Mountain lion has a place to hide at Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Yellowstone Sanctuary, the only real place for damaged wildlife to live in Montana, may have to shut down because of some undisclosed animal violations, the Missoulian reports.

The Missoulian says director Ellie Marion told them the center isn’t meeting certain accreditation standards of a federal agency, but she wouldn’t say which one. “Basically, we are in a tough spot,” Marion told the newspaper, saying they could be fined up to $50,000. “The federal agency has the power to close us down. If we can’t meet the most basic needs, we won’t be able to keep our doors open.”

I got to visit the Sanctuary, then known as the Beartooth Nature Preserve, a few years ago after a trip to Yellowstone and it seemed totally well-meaning and clean. The animals had fun things to do and the people who worked or volunteered there knew them all individually. I didn’t hear back from the sanctuary when I called to ask what is up. On their website the only mention is a meeting that went down on Feb. 2 that promised to answer the question “What the heck is going on up there?”

I don’t really see what all the secrecy is about. Zoos and sanctuaries that exhibit animals are governed by the Animal Welfare Act. That’s enforced by APHIS–the same branch of the USDA that goes out and kills wildlife at the bidding of ranchers. So it would certainly be ironic if the agency that normally shoots and poisons wildlife gets to fine a non-profit that takes in wolves, bears, birds and all other kinds of animals that have been injured,  abused or taken in as ill-advised pets.

So far the USDA shows the sanctuary as having a completely clean record with no violations, either direct or indirect, over the last four inspections. APHIS can exempt some sanctuaries from regulations–as long as they meet another set of regulations, including not using the animals in fundraising. Which would seem hard for an animal-saving charity to do.

One of Yellowstone Sanctuary’s residents has a celebrity friend. Ted Turner gave them his former pet, a magpie named Harry, when the bird turned aggressive, the book Gifts of the Crow reports. The bird now answers all queries with no, no, no. Maybe he can help them out.

If you ever visit Yellowstone National Park, it’s worth the side trip, especially since it’s in Red Lodge, MT, which has the Montana Candy Emporium, easily the best candy store I’ve ever visited.

Wild ravens often steel from this captive raven.

Two young bears at what used to be called the Beartooth Wildlife Sanctuary lived in a chain-link enclosure with lots of toys and interesting things to eat.

Donkeys have an expansive view.

In winter animal tourists get close to elk at the refuge. Lori Iverson / USFWS

The federal handouts to 12,000-some elk on the National Elk Refuge near Jackson Hole, WY, have gotten a lot of criticism lately as a potential mass distribution system for chronic wasting disease. An online documentary series, Terra the Nature of our World, just re-aired the documentary Feeding the Problem by Danny Schmidt, which warns that unless feeding is phased out, the scary, brain-destroying, fatal disease may sicken most of the population. Bruce Smith, a former biologist for the range who was interviewed in the film, also just relaeased a book Where Elk Roam: Conservation and Biopolitics of Our National Elk Herd, which says the population should be cut in half.

For about a century people have been feeding elk in the winter on the range. It started as a way to placate local ranchers, who otherwise ended up feeding the elk with their cattle. Now it’s a hit with hunters, who have a supersized elk population to stalk. And, let’s be honest, animal tourists get a kick out of seeing them so easily. In winter the herd is a spectacle and tradition. Horses pull sleighs among the animals. The antlers they shed are picked up by boyscouts, auctioned off and turned into monuments in Jackson Hole.

At this point it’s inevitable that CWD will reach the feeding ground–even those who support feeding admit that. But they question whether it will be that big of a deal. One rancher complains in Feeding the Problem that there is “too much science” in the argument against feeding. It’s one thing to hear Republican presidential candidates pretend that global warming doesn’t exist; they get money and support from the oil industry. But here are local guides and ranchers arguing that science isn’t really about data and results, but a matter of theory and opinion. As Upton Sinclair said: “It’s hard to make a man understandsomething when his livelihood depends on him not understanding it.”

The big question is what will happen to the elk when the disease hits the feeding range. Will CWD inflict widespread disease and suffering and wipe out the elks? Or just cause widespread disease and suffering? Should we try to avert a catastrophe? Or just wait and see how big a catastrophe it really is?

Right now Wyoming is already testing for CWD, which is strongest in the opposite (southeast) corner of the state. Because the disease can spread through contact with droppings and urine, the feed ground staff already spreads the feed wide and covers over elk droppings with snow. But there is still confusion about how exactly CWD spreads–though biologists are pretty sure it’s more easily than other brain-wasting transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases. Neighboring Montana accuses Wyoming of allowing the disease to spread.

