As deer populations increase, the amount of vegetation they consume also increases. Included in their diet is the endangered wild ginseng. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Researchers say deer populations are threatening wild ginseng. They say the therapeutic herb could disappear from the American landscape within the next century. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shamane Mills has more:
Transcript
Researchers say deer populations are threatening wild ginseng.
They say the therapeutic herb could disappear from the American landscape
within the next century. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shamane
Mills has more:
Ginseng is a wild herb believed to boost energy and improve
concentration. The plant inhabits eastern deciduous forests from Maine to
Georgia.
James McGraw is a biologist at West Virginia University. He studied the
health of wild ginseng plants over the course of four years, and published his
findings in the journal Science. He found that increasing deer
populations threaten to eventually wipe out the plant.
“What we found was that populations were depressed because affects
of browsing. They weren’t reproducing; plants would begin to die and they
weren’t recruiting new plants into the population.”
McGraw says maintaining the wild herb is not only important for
ecological reasons. It’s also important to people who depend on it for
income; wild ginseng roots sell for hundreds of dollars a pound.
To control the deer population, McGraw suggests a change in hunting regulations or introducing more deer predators.
Timber wolves have been making a comeback in the Midwest for some time. Recently, they've been reappearing in places they haven't been seen in decades.
Timber wolves are moving into an area where they
haven’t been seen for about 80 years. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Timber wolves are moving into an area where they haven’t been seen for about 80 years. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Timber wolves have been repopulating areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan for some time now. But recently, a wolf was shot and killed in the lower peninsula of Michigan. Since then, tracks of two more wolves have been identified not too far away from the shooting. The two peninsulas of Michigan are separated by water five miles across the connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. Sometimes, it freezes over. Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologists figure a small pack of wolves made the trek across the ice. Brian Roell is with the DNR.
“Well, it’s interesting that, you know, wolves are, you know, repopulating areas that, you know, they’ve been removed from. It’s really nice to see that these wolves are making their own comeback.”
Hunters are warned to be careful when trapping or hunting. The wolves are still federally protected. The wolf shooting this fall was ruled accidental because the trapper shot the animal thinking it was a coyote, since wolves were killed off in the area decades ago.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
American chestnuts (left) are smaller than Chinese and European chestnuts. The Chinese and European varieties are also resistant to the blight, making the imports more desirable to growers. (Photo by Lester Graham)
American chestnuts were an important food source for wildlife because there was a more consistent crop each year than acorns. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Bill Nash of Nash Nurseries holds the spiny husks that hold the chestnuts. The American chestnut grove behind him is 20 years old and has not yet been hit by blight. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Food is always a big part of the holidays. But one
traditional food has – for the most part – disappeared from American tables. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Food is always a big part of the holidays. But one traditional food has – for the most part – disapeared from American tables. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
(Sound of Nat King Cole singing, “Chestnuts roasing on an open fire…”)
That old chestnut of a song romanticizes roasting chestnuts as a part of the holidays. But a lot of us have never even seen chestnuts, let alone roasted them on an open fire. Chestnuts used to be a major part of the Eastern hardwood forest. There were millions of them. In fact, 25 percent of all the mature trees were chestnuts. But a blight, imported with some Chinese chestnut trees, slowly wiped out the American chestnuts. Now, they’re gone.
Well… almost. Much of the root stock is still alive. Sprouts grow until the blight knocks them back again. A blight only hurts the standing tree where it branches out.
And, in a few isolated pockets in the Midwest, the blight hasn’t reached the trees. A few American chestnuts are alive and growing and some of them are free of the blight. At Nash Nursuries in central Michigan, owner Bill Nash is guiding us through a rare sight… a grove of American chestnuts.
“These are 20 years old and as you can see, they’re fairly good sized. The American chestnut is quite a rapid growing tree. It’s well-suited for our climate, so it doesn’t have any of the problems that some of the hybrids do as far as growing and cultural care you have to take care of them. The Americans, you get them started and they’re pretty much on their own.”
