Archive for the ‘Carnivores’ Category

Keeping up with the pack

Dingoes seem to be pretty controversial animals, and I think I even found about as close as you’ll get to a fight in the scientific community over the ecological roles of the dingo (what was fascinating about the exchange was not just what was said, but how it was said- scientists can be mean). A […]

It’s a dog’s life

This week I’d like to give you an introduction to the history and ecology of the dingo (Canis lupus dingo), but I’m not sure how thorough I can be here- one of the things that struck me in my reading was how many opinions there are about dingoes. And people with differing conclusions seem to […]

Going to the dogs

I’ve spent the last few days going back and forth in my mind about this month’s topic. I am fascinated by canids (and quite amazed, when I look at my dog, to think of her progenitors), and there are so many species to choose from- I wanted a topic that was outside of North America […]

Posted December 1, 2012 by Mirka Zapletal in Carnivores

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What’s your role?

Hopefully the past few weeks have provided some new insight into an impressive and, at least in the Northeast, common predator. Fishers aren’t abundant in all parts of their range, but they are active members of the community where I live, and information provided by Dr. Kays’ research, as I mentioned last week, indicates they […]

Posted July 23, 2012 by Mirka Zapletal in Mustelids

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Fisher-Man

In my last post, I provided a glimpse of fisher history and ecology, talking about changes within the Northeast population, fisher diversity along the Pacific coast, and their impact on prey populations. This week I pondered the fisher-human relationship and how they react to the ways in which we’ve changed the environment around us and […]

Posted July 16, 2012 by Mirka Zapletal in Mustelids

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The Ups and Downs of Fisher-dom

My goal for the past week was to get in touch with fisher ‘history’, if you will, and hopefully start to understand what we know about basic fisher ecology and how the fisher population in the Northeast has changed over time. As it turns out, I was thinking  on far too small a scale- I […]

Posted July 9, 2012 by Mirka Zapletal in Mustelids

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A fisher in the road

I had meant to write about bobcats. For my first topic I needed something fascinating and charismatic, something people would get excited about. And I wanted something geographically close to me just in case I was the only person to take notice of any research I located. Bobcats seemed like a good choice, especially since […]

Posted July 2, 2012 by Mirka Zapletal in Mustelids

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