Category Archives: Animal

Learning to Fly

Posted on by

I spent the final weekend of July in San Francisco, glued to my 11th floor window after spotting the adult western gull (Larus occidentalis)pictured here perched on a skylight.  It took a closer look to realize that, although distracted for a moment, its attention was primarily focused on the mustard-yellow structure (on the roof of a brick building) in the background of this photo.

Without binoculars it took some serious eye strain to make out the three fledglings that hopped in and out of view on the edge of the yellow building while another adult gull sat on a far corner keeping a close eye on their calisthenics.  Over the course of two days I saw the young gulls flap, flap, flap, but never lift  off.  The adult at my window seemed to be offering encouragement from afar along with occasional flying demonstrations.

Before I left Monday morning, I pulled the shade back one last time:  the adult was still observing patiently from the corner while one of the fledglings spread its wings, balanced on the edge of the building, getting stronger with each flex.  Soon, maybe on this day or the next, when the moment is right, the youngster will take the leap, feel the wind under its wings, and lift off on its first flight.

A few of my favorite recent reads about birds:

This story about a hitchhiking gull by Paul Rogers in the Mercury News shows just how smart these West Coast residents are.

In Melissa Hart’s essay she captures the beauty of hearing a bird’s song in its natural setting.

I had not heard of acorn woodpeckers until my friend, Robin sent me this video about the creative way they stash food in the bark of redwoods.

And finally, with all of the fires raging across the West, especially in California, I often wonder how birds and other wildlife are faring.  In this piece from Earth Island about the 2017 Christmas bird count in Ventura County that took place just after the Thomas Fire, writer Matt Blois has some surprising answers.

 

Earth Island Journal – Summer 2018 – Mexican Wolf Recovery

Posted on by

Twenty years ago the first Mexican wolves were released back into their native habitat after a close call with extinction.  Today there are approximately 114 of the rare wolves living in the wild.  The latest edition of Earth Island Journal takes a look at where the recovery program stands today, the challenges it still faces,  and what it will take for the population to be fully recovered.

Links to the three pieces (including one I wrote) are listed below.

Mexican Wolf Survey–2018. Photo Credit: Paula Nixon

 

 

Leave the Door Open by Maureen Nandini Mitra

Recovery Roadblocks by John Soltes

Lobo 1676 by Paula Nixon

 

The Death of Willow Springs Pup 1385

Posted on by

Update: 6/28/18 This story in the Santa Fe New Mexican last week about the death of mp1385 has quotes from the rancher who killed the wolf; the forest service supervisor; John Bradley, FWS spokesman; and several others on both sides of the Mexican wolf reintroduction debate.

Update:  6/18/18 I received a return call from Adam Mendonca, the Gila Forest Supervisor, who let me know that the USFS was working through its administrative process with regard to Mr.Thiessen’s conviction and the status of his grazing permits.  They have not yet made a decision about what action they will take.

News broke on May 25, 2018 that a New Mexico man had been sentenced for the 2015 death of a Mexican wolf. It’s rare news. Illegal mortalities continue to stack up—67 at end of 2015 for the 18-year period the wolves had been back in the wild at that point. Convictions for those killings can be counted on one hand.

The wolf, it turned out, was a pup, not yet a year old—a member of the Willow Springs Pack that roamed the north central portion of the Gila National Forest. He was born in the spring of 2014, the pack’s second litter. In September of that year he was captured by the field team that monitors the wild population, collared and assigned a studbook number, male pup (mp)1385.

Willow Springs male pup (mp) 1385 Photo Credit: US Fish and Wildlife

Five months later in February 2015 he was found dead. Craig Thiessen, a Catron County rancher, pled guilty admitting, “[that] he intentionally captured a Mexican wolf in a trap on his grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest and hit the wolf with a shovel.” Thiessen was charged with taking of threatened wildlife, a federal misdemeanor wildlife violation. His sentence: one year of probation and a $2300 fine to be paid to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program

Going back through monthly status updates and annual progress reports, I pieced together some of the history of the pack.

The Willow Springs Pack formed in 2011 when two wolves–M1185 of the Middle Fork Pack and an unidentified female–began traveling together. In 2012 the female was captured, collared, and assigned studbook number F1279. Genetic testing later confirmed that she came from the Luna Pack.

The pair had their first litter of pups in 2013.

Up until 2014, the pack had never had any reported interactions with livestock. But in March of that year, before mp1385 was born, collared members of the pack killed two cows. The field team provided a diversionary food cache (road-killed prey and carnivore logs) and there were no further depredations.