In a few places in Michigan and Wisconsin there are small groves of chestnuts. They’re prized trees. They’re great for shade. The hardwood is rot resistant and makes great furniture and fence posts. And the chestnuts are eaten by humans and wildlife alike. Bill Nash says the tree will be popular again if it ever overcomes the blight that’s hit it so hard.
“The American chestnut will make another big comeback in this country as a yard tree, as a timber tree, as a wildlife tree.”
That part about a wildlife tree is more important than just worrying about the squirrels and bunnies. Chestnuts were an important food source for all kinds of animals.
Andrew Jarosz is a plant biologist at Michigan State University. He says the loss of chestnuts has been hard on wildlife populations.
“Chestnuts shed nuts in a more regular pattern than oaks, which will have what are called mast years – where they’ll have major crops, massive crops one year and very small crops in other years – which means it’s either feast or famine if you’re depending on oaks.”
Since the blight first began hitting American chestnuts about a century ago, researchers have been looking into all kinds of ways to stop it. One way is to cross it with the Chinese chestnut which has a couple of genes that resist the blight. But it takes a long time to breed out the Chinese characteristics from the American chestnuts and still keep the resistant genes.
Another approach is genetic manipulation. Genetically modifying the American chestnut tree to make it disease resistant. Again, work is underway, but it takes a long time. And even after success, it’s likely some people won’t like the idea of releasing a genetically modified organism into the wild.
The final approach worked in Europe when the blight hit there. It seems there’s a naturally occuring virus that kills the blight. It spread naturally in Europe. There are a few groves in Michigan that have naturally acquired the virus and it’s working to keep the blight at bay. Andrew Jarosz is working on the research. He says the trick is figuring out how to get the virus to spread to other trees short of manually spreading it on cankers infected by the blight.
“If we’re literally talking about millions of trees across probably, you know, the eastern third of the country, we obviously can’t treat every canker on every tree. And we need to be able to figure out a way to deploy the virus in a way that it can spread.”
Even with all that hopeful research, it’ll be ten years at least before some practical solutions end up in the forests, and Jarosz believes a couple of centuries before the American chestnut holds the place it once did in the forests.
Bill Nash knows it’ll be a while before there are major changes, but he is optimistic about the American chestnut.
“Oh, I would think the tree has a bright future. There’s enough people working on that, enough programs going on now… So, I would suspect that in the not-too-distant future we should have some of this progress made. You know, Robert Frost in his poem predicted the comeback of the American chestnut, that something would arise to offset that blight. And we’re starting to see that.”
Frost put it this way: “Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not, It keeps smoldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight.”
Seems Frost was an optimist too.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
The American Bald Eagle has made a remarkable recovery. It's done so well, it might soon be taken off the Endangered Species list. (Photo courtesy of USFWS)
The eagles and their nest at Crosswinds Marsh, a mitigated wetland in Wayne County, Michigan - click on "view" for a closeup. (Photo by Ed Herrmann)
Crosswinds Marsh in Wayne County, Michigan features a boardwalk and shelter for viewing the wetlands. (Photo by Ed Herrmann)
With more than 7600 breeding pairs in the continental United States alone, the American Bald Eagle has made a remarkable comeback. A new proposal to remove the bird from the Endangered Species list is expected soon. But that means removing a powerful safety net that can affect future research, monitoring and habitat protection. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:
Transcript
With more than 7600 breeding pairs in the continental United States alone, the
American Bald Eagle has made a remarkable comeback. A new proposal to remove the
bird from the Endangered Species list is expected soon. But that means removing a
powerful safety net that can affect future research, monitoring and habitat protection.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:
In the history of the Endangered Species Act, only a dozen or so of the more than 1200
plants and animals listed as threatened or endangered have actually recovered. The eagle
may be the latest to join that little group.
(Young birder: “I see a big birdie…”)
This is a pretty unlikely spot for an eagle — a manmade wetland by a landfill in a busy
airport flight path on the outskirts of Detroit. But state wildlife biologist Joe Robison
shows this young visitor the bulky nest across the marsh where two adult birds are
teaching their gangly fledglings to fly.
