More Trouble For Wildlife

It is common knowledge that various wild plants and animals are in trouble in Pennsylvania. We know that ash trees have been pretty much wiped out by emerald ash beetles. We know that our state tree, the hemlock, is taking a beating from woolly adelgids. Oak trees were decimated by gypsy moths in the 1980s.

Our state mammal, the white-tailed deer, is suffering from chronic wasting disease (CWD). Despite much research, a cure has not been found for CWD. The only strategy that deer managers believe is helpful is to reduce deer numbers. On many public-land areas, deer are scarce from overharvesting, though private-land managers have saved viable populations of whitetails by limiting their harvest.

Pennsylvania's state bird, the ruffed grouse, is experiencing hard times as well. Until this spring when I saw one, I had not seen a grouse for more than a half-dozen years.

Wild turkey populations have been gradually declining. The PGC's "solution" to that is to shorten autumn hunting seasons while continuing to allow the harvest of a second gobbler in the spring for those who buy a tag for the second bird. Just follow the money, I guess.

Sportsmen and other outdoor enthusiasts know that the population of cottontail rabbits has shrunk over the past 40 years. There are now so few rabbits that I do not know of even one kennel of beagles in Williamsburg, where there were many when I was young. Now they are having more trouble. Press releases from the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), one which appeared in the Herald, have directed our attention to a new threat to rabbits: rabbit hemorrhagic disease. This is a foreign animal disease caused by a virus that can infect only lagomorph (rabbits, hares, and pikas) species. The PGC has recently enacted an executive order forbidding the importation of any wild or domestic rabbit or any of their parts or products from other states or countries. The ban will remain in place until further notice. Rabbits, which nearly overran rural countrysides when I was young, now seem to thrive mainly within settled areas – such as my neighborhood.

In the Oct. 8, 2021, issue of "Pennsylvania Outdoors," columnist Ben Moyer discusses a new fungal disease that affects native snakes, especially rattlesnakes. Moyer notes that the Cornell University Wildlife Health Laboratory was studying a population of rattlesnakes that declined by 50 percent in only one year "due to the disease." A rattlesnake makes your heart pound when you spot one. It would be a shame to lose them to yet another wildlife disease.