Support Wildlife Conservation in Ohio

Buy an Ohio Wildlife Legacy stamp!

While hunters automatically contribute funds towards the conservation coffers each time they purchase a hunting licenses, wildlife watchers (like birders and herpers) and native plant aficionados aren't required to make such contributions when they go outside to enjoy their favorite organisms. The result? Less money for habitat and wildlife conservation.

The Ohio Wildlife Legacy stamps are an attempt to fix this problem, by inviting all those non-hunters to contribute. With the holidays coming up, and at only $15 each, they make great gifts for that outdoorsy guy or gal on your gift list.  Even for those who do hunt or fish, and already buy licenses (which I believe can't be purchased as a gift) the Wildlife Legacy stamp might still be a much appreciated gift.

To purchase one (or more!), you can buy them online from the ODNR website, the Columbus Audubon Society's website, or you can buy them in person at the nearest ODNR Wildlife District Office.

Using Reptiles For Public Education, Outreach

Melissa Kaplan has a great website regarding reptiles in captivity, and included among her writing is some great advice for using animals in public outreach and education. Though geared towards reptiles, the comments I think apply broadly -- check it out!

In which a family cheers at the suffering and death of an animal...

Science is cold, emotionless.  It takes no moral positions, it has no fears, it's just a method for rooting out incorrect ideas by challenging those ideas with logic and data.  This is a good thing: it's what makes science so successful at giving us relatively objective descriptions of reality and how it works.

But scientists aren't science.  They do hold moral position, and sometimes they give a damn about something. That means the things they care about - be it puppies, women's rights, great music, historical buildings, or hot shoes - these things evoke emotion, and dictate action. Personally, I'm rather partial to snakes, which is why my blood boils when I watch this video of a family cheering as passing traffic repeatedly hits and eventually kills an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake...

Interestingly, I don't hate these people - I don't even dislike them (which I'll admit feels a bit odd - I feel like I should). Certainly, if I were in their shoes, I would have jumped out of the car and tried to saved the snake. But that's me - I know a fair bit about rattlesnakes, and through that knowledge I've developed a great deal of appreciation for them.

That's important, so I'll reiterate: my knowledge of snakes has brought me to appreciate them. Science may be cold and emotionless, but the factual details it provides can significantly shape our morality - our sense of good and bad, right and wrong - and I think this is generally true for nearly everyone.  I'll let Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris elaborate (although see Massimo Piggliucci's commentary for a critique of Harris's talk)...




So when I see videos like the first one above, I don't see an evil family of ruthless sadists raising sociopathic  children.  In fact, I'd be surprised if they weren't actually a rather likable and otherwise decent family.

What I do see is a family that doesn't live near a good nature center. That doesn't spend much time at high quality zoos. That lives where the schools have ineffective biology teachers. A family with no pet reptiles, maybe no pets at all. Mom and dad are almost certainly not biologists, probably don't get out into nature much, and the kids probably don't want to become doctors or social workers or biologists (yet!).

What I see is the target audience of every science and nature educator ever to speak to the public.

Ignorance is the problem, education the solution.  

2010 Arctic Ice Update: It's Melting...

Photos of Wildlife Affected By The BP Oil Spill

There is a growing collection of wildlife photos from the gulf oil spill up on the web (e.g. here, here and here), but like so many other wildlife photos in the media many organisms are woefully unlabeled, or even labeled incorrectly (gasp!).  I mean come on folks, "bird" and "turtle"? We can do better than that!

Check out the photos below, for example, and if you're an ID-fiend feel free to take a stab at identifying these species (speculation and/or solid IDs are welcomed in the comments section).

On a side note, the media has basically been shut out of most of the affected areas.  This basically cuts off public access to these kinds of images which portray the huge impact the oil spill is having on coastal and marine ecosystems.  Images like those below or others like these from the Boston Globe, are less common in the press than they should be - so do take some time and check them out.


