GREETINGS FROM THE WORLD HEADQUARTERS OF THE BIG WOODS HARE HUNTERS OF THE ALLEGHENY.
TO: The Loyal Order of Members
FROM: The High HareMan
SUBJECT: Winter is coming and much quicker than you think . GREETINGS:
Winter is coming, too fast for some and not fast enough for me. Now, during this heat-wave it's time to think about winter and snowshoes. Here is a video about the best snowshoes made, MAINE GUIDE SNOWSHOES, sold by my good friend, Master Maine Guide and Guide to the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny, Mr. Bob Howe. Stay tuned and hear about the bindings too. The bindings are the best. Ask me how I know. I wear the snowshoes and the bindings and I've worn them for 20 years in some of the most difficult terrain found anywhere. They are made by veterans for the benefit of veterans. This post is completely unsolicited.
Word from the Smokies: The Obscure Tale of the Appalachian Cottontail
By Frances Figart, GUEST COLUMNISTPublished 7:28 a.m. ET July 5, 2020
What’s that cute, fluffy animal with long ears hopping at top speed across the top of Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Is it the common eastern cottontail, or could it be the rare Appalachian cottontail?
The Appalachian cottontail (Sylvilagus obscurus) is a charismatic high-elevation species of rabbit thought to be restricted to the Appalachian Mountains south of New York. As the scientific name suggests, it is not easy to see and is hard to distinguish from its cousin, the very similar eastern cottontail. In general, Appalachian cottontails have a thick, dark line around the edge of their slightly shorter ears and usually have a black spot between the ears, lacking the eastern cottontail’s white forehead spot or rust color between the ears.
Ph.D. research scientists Liesl Erb, JJ Apodaca, and Corinne Diggins can tell the two species apart by studying features of their skeletons and their DNA. They have spent part of the past three years learning more about this fascinating critter in a study sponsored by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and hosted in part by Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“There was relatively little data on this species in the southern Appalachian Mountains prior to our study, including information on their distribution and habitat use in the region,” said Diggins, a research scientist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. “Because the Appalachian cottontail is a federal species of concern and a ‘knowledge gap species’ in North Carolina, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission was interested in determining baseline information on the species.”
The researchers used trapping and telemetry data as well as transects, counting pellet piles to determine habitat preferences. The Appalachian cottontail is generally thought of as preferring high-elevation, cold habitat, but the researchers found them in locations that were generally cool, though not necessarily the coldest spots, and in sites that were fairly wet year-round.
“In higher elevations, the rabbits selectively used heath balds and spruce-fir forest,” said Diggins. “In lower elevations, they selectively used habitats with significant pine and hemlock. Overall, they selected for certain habitat types and we found them at a wider range of elevations than we had previously thought.”
Erb, who is a professor of Conservation Biology at Warren Wilson College, focused on the distribution of the species and said there were four genetically distinct populations within the areas studied: Great Smoky Mountains, Roan Highlands, and Pisgah National Forest. Genetically, one of the biggest surprises the study revealed was the fact that hybridization occurs between Appalachian cottontails and eastern cottontails in these locations.
James Gorman is a science writer at large for The New York Times and the host and writer of the regular video series “ScienceTake.” He has been at the Times since 1993, as an editor on The New York Times Magazine, deputy science editor, editor of a personal technology section, outdoors columnist, science columnist and editor of Science Times.
There’s another deadly virus outbreak in the U.S., but this one is killing thousands of wild rabbits. It started in New Mexico in March and has since spread to Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, California and Mexico. It poses a fatal threat to pets as well as wild animals.
The illness is caused by Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus type 2 and does not affect humans or other animals, only rabbits, hares and perhaps pikas, a rabbit-like animal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is not a coronavirus.
This is the first outbreak of the virus in wild rabbits in North America, but there have been other, smaller outbreaks among domestic rabbits in Ohio, Washington and New York, and in feral rabbits in Canada — pets that have escaped or been released and continue to breed. The pet and feral animals are descendants of European rabbits, not native to North America.
