As some of you might have heard from Roslyn, there have been snares found on campus. I heard about her find through the grapevine and I don't know details of where they found theirs, exactly. This one was found near the back of the stadium, getting near to McKenzie and within sight of the Chevron station.
We found one during a walk-around yesterday, and I thought it would be worthwhile posting a picture, that was taken before the snare was removed for disposal:
If anybody sees a snare such as this, please contact the SPCA. If anyone sees someone placing snares such as these on UVic's campus, please contact the police. Hunting or trapping without a license is a chargeable offense, and this would probably fall under the umbrella of poaching. Furthermore; since UVic is private land, and since I doubt the dumb redneck that planted this got permission first, this is again not legal.
Showing posts with label uvic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uvic. Show all posts
2010-05-16
UVic cull underway
So.
What a shocker: UVic Facilities (mis)Management comes clean on their lies after someone catches their operation in the works. I think we all owe Andrew a thanks for exposing this earlier in the week.
And now it seems that Andrew has more to share with us ...I think there's a rabbit that'd like to buy him a beer ;)
Anyway -- that's all for now folks.
What a shocker: UVic Facilities (mis)Management comes clean on their lies after someone catches their operation in the works. I think we all owe Andrew a thanks for exposing this earlier in the week.
And now it seems that Andrew has more to share with us ...I think there's a rabbit that'd like to buy him a beer ;)
Anyway -- that's all for now folks.
2010-05-08
UVic Alumni Association Display
2010-05-06
a publication of note
Here's an excerpt from the first of the relevant publications:
(bibliographic data in APA format follows)
In France, rodenticides are classified into two major product categories: (1) long-acting anticoagulants, representing over 95% of rodenticides used, and (2) short-acting products, such as crimidine and alpha-chloralose, which are still in use, particularly against mice (ACTA, 2005). Anticoagulants are used to control field voles (Microtus arvalis) and water voles (Arvicola terrestris), although widespread use of bromadiolone, a second-generation anticoagulant, has been associated with substantial secondary poisoning of predators and scavengers, mainly birds of prey (Berny et al., 1997, 1998; Berny and Gaillet, 2008). Secondary poisoning has also been observed in some water birds, such as the grey heron (Ardea cinerea). Anticoagulant poisoning is reported less frequently in other birds with some 14% detected in waterfowl, 4% in pigeons and 18% in partridges; however it did account for 47% of all poisoning cases in birds of prey (Lamarque et al., 1999).' Alpha-chloralose is another common poisoning agent in birds in France, primarily in game species, such as water birds (43%) and partridges (10%).
Guitart, R., Sachana, M., Caloni, F., Croubels, S., Vandenbroucke, V., & Berny, P. (2010). Animal poisoning in Europe. Part 3: Wildlife. The Veterinary Journal, 183(3), 260-265. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.03.033
(bibliographic data in APA format follows)
In France, rodenticides are classified into two major product categories: (1) long-acting anticoagulants, representing over 95% of rodenticides used, and (2) short-acting products, such as crimidine and alpha-chloralose, which are still in use, particularly against mice (ACTA, 2005). Anticoagulants are used to control field voles (Microtus arvalis) and water voles (Arvicola terrestris), although widespread use of bromadiolone, a second-generation anticoagulant, has been associated with substantial secondary poisoning of predators and scavengers, mainly birds of prey (Berny et al., 1997, 1998; Berny and Gaillet, 2008). Secondary poisoning has also been observed in some water birds, such as the grey heron (Ardea cinerea). Anticoagulant poisoning is reported less frequently in other birds with some 14% detected in waterfowl, 4% in pigeons and 18% in partridges; however it did account for 47% of all poisoning cases in birds of prey (Lamarque et al., 1999).' Alpha-chloralose is another common poisoning agent in birds in France, primarily in game species, such as water birds (43%) and partridges (10%).
Guitart, R., Sachana, M., Caloni, F., Croubels, S., Vandenbroucke, V., & Berny, P. (2010). Animal poisoning in Europe. Part 3: Wildlife. The Veterinary Journal, 183(3), 260-265. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.03.033
2010-05-05
baby bunny found dead by poison box
Today got a bit busy, what with the rebuild of the uvicbunnies.org site, and all. No poison write-up, yet, or pics of the bunnies in the construction areas. I did get pics of that baby bunny found by the poison box, so I thought I should address that briefly:
The poison boxes are not a "smoking gun". If someone was intentionally giving feed laced with bromadiolone to the rabbits, that would be an entirely different thing. The stuff is toxic, but it is also what is approved for its intended purpose (killing Norway rats) and also for how it's deployed at UVic to that end. I hope to get into this a lot more thoroughly tomorrow, but the bottom line is that it might be killing some wildlife, but the numbers are not statistically significant given what would be the impact of not killing the rats on campus. Since rats have been observed attacking rabbits on campus, including baby rabbits, this isn't a point that should be dismissed, IMHO.
