#Here's How Big A Problem Wolves Are For Cattle Ranchers Infographic We got a lot of heat for this essay about problematic wolf-hunting laws in Wyoming.
--if you'll notice wolves are not exactly on the top of that list. Much of the motivation for the laws allowing wolf-hunting in states like Wyoming (though this is national data) come from an assumption that wolves are a major problem for cattle ranchers--that wolves are responsible for significant so-called
unintended cattle loss. Unintended cattle loss by the way is the term the USDA uses for cattle who die before they are killed in slaughterhouses.
if they didn't allow hunting the wolf population would balloon with the easy meal that cattle present.
and now wolves you have to buy a permit. You can only hunt the allotted number granted by your permit.
So be glad that we have adopted a more enlightened view of wolves that allows them to thrive enough that they are endangered no longer
. I'd like to see these percentages redone drawing data from only states where wolves are indeed a threat.
In addition I'd like to point out that often the numbers for wolf kills only reflect the portion of kills the ranchers can find.
Wolves are a LOCAL problem that are only an issue in a very small section of the country (generally around Yellowstone
which of course makes the wolf problem seem very small. This is like comparing traffic problems in LA to the nation's traffic problems
Guilty of having nothing really to do with Popular Science no matter how you feel about the wolves issue.
and former farmers and ranchers who think reintroducing wolves into the lower 48 United states was a dumb treehugger move.
Myself I see the benefits to the local ecosystem of having wolves present to keep the populations of other species in check.
One cannot blindly vote for the rights of wolves however and suppress the evidence or twist it to support the mostly metropolitan view that all animals everywhere should be protected all the time;
in this case you Mr. Nosowitz are willfully misleading to support your agenda of protecting an endangered species. It is not honest to imply that your infographic supports the claim that wolves are not a threat to livestock in any one state
since wolf populations are not present nationwide and indeed are present in only a small number of states currently.
But not all cattle ranchers can afford to lose livestock to wolves. Consider that. As for wolves being dangerous to humans or not
I think you may have been raised on too many Disney cartoons that portrayed animals as being able to talk
These are not your pet wolves however sir. And I think you'd do well to ask yourself why an animal that can hunt
It isn't even acceptable to calculate it state wide in Montana given that so few cattle are exposed to wolves.
You can't possibly know for any given rancher what burden he is being forced to bear by wolves killing his animals nor can you begin to know his ability to bear those costs.
Damn wolves. lolthis is Popsci website blog and Dan is the assistant editor. Wouldn't it just be so funny all those insulting Dan found their login not working tomorrow...
Cripes wolves account for. 02%in 50 states but live in only 8 to 13 states (depending on who you ask
A larva that chows down on a Bt-crystal-producing GM plant soon stops eating.
Time after time when science pointed to health risks special interests cried wolf said Mccarthy. And time after time we followed the science protected the American people
Right away your dog tangles with the dog next door and next door is so next that you can't get out of your car.
#Has The Reintroduction Of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone? The story goes something like this: Once upon a time we exterminated the wolves from the Rocky mountain West including the part that would become Yellowstone national park.
We thought this was a good idea because wolves frightened us and also because they ate the domestic livestock we liked a lot more.
But then interest in environmental conservation took hold. Scientists discovered that without wolves present in Yellowstone to hunt
and kill prey the elk population grew so large it ate up all the young willow trees until there were none.
Or as science puts it we caused a harmful top-down trophic cascade by removing an apex predator the wolf from the food web.
and field biologists began to find some evidence for this idea even as popular support increased for bringing wolves back.
So with conservation ethics and ecological science in pretty good alignment we reintroduced the wolves to Yellowstone where today they scare away the hungry elk herds from the tasty young willows.
Thanks to the wolf balance has been restored. Or not? Earlier in the week field biologist Arthur Middleton got a big reaction from readers
when he asked Is the wolf a real American hero? in the opinion pages of The New york times. This story that wolves fixed a broken Yellowstone by killing and frightening elk is one of ecology s most famous he wrote.
