Wildlife News Roundup (April 27-May 3, 2013) | The Wildlife Society ...

A western honey bee (Apis mellifera) carries pollen back to its hive. (Credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim/Wikimedia)

US Rejects EU Claim of Insecticide as Prime Reason for Bee Colony Collapse
(The Guardian)
A U.S. government report blamed a combination of factors for the disappearance of America?s honeybees and did not join Europe in singling out pesticides as a prime suspect. The report, by the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, blamed a parasitic mite, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition and genetics, as well as pesticides, for the rapid decline of honey bees since 2006. Researchers said it was not clear whether a certain class of pesticides was a major cause of the colony collapse. More

NEWS FROM NORTH AMERICA

Ontario Government Rescues Experimental Lakes Area
(Environment News Service)
The Ontario Government has stepped in to save a unique freshwater research facility in the Experimental Lakes Area after the Canadian government cut off funding as of March 31. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that her Liberal government would provide operating support and work toward an agreement with the nonprofit International Institute for Sustainable Development, IISD, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to take over operations of the research area. More

Michigan House Vote Leaves State a Step Closer to Wolf Hunt in Upper Peninsula
(Michigan Live)
Michigan officials may be allowed to establish a wolf hunt in the Upper Peninsula no matter what happens with a pending statewide referendum on the issue. The Michigan House approved Senate Bill 288 by a 72-38 vote. The legislation would allow the state?s Natural Resources Commission to decide on its own what species could be hunted. Michigan?s current law requires the Legislature to designate a game species, which then gives the NRC permission to establish a hunt. More

Cold Weather Forces Wildlife & Fisheries Commission to Delay Inshore Shrimp Seasons
(The Times-Picayune)
This has been the second-coldest spring in the last century, and as a result, brown shrimp have grown more slowly than the U.S. economy. That put the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission in a tight squeeze when setting the dates for the 2013 inshore shrimp seasons. On the one hand, if they voted to open the seasons too early, the shrimp wouldn?t be big enough for market, but if they elected to wait too long, the shrimp might all move out to the open Gulf. More

Florida Wildlife Officials Release Plan to Conserve 16 Species
(NBC Miami)
Florida?s wildlife officials released action plans to conserve 16 imperiled specials including the Florida burrowing owl, Florida sandhill crane and Big Cypress and Sherman?s fox squirrels. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is looking for public input to help create plans to ultimately help 60 species. Other species included in the plans were the brown pelican, gopher frog, Florida pine snake, Florida mouse, Sherman?s short-tailed shrew, short-tailed snake, Florida bog frog, Georgia blind salamander, Atlantic sturgeon and mangrove rivulus. More

Agency Offering Grants to Landowners to Boost Duck Habitat
(The Times-Picayune)
If you?re a landowner, and you?d like to see some additional funds in your bank account to improve your duck habitat, the Natural Resources Conservation Service would like to help. A division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the NRCS is offering technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers in 22 parishes to develop and enhance habitat for migrating birds. This opportunity is being offered through the Louisiana NRCS Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, a partnership with Ducks Unlimited. More

For Sand Tiger Sharks, a Deadly, Cannibalistic Battle Inside the Womb is Part of Evolution
(The Washington Post)
It?s a tough world from the moment of conception for a sand tiger shark. When a female gets pregnant, it?s usually with multiple offspring of several different male sharks. As soon as the fetuses are old enough, they begin a cannibalistic battle for primacy in utero, with only one surviving. Now scientists have concluded that this is not just a response to crowded conditions but represents an evolutionary strategy that allows the most aggressive male sharks to father the successful baby and thereby outcompete sexual rivals. More

WILDLIFE HEALTH AND DISEASE NEWS

Scientists are Divided Over Threat to Pacific Northwest Salmon
(The New York Times)
Like mariners scanning the horizon from the crow?s nest, scientists have for years been on the lookout in the Pacific Northwest for signs that a dreaded salmon-killing disease, scourge to farmed salmon in other parts of the world, has arrived here, threatening some of the world?s richest wild salmon habitats. Most say there is no evidence. But for years, a biologist in Canada named Alexandra Morton ? regarded by some as a visionary Cassandra, by others as a misguided prophet of doom ? has said definitively and unquestionably that they are wrong. More

Study Shows Human-Wildlife Microbe Exchange and Multidrug Resistance in Wildlife in Protected Areas in Africa
(Environmental Research Web)
A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered that humans are passing antibiotic resistance to wildlife, especially in protected areas where numbers of humans are limited. In the case of banded mongoose in a Botswana study, multidrug resistance among study social groups or troops was higher in the protected area than in troops living in village areas. The study also reveals that humans and mongoose appear to be readily exchanging fecal microorganisms, increasing the potential for disease transmission. More

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Large Bat Collected in South Sudan Belongs to a Genus All Its Own
(The Washington Post)
Researchers in the grasslands of South Sudan were taken by surprise when they first spotted a beautifully patterned bat with pale yellow spots and stripes on dark black fur. DeeAnn Reeder, an associate professor of biology at Bucknell University, and Adrian Garside, a program officer from the conservation group Fauna & Flora International, were working in Bangangai Game Reserve with South Sudan?s Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism. One evening, while observing bats on rocky grassland next to a stagnant pool, Reeder spied the creature. More

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/wildlife-news-roundup-april-27-may-3-2013/

2012 ncaa bracket john carlson greg smith catamount mike dantoni bulls heat goldman sachs