Photo #1:

A bird covered in oil flails in the surf at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Photo #2:

A sea turtle is mired in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Grand Terre Island, Louisiana June 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Lee Celano)

Photo #3:

An oil soaked bird struggles against the oil slicked side of the HOS Iron Horse supply vessel at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana Sunday, May 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Photo #4:

A dead turtle floats on a pool of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana Monday, June, 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

New Reptile Laws For Ohio?

Last week Ohio Governor Ted Strickland made an agreement with the Humane Society of America and "agricultural interests" that may impact laws regarding the owership of large reptiles.  You can read some press here, here and here.  A copy of the agreement can be found here and here.

Of particular interest are these two points in the agreement (emphasis added by me):

2) The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will coordinate and take action on wild and dangerous animals including the prohibition of the sale and/or possession of big cats, bears, primates, large constricting and venomous snakes and alligators and crocodiles. Existing owners will be grandfathered in, but they could not breed or obtain new animals.
...

10) The HSUS will not submit a constitutional amendment on animal welfare in 2010 to the Ohio Secretary of State. Failure to implement the provisions related to wild and dangerous animals or the reforms recommended to the OLCSB by December 31, 2010 could void the agreement and allow the HSUS to pursue a ballot initiative whenever it chooses. However, if the terms of this agreement are met and implemented to the satisfaction of all parties, the agreement will extend to January 1, 2014. At that time the agreement shall be extended through January 1, 2017, and subsequently through January 1, 2020, if the terms continue to be met, and no party shall reasonably withhold its consent to the extensions. Any future pursuit of a ballot initiative by HSUS could nullify the limitation on gestation crate or battery cage facilities until and unless other lawful prohibitions come to exist.

It's sad the agreement uses such vague terminology. What about other large predators, like hyenas or wild canines? And what counts as "large" or "venomous"?  Do they count venomous species like the harmless-to-humans Ringneck Snakes?  Would a stringy, 13 foot carpet python  be too big?

HSUS appears to only condone keeping pets if those pets are mammals, birds or fish.  Reptiles and amphibians? Nah -- they all make bad pets. 

Here's what HSUS has to say about snakes...

So many people seem to be afraid of snakes that some experts speculate this is a predisposition inherited from our distant primate ancestors. But snakes are not out to get us, and will avoid people as much as they possibly can. These incredible creatures fare best when left alone in their natural environment, not as pets.

As beautiful as some snakes are, they do not make good pets. A girl was killed by a python kept as a pet in 2009. People get snakes when they’re small and may let them loose as they grow. Burmese pythons have invaded the Everglades and could spread—and other species may follow. Help stop the trade in large constrictor snakes as pets.
...

Seems odd for them to include mention of a snake-related death here (e.g. no mention of deaths on their dog page) but I suppose it's an otherwise reasonable blurb. Well, except that they're wrong. Some snakes do make good pets! At least as good as fish and birds, if I do say so myself.

So why all the fuss?  Maybe it's a safety concern? How big of a problem are large captive snakes?

According to REXANO (Responsible Exotic Animal Ownership) in this summary (PDF), the number of deaths from large constrictors in the U.S. between 1990 and 2008 was a whopping eight.   Yup, eight deaths over almost two decades.

While each of those deaths is tragic, this statistic hardly warrants a campaign to completely ban "large" constrictors. Even correcting for the number of snakes in the U.S. over that time period, it still strikes me as a very low number.   If 8 deaths in 18 years warrants a ban, then it's puzzling how we can still comfortably allow dogs, horses, and backyard swimming pools - each of which kill more people in a single year than large constrictors have killed in nearly two decades. Banning big snakes is not the solution.

My advice for HSUS is that it needs to reevaluate (or be more clear about) it's motives and rationale, particularly regarding why a ban is the best solution to whatever problem(s) they are concerned about. After all, "so many people seem to be afraid of snakes..."

ADDENDUM:  All that said, there is plenty of room to improve the humane treatment of captive reptiles and to protect wild reptile populations.  For more on the reptile trade, I highly recommend Bryan Christy's book and blog.

The First American Oil Spill?

