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WindStar Wildlife Garden Weekly e-Magazine |  |
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By Ellie Horwitz MOST CONSERVATIONISTS consider it axiomatic that development destroys wildlife habitat. Every elementary school student knows this, but is it so? And if it is so, why, as more and more land is developed, are we seeing more and more wildlife in and around our urban and suburban areas? The answer is not as simple as it appears. (Coyote crosses ice by Bill Byrne) The development process is one that both disrupts and modifies habitats so that while it demolishes habitat for certain species, it often enhances it for others. All wildlife need certain basic things–food, water, shelter and an appropriate arrangement of space–and most developed areas continue to offer some form of each of these. There is a particular arrangement of dwellings, roads, ponds and streams, wooded areas and fields typical of most suburban communities. When fields and woodlands are bulldozed and replaced with suburban homes and manicured backyards, the associated wildlife will change to reflect this change in the habitat. Certain species, including most turtles and frogs will be unable to adapt to the changes. Mid- to large- sized animals are driven from their erstwhile home range and crowd into other locations giving the false impression of an increase in numbers. Even if a population survives the initial habitat destruction, it may subsequently be decimated by predatory pets (outdoor cats), by road mortality or by the effects of lawn pesticides. But certain species adapt well to these altered landscapes. These animals are opportunists that take advantage of whatever food, water and shelter is available in developed areas, yet are sufficiently discrete (often nocturnal) that they are not often seen by the people among whose neighborhoods they live. They filter into the new suburbs, take up residence, forage, and may, if conditions are suitable, reproduce. Most visible among these species are White-tailed Deer, Raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, Beavers. All find themselves well provisioned in a nearly predator-free environment. Not only do these animals adjust their life patterns to those of humans, over time they learn that they have nothing to fear from people, and they become accustomed to living around us. Effectively we offer subsidized food and housing to these species, with an unnatural absence of threats. Some suburban dwellers love seeing wildlife and may, in fact, have moved to the suburbs because they enjoy the presence of wildlife. Others, who have experienced extensive home or yard damage or who have contracted an animal-borne illness such as Lyme disease, have far less positive thoughts. Most suburbanites have a distinctly ambivalent relationship with their wild (and not-so-wild!) neighbors. We love to see them, but resent the damage they cause to our homes, gardens and domestic pets. Deer strip shrubbery and chow down on home gardens. Beavers flood backyards and septic systems. Coyotes and Fishers eat small pets. They take up residence in spots that we arrogantly consider our own. It all comes down to numbers. When animals of a particular species are scarce, people spend time and resources searching for them and hoping for just a glimpse. When those animals become abundant, people become fearful and focus on what these animals consume and the damage they can cause. As the number of animals in an area increases, people focus on what they perceive as “meanness” or aggressive behavior. For the most part these animals are neither mean nor aggressive*. They become bold in their quest for food– encouraged by kitchen odors, by the odors from garbage cans left out long before pick-up time, or from materials accumulating under well-stocked bird feeders. resources department. They den in convenient artificial hollows–under sheds, in outbuildings. These areas become their home territory. They become accustomed to our comings and goings and lose their fear of humans, learning that people rarely interact with them, and therefore need not be avoided. They also learn that small domestic dogs, cats and other pets inhabit these areas, and may, if it is convenient, serve as a meal! When humans approach these wild yet conditioned animals, the animals do what any animal does if it feels threatened. The first impulse is to run or hide, but if escape is impossible; any animal--even a mouse--will protect itself initially with a display of size and ferocity and ultimately with a bite or a kick. Turkeys, recently vilified in the press as posing a danger to suburban residents, are often simply holding their ground in what they consider their territory. Each year, staff members of the MA Division of Fisheries & Wildlife (MDFW) spend many hours providing technical advice to homeowners and renters who have allowed wildlife to make themselves comfortable in their backyards. They call when they regret having done so. They key, according to MDFW biologists, is to halt this process before the animals become too comfortable around humans. They remind us to take primary precautions and, when necessary, supplement this with aversive conditioning. It is a matter of minimizing the amount of food or cover available, then setting ground rules and making them stick. Establish the area you wish to keep wildlife free. Remove all food sources, do not feed pets outdoors, clean up under bird feeders or eliminate them altogether, and put the trash out just before collection time. Seal up areas under sheds and porches and block up potential denning or nesting areas. Let your wild neighbors understand that this is your territory. Make loud noises, spray water, throw things and establish the fact that this area does not welcome wildlife. Once you have established your perimeter you can then enjoy the wildlife at a respectful distance. Over the next decade, as certain species continue to forage areas settled by humans, and as these animals live and multiply unhampered by predators, it will become increasingly difficult to resolve the problems of habituated wild animals. The time to address this issue is now.
