Pete Thomas Outdoors

British Columbia cougars found to prey on seals, sea lions

Mountain lions in British Columbia's Pacific Rim National Park Reserve like to fatten up on black-tailed deer, but also on unlikely prey items such as harbor seals and sea lions.

Researchers made the surprising discovery -- believed to be the first showing that cougars prey on marine mammals -- after collecting scat samples for a recent diet analysis.

They also were surprised to learn that black-tailed deer comprise only a quarter of the predators' diet, and that raccoons are their top food source.

But seals and sea lions?

"This is really interesting; imagine a cougar stalking its way across a barnacle-infested reef," researcher Chris Darimont told the Leader-Post newspaper. "I know of no other account of cougars eating a marine mammal.

"But I'm not completely shocked. There is some pretty delicious seafood out there. Seals are loaded with calories, fat and protein. They're big prizes, and, compared with deer, a little safer to hunt."

The analysis involved 29 scat samples from a vast park area along Vancouver Island's west coast. It showed that raccoons comprised 28% of the cougars' diet; harbor seals 24%; black-tailed deer 24%; river otters 10%; sea lions 7%; mink 4%, and unknown species 3%.

Prey items were identified through scat examination but also carcass analysis in the field.

Is California's only wild wolf, OR7, on its way back to Oregon?

Is the famous gray wolf named OR7, which has been in California since Dec. 28, on its way back to Oregon?

Monday's update from the California Department of Fish and Game states that OR7, which is the first known wild wolf in the state in nearly 90 years, is in northeast Siskiyou County, which borders Oregon.

(OR7 entered California via Siskiyou County.)

"OR7 has traveled a great distance over the weekend," the DFG report states. "He traveled from the south end of Shasta County all the way to the northern boundary with Siskiyou. He then traveled approximately 42 more miles north/northwest and is now in northeast Siskiyou County."

(*Wednesday morning update: OR7 was still traveling to the north, according to the DFG, and reportedly was less than 10 miles from the Oregon border.)

OR7, who is narly 3 years old and presumably looking for a mate, gained fame months ago as he trekked in a southerly direction the length of Oregon, and especially when he crossed into California.

The wolf is wearing a GPS unit on its collar, and while its position can be tracked,  there is only one known image of the animal, captured last Nov. 1 via trail cam in southern Oregon (see image above).

OR7 is from the Imnaha wolf pack in northeastern Oregon. His brother was shot and killed on Feb. 2 in Idaho by a hunter with an invalid tag.

Some states allow the hunting of wolves as a means of wildlife management.

In California wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

-- Image is believed to be that of OR7, photographed via trail-cam on Nov. 1 in southern Oregon.

Sea lion rescued in Oceanside recovering from bullet wound

Animal care experts from SeaWorld San Diego removed a bullet Wednesday from a sea lion that had come ashore at least four days earlier in Oceanside.

A SeaWorld team rescued the underweight and distressed pinniped last Saturday. It's believed to be between 5-10 years old.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the sea lion was found with a deep, infected wound on its left flipper, and that a bullet fragment had  become lodged in its shoulder. The animal was treated with antibiotics and was said to be in stable condition.

It remains unclear who may have shot the sea lion, or what the motive might have been.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is investigating the incident. The agency also is investigating a string of nine sea lion killings in Washington state.

-- Image is courtesy of SeaWorld

Gray wolf named OR7 back in California's Shasta County

California wolf enthusiasts may be interested in learning that OR7, believed to be the state's only wild wolf, has crossed from Lassen back into Shasta County.

The state Department of Fish and Game has created a web page devoted to OR7 and posts occasional maps that reveal where the young male gray wolf has been, thanks to a GPS unit fitted onto its collar. The maps are lagged, however, to avoid revealing the wolf's real-time location.

The accompanying map, released Wednesday, shows OR7's position through Feb. 9.

But the DFG also provides more timely updates, and earlier this week the agency reported that the wolf, who crossed from Oregon into California in late December, had entered Shasta County. He had also been in Shasta before entering Lassen County, and had previously been in Siskiyou County.