One of the ranchers interviewed, Brad Mead, says he was reluctantly turned around by the  science and thinks the area would be better off dealing with CWD before it hits the elk refuge. “I have to believe tourism would suffer a lot if ppl driving down the highway past the elk refuge saw elk dying of chronic wasting disease in the hundreds or thousands,” Mead says.

Of great interest to bison lovers: Mead also says that as a rancher, brucellosis isn’t really that big of a concern. Brucellosis is the excuse for slaughtering bison that roam outside the park–even though it’s been shown they catch it through elk. But I guess that’s too much science.

Where to SEE ELK

SEE ANIMALS IN THE WEST (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)

See a local webcam of the Elk Refuge

Yellowstone Bison

Two plans are under consideration to limit the Yellowstone bison population but end the periodic mass slaughters. Montana ranchers want to “hunt” the lumbering bison, even inside the park. The USDA, meanwhile, is trying out a one-shot chemical constraceptive or castration. Either way ranchers get what they want: fewer bison and therefore no reason to tolerate wolves.

The AP’s Matthew Brown got his hands on a now secret plan to allow regular hunting–even inside Yellowstone National Park boundaries. Hunting is a bit of a misnomer because any fool can get within several yards of a bison and shoot it like a cow. About 3,700 buffalo roam the park now, but hunters would keep it at about 3,000. About 330 bison would be “hunted” or captured to be relocated or butchered annually. (The rest die off naturally.)

MT Gov. Brian Schweitzer wants to “hunt” the bison. “These things have to have some give and take,” he told the AP. By that he means, that the park boundary should be considered inviolate as far as bison getting out, but more flexible about hunters coming in. A park spokesman told Brown, who did a great job investigating the plan, that they wouldn’t allow hunting within the park–even though that’s what the plan said.

Meanwhile, the USDA, whose Wildlife Services unit kills wildlife for farmers and ranchers, is finally thinking about a contraceptive. GonaCon works with one shot, well, mostly. And it curbs ovulation, estrus, marking and the urge to mate as well as the ability.

Contraceptive in general is a better approach than the mass slaughters we’ve seen in recent years, with bison rounded up or shot just beyond the park boundary, if they migrate out for the winter. But Stephany Seay, media coordinator of Buffalo Field Campaign, told The Atlantic that it’s all still a manipulation of a wildlife species to accommodate ranchers.  “Brucellosis is being used as a tool to manipulate the movement of wild bison,” she said. Ranchers hate bison because they compete for food and may spread Brucellosis, a disease that makes cows abort fetuses. But they are noticeably less concerned about the brucellosis brought in by the elk, which they feed and like to hunt.

Where to SEE BUFFALO, Bison and Wisent

Where to SEE ELK

SEE ANIMALS IN THE WEST (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)

Yeah, there’s a new dynamic: ranchers, hunters and government agents can kill wolves like they haven’t in a century. Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity points out that delisting wolves means that the USDA’s Wildlife Services unit, which kills wildlife for farmers and ranchers at taxpayer expense, will now be able to kill even more wolves for even more reasons. Like to promote elk hunting. Even though biologists say the wolves aren’t really hurting the elk.

Only about 1,100 wolves survive out west, but Wildlife Services kills an amazing number: 452 in FY2010 and 481 in FY2009. Wolves didn’t get kicked off the list (this time) by a bizarre political deal until April. In Idaho 169 wolves have been killed so far this year: 122 for hunters, 42 for cows and 5 for elk. Montana has already killed 136, more than half by hunting.

Leslie Kaufman’s story has some sense of history, but the entire premise seems based on a fabulist rancher’s point of view. I don’t know any wolf people who feel they have “gone too far.” Nor do they–we–feel we have been the ones overpowering the meek. The whole premise seems based on one quote: “‘I personally look back and say there were a number of things that conservationists did that were not effective and which blew up on us,’ said Lisa Upson, executive director of Keystone Conservation, which teaches ranchers non-lethal control methods.

