A newly released study aims to utilize DNA extraction from saliva at prey kill sites to help identify predator species. Of an acquired 53 recent hare kills, researchers managed to get positive IDs on 31 of them. Laurel Peelle’s research is published in the September 2019 Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Biologists again seek assistance from NH trappers on tissue sampling
After successful fundraising efforts from a dedicated group of local hunters, the NH Wildlife Heritage Foundation secured funding for a comprehensive study to investigate distemper (CDV) impacts on New Hampshire’s furbearers last year. The department initially requested turn-in of carcasses from grey foxes hunted or trapped during the legal hunting and trapping seasons. This year, that study has now expanded to include a desire for carcasses from both Red and Grey Fox, as well as Fisher.
Louisiana: Report your sightings of Eastern Spotted Skunk!
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) is asking for the public’s help in gathering information on the eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius). Anyone who sees the unique species is asked to report the sighting to LDWF. The sightings can be from roadkill, game cameras or inadvertent catch from fur trapping, according to the agency’s press release.
A Tale of Two Reds: Old-world versus New-world Red Fox
What does the fox say? It depends on which of the 45 subspecies of red fox you ask! As it turns out, an original or “native” red fox subspecies did inhabit montane and glacial areas of North America prior to European settlement; it just wasn’t indigenous to where early settlers were colonizing in the eastern United States.