“Something just landed in the tree out there. Oh. That’s the other juvenile. This is the
first time I’ve seen them flying this year. They look like they’re flying good though.”
These birds are among more than 400 pairs in Michigan monitored by state and federal
wildlife officials. The eagles are banded, the nests are watched and when a bird dies it
ends up in the freezer of wildlife pathologist Tom Cooley.
(sound of Cooley opening the freezer)
“Lots and lots of ’em. You can see that one was a road kill along I-75…”
Right now, Cooley’s freezer is brim full of dead birds stacked like frozen Thanksgiving
turkeys in plastic bags. Road kill has become the leading cause of death among eagles
he examines, but Cooley says they still investigate suspicious looking deaths for the
heavy metals and pesticides—like DDT—which once caused the eagles’ demise.
“Birds that kind of send up a red flag to us are adult birds that are in poor condition and
you don’t see a reason why they could be in poor condition. Those are the ones that we
especially look at for pesticide analysis because there are still the organochlorines out
there. The DDTs are still picked up by eagles or still contained in eagles. Those
pesticides can cause real problems for them and actually kill them.”
Cooley sends tissue samples to another state lab for analysis. But the testing is
expensive. And with the eagle on the way to recovery, it’s not as urgent. Right now, he
says all the samples he sends are being archived—shelved basically. That means the
testing won’t be done until the money is available.
“I never like archiving anything if I can help it. You’re probably not missing anything
but that kind of data is always nice to have if you can get it right away and look at it right
away.”
The question is, if it’s hard to get funding for monitoring and testing now—while the bird
is still on the Endangered Species List—what happens when it’s taken off the list? The
reality, say state and federal wildlife experts, is that budget priorities change as a species
recovers. Ray Rustem heads Michigan’s non-game wildlife program.
“There’s not enough money for every species. So you try to take a species to a level
where you feel comfortable with and you take money and apply it to another species to
try to recover.”
The federal Endangered Species Act requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor
what it terms a delisted species for five years. After that, responsibility largely shifts to
the states. That concerns groups like the National Wildlife Federation. Attorney John
Kostyak questions whether states can really afford to protect fragile species and their
habitat over the long term.
“That’s going to be an issue with any delisting. A tough question that we’re going to
always be asking is: all right assume you go forward with delisting—how are you going
to be sure the species doesn’t turn right around and go back toward extinction again?”
With some species, that means habitat management. With others, like the recovering
gray wolf, it means public education—teaching people not to kill them. With the eagle, it
means ensuring that the birds are not threatened by the pesticides, heavy metals and
newer chemicals that contaminate the fish the eagles eat. Because of the bird’s
importance as an indicator species, Fish and Wildlife biologists are hopeful banding and
testing programs will continue after delisting. But it will likely mean finding new ways
to pay for them.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sally Eisele.
Researchers collect as much information as they can to take advantage of the rare opportunity of being close to a tranquilized moose. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Many wildlife lovers consider moose to have a special mystique. Adult moose are bigger than horses, and they seem fearless. But biologists don’t know much about many moose populations. A team of researchers is just beginning to learn about one herd of 4,000 moose in the Northwoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
Many wildlife lovers consider moose to have a special mystique. Adult moose are bigger than
horses, and they seem fearless. But biologists don’t know much about many moose populations.
A team of researchers is just beginning to learn about one herd of 4,000 moose in the
northwoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Half a dozen big four-wheel-drive pickups are parked at a boat landing on MacDougal Lake. It’s
about 30 miles west of the Lake Superior shore, in the heart of the Superior National Forest in
Northeastern Minnesota. The forest is twice the size of Delaware.
It’s 25 degrees. At the edge of the frozen lake, men in conservation officer uniforms are standing
around a small fire. They’re waiting to hear from the helicopter. The crew on the helicopter is
shooting moose with a tranquilizer gun. They need to get up close to the animals to learn more
about them.
Scientists think more moose could be living in this area. Mike Shrage is a biologist with the
Fond du Lac band of Chippewa. He says they’d like to know why there aren’t more moose here.