But there is a problem with the story: It s not true. Animated discussion ensued in the comments
(which The New york times actively curates for signal over noise) with some readers protesting that the wolves have been crucial to Yellowstone's ecological revival.
what wolves eat commented well-known conservationist Carl Safina. As a Phd ecologist myself it's hard to see how 60%fewer elk could affect vegetation as much as before.
Journalist Emma Marris who recently wrote about wolf/ecosystem science for the journal Nature finds that Middleton's stance aligns with a growing body of evidence.
Every population of wolves has a different interesting story going on with them says Marris.''In some places there are not enough of them in some places people are concerned there are too many.
At Yellowstone despite the re-introduction of wolves the willows are not actually recovering as well as was hoped.
One reason Marris found may be that wolves don't actually scare elk away from their preferred feeding areas as earlier research suggested they might.
When elk are really hungry they're going to take their chances with the wolves Marris says.
Another reason for poor willow recovery may be that the wolves came back to Yellowstone too late to affect the fate of another animal population:
while the wolves were gone says Marris. That was caused by the absence of wolves but also presumably by human management decisions climate and other factors.
Elks and beavers competed for the same food: willow. The elks won beaver numbers dropped
Wolves generate a lot of emotion as well as attention because they've become a bell-weather for the fate of wilderness.
Everywhere wolves exist says Marris they tell stories about how people and wild things make peace
What's most at risk as we debate the role of wolves in the ecosystem seems to be our hope for a really straightforward story that explains
#Wolf Decline Could End World's Longest Predator-Prey Studymoose eat balsam fir trees. When the moose population expands unchecked by predation fewer fir seedlings can grow large enough to escape into the canopy above the reach of moose
and 1940 when the wolves came. Most of Isle Royale s balsam firs are thus either older than 100 years and near the end of their lives or young and short enough to be browsed to death.
In other words wolves are vital for the proper function of the ecosystem as we know it (something that has been shown over and over again
whether the top predator is wolves lions or sharks). But there's a problem: the wolves are in trouble.
So far this year only 10 have been counted in aerial surveys. This is primarily because the population has suffered from inbreeding being isolated from other groups of wolves on the mainland.
The last outside wolf to arrive was a male who came via an ice bridge in 1997 providing a much-needed boost of genetic diversity siring 34 pups.
For the second time since 1997 a 15-mile ice bridge has formed once again connecting the island with land
and offering a stray wolf or wolves a chance to reach the island or to allow the wolves on the island to wander off.
But nobody knows what will happen. The decline of Isle Royale's wolves has initiated a debate among scientists--what to do?
Should wolves be imported to add much-needed genetic diversity? Or should wolves just be allowed to die out?
Many say that a watch and wait policy is the best for now--perhaps a wolf
or two will arrive naturally and add some diversity to the island. But if that doesn't happen scientists are divided on what to do.
Some suggest letting nature take its course. However it's not like wolves haven't been impacted by humans even on the island.
Dozens were killed by a virus linked to domestic dogs in the 1980s for example and in 2012 three wolves were found dead in an abandoned mine pit.
To learn more about the controversy and the details of the iconic study read the story at Nature.
And for a firsthand story of one scientist's work on the island check out this long feature at the Lansing State Journal. u
I cannot even grapple with the idea even with races of dogs cattle pigeons or fowls;
That contrasts with English smell descriptions which often compare smells with things using phrases such as smells like bananas or smells like a wet dog. tpã:
and nitrogen traces in the bones of cats dogs deer and other wildlife unearthed near Quanhucan the research team demonstrated how a breed of once-wild cats carved a niche for themselves in a society that thrived on the widespread cultivation of the grain millet.
and hunting hyenas that would run down their prey. The other fossils they found included teeth which are taller than their ancestors
Enclosures and guard dogs Attacks on livestock and crop raids are more common the closer villages are to the national park. Livestock keepers in the villages located close to the protected areas are on constant guard with arrows
and the use of guard dogs were preferred more in the villages that were the farthest away from the protected areas.
