Wildlife

In Wyoming, some legislators are straining to connect the dots between two of their biggest management headaches. The livestock disease brucellosis, which causes cows to abort their calves, has cost ranchers millions. And the gray wolf, reintroduced in ’95, has created huge controversy.  Now, a state lawmaker is asking for $45,000 to test wolves for […]

Idaho is not exactly known for its wolf tolerance, so it’s not surprising that the state is again proposing to kill wolves in an effort to boost elk numbers on the eastern side of the panhandle. The Ravalli Republic reports: In the next few weeks, the Idaho Fish and Game Department will ask the federal […]

It’s been just over two years since the notorious quagga mussel first turned up in Lake Mead. The mussel, an invader from the Black Sea, first hit the Great Lakes, then hitchhiked across the country to California, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. The fingernail-sized quagga mussels (and their close relatives, zebra mussels) are incredibly destructive — […]

Scientists studying black bears and mountain lions near Tucson, Ariz. found a surprise in one of their traps this week — a 120-lb. male jaguar. They put a radio tracking collar on the big cat and released him. Now, for the first time ever, biologists will get regular updates on the location of a U.S. […]

Researchers John Swaddle and Stavros Calos have found that high bird diversity is linked with low incidence of the West Nile virus in humans. Their study can be found online. Called the “dilution effect,” the link between biodiversity and disease rates is not completely clear, but scientists believe that increased diversity within an ecosystem reduces […]

Summer nights wouldn’t feel quite right if the open windows did not allow me to hear the occasional howling of coyotes. The wild canines provide a sonic reminder that even though I live in town, it’s a small town surrounded by thousands of acres of wonderful Big Empty. But actually, the coyote howls convey no […]

For the rest of the country, Monday was Groundhog Day. But for Westerners, it was Prairie Dog Day. And the rodent’s in trouble all over the region, as bulldozers roll over its habitat, ranchers drop poison, and shooters go for target practice. Prairie dogs are now found in less than 10 percent of their original […]

updated 1/28/09 In the mountains of central Colorado, an overgrown elk herd has been chewing Rocky Mountain National Park to the nub for decades now. The ungulates munch new aspens and willows before they can grow, and graze alpine meadows to golf-course length. So park officials plan to return to the method they used to […]

This past year, the West’s wolves have had an even rougher time of it than usual. In the Northern Rockies, they’ve been bounced on and off the endangered species list, and in Yellowstone, more than usual have died. In the Southwest, it’s back to the drawing board after reintroduction plans failed miserably. After the Fish […]

Twenty years ago, I remember my grandpa complaining that the white-tail bucks he shot each fall were smaller than the monster deer he’d taken as a young man. The trophy heads in the basement of his South Dakota farmhouse all looked about the same to me, and I chalked up his grousing to nostalgia and […]