There are several possible reasons.
“Wolves, bears, lack of habitat, hunting and other kinds of human-related mortality, automobile
accidents.”
Shrage is listening to a radio cradled in a canvas holster on his shoulder. He cocks his head to
catch every word.
“There’s three of them there.”
The helicopter crew has spotted some moose.
“Yeah, I think they’re bulls.”
“These are three bulls. It’s not uncommon this time of year, you’ll get small groups of them
hanging together for awhile. Little bachelor groups.”
Shrage says the helicopter crew will try to chase one of the moose into an open area, like a frozen
lake, where they can get an easy shot.
“And if it lays down right in the lake, then they can sit down on the ice next to it. It makes
everything a lot easier.”
“Yeah, he’s gonna hopefully drop in the spot where they can get right to him.”
“I think they must already have a dart in him and they’re just waiting for it to take effect.”
The helicopter drops off a crew member to stay with the moose, and comes back to the boat
landing to pick up a radio collar.
(sound of helicopter)
Counting moose is a challenge. A recent survey in this area showed a drop from 5,000 to 4,000
animals in one year. But researchers admit there could be a 25% margin of error in those figures.
That’s because it’s hard to find the moose in heavily wooded areas. The collaring project will
make counts more accurate.
Three biologists are gathered around the latest moose to be fitted with a collar. He’s a mature
bull. He’s lying on his side in the middle of a huge frozen swamp.
He’s blindfolded to make the process less stressful. He seems to snore, while the biologists poke
and prod.
They take blood samples to check on hormones and blood chemistry, and to look for disease.
They also pull a tooth to send to a lab. They can get an exact age by measuring the rings on the
tooth.
Glenn Delgiudice takes notes on the animal’s fat reserves. That’s a good indication of its overall
health.
Delgiudice even uses an ultrasound machine to measure the fat in the moose’s rear end.
“Rump fat is one of the main fat depots of these animals, and also one of the first to go. They
mobilize their fat depots generally in a sequence. So we measure the depth of the fat with
ultrasound.”
Another key indicator of the animal’s health is the condition of its hair. This moose has most of
its hair. They aren’t all so lucky. Some of them have scratched a lot their hair off.
<"Rick yesterday saw a calf of one of our cows that was what'd you say Rick, only 25% hair. So
that one's been rubbing and scratching for a long time. And, of course, when they're doing that
rubbing and scratching and biting, they're not foraging, and it can drain them over time."
The collar has to fit just right. If it’s too loose, a moose can get a foot caught in it. If it’s too
tight, it can bind, especially in the fall mating season when the bulls’ necks get thicker.
“Yep, that looks good.”
(clicking)
Finally the moose is given an antidote to the tranquilizer, pain-killer, and sedative that have kept
him immobile for about half an hour.
“You know, you’ll see his ears twitch, and he’ll start to lift his head,” Delgiudice says. “The
moose are better at getting up than deer typically. They just get up, loosen up a little bit, and
then lope away.”
The moose struggles up, stands for a minute, and then saunters off toward the trees.
That’s moose number five for the day. The team is planning to track 60 moose for five years.
It’ll tell them what kills these moose and what’s keeping the population from growing.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill, in the Superior National Forest.
Joanna Schmidt, a student at Minnesota
State University-Moorhead, is part of a long-term turtle research project. She's trying to find out why turtle populations are declining in the Midwest. For her research, she catches turtles and gives them an identifying mark, then weighs and measures them before putting them back in the water. (Photo by Dan Gunderson.)
Many Great Lakes states are taking steps to protect turtles. There’s a big demand for turtles in Asia and Europe. But too much trapping can damage wild turtle populations. As a result, states are placing bans or restrictions on turtle trapping. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson reports:
Transcript
Many Great Lakes states are taking steps to protect turtles. There’s a big demand for turtles in
Asia and Europe. But too much trapping can damage wild turtle populations. As a result, states
are placing bans or restrictions on turtle trapping. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Dan Gunderson reports:
(sound of paddling)
Joanna Schmidt pushes a canoe into a small slough in northern Minnesota. She paddles toward a
floating rectangle of plastic pipe. The simple device is a turtle trap. It’s about four feet long with
net in the bottom and a board attached to the side.
