North Carolinian Johnny Morris Wins Bid For Idaho’s First Wolf Tag

Johnny Morris ,the founder of Bass Pro Shops, bid $8000 to be the first to get a wolf tag for the state of Idaho. Idaho is allowing 6 tags to be auctioned off by sportsman / conservation groups with the proceeds going to wolf restoration. The first tag was auctioned off by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation AP is reporting that Johnny Morris plans to give the tag to his son who already has a hunt planned for Idaho.

Bear Population Soars In Mountains So Does Conflicts

The Southern Appalachian Bear Study Group reports a record year for bears in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Frank Van Manen, research ecologist with the University of Tennessee and chairman of the study group, said one indication of the expanding population is that bears have moved out of the mountains into areas like Piedmont in North Carolina and northern Alabama that haven’t traditionally been identified as bear habitat.
“Wildlife agencies have been incredibly successful in their bear recovery efforts,” Van Manen said. “Now, perhaps we’re dealing with the aftermath of that, with black bears moving into areas they’ve never been, or haven’t been in decades.”

KnoxNews

Conflicts with bears have also increased which is not surprising. Reports of bears killing livestock like the sow with cubs that killed a flock of chickens this past summer or the bear this week that killed a llama that was guarding a flock of sheep are somewhat unusual.

Marian Sigmon said she was taking her cat out about 6:45 a.m. when she heard the llama scream in the pasture, where the 6-foot-tall animal was stationed as a guard animal for Shetland sheep.
Sigmon and her husband, Robert, were able to chase the bear away to the edge of the pasture on Jones Cove Road. The llama was euthanized because its injuries were so severe.

Citizens Times

Conflicts with humans will naturally increase as bears move into new areas or areas with higher concentrations of humans. While with some species carrying capacity of the land is important with bears it seems that the cultural capacity is paramount.

Van Manen said that while the region may be biologically capable of supporting even more bears, it’s clear that in some areas, the population has reached its cultural capacity as determined by people’s willingness to tolerate bears visiting their bird feeders or breaking into their homes.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will have to make some decisions as bear human conflicts increase.
I assume that part of tomorrow’s free lecture at NC Wildlife on Centennial Campus will cover that aspect of bear management. Educating humans about living in bear territory and those who now find themselves in bear territory can help but how much they’ll tolerate bears is just as important. Bears for the most part will avoid confrontations with humans but they are predators and will make the most of any opportunities they have. Fatal attacks on humans are rare but not unheard of.
I like bears and hope to see them continue to increase however in the more populated areas of the Piedmont and the Triangle I’m not sure it’s too good of an idea to see them in those parts of the state.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission biologist Colleen Offenbuttel will be presenting a free lecture on Black Bear Research and Management in North Carolina this month. The lecture will be held on Wednesday the 14th of October at the Centennial Campus at 4pm.

Coyotes Are Problematic For Farmers In Cape Fear Region

The Fayetteville Observer is reporting an ever increasing conflict with farmers and coyotes in their area as the coyote population solidifies its presence in the state.

Cumberland County farmer Tracy Gardner figures that coyotes have killed as many as 30 of his calves in one winter.
Clifton McNeill Sr. said that over a period of three to four weeks recently, he has lost six or eight watermelons a night to the animals.

The coyote is certainly a critter of opportunity and it will prey on whatever it can find to eat be it wild animal, livestock, or family pet.

“There ain’t no telling how many calves I lose with them,” said Tracy Gardner, who is 53. “It’s a mess. It’s been a mess for the last 10 years. They’re here. You can hear them, and you can see the tracks.”
Livestock farmers on River Road have found calves killed by coyotes in pastures, according to Eastover Mayor Charles McLaurin, who owns Eastover Artworks and Furniture Sales.
“One was killed here maybe a month or two ago below a house on Baywood Road,” he said. “It was about 40 or 50 pounds.”
“We hear about them all the time, and we have for years. It’s not just started happening.”
Much of the attention the coyote gets is from its tendency to prey on cattle. Small farm animals such as goats, sheep and foals may be at risk as well.

The coyote will also target crops like the watermelons in this story or the figs I reported on a few weeks ago.

“They’re hard to see,” said McNeill, an 82-year-old produce farmer in Gray’s Creek.
Protected by the night, the animals can destroy a watermelon patch. “Those strong teeth and jaws they have,” said McNeill, “they’ll bite right into a watermelon and ruin it. They eat what they want and leave the rest.”
Likewise, he has seen the damage they can do to a field of sweet corn, tearing down the stalks.