Sporting fox-like snouts and slender frames they are unusual among lemurs spending a considerable amount of time on the ground feeding on leaves
and the African wild dog and African lion have vanished from the Sahara. Other species have fared only slightly better:
according to the researchers In Latin america coordinated efforts to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs began in 1983 and led to a roughly 90 percent reduction in human and canine rabies according to the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
and Africa and dogs are the source of infection in nearly all of those deaths according to THE WHO. Story Source:
#Guard dogs reduce killing of threatened speciesresearch from the University of Kent has revealed that guarding dogs can significantly reduce conflict between livestock
In a paper published in Wildlife Society Bulletin entitled Perceived Efficacy of Livestock-Guarding Dogs in South africa:
Implications for Cheetah Conservation researchers from the University's School of Anthropology and Conservation studied the effect guarding dogs have on the protection of farm animals across South africa.
The research revealed that livestock guarding dogs eliminated livestock losses from predators on 91%of the farms studied with each farmer saving over $3000 per year due to the reduction in killed livestock.
when they have a guarding dog present. They found that farmers were noticeably more tolerant of predators resulting in a greater prevalence of cheetahs
and other predators on their land compared to farmers that did not have livestock guarding dogs.
'This research has shown for the first time that livestock guarding dogs can successfully be used in South africa to protect livestock from attack by predators as large as leopards or small as jackals.'
'Retaliatory killing by farmers is a major threat to the survival of many large carnivore species. This study shows that livestock deaths can be avoided through the deployment of highly trained dogs and
I am sure that there are many similar situations around the world where such dogs could make quite a difference to the survival chances of large carnivores.'
cats dogs or other animals; insect bites or stings; foods; and medications. Of the 79300 VITAL participants who filled out the questionnaires more than 66000 individuals were selected after eliminating those who had a prior history of malignancies other than non-melanoma skin cancers and missing information on baseline cancer history.
There was also an increased risk of plasma-cell neoplasms for participants who reported a history of allergies to cats dogs or other animals.
study in locusts suggestsa team of scientists has shown how the environment shapes learning and memory by training locusts like Pavlov's dog to associate different smells with reward or punishment.
The study recalls the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who famously studied dogs salivating in anticipation of food.
Pavlov rang a bell every time he presented the dog with food. After a few'training sessions'ringing the bell alone was sufficient to make the dog salivate as it had come to associate the sound of the bell with getting food.
The scientists trained the locusts just like Pavlov trained his dog except that the unfamiliar smell replaces the bell in Pavlov's experiments:
they gently blew vanilla or lemon odour at the restrained locust while they spoon-fed it with artificial food.
#Dogs likely originated in Europe more than 18,000 years ago, biologists reportwolves likely were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18000 years ago
and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets UCLA life scientists report. We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs ancient European wolves were directly related to them said Robert Wayne a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA's College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research.
This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.
The UCLA researchers'genetic analysis is published Nov 15 in the journal Science and featured on the journal's cover.
In related research last May Wayne and his colleagues reported at the Biology of Genomes meeting in New york the results of their comparison of the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds (from the Middle east East asia
and Europe) two ancient dog breeds and the boxer dog breed. We analyzed those six genomes with cutting-edge approaches
and found that none of those wolf populations seemed to be closest to domestic dogs Wayne said.
because they represent wolves from the three possible centers of dog domestication but none was.
All the wolves formed their own group and all the dogs formed another group. The UCLA biologists also hypothesized at that conference that a now-extinct population of wolves was more directly related to dogs.
For the current study in Science the researchers studied 10 ancient wolflike animals and eight doglike animals mostly from Europe.