ENDING a decade-long environmental battle once dubbed the "War of the Woods," British Columbia has done the impossible--the creation of a park twice the size of Yellowstone along a vast coastal swath where Grizzly Bears and wolves now prowl under thousand-year-old cedar trees. The park will cover 4.4 million acres, and strict new controls will protect against exploitation on an additional 10 million acres. The entire territory, being called the Great Bear Rainforest, is the result of an unusual alliance of loggers, environmentalists, native groups and the provincial government. "This is aimed at trying to find a balance, where people can understand and really enjoy our wilderness and we protect our wildlife, while recognizing that people are part of the ecosystem," Gordon Campbell, the premier of British Columbia, said in a phone interview with reporter Doug Struck of the Washington Post. "We all win. I think this model will be emulated in different parts of the world." The agreement ends a bitter dispute over the lush coastland and islands that stretch across more than 250 miles and include most of British Columbia's central and north coast, from the northern coast of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Warmed by the ocean and fed by rain, this area of evergreen forest is the ancestral home of nearly a dozen native tribes, called First Nations in Canada, and most of it is accessible only by boat or seaplane. Salmon return to spawn in rivers and streams, providing food for eagles and bears that include Grizzlies, Black Bears and a rare white bear called the Kermode. About 30,000 people are scattered in small towns or reserves in the area, more than half of them natives. Outside the park, 10 million acres will be managed by committees that will set limits on logging, mining and the commercial efforts of native groups that still have claims to land. Negotiators expect additional agreements will bring the total protected area to 21 million acres. The tribes have agreed to forest-friendly development such as eco-tourism, with the help of a planned $105 million fund. The U.S.-based Nature Conservancy helped raise about half of that privately. British Columbia has promised about $26 million, and negotiators are hoping that the Canadian federal government will contribute the rest. The tribes have agreed to forest-friendly development such as eco-tourism, with the help of a planned $105 million fund. The U.S.-based Nature Conservancy helped raise about half of that privately. British Columbia has promised about $26 million, and negotiators are hoping that the Canadian federal government will contribute the rest. "This is the key. This will jump-start the economy," said Arthur Sterritt, executive director for the Coastal First Nations groups. "The way the forest will be used will be absolutely sustainable. We are confident of that." "There still will be logging," Smith said. But "we are looking for a much lighter footprint on the land. There will be less roading, less logging. The volume of wood coming out will be less. Streambeds and wetlands and wildlife habitat areas will not be touched." "This is basically two-thirds of the British Columbia coast," Kent Gilges, a Rochester-based manager for the Nature Conservancy said. "If you look from space, it actually stands out as an extraordinary green spot. Here you have an opportunity to save something big enough that, even with global warming, it could sustain its biodiversity long into the future." My hat goes off to the Canadians! In the U.S., national park budgets are being slashed to the bone, public land is being sold and there are constant battles between the federal government and environmentalists over the need to conserve natural resources for future generations. But, politicians continue to push for mining and drilling in our most pristine wilderness areas.