The coyote’s adaptability has certainly help it expand into the eastern United States and will pretty much guarantee it is here to stay. In North Carolina there is no closed season on coyotes so hunters can pursue them year round. As with any wild animal the coyote population needs to be kept in check and hunting and trapping is the best cost effective means to do that.

While I do not see the coyote as a positive addition to the wildlife scene in North Carolina I also do not see it as the worst or most destructive. I believe the rapidly expanding feral hog will be a bigger nemesis to farmers and landowners and will overshadow the coyote in ten years or so.

Moose Vs. The Wiley Coyote

About a week ago I promised to tell a story about coyotes. My father in law was having something stealing figs off his trees and I suspected deer. He set up a game camera and to our surprise it was coyotes. We knew they were around because they have been seen a time or two but now we knew they were eating the figs. I hunt his land often, mostly killing deer as of yet the turkeys haven’t moved in and with coyotes around it could delay them taking up residency. I don’t like to compete with other hunters so these yotes got to go.
A week ago this past Saturday I was out at the property before day break and set up quickly to see if I could get a coyote to show himself. I set up a blind, had a fawn decoy, fawn in distress call and my trusty shotgun with buckshot. 10 minutes into the hunt I realized I forgot the most important thing….THE THERMACELL. The skeeters tore me up.

After about an hour I realized that only hawks and crows were going to come to the calls. The sun was getting up and it was getting warm plus I was down at least a quart of blood so I called it a hunt. I was disappointed that I hadn’t even seen the coyote but I guess he wasn’t interested in a deer dinner. Later that day I was talking to my brother telling him about the coyote and how I struck out trying to call him. I lamented the fact that no matter how hard I looked in the Cabela’s catalog I couldn’t find a Fig Call.
Well my ever helpful brother told me I should sing the Fig Newton song and about an hour latter this video hit my box. I’ll get that coyote but don’t look for me to do a song and dance routine to get him.

Fair Chase and Senator Feinstein

So are we to believe that the Senator is going to take up hunting with her concern over fair chase when it comes to Alaska wolves? Somehow I doubt it but I did get a kick out of a recent editorial on the subject in Juneau Empire

Feinstein did so, at least in part, because she believes the state’s effort violates “the hunting principle of fair chase.”
No, it does not, because, as she said, Alaska’s wolf control program is not sport.
“Fair chase” is a loose, ever-shifting set of guidelines employed by individual hunters who, for a variety of personal reasons, often make their hunts more difficult for themselves and thus potentially less lethal to their prey. More power to them, but such standards are illogical when attempting to manage wildlife populations.
What homeowner would set a mouse trap but leave it unbaited just to give the mice a chance? What farmer would put cats in the barn but remove their claws so the rats have a fair shake?
When attempting to control an animal population, neither individuals nor the government can apply standards of fair chase, because those standards are designed solely to make success more difficult. In a control effort, the intent is to kill the animal. The most efficient, quickest method should be used. The state of Alaska follows that mandate when it kills wolves using gunners in aircraft.

The editorial is right on the money the killing of the wolves by the state of Alaska is not for sport but an effort to control specie that is getting out of balance. This is a smoke and mirrors attempt by the Senator to inject an idea to cloud the issue that just doesn’t belong in the discussion to begin with. If the Senator wants to look at some guiding principles how about this one;

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Federal government has become too powerful and we need it to go back to the principles established by our founding fathers and restore the rights of the states and the people.

The Downside Of Building Wildlife Habitat

In my post earlier this morning I talked about constructing backyard habitat to encourage wildlife but I failed to mention the potential downside to encouraging wildlife. A story hit my mailbox about the town of Ardmore NC and coyotes moving into residential areas.

A Triad resident spotted a coyote in his back yard, and now he’s saying some pets are missing.
Neighbors in Ardmore said they can hear what have become the familiar yelps of a coyote late at night.
“I was mowing the yard and he came up,” said resident Sheldon Hoffman. “He came right up to those bushes behind me.”

WXII12

Developing cover for wildlife even in urban areas can encourage them to settle in an area even if it maybe a specie you’re not excited about having near your home.

