Presenting the third installment of the Wildlife Bulletin, which is a highlight of the previous week’s news and blog posts I found interesting and pertinent to the topics of wildlife, habitats, and conservation.   And by all means feel free to add your recommendations via the comments section.

Not enough holes in the lid… (Sept. 19)
“Of the 20 birds taken for the study, seven died after capture. Thirteen are now being studied in Fort Collins. If the birds are not used in another study, they will be killed when this one is done due to California rules that prohibit the release of birds that have been trapped and transported across state lines.”
Posted by Heidi on Worth a Dam, Martinezbeavers.org

Wylie Coywolf: The Coyote-Wolf Hybrid has made its way to the Northeast (Sept. 23)
“Bigger than coyotes but smaller than wolves, their howl is high-pitched and their diet includes deer and small rodents. They are “coywolves” (pronounced “coy,” as in playful, “wolves”), and they are flourishing in the northeastern U.S., according to a study published today in Biology Letters.”

Posted by Carina Storrs on 60-Second Science Blog

On a related note, check out my previous piece Hybridization Out of Necessity on JournOwl.com

Endangered Ugandan gorillas join Facebook, MySpace (Sept. 26)
“Around 340 mountain gorillas — nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide — live in Uganda’s lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and 40 more live in another Ugandan reserve. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Congo.”

Judge restores protections for grizzly bears (Sept. 22)
“A federal judge in Montana restored protections Monday for an estimated 600 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park, citing in part a decline in their food supply caused by climate change.
After bouncing back from near-extermination last century, grizzlies were declared recovered in 2007, when they were stripped of their threatened status under the Endangered Species Act.”

NEW SPECIES of bird-eating fanged frog discovered from Southeast Asia (Sept. 26)
“A World Wildlife Federation report highlights some fascinating new species discoveries from Southeast Asia. In addition to various species of amphibians and reptiles, “a new wild banana and, even rarer, two new types of mammal” were described as well.”
Posted by Buck Denton on The Conservation Report

Nominate your favorite eco-villain for the Rubber Dodo Extinction Award (Sept. 24)
“Every year about this time, the Center for Biological Diversity throws open the nominations for the center’s Rubber Dodo Extinction Award. This award goes to the individual who has worked the hardest to send yet another stressed out species down the road to extinction during the last year.”
Posted by Gary Bogue on Gary Bogue: Pets & Wildlife

Shorebird Banding At The Midwest Birding Symposium (Sept. 25)
“A birder scans the dawn for migrants.  What a beautiful morning at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio!  During the Midwest Birding Symposium, I got the opportunity to observe some shorebird banding last Friday (which was a fun change of pace from the usual songbird banding I do on Fridays).  The banding started at dawn and involved two men named Tom.”
Posted on Birdchick.com

The Labor Day holiday interrupted last Monday’s  second installment of the Wildlife Bulletin, which is merely a highlight of the previous week’s news and blog posts I found interesting and pertinent to the topics of wildlife, habitats, and conservation.   And by all means feel free to add your recommendations via the comments section.

Judge faults removal of wolf from endangered list (Sept. 09)
Hunters can keep stalking gray wolves for now in the Northern Rockies, but the killing may be short-lived after a federal judge found problems with the recent removal of the animal from the endangered species list.

Judge Rules Wolf Hunts in Rockies Can Proceed (Sept. 10)
Four months after the government removed gray wolves from the endangered species list, a federal judge has ruled that the first hunts for them in the contiguous United States in decades can proceed.

From Deep Pacific, Ugly and Tasty, With a Catch (Sept. 9)
The answer to the eternal mystery of what makes up a Filet-O-Fish sandwich turns out to involve an ugly creature from the sunless depths of the Pacific, whose bounty, it seems, is not limitless.

Opting Out of Migration: As Climate Warms, Arctic-Nesting Geese Elect to Winter in Alaska Instead of Mexico (Sept. 9)
The winter distribution of Pacific brant, a small, dark sea goose, has shifted northward from low-temperate areas such as Mexico to sub-Arctic areas as Alaska’s climate has warmed over the last four decades, according to a just-released article in Arctic.

Until recently, nearly the entire (90 percent) population of Pacific brant wintered in Mexico, but now as many as to 30 percent are opting to spend their winters in Alaska instead, according to the U.S. Geological Survey-led study. Although records are sparse, fewer than 3,000 brant were detected wintering in Alaska before 1977, a number that has jumped to as many as 40,000 birds now.

