About 2,000 snow geese (Chen caerulescens) died midflight in eastern Idaho last week, likely from avian cholera, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The snow geese were migrating north to their nesting grounds in northern Alaska from the southwestern United States and Mexico, when a shockingly large number of geese fell from the sky. The presence of dead snow geese was first reported last Friday at Camas National Wildlife Refuge, close to Dubois, Idaho, and then even more dead birds were found in management areas Mud Lake and Market Lake, near the towns of Terreton and Roberts, Idaho.

Idaho Fish and Game announced Tuesday that it believes the reason for the sudden deaths is likely avian cholera —a contagious, bacterial disease that causes blood poisoning in birds across the world. The disease can cause convulsions and erratic flight, according to IDFG. The disease also can infect birds so quickly they might not have symptoms before dying suddenly midflight.

Although the cause of the birds’ deaths have not yet been confirmed, the agency said the “symptoms seem to indicate the disease,” in a news release. Researchers at the IDFG Wildlife Laboratory are in the process of determining if the cause of death for these snow geese is, in fact, avian cholera.

However, IDFG does not know where the snow geese contracted the bacteria. “Outbreaks of avian cholera have occurred sporadically in the region over the past few decades,” said regional fish and game supervisor Steve Schmidt, in a news release.

Schmidt said it’s most important to remove the snow geese carcasses to reduce the spread of the disease to other birds. Volunteers and Fish and Game employees collected the carcasses, and Fish and Game employees will be incinerating them so other birds don’t ingest the bacteria.

In the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area, biologists reported 20 eagles near the snow geese carcasses. However, biologists are not sure whether or not the eagles will contract the disease, or when, and if they will become infected by avian cholera. According to Schmidt, there also was a dead trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) among the carcasses, which also likely died from avian cholera.

About 10,000 snow geese annually fly through eastern Idaho in March and stop in Idaho’s wildlife management areas, where they spend a few weeks feeding on grain in wheat fields nearby, according to Schmidt.

While avian cholera is devastating to birds worldwide, according to the United States Geographical Survey Health Laboratory, humans are unlikely to become infected by avian cholera. Still, IDFG asks people not to touch the dead birds as this might spread the disease to other wildlife.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are accepting public comments on a proposal that may eventually lead to grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population restoration management activities in the Northern Cascades, which are part of the species’ historical range. The Washington Department of Game and Fish as well as the U.S. Forest Service will also cooperate with the agencies to implement the restoration activities.

The two agencies published a notice of the intent to jointly draft a Northern Cascades Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Reintroduction Plan and Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register. The Northern Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) includes the Northern Cascades National Park Complex, which is surrounded by 2.6 million contiguous acres of federally designated wilderness, and extends into British Columbia, Canada.

The habitat is isolated from other areas inhabited U.S. grizzly bear populations, and only one bear has been observed in the last ten years despite research indicating the landscape’s ability to support a self-sustaining grizzly bear population. Grizzly Bears are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but the NCE population is particularly at risk. The notice identifies the need to prevent NCE grizzly bears from becoming locally extinct due to the bears’ low population numbers and slow reproductive rate.

The objectives of the NCE Restoration Plan and Environmental Impact Statement that will be drafted are to restore grizzly bear populations, support cultural and environmental values associated with grizzly bears, and expand outreach efforts.

The NPS and FWS are accepting public comment until March 26th and recently held public meetings to solicit input on grizzly bear restoration activities.

Source: Greenwire (March 11, 2015)

David Johnson was sitting at the dinner table one evening in 2012 when a colleague casually remarked that he saw a blue crab in Northeast Massachusetts, about 80 miles north of Cape Cod.

Johnson, an assistant professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, became skeptical because the blue crab species (Callinectes sapidus) isn’t historically found north of Cape Cod where the water is much colder, since blue crabs are a warm water species with a tropical origin.

Johnson decided to investigate. In his recently published study in the Journal of Crustacean Biology, Johnson found blue crabs are, in fact, expanding northward, and the reason is likely a common one – climate change.

After three more blue crab sightings were reported, Johnson went into the salt marsh at low tide in Northeast Massachusetts to verify for himself that blue crabs were present. He found four. “As soon as I saw the flash of blue swimming in the water, I knew instantly it was a blue crab,” he said.

Johnson became excited because he thought this occurrence might be an anomaly. As the first part of his study, he used a crowdsourcing technique, asking around the gulf of Maine up to Nova Scotia for people to report blue crabs if they came across them. He found that there were, in fact, blue crab sightings as far north as Nova Scotia.

Johnson hypothesized that blue crabs extending their range into colder water signifies climate change, and the ocean temperatures north of Cape Cod were rising. According to Johnson, ocean temperature data in 2012 confirm that the water in the gulf of Maine was 1.3 degrees warmer than the previous 10 years.

Other species ranges are extending northward as a result of climate change as well, according to Johnson. In another study, Johnson found the marsh fiddler crab (Uca pugnax) also is extending northward. The fiddler crab was found in Hampton, New Hampshire, in summer 2014, about 50 miles north of its usual northern limit. But, Johnson said the blue crab is particularly unique because it’s the first commercially imported species that’s moving into the gulf of Maine.

“While some public officials don’t believe in climate change, our animals certainly do,” Johnson said. “Our next challenge is to determine the impact of these movements or shifts in species range.”

According to Johnson, it’s a little unclear as to how the northward movement of blue crabs will impact other species. However, one result can be blue crabs interacting with the invasive species green crabs (Carcinus maenas). Green crabs are shellfish predators, making them unpopular to shellfish fishermen, Johnson said. But blue crabs are predators of the invasive green crab, so their movement northward can benefit the shellfish population. At the same time, blue crabs also eat clams, which is bad news for the clam population.

“We’re not certain if the blue crabs are a permanent population this far north,” Johnson said. “However, if it’s not permanent now, it will be soon given climate change and our predictions of water temperatures rising. It’s interesting to see how things will progress going forward.”

Bison could once again roam free in Canada’s oldest national park.

Provincial and federal officials announced a plan earlier this month to reintroduce plains bison (Bison bison bison) to Banff National Park. The plan is part of a five-year National Conservation Plan initiated by the federal government in 2014.

“Successfully restoring this keystone species in Banff will allow visitors, neighbors and the public at large to experience an authentic national park experience,” said Blake Richards, a Member of Parliament for the province of Alberta in a press release. Richards spoke on behalf of Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment — the government department that oversees Parks Canada.

A statement on the national park’s website said that Parks Canada will invite First Nations groups “to share traditional knowledge of plains bison, and participate in stewardship, management and celebrations and will engage students and volunteers to participate in bison research, monitoring and stewardship activities.”

Biologist David Gummer told CBC News that the process is still in the planning phase, but that the national parks agency hopes to release between 30 and 50 plains bison into the wild over four years. They will be brought from Elk Island National Park, which sits just east of Edmonton, according to Gummer.

Bison have been absent to Banff, which sits along Alberta’s border with British Columbia, since it became the first national park in Canada and the third in the world in 1885.