Consequences of the USDA's Wildlife-Killing Program

Coyote at Tule Lake NWR / USFWS Photo

This week The Sacramento Bee is reporting on the results of its investigation into the wildlife-killing practices of USDA Wildlife Services. The report is in three parts. Two have already been published, and the third will run on Sunday, May 6. The articles are long and maddening but very much worth reading, as this is some excellent investigative reporting. The articles are based on interviews with past and present USDA employees, as well as outside scientists and documents obtained through FOIA requests. The article focuses on mammals since that is the USDA's primary target in the western states, but the agency's actions affect birds as well.

This federal agency originated in the early 20th century as a means to protect livestock from wolves. Since then its role has expanded to reduce all manner of wildlife impacts on agriculture such as blackbirds eating sunflower seeds. It also includes other missions such as protecting endangered species from predation and airplanes from bird strikes. That all may sound reasonable, but the reality is that Wildlife Services causes a great deal of collateral damage in the process, including killings of species of conservation concern.

In all, more than 150 species have been killed by mistake by Wildlife Services traps, snares and cyanide poison since 2000, records show. A list could fill a field guide. Here are some examples:

Armadillos, badgers, great-horned owls, hog-nosed skunks, javelina, pronghorn antelope, porcupines, great blue herons, ruddy ducks, snapping turtles, turkey vultures, long-tailed weasels, marmots, mourning doves, red-tailed hawks, sandhill cranes and ringtails.

Many are off-limits to hunters and trappers. And some species, including swift foxes, kit foxes and river otter, are the focus of conservation and restoration efforts.

"The irony is state governments and the federal government are spending millions of dollars to preserve species and then … (you have) Wildlife Services out there killing the same animals," said Michael Mares, president of the American Society of Mammalogists. "It boggles the mind."

One critical loss occurred two years ago when a wolverine, one of the rarest mammals in America, stepped into a Wildlife Services leg-hold trap in Payette National Forest in Idaho. It was the third wolverine captured in agency traps since 2004 (the other two were released alive.)

"Shot wolverine due to bad foot," the trapper wrote in his field diary, which The Bee obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The collateral damage is not limited to wildlife; it includes pet dogs and people, sometimes even USDA employees. Even when the agency is successful in killing the target species, it is unclear that the killings are actually beneficial, either to agriculture or to the ecosystems. This is discussed in detail in part 2 of the series, which focuses on coyote extermination. And yes, coyote extermination is not a thing of the past. Over 500,000 coyotes were killed by the USDA between 2006 and 2011, but coyotes still prosper:

In Nevada, scientists found that when Wildlife Services began killing coyotes to protect deer south of Ely in 2004, the average coyote litter size jumped from one pup to 3.5. In 2007, one coyote killed by a Wildlife Services hunter in Nevada had 13 fetuses in its uterus.

Just how coyotes prosper amid persecution remains a mystery. But many believe they benefit from better dining opportunities that emerge over time as coyotes are killed and rabbits and mice begin to multiply.

"A lot of it comes down to nutrition and competition. When you have fewer animals (coyotes) on the landscape, you have more food available per individual. There is a ton of food on the landscape. Why not have a bigger litter?" said Stewart, the Nevada ecologist.

Coyote extermination is usually carried out either to protect mule deer or (more commonly) to protect livestock. However, the actual impacts of coyotes (and other wild predators) are probably exaggerated:

Wildlife Services spends about $30 million a year to protect livestock from predators – mostly coyotes. On its Web page, it says losses to predators top more than $127 million a year....

Like a crime scene investigator, Niemeyer journeyed into the field to inspect sheep and cattle that ranchers said had been killed by predators. Often, his verdict was not guilty.

"You start looking and you realize nothing killed this," said Niemeyer. "They died from a multitude of things: birthing problems, old age, bad hooves, cut by barbed wire. There were an awful lot of things attributed to predation that really were not."

Niemeyer is not the only former Wildlife Services employee to raise questions about agency practices. In California, biologist Mike Jaeger did, too, with studies in Mendocino County that showed most coyotes don't prey on sheep at all and those that do are the hardest to kill with nonselective traps and poison.

As one ecologist quoted in the article says:

"There is a widespread perception that predators are the root of all evil and I'm tired of it," said Stewart. "More often than not, if you have predation on a mule deer population, you're going to have a healthier population."

Many readers will not find the agency's actions surprising. I was already aware of the agency's existence and that it often killed non-target species, but the extent of the killings and the details of the investigation were still sickening. I can see a case for lethal control of wildlife under some circumstances, such as protecting the nesting areas of endangered birds or individual animals that cause repeated damage or kill humans. Reducing the numbers of large herbivores like white-tailed deer that have no remaining natural predators makes sense if they start affecting other species. However, the widespread and indiscriminate killing is unacceptable, especially when it results in the deaths of thousands of non-target animals. For that reason, I am glad that WildEarth Guardians has filed a suit to force the USDA to stop killing wildlife until it conducts a new analysis of the environmental impacts.

Jamaica Bay Osprey Being Tracked

One of the male Ospreys that nest at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, is now wearing a satellite transmitter that will report its movements around the refuge and during migration.

On Tuesday morning, the banding team first startled a pair of ospreys off their nest, leaving behind four speckled eggs. The team then put a large mesh net over the eggs. The female bird flew back and became entangled in the net, and the team removed her and held her out of her mate’s view. When the male returned to the nest, he was captured and taken to the visitors’ center. The female, meanwhile, was released and returned to the nest within a minute.