“We put a plank on the side and they crawl up to sun themselves and they
just fall in. It’s pretty simple. No mechanics to it. They do all the work for us.”
Joanna Schmidt is a student at Minnesota State University Moorhead. She’s
part of a long-term turtle research project. Researchers want to learn
more about turtle habitat, and why there’s been a recent decline in turtle
populations.
This slough is about a quarter mile across. It lies in a hollow surrounded
by farm fields. Chest high grass and reeds line the water’s edge. Along one end, dead,
sunbleached trees stick out of the water. It’s perfect turtle habitat.
“It’s warm, a lot of food for them, not very many predators, so they like it,
especially having the dead trees with a place to hang out and sun themselves. So this is
very typical.”
Gunderson: “Any estimate of how many turtles might live in a slough this size?”
“Not just yet. That’s what we’re hoping to get to. And that’s what the DNR would
like to know.”
There are several turtles in the trap. Most have been caught before.
They’re identified by small notches in their shells. Schmidt weighs and measures
each turtle before gently setting them back in the water.
Minnesota State University Moorhead Biology professor Donna Stockrahm is
directing this research project. She says it takes years of research to get meaningful data about
turtles. They grow very slowly and they live a long time.
Stockrahm is hoping to learn about rates of turtle mortality, growth rates,
and the optimum habitat for turtles.
She’s seen a puzzling decline in turtle numbers.
“We started this in 2001 and they marked over 250 turtles. Then in 2002
the number just dropped drastically. And there seemed to be fewer turtles
around, even turtles that you see out sunning themselves on rocks and limbs and
dead tree trunks and things like that.”
Stockrahm says she doesn’t have an explanation for the decline. She’s
waiting to see if the trend continues this year.
Turtles are in demand in Europe for pets, and in Asia for
traditional medicines. More than seven million turtles are
exported from the United States each year.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources researcher Rich Baker says
trapping is one reason turtle populations are down.
“What we’ve learned relatively recently is that especially in northern
latitudes commercial harvest really isn’t sustainable. These populations
of slowly maturing species just can’t sustain harvest of adults from the
population.”
Rich Baker says demand for turtles is driven largely by Asian and European
markets. Baker says many Asian turtle species are endangered because of
overharvest.
Those markets are turning to North America which is a particularly turtle-rich
part of the world and the upper Midwest which is a particularly
turtle-rich part of North America. Many of the states in the upper Midwest
have actually closed commercial turtle harvest completely.”
Most Great Lakes states now ban or restrict turtle trapping. Rich Baker
says Minnesota decided to phase out commercial harvest. He says about a dozen
people make a living trapping turtles. They’ll be allowed to continue.
People who like to eat turtle can still get a license to trap for personal
use. But there will be no new commercial turtle trapping licenses.
Minnesota will allow turtle farms as an alternative to harvesting wild turtles.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Gunderson in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Canada lynx are rare in the U.S. Their populations fluctuate following the population cycles of snowshoe hare, their main prey. Photo courtesy of the Gov't of NW Territories.
University of Minnesota researcher Chris Burdette monitors the cat's movements in the region.
A lynx trap used by researchers to help monitor the population.
Some areas of the Great Lakes are again home to an elusive wild cat. Canada Lynx disappeared from the region about twenty years ago. Now, considered threatened, lynx are turning up in the Superior National Forest for the first time in decades. Biologists are trying to figure out why they’ve come back, and whether they’ll stay. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bob Kelleher reports:
Transcript
Some areas of the Great Lakes are again home to an elusive wild cat. Canada Lynx disappeared
from Minnesota about twenty years ago. Now, considered threatened lynx are turning up in the
Superior National Forest for the first time in decades. Biologists are trying to figure out why
they’ve come back, and whether they’ll stay. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bob Kelleher
reports:
Lynx have tufted ears, a stubby tail, and big snowshoe feet. They’re a northern forest cat,
about the size of a cocker spaniel. Lynx range across much of Canada and Alaska, but
historically they were found in the Great Lakes region as well. Lynx are loners and range a huge
territory. They seem to follow their favorite prey, snowshoe hare, and recently, Minnesota’s
Superior National Forest has been jumping with hares.
