Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread
of disease
February 25, 2013 5:30 am • Kevin Woster Journal staff
A relocation plan aimed at reducing the elk herd in Wind Cave National Park
and building elk numbers nearby has some critics worried about the spread of
chronic wasting disease.
Wildlife officials at Wind Cave and adjoining Custer State Park are
cooperating on a plan to use helicopters in early March to push hundreds of elk
out of Wind Cave, where they have outgrown available habitat. The plan is to
reduce the number of elk in Wind Cave and bolster the elk population in the
adjoining national forest and Custer State Park, where the elk herd has
dropped.
It is considered a win-win plan by those involved, but it worries critics
who include former state Game, Fish & Parks Department wildlife specialist
John Wrede of Rapid City. And chronic wasting disease is at the heart of that
worry.
Wind Cave has been in a troubled area for the fatal brain disorder
affecting elk and deer since a CWD-infected captive elk herd on private land
adjoining the park had to be destroyed in the 1990s.
CWD apparently spread from that captive herd into wild elk in the park,
causing a problem there that, based on limited data, appears to produce higher
rates of infection in elk than elsewhere in the Black Hills.
"When considering just elk, the prevalence rate in and immediately around
Wind Cave is far greater than anyplace else in South Dakota," Wrede said. "In
fact, you could put Wind Cave directly in the center of what could easily be
referred to as an endemic area, where managers and epidemiologists should be
trying to figure out how to keep the area from growing larger."
Forcing hundreds of elk out of the park seems to work against such
containment, Wrede said.
Wind Cave wildlife officials argue that a drive is unlikely to cause a
significant increase in CWD elsewhere in the Black Hills. They also point out
that the elk herd in Wind Cave is thriving in spite of CWD, to the point where
the reduction plan was needed.
And the higher rates of CWD in the park's elk herd should be kept in
perspective, said park biological science technician Duane Weber and natural
resource manager Greg Schroeder.
They admit that the numbers of infected elk appear startling, based on
limited survey results. Out of 140 elk tested in the park since 1998, 45 have
tested CWD positive.
But there's a catch. Those were not random tests. They were tests on elk
that were either dead or sick, unlike the more random testing done elsewhere in
the Black Hills by GF&P, primarily from elk shot by hunters.
Those test results, based on 15 years of sampling, indicate a CWD infection
rate throughout the Hills in deer and elk of slightly less than 1 percent. But
comparing the two types of tests isn't fair, Weber said.
"The animals we test are either sick and we suspect chronic wasting and we
shoot them, or they've already died and we test them," Weber said. "So it's way
higher. Comparing our tests to the state's results is apples and
elephants."
It's difficult to know what a more random testing system would show, since
Wind Cave doesn't allow hunting within park boundaries.
"In a nutshell, we don't have a very good handle on what our prevalence is,
whether it's higher or lower overall," Weber said.
The closest study Wind Cave has to the more random state surveys was a
3-year mortality study based on elk fitted with tracking collars. It indicated
that 3 percent of the collared elk that died were CWD infected. For perspective,
that was the same rate as those determined to have been killed by mountain lions
in the park.
Hunter mortality on those collared elk was 6 to 7 percent, on animals that
migrated outside the park during the hunting season, Weber said.
Weber and Schroeder said it should also be noted that Wind Cave elk have
been moving in and out of the park for years. Portions of the herd have moved
over low spots in fences to reach federal or private forest for calving season,
Weber said.
Recent upgrades give Wind Cave officials more control over when and where
elk leave and return to the park.
Wrede is pretty sure the Wind Cave rates are higher, regardless of
variations in testing protocol. The CWD problem in the Black Hills pretty
clearly began with the captive elk herd near Wind Cave and spread into the wild
elk in the park and then beyond, he said.
"There may be a better than fair probability that, at least in the case of
elk, animals historically testing positive for CWD had origins in Wind Cave
National Park," Wrede said.
The issue isn't lost on John Kanta, GF&P regional wildlife manager in
Rapid City. He noted that elk have migrated in and out of Wind Cave for years
but also said the helicopter drive will get into parts of the population that
tended not to leave the park. And now they will.
"We're certainly going to be pushing some animals into areas where they
haven't been before, from a place where there has been a higher prevalence of
the disease," Kanta said."That's certainly a concern that we've discussed among
the staff."
Even so, Kanta doubts the CWD impacts outside the park will be dramatic.
And he said the upside of redistributing elk will benefit Wind Cave wildlife and
habitat management and hunters and wildlife watchers outside the park.
Building the herd in Custer State Park, where limited elk hunting is
typically allowed, and on U.S. Forest Service land nearby will benefit elk
hunters and elk watchers, Kanta said.
Weber said the positive side of the plan is big.
"We don't know exactly what's going to happen when these elk go out," he
said. "But we think the benefit of this project far outweigh any detriments we
might see."
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the
plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado
Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where
cwd was first documented.
sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss
this should never happen!
Friday, February 22, 2013
SOUTH DAKOTA CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2013
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
*** A Growing Threat How deer breeding could put public trust wildlife at
risk
Friday, November 16, 2012
Yellowstone elk herds feeding grounds, or future killing grounds from CWD
Friday, February 08, 2013
*** Behavior of Prions in the Environment: Implications for Prion Biology
Friday, November 09, 2012
*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD in cervidae and transmission to other
species
Sunday, November 11, 2012
*** Susceptibilities of Nonhuman Primates to Chronic Wasting Disease
November 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Susceptibility Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild cervids to Humans 2005
- December 14, 2012
Friday, June 01, 2012
*** TEXAS DEER CZAR TO WISCONSIN ASK TO EXPLAIN COMMENTS
Thursday, March 29, 2012
TEXAS DEER CZAR SAYS WISCONSIN DNR NOT DOING ENOUGH ABOUT CWD LIKE POT
CALLING KETTLE BLACK
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Far West Texas
Monday, February 11, 2013
TEXAS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD Four New Positives Found in Trans Pecos
tss
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home