Wildlife Management

A deadly fish virus has been found for the first time in southern Lake Michigan and an Ohio reservoir, spurring fears of major fish kills and the virus' possible migration to the Mississippi River. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources invoked emergency fishing regulations June 30 to stop the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, often described as "fish Ebola," which was found in round gobies and rock bass tested at a marina near the Wisconsin border in early June.

What had been for the last six months a vibrant stream teeming with migrating waterfowls and shorebirds early last week became a dry San Gabriel River channel where vultures gorged themselves on ducklings that died when the flows dried up.

The state sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. State officials fear a listing will cripple offshore oil and gas development in its northern waters, which provide prime habitat for the only polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., claims the federal analysis did not adequately consider polar bear survival through earlier warming periods centuries ago.

Environmentalists were elated when the state made a blanket decision to save an all but extinct coastal plant. But their joy evaporated when officials decided that the best way to preserve the endangered Ventura marsh milk vetch was to cover a corner of the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey with an actual blanket.

The California condor, rescued from extinction in an elaborate and expensive recovery effort, has become tantamount to a zoo animal in the wild and can't survive on its own without a ban on lead ammunition across its vast Western ranges, a scientific study has concluded. The majestic scavengers, bred in captivity and released to nature in recent decades, require "constant and costly human assistance," a blue-ribbon panel of the American Ornithologists' Union reported this week.

Nobody knows why the birds have staked their claim on this farm town 90 miles north of Sacramento. But it's the third consecutive year and, by all accounts, the worst. "The community has had enough," said Steve Holsinger, Willows' city manager. "They're just fed up." Memorial Park, a square-block stretch of green near the center of town, is encircled with yellow police tape and is off limits to normal use.

Wildlife biologist Aimee Byard took it as a hopeful sign when she spotted 11 bighorn lambs, including a rare set of twins, nibbling encelia and ambrosia high above the multimillion-dollar homes of Rancho Mirage this spring. But as fall approaches, biologists such as Byard are growing concerned that the peninsular bighorn sheep, an endangered species, soon may lose some of the protection that has helped them survive. The U.S.

It's one of the oldest truisms in the forest: Please don't feed the bears. But in many communities across California, that's exactly what's happening, sometimes with deadly consequences for the bears. In the secluded Kern County enclave of Pine Mountain Club, Susie Kramer used to toss table scraps off the deck. For years, deer, raccoons, foxes and a coyote she nicknamed Wiley feasted on the garbage buffet.

Federal scientists have documented the largest population of grizzly bears in Montana, a sign that the threatened species could be on the rebound. Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday that there were about 765 bears in northwestern Montana. Earlier estimates said there were at least 250 to 350 bears. The results stemmed from a $4.8-million, five-year study of the grizzly bears' DNA that has been criticized by Republican presidential candidate John McCain on the campaign trail as an example of pork-barrel spending.

Scientists plan to use satellite photos to count giant kangaroo rats, the first-ever monitoring of an endangered species from outer space. Biologists will examine the images to find the circular patches of earth denuded by the rats as they gather food around their burrows. From that they plan to get the first accurate population count of the rodents, a bellwether for the health of a parched plains environment.The Nature Conservancy study is focusing on the vast Carrizo Plain in California's Central Valley.