Apparently UVic has a lot of rats.
The poison boxes are not a "smoking gun". If someone was intentionally giving feed laced with bromadiolone to the rabbits, that would be an entirely different thing. The stuff is toxic, but it is also what is approved for its intended purpose (killing Norway rats) and also for how it's deployed at UVic to that end. I hope to get into this a lot more thoroughly tomorrow, but the bottom line is that it might be killing some wildlife, but the numbers are not statistically significant given what would be the impact of not killing the rats on campus. Since rats have been observed attacking rabbits on campus, including baby rabbits, this isn't a point that should be dismissed, IMHO.
Apparently UVic has a lot of rats.
2010-05-04
poison
I had a little bit of time at lunch today to do some digging into the poison that's used in the poison boxes. Nasty stuff called bromadiolone. If you're bored and have access to journals through a university library account, do some digging...
I found (in a short search) 15 papers on the stuff and it's effects on wildlife as an unintended side effect of its use on mice and rats, primarily Norway rats. These were all in refereed journals, btw, and I should be able to put excerpts and citations up tomorrow. Today was just too nuts :(
I've put up an excerpt from an report that LGL Ltd. did for UVic back in 2008; have a look in the pages. This came from the results of an FOI request, and was kindly donated to our efforts. There's more where that came from, too, it's just a question of time to get it typed up...
I found (in a short search) 15 papers on the stuff and it's effects on wildlife as an unintended side effect of its use on mice and rats, primarily Norway rats. These were all in refereed journals, btw, and I should be able to put excerpts and citations up tomorrow. Today was just too nuts :(
I've put up an excerpt from an report that LGL Ltd. did for UVic back in 2008; have a look in the pages. This came from the results of an FOI request, and was kindly donated to our efforts. There's more where that came from, too, it's just a question of time to get it typed up...
2010-05-03
website indexing
Well.
So if Google hasn't found us yet, do we even exist? Heh.
Something on the topic in case you're *really* bored and want something, anything, to read:
Google Not Indexing Your Blogs?
Whee.
So if Google hasn't found us yet, do we even exist? Heh.
Something on the topic in case you're *really* bored and want something, anything, to read:
Google Not Indexing Your Blogs?
Whee.
two saved
Well...
Today two little bunnies got rescued from UVic. We had two photographers around for part of the day, too, taking pictures of the rabbit goings-on. I hope we'll have some snaps to post soon. How's that for subtle? Heh.
There's a lot of construction mess due to the KIP seismic upgrades, and naturally some rabbits have been building nests among the construction debris. We're now seeing the litters come out and have their first looks at the world. On the plus side, their world includes kind people who give them carrot, lettuce and banana bits. On the negative side, a construction site isn't exactly a safe place for little creatures.
The two dead ones we found were not killed in the construction area, to the best of my knowledge, as they were both by the residences. One was a baby by one of the moderately infamous UVic poison boxes that have been talked about on the interwebs. The other was an adult just lying near a dumpster by one of the residence buildings, though I can't remember which.
Anyway; the two we rescued are off to a happier home on the mainland :)
Thanks to all that helped!
(you know who you are)
Today two little bunnies got rescued from UVic. We had two photographers around for part of the day, too, taking pictures of the rabbit goings-on. I hope we'll have some snaps to post soon. How's that for subtle? Heh.
There's a lot of construction mess due to the KIP seismic upgrades, and naturally some rabbits have been building nests among the construction debris. We're now seeing the litters come out and have their first looks at the world. On the plus side, their world includes kind people who give them carrot, lettuce and banana bits. On the negative side, a construction site isn't exactly a safe place for little creatures.
The two dead ones we found were not killed in the construction area, to the best of my knowledge, as they were both by the residences. One was a baby by one of the moderately infamous UVic poison boxes that have been talked about on the interwebs. The other was an adult just lying near a dumpster by one of the residence buildings, though I can't remember which.
Anyway; the two we rescued are off to a happier home on the mainland :)
Thanks to all that helped!
(you know who you are)
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