An update Wednesday morning states that OR7 is in the southeast portion of the county and traveling to the south. That would place him close to where he was before he entered Lassen County.

To be sure, if OR7 is searching for a mate his vast wanderings seem a sad and hopeless  journey through bountiful but wolf-less terrain. The last known wolf in California was a specimen killed by a trapper in Lassen County in 1924.

OR7 is 2 1/2 years old and hails from a pack in northeastern Oregon. He entered California on Dec. 28.

Shakira recovering from scary encounter with sea lion

Pop singing star Shakira, after a scary encounter with a sea lion off Cape Town, South Africa, undoubtedly has a greater appreciation of wild animals and how unpredictable they can be.

The entertainer from Colombia, while on a recent nature tour, was ferociously charged by the large pinniped after she had scampered down the rocks to get an up-close photo with her BlackBerry, which she guessed was mistaken as food.

Here's Shakira's description, via the singer's Facebook page:

"This afternoon I happened to see some sea lions and seals. I thought to myself how cute they were so I decided to get a bit closer than all of the other tourists and went down to a rock trying to pet them doing a baby talk while taking pictures...

"Suddenly, one of them jumped out of the water so fast and impetuously that it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me. Everyone there screamed, including me.

"I was paralyzed by fear and couldn't move, I just kept eye contact with it while my brother 'Super Tony' jumped over me and literally saved my life, taking me away from the beast."

Sea lions can be territorial and their bites can spread painful and serious disease. Divers who swim in their company are sometimes charged but not often attacked by the swift and agile mammals. I've personally experienced these false charges while scuba diving and snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.

Shakira added: "We both got our hands and legs scratched by the rocks while trying to protect ourselves. I believe what happened is that it confused the shiny reflection of the BlackBerry I was taking these pics with, with some sort of fish."

She went on to visit penguins, which were much more accommodating, as you can see by the image at the top of this post. The imge was pulled from her Facebook page.

-- Pete Thomas

At Midway Atoll, the Laysan albatross soars into spotlight

Having been fortunate enough to have visited to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, I can attest that there are few avian critters as goofy-looking (on land), graceful (in flight) and lovable as the Laysan albatross.

The accompanying video clip, posted Monday by Midway Journey, reveals a glimpse of what's to come in a high-definition film titled "Midway," directed by Chris Jordan. It shows weary albatross parents waddling shoreward to embark on their first forays to find food after weeks on the nest.

But the large sea birds of Midway -- which hosts about 71% of the world's nesting population -- face peril because of plastic pollution that's picked up in the ocean by the adults, and passed to babies on the atoll.

Midway Journey states on its website that the atoll "serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food."

Jordan says the upcoming film is "more than just a documentary or a film about wildlife at risk. 'Midway' brings us an opportunity for us to look at our world in close-up, to see how our lives are impacting the planet, and to find new approaches to moving forward."

To be sure, the plight of the albatross lends contemporary meaning to the phrase, "Battle of Midway." The film, which remains under production, ought to be both inspirational and enlightening.

Whales lift dolphins from water in rare playful display (video)

Interaction between marine mammal species is not uncommon. Sea lions will mingle with pods of feeding dolphins and sea lions and dolphins occasionally swim alongside whales.

But the type of playful behavior exhibited in the accompanying video -- bottlenose dolphins receiving rides atop humpback whales in Hawaiian waters -- is exceptionally rare.

As mentioned in a recent post for GrindTv, the photographs used to produce the video are the first recorded examples of these incredible events. One occurred off Maui and the other off Kauai.

The video was posted recently to the American Museum of Natural History website as part of its Science Bulletins program.

"The two species seemed to cooperate in the activity, and neither displayed signs of aggression or distress," the website explained. "Whales and dolphins in Hawaiian waters often interact, but playful social activity such as this is extremely rare between species."

The Kauai encounter featured one documented event. During the Maui encounter, scientists watched a humpback whale and bottlenose dolphin performing this ride-and-slide episode six times, with the dolphin gliding gently off the whale each time.