Even though Ardmore is in the heart of Winston-Salem, it’s back yards like Hoffman’s that make the perfect habitat for a coyote den, wildlife officials said. When coyotes call overgrown brush their home, it means the neighborhood is their feeding ground.

Controlling the size of the brush you allow on your property will control to some extent what critters will set up and live there. However remember the smaller critters are part of the food chain that could bring larger predators in to your yard.
I don’t think that having a fox or coyote hunting in your yard is necessarily a bad thing but depending on where you live if that critter becomes a nuisance your options of dealing with it are limited.

Since Hoffman’s sighting, two cats on Westover Street have disappeared. Neighbors said they worry about what could disappear next.
“Someone’s dog, or heaven forbid a little child would be hurt, attacked or killed would be going too far,” said Ardmore resident Josh Kwasmy.
Before things get out of hand, Hoffman said he wants the dangerous animal trapped and taken outside of Ardmore and Winston-Salem.

Capturing and relocating while it sounds like a reasonable response is really not practical. For one the critter was attracted to that area in the first place because it provided what it needed to survive moving it will only encourage more to move in because of the void. If you want it gone you have to change something in the habitat to discourage it. That is not always possible so you may have to learn to learn to coexist.
When coexisting becomes difficult a more lethal method maybe your only option. I have just a story to tell you about shortly so stay tune.

You Might Not Otter Be Swimming Here

Brigitte France an Austrian on vacation in Wisconsin had a rather unusual wildlife encounter the other day. It seems that Brigitte was out for her customary morning swim when a trio of otters seemed to take exception to her morning swim.

“For 14 years, I swim in that lake,” Brigitte France said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I like to swim long distances. I swim close to shore so I could get out if something happens.”
When she heard the hissing last Wednesday morning, she turned in the water and saw an otter poking its head out of the water.
“I thought it was really cool,” she said. “I’d never seen an otter before. Then, all of a sudden, there were three of them.”
The otters dived and popped up farther out in the lake. France resumed swimming.
“All of a sudden, one of the otters popped up just a couple meters from me, next to me,” said France, an elementary school teacher. “That made me feel uncomfortable. I decided to get out of the water. I swam right to the bank, about 3 or 4 meters away from me.”
The trouble began just as she approached the lake shore.
“I had my hands on the ground,” she said, “and there they were — one on the right leg and one on the left leg.”
The otters bit her eight or nine times, she said.
“I shook my legs, and they went away,” France said.
She says she remained calm as the otters bit her and that the bites “never really hurt much.”
She believes the otters were adults.

Duluth News Tribune

While I’m sure at the time this was no laughing matter the unusualness of this story along with the mental images of someone getting chased by a group of otters is somewhat amusing. The story does not make it sound like Wisconsin authorities plan to do anything about these otter ruffians but Mrs. France is undergoing the multiple rabies shot regiment. On the bright side she otter have some great stories to share with family and friends when she returns home to Austria next week.

Nuisance Critters And NCWRC

Most people like wildlife until it becomes a nuisance or a threat to them or their property. A couple of stories in the news today with foxes terrorizing Wake County and a bear with cubs in the mountains doing the same thing.

Nancy Nau has felt like a hostage for the last six weeks, threatened by a fox that appears around her Quail Hollow home and barks at her and her two cocker spaniels.
On Saturday, she watched as the fox squeezed through fence posts to get into her backyard. She and her neighbors have spotted it with what they believe are its two babies. She can’t grill outdoors and has to let her dogs relieve themselves in her garage. She drives a few minutes to Eastgate Park so they can get some exercise and fresh air.
“I’m a prisoner in my own home,” she said.

N&O

NCWRC does not control trapping of foxes that is set by the counties. Wake county does not have a fox trapping season despite what appears to be an increase in the population. Whether it is an actual increase or just more encounters with humans due to habitat loss is up for debate. Homeowners have few options because NCWRC will not intervene unless the animal is sick or a significant threat.

Joe Folta, the commission’s wildlife biologist for District 3, which includes Wake County, said state law gives residents two options.
If an animal causes at least $50 of property damage or poses an imminent threat, homeowners can shoot it as long as local laws allow it. If an animal is killed, the death must be reported to the commission within 24 hours.
If shooting an animal isn’t an option, residents can apply for a permit, which would allow them, a family member, a neighbor or a wildlife damage-control agent to trap the fox.

Then in the mountains a bear with cubs have been stealing chickens from a family.

