Wildlife Disease

  • Below is a press release of interest to our readers. Jackson, Wyoming: Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently reported that the deadly Chronic Wasting Disease was detected in a female mule deer found dead near the Pinedale airport, about eight miles southwest of the Fall Creek feedground. This is the first case of CWD found…

  • The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department just closed the Yellowstone River to all water borne recreation in response to a growing epidemic that has killed thousands of fish. The culprit is Proliferative Kidney Disease which can cause up to 100 percent mortality. The disease is exacerbated by low water flows and high temperatures. Governor…

  • Is arrogant ranching to blame? After many articles here in TWN this year, and elsewhere, about the growing pneumonia epidemic in the bighorn sheep herd just north of Yellowstone Park continues, now 40% of the bighorn are dead. More bighorn are sick. Details in Yellowstone Gate. Now, there is little to stop the disease from…

  • Feeding continues even as chronic wasting disease moves closer- Jackson, WY – Yesterday afternoon, a coalition of four conservation groups filed formal objections to the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s recent decision approving an elk feeding ground in Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Valley. They are Western Watersheds Project, Wilderness Watch, Wyoming Chapter of Sierra Club, and the Gallatin Wildlife Association. The…

  • “We’re basically playing chicken with the feds. It’s basically more like extortion, . . .” Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne)- This session of the Wyoming legislature has been one to nurse grudges when it comes to livestock and efforts to curb its harmful side effects. The legislature passed a bill to criminalize the gathering of data…

  • Elk breeders push to relax rules. Legislature close to rejecting the breeders- White-tailed deer and the parasitic meningeal worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) coexist fairly well. They have fought each other to a near standstill in evolutionary conflict spanning perhaps a million years. The whitetails rarely get sick from these adult nematode type worms that live in…

  • Most elk since 1998 now being fed- Since 2015 began, the winter in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been the mildest in the memory of most folks.  As a result, the almost snow-free National Elk Refuge would be expected harbor only scattered elk, and the elk there would not be chowing down on compressed alfalfa pellets.…

  • B-T Forest renews elk feedground while admitting it will spread brucellosis, parasites and chronic wasting disease- Acting Bridger-Teton National Forest supervisor Kathryn Conant is going to renew the special use permit for Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Alkali Creek winter elk feedlot which is up the Gros Ventre River, sandwiched between the gravel road and…

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