SEPTEMBER 2018
COLORADO
WOLF & WILDLIFE CENTER
email CERTIFIED BY THE
The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). Look for this logo whenever you visit a zoo or aquarium as your assurance that you are supporting a facility dedicated to providing excellent care for animals, a great experience for you, and a better future for all living things. The contents of the material we include in our newsletter does not necessarily reflect the views of Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center. We collect information from sources that are from other organizations, the web, news feeds, and/or other sources. We choose articles that are in the related field of education and conservation.
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SUBJECT: NA’VI & TALA VISIT
Hi Darlene, I just wanted to quickly reach out and let you know what a wonderful visit I had at the center last month! My friend and I were able to have an interactive visit with Na’vi and Tala a special event which I anxiously waited to have happen for a long time! Definitely a life time memory for me! But I really also want you to know what a wonderful staff you have! Always very informative and excited to share what they know! The thumb drive of my of photos will always remind me what wonderful creatures rely on your care. I’ve attached a pic of my favorite photo all matted and framed and hanging so that I wake up to my handsome guy.
WHAT GOOD ARE PRAIRIE DOGS? Dr. Ana Davidson has conducted research on prairie dogs funded through New Mexico’s Share With Wildlife program, the program’s mission is to assist all wildlife in need, no matter what species. Sounds like a good program for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to review! Dr. Davidson has been gathering data to help determine whether prairie dog reintroduction efforts have helped restore the functional role of the Gunnison prairie dog to the grasslands. She has found that there are many more burrowing owls, black-tailed jackrabbits, desert cottontails and coyotes on the reintroduced prairie dog colonies compared to off-colony grassland areas that lack prairie dogs. One camera trap photo shows a burrowing owl pouncing on a badger in an attempt to chase the badger off the prairie dog colony. Burrowing owls can engage in this behavior while prairie dogs are simultaneously sounding alarm calls in response to a predator entering a colony. This is an excellent example of multiple species working together to fend off a shared predator! The take home message from Dr. Davidson’s research: Prairie dogs help to maintain unique islands of important grassland habitat and associated biodiversity.
I know he’s getting the best of care. A special howl to you and the team, Glenda Larson
HELP WANTED! Looking for a few selected people who are tough, professional, articulate, who loves challenges and can listen to rules. Now accepting FALL/WINTER internships and committed volunteers.
wolfeducation.org and sign up on the newsletter page.
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(2 days a week limit). Also accepting 2019 summer internships (Minimum 3 months. No exceptions.) Gas money paid. Click on our Volunteer/ Internship link at wolfeducation.org for detailed information.
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EXCAVATING FOR THE ARC PROJECT By Fox Excavation
Hello fellow wolf pack members!! Due to past and more frequent wildfires, the need for an onsite evacuation building idea has been planted, and now we are going to make it bloom. We are building a fireproof/smoke proof building for our animals. This building will be constructed of fire grade concrete block and will be able to contain all of our exhibit animals (wolves, fox, coyotes and our small animals that we rehabilitate) and our domestics such as our dogs, cat, chickens, ferrets and love birds. The purpose of this building is to save all of our animals in the event of a fire and by having it on site, it will help to eliminate the stress of moving them to another facility or our current evacuation location where the road could be closed if the fire is in the west. This project will be close to $250,000, so we need your help. We have started a Go Fund Me campaign where you can help us to pay for this much needed building. Your donation of $25.00 or more will be recognized by adding your name to “The Ark for Animals” on a name plaque.
You can donate by going to our GO FUND ME link provided. https://www.gofundme.com/noah039s-ark-for-the-animals
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John Buffington
Mexican gray wolf (Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Report: Mexican wolf found dead in Arizona and in New Mexico By The Associated Press Sep 18, 2018 Arizona wildlife officials say two endangered Mexican gray wolves, including one in New Mexico, have died. The Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a news release recently that both animals were found dead in August, bringing the total number of documented deaths to eight. Authorities did not release any details about the circumstances or where exactly the wolves were found. Their deaths are under investigation. The wolf in Arizona was part of a pack in the eastern part of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The one found dead in New Mexico was part of a pack based in Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Efforts to reintroduce the endangered wolves in Arizona and New Mexico have been ongoing for two decades.
