How is chronic wasting disease transmitted? Probably by saliva!

No wonder this always fatal disease keeps spreading and spreading among the deer and elk of Wyoming, Colorado and into other states. A   s c a r y   p o r t e n t
It’s fortunate mad cow disease is not spread this way!

Read about it in the Jackson Hole Star Tribune. “Study pinpoints saliva“

90-pound canid (wolf?) shot in Vermont

If this was a wolf, it would be the first true wolf seen in Vermont in over a hundred years. There are wolves to the north in Quebec, but they are not immediately adjacent to Vermont.

It is well known that the “eastern” coyote, which is usually much larger than the “western” coyote, is often a mixture of grey wolf (not dog) and coyote genes. These wolf/coyote hybrids seem well adapted to the New England countryside.

Story in the Boston Globe.

New. Oct. 9. Story with photo of the canid in the Burlington Free Press.

Judges increasingly slam Bush public land policies

“The rulings come at a time when an emerging bipartisan coalition of Western politicians, hunters, anglers and homeowners has joined conservation groups in objecting to the rapid pace and environmental consequences of Bush administration policies for energy extraction on federal land.” Read about it in the Washington Post (via the Casper Star Tribune).

Related: Interior Board of Land Appeals temporaily halts Oil and Gas leasing in the Wyoming Range. Earth Justice News Release.

The Wyoming Range may be the best elk country in the state of Wyoming.

On the divide between Lunch Creek (right) and the Roaring Fork (to the left).
High in the Wyoming Range (elk heaven). Copyright Ralph Maughan