It may feel like it's already summer outside but that didn't stop a little piece of the arctic from visiting central Michigan.
After several days of sightings in and around the town of Portland, just northwest of Lansing, local authorities captured a loose arctic fox as he woke from a nap on a baseball diamond.
The fox's origin is unclear but aside from being about 1,000 miles south of its natural habitat, local law enforcement believes it must have been a domesticated pet based on its friendly demeanor, the Lansing State Journal writes.
From the LSJ's Tom Thelen:
“We were receiving calls about it for about a week,” said Portland police chief Bob Bauer. “People were seeing at in various parts of the city...We believe that it either escaped or was turned loose,” said Bauer. “It was not afraid of anyone. In fact, it would coming running out to people and some of them were scared by the way it ran up to them.”
Thelen reports that authorities found an owner of another arctic fox in nearby Lake Odessa who agreed to care for the captured animal.
Biologists have been following this black bear in Michigan since 2010. They're tracking him, and other bears to find out how bears are moving southward in the state.
Rebecca Williams and I recently tagged along with biologists from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to watch them tranquilize and re-collar an 11-year-old black bear in Oceana County.
The bear is one of many bears researchers are watching as part of the Southern Michigan Bear Habitat Use and Movements study.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan's new hunting program for children will start this year, with licenses on sale starting March 1.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced Friday that the Michigan Natural Resources Commission approved the program aimed at introducing children under the age of 10 to hunting and fishing.
A recent law eliminated the minimum hunting age, allowing kids under 10 to hunt with an adult who's at least 21 years old. Under the rules for the new youth program, the adult must have previous hunting experience and possess a valid Michigan hunting license.
A Mentored Youth Hunting license will cost $7.50. Details about hunting rules are posted on the DNR's website.
As of last Friday, wolves in Michigan are no longer a federally protected “endangered species.”
On December 21, 2011 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced in Washington that Gray wolf populations in the Western Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have exceeded recovery goals and are stable enough to be removed from the Endangered Species List.
Snowy owls typically live in the northern reaches of the arctic tundra.
Living year round in the arctic shows how tough these birds are.
But this year they've been traveling south in search of food.
The owls have been spotted in states such as Massachusetts, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
To see where they've been spotted in Michigan, click on the slides above for a Google Map.
So why are they flying down here?
Biologists think the growth in Snowy owl sightings around the U.S. is due to a drop in the owl's main prey in the Arctic - lemmings. Lemmings go through boom and bust periods, and right now, lemming numbers are probably down, so the owls are scrounging around here for rodents, rabbits, fish, or any other suitable food source.
Similar cycles occur with other birds of prey.
The Great Gray owl, which normally keeps to northern Canada forests, has been known to fly south when its food is in short supply.
Reporter David Sommerstein produced a story on Great Gray sightings in a piece he did for the Environment Report back in 2005.
It was a year the owls were flying south and was one of the biggest Great Gray owl migrations on record.
The U.S. Interior Department announced today gray wolf populations in the Great Lakes region have recovered and no longer require the protection of the Endangered Species Act.
They will lose their federal protection as of January 27, 2012.
From a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release:
"Gray wolves are thriving in the Great Lakes region, and their successful recovery is a testament to the hard work of the Service and our state and local partners," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "We are confident state and tribal wildlife managers in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin will effectively manage healthy wolf populations now that federal protection is no longer needed."
The Associated Press reports that Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Rodney Stokes says "the change will give state officials more flexibility to deal with problem wolves and make people more supportive of having the predators in their midst."
Wisconsin officials will issue permits allowing landowners to control "problem wolves" on their property.
11:25 a.m.
The wolf population in Michigan has been growing. Michigan DNR estimates put it at more than 650 animals for 2010-2011. The number was around 430 wolves in 2004-2005.
Wolves in the western Great Lakes region have been taken off the Endangered Species List before, and conservation groups have successfully sued the federal government to put them back on the list.
Now, the Associated Press reports western Great Lakes wolves will be delisted again.
From the AP:
The Obama administration is taking gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region off the federal endangered species list.
The Associated Press obtained a Wednesday statement in which Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the more than 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have exceeded recovery goals and no longer need federal protection.
Responsibility for managing and protecting those wolves will be turned over to state wildlife agencies. The populations will be monitored for at least five years to make sure they remain at sustainable levels.
The Interior Department also says it's reconsidering a previously announced plan to remove endangered species protections for wolves in 29 Eastern states, even though they aren't believed to have any established wolf populations. Officials say they'll decide on the status of Eastern wolves later.
State officials say they're prepared for federal delisting. The state of Michigan has a wolf management plan.
Once management is turned over to the state, people would have more flexibility in killing "problem wolves." From Bob Allen's report on The Environment Report:
The plan would give people the authority to defend against attacks on their pets and livestock, and it would allow them to cull wolves in places where they’re putting a lot of pressure on deer.
The current state management plan does not call for a hunting season on wolves. It would take an act of the state legislature to make a hunt a reality.
Black bears have been doing well in northern Michigan for a while. There are somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 bears in the state, mostly in the U.P. and the northern lower peninsula, but in recent years, bears have been on the move.
Some people are already getting a little closer to bears than they’d like to.
“There’s one coming up to inspect...”
Terry Klein is a commercial beekeeper and he’s checking on the hives in his backyard.
“These are in good shape if they’re that far down and there’s that much honey on them,” said Klein.
He lives in St. Charles. It’s about 20 miles southwest of Saginaw.
“This spring is the most recent fun we had with the bear, if you want to call it that.”
Klein had 20 hives set up near the Saginaw-Midland county line. Only two of them survived the winter. And those last two hives were the ones the bear decided to eat. He left behind a calling card.
“There was one very definite paw print in one of the frames that had fallen or got knocked out of the hive, and there were several other frames that you could see claw marks.”
Bears do love honey, but they also love to eat the bee larvae. So they can devour the entire hive.
Black bears are not just wandering into the Saginaw area. They’ve been showing up all over southern Michigan.
Colder weather means squirrels are looking for indoor homes and places to cache their food. Some are more aggressive in establishing their indoor domiciles than others.
From the Associated Press:
Officials at Consumers Energy are blaming a squirrel for knocking out electrical service to about 10,000 customers yesterday in the Grand Rapids area. The critter managed to get into a piece of equipment at a substation, briefly knocking out power.
The tragedy that unfolded for the exotic animals near Zanesville, Ohio on Tuesday night and Wednesday highlighted the lack of regulation in Ohio for a particular type of animal compound.
Terry Thompson kept bears, tigers, lions, monkeys, and other animals on his property.
He reportedly did not display them to the public for compensation, and was not required to carry a permit from the USDA. And an Ohio state law regulating exotic animals had expired.
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