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Big old cougar toms keep “law and order” in the woods- The finding of this study might surprise many people, but it only confirms what a number of small studies have shown. Young sexually active cougar toms strike fear in cougar moms. Adolescent male cougars kill the kittens, and they are more likely to attack…
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Wolves now under Wyoming control and they are already being shot in state’s first wolf hunting season- Mike Jimenez, who has managed wolves in Wyoming for U.S. government for years now with a slowly growing wolf population and minimal livestock depredations, has written his last wolf news report. Here it is converted to a PDF…
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Badly managed cattle devastate the most remote public lands- “Till the cows come home” . . . that phase usually means a long time. That’s how it is on most of public lands of the Western United States. The cattle are put out before the grass and forbs (perennial flowers) are sturdy and ready for…
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Big public Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday- California Advances Wolf to a Candidate Endangered Species- The killing of the Wedge Pack continues to stir Washington State. Here is a sample of the stories as of a day ago. OPB Earthfix: Alpha Male Wolf In Wedge Pack Killed, Ending State Hunt Cascadia Blog: WDFW and…
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A big victory for conservation after years of political then legal wrangling- For many years U.S. national forest users battled over development of those areas with no roads (“roadless areas”). As the more economically valuable roadless area were developed first, those that remained were usually developed only because of ever increasing federal subsidies. Roads in…
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SAGE GROUSE: PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSES When I was in college, one of my favorite courses was animal behavior. One of the more memorable lessons I learned was the difference between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. Proximate and ultimate causes of events are important to distinguish. For instance, say a researcher finds that sedimentation…
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What a difference a state can make- When you leave Idaho for Oregon, it seems like more Idaho for a long distance. The same is true to a lesser extent in Washington State, but this story certainly shows, politically speaking, for the conservation of a controversial endangered species, Olympia is not like Boise, Idaho; Helena,…
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Someone is using the artificial sweetener, xylitol, to presumably poison wolves in the Wood River Valley. It is unclear whether any wolves or other canines have been poisoned but one dog has died and another has been sickened by eating xylitol laced meatballs placed in the Lake Creek area. A picture online shows several of…