“It doesn’t matter where snowshoe hares are. If they’re there, that’s where cats are going to be.”
University of Minnesota Researcher, Chris Burdette, has one possible explanation for the return
of Canada Lynx.
“There’s a lot of snowshoe hares in this part of the area, and up to 90% of a lynx’s diet is
snowshoe hares.”
Hare populations boom and bust in about seven-year cycles. But in recent population booms, the
lynx were missing. By the mid-1990s, lynx were considered gone from Minnesota, until now.
Three years ago, the cats were spotted again in the region.
Burdette has just begun to count and track northeast Minnesota’s lynx. Two cats have been fitted
with radio collars. It’s not yet clear how many others are wandering the forest. And Burdette
says, lynx do wander.
“It’s very likely that the majority of these animals migrated from Canada. These animals innately
want to disperse long distances.”
Burdette was checking his traps recently, marching through dense balsam fir and the last
remnants of spring snow.
(walking through snow)
His lynx traps are chicken wire boxes, the size of a big dog house, with a bit of hare or beaver in
the back and a door on the front poised to slap shut. But on this day, there were no lynx to be
found.
“It seems like it’s been in there. We cover it up with some balsam, spruce, pine
boughs – whatever we have to sort of make it look more natural. So this one looks clear.”
Lynx were added to the list of threatened species three years ago. An environmental group sued
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, saying the agency’s recovery plans overlooked lynx
populations in the Western Great Lakes, Maine and the Southern Rockies.
Mike Leahy, Counsel for Defenders of Wildlife, says it’s clear there are lynx in the Great Lakes
Region.
“The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources had for a long time vehemently denied that
there could possibly be more than one or two lynx in the entire state, and, they found indeed,
there’s a resident population of lynx in Minnesota.”
Lynx aren’t entirely welcomed. Some residents worry that rules protecting the threatened species
might stop timber sales, or close roads and recreation trails. They remember the Pacific
Northwest, where logging was stopped for spotted owls. But that won’t happen for lynx,
according to Superior National Forest Biologist, Ed Lindquist.
“It’s certainly not a four-legged spotted owl. It really likes regenerating forest – dense
regenerating forest – that provides good snowshoe hare habitat.”
And regenerating forest is what you get after harvesting timber. New aspen growth attracts hares.
Lynx also need older growth nearby for shelter.
Chris Burdette’s study will help create a lynx recovery plan. But he says recovery – actually
getting the cat off federal protection – isn’t even on the horizon.
“No where near it. Very preliminary stages. We’re just in the data collection stage right now, so we
can put some kind of scientific thoughts into the process of managing this species.
There’s little known about the elusive cat or it’s prey. Understanding snowshoe hares will help
researchers understand the lynx.
“Are they going to be here in three years? Are they going to be here in five years, or whatever?
That’s a very open question.”
Burdette will trap lynx until bears begin raiding the bait in his box traps. Then he’ll radio track
collared lynx and monitor hare feeding areas for signs of lynx. The lynx study is funded for three
years, but it might take ten to begin understanding this rare cat.
For The Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bob Kelleher.
Researchers collect as much information as they can to take advantage of the rare opportunity of being close to a
tranquilized moose. Photo by Stephanie Hemphill.
Biologists fit the moose with tags. The study will track 60 moose for five years, to learn what factors are limiting the population in Northeastern Minnesota. Photo by Stephanie Hemphill.
A bull moose walks away after being fitted with a radio collar. Photo courtesy Pam Coy, Minnesota DNR.
