Banff on alert after disease found in elk

Saskatchewan cases the first in Canada

Cathy Ellis,
For The Calgary Herald

Published: Saturday, August 16, 2008

Banff
National Park officials are keeping close tabs on the local elk
population after the first cases of chronic wasting disease in wild elk
showed up in Saskatchewan.

Deer in Alberta and Saskatchewan have
tested positive for the disease -- a fatal brain illness of mule deer,
white-tailed deer and elk. But officials in Saskatchewan report this is
the first time it has been found in wild elk in Canada.

Jesse
Whittington, wildlife specialist for Banff National Park, said chronic
wasting disease is one of the most important diseases that Parks Canada
monitors for, and has been doing so for several years now.

Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak

By Andy Malby, editor

Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday.
“We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.”

The Belgrade News

Mysterious, fatal disease bound for elk feedgrounds

 

A cousin of mad cow, chronic wasting disease is a worry for Jackson Hole’s wildlife economy.

Forrest Keizer, top, and Cole Hansen herd a cow elk infected with chronic wasting disease into a laboratory at the Wyoming Game and Fish Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center in Sybille, Wyo. NEWS&GUIDE PHOTO / CORY HATCH
View our entire photo gallery >>

By Cory Hatch Jackson Hole, Wyo.

August 6, 2008

Outside a laboratory at the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center at Sybille near Laramie, there’s a clattering of hooves against steel.
A small black-and-white security screen shows a 400-pound female elk barreling down a corridor of corral panels toward us. She charges into a small pen and she stands there – eyes bulging, mouth foaming and teeth clicking in agitation.

Jackson Hole News&Guide | Mysterious, fatal disease bound for elk feedgrounds

Rare deer to be released back into the wild

Queen's initiative to increase animal numbers
By Apinya Wipatayotin

After disappearing from the forest in Uthai Thani more than three decades ago, the Eld's Deer will return to the Thungyai-Huay Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuaries in the central province next week. The National Resources and Environment Ministry has scheduled the release of 77 of the deer, called Lamang in Thai, into the World Heritage site in Uthai Thani province on Friday in a ceremony to be presided over by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.

Bangkok Post | General news | Rare deer to be released back into the wild

The Moose/Wolf Dynamic - washingtonpost.com

A prey and predator relationship on Isle Royale

SOURCE: Isle Royale Wolf/Moose Study | GRAPHIC: By Patterson Clark, The Washington Post - July 21, 2008

The Moose/Wolf Dynamic - washingtonpost.com

The Associated Press: Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone

By MATTHEW BROWN – 23 hours ago

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area.

Government agencies have killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone over the last two decades in an attempt to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young.

Cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are being infected, and livestock officials in both states are now targeting elk as the cause.

The Associated Press: Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone

Humans leave rare antelope with few options for survival

 

Humans leave rare antelope with few options for survival
Story by TOM MATOKE
Publication Date: 6/26/2008

Increased food production and commercial activities at a wetland in Nandi North District, have not only contributed to the destruction of the environment, but are also a threat to the sitatunga, a rare aquatic antelope.

Wananchi examine the rare sitatunga antelope. Photo/ FILE

The burning of the Kingwal area for cultivation during the dry season, has reduced the cover of the swamp, which is the habitat of the antelope, only found in Nandi and in Trans Nzoia districts.

Most of the wetlands in Nandi, where the rare antelope lives, have been encroached by farmers and other people for commercial purposes. The locals have not only engaged in agricultural activities, but also in large-scale production of bricks for construction, hence destroying parts of the wetland leaving this rare antelope species exposed to poachers, who hunt it for meat, which is believed to have medicinal properties.

The swamp faces extinction as farmers have also planted water-draining eucalyptus trees next to it.

Last month, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Mr Julius Kipng’etich, led a team to parts of North Rift and Western Province to champion the protection of the animals.

Nationmedia.com | Daily Nation | NEWS EXTRA | Humans leave rare antelope with few options for survival

Remains of ancient beast found in N.W.T. permafrost

CBC News

A man walking in a small Northwest Territories community has stumbled across what paleontologists believe could be the carcass of a steppe bison that roamed before the last Ice Age.

Shane Van Loon displays the ancient animal skull he found last week in Tsiigehtchic, about 230 kilometres south of Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories. Paleontologists believe the animal was a steppe bison that lived more than 20,000 years ago.
(CBC)

The remains of the beast were uncovered in the permafrost near an eroding cliff, said Shane Van Loon, who first came across the pre-historic find last week while walking along the riverbank in Tsiigehtchic, about 230 kilometres south of Tuktoyaktuk.

Van Loon said something strange was jutting out of the permafrost from an eroding cliff, so he climbed up for a closer inspection and noticed the frozen animal hide and bone, as well as a large-horned skull that measures one metre wide from horn to horn.

Remains of ancient beast found in N.W.T. permafrost

Debunking Brucellosis Myths

 

Debunking Brucellosis Myths

Montana just lost its brucellosis-free status, just as Idaho and Wyoming have in recent years, and stockgrowers and politicians blame the bison and elk herds living in Yellowstone National Park. But who's really at fault?

By Bill Schneider, 6-12-08

The cause or the victim? Photo by Benjamin Earwicker.

Montana just lost its brucellosis-free status, just as Idaho and Wyoming have in recent years. Whenever this happens, stockgrowers and politicians rush to blame the bison and elk herds living in Yellowstone National Park and the government for not doing enough to eradicate the disease.

When they should be blaming themselves.

Ranchers, especially in Wyoming but not only in Wyoming, have done more than anybody, even the federal government, to keep the brucellosis threat alive. And you could even argue that they want to keep it alive.

Debunking Brucellosis Myths | Politics | New West Network

The Associated Press: Bison industry recruits ranchers as prices rise

Now the U.S. bison industry is trying to encourage more people — be they veteran cattle ranchers or newcomers like the Popps — to start raising the animals to help meet growing demand nationwide.

"People understand the health benefits of bison. More people are trying it," said Susan Popp, 42. "It's not quite so exotic."

Since they began more than a decade ago, the Popps' Black Forest Bison ranch boasts a herd of about 60 buffalo, and their store in Colorado Springs is looking for more bison suppliers.

"If things keep going with the demand growing the way it is, we need to get some more people out there raising buffalo," said Dave Carter, executive director of the Denver-based National Bison Association.

The industry, which touts the meat as a healthier, leaner alternative to beef, is offering an online "Bison 101" course, evangelizing the benefits of bison to lenders and expanding mentoring opportunities for new ranchers.

The Associated Press: Bison industry recruits ranchers as prices rise