in The Hague, in the Netherlands, the court said in a statement. Australia took legal action against Japan over whaling in 2010. There has been a ban on commercial whaling for 25 years, but Japan catches about 1,000 whales each year for what it calls research. More

New Bat Genus Earns its Stripes in South Sudan
(New Scientist)
This beautifully patterned bat, with pale yellow spots and stripes on dark black fur, took researchers in the grasslands of South Sudan by surprise. DeeAnn Reeder from Bucknell University was working in Bangangai Game Reserve with the South Sudanese Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism. One evening, observing bats on rocky grassland next to a stagnant pool, she spotted the unique beauty. ?I knew the second I saw it that it was the find of a lifetime,? she says. More

Kaziranga Remains a Success Story, Despite Rising Poaching
(The New York Times)
One challenge facing any visitor to one of India?s tiger parks is actually seeing a tiger. Often, people leave without ever catching a glimpse. For many years, the same problem existed for visitors who came to see the rhinoceroses at the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam. At the low point a century ago, there were only a dozen rhinos in the entire park. But now, when visitors roam the park by jeep or by elephant safari, they can see rhinos almost everywhere. More

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/wildlife-news-roundup-april-6-12-2013/

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