Here is our new open thread on wildlife news topics. You can access the previous open thread here. Please post those comments and stories about wildlife you find interesting.
Continue Reading →It has been a very long time since a lynx has been documented in Idaho but this year there have been two of them. Recently there was one captured in a leg hold trap near Salmon, Idaho. The most recent sighting was in northern Idaho. This despite the USFWS saying that there aren’t any here. [...]
Continue Reading →Federal Court Decision Holds That Protecting Sage-Grouse Must Take Priority Over Livestock Grazing in Owyhee Canyonlands and beyond in Southwest Idaho
Early last week the federal district court of Idaho affirmed Western Watersheds Project’s challenge to five Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing decisions in southwest Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands that harmed Greater sage-grouse.
Continue Reading →Researchers from Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University published a report this week detailing the results of a 2010 telephone survey of Michigan residents. In total, the study contacted 973 residents (95% confidence level +/- 3.2% margin of error). Eighty-two percent of residents agreed that wolves have value; only 16% disagreed with the statement, [...]
Continue Reading →An interesting story about the increased sightings of snowy owls throughout the country. The first one ever seen in Hawaii was recently killed by USDA Wildlife Services because it was near the Honolulu airport. I know many who have seen them this winter in Idaho and Montana.
Biologists say that there has been a [...]
Continue Reading →Wolf watching in Yellowstone over the winter holidays far surpassed my expectations. In fact, it turned out to be some of the best ever, at least in terms of numbers. The fact that the Mollie’s pack of 19 wolves unexpectedly turned up in the Northern Range definitely helped!
Mollie’s pack is named after Mollie Beattie, [...]
Continue Reading →Recently the Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced that they are planning a “Wildlife Summit” to be held at the Riverside Hotel in Boise, Idaho. It was originally scheduled for September but after some concerns were raised about the timing it was moved forward to August 24-26th so as not to coincide with the [...]
Continue Reading →Years of legal pressure prompts favorable policy change
Public land domestic sheep grazers and bighorn advocates have been clashing for decades over land-use conflicts which place bighorn sheep populations at risk of deadly disease. With the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, favorable policy change promises new avenues of conflict resolution that [...]
Continue Reading →Tonight Rocky Barker published an official response from Wildlife Services on his blog. Surprisingly, Wildlife Services actually explains what the stickers represented but they go on to give the standard non-apology, apology which apologizes to people who might have been offended.
It amazes me that, with the microscope that we and others have put [...]
Continue Reading →On December 1st, at a presentation given by Bob Budd about the Wyoming Core Habitat Plan for sage grouse, it was pretty obvious that the livestock industry has things pretty much locked up with the agencies and politicians. The presentation was given in one of the big, new hearing rooms in the basement of the [...]
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