The Wildlife Professional November/December Issue
November 1, 2024
NOAA scientists now know more about the health and behavior of a pod of killer whales off Canada’s west coast thanks to Mobly, a hexacopter drone the team used to capture stunning images of the cetaceans.
More.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing to list four native freshwater turtle species under Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The listing will allow FWS to monitor the amount of international trade of the turtles and determine whether more protection is needed.
CITES is an international treaty signed and ratified by 180 countries that provides protections for species traded internationally. Appendix I and II provide strong protection for threatened or endangered species that are placed at further risk through international trade. Appendix III species receive less statutory protection, but mandatory permits and more rigorous inspections lead to better monitoring, record keeping, and scrutiny when crossing borders.
The four turtle species — the Florida soft-shell (Apalone ferox), smooth soft-shell (Apalone mutica), spiny soft-shell (Apalone spinifera), and common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) — are experiencing unprecedented losses from commercial trade, but it is unknown exactly how much trade is occurring. The systematic monitoring will allow FWS to generate enough data to determine how fast the turtles are being removed from the wild and whether current state and federal efforts are enough to ensure sustainable populations.
FWS is accepting comments on their proposal until December 29, 2014. Comments may be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov under Identification number FWS-HQ-ES-2013-0052. By hard copy, submit to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2013-0052; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, MS: BPHC; 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
Sources: Federal Register (October 30, 2014), USFWS website (October 29, 2014), Greenwire (October 30, 2014)
Members of the University of Maryland (UMD) Student Chapter in College Park, MD have been busy conducting several research projects in their surrounding community. Current on-going studies include e-Mammal camera trapping, deer density surveys and bat acoustics projects in Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, MD, a 40-acre nature sanctuary less than ten miles from the nation’s capital.
eMammal is a project available to volunteer scientists in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The goal of the project is to record mammals throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States. “Camera traps” are placed across various sites to record species’ distribution, abundance, and activity. UMD’s Student Chapter is in their second year of conducting the study and currently has several camera sites stationed along the Potomac River. Species recorded so far include white-tailed deer, red fox, Virginia opossum, and raccoon.
A camera trap set by the UMD Student Chapter captures two red fox near the Potomac River.
Image Credit: Shannon Pederson
Shannon Pederson, a PhD student at UMD and a teaching assistant for UMD’s wildlife courses, has been teaching student chapter members field techniques through a variety of wildlife surveys. Students are gathering data on the deer population size through the use of deer pellet counts and baited camera traps in the Woodend Nature Sanctuary. Bat acoustic surveys are also being conducted through the use of full spectrum bat detectors. She has also taken members to help check small mammal traps for National Park Service.
The projects offer members the opportunity to learn techniques in an outdoor classroom setting. Student Chapter President Sze Wing Yu says, “The most enjoyable part of our chapter’s research projects are being outdoors, meeting our members, and exploring nearby greenspaces, all the while contributing to real and useful scientific research. It is interesting that so many natural areas with urban wildlife exist around our school, and these ongoing projects benefit our current and future students by letting them discover these areas and providing hands-on experience in fieldwork techniques.”
Find more information on the chapter’s current projects at their Facebook page.
Sources: Shannon Pederson, Sze Wing Yu, eMammal, Woodend Sanctuary
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that it will provide $4 million to private landowners to improve honeybee health in the Midwest. The funds will be directed to farmers and ranchers to plant high quality pollen producing plants and improve management techniques during summer and early fall when the bees need to store up resources for the winter months. USDA will direct the funds through the Farm Bill’s Environmental Quality Incentive Program. Read the USDA’s Press Release.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently announced a decision to list two butterfly species for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Dakota skipper (Hesperia dacotae), found in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, has been listed as threatened while the Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek), found in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Manitoba, is now listed as endangered.
Both butterfly species have sustained large reductions in both range and population due to extensive losses of their grassland habitat from agricultural conversion. The Dakota skipperling can be found on only 25 percent of the sites it historically occupied while the Poweshiek skipperling can be found on only four percent of previously occupied sites. Scientists believe that the Poweshiek species has been totally extirpated from Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
FWS provided some regulatory exemptions for ranchers that use certain practices that help restore and maintain habitat for the butterflies. For example, some ranchers are enrolled in FWS and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) grassland and prairie easement programs that prevent cropland conversion. The Service referred to these voluntary conservation practices as the primary reason why the butterflies are still present on the landscape and noted that it hopes to continue working with landowners in future conservation efforts.
Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (October 23, 2014), Federal Register (October 23, 2014)
While searching for a newly discovered species of leopard frog —named for its green and beige spots — Jacob Kubel, a conservation scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, stumbled upon an extremely rare aberration of the species: a bright blue-colored frog. Read more at The Boston Globe.
