Lamb; Petaluma, California

Baaaa!

Last spring I went out on the local roads looking for young goats and sheep to photograph.  I found some kids.  Click here to see one of those kids.  I also found a ranch that raises miniature horses. Click here for a picture of one of them.  However, I learned I was too late for lambs.

This year I went out looking a bit earlier and found a large flock of sheep with many lambs not far from my home.  Here’s one of them.  The sheep were watched over by a very large guard  dog.  It had a white coat and weighed about one-hundred pounds.  It looked like a very light-colored yellow lab on steroids.  I think it was a Maremma breed of protective dog.  As I got out of my car to photograph, the dog came toward me to check me out.  After a few sniffs he decided I was harmless and he let me pet him.  He wasn’t just for “show” either.  I had seen a coyote about a quarter mile from where I stopped and parked to photograph.

It was nice to see that this Sonoma County rancher used a guard dog (or dogs) to protect his sheep instead of the poisons and leg traps used on most ranches.  Unlike the other counties in California (and other States), neighboring Marin County has a policy of not contracting with the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Unit to kill any and all predators by use of poisons and steel traps.  Instead, it encourages sheep ranchers to use non-lethal predator control methods such as dogs and appropriate fencing to keep coyotes away from sheep and uses the money it would have paid Wildlife Services to subsidize the ranchers in the acquisition and use of non-lethal coyote control methods.  It has worked extremely well.  Coyote-caused deaths are down in Marin from the Wildlife Services days and the County has been spending less than it did when it contracted with Wildlife  Services.  Plus, non-target species (raptors, foxes, bobcats, badgers, weasels, domestic dogs, domestic cats etc.) aren’t being killed in Marin like they were in the Wildlife Services days.  I wrote about Marin’s program in this blog.

I wish Sonoma County would follow Marin.

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

Gopher-Getter!

I went out to Point Reyes today.  It was a beautiful day.  The temperature was in the mid-60s and the place was very crowded.  It was a slow day for me photography-wise.  Fortunately, near the end of the day this male bobcat saw me and decided I needed some cheering up.  So, he decided to walk toward me rather than make the normal quick exit in the opposite direction.  Thanks “Bob.”

My 10 Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2012

About a year ago I posted a blog with my 10 favorite wildlife photos from 2011.  Here are my 10 favorites for 2012.  Most of this year’s photos are from Yellowstone.

And Babies make Three

Finding and photographing this red fox vixen and her two kits was the best part of my trip to Yellowstone last spring.

Children at Play

Baby animals are usually photogenic and these two certainly were.

Feeding Time

While on the subject of baby animals, this doe pronghorn kept her two fawns right around the Roosevelt Arch for a week or more.  They stopped a lot of cars.

A Grizzly Daydreams.

This grizzly bear spent several days in May on the slopes above Soda Butte Creek feeding on grass, roots and whatever other vegetative material grizzlies feed on in the spring.

Grizzly Bear, Yellowstone National Park

I spent a fair amount of time photographing this bear.  It often looked sad to me.  I think it was a young bear and perhaps it was its first spring without its mother.

Bluebird on Sage

I always see mountain bluebirds in Yellowstone in the spring, but until this past May I’ve never really had any good opportunities to photograph them.  They seem to be constantly on the move.  This May was different.  They hung around.

Crane in the Sage

There are always some sandhill cranes in Yellowstone in the nesting season.  They usually tend to be far off though.  You often hear them calling before you even spot them.  I was lucky here.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Yellowstone National Park

I don’t recall  ever having seen a yellow-headed blackbird in Yellowstone before this spring.  This male was singing to attract a mate I assume.  I spotted him while driving the road to the Slough Creek Campground.

White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

There are a lot of white-crowned sparrows in Point Reyes National Seashore in the winter.  This male saved what was otherwise an uneventful day.

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

The coyotes I see in the ranching areas of Point Reyes are pretty wild.   By that I mean they don’t stick around when they see a human.  This individual was different.  He was comfortable with my photographing him.  He may have previously lived in an area with heavy human recreation use.

Point Reyes is my local Yellowstone.  It has a wide variety of wildlife considering where it is located.  No bison or moose, but it has elk and deer.  No wolves or bears, but it has coyotes, bobcats, badgers and one or more mountain lions.  You’ll see elk as easily as in Yellowstone and deer more easily.   You’ll see coyotes as easily as in Yellowstone and bobcats much more easily.

Well, that’s it.  My 10 favorites for 2012.  If you’d like to see my 10 favorites for 2011 click here.

What’s Wrong with this Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore?

This elk’s ribs are sticking out and it has diarrhea.