Ralph Zimmerman, the state veterinarian in New Mexico, where the new outbreak started, said its origin is unknown. But, he added, imported domestic rabbits are one possibility; the disease was first identified in France in 2010 and spread throughout Europe and later Australia, where it swept the continent in about a year and a half. An outbreak at a New York veterinary clinic in March of this year killed 11 pet rabbits.
“We hear rumors of underground rabbit transport, and there are folks that do import rabbits from Europe,” Dr. Zimmerman said. “So our concern is that somebody brought them in, they were carrying the virus during transport. If one of them died, they pitched it out and boom, we infect the wild rabbits and away we go.”
Not much can be done about wild populations of rabbits, Dr. Zimmerman said. Many die, and some survivors that are resistant to the virus repopulate the area. How much of the wild population dies will determine the impact of the disease on predators that rely on rabbits.
The virus is a variant of the original R.H.D.V., which emerged in China in 1984 and spread through Asia, Europe and North and South America. When it escaped in Australia, scientists there were studying it for possible use in controlling rabbit populations. It has been killing rabbits in Australia ever since, although R.H.D.V. type 2, the new virus, took over and became the dominant strain.
It is both highly infectious, and extraordinarily sturdy. According to the federal National Wildlife Health Center, it can survive several months in dry conditions, lives through freezing and can be spread by rabbits, their pelts or their meat, or anything that has come in contact with them, including insects. Often, rabbits simply drop dead.
The disease poses a serious danger to domestic rabbits. Last year the agriculture department estimated that nearly three million U.S. households had about 6.7 million pet rabbits. There is a vaccine for the disease approved in Europe, and states, in concert with the agriculture department, can approve its use, which has happened in New Mexico, Dr. Zimmerman said.
But vaccine approval could come too late for a rabbit owners, because there must be a confirmed rabbit death in order for a veterinarian to begin applying for emergency approval in any given state, said Anne Martin, executive director of the House Rabbit Society.
And like any virus, this one has an incubation period; by the time rabbits begin to die, the virus is already spreading, and the vaccine still must then be imported once the approval paperwork is done.
To be safe, rabbits, like people, need to be isolated. There are also other precautions to take, Ms. Martin said, because the virus can survive for so long, but “the biggest risk to rabbits is if they are outside or they have any outdoor playtime.”
It is with sorrow and
sadness I undertake the difficult task of announcing the passing of Big Woods
Hare Hunters of the Allegheny hare hound, Aero.
Aero suffered kidney
failure due to complications from Lyme disease and was euthanized June 6, 2020
at the offices of North Fork Veterinary Clinic. Aero was buried at a place of honor high
on the Allegheny Plateau.
Aero, (Little Toby Creek
Aeropostale Aero) was whelped July 2012 at Little Toby Creek Kennels and was named
by, granddaughter, Alayna Murray. Aero’s dam was Iron Mountain Tia and she was
sired by Branko’s High Plateau Duggan. Aero’s grandfather was two time National
and Field Champion Branko’s One Tuff Hombre. Aero is survived by her sire and
several littermates. Aero was proceeded in death by her mother and a littermate
named Shadow.
Aero was a single-minded
hare and rabbit hound. Her life was devoted to chasing snowshoe hare and cottontail
rabbits. Aero gave it her best every time she went to the field. Aero hunted
the western mountains of Maine on many occasions.
The greatest success of Aero’s
short life was whelping a litter of very fine and widely renowned beagles. Her
legacy will live on through her linage.
We will miss her voice
in the pack; however, we fully appreciate she is not suffering and has joined
that phantom pack of beagles which sings across the Allegheny on many moonlit
nights.
NiknMatt BakerI am so sorry to hear about the passing of Aero. Brenda McMunn HooverAndy and I are saddened to hear about the passing of Teagan's sister, Aero. Beautifully written tribute, Joe