On August 11, 2014 the Willow Springs Pack was located, via radio telemetry, east of John Kerr Peak in Catron County. The family of wolves included the two adults, one or two juveniles (born the prior year) and an unidentified number of pups, about 12 to 16 weeks old. With a territory of approximately 140 square miles it was just a snapshot in time of the Willow Springs Pack, a family of wolves on the move, the adults trying to protect and feed their offspring and in the process teaching them how to hunt.

Two days later U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) held a public meeting in Truth or Consequences (about 100 miles southeast of the Willow Springs Pack’s most recently identified location) to present proposed changes to the rule governing management of the small wild population of Mexican wolves. It was one of several meetings held in 2013 and 2014, an opportunity for the public to weigh in on proposals which included increasing the number of wolves living back in their native habitat and increasing the area where they would be allowed to establish territories.

The meeting was attended by almost 200 people, a mix of local citizens, ranchers, hunters, and wildlife advocates.  After a presentation by FWS, the public was invited to comment.  Most speakers were in favor of giving the wolves more room to roam and increasing their numbers.  They saw the return of the native predator as a positive.

Opposition was voiced in large part by ranchers, who are the ones most likely to have an interaction with a wolf and who sometimes suffer the loss of a cow or a dog.  I checked the transcript of the meeting to see if Craig Thiessen might have attended and made a comment, but he did not.

One speaker who addressed issues that the ranching community faces was Joe Bill Nunn, president of the Southwestern New Mexico Grazing Association. In part, he said:

“We are the ones bearing the brunt of the wolf population and the depredation by the wolves.”  He went on to ask that the program be ended and if not ended, ” . . . do not expand the initial recovery areas.  The problem with depredation of privately owned livestock . . . is only going to get worse.”

In January 2015 FWS issued their final rule.  The  Mexican wolf population living in the wild would be allowed to grow to approximately 300 (up from the original top set of 100) and their territory was greatly expanded.

A month later mp1385 was found in a trap, beaten to death. Thiessen has been punished, but is that the end of the story?

Maybe not.

Last Friday (June 8, 2018) a group of 30 organizations and numerous individuals signed a letter addressed to the supervisor of Gila National Forest asking that Thiessen’s grazing permits be revoked immediately.  The letter stated in part, “The public should not subsidize Mr. Thiessen’s private business after his brutal, violent and unconscionable crime.”

I left a message for Adam Mendonca, the forest supervisor,  to find out the status of Theissen’s grazing permits, but so far have not heard back.

I’ll close with the words of another speaker at the August 13, 2014 public hearing, Danielle LaRock:

“I will never understand [why] it is so hard to give a small group of wolves back a mere fraction of what we have taken away from them, their land and their freedom.”

 

Saying Goodbye to Red

Posted on by

Tuesday morning at Anaeho’omalu Bay—it was quiet—a few walkers and the canoe club preparing to launch.

A-Bay Beach

Behind the beach several cats, the A-Bay kitties, were sunning themselves on the lava.

Dave and one of the A-Bay cats

Although I hadn’t visited in more than two years, a few looked familiar.  But there was one in particular I was looking for—Red, the one-eyed cat I wrote about in 2013.  Now known as Popeye, he’s a favorite of volunteers and visitors, one of the oldest cats in the colony.  Dawn of A-Bay Kitties (the nonprofit that takes care of the cats) says he’s about thirteen or fourteen and has mellowed in the last year or so.

I found him snoozing on a lava rock.  And sure enough, he let me take his picture and scratch his ears.

Red aka Popeye 3/6/18

Two days later, back on the Mainland I received a text from Dawn.  Red had been found dead by a visitor.   It was unexpected, but it appeared he died peacefully in his sleep, no sign of any injuries.  He was laid to rest nearby.

I’ll miss Red.  He represents all that is good in us.  From Charlotte and Dawn who captured the feisty tabby and took him to the vet when he was sick or injured to the many volunteers who made sure he always had food and water to the visitors from around the world who stopped by to check on Popeye and leave donations for the kibble fund.  Red had a good, long life and was well-loved.

 

 

Counting Wolves

Posted on by

The annual Mexican wolf survey is underway after a brief delay during the government shutdown. I was in Alpine, Arizona on Wednesday and spent the day with the team conducting the count, capture and collar operation.

The first wolf brought in was a yearling, pictured below. In a brief thirty minute exam the male wolf was vaccinated, outfitted with a radio collar, and assigned a studbook number.

Photo by Paula Nixon 1/23/18

Within a couple of hours M1676 was back with the Bear Wallow Pack out in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. To see his release click on the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/USFWSSouthwest/videos/1568484883189311/

Still Waiting

Posted on by

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont Flickr via Compfight cc

Any day now the new recovery plan for Mexican gray wolves will be released.  Here’s my story, published in the Albuquerque Journal, about New Mexico’s Leopold Pack and the importance of a new plan.