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The Divide Fire Department sent us this card thanking us for our support. COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER | 7 |
grew and shrank, which they could infer from cave bear DNA extracted from the ear bones of four animals that lived more than 35,000 years ago. First, the researchers compared the overall genomes of cave bears with polar bears and brown bears. Sure enough, the two living species were more related to each other than to cave bears. But the picture got more complex once researchers started counting up the bears’ variants of individual genes. Since animal genomes are so large, there’s ample room for random variation in certain genes. By chance alone, the same genes in distantly related animals can look similar, and the same genes of closely related animals can look different. In the absence of interbreeding, these quirks pile up in about equal amounts, much like flipping a coin—which isn’t what researchers saw among the bears. “If we get an overabundance of genome positions where cave bears and brown bears are showing more similarity to each other than to polar bears, then something else must have happened,” says Barlow. “And that something is hybridization between the two species.” Not only did researchers see signs of interbreeding, but they also confirmed that hybrid bears could breed with either species. When Barlow and his colleague James Cahill combed through the species’ genomes chunk by chunk,
Extinct Cave Bear DNA Found in Living Bears The discovery is the first of its kind outside the human lineage. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
they found that brown bears and cave bears each had snippets of the other’s DNA. “In my view, the concept of brown bears and cave bears interbreeding is not surprising, and it actually makes sense. Overall, they are very similar in appearance, and did overlap in time and space,” East Tennessee State University paleontologist Blaine Schubert says in an email. “However, this possibility was only speculation until the current study.” The cave bears’ genetic afterlife resembles Neanderthals’ still-present influence on the human genome. But researchers emphasize that there are some major differences, as well. For one, modern humans and Neanderthals are closer relatives than brown bears and cave bears. It’s also much easier to study humans and their closest extinct relatives, given the massive amount of sequenced human DNA. Limited data makes it hard to test whether brown bears make use of cave bears’ gene variants. In humans, DNA from our archaic cousins affects our immunity, hair structure, and our ability to live in high altitudes, among other traits. But even with limited data, Barlow marvels at what cave bears can still teach scientists, tens of thousands of years after their demise: “I think it’s really nice, because it forces us to think on a philosophical level what we mean by species extinction.”
A grizzly bear on the move in Yellowstone National Park. PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN DONOVAN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
After roaming Europe and Asia for more than a hundred thousand years, cave bears died out some 24,000 years ago, after a millennia-long death spiral possibly spurred by hunting, natural climate change, and competition with humans for habitat. No cave bear has awoken from this final hibernation, but the animals’ DNA lives on: A new study confirms that about 0.9 to 2.4 percent of living brown bears’ DNA traces back to the extinct species. The finding, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, marks just the second time that researchers have found an extinct ice-age creature’s genes within a living relative. Humans are the first known example: Between 1.5 and four percent of the non-African human genome comes from Neanderthals, the product of interbreeding between our species and our ancient kin. “By any standard definition, [cave bears] are extinct, but it doesn’t mean that their gene pool is erased, because they continue to live on in the genomes of these living animals,” | 8 | COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER
says Axel Barlow, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam and one of the study’s lead authors. The study also reinforces that some species regularly interbreed. The DNA of yak and Tibetan cattle, for instance, show signs of interbreeding, as do pig species whose common ancestors lived millions of years ago. In a handful of cases, brown bears and polar bears have bred. And recently, researchers unveiled the daughter of a Neanderthal woman and a Denisovan man—an example of what may have been widespread hybridization among ancient hominins. “The old-fashioned idea of a species [is that] it’s reproductively isolated from other species,” says Rasmus Nielsen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved with the study. “This paper is a part of a series of papers that have been saying that worldview really is wrong.” Bearly Breeding? To determine why cave bears died out, Barlow and his research team sought to study how the animals’ populations
A camera trap captures a grizzly feeding on a drowned bison in Yellowstone. PHOTOGRAPH BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER | 9 | CREATIVE
The Rock