Sure, maybe rhetoric gets overheated. Pat Goodman, senior wolf handler at Wolf Park in Indiana, says, wisely, that “it is very easy to bring shame on your cause and harden the attitudes of people on the other side by losing your temper, and making ad hominem attacks. Wolf advocates can help, she says, just by listening respectfully to ranchers and trying to work out ways to lessen the real impact of wolves. “Defenders did a very good thing in offering to pay stockmen to allow wolves to raise pups on their land, unmolested,” she says. “This turns wolves into a “cash crop” in that stockmen get paid even if the wolves do not take domestic prey (and not all wolves take domestic animals).”

For decades the biggest tactic of wolf watchers has been to develop non-lethal control and share the cost. Defenders of Wildlife paid for livestock kills until 2010 and studies how to use non-lethal methods–like disposing of carcasses or using shepherds. (Ranchers says the criteria to prove losses are too high and the payments too low.)

But the New York Times balances the whole story on a single quote about a non-specific regret: “‘I personally look back and say there were a number of things that conservationists did that were not effective and which blew up on us,’ said Lisa Upson, executive director of Keystone Conservation, a Montana-based nonprofit group that offers ranchers help with nonlethal control measures.” It’s not like wolf advocates were out there shooting cattle on the sly. Upson even says she tried to share the cost of someone to guard cattle only to have ranchers use the money to hunt wolves by helicopter. Defenders says only 0.1% of cattle losses are from wolves.

What the story doesn’t get at is the sense of imbalance and injustice wolf lovers feel. I don’t think anyone, even ranchers, thinks that the convoluted budget rider that took wolves off the list by Congressional fiat, with no hope of judicial or scientific oversight, is how we like to run the country. And, in fact, the Center is fighting whether that’s Constitutional.

“This is an attack not just on the protection wolves, but also an attempt to undermine the Endangered Species Act as a whole,” Robinson says, sounding not particularly timid or bowed.

The federal government supports opponents of wolves–whether they are ranchers or elk hunters. Wildlife watchers far outnumber these groups, but we don’t get the kind of federal love. A rancher can graze cattle at a far reduced rate on federal land, then get another branch of the federal government to go out and kill wolves on their own land. That doesn’t even take into account all the lax meat inspection rules that favor meat producers over American families.

Yes, we lost that battle–for now. (The Center for Biological Diversity is appealing.) But wolves got defeated by stronger political opponents, not by science or deft arguments.

Check out the Center for Biological Diversity

Where to SEE WOLVES (plus coyote, coywolf and any wild canid)

Yellowstone Bison

Canyon Ministries is putting out a series of books that explain the major American national wonders–the Grand Canyon, Bryce–from a creationist point of view. But when it comes to Yellowstone National Park, where the big draw is wildlife, church founder Tom Vail is turning to animals’ complex relationships with each other and plants to argue that they didn’t just evolve.

Vail has been guiding people through the wonders of the Grand Canyon for 33 years. He says only in the last 18, after he became a Christian, did he start talking about creationism and looking at the canyon in a new light. For a while he’d puzzled over why the layers and folds in the rock seemed–to oversimplify his argument–too neat. A sudden event, the flood, made more sense to him.

Looking at Grand Canyon: A Different Perspective on Amazon, you’ll see people either love it or hate it. Of 70 reviews, 27 are five star, mostly along the lines of “The wonders of God’s hand through the power of cataclysm are portrayed here. The Grand Canyon book store can’t keep them on the shelf.” Many claim that skeptics want the book “censored” or “banned,” which I don’t see any evidence of. And then there are the 34 one star reviews, which praise the photographs but then say things like “However the text pretends to discuss the geology of the area but does so only from the point of view its biblical literalist authors….This book espouses both bad science and bad theology under one cover.” Some claim to have mistakenly bought the religious book, though I don’t see how that’s possible.

In a book he hopes to have out by the end of the year, Vail is turning to Yellowstone and its animals and ecosystems.

Where to SEE BUFFALO, Bison and Wisent

SEE ANIMALS IN THE WEST (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)

NM Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) / Jerry Oldenettel

Sunday night’s Wild Kingdom on Animal Planet featured the research of Con Slobodchikoff, who has been studying prairie dog language for decades. Con demonstrated how prairie dogs learn different calls for various types of predators (hawks, coyotes, badgers). Con did the research at Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch–a place now open for animal tourists who want to see the chatty prairie dog towns, too.