There, Don Riepe of the American Littoral Society, who serves as the Jamaica Bay guardian, held the osprey still while Bob Kennedy, a prominent ornithologist enlisted by the conservancy, carefully sewed the harness — a kind of raptor backpack — that held the solar-powered transmitter, about the size of a pack of gum, on the bird’s back.

“He’s been a very good sport,” Mr. Kennedy said after the job was done, carrying the male bird back to the bay, where he was released.

Relatively few ospreys have been banded with satellite transmitters across the country, partly because the tags are expensive. The equipment alone can cost $4,000, Mr. Kennedy said, and there is a $50 monthly fee for the data downloads. Coleman P. Burke, a board director of the harbor conservancy, provided a grant to cover the expense of the Jamaica Bay operation. He had followed two other ospreys that Mr. Kennedy had helped band using GPS on Nantucket in the past few years. 

Birders will be able to follow this Osprey's movements via a website, jamaicabayosprey.org. Unfortunately the site will not be online until June

FOY Birds at the Phillips Preserve

Yesterday morning I returned to the John A. Phillips Open Space Preserve for the third time this year to walk the trails and see if any new migrants had moved in. As I mentioned in previous posts on this site, it is part of the Spotswood Outlier, a portion of Pine Barrens forest that lies 20 miles north of the main body of New Jersey's Pine Barrens. The preserve is heavily forested, mostly with Pitch Pines, though there is a substantial section of oak-beech forest. As one would expect in this sort of habitat, there were many singing Pine Warblers. I also heard a surprisingly high number of Ovenbirds (my first for the year), many Yellow-rumped Warblers, and several Black-and-white Warblers (another year first). One Common Yellowthroat was singing in a swampy area. What the warblers lacked in diversity, they made up for in sheer numbers. I heard Ovenbirds singing during my entire walk.

I had one other year first in the form of a Wood Thrush. This bird did not sing, but it did perch nicely on a branch while I took some pictures of it. Other birds present at the site included Chipping Sparrows, two of whom I saw fighting at the edge of the woods. They chased each other while scolding and then confronted each other in mid-air. Eastern Towhees were also very vocal, though I only heard one or two sing. A few large roaming flocks of Carolina Chickadees did not seem to travel in the company of other species.

Wild Ginger

This brownish-purple flower is wild ginger, which is in bloom right now. There are several species commonly called "wild ginger," but the one native to the eastern United States is Asarum canadense, also known as Canadian snakeroot. The common name refers to the rhizomes, which have a ginger-like scent and were used by early Americans as a substitute for ginger in cooking.

Wild ginger is easy to miss unless you know what to look for. The leaves are large and heart-shaped and grow on hairy stems. The flowers are hidden at the bases of the stems underneath those large leaves. Some flowers rest on the ground or on leaf litter. Wild ginger grows in dense, spreading clumps, so the only way to see the flowers is to push the leaves aside. Here is a line drawing of the principal parts.

The position and color of the flower seem designed to attract the attention of flies that feed on carrion. To a newly-emerged fly, the purplish lump lying on the ground may look like meat. (I did not detect any carrion-like odor, though.) The flies then pollinate the plant as they feed on its pollen. The position also serves to attract ants, which carry off the seeds and thus propagate the plant. Since wild ginger is in the pipevine family, Aristolochiaceae, it serves as an alternative host plant for Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) if pipevine (Aristolochia sp.) is not available.

As you might expect from a member of the pipevine family, wild ginger contains a toxin, in this case aristolochic acid. Whether it is present in sufficient quantity to avoid consumption of this plant seems to be a matter of disagreement. However, it is probably best to use caution, especially since the leaves may cause dermatitis in people who are allergic to them.

Loose Feathers #340

Osprey / USFWS Photo

News about birds and birding

• A new study estimates that 6.8 million birds die every year by colliding with communications towers during migration.
• Great Tits are more likely to mob predators if they hear alarm calls from other tits they know well.
• Some bowerbirds cultivate fruit to decorate their bowers.
• Birds with red, orange, or chestnut feathers are more likely to suffer from cataracts, which could affect their ability to hunt or forage.
• EBird New Jersey has an article on finding and identifying Barn Owls in the state.
• Scientists found that Great Tits respond to longer days at the genetic level to prepare for breeding.
• The Red-tailed Hawk nest on a ledge at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia has three hatchlings this spring.

Nature blogging

• Not Exactly Rocket Science: Neurons in a pigeon’s brain respond to magnetic fields
• The Drinking Bird: Appreciating Subtle Sparrows 
• Bird Ecology Study Group: A white-eye entangled in a spider’s web 
• BugBlog: On the odd life cycle of bumblebees 
• Compound Eye: Experimenting with off-camera light (sawfly edition) 
• Extinction Countdown: Critically Endangered Colombian Parrot Doubles Its Protected Habitat
• Bug Girl's Blog: Cochineal Taxonomy Fails

Environment and biodiversity

• This month 61% of the lower 48 states (including New Jersey) had drought conditions; the situation is especially bad in the West because the Rocky Mountains received 70% less snowfall than usual this winter.
• Speaking of western states, The Seattle Times has photos of the land behind the former Elwha Dam, which was destroyed recently as part of an ecological restoration project.
• Mexico became only the second country to pass a comprehensive climate change bill.
• Scientists in Russia found an all-white orca living in the wild.
• A research program discovered bright purple crabs near the island of Palawan in the Philippines. The crabs are believed to be endemic to the island.
• Here is a gallery of rare British butterflies and a gallery of rare British wildflowers.