MILLIONS OF BIRDS will soon take to the skies winging their way north. For birdwatchers, the spring migration period is the most exciting time of the year. Especially with the birds in their bright courtship plumage and males lustily singing... it's pure joy! Whether you live on the coast or inland, you will see birds moving; alone, in pairs, in waves and flocks and in strict formations. (Tundra Swans on migration route) Birds migrate north by day and by night. Songbirds usually fly at night, using the darkness to escape detection by predators. Those birds that do not fly non-stop, will usually land in the very early morning hours to find a safe place to rest and to find food during the daylight hours. Night migrants include vireos, various waterfowl, sparrows, cuckoos, warblers, thrushes, and flycatchers. Those who prefer a daytime trip include hawks, eagles, pelicans, storks, swifts, swallows, shrikes and some finches. Because the flights are grueling, sanctuaries must be found for food and rest. Not getting enough time at rest also puts birds in danger of losing their way. What can you do to make their arduous journey safer? Provide a safe haven for the exhausted birds. Put feeders and bird baths in open spaces where predators can’t lurk. Pile winter windfalls in a corner of the yard to provide a place for shelter so birds can rest and rejuvenate. Your efforts will be rewarded with the spectacular show that is spring migration! –Stokes Birding News
CONGRESSIONAL Republicans waging jihad against the Endangered Species Act may soon have a new reason to hate it: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is considering giving Polar Bears federal endangered-species protections because climate change is melting their Arctic sea-ice habitat. If the feds are compelled to protect Polar Bear habitat, and the habitat is threatened by climate change, then the feds may be forced--horrors!--to do something about climate change. Recent data show that Arctic sea ice has declined by 15 to 20 percent in the past 30 years; some climate experts think that there will be no summer sea ice in about 50 years. Some Polar Bears in Alaska and Canada have become thinner and less able to breed in recent years, and there's evidence that they're drowning as they try to make the lengthening swims between land and ice. The USFWS will take public comments for 60 days, review climate-change studies, and announce its decision in 12 months. –Daily Grist (Polar Bears are swimming farther due to melting ice)
Elizabeth Williamson She pays $50, $100, even $1,000, cash. Then she places the plain brown boxes carefully in her truck and drives off. Two clues betray her mission. Something in the Jeep smells fishy. And the words on the side of the box: "Live Seafood." ("Terrapin" is an Algonquin word for edible turtles that live in brackish water.) "This is really not good for my reputation, and it scares me at times," she says. "But it keeps these turtles alive." With 20 volunteers and a $15,000 budget, Whilden labors to keep one of the Chesapeake Bay's most beloved species, the Diamondback Terrapin, out of the soup. Demand for the winsome state reptile, the University of Maryland mascot, comes from a new source these days. Asian gourmets eat turtles, believing they promote longevity--everybody's, that is, but the terrapins'. Over the past three years, terrapin harvests have surged. Tired of waiting for the state to react, Whilden launched her guerrilla-style rescue program in late 2003. She's bought 5,000 terrapins from a clandestine network of sellers, tagged them and returned them to the bay. "I feel the stress on the species right now is increasing at an alarming rate," said Whilden, 52, an Annapolis, MD resident and former fisheries employee at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "Turtles were the most valuable thing fished in the Chesapeake." It's an unorthodox, often unrewarding effort. Vandals have trashed her release sites, forcing her to keep them secret. Marine biologists and state natural resources officials, who eliminated her turtle program for children, question her methods and assessment of the creatures' decline. And during fishing season, her turtle tags do nothing to stop the harvest. Last month, three of her turtles wound up--alive, pregnant and for sale even though they were above the legal size limit--in a New York fish market. Environmentalists agree that Whilden's effort is important, because she is striving to head off a species's decline before it turns critical. That's something that conservationists want to do but that state budgets often don't allow. On a recent afternoon, Whilden stood over plastic pools swirling with 300 terrapins, their shells marked with camouflage-colored circles that look like eyes. Several periscoped above the surface, giving her a once-over. Whilden perched a terrapin on an upended flowerpot. It craned around, legs churning, and hissed. She drilled two tiny holes in the mottled shell above its left rear leg and attached a yellow wire tag marked with a number. "I don't want to do this," she said, wincing as the drill went in. "I would like the state to step up to the plate and manage the harvest." Whilden's Terrapin Institute and Research Consortium makes its home in Discovery Village in Shady Side, a bayside nature center that lets the group use its basement for free. About a third of the institute's budget, $5,000 a year, comes from a Pepco environmental grant and a third from the University of Maryland's "Fear the Turtle" fund. The rest comes from private donors and Whilden herself. While diamondback terrapins are found from Cape Cod to Texas, the Chesapeake's brackish waters have been ideal for them. Easily caught and portable, the turtles were an important food source for colonists. By the end of the 19th century, terrapins were