Leopard By David Friend (2018)
It feels so familiar. The high, jagged and crumbling peaks, the cold and clear glacial streams, the broad valleys seeded with ancient boulders, it all seems so very much like home. Even the stars; I fall asleep under the same constellations. Yes, it is familiar and comfortable and it’s half way across the world. Despite how similar the Tien Shan Mountains are to the Rocky Mountains there are, of course, differences. You will see plenty of marmots. Badger digs are common. Wolves are here. Brown bears roam without black bears. The lynx are bigger. Look up and you will see golden eagles as well as Lämmergeiers. There are no big horn sheep, they have argali. And in place of mountain goats are ibex. I’m here with Biosphere Expeditions, a company that encourages “citizen science and hands-on wildlife conservation,”1 to support, both financially and in person, Volodya Tytar, the scientist. I’m one of about a dozen ambitious, generous, and adventurous volunteers who have come from all over the world to survey the valleys and mountains for sign of the snow leopard and its prey. In the Ala-Too range, just south of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the ibex are the primary prey for snow leopards. You must climb up to the tops of the mountains near the glaciers if you want to find them. Volodya has picked an area with potential. This is not the best place in Kyrgyzstan to see wildlife. It is a high-altitude summer grazing allotment full of sheep, cattle, horses, working dogs, yurts, and local “ranchers.” In this little slice of Asia there are no bears. Lynx and argali are very rare. I’ve been told there are wolves and fox. I didn’t see any. All have been hunted and pushed out. The snow leopard is also rare here. Volodya is determined to change this. This is Biosphere’s fifth year here. Volodya knows there are snow leopards. He has collected evidence. On July 16 he and his team found a set of tracks in the snow. They had hiked up to the end of a valley named Chong Chikan. Here at 3,769 meters (12,365 feet) they set up a camera trap hoping to final| 10 | COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER
ly get photographic evidence. Kyrgyzstan was once known for having the world’s second largest population of snow leopards. In the 70s and 80s the Soviet Union trapped and exported approximately 40 every year to be delivered to zoos all over the world. Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., as with many of the more charismatic species, the snow leopard is heavily poached. Its hide, bones, and organs sold on the black market. Current population estimates range from as few as 150 to 400 for all of Kyrgyzstan2, a country similar in size and geography to the state of Colorado. Colorado has at least 3,000 cougars and probably many more.3 The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the snow leopard in 2017 from endangered to vulnerable.4 Volodya isn’t convinced this upgrade is justified. Snow leopards are misnamed according to Volodya. Deep snow inhibits this ambush predator. They have evolved to blend into rocky terrain. A picture taken in India that has since circulated far and wide in articles such as, “Can you find the perfectly camouflaged snow leopard hidden on this mountainside?,”5 proves this point. Volodya suggests it should be called the rock leopard. Its Latin name is Panthera uncia. Whatever you may call this carnivore, it weighs between 35 and 55 kg (77 and 121 lbs.) and stands 60 cm (just shy of 2 feet) to the shoulder. The Eurasian lynx, whose body is just as long, stands taller but weighs half as much. The “rock” leopard is stocky, built for power. Its nimble prey, ibex, can weigh up to 130 kg (286 lbs.). Unlike the lynx its tail is nearly as long as its body. An organ that, while pursuing such formidable prey on steep and treacherous slopes, may help with balance.6 It is another kind of balance that Volodya seeks. He is trying to build a database that he can use to encourage the government, local communities, and/or international organizations to fund efforts that will encourage conservation of this national symbol. I saw snow leopards everywhere...pictures,
Ibex walked past the camera trap on July 19.
A snow leopard captured at night on another camera trap.
art, and sculptures on buildings, walls, and on the sides of the highways. The “ranchers” in the area seem to be in favor of helping this big cat, an attitude they don’t share toward wolves. The aid, however, must not encroach on their ability to support themselves. In Kyrgyzstan, just as it is in the U.S. and Europe, the predator’s future is dependent on the local economy. To hedge his bets, the researcher is also recording petroglyphs. Ancient art documenting ibex, argali, and even snow leopards etched onto stones. Nearly permanent canvases found scattered all over the study area. Perhaps some sort of historical, archaeological, or anthropological designation may provide some added incentive to protect the area. On August 6, Volodya led a group of us, myself included, up the Chong Chikan Valley to survey and recover the camera trap placed 3 weeks earlier. The camera was not only placed near the now absent leopard prints, it was facing a well-used game trail. There were signs of ibex going up and over the ridge between two glacial bowls.