By comparing this ancient MITOCHONDRIAL DNA with the modern mitochondrial genomes of 77 domestic dogs 49 wolves
and four coyotes the researchers determined that the domestic dogs were grouped genetically with ancient wolves or dogs from Europe--not with wolves found anywhere else in the world or even with modern European wolves.
Dogs they concluded derived from ancient wolves that inhabited Europe and are now extinct. Wayne said that that the domestication of predatory wolves likely occurred among ancient hunter-gatherer groups rather than as part of humans'development of sedentary agricultural-based communities.
The wolf is domesticated the first species and the only large carnivore humans ever domesticated Wayne said.
This always seemed odd to me. Other wild species were domesticated in association with the development of agriculture
and then needed to exist in close proximity to humans. This would be a difficult position for a large aggressive predator.
But if domestication occurred in association with hunter-gatherers one can imagine wolves first taking advantage of the carcasses that humans left behind--a natural role for any large carnivore--and then over time moving more closely into the human niche
The idea of wolves following hunter-gatherers also helps to explain the eventual genetic divergence that led to the appearance of dogs he said.
Wolves following the migratory patterns of these early human groups would have given up their territoriality
and would have been less likely to reproduce with resident territorial wolves. Wayne noted that a group of modern wolves illustrates this process.
We have an analog of this process today in the only migratory population of wolves known existing in the tundra
and boreal forest of North america he said. This population follows the barren ground-caribou caribou during their thousand-kilometer migration.
When these wolves return from the tundra to the boreal forest during the winter they do not reproduce with resident wolves there that never migrate.
We feel this is a model for domestication and the reproductive divergence of the earliest dogs from wild wolves.
We know also that there were distinct wolf populations existing ten of thousands of years ago Wayne added.
One such wolf which we call the megafaunal wolf preyed on large game such as horses bison and perhaps very young mammoths.
and the dog may have been derived from a wolf similar to these ancient wolves in the late Pleistocene of Europe.
In research published in the journal nature in 2010 Wayne and colleagues reported that dogs seem to share more genetic similarity with living Middle Eastern gray wolves than with any other wolf population
which suggested a Middle east origin for modern dogs. The new genetic data have convinced him otherwise.
When we previously found some similarity between Middle Eastern wolves and domestic dogs that similarity we are now able to show likely was the result of interbreeding between dog and wolves during dog history.
It does not necessarily suggest an origin in the middle East Wayne said. This alternative hypothesis in retrospect is one that we should have considered more closely.
As hunter-gatherers moved around the globe their dogs trailing behind probably interbred with wolves.
This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication but I think it is a powerful argument opposing other hypotheses of origin he said.
when dogs were domesticated and whether it was linked with the development of agriculture fewer than 10000 years ago
In the new Science research Wayne and his colleagues estimate that dogs were domesticated between 18000 and 32000 years ago.
and Jennifer Leonard who earned her doctorate from UCLA. Approximately 80 percent of dog breeds are modern breeds that evolved in the last few hundred years Wayne said.
But some dog breeds have ancient histories that go back thousands of years. Wolves have been in the Old world for hundreds of thousands of years.
The oldest dogs from the archaeological record come from Europe and Western Russia. A dog from Belgium dates back approximately 36000 years and a group of dogs from Western Russia is approximately 15000 years old Wayne said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Los angeles. The original article was written by Stuart Wolpert.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference r
#First detailed map of global forest changea University of Maryland-led multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent loss and gain.
mouse chow (4 percent fat. When researchers added LPAS at only one part per million (by weight) to the normal low-fat low-cholesterol mouse chow they observed the same increase in LPAS in the small intestine as
when the mice were fed the high-cholesterol high-fat diet. Surprisingly with the addition of LPAS to the low-fat diet the UCLA team also found alterations in the patterns of gene expression in the small intestine changes in cholesterol levels (increases in LDL
Researchers added 2. 2 percent (by weight) of freeze-dried tomato powder from the peptide-enhanced tomatoes to low-fat low-cholesterol mouse chow that was supplemented with LPAS.
and dogs cattle domestication was probably also a complex process rather than a sudden event.