The Red Wolves of North Carolina

Posted on by

Note:  The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is working on an environmental impact statement which will determine how the red wolf population and habitat will be managed going forward.  They are accepting public comments through July 24th, 2017.  The Red Wolf Coalition (RWC) prepared this guide to writing an effective letter.

On April 28th six red wolf pups were born at the Museum of Life and Science (Museum) in Durham, North Carolina.  Two did not survive, but the four remaining pups are now almost twelve-weeks-old.  They live in a woodland habitat with their parents, F1858 and M1784.

Red wolf pups
Photo Credit: Ryan Nordsven/USFWS

Ancestors of red wolves originally roamed the southeastern United States from Florida to Pennsylvania and as far west as Texas.  Cousins to the gray wolf, they have the same long legs and rounded ears, but are smaller and have a reddish tint to their black and gray coats.

In the wild they live in small family groups consisting of the adults and juveniles, one- to two-years-old, who help raise new pups.  They mostly hunt small mammals, rabbits, raccoons and the occasional deer.  But like other wolves in the U.S. their numbers dwindled dramatically in the 20th Century due to habitat loss and conflicts with humans.  They were listed as endangered in 1967 and became extinct in the wild in 1980.

The wolves at the Museum are part of a decades-long effort to restore the population.  In 1987 the first red wolves were released back into a portion of their native habitat in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.  Today there are less than 300 red wolves, most of them living in captivity with a small population of 40-50 in the wild.

It’s a familiar story.  Eleven years after the first red wolves were released in North Carolina, Mexican gray wolves were reintroduced in Arizona and New Mexico.  The Mexican wolf program was based, at least in part, on the red wolf program. Both populations of wolves face ongoing challenges in their recovery.  Advocates continue to fight to increase their numbers in the wild and to expand their access to more habitat.

Female 1287 at SSP site Museum Life and Science (Durham, NC).
Photo credit: B. Bartel/USFWS

I’ve followed red wolves from a distance for a couple of years, but when I read about the new pups on  RWC’s Facebook page I found myself engaged in their progress via “pupdates” posted on the Museum’s zoo keeper’s blog.  Complete with photos and videos, the posts provide a window into  the first weeks of a wolf pup’s life.

A few of the notes:  At two-weeks the pups’ coats were getting lighter in color and their eyes were beginning to open.  A week later Mom moved one of the pups (carrying it in her mouth) outside the den, but returned it later that day.  At four-weeks Dad brought them a knuckle bone to chew on.  At five-weeks they were more-widely exploring the enclosure, climbing up the cliff to another den site, sometimes sliding back down.  They were also beginning to eat solid food, regurgitated for them by Mom and Dad.  By six-weeks they all had teeth.  A week later they had learned to howl.

And then on a Monday morning in mid-June, three of the pups escaped, probably through an enlarged spot in the fence (just big enough for a seven-week old pup to squeeze through).  While it must have been a grand adventure for the pups (until they realized they couldn’t get back in), it had to be a heart-stopping event for the zoo keepers.  Luckily, the little rascals were still contained within the Museum’s perimeter fence.  Dad took it in stride and provided food for the pups at the fence line.  Two pups were recaptured within hours, but the third spent the night outside.  By noon the next day she was back in the enclosure with Mom, Dad and her three siblings.

Juvenile male red wolf waiting to be released
Photo Credit: R. Nordsven/USFWS

Updates are less frequent now as the pups put on weight and grow into their feet.

Next week they will be three-months-old and the USFWS will close the comment period on a proposed rule change that will impact the future of all red wolves.

Here’s hoping these pups and their parents have an opportunity to live out their lives in the wild, chasing rabbits and falling asleep with full stomachs under the stars.

Photos in this post are from the Red Wolves Flickr Track the Pack photostream.  To see F1858, M1784 and their pups check out the “pupdates“.  Many thanks to Sherry Samuels for her posts that have allowed the public to get to know this family of endangered red wolves!

 

 

 

Losing–The Baldy Pack

Posted on by

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont Flickr via Compfight cc

My short piece about the Baldy Pack and the politics of wolf reintroduction is in the June issue of The Sun in the “Readers Write” column.

As published:

On November 8, 2016, Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States. Now, three weeks later, winter has arrived in the White Mountains of Arizona.  Temperatures have dropped to single digits, and there is new snow on the ground.  Undeterred by the cold, two Mexican wolves trot through stands of ponderosa pine and weave among bare aspen trees.  A mated pair, they are tracking a herd of elk.  The heavy undercoats they have grown over the last few months keep them warm and dry.

