Grizzly bear (Credit: Shellie/Wikimedia Commons)

Saving Banff’s Grizzlies: Five-year Action Plan to Reduce Human-wildlife Conflict
(Edmonton Journal)
The craggy peaks of the Rocky Mountains dominate the landscape, the turquoise waters of the Bow River sparkle in the afternoon sun. But Colleen Cassady St. Clair is not here for the view. She is getting a feel for the increasingly constrained life of grizzlies in Banff National Park. The University of Alberta biologist and her graduate student Benjamin Dorsey take off their boots, roll up their pants and step barefoot onto an electrified mat straddling the Canadian Pacific Railway track. MORE

Landowners, Hunters Face New Restrictions in Effort to Contain Chronic Wasting Disease
(Austin American-Statesman)
Thanks to two positive tests from 32 mule deer collected in the desert near New Mexico earlier this summer, Texas is now one of 21 states with a Chronic Wasting Disease problem. Last week, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department staff proposed a series of stringent rules for hunters and landowners in the Trans-Pecos and the western Panhandle. The TPW Commission voted to publish the proposed rules and solicit public comment before making the rules permanent. MORE

Wildlife Refuge to Remove All Horses
(The Associated Press via Elko Daily Free Press)
Federal officials have approved a final management plan for the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Nevada that calls for the removal of all wild horses and burros from it within five years. The move is being made because the refuge was created for pronghorn antelope and other native wildlife, and horses and burros have a negative effect on habitat, said Joan Jewett, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Oregon. MORE

Oiled Birds Found in Louisiana in Isaac’s Wake
(Houston Chronicle)
The U.S. Coast Guard and state officials in Louisiana are evaluating the environmental impact on the area from Hurricane Isaac. On Monday, wildlife management teams recovered three birds that were covered in oil and were continuing to search for any other affected wildlife, officials said. The teams have investigated about 90 reports of pollution directly linked to the hurricane. MORE

Wildlife Officials Prepare to Smooth Path for Panther into Central Florida
(Tampa Bay Times)
Because scientists say the rebounding Florida panther has filled nearly all the available habitat in Southwest Florida, state wildlife officials told their staff to start working on expanding its population into Central Florida. The first step: begin this year meeting with big landowners and community groups to prepare them for what life will be like with the state’s biggest predator again prowling nearby. MORE

Master Guide Sentenced for Big Game Guiding Offense
U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that an Anchorage, Alaska, man has been sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Fairbanks following his guilty pleas to 16 counts of commercial big-game guiding offenses. Master Guide Joe Norbert Hendricks, 76, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline on charges that he committed unlawful acts in the course of his commercial big-game guiding enterprise Fair Chase Hunts in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge between 2007 and 2009. MORE

Virginia Will Revisit Bear Management Plan
(The Associated Press via Martinsville Bulletin)
Virginia is revising its management plan for black bears in response to a growing population across the state. Hunters killed about 1,000 black bears annually a decade ago. That number has more than doubled since then, according to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The management plan, originally developed in 2001, addresses bear populations, habitat, human-bear interactions and bear-related recreation. It strives to keep bears and people apart. MORE

Shark Rules Need Teeth, Groups Tell IUCN
(Phys.org)
The Wildlife Conservation Society and over 35 government agency and NGO partners participating in IUCN’s World Conservation Congress are urging the world’s governments to take urgent steps to save the world’s sharks and rays from the relentless pressure of over-fishing for international trade. WCS and others are specifically calling on the world’s governments and the IUCN’s membership to advocate for the listing of sharks and rays under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. MORE

Wildlife Poaching with Cross-border Linkages Major Problem in India
(Zee News)
Viewing poaching with cross-border linkages as a “major problem” to wildlife conservation, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked intelligence and enforcement agencies to coordinate better to break the nexus between those involved in the illegal activity and their markets. He noted the criticality of “voluntary and fair” relocation of settlements in protected areas for wildlife conservation but admitted that lack of adequate funds for such purposes is an “issue.” MORE

Booming Illegal Ivory Trade Taking Severe Toll on Africa’s Elephants, Groups Say
(CNN)
Elephants are being killed in Africa at an alarming rate by increasingly efficient and well-armed poachers as international demand soars for the ivory from their tusks, wildlife conservation groups say. The slaughter, described by some activists as unprecedented, is enabled by ineffective law enforcement, official corruption, porous borders and a rapidly expanding population seeking sustenance, the groups say. And it is being driven by a growing appetite for ivory products in affluent Asian countries. MORE