Living with wildlife

—LINDA PERINI
This is a good year for rabbits and mice, a good year for coyotes, owls, hawks, and snakes. In general, this is a good year for wildlife. And sometimes that means trouble for homeowners.

Poison is not the answer. Let's include sticky traps as well—they are a slow, inhumane way of killing animals. We have alternatives in today's age of technology to controlling unwanted rodents, that include live and electronic traps.

Lost rodents like tight, enclosed, dark places. If vehicles are going to be parked for a couple of days or weeks, keep the hood open a few inches. In the wintertime, many people put mousetraps under the hood of their cars and end up killing birds instead of mice. If you feel the need to use a trap, products like the Rat Zapper are easily used in small places like cars. The Rat Zapper works with batteries and has to be baited so that the mice walk into the enclosed trap. This will help ensure the safety of rabbits and birds, and these traps can be placed almost anywhere.

Live traps and house cats are two other wonderful options, but unfortunately, they have drawbacks. Once trapped, live animals need to be transported many miles away, and not released around someone else's home. Outside cats have a very hard time surviving the owls and coyotes that live here.

Keeping the area around your home clean and picked up is the key. Keeping woodpiles off the porch, and low-lying landscape cut up, off the ground and away from your home will help a lot. Try to keep your garage door closed and use aluminum foil to plug any holes to keep rodents out.

One of the best things you can do for the animals is put out fresh water in summer and winter. Keep the water dish clean (change at least once a week or so), and move it so that little things do not make their home under it. To clean water dishes, just dump out the water, scrub them clean and let them dry in the hot summer sun. This should kill anything that might contaminate the dish. In wintertime, use a little Clorox to clean the water dish and let it dry. Put a large rock into the water so birds or animals can stand on it, or if anything falls in the water, it can get out.

You can enjoy the wildlife without feeding it. Just remember that living in rural areas has both its beauty and its drawbacks.

Linda Perrini is a wildlife rehabilitator who lives in Placitas.

Botulism kills ducks in Rio Rancho

—NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH
Two ducks found dead in a lake at the Chamisa Hills Golf Course in Rio Rancho in June died of botulism poisoning, according to tests released by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and Veterinary Diagnostic Services laboratory in Albuquerque.

The Department of Game and Fish requested the tests June 29 after area residents delivered the dead birds to the Department’s Albuquerque office. Earlier tests were negative for strychnine poisoning and avian influenza.

Kerry Mower, wildlife disease specialist for the Department of Game and Fish, described the botulism outbreak as a natural occurrence possibly fueled by warm weather, recent heavy rains, and decaying organic matter in the lake sediment. High water temperatures can cause oxygen levels to drop, and low oxygen contributes to botulism bacteria growth. The amount of bacteria increases when lake sediment is stirred up by heavy runoff, and the conditions worsen as more organisms die in the lake, Mower said.

“Once it gets started, it sort of feeds on itself,” Mower added. “The maggots on the dead ducks also pick up and concentrate the botulism toxin, and other ducks and birds that eat the maggots become poisoned. The best thing to do is to clean up all the dead ducks and wait for cooler weather and the sediment to settle.” State agencies also have asked Chamisa Hills Golf Club to better aerate the pond.

State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Ettestad said the botulism poisoning found in the ducks at Chamisa Hills should pose no threat to humans or their pets. “This is different than the type of botulism poisoning people get from canned food,” he said. “But just to be on the safe side, it’s a good idea to keep yourself and your pets away from the water and the dead ducks.”

Residents are urged to not touch or move any sick, dead, or healthy ducks or other waterfowl from the immediate area. They should instead call Animal Control in Rio Rancho, at 891-7237, for proper isolation or disposal. Residents many also contact Chamisa Hills Golf Course directly, at 896-5000, or New Mexico Game and Fish, at 222-4700.

Cattle-killing Mexican wolf shot dead; three more wolves to be released in NM

—DAN WILLIAMS, NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH
A Mexican wolf that was involved in at least three livestock killings in the past year was shot and killed May 28 by a member of the wolf-recovery team. A permanent removal order for the lone male wolf was issued May 24 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the wolf was confirmed to have killed a cow in southeastern Catron County, New Mexico.

In the past two weeks, nine Mexican wolves have died during removal efforts resulting from livestock depredations. May 24, the Fish and Wildlife Service reported that seven wolves—an adult female and six very young pups—removed from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, in Arizona, died after they were trapped and moved to holding pens. The alpha-male wolf of that pack was shot and killed.

Wolves in the recovery program are designated as a “nonessential experimental population,” which allows the recovery team greater flexibility to manage the wolves under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The designation permits permanent removal of a wolf, either by capture or lethal means, following three confirmed livestock deaths.

“We continue to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service to prepare federal rule changes that will promote more effective recovery areas and diminish the likelihood of problem wolves in New Mexico,” Department of Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson said.

The rules of the wolf-restoration program prevent direct releases of wolves into New Mexico that have not been previously captured for management purposes.

The recovery team also announced that three Mexican wolves—an adult male and two female yearlings—will be released in early June in the Gila Wilderness. The male wolf was captured and removed from the wild in 2005 after it was involved in a livestock death. The females were removed from the wild in 2005 as a result of cattle depredations by the adults within the pack.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now estimates there are thirty-two to forty-six endangered Mexican wolves living in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico since the reintroduction program began in 1998. To view the wolf distribution map, which contains the most recent three months of wolf locations taken from aerial surveys, visit the Arizona Game and Fish Web site, at www.azgfd.gov/wolf, and scroll to the Distribution link on the Mexican Wolf Conservation and Management page.

For more information, visit www.wildlife.state.nm.us or call 505-476-8000.