At The Widlife Society’s 21st Annual Conference, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in Tifton, Georgia was recognized as the Student Chapter of the Year for their accomplishments during the 2013-2014 academic year. The award honors exceptional achievement by a TWS Student Chapter in advancing The Wildlife Society’s mission and goals. ABAC’s student chapter has promoted many of the Society’s goals, including wildlife education, wildlife stewardship, and professionalism.
In addition to participating in many volunteer opportunities with the Georgia DNR’s Game Management Section, as well as with other organizations throughout the community, the chapter is constantly organizing fun activities and networking opportunities. One of the activities this semester included a “Gecko Round Up”, which involves finding and catching geckos with the aid of a flashlight. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
The chapter also held a work day at the Elmodel Wildlife Management Area in Newton, GA to remove invasive species and restore habitat. Student members also regularly monitor wood duck nest boxes located around campus and organize group canoe trips.
ABAC’s student chapter is very involved at the local level of TWS as well as with other wildlife-related organizations. Thirty-two student members attended the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Georgia Chapter of TWS. Members were also present at the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) annual conference and the 2014 Southeastern Wildlife Conclave, where their chapter finished fourth place overall.
For more information on ABAC’s current activities visit their Facebook page.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that an urgent global effort is needed to drastically reduce emissions and stem a future of extreme weather, rising sea levels, and melting polar ice. Read more at the Washington Post.
The number of northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) left in the world now stands at six following the death of Suni, one of the subspecies’ last two breeding males. Park rangers at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy found the rhino in his enclosure on October 17.
Suni’s death at age 34 is unusual — northern white rhinos are thought to have a life span of 40 to 50 years. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy ruled out poaching and noted that Suni’s father died of natural causes at the same age. An official cause of death has yet to be determined, but veterinarians with the Kenyan Wildlife Service will conduct a necropsy as soon as possible, the conservancy said in a statement.
Northern white rhino numbers have plummeted in the last 50 years due to habitat loss and poaching fueled by political turmoil. In the 1960s, more than 2,000 rhinos roamed parts of Uganda, Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite conservationists’ best efforts, they were declared extinct in the wild in 2008.
Born at the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic, Suni was the first northern white rhino born in captivity. In 2009, he and three other rhinos were transported to the conservancy as part of a breeding program. To date, all attempts to produce offspring have failed — even with assistive reproductive technologies.
Reserve officials remain steadfast, however. “We will continue to do what we can to work with the remaining three animals on Ol Pejeta in the hope that our efforts will one day result in the successful birth of a northern white rhino calf,” the reserve stated.
If the last breeding male fails to produce a calf, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end for the subspecies. Scientists may be able to breed northern white rhino females with their southern relatives, whose population has tripled in size over the last 30 years to about 20,000 individuals today. “Crossing them is our last best hope, and would at least preserve some of the genes that the northern white rhino evolved,” said Matthew Lewis, senior program officer for African species conservation at the World Wildlife Fund.
“[The plight of the northern white rhino] is indicative of what is happening on a larger scale,” Lewis said. “We might not be losing whole species, but we are losing subspecies and the genetic and biodiversity they contribute.”
Wildlife.org is now your single destination for both TWS and wildlife news!
Your Society has taken a major step forward in improving both your experience with our website, and improving the public face of the organization to the rest of the world who may be visiting and learning about us for the first time.
“With separate websites for membership reference information and news, we weren’t making it easy for our members to enjoy all that we could offer through one unified website,” said Ed Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of The Wildlife Society. “We also realized that our membership website at wildlife.org was inward facing, organizing information primarily along internal department functions, not how members would actually use the site.”
At the new wildlife.org, anyone visiting primarily to conduct a transaction will find four handy links in the upper right corner of every page–Join, Renew, Donate and Log In. The “Log In” and “Renew” links take members to a screen where they can access their Member Portal using their email address and password.
The main navigation bar is set up to allow everyone to find reference information and resources related to the top benefits of TWS membership–networking, learning and how to get involved. Additionally, resources and information for the “Next Generation” of wildlife professionals, the “Hot Issues” facing TWS and wildlife, and a wealth of educational resources through the “Store” are also easily accessible.
“One of the key changes everyone will notice right away is our increased focused on news, and not just wildlife news,” Thompson said. “Once your eyes drift below the top navigation bar of our new site, members will find a wealth of news and information that will demonstrate the breadth and strength of this organization.”
Through our new website, you’ll see news about wildlife science, management and conservation, but you’ll also be hearing more news from headquarters and from The Wildlife Society’s amazing network of sections, chapters and student chapters across North America. Members and visitors will also be kept up to date on top features from major news outlets and other wildlife organizations through our new “FYI News” section in the lower right corner of the page.
“Ultimately, we want our members to have a robust and informative website that they value and visit frequently because they find it helpful and interesting,” Thompson said. “And we also want to provide them with a website that inspires them to share it with everyone in their professional and personal network.”