The wolves know nothing of politics or national borders.  Their territory straddles the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest (ASNF) and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation (FAIR) in the shadow of Mount Baldy.  They are two of fewer than a hundred Mexican gray wolves left in the wild.  Threats to their population abound:  A blow to the head from the hoof of an elk.  Ambush by a mountain lion.  Starvation.  Humans with vehicles and guns.  And inbreeding.  Local resistance—primarily from ranchers and hunters—to reintroducing wolves has made it nearly impossible to move animals bred in captivity into the wild.

Our pair of wolves, though, are not related.  In January or February, if all goes well, they will breed.  By then a new president will have been sworn in.  So far the incoming administration has shown little regard for endangered species.  There are numerous bills and amendments in Congress that aim to cut funding for the reintroduction effort and possibly remove wolves from the endangered-species list, stripping all protection.  These bills are nothing new, but after January 20 we will have a president who is likely to sign them.

The days are growing shorter.  The two wolves run silently through the woods.  They are lucky: they do not know they have lost.

*****

Six months have passed since I wrote those words.  In November and December the two wolves, M1347 and f1445, were “located within their traditional territory in the eastern portion of the FAIR and the northern portion of the ASNF.”  Since then they have not been located according to the monthly status reports.

I hope for the best, but fear the worst.

Update July 13, 2017
Monthly Project Update for May 2017 “It has been more than three months since the Baldy Pack was located and they are now considered fate unknown.”

Update April 28, 2018
Good news from the Monthly Project Update for March 2018:  The alpha male AM1347 and a pup born in 2017, mp1672, were reported to be traveling on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.

 

Birdwatching in Orlando

Posted on by

In the end I left my binoculars and field guide at home. The trip was a short one for Dave to attend a convention in Orlando where we stayed on International Drive (I-Drive)—an eleven-mile strip of chain restaurants, outlet malls, and amusement parks—not an obvious place to look for nature.

April was a hectic travel month with one day between west and east coast trips, so I only had time for a quick glance at a map before we repacked our suitcases and ran for a flight to Florida. A wildlife refuge had caught my eye, but it wasn’t until my first morning in Orlando that I got a chance to check it out more closely.

Dusky Seaside Sparrow by John James Audubon

St. Johns Refuge is located 45 miles east of the city, established in 1971 along the St. Johns River to protect the habitat of the endangered dusky seaside sparrow.  The little songbird has since been declared extinct.  The refuge is maintained today for several other threatened and endangered species but is closed to the public.

On my second day I was drinking a cup of coffee at a sidewalk table when I noticed the ducks.  Mallards—youngsters, I think.  They were foraging in the planter between I-Drive and the parking lot.  Two of them got into a scrap just before one of the females waddled  into the parking lot to cross over to another landscaped area, no different from the first: crape myrtles, honeysuckle, monkey grass.  I held my breath as she dawdled, crossing the driveway leading to the Starbuck’s drive-thru.  I feared a caffeine-deprived, late-to-work commuter would come wheeling in and run over her, but she made it.  The others were wise enough to fly across the drive into the Walgreen’s flower bed.  When I left a group of noisy crows had gathered on the roof to lecture the invading ducks.

Photo Credit: Paula Nixon

A few hours later at a bustling outdoor mall this guy with the crazy hairdo caught my eye.  It took me a moment to figure out he was a fledging—a starling, I think.  I stopped and watched from a distance as his mom encouraged him and he made a short clumsy flight up to an awning.  Shoppers hurried through the plaza never giving the birds a second glance. When Mom disappeared the youngster was stuck, couldn’t remember how to get his wings moving.  I forced myself to leave, certain she was nearby and would soon return to continue his flying lessons.

And that was the highlight of my trip to Orlando—not bad for never straying more than a few blocks off of I-Drive!

 

To Eat Just Once

Posted on by

To Eat Just Once:
Remembering a Ranger Lecture at
Yellowstone National Park
For Mel

After they kill, the wolves eat just once.

The pack, all tooth and jaw, with ribcages that jut
like opened Texas toothpick knives, feasts.

Their gray bellies fill and sag with new meat.

They used to eat twice or even three times
from downed prey, a straggling old deer or a slow fawn—

their dead eyes, like tumbled obsidian, still catching light—
the body dragged into an old tree

or quickly buried and left for later.
However, ranchers started poisoning

hidden carcasses so that at the second
meal, the wolves, bloated with pain,

would die.  Some, however, did live
and taught the others to eat just once

and leave like a swift wind,
a scattered gray line galloping into night.
—Kevin Rabas Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano

I am ending where I started, at the beginning of April, with a poem about wolves.   I have never met Kevin Rabas, but he was kind enough to allow me to reprint the full text of his poem. In this interview with KCUR 89.3 he offered three tips for writers.

Thank you Kevin and congratulations on being named the next Poet Laureate of Kansas!