The following is the third in a short series of posts from IWRC staff and board members who attended the WDA Conference at Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City, California USA in August 2019 Multiple-drug resistance in wildlife From the 2019 Wildlife Disease Association Conference, several presentations gave great cause for worry. The number of documented multi-antibiotic resistant infections in wildlife is increasingly more serious. Anthropogenic exposure is causing never-treated wildlife to host serious pathogens that will require specialized and aggressive antibiotic therapy; these organisms also could endanger rehabilitators and staff. Wildlife as diverse as the kodkod, also called güiña...
14 October 2019November 4, 2021Brooke Durham
Wildlife Disease Association 68th Annual International Conference (Part 2)
The following is the second in a short series of posts from IWRC staff and board members who attended the WDA Conference at Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City, California USA in August 2019 Q&A with Julissa Angius What were your favorite talks/papers? (in no particular order) “They’re always there”: Characterizing rat exposure and its consequences among residents of an impoverished, inner-city neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada presented by Dr. Chelsea G. Himsworth This not not only gave an interesting look at how urban rats live and socialize, it gave commentary on the human aspect of those living around and...
05 October 2019November 4, 2021Brooke Durham
Wildlife Disease Association 68th Annual International Conference
The following is the first in a short series of posts from IWRC staff and board members who attended the WDA Conference at Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City, California USA in August 2019 I’ve recently returned home from the 2019 Wildlife Disease Association Conference, my first one. I highly recommend this meeting to any academic or disease minded rehabilitator (2020 Spain, 2021 Madison, 2022 Georgia, 2023 Australia). The first keynote, by Dr Pieter Johnson focused on community ecology as a tool for understanding parasite interactions and anticipating disease risk. Traditionally these scientific ways of thinking had little overlap. This talk...
28 March 2019November 4, 2021Julissa
Spotlight on new board member Deborah Galle!
Please share an early/childhood experience that was pivotal to your personal relationship with wildlife. As a child, I LOVED wildlife. I would find toads, salamanders, snakes, bumble bees and hold them all! I was fascinated by their behaviors and could watch them for hours. When I was about 7 years old, I would visit two swans across the street – my home was in an area with a large marsh and wooded area. I would whistle for them and the pair would fly in with a big swoosh. They even allowed me near their nesting area and would approach me...
20 January 2019November 4, 2021Kai
2019 Board Updates
IWRC’s annual board and officer elections are complete. Breakdown of the results: Member Election Results Jayanthi Kallam *new board member Pat Latas *new board member Dani Nicholson (reelected) Board Appointed Individuals Deborah Galle *new board member Kristen Heitman (reelected) Mandy Kamps (reelected) Ashraf NVK (reelected) Officer Positions Adam Grogan has moved from his previous post as to president-elect to President and Sue Wylie our previous president has left the board after serving her full time allotment. Our other officer positions remain the same as 2018 with Mandy Kamps – vice-president, Kristen Heitman – secretary, Dani Nicholson – treasurer. Meet...
11 January 2019November 4, 2021Julissa
Words from Pat Latas DVM – IWRC’s newest board member!
Please share an early/childhood experience that was pivotal to your personal relationship with wildlife. I’m not sure that there was one experience, I was involved with the natural world from my first memories and before–there is a family photo of me in diapers bent over watching some ants…I suppose the moment I was old enough to recognize another being, looking at and evaluating me as an equal, was when a one-footed crow came to visit our backyard over several years. Who knows how it came about, but my family called him Jack, and he came to recognize his name...
19 December 2018November 4, 2021Julissa
Case study: methods and observations of overwintering Eptesicus fuscus with White-Nose Syndrome in Ohio, USA
Molly C Simonis 1,2 Rebecca A Crow,2 and Megan A Rúa1 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA 2 Brukner Nature Center Troy, Ohio, USA ABSTRACT: Temperate, cave-dwelling bat populations in eastern North America are facing drastic declines due to the emergent disease called White-Nose Syndrome (WNS). In Ohio, USA, wildlife rehabilitators may accept native bats during the winter months when bats are typically hibernating. During the winter months, this deadly fungal infection is the most damaging to individual hibernating, temperate bats’ physical and physiological condition, because the bats are more vulnerable to disease while their...
14 December 2018November 4, 2021Julissa
Weigh in on the Proposed Revision to the List of Protected Migratory Bird Species, 50 CFR Part 10.13
Good day Rehab Partners, Just wanted to be sure you were aware of the proposed revision to 50 CFR Part 10.13 The List of Migratory Birds currently appearing in the Federal Register: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FWS-HQ-MB-2018-0047-0001 This rule would update the current list of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), based on scientific changes to bird taxonomy (i.e., common names, scientific names, families, etc.) and increase the number of MBTA protected birds to 1085 species. The list is formulated by the scientific community, specifically the American Ornithologists’ Society’s Checklist of North American Birds (AOU 1998), for species that occur in North...
14 December 2018November 4, 2021Julissa
2018 USFWS Year End Reports Announcement
It’s that time of year again… Annual Reports of activity for Federal Rehabilitation, Special Purpose Possession and Eagle Exhibition permit are due to your Regional U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Permit Issuing Office postmarked on/by Thursday, January 31, 2019. If your permit expires March 31, 2019, you may receive an annual report form and renewal letter via regular mail from now through the end of December. Annual Report Forms are fillable online but still require an original signature and to be submitted via mail to your migratory bird permit issuing office unless your region allows electronic submission through email. Here’s what Regions accept information via email:...
29 October 2018November 4, 2021Julissa
Case study: the use of falconry techniques in raptor rehabilitation
Kristin Madden 1,2 and Matthew Mitchell1 1U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region, Migratory Birds Program, Albuquerque, NM, USA. 2Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA ABSTRACT We predicted that certain falconry techniques would decrease stress and the time required to pre-condition raptors for release. Between 2008 and 2014, we alternated use of traditional rehabilitation procedures with falconry techniques on 45 raptors. Twenty-seven birds were alternately restrained using either a towel or a falconry hood. Results from t-tests showed significant decreases in stress with the use of falconry hoods vs. towels. Twenty-six accipiters and falcons were either...