It remains unclear whether this is pure play or which species gets the most enjoyment from the interaction, but for marine mammal enthusiasts it's sure fun to watch.

-- Pete Thomas

Angler lands 920-pound bluefin tuna, despite hungry sharks

A fisherman off Bermuda landed a bluefin tuna that measured 10 feet long and weighed 920 pounds—even after losing large chunks from its tail section to voracious sharks.

Andrew Card was alone on his cruiser and caught the behemoth last Wednesday after a 2-hour fight. He could feel sharks tugging at the fish while it was still deep in the water column, he told BerNews.

The angler radioed the captain of a nearby boat for help loading the catch through the transom door. The tuna was weighed at Spanish Point Boat Club. Here's a video showing the tuna, minus what the sharks stole:

 

California DFG devotes website to wolf from Oregon (OR7)

The California Department of Fish and Game reports that a gray wolf from Oregon, named OR7, remains inside the state and that a website has been established to post updates on the predator's status.

"At this time, there is only one documented gray wolf living in the wild in California," states a passage on the website.

OR7, a young male wolf originally from a pack in northeast Oregon, made headlines during a zig-zagging adventure that spanned across the Cascades and ultimately into eastern Lassen County in Northern California.

The wolf, which was fitted with a GPS collar before he left the pack, is the first known wild wolf to have ranged in the Golden State in nearly 90 years. The last one was killed by a trapper in 1924.

The only known probable photograph of OR7 is a black-and-white trail-camera image captured in Butte County, in Southern Oregon, last Nov. 1 (top right).

The presence of OR7 and the possibility of other wolves entering California has farmers and ranchers worried, because wolves are notorious for livestock predation in some areas in western states where they've flourished since recently being reintroduced.

The California DFG is formulating a wolf policy in case other wolves return to California and what was once prime wolf habitat.

OR7 and other gray wolves that might enter California are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the DFG will post only general information regarding OR7's whereabouts.

In a news release, the DFG states that many reported sightings of gray wolves in California have been investigated in recent years, but most of those turned out to involve coyotes or dogs.

The DFG adds that wolves pose little threat to humans. "Concerns about human safety are largely based on folklore and are unsubstantiated," the news release states. "In recent years there was one human mortality in Canada caused either by wolves or bears and one confirmed human mortality in Alaska by wolves.

"[But] based on experience from states where substantial wolf populations now exist, wolves pose little risk to humans. However, DFG recommends that people never approach a wolf, or otherwise interact with or feed a wolf."

Farmers and ranchers can reduce the threat of livestock predation "by removing potential sources of food and other attractants from their land, such as discarded animal carcasses, bone piles, etc."

-- Trail-cam image shows what is likely OR7 during his trek through Southern Oregon toward California. DFG website graphic shows OR7's path in California through a period through Jan. 11

Image 'likely' that of famous Oregon wolf, now in California

It turns out that a photo of the Oregon gray wolf that crossed into California last week, and is still roaming in the Golden State, most likely does exist (at right).

OR-7, a 2-year-old wolf that made history on Dec. 28 by becoming the first known wild wolf in California in nearly 90 years, has been tracked by Oregon biologists since they fitted him with a GPS collar last February.

They did not take a photo, though, and there were no verified sightings of the predator as it trekked from northeast Oregon to California on a zig-zagging path spanning more than 700 miles.

But Allen Daniels, a deer hunter, has come forward with an image produced via his trail camera last Nov. 1 in the woods east of Butte Falls in Southern Oregon.

Roblyn Brown, assistant wolf biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Ashland Daily Tidings that satellite tracking technology confirmed OR-7's presence in that area at the time the image was captured.

She added that the image was "likely" that of OR-7.

The wolf remains in California and has been ranging in a large area within Siskiyou County.

Its presence has ranchers concerned that others might follow and establish a new population in California. The state Department of Fish and Game is working on a plan that deals with the eventual return of wolves.

OR-7, who also became the first wolf west of Oregon's Cascades in 65 years, is believed to be searching for a mate if he didn't find an un-collared companion in Oregon.