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Tabulating surveys

GAME SURVEY information is now in the hands of DNR Upland Game Biologists. Two hundred ten routes have been completed, the data noted and submitted for analysis. It is premature to say what is likely to be the outcome of these surveys. This scribe can only guess. And since guessing is a bit on the dangerous side, I’ll just say that some trend lines will show improvements. The final report from the DNR is a few weeks away and it is best to wait for the data to speak for itself.

I’ll take you along for a verbal description of a typical game survey route. So buckle up and get ready. Here we go. The weather for this survey was perfect … clear skies, light wind, and heavy dew on roadside grasses. It is typical for wildlife to come out to a gravel road to sun themselves to help dry their wet feathers or fur.

I was able to accompany Conservation Officer Tyson Brown last Tuesday. The day started for him at 5 a.m. and I became part of the survey crew at 6 a.m. Official sunrise was at 6:13 at a point just north of Albion. Exactly on time, the route began at the super slow speed of 10-15 mph. Prior to departure, Tyson’s smart phone with its appropriate application for the game route program was all hooked up, plugged in, and ready for data entry. At any point along the route as either pheasants, rabbits, gray partridge or quail might be observed, a few entries into the electronic data gathering device would tell how many, what species, how many young and how big the young critters were compared to an adult.

Tools for the observation along the gravel roadways were binoculars, and for me a camera or two. As the truck slowly plied along, we kept a sharp eye out for critters along the roadside grasses or on the open roadway itself. Our route took us north primarily, then east a few miles, north again and finally easterly to route’s end. We observed two different groups of gray partridge in Marshall County, a total of about seven birds. And then the route exposed nothing else except one rabbit. That was it, nothing more and nothing to get excited about at all.

One must also understand that this route, just one of 210 standardized pathways for accurate year-to-year comparisons, represents a very small slice of habitat conditions in this part of Iowa. For northern Marshall and parts of Grundy County, intensive agriculture is the major use of the surrounding landforms. Roadside grasses in the ditches, a few waterways and windbreak groves of trees were the only type of habitat available for wildlife. Other portions of Iowa reflect the diversity of other landforms; much heavier forested sites, and for southern Iowa, rolling hilly landscapes with more grasslands. For survey routes in these places, counts of wildlife will reflect different circumstances. When all the data is summarized, the various regions within Iowa will be compared to past years. From that information, trend lines will indicate how upland wildlife coped last winter, and with this spring’s weather.

With this survey route completed, we had to return to Albion. I suggested and Brown agreed, to retrace the survey route backwards, this time not at 15 mph but at a more casual 40-50 mph. Keep in mind that the official survey was over, and the buttons were pushed on his smart phone to send the data to the wildlife biologist’s office. Whatever we would see this time would be unofficial.

It was during the return trip that today’s pheasant photo was made. Those birds had to be very close by when we passed slowly by during the official survey time. But they were not on or along the roadway at that time. Bad luck for us or just unfortunate timing. Now, here was a hen pheasant and seven chicks. That is what we were able to see before they tucked back into the cover of the road ditch grasses. I was able to make this image with three of the chicks visible and of course, the adult hen.

The rest of the return voyage had a few more gray partridge in Grundy County, no more pheasants. So it goes. It is what it is. It was a fun morning, a good time to visit about long term conservation goals, mission, and people of all stripes that conservation officers have to deal with. I can say that from my retired perspective of more than 11 years now, our natural resources remain in good hands with well trained, well educated and dedicated men and women conservation officers to teach, enforce and if need be, arrest violators of conservation laws. And one of their fun tasks each year is conducting the Upland Game Survey near their home territories.

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Other unofficial wildlife observations this past week included a clutch (or several possible combined clutches) of WILD TURKEYS. The young poults have a bigger body size than adult pheasants indicating they are growing fast. Another pure chance sighting was a MINK crossing the roadway. If this scribe had blinked, I would have missed it. But there it was and mistaken identity was not an excuse. Mink are semi-aquatic species of the family Mustelidae and is a species of least concern. Its populations are holding out and doing just fine. They are carnivores feeding on rodents, fish, crustaceans, frogs and birds. Mink fur is a valued product for fur-harvesters each fall during trapping season.