scarce. Each year, hundreds of terrapins are killed by boat propellers, run over on roadways or drowned in crab pots. Rock and timber shoreline reinforcements keep them from reaching the soft sand they need to nest, concentrating them in only a few areas of the bay. But most troubling, wildlife experts say, is the terrapins' new popularity as dinner, which state game officials believe is partly fueled by the tastes of Asians, one of the country's fastest-growing immigrant groups, and big buyers on the export market. On her own, she began buying more and more turtles, most of them from seafood sellers whom she meets secretly--to protect their identities--and whom she pays at market rate. She has bought as many as 500 at once, housing them temporarily in her bathtub and in the beach cabana of a friend. Over time, she found she was buying her own tagged turtles, sometimes three times. As dusk fell on Discovery Village one recent day, Whilden and three volunteers tagged the last terrapin and loaded the seafood boxes into a pickup. They formed a three-car caravan, driving along the bay's western shore. When they reached a quiet spot on the South River--with luxury houses visible on one side of a cove and, on the other, the sandy beach she restored as a nesting spot--they opened the boxes and gently lifted each female onto the sand. In a jagged line, the turtles made their lumbering way to the water's edge and half-hopped, half-flopped home.--Washington Post
If you love to feed, photograph, or (Friendly Sedge Wren sits on hand)
By Scott Shalaway There are feathers under the feeders. Not clumps of feathers, which would indicate a hawk kill, but just a few feathers directly beneath the feeders. I made the same observation and solved the mystery years ago, so I'm always ready with an explanation. (Short-tailed Shrew) The first time I noticed a few suspicious feathers under my feeders, I found hidden among the litter of sunflower seed shells a 1-inch hole in the ground. Could mice be responsible for the feathers I'd found? I pulled up a chair to a window so I could see the ground around the feeders. After about 30 minutes, movement at the hole caught my eye. A small head emerged, and I grabbed my binoculars for a better look. It wasn't a mouse. The long, pointed snout and beady little eyes told me it was a shrew. Now I knew what was eating the Goldfinches. I shouldn't have been surprised. Small, mouse-like mammals, shrews are voracious predators that often kill prey larger than themselves. Pygmy Shrews, the smallest mammal in North America, weigh two to four grams (about the weight of a dime) and eat more than twice their weight in food every day. The species I watched in my backyard was a Short- tailed Shrew. I could tell by its size--about 4 inches-- and its short, 1-inch tail. Short-tailed Shrews are abundant and widespread in the eastern United States. They inhabit both deciduous and coniferous forests as well as old fields, thickets and hayfields. I sometimes catch one in a mouse trap in the cellar. Their only habitat requirement seems to be a thick layer of leaf litter that keeps the surface of the ground moist. The thick mat of sunflower hulls under the feeders certainly qualified. Shrews eat mice, small birds, insects, earthworms, snails, slugs and insect larvae. Though they prefer animals, they also eat fungi, nuts and berries. No doubt the ground around the bird feeders makes an excellent place to hunt. There is always a supply of food. After digging its burrow, a shrew needs only to sit at its entrance and wait for an unsuspecting bird to hop by. A shrew strikes quickly. It grabs its prey and bites furiously. Short-tailed Shrews have a special adaptation that enables them to take prey larger than themselves. They are poisonous--one of nature's few venomous mammals. Behind their lower front teeth are glands that release a powerful venom. It flows along a groove in the teeth and enters the wound as the shrew bites. The victim's struggle ends quickly. The toxin usually just immobilizes rather than kills. In humans the venom causes swelling and some pain that might last a day or more. If the shrew doesn't eat its victim immediately, it caches it for later use. Because the victim is paralyzed rather than dead, it remains fresh for some time. This can be important in cold weather or when deep snow covers the ground. At these times food is hard to come by and stored food helps shrews through rough times they might otherwise not survive. Not all shrews confine themselves to dry land. The Semi-aquatic Water Shrew lives in bogs and along mountain streams. Its partially webbed, oversized hind feet help it swim efficiently as it hunts for small fish, snails, worms and other aquatic invertebrates. When beneath the surface, a water shrew's dense fur traps airs bubbles for buoyancy. A swimming water shrew looks like a streaking silver bullet. In nature's grand scheme, shrews kill relatively few birds, so birders needn't be alarmed. In fact, shrews are good to have around. They help control insect and rodent populations. Some evidence suggests that Short-tailed Shrews might also eat gypsy moth caterpillars. If feathers mysteriously appear in your back yard this winter, look for shrew holes. Be alert, and you might even catch a glimpse of this beady-eyed killer. – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
ARE YOU bothered by deer in your yard and garden? These tried-and-true tricks that have sent the critters packing:
(Deer eat farmers crops and residential shrubery)
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NEWS SOURCES
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ================================ Have an EXCELLENT Day in your WILDLIFE HABITAT! Tom Patrick ================================
LET NATURE BE YOUR LEGACY
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