This elk looks like it is starving, yet it has plenty of food in the Tule Elk Reserve at Tomales Point.  I’m not an expert, but the most likely cause of this animal’s condition is Johne’s Disease.

Johne’s (pronounced “Yo-nees”) Disease is a bacterial disease that affects the small intestine of ruminants (cows, sheep, elk, deer etc).  It is caused by Mycobacterium  avium paratuberculosis (“MAP”).  It embeds itself in the wall of the lower part of the small intestine.  As an immune response, the walls of the small intestine become thicker.  This thickening prevents the absorption of nutrients.  As a result, the animal loses weight and dies.   It is believed to have started in Europe and it is now a world-wide problem.  Sixty-eight percent of dairy herds in the United States are infected with MAP.  MAP leaves or exits infected animals in feces and milk.  It can survive outside a host animal for up to a year.  Even if the mother is not infected, her young can acquire it from her teats if they are contaminated with MAP-carrying manure.  Once it is in a herd it is virtually impossible to remove.  The above info was obtained from the following sites:  site1, site2.

NPS is aware that the herd is infected with Johne’s disease.  I don’t know to what extent research has been done on the herd.  Some of the questions I have wondered about are:   How many of the elk that die each year at Point Reyes die from MAP?  The herd at the Tule Elk Preserve does not seem to be growing.  What role does MAP play in that?  The Limantour herd came from the Preserve.  Is the mortality rate the same for both herds?  How many dairy ranches at Point Reyes have MAP-infected herds?  Is MAP increasing at Point Reyes?

Rear View of the Same Elk as in the First Photo

White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

I was out at Point Reyes yesterday afternoon.  The afternoons go by pretty quickly this time of year. I should be getting there at first light.  I saw a coyote and a bobcat, but neither rewarded me with a very good photo.  The bobcat decided to see how low he could lie in the grass and the coyote chose to walk in an area that didn’t provide a very good background.    I was hopeful of seeing a badger, but had no luck there as usual.

The more common wildlife like elk, deer and birds often save the day.  So it was yesterday.  There were a lot of white-crowned sparrows near the Chimney Rock parking lot.  This guy, and some of his kin, took turns posing for me for a while.

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

On the Hunt

In my last post I mentioned that I saw a coyote on the H Ranch.  It was hunting for rodents.  It didn’t catch any rodents while I was there, but it did eat something that looked like it came from a cow dropping.

Coyotes cover a lot of territory each day.  You never know where you’ll see one at Point Reyes, but when you drive by the H Ranch (before Abbott’s Lagoon) look carefully.  You have a good chance of seeing one there.

What’s Wrong With This Bull Elk?

Bull Elk Exhibiting Hair Loss

I was at Point Reyes yesterday afternoon.  It was my first time out there in quite a while.  There’s been enough rain that most ground cover has turned a nice, rich green.  I saw a coyote on the H Ranch which is a fairly common place to spot a coyote, and Handsome Bob, the bobcat I so named because he has such a striking coat of spots, was in his accustomed place just outside the tule elk reserve.  (For a post about Handsome Bob click here.)  There were a number of elk on the D Ranch (by Drake’s Bay).  The bulls were in one group before the ranch complex and the cows and calves were in another group past the ranch complex.  At the elk reserve on the Tomales Peninsula some bulls were with the cows and they were acting like the rut is still on there.

This big bull (7×8 points) was in his accustomed place for late afternoons which is just past the Kehoe Ranch complex in the swale on the right side of the road.  He’s one of about 5 bull elk that somehow got out of the reserve some time in the past several years.  He seems to be alone every time I see him.  The other four seem to stay together.

Yesterday was the first time I noticed that there is something wrong with his coat.  My guess is that he has mange/scabies, but I’m no expert.  I did a quick google search and found that elk do get mange.  For a study done regarding mange at the National Elk Refuge (NER) at Jackson Hole, click here.  Mange is caused by a mite that burrows very deep into the skin.  It can cause death due to hair loss and hypothermia.  The NER report states that bulls die of it at a much higher rate than cows and it was thought that the higher mortality rate was due to the debilitated state bulls are in at the start of winter due to the fall rut.  The report also states that if hair loss extends from the neck to more than one quarter the length of the back the case is considered severe.

Mange is spread by contact. I have no idea to what extent the elk herd at Point Reyes has a mange problem, but since this bull is outside the reserve and doesn’t even seem to spend time with the other four bulls, his case wouldn’t seem to be cause for concern for the rest of the herd.  I also have no idea what his prognosis is or how he got the mange (if that’s what it is)  given his solitary habits.  At least he doesn’t have to deal with cold winters like the elk at the National Elk Refuge.