Westerners, particularly ranchers, are not big fans of prairie dogs. They fear grazing competition or cattle tripping in their holes. So they pick off the smart little rodents for target practice or in huge hunting competitions. As Wild Kingdom showed, the U.S.D.A.’s Wildlife Services (and its predecessors) has been exterminating them from ranchland for no good reason. That’s not just ancient cowboy history: in 2009 (the latest year figures are available), the USDA killed 12,700 prairie dogs, including 10,000 black-tailed prairie dogs. At the same time the Fish and Wildlife Service was deciding whether they are endangered or threatened. (The FWS decided against protection, though Cynomys ludovicianus only occupies about 2.1-2.5% of their historic range and many critters, including the endangered black-footed ferret, depend on them for food).

Animal tourists from outside the region, however, can’t get enough of their charming little antics. But if you ask locals where to see them, you’re likely just to get the unhelpful “everywhere.”

So it’s especially nice to see that Ted Turner’s ranch specifically highlights prairie dogs. Working to restore the black-footed ferret (which eats prairie dogs), Turner increased the prairie dog habitat from 500 acres to 8,000 acres at Vermejo Park. Turner himself gave a shout-out to prairie dogs when he announced in National Geographic Adventure the 590,000 ranch, a candidate to be a national park, was opening to the public in 2009: “You can stand alone on a 13,000 foot summits in Sangre De Cristos and look down all the way to the prairie,” he said. “You might run into see bison, elk, bears, mountain lion or prairie dog.”

Wildlife tours are relatively new to Vermejo Ranch, which is more known for supporting an enormous herd of purebred bison. Hunters and anglers have been visiting for a while, paying up to $14,500 for an elk hunt with a private guide and 90% success rating. The wildlife trips are expensive ($450 per day, per person, including room, meals, horseback riding, skeet and sporting clay shooting, as well as a custom designed trip).

BONUS SPECIES: Even most wildlife watchers don’t come for the prairie dogs. Vermejo has 2,500 bison in the Castle Rock herd. Because they’re one of three genetically pure herds, they typically don’t end up as bison burgers, but just get to reproduce to restore the species. You’re guaranteed to see one of their 8,000 elk. You may also see black-footed ferrets, pronghorn, black bears and sometimes even badgers or mountain lions are seen here.

Check out the other work of Con Slobodchikoff

SEE ANIMALS IN THE WEST (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)

Tensleep–named for the 10 nights it took to get there from near Laramie in the southeast up to Yellowstone–has got got high numbers of elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and weasels. 127 species of bird live here, but the most entertaining for manager Trey Davis are the ravens, which can tell him apart from other humans. “They follow my family around wherever we go,” he says. “If you came out here they’d be talking about you.”

Very low numbers of spotted bats and mountain lions live there. “I’ve never known a visitor to see a mountain lion,” Davis says.

While men do hunt mountain lions outside the reserve, they usually need to use dogs to find and tree them. According to a state survey, 65% of hunters used dogs to track mountain lions and 57% of residents felt that should be banned. Aside from hunting, accidental trapping, nuisance wildlife removal and car accidents are the biggest causes of death of mountain lions in Wyoming.

The preserve is open to the public from May to about mid-October. It closes for the weather and hunting season. Many of the ungulates drift in to the preserve and some other parks, as if knowing its safer, Davis say.

The Scouts bought the 15,400 acres in 1968 and used it as a wilderness playground, the setting of long camping adventures for older girls. The upkeep was too much, so they sold most of it to the Nature Conservancy and some to the neighboring Clay Ranch. The idea was to let researchers use the massive property to figure out ways to save some of the rare plants through fire ecology and keeping out invasives.

Where to SEE ELK

SEE ANIMALS IN THE WEST (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)

The group will be tested for brucellosis, which cattle can catch from elk or maybe bison, and those that test positive will be killed. About half usually test positive because the test has a high false positive rate. But bison get slaughtered for it. The group of 300 probably includes the ones just released after a public outcry. How about that deal to let cattle on nearby Church land? Not working out so well–except for the church, which got a boatload of taxpayer money. Wildlife News

The Anti-Cross-Eyed Diet for Heidi

Heidi, the cross-eyed possum that’s charming Germany, is on a diet that may uncross her eyes. It’s nothing that special: lettuce, carrots and lean chicken. But the Leipzig Zoo has a theory that Heidi got so fat that her eyes crossed and they are trying to burn off possible fat deposits behind her eyes. Pinoyhalo

Jane Lynch wants to taunt Westminster Kennel Club with ad

Jane Lynch (a dogmatic coach on Glee and equally maniacal dog trainer in Best in Show) wants the USA Network, which is airing the AKC dog show soon, to let Peta run an ad encouraging shelter pets and pointing out how many dogs die because of breeders. Here’s the ad (sadly, she’s not in it), since you ain’t gonna see it on TV. Peta

Dog Jaunt compares French and American dog poop signs

Is dog sledding icky? Canadian dog sled outfit brutally killed 100 dogs after Olympics

Outdoor Adventures Whistler, a British Columbian outfitter, realized 300 sled dogs was too many after the Olympics crowd left. So they ordered workers to shoot them and bury them in a mass grave. Apparently, it went messy, gory and cruel; one dog ran around with its eye hanging out and others were buried alive.