Cindy Woody feels as if she is running a fast-food restaurant.
A 400-pound black bear and her three cubs have stolen all of Woody’s 30 chickens out of her family’s chicken house over the past month, ripping through the chicken wire and wooden walls, leaving behind only feathers and body parts.
A flattened dog pen and mangled cage in the Woody’s backyard are all that remain of the bears’ latest foray into her coop Monday night. The family has three chickens left in a small coop in the backyard, but Woody says she thinks it is only a matter of time before the bear eats them, too.
“It’s a Chick-fil-A down there,” Woody said.

Citizens Times

Some want NCWRC to move the bears but studies show that bears once moved will almost always return to the area so it’s not a viable option.

As for killing a nuisance bear, the commission will not consider it unless the bear is endangering a person, but Carraway said residents can check with the commission to determine if they would be justified in killing the bear themselves. People who kill a bear without justification can face a fine.
Woody said she would kill the bear herself but said her neighbors would “pitch a fit.”

The property owner should be able to protect her livestock and property just like the people having fox problems.
NCWRC offers education and plans on how people should avoid negative interactions with a variety of wildlife. Common Sense is to avoid if possible access to food sources. They will not remove the nuisance critter and in many cases if they can’t be encouraged to move on killing the animal is the only option. Large landowners may consider controlling critters before they become a problem through hunting and trapping as set out by NCWRC .

Panther Seen In Angier?

There have been a few reports of a black cat like animal, believed to be a panther, seen outside of the town of Angier NC. The latest sighting happened over the 4th of July when two individuals observed the animal feeding one night on a road killed deer.

We had just left a July Fourth celebration and were driving along when, all of a sudden, she asked me if I saw it,” Mr. Liles said. “She said she saw a black panther snarling and growling as we drove past.”

The couple turned the car around, turned on the high beams and sure enough, they say, the black panther was “feasting on a dead deer,” Mr. Liles said.

He said it was “a large animal with a black, silky coat – a ferocious-looking animal with brilliant lime green eyes with a noticeably long, black tail.”

Mr. Liles said the large cat was nearly 3 feet tall and would estimate the animal weighed between 60 to 100 pounds.

“I was shocked when, as we passed, I could see him snarling,” Ms. Woods said. “He showed all of his teeth. I actually looked the panther directly into his eyes.”

A large blood stain now sits along the eastbound lane of Benson Road near Ben Gardner’s home. Remnants of deer fur is all that is left.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission officer for that area does not dispute the possibility that a panther is living in the area.

According to he does not discount the appearance of a panther. He said, however, he had never seen one.

“I am not disputing their account, it is just that I have never personally seen a panther in these parts,” Mr. Ellington said. “We do get one to two reports of either a mountain lion, an Eastern cougar or black panther sightings in the area, though.”

Mr. Ellington said it is possible someone had legally or illegally acquired an exotic panther, kept him in captivity and either released him to the wild or it may have escaped.

During the past four to five years, Wildlife officers have reported three panthers were found shot near a dumpster in Edenton in Chowan County. The panthers have cat tattoos in their ears, indicating they were exotic animals and had, at some point, been in captivity.

Mr. Ellington said with the Black River backing up to a swamp, conditions could be conducive for carnivores, which tend to eat beavers, otters, muskrats and mink in a desolate area.

The Daily Record

Hopefully someone with a camera will capture some images of this critter in the near future. A black animal feeding on a dead deer could also be a black bear or a coyote, both more likely to be seen then a panther or a cougar. However the witness descriptions better fit the panther and the possibility one was released or escaped is a possibility. Will continue to follow this story especially seeing where it is within fairly close proximity to my house.

Zoo Visitor Killed After He Ate All Of The Animals On Display

A mountain lion cleaned out all the exhibits in a petting zoo in Arizona before a hunter was called in to kill the cat.

In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago.
But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm’s petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared.
Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the all-natural, community-supported farm, faced a tough choice: Try to kill the wild cat or put their animals and possibly their farm’s visitors — including many children — at some risk.
“We were really conflicted,” Stewart Loew said.
But when they thought about it, there was no choice. They had a garlic and onion festival coming up the next weekend at the farm, and people would be walking in the dark through areas where the mountain lion was making regular kills.
They called a family acquaintance who is a mountain lion hunter and got a “depredation permit” from Arizona Game and Fish — a permit to kill an animal that has been eating people’s livestock.