The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop Hill, Jan 10, 1901
[Source: The American Petroleum Institute & PRI]

I was watching the History Channel this evening, and caught part of a program that included some of the history of oil prospecting in the U.S.

One of the pivotal drilling attempts occurred at the turn of the century in - you guessed it - Texas.  The particular location was on a hilltop called Spindle Top, located near Beaumont, Texas, and the find opened up the vast oil reserves below the Texas soil.

You can read more about those early days in the Hand book of Natural Gas by Henry Palmer Wescott (Yay, Google books!).

So why am I bringing all this up?  Perhaps not ironically, this early find started with a bit of an oil spill - nothing like the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but it still caught my attention as an example of the real challenges we still face tapping these deep, pressurized pockets of crude.

While I'm poking around in historical documents, here's part of a newspaper article published in the Houston Daily Post shortly after the find on January 11, 1901.

OIL STRUCK NEAR BEAUMONT.
A Stream of Petroleum Shot Into the Air for a Hundred Feet.
Prospector Who Has Been at Work for Two Years
Has His Faith Rewarded -- The Flow Is Esti-
mated at 5000 Barrels Per Day.

Beaumont, Texas. January 10.--Beaumont is excited tonight and it has good reason to be. About three mils south of the city there is spouting an oil well the equal of which can not be seen elsewhere in the United States and probably in the world.

Captaion A. F. Lucas, a geologist of Washington, D. C., made the lucky strike. The captain has been prospecting in the vicinity of Beaumount for more than two years.  He has spent thousands of dollars with indifferent results until this morning, when the inside pipe in a hole in which he was operating blew high into the air, and it was followed by a six-inch stream of oil, which spouts nearly fifty feet higher than the sixtey-foot derrick.
...
The post correspondent visited Captain Lucas this afternoon, but that gentleman was so happy over his strike that he would not talk. He merely hugged the reporter and pointing to oil as it sailed high into the air, said: "Its equal can not be seen on this earth." Under existing conditions there is no way of estimating the flow of oil, but Captain Lucas says 5000 barrels per day would be exceedingly low...

By today's standards, it would indeed be exceedingly low, but at the time - that was quite a gusher! That well spewed oil for a few days before it was finally brought under control (if I can trust my recollection of what I heard on the History Channel...). While I doubt it got any bad press at the time - for better or worse - it went on to help fuel the last century of the modern industrial era.

Capturing a Record-breaking Burmese Python in Florida

A couple of months ago, non-native Burmese Pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) began their breeding season in Florida -- at least the few who survived the large die-off this past winter.  By exploiting the breeding ecology and behavior of these hefty reptiles, wildlife managers use radio (or GPS?) tagged males to track down other pythons as part of their efforts to remove this invasive population.

In this post over at fieldherpforum.com, one member of a field crew has shared some photos and video from one such trip, where a tagged male lead the crew to a mating ball of five snakes:  the tagged male, three additional males, and one ginormous female. The big girl came in at a whopping 16'9" long and 134lbs!

Here's one photo of that tangled mass of snakes, plus some video just before and after the roundup.

Science, Innovation and the BP Oil Spill

Bill Nye (yup, the Science Guy) critiques suggestions to clean up the ongoing BP oil spill.  Decent commentary on some challenges posed by the spill, and the fundamental importance of scientific and technological expertise the effort will require.

Amazing Story from Gorilla School

A brief "must watch" video of a Damian Aspinall's visit with a western lowland gorilla (G. g. gorilla) which he helped raise and reintroduce to the wild.  The video is part of the Animal Planet series Gorilla School. 

"Damian Aspinall's Extraordinary Gorilla Encounter on Gorilla School"

More about donating to help support gorilla conservation can be found at the Aspinall Foundation website, here or from other organizations such as the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund.

[Hat tip to Dr. Tom]

Raptors and Wind Farms

Note: I've been going through a backlog of draft posts and pulling out anything still worth posting.  This one, sharing video on the hazards posed by wind farms to resident and migrating raptors, was accidentally saved as a draft back in October 2009.