Many wildlife lovers consider moose to have a special mystique. Adult moose are bigger than horses, and they seem fearless. But biologists don’t know much about many moose populations. A team of researchers is just beginning to learn about one herd of 4,000 moose in the Northwoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
Many wildlife lovers consider moose to have a special mystique. Adult moose are bigger than
horses, and they seem fearless. But biologists don’t know much about many moose populations.
A team of researchers is just beginning to learn about one herd of 4,000 moose in the
northwoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Half a dozen big four-wheel-drive pickups are parked at a boat landing on MacDougal Lake. It’s
about 30 miles west of the Lake Superior shore, in the heart of the Superior National Forest in
Northeastern Minnesota. The forest is twice the size of Delaware.
It’s 25 degrees. At the edge of the frozen lake, men in conservation officer uniforms are standing
around a small fire. They’re waiting to hear from the helicopter. The crew on the helicopter is
shooting moose with a tranquilizer gun. They need to get up close to the animals to learn more
about them.
Scientists think more moose could be living in this area. Mike Shrage is a biologist with the
Fond du Lac band of Chippewa. He says they’d like to know why there aren’t more moose here.
There are several possible reasons.
“Wolves, bears, lack of habitat, hunting and other kinds of human-related mortality, automobile
accidents.”
Shrage is listening to a radio cradled in a canvas holster on his shoulder. He cocks his head to
catch every word.
“There’s three of them there.”
The helicopter crew has spotted some moose.
“Yeah, I think they’re bulls.”
“These are three bulls. It’s not uncommon this time of year, you’ll get small groups of them
hanging together for awhile. Little bachelor groups.”
Shrage says the helicopter crew will try to chase one of the moose into an open area, like a frozen
lake, where they can get an easy shot.
“And if it lays down right in the lake, then they can sit down on the ice next to it. It makes
everything a lot easier.”
“Yeah, he’s gonna hopefully drop in the spot where they can get right to him.”
“I think they must already have a dart in him and they’re just waiting for it to take effect.”
The helicopter drops off a crew member to stay with the moose, and comes back to the boat
landing to pick up a radio collar.
(sound of helicopter)
Counting moose is a challenge. A recent survey in this area showed a drop from 5,000 to 4,000
animals in one year. But researchers admit there could be a 25% margin of error in those figures.
That’s because it’s hard to find the moose in heavily wooded areas. The collaring project will
make counts more accurate.
Three biologists are gathered around the latest moose to be fitted with a collar. He’s a mature
bull. He’s lying on his side in the middle of a huge frozen swamp.
He’s blindfolded to make the process less stressful. He seems to snore, while the biologists poke
and prod.
They take blood samples to check on hormones and blood chemistry, and to look for disease.
They also pull a tooth to send to a lab. They can get an exact age by measuring the rings on the
tooth.
Glenn Delgiudice takes notes on the animal’s fat reserves. That’s a good indication of its overall
health.
Delgiudice even uses an ultrasound machine to measure the fat in the moose’s rear end.
“Rump fat is one of the main fat depots of these animals, and also one of the first to go. They
mobilize their fat depots generally in a sequence. So we measure the depth of the fat with
ultrasound.”
Another key indicator of the animal’s health is the condition of its hair. This moose has most of
its hair. They aren’t all so lucky. Some of them have scratched a lot their hair off.
“Rick yesterday saw a calf of one of our cows that was, ‘what’d you say Rick, only 25% hair?’ So
that one’s been rubbing and scratching for a long time. And, of course, when they’re doing that
rubbing and scratching and biting, they’re not foraging, and it can drain them over time.”
The collar has to fit just right. If it’s too loose, a moose can get a foot caught in it. If it’s too
tight, it can bind, especially in the fall mating season when the bulls’ necks get thicker.
“Yep, that looks good.”
(clicking)
Finally the moose is given an antidote to the tranquilizer, pain-killer, and sedative that have kept
him immobile for about half an hour.
“You know, you’ll see his ears twitch, and he’ll start to lift his head,” Delgiudice says. “The
moose are better at getting up than deer typically. They just get up, loosen up a little bit, and
then lope away.”
The moose struggles up, stands for a minute, and then saunters off toward the trees.