Hunting is an important management tool in controlling wildlife and it is good to see it was used in this sad situation. A small petting zoo was a tempting hunting ground for this cat and killing it was necessary before it took a human life. What lead to the cat hanging out at the farm?

several factors can cause mountain lions to start encroaching on human lands.
Among them: A younger mountain lion could have chased the older cat out of its home territory. That’s the theory an Arizona Game and Fish warden endorsed when looking into the case, Loew said.
Or the mountain lion could have been injured and found easy access to food and water at the farm, which is near the Santa Cruz River. Or long-term drought may have slowly made the cat’s territory unhabitable.
Many human factors could have contributed to the lion’s settling in at the farm, too. Urbanization, even in semi-rural areas like the river valley of Santa Cruz County, drives some animals out of their habitat. It may also lead to the animals more easily growing used to humans.

What will be the impact on this family business? Will some regulars boycott the farm because of this? I sure hope not I hope that the farm continues and is successful.

Whatever the cause, the petting-zoo slaughter shook up the Loews, who have a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
“My poor kids. These are their pets that they’ve raised, and they had to help bury them,” Laurel Loew said.
They didn’t want to kill the mountain lion, and now they’re worried about restocking the little petting zoo before October, when kids arrive for pumpkin picking. They’re also worried about a backlash from their environmentally conscious customers.
“For us, this story has no winners,” Stewart Loew said.

Arizona Daily Star
I like to think I’m an “environmentally conscious customer” and I love to provide organic free range meat for my family so hunting is a natural holistic way to provide that. If I lived in Arizona I’d stop by this farm and buy something.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Issues Warning About Bears

With this past weekend’s excitement in Durham about the bear and the bear (probably the same one) getting struck on I 85 NCWRC issued some advice today.

Residents can prevent conflicts with black bears by:
• Not approaching or following a bear when one is sighted. Instead, tell your neighbors and keep a adequate distance away from the animal. Unless fed, the bear will leave the area.
• Securing bags of trash inside cans stored in a garage, basement or other secure area, and placing outside as late as possible on trash pick-up days – not the night before.
• Purchasing bear-proof garbage cans or bear-proof your existing garbage container by outfitting it with a secure latching system.
• Discontinuing feeding wild birds during spring and summer, even with feeders advertised as “bear proof.” Bears can still be attracted to seed that spills on the ground.
• Avoiding “free-feeding” pets outdoors. If you must feed pets outdoors, make sure all food is consumed and empty bowls are removed.
• Cleaning all food and grease from barbecue grills after each use. Bears are attracted to the food odors and may investigate.

NCWRC

Some good advice for all of us to keep in mind.

Inner City Encounter With Nature

Ever have one of those surprising encounters with nature that just makes you stop with awe? I had one the other evening that caught me by surprise and although it only lasted a moment it made a lasting impression on me.
I’m on the road this week for training in Norfolk Virginia a very beautiful city. I was walking through the financial district headed towards the waterfront. Getting close to sunset so the area was pretty quiet compared to other parts of the city. Not really expecting to see much wildlife except for maybe a pigeon or two. To witness a peregrine falcon snatching a pigeon was a pretty cool sight. Many cities with skyscrapers have become home peregrines as well as other birds of prey. Of course I didn’t have my camera in my hand but I’m not sure I could have caught the shot because it was so quick.
A search of the net and I found a little bit of information on the project to restore peregrine falcons. Looks like Virginia has had some success with this program.

CCB biologists have worked in partnership with the state of Virginia, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and various other partners since the late 1970s to restore and manage peregrine falcons in Virginia. We monitored 21 breeding pairs during the 2008 breeding season.
This year the entire breeding population nested on artificial structures including wooden peregrine towers (12), bridges (5), a fishing shack (1), a ship (1), a power plant stack (1), and a high-rise building (1). The single territory on a natural cliff face in Shenandoah National Park was not active this year. Twenty pairs made breeding attempts and produced 76 eggs and 47 young that survived to banding age. There was a high depredation rate this year with four broods lost on the towers to raccoons and Great-horned Owls.

While I expect to catch unique encounters with nature when I’m in the turkey blind or the deer stand this serves as a great reminder that nature is all around us we just need to take the time to see it.
With no photos of the peregrine falcon I’ve included some night photos I’ve taken along the river front here in Norfolk. A beautiful city especially in the early evening and at night fall.

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