Juvenile hooded seal resting in Buzzards Bay National Marine Life Center

Louisiana looks for Jaguar some jackass exotic pet owner set free before Katrina KDSU

Sri Lanka Navy turns to whale watching AnimalTourism

Berwick-upon-Tweed mechanic Stuart Gillies shows off the squirrel's cache of peanuts.

Squirrel stalls car by caching six pounds of peanuts in the engine
The car’s owner brought the car in after it had trouble making it up hills. A mechanic found the peanut cache in the air intake system. A gray squirrel had broken into his stash of bird food in the garage. Berwickshire News

Suicide by grizzly bear fail
Here’s one downside of believing all the hype about bear attacks. You might be tempted to try “suicide by bear.” Cops say convicted killer and escapee Tracy Province “planned to go up in the mountains and shoot a gram of heroin and be bear food. He wanted to overdose and let the bears eat him.” He didn’t take the heroin (claims divine intervention) and didn’t even come close to the requisite smearing himself with rotten meat or hanging out on an elk carcass to get the job done. Gawker

62 doomed Yellowstone bison freed from pen after public outrage. Buffalo Field Campaign

Eagle watching festival season is now in full swing from New York to California. AnimalTourism

Beleaguered NYC carriage horses had to go out in the blizzard to haul tourists. Gothamist

FL big cat rescuer sleeping with lions to raise money

James Jablon with Wildlife Rehabilitation of Hernando County is trying a stunt to keep his sanctuary open: he’s living in the lion pen. Other rescue groups aren’t amused, saying it’s risky and exploits the big cats. LA Times

600 sea turtles died during the gulf spill–way more than normal HuffPo

Wild Horse Grazing

Wild horse on Assateague killed during deer hunt

A hunter reported finding the horse the day after finding it during the island’s 2-day deer hunt. Huh? Why the wait? They shot a 28-year-old mare, known as N2BH, who had six colts. She was on birth control, so she wasn’t going to produce any more. Baltimore Sun

Yellowstone wolf poisoned by banned compound 1080

A gray wolf from the Yellowstone area that was found dead in Colorado in April, 2009 died of the controversial poison compound 1080, Wildlife Extra reports. It took the Fish and Wildlife Service 20 months to get around to the necropsy, but now they are asking for tips as if they’re treating it like a hot case. The compound was once banned by Nixon but the USDA still sometimes uses it to protect livestock. Not in CO, says Wildearth Guardians. The USDA’s Wildlife Services used M-44 cyanide capsules to kill 45 coyotes and 4 red foxes in CO in 2009.  Tracking showed the wolf had traveled 3,000 miles in her last few months.

Hawk rescued from Times Square air shaft

Bobby and Cathy Horvath and Peter Richter swooped in to save the juvenile red-tailed hawk stuck in two feet of snow in an air shaft in the New York Times building. Queens Raptors

Obama refuses to raise grazing fee and cut $115 million subsidy to cattle industry

The Obama administration refuses to raise the rock bottom $1.35 a month to graze livestock on public land–even though that’s about one-tenth the going rate. The rate’s been unchanged for years. It costs taxpayers $115 million a year, said the GAO back in 2005. Several conservation groups are thinking of suing; their petition to raise the rates goes back to 2005. The decision is bad news for wolves, coyotes, bison, elk and any other wildlife out west. Wildlife News

Happy Squirrel Day!

Birds use nest flair to show off territory

Black kites in Spain throw a bit of white plastic in their nests to show they own the territory, biologists found. The stronger you are or the better real estate you have, the more likely you are to want to adorn your nest with white plastic. Really young or old birds didn’t use any, poor things. WIRED

Peta doesn’t like the dog that kills rats for fun in Washington Square Park

Peta says it’s felony animal fighting and also “depraved, sadistic.” NYC The Blog