Next on my list of quick sightings was a LEAST WESSEL dashing across a Marshall County gravel road southeast of Marshalltown. Its small slender six inch long body with dark brown top fur and all white belly fur was distinctively apparent. This animal is the smallest species of Mustelids and goes by the Latin name Mustela nivalis. It is native to North America and its population is also doing well. Small rodents, young rabbits, bird eggs, fish and frogs are the menu for this animal. They are fearless predators and use cunning behavior to find, kill and eat a prey animals.

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In the news of late was the situation in Zimbabwe where a lion was killed. And this scribe has been asked what my take on the story is. Here are a few important points to ponder.

One, the unethical taking of any animal is highly unsettling to me. Either conduct oneself at all times in the highest possible ethical and fully legal means or don’t put oneself in a situation of doubt. It is true that hunters kill individual animals, but true conservation is not about saving an individual animal but rather insuring survival for an entire species. A science based off-take of animals from the land helps keep a balance within the habitat to avoid destruction of the plant life needed to support all species, hunted or not hunted.

Two, in Africa, a hunter is largely at the mercy of and under the control of the outfitter. You go where he/she says and do what he/she says. I doubt that the hunter in this case knew what this particular outfitter had in mind beforehand. The huge majority of professional hunting safari operators are members of their respective professional hunters association. Those membership credentials require full compliance with local laws, ethical taking, and safe operations for client and wildlife. In addition, the professional hunters and outfitters are the eyes on the ground for poaching control, communication with local village people, and to insure that hunts are within the guidelines and quotas allowed for that hunting block. The outfitter who caused this ruckus is now highly discredited, taken off license as an outfitter, and appropriately shamed.

Three, hunters make significant financial contributions to wildlife conservation. According to the Safari Club International (SCI), conservation takes money and hunters are the first in line to provide those funds. Those funds go toward participation in a hunt, toward habitat restoration and wildlife management. And management involves an understanding of the carrying capacity of the land to support all wildlife and the people that also try to make a living from the land. Africa is not some “paradise of unspoiled nature” as some television documentaries might try to imply, but rather a dynamic system of give and take, wins and losses. Hunter fees supply the bulk of money to support local economies that co-exist with wildlife. Hunter-generated revenue allows for community improvements through CAMPFIRE programs. CAMPFIRE funding makes wells possible for clean water, assists schools with their needs, and involves local villagers as stakeholders who understand and develop tolerance for some species of wildlife that would otherwise harm or destroy their human food crops.

Fourth, hunters support anti-poaching strategies. And in today’s world, organized crime rings have and are willing to pay well for rhino horns or elephant ivory and then smuggle these items out of country. Hunter funds support efforts to find poachers, their snares and other illegal takings of wildlife. It is a never ending battle. Time and time again it has been proven that if hunting ceases in a block, illegal killing increases because the poachers know their chances of being caught are very, very low.

Fifth, hunting gives wildlife value to the people that actually have to live with and find a way to co-exist. If elephants tramples crop fields that villagers depend upon to feed their families, or a lion attacks their cattle or goats, the villagers are in deep trouble. Villagers call them pests, huge pests, deadly pests, and they are not revered. When a hunter under proper license takes one of these ””pests” out, there is much celebration, jobs are created within the village, meat is distributed to all, and money is now available for other improvements. The pest animals become less of a nuisance because they had value to hunters willing to pay the fees required under license to hunt them.

And lastly, the entire hyped story in the USA and the world illustrates how misinformation, emotion and falsehoods about wildlife play out in social media, as if all of a sudden every posting is from a “self made biologist” who, in my opinion, got their degree from a box of fruit loop cereal. They didn’t earn an advanced degree in wildlife or natural resource science from long years of diligent study at accredited universities.

Long after this story begins to collect dust, hunters will still be there, in it for the long haul, maintaining the positive pressure for long term science-based conservation goals, habitat management, and community support for employment and other worthy projects.

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“Rumors go around the world before the truth gets its shoes tied.”

– Mark Twain

Garry Brandenburg is a graduate of Iowa State University with BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. He is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at P.O. Box 96, Albion, Iowa 50005

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