I recently saw this video when it was posted by a friend on facebook. He summed it up nicely:

[This is why] the placement of wind turbines needs to be very carefully considered.

Here's a more complete version of the story:

Unfortunately, wind farms often go up in prime airspace for locally breeders and migrating birds of prey, and can cause significant mortality from collisions like these.

Monday Mammal #3: West Indian Manatee

To showcase some of the wildlife impacted by gulf coast oil spill (see this post), this week's Monday Mammal is one that will likely be affected by the spill: The West Indian Manatee (Trichechus manatus).

An adult West Indian Manatee with calf [Source]

The West Indian Manatee is one of 3 living manatee species, and one of 4 living species in the mammalian order Sirenia, which also includes the Dugong (Dugong dugon).  These aquatic herbivores are thought to be most closely related to the elephant and hyrax, having evolved from land mammals a little over 60 million years ago.

Signs of their terrestrial ancestry include the toenails still present on their front flippers. [Source]

These large animals (known to some as "sea cows") need to eat a huge quantity of aquatic vegetation, and it appears the oil spill could harm them by damaging the seagrass beds they rely on, in addition to whatever harmful effects might occur by ingesting or becoming covered in the oil.

To make matters worse, the late cold snap in the south eastern U.S. this winter has already taken a toll on the population.  According to the Save the Manatee Club of Florida:

[The BP spill] is especially troubling since it comes on the heels of the worst manatee winter die-off ever experienced, with over 500 total manatees dead already this year.

You can read more about Manatees and Dugongs on the Sirenian International website and from the Save the Manatee Club. You can see more images of T. manatus from the wikimedia commons.

The Cost of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

This post will be updated regularly. There are links below to related articles, blog posts, and other resources on the flora and fauna affected by the gulf coast BP oil spill. If you know of other links or suggestions, please send them to me via email or in the comments below.

Bloggers, biologists, naturalists, science writers... I need your help. Life is about to get very bad for the inhabitants of the Gulf Coast, with the first waves of raw crude oil projected to reach shore in the coming days, if it hasn't already. While this will certainly have an impact on local economies and an even bigger impact on those who make their living from those waters, there will be a great many other living organisms and even entire ecosystems that will be utterly devastated by the spill.

So why don't more people seem to care?  While there is no single answer to that question , it is in part because pretty much every single person has absolutely no idea that most of the affected species even exist.  It's hard to fault someone for not caring about something they don't even know exists, and I'd bet most people would care if they only knew...  That, my friends, is where I need your help!

How you can help...

To help raise awareness of the environmental costs of the gulf coast oil spill, I'm asking others to take at least one of the follow actions to draw attention to particular species and ecosystems affected by the spill:

1. Share this post, and this request with others, and be creative about it -- encourage your local news paper's science writer to showcase the environmental costs of the spill, organize a public talk by local conservation groups, university or government researchers, and so on.  Check back now and then and share some of the posts below with your family, friends and coworkers.
2. If you have a blog, choose an organism -- plant, animal, or other -- and tell the rest of us about it. No blog? No problem... you can always write a guest-post for someone else's blog, or use other media outlets. You can make a video and post it on youtube, send some info you your local newscasters, do whatever you can think of!  Share pictures, natural history facts, economic value, whatever you can come up with to convey to the public why anyone should give a rat's tail about the demise of your chosen subject.  Once you've done that, if it's on the web, please send me the link and I'll include it below.
3. Stash some cash if you can, and consider donating to the recovery efforts.  I'll post more information below once I get the time to offer up suggestion.

Check back soon for updates!

 

Related Links...