Wolves control elk populations. Sea otters protect kelp forests by eating sea urchins. These are what ecologists call keystone species:
and population distribution of lions and spotted hyenas in Uganda's three major conservation areas conducted by researchers between November 2008 and November 2009.
Overall the call station surveys attracted a total of 66 lions 176 spotted hyenas and seven leopards.
The broadcasts also attracted a host of smaller predators including side-striped jackals black-backed jackals white-tailed mongooses and large spotted genets.
The study also represents the first survey of hyena numbers from these areas generating a population estimate of 324 hyenas (the researchers suspect
--but cannot prove--hyenas to be in decline as well). Conservation areas such as Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls which formerly contained the highest biomass of mammals On earth depend on the delicate balance between predators
and mammals with uses that include home insect control insect-repellant clothing dog and cat flea shampoos mosquito control and agriculture.
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers definitely had dogs but they did not practise agriculture and did not have pigs sheep goats or cows all of
#Red delicious or wolf apple? Brazilian savanna fruits high in antioxidantsnative Brazilian fruits grown in arid climates
The fruits studied here include indigenous species such as lobeira also called'wolf apple'tucum a variety of palm and other fruits
Chow for the mice was a highly nutritious wheat-corn-soybean mix with vitamins and minerals.
For experimental mice glucose and fructose amounting to 25 percent of calories was included in the chow.
Foxes and other mammal predators help control the disease by keeping small mammal populations in check.
Return of wolves aids grizzly bears in Yellowstonea new study suggests that the return of wolves to Yellowstone national park is beginning to bring back a key part of the diet of grizzly bears that has been missing for much of the past century--berries that help bears
now that shrubs are starting to recover following the re-introduction of wolves which have reduced over-browsing by elk herds.
When wolves were removed from Yellowstone early in the 1900s increased browsing by elk herds caused the demise of young aspen
The recovery of those trees and other food sources since the re-introduction of wolves in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the Yellowstone ecosystem researchers say
Studies like this also point to the need for an ecologically effective number of wolves said co-author Robert Beschta an OSU professor emeritus.
As we learn more about the cascading effects they have on ecosystems the issue may be more than having just enough individual wolves
As wolves help reduce elk numbers in Yellowstone and allow tree and shrub recovery researchers said this improves the diet and health of grizzly bears.
With the return of wolves the new study found the percentage of fruit in grizzly bear scat in recent years almost doubled during August.
More research is needed regarding the effects of wolves on plants and animals consumed by grizzly bears.
And in the absence of wolves black bears went extinct on Anticosti Island in Canada after over-browsing of berry shrubs by introduced while-tailed deer.
In addition to eliminating wolf-livestock conflicts retiring livestock allotments in the grizzly bear recovery zone adjacent to Yellowstone could benefit bears through increases in plant foods.
what we know is effective in dogs cats and humans with lymphoma. Nemo's clinical signs soon resolved
Ecological effects of the growth in goat herds include increasing conflicts with pastoralists predation by dogs on wildlife retaliatory killing of snow leopards and displacement of wildlife away from critical food habitats.
Ann Wolf executive director of the diabetes Camp Hertko Hollow who worked with researchers on the field study is interested in adding a permanent digital display for next summer's camp.
but Wolf said it reinforces a lesson they hope to teach campers. Children need to make healthy choices Wolf said.
We try to educate our children to eat well and manage their diabetes to live a long and healthy life.
Rice alumna Elvira Pembroke; and Professor Ting Yu of Nanyang Technological University. Tour is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science at Rice.
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
Most studies on depredation of livestock in Spain have focused on wolves and little attention has been given to this type of conflict in smaller species. Within the LIFE IBERLINCE project Conservation
which is developed colonising more areas as happens with the wolf whose conflict is generalised much more the researcher concludes.
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