ing in less productive ecosystems, following prey that prefers safety at altitude rather than abundant resources, they roam far and wide. And they do so alone. Solitary, except when a mother has cubs, they avoid each other and us. Easier now that there are fewer of them around. It’s difficult terrain for humans, even the most dedicated scientists. Add to this their ability to disappear into the landscape and you can see just how hard it is to document the species. There it was or was it? Walking past the large rock sitting there behind the group of us huddled around the small screen was the blurred image of...zoom in. More. Yes, it has to be. It’s the right shape, the right size. I got on all fours and “walked” past the rock as this image did just to make sure. Too big to be a fox. Too brawny and squat to be a lynx. The face is not that of a dog or a wolf. It must be. Nearly two weeks before on July 24, the focus of our expedition crossed over this ridge. Five days after the ibex and barely more than a week after the camera trap was, set a snow leopard appeared, as if and quite literally, out of thin air. I didn’t want to leave. If I stayed here, hidden, just above the ridge in the rocks, like the snow leopard itself ——— Would I be able to see it? Not through a camera, but with my own eyes. How long would it take? A day, a week, a month? Would it be another year? I left with so many questions. I left hoping that my time in Kyrgyzstan with Volodya Tytar, with Biosphere Expeditions, with the staff and the other volunteers would make it possible for this snow leopard and many more to not only survive, but to thrive.
Snow leopard follow ibex. So do I. We pulled the SD card out of the camera trap and popped it into one of the volunteer’s cameras. We saw ibex. We saw snow cock. We saw horses and their riders. Then we saw a ghost. In the five years Volodya has been working in the Ala-Too range he has yet to capture a snow leopard on film. They’ve got a picture of an argali and a lynx. Two species even more rare here than the snow leopard. Two pictures that caused some initial disbelief and a great deal of excitement. The leopard, however, has lived up to its epithet; mountain ghost. Rang-
If you would like to be a part of this effort please contact Biosphere Expeditions. biosphere-expeditions.org
1 Quoted directly from Biosphere Expeditions website homepage. https://www.biosphereexpeditions.org 2 Biosphere Expedition’s Expedition Report (June 2018): Mountain ghosts: Protecting snow leopards and other animals of the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. 3 Estimates as given by Colorado Parks & Wildlife http://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/LivingwithWildlifeLion2.aspx 4 A designation given to populations that are estimated to number between 2,500 individuals and 10,000 globally. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Panthera uncia. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22732/0 5 Can you find the perfectly camouflaged snow leopard hidden on this mountainside? http://sploid.gizmodo.com/can-you-find-the-perfectly-camouflaged-snow-leopard-hid-1820723797 6 Biosphere Expedition’s Expedition Field Guide: Tien Shan (version 2018)
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ADOPTION CORNER
ADOPTION CORNER
Available from TCRAS · Teller County Regional Animal Shelter
Available from San Luis Valley Animal Welfare Society slvaws.org · 719.587.woof (9663) · Non-Profit NO-KILL Shelter
tcrascolorado.com · 719.686.7707 · NO-KILL shelter in Divide, Colorado
HELIX
(HeLicks) English shepherd about 5 years old. A farmer was going to euthanize him. Sweet, sweet, gets along with children, other dogs, but no cats. About 55 lbs.
FERBY
SIPSY
AGE: 3 y 3 m 19 d · Female/Spayed Black Retriever, Labrador/Mix
AGE: 3 y 0 m 20 d · Female/Spayed Orange Domestic Shorthair/Mix
This precious flower is looking for a special home who is able to manage her medical special needs. Ferby was shot in the back with a pellet gun and has nerve damage. She has no pain from it, in fact she is full of love and happiness. She loves to go for short car rides and gets a long with dogs and cats. Her eyes will melt your heart. Come by and say HI to Ferby.
Howdy. My kittens and I were brought up here to Colorado from Texas. I am enjoying the nice weather. I would like to enjoy Colorado in your loving home instead of a shelter. I do have to say that I am very affectionate and easy to care for. Come on in and visit with me for awhile.
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PATTY
So shy, so sweet, about 30 lbs., young, spayed. She had been abandoned in a rural area and we were able to trap her and her friend. We recommend an adopter have experience with very shy dogs.
LADY
An older rottie mix, whose owner was going to shoot her this winter. So mellow and loving. About 55 lbs. We had a cancerous tumor removed from her paw.
SLVAWS ADOPTION FAIR Every Saturday 10am-4pm at the Petco in Colorado Springs at 5020 N. Nevada COLORADO WOLF AND WILDLIFE CENTER | 13 |
I just wanted to formally inform everyone that Sky has made it HOME! He is living in his 4th and final state and is happy as can be. There’s something special about this guy, from how easily he forgives to how easily he steals hearts. He is enjoying an endless supply of all things squeaky and all treats that have anything to do with birds. Thank you to everyone who was a part of his life at CWWC. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Stacey & Sky