Wildlife Disease

  • Suspected to have come from a domestic goat- The entire population of bighorn sheep in the Mohave National Preserve could die from pneumonia transmitted, probably, by a lone domestic Angora goat found in the desert near where the outbreak originated. The number of bighorn near Old Dad Mountain (200 to 300) has clearly declined and…

  • Yes, indeed it is from cats that roam outside- We won’t belabor this because we have discussed the dangers of the parasites in cat scat many times here. It is good to have CNN discuss it, however. The next time you step in it, after the standard “Oh S__t!” think “toxoplasmosis.”  Disinfect your shoes. The…

  • USFWS called “wrong” to say no grizzlies had been killed on Sheep Experiment Station on Idaho/Montana border, Continental Divide Area Boise, ID.  On May 17, 2013 the Western Watersheds Project, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Native Ecosystems Council and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation filed a suit in federal district court to challenge domestic sheep grazing that has been…

  • Fatal ungulate disease advances as Wyoming game managers continue on in denial- Our recent story on chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Wisconsin now has a followup in the treasured Greater Yellowstone country. In both places, wildlife managers and politicians continue to take a heedless attitude toward the always fatal elk, deer and moose disease,  and…

  • Disease ridden domestic sheep killed off the bighorn in early 1900s and pose the same disease barrier today- As has been written so many times, domestic sheep are full of diseases that are fatal to their wild cousin, the bighorn. Now plans to restore the mighty bighorn to the rugged Bridger Mountains to the northeast…

  • West Nile, Hantavirus, Plague- A zoonosis is an infectious disease transmitted between species, especially from animals to humans and vice versa. New strains of influenza are usually a zoonosis having emerged from DNA mixing in geese, pigs, birds and the like, but The Wildlife News is generally  concerned with zooneses like Rocky Mountain spotted fever…

  • First day of annual testing shows the dangerous disease in local mosquitoes- Throughout most of the 20th Century in the United States getting bitten by mosquitoes was an irritation, sometimes a major one, but something without lasting effects. This was never true in many other countries where Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, malaria, and many more…

  • Small canine predator chows down on white footed mice- People have sometimes blamed white-tailed deer as a factor spreading this growing menace, but a new study “Deer, predators, and the emergence of Lyme disease” hypothesizes through modeling and correlation analysis that the ecology of small mammal predators plays a key role in controlling or facilitating…

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