Birds

• Bad Place, Bad Timing for and Oil Spill | Round Robin (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) 
• Gulf Coast Birds in Danger | Frank Gill, PhD. (CNN Opinion piece)

Mammals

• West Indian Manatee | The Obligate Scientist

General

• Impacts on Wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill | Ninjameys (Natural History Blog)
• Watching and Waiting | Living Alongside Wildlife
• Oil Spill Wildlife Rescue: Why Some Animals Receive Priority Care | Discovery News
• Pictures: Gulf Oil Spill Hits Land -- And Wildlife | National Geographic
• Photos related to the 2010 gulf coast oil spill | www.Flickr.com 
• Info on Methane Hydrates | The Obligate Scientist

News and Updates

• Gulf Oil Slick | Blog with great areal footage, environmental news
• NOAA's website on the Deep Water Horizon Spill, Gulf of Mexico | NOAA.gov
• USFWS wesbite on the oil spill response | FWS.gov
• EPA's website on the spill | EPA.gov
• Tracking the oil spill | CNN
• Cool Green Science | Nature Conservancy's Blogs

Other Links

• Gulf Coast Wildlife Workers Prepare For Worst | NPR's All Things Considered

Happy Earth Day!

An appreciation for nature and science is all about knowing what's out there in the world, and the ways of discovering how it all works.  To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day a valuable gift you can share with others (especially children) is the simple ability to observe.

In fact, if I had only one bit of advice on encouraging an interest in the natural world, it would be this: foster keen observation and encourage curiosity.

If you're thinking "... but, how?" well, you're in luck: getting started is easier than you think!

First, get outside and into close contact with the natural world.  This should involve dirt, maybe a little mud, plants, insects, rocks, untreated water, and a distinct lack of paved surfaces. Fortunately for most of us, this is as easy as heading into the back yard or to a nearby park or natural area.

Second, bring along tools that enhance the senses: magnifying lenses, binoculars, headlamps, telescopes, mirrors -- whatever you've got. Anything that broadens what one can observe with their own senses is going to enhance the experience.  Additional items to bring include things like nets and containers for temporarily collecting various critters. These are great items to bring along, but must be used responsibly and in accord with any local laws that might apply. 

Third, don't just passively observe, but be active about it!  Encourage interaction (safely, of course) and the active documentation of the experience. Passive forms of documentation (e.g. photographs) are easy, but do little to make one think about the experience or to get one to pay attention to details.  By "active documentation" I mean bring a notebook and measure things, count things, weigh things, describe things, identify things, and write it all down.

One of the very best ways I know to develop keen observational skills is to sketch, draw or otherwise describe subjects in a journal or field notebook.  You'd be amazed at the details you need to notice when trying to draw part of an insect under a magnifying lens, or a bird at your local park.  Later, encourage the use of field guides, books and online references to answer questions inspired by these experiences and notes from the excursion.

Whether you're a parent, teacher, part-time sitter, or just a friendly neighbor -- try and set aside some time today to teach someone something about our planet. 

No Child Left Inside on Earth Day 2010

Many will soon be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (April 22, 2010) by participating in various events and educational opportunities.  The No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Coalition is working to get kids outside as part of their efforts to promote environmental education and awareness -- a fantastic idea! If you aren't familiar with the importance of getting kids outside and involved in hands-on learning experiences, check out this short video:

For more information about getting outside on the Earth Day 2010, check out their Go Outside for Earth Day tool-kit resources.

A central goal of the NCLI coalition is to ensure public school students are provided adequate environmental education so they can meet future environmental challenges with well-informed and effective solutions.  To this end, they are working to pass the No Child Left Inside Act, which you can read more about on their website -- http://www.NCLIcoalition.org/ -- and below...

Background: The No Child Left Inside Coalition is a national coalition of over 1600 business, health, youth, faith, recreational, environmental, and educational groups representing over 50 million Americans. The entire list of coalition members is available here. The Coalition was formed in 2007 to alert Congress and the public to the need for our schools to devote more resources and attention to environmental education.

Goal: The Coalition is working to support legislation sponsored by Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland and Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island to ensure that every student achieves basic environmental literacy. The No Child Left Inside Act would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) to include environmental education for the first time. The legislation would provide new funding for environmental education, particularly to develop rigorous standards, train teachers and to develop state environmental literacy plans. It also proposes giving states that develop such environmental literacy plans access to additional funds.