Dozens of New Species Found in Island Crater (Sept. 9)
Most people bring back the usual mementos from their overseas vacations: photographs, T-shirts, diarrhea. The BBC Natural History Unit, however, came home with something better. A crew of scientists, academics and filmmakers from the British broadcaster visited the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea this past spring to film a nature documentary and in the process discovered more than 30 new species of animals.

Vultures: A Symbol of Death (Sept. 7)
I know I am two days late in posting for International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD09), but I didn’t want to not post altogether.  Maybe I’m a bit of a freak, but I love vultures.  I mean it…I really LOVE them!

One of the advantages to living in the South was that I saw them all the time.  Turkey vultures are one of the only birds I can identify in flight.  But it’s the black vultures that I really came to love the most.
Posted by Allie on Oh, For the Love of Science

The Burrowing Owl, A Species Of Special Concern In California (Sept. 6)
The Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) is a species of special concern in California and several other states.  They are declining across much of California in response to loss of habitat to urban development, ground squirrel control efforts, and intensive agricultural practices.
Posted by Larry Jordan on The Birder’s Report

No Spray Zone: Are Pesticides Really Controlling Invasives? (Sept. 8th)
When faced with invasive, non-native weeds on the range, the first response for many conservationists is to load up a backpack sprayer full of pesticides.

Spraying chemicals toxic to wildlife and people — under the auspices of protecting wildlife and people — is often portrayed as a necessary evil if we want to stop the spread of invasive species.
Posted by Matt Miller on Cool Green Science

EPA limits pesticide use near salmon waters (Sept. 12)
The Environmental Protection Agency announced new measures to protect endangered and threatened Pacific salmon on Friday, limiting three pesticides commonly used on farms.

Thought I’d introduce a new feature for Mondays that highlights a few of the previous week’s news and blog posts I found interesting and pertinent to the topics of wildlife, habitats, and conservation.  I imagine a few sentences lifted from the piece and a link to the exposition will suffice.  I also plan a similar feature on ocean topics at http://ThrivingOceans.org

And why not open up the comments  for any recommendations on articles or post you find intriguing (and relevant of course). Obviously I can’t catch them all and this might be a great way to get in touch with some blogs of which we are not familiar or news we may have missed.

Feds to consider protections for desert tortoise (Aug 28)
“The federal government has agreed to consider whether the Sonoran desert tortoise, a Southwest icon whose population has declined by half in the past 20 years, warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act.” 

Governments killing once-endangered cormorants (Aug 27)
“Ironically, cormorants were endangered in much of North America a few decades ago. Now they’re so abundant — and destructive — that wildlife managers have blasted tens of thousands with shotguns, destroyed nests and covered eggs with oil to smother developing chicks.”

Herbicide Found in Water May Pose Greater Danger (Aug 25)
“The report documented spikes in atrazine in the water supplies of Midwestern and Southern towns in agricultural areas, where the herbicide is applied to the vast majority of corn, sorghum and sugar cane fields.”

By the way, check out my post on atrazine…Atrazine: Here an herbicide there an herbicide

Success for Ca. Condors  (Aug 29)
“It’s been good and bad news for the Ventana Wildlife Society this year. They had successful hatchings  from the 5 nesting pairs this year with continuing good news from 3 nesting sites.”  Posted by Clapperail on Bay Area Wildlife Blog

Predatory animals are bad and should be allowed to go extinct, or should be modified to become kind and herbivorous (Aug 28)
“It seems that philosopher David Pearce is honestly proposing that we should feel ethically compelled to eradicate all suffering and cruelty from the natural world in order to create a sort of global vegan paradise where predators don’t exist.”  Posted by Darren Naish on Tetrapod Zoology

The Tadpole Hunter (Aug 28)
“Tool use in birds seems illogical to us, after all it requires foresight and patience and a stepwise plan. These are the sorts of things we consider to be human traits, or at least genius monkeys, but it’s actually not all that uncommon for birds.”  Posted by Nate on The Drinking Bird

Female House Finch Bathing On A Hot Afternoon (Aug 23)
“I really enjoy watching birds bathe in my backyard.  They will use the hanging birdbath in the front of the house but they prefer bathing in the moving water provided by the water feature in back.”  Posted by Larry Jordan on The Birder’s Report

Featured Feathers: Kirtland’s Warbler (Aug 24)
“This is the second in a series of weekly posts highlighting birds considered to be at risk in Canada.”  Posted by Pat Bumstead on Bird Canada: A voice for the northern bird