Controversial wildlife bills are only part of it- Most of the attention by those interested in wildlife in this year’s Idaho legislature have focused on Governor “Butch” Otter’s 2-million dollar wolf killing bill as it continues to advance toward law. Nonetheless, there are other wildlife bills and a host of additional scary, strange, and backwards…
Gov Walker, deer czar Kroll, some hunting groups become passive over brain rotting disease- It’s aim for the lowest common denominator in management of Wisconsin’s huge whitetail population. The incidence of chronic wasting disease (CWD), the prion-based malady that turns deer (and elk and moose) brains into sponges has gone from a half per cent…
After 22 years as the chief biologist at the National Elk Refuge, Bruce Smith pens an easy-to-read, but stark warning about continuing elk feeding- Prions are bit like tiny pieces of radioactive material in that they are very dangerous promoters of illness and for practical purposes never really go away, resting in the dust and…
It’s in their droppings, and the infectious prions never go away! Really, really bad news about chronic wasting disease. Study Spells Out Spread of Brain Illness in Animals. By Sandra Blakeslee. New York Times. “Dr. Aiken said prions tended to bind to clay in soil and to persist indefinitely. When deer graze on infected dirt,…
The National Elk Refuge feeds its elk alfalfa pellets, which are easy to distribute around the Refuge, and so reducing the concentration of elk. They think this might reduce the spread of elk and bison diseases. Nevertheless, a sportsman group (SFW-Wyoming) has taken to delivering hay to the Refuge the last two years on the…
This is from a news release today from the University of Wyoming. It is interesting that the rouge prions don’t show up in in the hearts of mule deer. There is of yet little evidence that CWD can jump from cervids to humans like mad cow did from cattle to humans. Nevertheless, I would be…
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.