Mid-week Reptilian #16: New Species of Monitor Lizard!

I love monitor lizards (if you haven't already suspected as much). They're just so intelligent, physically impressive, and generally handsome little (ok, in some cases huge) lizards that I don't see how someone could look into their eyes and not be captivated by them.

You might think that all monitor species pushing 6 feet in length have been discovered by now, but recent news (here, here, here, y aquí) out of the Philippines provides a nice reminder that there is still much in the world we have yet to discover and understand. 

Meet the latest addition to the list of known varanids, Varanus bitatawa (aka the Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor):

 Figure 1: Now isn't this V. bitatawa just the cutest thing you've ever seen? 

I mean, this kind of cute just eats up any of the competition! [Source]

The find was published today in Biology Letters (links below), though I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  The discovery itself is pretty big news, but the story gets better!!  These rather large monitors also have some pretty interesting ecology:  they're arboreal and (unlike almost all other monitors, which are carnivores) their diet is at least partly composed of fruit!!

Figure 2: More reptilian cuteness, which was probably followed 

by the photographer getting a nice tail lashing. [Source]

References:

1. L.J. Welton, C.D. Siler, D. Bennett, A. Diesmos, M.R. Duya, R. Dugay, E.L.B. Rico, M. Van Weerd, R.M. Brown. 7 April 2010. A spectacular new Philippine monitor lizard reveals a hidden biogeographic boundary and a novel flagship species for conservation. Biology Letters. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0119

Burmese Pythons in Florida

There's a nice trio of opinion pieces up on the NY Times website on Burmese Pythons in Florida, and what (if anything) should be done to prevent future introductions of non-native wildlife in the U.S.

My opinion? Various efforts to control non-native animals in Florida are a good thing, as are efforts continuing to study them while they persist.  But  I'm hardly a fan of any new laws regarding captive animals that aren't applied equally to species from all taxa (like fish or cats). Crack down on cat owners, and I'll warm up to similar efforts against python owners. Otherwise, let responsible reptile owners be.

[Hat tip to Bryan Christy, Burmese Pythons: The New Wolves]
 

What will come of the wolf hunts in Idaho, Montana?

Last week marked the beginning of the first wolf hunts in the lower 48 states in decades, following their recent removal from the endangered species list.  Montana and Idaho are both selling permits, which is good news to a lot of ranchers, deer and elk hunters, and other livestock owners - and bad news to a lot of wolf lovers.  One big question both sides are interested in is what will the impact be on the wolf populations?

According to this LA Times article, wolves are by no means as abundant as they used to be. 

Protected under the federal Endangered Species Act since 1973, when they were nearly extinct in the continental United States, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park and parts of Idaho in the 1990s and have since formed a large number of hunting and breeding packs that are beginning to range as far as Oregon.

The federal government concluded that the wolves, which now number about 1,650, had recovered, and lifted the endangered-species protections this year.

In Idaho, licenses to hunt wolves have been on sale for just over a week now, with over 9,000 already sold.  And yes, that means there are literally thousands more wolf hunters in Idaho this fall than there are individual wolves in all of the western U.S!

So, like, no more wolves - right?  Wrong.

First, the number of licenses is only the number of folks who get the opportunity to try and hunt a wolf. Unlike rabbits or squirrels, wolves aren't so easy to find so the vast majority of hunters are going home empty handed.  Indeed, some of those buying wolf tags won't even try to hard to find wolves - instead having them just in case they come across wolves after their livestock or while hunting other species like deer or elk.

To clarify things, we really need consider the quota set by the state wildlife agencies...

In Montana, the Fish, Wildlife & Parks department set the quota at 75 wolves of their estimated 500 wolves.

Commissioners approved a harvest quota of 75 wolves across three wolf management units. For northwestern Montana, the commission approved a quota of 41, with a subquota of two in the North Fork of the Flathead River area; a quota of 22 was approved for western Montana; and a quota of 12 in southwestern Montana.

In Idaho, the quota was set at 220 wolves, based on the 2008 estimate of a minimum of 846 in the state. 

