Latest Predation Stories
By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 31--A mountain lion that is believed to have killed two goats on a Somerset farm in southern El Dorado County was shot to death last week. Trappers killed the lion July 24 under a depredation permit issued by the state Department of Fish and Game, said spokesman Kyle Orr. Candy Yeargain said her husband found the carcasses of two kid goats in their pasture on Gregory Lane, south of Sand Ridge Road, about 5 p.m. July 23. She contacted a Fish...
By Chris Casteel and John David Sutter, The Oklahoman Jul. 25--A federal judge in Seattle ruled Thursday that ranchers who had been preparing to use land in a U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation program for haying and grazing can do so for a limited time. The ruling will open up about 200,000 acres of land in Oklahoma to ranchers desperate to feed their cattle. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, called the ruling a victory for Oklahoma farmers and ranchers. And a rancher in western...
By MATTHEW BROWN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BILLINGS, Mont. A federal judge in Montana has ordered that gray wolves in the northern Rockies be returned to the endangered species list. The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy is expected to derail plans by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to allow public hunts for the predator. Wolf populations in the three states were removed from the endangered list in March following a decade-long restoration effort....
By Chris Casteel and Bryan Painter, The Oklahoman Jul. 18--A federal judge in Seattle will decide Tuesday whether to let ranchers struggling with high feed prices pay a nominal fee to use land protected under a U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation program. The decision by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour could determine whether 210,000 acres of land in Oklahoma are eligible for haying and grazing. Coughenour issued a restraining order last week blocking the use of the land...
By Stephen Speckman Deseret News In 2007 an estimated 500,000 acres of public- and private-range land burned in Utah, forcing ranchers out of business, impacting wildlife and hitting rural economies in the gut. But the results of a new survey of 21 ranchers impacted by the unprecedented 363,000-acre Milford Flat fire show that many are pleased with reseeding efforts that began last fall and ended in April. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food commissioner Leonard Blackham said some...
To: STATE EDITORS Contact: Sharyn Stein, Environmental Defense Fund, +1-202-572- 3396, or sstein@edf.org New Study Suggests Improvements to Help USDA Programs Work Better BOULDER, Colo., July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A dozen species of native Wyoming birds might be kept off the endangered species list with some improvements to federal conservation programs that also would continue to help the states ranching economy. Thats the conclusion of a new study by a leading national...
NBC has confirmed it settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a Texas man who shot himself in the head when confronted by To Catch a Predator cameras. The family of Louis W. Conradt Jr. sued NBC for $105 million, but the TV network declined to say how much it paid Conradt's survivors in a settlement made before the trial started, The New York Times said. The hidden-camera Predator program is part of the Dateline NBC newsmagazine series. The matter has been amicably resolved to the...
Birds can tell if you are watching them -- because they are watching youIn humans, the eyes are said to be the "˜window to the soul', conveying much about a person's emotions and intentions. New research demonstrates for the first time that birds also respond to a human's gaze.Predators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so direct eye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Julia Carter, a PhD student at the University of Bristol, and her colleagues, set up experiments that showed...
Soldiers on sentry duty in hostile territory keep in regular radio contact with their colleagues to assure them that all is well and that they are safe to carry on their maneuvers. New research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and published in Current Biology today (17 April) reveals that this is also a feature of the bird world and is very likely to be a rare example of truly cooperative behavior.Researchers from the University of Bristol, led by...
The hunter-versus-hunted phenomenon exemplified by a pack of lionesses chasing down a lonely gazelle has been recreated in a Petri dish with lowly bacteria.Working with colleagues at Caltech, Stanford and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Duke University bioengineer has developed a living system using genetically altered bacteria that he believes can provide new insights into how the population levels of prey influence the levels of predators, and vice-versa.The Duke experiment is an...
Latest Predation Reference Libraries
Thomson’s gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is also known as a “tommie” and is one of the most well-known gazelle species. Named after Joseph Thomson, Thomson’s gazelle is native to Africa where it is the most commonly found gazelle. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle, and was previously in the genus Gazella, in the subgenus Eudorcas. Eudorcas eventually became a distinct genus, classifying some species of gazelle within their own genus. Thomson’s...
Grant’s gazelle (Nanger granti) is native to Africa. Its northern range of Tanzania extends south to Ethiopia and the Sudan, and from the coast of Kenya to Lake Victoria. It prefers habitats within shrub lands and grass plains, but can also be found in regions that are more arid. In Swahili, Grant’s gazelle is called Swala Granti. It was placed within the Nanger subgenus of the genus Gazella, before Nanger became a separate genus. Grant’s gazelle holds five recognized subspecies. The...
The Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) is a species of passerine tyrant flycatcher found from southern Texas and Mexico south to Uruguay and central Argentina. They are also found on Trinidad. They have been introduced to Bermuda in 1957, and Tobago in 1970. The adult Great Kiskadee is 8.7 inches long and weighs 2.2 ounces. It has a black head with a white eye stripe and concealed yellow crown stripe. The upperparts are brown. The wings and tail are brown and have reddish-brown fringes....
The West Caucasian Tur (Capra caucasica), is a goat antelope found only in the western half of the Caucasus Mountain Range. They thrive in rough mountainous terrain between 2625 and 13120 feet in elevation. West Caucasian Turs are nocturnal, eating in the open at night and sheltering during the day. Females live in herds of around ten individuals, while males are solitary. The Tur stands up to 39.4 inches at the shoulder and weighs about 143 pounds. West Caucasian Turs have large but...
The Wild Goat (Capra aegagrus), is a common species of goat, with a distribution ranging from Europe and Asia Minor to central Asia and the Middle East. In the wild, these goats live in flocks of up to 500 individuals. Male wild goats are solitary and go through a period called a rut, where they are ready to mate. During the rut old males drive younger males from the maternal herds. The gestation period averages 170 days. Females usually give birth to one kid. Kids can follow the mother...