That’s moose number five for the day. The team is planning to track 60 moose for five years.
It’ll tell them what kills these moose and what’s keeping the population from growing.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill, in the Superior National Forest.
Biologists are looking at how a shark
in a Great Lakes region aquarium gave
"virgin birth" last year. Photo courtesy of
Belle Isle Aquarium, Detroit.
A female shark in an aquarium in the Great Lakes region has apparently given virgin birth. Four shark eggs hatched last year and three of those babies are now growing normally. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, it may be some time before the cause can be determined, but the event is still a surprise for biologists:
Transcript
A female shark in an aquarium in the Great Lakes region has apparently given virgin birth. Four
shark eggs hatched last year and three of those babies are now growing normally. As the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, it may be some time before the cause can be
determined, but the event is still a surprise for biologists:
Biologists have a technical term for virgin birth. It’s called parthenogenesis. Doug Sweet is the
Curator of Fishes at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit. He says parthenogenesis is common in
invertebrates and some amphibians.
“Most vertebrate animals, the females will produce eggs even if the male is not around. And it’s
just a matter of… it’s a chemical trick, basically, to get that egg to develop into an individual
without a sperm activating it.”
But parthenogenesis has been totally unheard of for sharks, until now. Last year, the Henry
Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, announced they thought a Bonnethead shark there had
reproduced by parthenogenesis. The baby lived less than 12 hours, though, and genetic tests were
inconclusive.
But when Doug Sweet saw the press release from the Henry Doorly Zoo about a possible virgin
birth, he thought he’d try an experiment. Sweet decided to incubate the eggs of his two female
bamboo sharks. Four of the eggs developed. Sweet says the sharks were acquired by the
aquarium before they had reached sexual maturity, and they have never been exposed to a male.
He says the likely conclusion is that these sharks are reproducing by parthenogenesis.
Two other explanations, though highly unlikely, are that the shark has both testicular and ovarian
tissue, and fertilized its own eggs or that sharks are capable of storing sperm for years and even
passing it down to their offspring. Sweet has sent small clippings from the sharks’ fins to the
Henry Doorly Genetics Lab. Testing has already begun, but Sweet says it could take more than a
year to get the results. In the meantime, Sweet says the facts remain the same: a female shark
has given virgin birth. If it is parthenogenesis, he says, it will have important implications for
biologists around the world.
“Parthenogenesis just hasn’t been considered to happen in sharks; it’s never been recorded. It may
be happening all the time out there, so this is kind of breaking news in the shark world.”
The two adult bamboo sharks and the offspring are currently on exhibit at the Belle Isle
Aquarium in Detroit.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.
The Lake Erie water snake is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing a recovery plan for the snake – and people who live near the snake are also giving it a hand in recovery. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Many people are afraid of snakes. But along the shores of Lake Erie, residents are working to keep a threatened water snake in the neighborhood. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:
Transcript
Many people are afraid of snakes. But along the shores of Lake Erie, residents are working to
keep a threatened water snake in the neighborhood. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Rebecca Williams has more:
The Lake Erie water snake was listed as threatened three years ago. The snakes are found only
on rocky limestone islands in the western basin. And they can grow up to five feet long.
Their numbers have dropped recently because people are building houses on their shoreline
habitat. And in the past, people have killed the snakes out of fear.
Megan Seymour is a wildlife biologist. She works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
She says, over time, most people have stopped harassing the snakes. Some
landowners have even posted signs saying, “Water snakes welcome here.”
“I think the best tactic for me has been to kind of explain the biology of the snakes, explain how
they have their own personalities, sort of… The more people learn about the snakes, the more
interested they become, and the more they start seeing it as some kind of interesting animal
versus a gross snake.”
Seymour is writing the recovery plan for the snakes. She says most wildlife recoveries take many
years, but because the locals are showing concern, she thinks the snakes will recover more
quickly.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.
As deer populations increase, the amount of vegetation they consume also increases. Included in their diet is the endangered wild ginseng. (Photo by Lester Graham)