Idaho’s Fish and Game Commission voted 4-3 for the wolf-hunt plan, with the three dissenters holding out for an even more aggressive hunt to target 49 percent, or up to 430, of Idaho’s wolves. Chairman Wayne Wright, one of the dissenters, declared, “Now’s the time to do the right thing. … Neither our state’s economy, our ranchers, our sportsmen or our elk herds can wait any longer.”

For reference, that's over half of the the 1,600+ wolves in the northern Rockies south of Canada (which harbors over 60,000 wolves), especially if you take that 846 as a minimum. More on the Idaho Fish & Game Commission's August 2009 decisions regarding the wolf hunts can be found here.

Using the more optimistic estimate of 1,000 wolves in Idaho being claimed by others, this still seems like a high quota that at best looks like it would yield zero growth or a decline in the state's wolf population.  I'm suspicious as to how this level of harvest could be sustained for multiple seasons given that the growth of the wolf populations has been below 20% annually in these areas in recent years, but who knows.  Throw in unexpectedly low reproductive rates these next few years and some combination of illegal poaching and/or the hunts going over quota and it looks to look a little more risky - though still not catastrophic.

So what's going to happen to the wolf populations in Idaho and Montana?  Who knows, but optimistically (or pessimistically, depending on how you feel about wolves) the population seems like it'll be maintained at near their current levels, maybe with a small decline the next year or two.  On the other hand, while I doubt they'll hunt them down to near extinction, hunting pressure could reduce them down to near or maybe even below the population size necessary to maintain their delisted status, though I doubt it.

I guess like so many things - only time will tell.

Black Market Wildlife: Who Cares!?

Hopefully you do, and if you don't - let me explain why you should.

First, here is a press release from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on a recent progress to stop the illegal trading of native reptiles and amphibians from New York state and nearby areas.

So why is the illegal trade of wild animals such a big concern? Not surprisingly, there are lots of reasons.

Lets begin with the most obvious reason: to ensure the health and persistence of existing wild populations. The demand for many wildlife species for food, pets, and/or for traditional "medicines" has lead to the drastic reduction in wild populations worldwide. There are countless examples of this happening all over the world. For example take the story of the Spix's Macaw (Wikipedia | birdlife.org) which went extinct in the wild in 2000.

For other examples, you can read more here from NPR and here at america.gov. To make a long story short - we humans do a pretty good job of wiping out wildlife unless we practice some restraint!

So what's our secret to being such efficient exterminators? Going back to the recent arrests in New York state, it's worth mentioning that these collectors endanger wild populations on a number of levels. The obvious harm comes from the removal of individuals from sensitive populations, which can lead to significant and long-lasting population declines. This is what we usually think of as the main problem. Additionally, however, the destruction of local habitat can also have a lasting negative impact on wild populations: see the results of this study for an example. Unfortunately, this fits a general pattern: overharvesting wild populations while at the same time reducing high quality habitat seems to be a great recipe for decimating a species.

Some people, perhaps you yourself, don't find this all that big of a problem - "so a few species go extinct - big deal!" Arguments against this sentiment can be found here and here, so I'll leave that issue alone for now. But even from this very extreme perspective, there is still more to be concerned about beyond species conservation alone!

Other big reasons to keep tabs on the trade of wildlife (reasons often overlooked in the public eye) are concerns about spreading disease and invasive species.

Wildlife can carry diseases that can be harmful to humans, livestock, and/or to the wildlife in other regions. Illegal trade in wildlife has a huge potential for the spread of costly diseases at a global scale - for example consider the recent worry about the global spread of bird flu, and the fact that SARS originated in bats or other wildlife before infecting humans. For more on wildlife and disease concerns, see this article and some of the other information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Invasive species can also cause a great deal of environmental, agricultural and economic damage, for examples see the impact of invasive species and check out the relatively new (2005) government website for the NISIC. For more on the invasive species side of the illegal trade in wildlife, check out the (more comical) hippos in Columbia, or the information available here.