Field Reports

HABITAT

Alaska tundra greener

Recent studies show plant life in Alaska’s northern forests is declining, while the tundra is seeing accelerated growth triggered by rising temperatures and concentrations of carbon dioxide.

The vast boreal forests that stretch from Alaska’s Interior into northeastern Canada, appear to be drying out as the air warms, said Scott Goetz, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. Insect outbreaks and lack of nutrients may also be speeding the decline.

But the tundra of Alaska and northern Canada had been “greening” dramatically as the Arctic warms, with more plant growth and longer growing seasons, according to Goetz’s study that analyzed thousands of satellite images taken over two decades.

The report by Goetz and three other researchers was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A separate study, based on tundra near Nome, found plant growth may be speeding the warming trend and a thickening of flora on the tundra.

Bushes peeking above the snow trap more of the late winter sun and accelerate heating by as much as 70 percent, said Alaska snow researcher Matthew Sturm.

Global air temperature has risen at least 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century, and many scientists agree the rise of human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is a major cause.

Average temperatures in the Arctic have risen more than 3 degrees in a half century. The regions near the poles have revealed disintegrating permafrost, melting glaciers and a reduction in summer sea ice.

Associated Press

HUNTING

Pack goats discouraged

Alaska officials are asking Dall sheep hunters to avoid using domestic goats as pack animals.

Spokesmen for the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Fish and Game said domestic goats or llamas could expose wild Dall sheep, mountain goats or musk oxen to diseases or parasites.

Pack goats can carry about 50 pounds. They appeal to some hunters because they do not need to carry their own feed. Instead, they graze on what they find on the trip.

“Up here, it’s kind of a new thing but it’s really hot,” said Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, a Fish and Game Department wildlife veterinarian in Fairbanks.

Beckmen said most populations of Dall sheep, mountain goat and musk ox in Alaska have never been exposed to infectious diseases and parasites of domestic animals.

“They will likely have little resistance,” she said.

Domestic goats have exposed wild sheep to diseases and parasites in other states, she said. In Arizona, domestic goats introduced a virus that caused blindness as well as contagious ecthyma which causes lesions, to a desert bighorn sheep herd that led to deaths and a decline in the population.

Domestic animals, especially sheep and goats, are adapted to several diseases and usually appear healthy even when they are carrying infections that can be deadly to wildlife, said Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian.

Diseases can be passed though feces, urine, saliva, skin discharges, and droplets sprayed from coughing or sneezing, Beckmen said. Such droplets can carry as far as 50 yards. The tissues, fluids or excrement can contaminate the environment and remain infectious for years, the veterinarians said.

“Domestic animal diseases could become introduced to Dall sheep and established before we even detect the introduction,” Beckmen said. “This could lead to population declines and would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to eradicate.”

Associated Press

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Ranch elk slaughtered

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has euthanized 350 elk from a southern Colorado ranch after one of the animals tested positive for chronic wasting disease.

Hundreds of elk were rounded up from the Ron Walker ranch near Penrose as part of a nationwide effort to keep the illness from spreading to other herds.

Most of the cases of chronic wasting disease have been found in northern Colorado, not far from where biologists first identified the disease nearly 30 years ago.

“There is some concern about the spread of the disease and our biologists have followed it very closely,” Seraphin said.

With little known about the spread of the disease or where it originates, federal officials order the slaughter of all animals in a herd where an infected elk is found. The goal is to keep the disease from spreading to the wild.

Associated Press

HUNTING

Remote hunting banned

California may be home to Silicon Valley, but it’s also the latest among states nipping an unsavory technological innovation from the realm of hunting.

A bill banning Internet hunting, a practice the author called “pay-for-view slaughter,” was approved recently by California lawmakers.

The measure would make it a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine to use the Internet to hunt animals. The measure also would ban businesses that offer Internet hunting and prohibit the importation of animals killed via the Internet.

The bill was triggered by an Internet target shooting site in Texas that announced plans to allow hunters to shoot at live game by clicking a button on their computers. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to ban remote game hunting, however, after one person took advantage of the offer.

Eight other states have adopted similar bans. Bills are pending in Congress and 10 other states.

Staff and wire reports

BIG GAME

Wolves thwart disease

Wolves could be an effective tool to help stop the spread of a contagious brain disease that is 100 percent fatal to deer and elk, a recent study suggests.

The study, based on conditions at Rocky Mountain National Park, shows wolves could significantly reduce the rate of chronic wasting disease in the park’s overpopulated elk herds, researchers said.

Chronic wasting disease is similar to mad cow disease, but it is contagious and has never been known to sicken a human. Still, health experts warn hunters not to eat the meat of an infected animal.

Wolves’ tendency to prey on weak or sick animals could help remove contagious animals from herds, and help scatter herds to further reduce the risk of disease transmission, Wild said.

Associated Press