montana bans trail cameras??
killerbee
4/7/10 11:51pm
Got this from another site- is it true?
QUOTE :Just read on another site where Montana has banned the use of motion tracking devices and/or camera devices during any hunting season.
"It is illegal for a person to possess or use in the field any electronic or camera device who's purpose is to scout the location of game animals or relay the information on a game animal's location or movement during any Commission adopted hunting season" Page 10 of the regs.
Not sure if or when other Western states may adopt this rule but at least in Montana it appears that trail cams can still be used for scouting purposes prior to the hunting season.
QUOTE :Just read on another site where Montana has banned the use of motion tracking devices and/or camera devices during any hunting season.
"It is illegal for a person to possess or use in the field any electronic or camera device who's purpose is to scout the location of game animals or relay the information on a game animal's location or movement during any Commission adopted hunting season" Page 10 of the regs.
Not sure if or when other Western states may adopt this rule but at least in Montana it appears that trail cams can still be used for scouting purposes prior to the hunting season.
19,735
What I would be most concerned with is the slow bleeding of our rights. They have banned trail cams...what's next?
Some people abuse the technology, and it takes it away from the rest of us.
I don't know about you, but never dawned on me to mess with a trail cam while on a big game hunt or any other type hunt.
Having trail cams for off season wildlife viewing is just fine. :thumb
I think Montana is starting down a slippery slope that will eventually just make it simpler to take hunting off of the table, then they won't have the hassle or argument.
heres a little insight into Colorados elk farms...
"Originally published in the Jan./Feb. 2000 issue of “Bugle” magazine. In the spring of 1997, the Kesler Game Farm, near Phillipsburg, Montana, shipped a herd
of 84 elk to a rancher in Oklahoma who planned to start his own commercial game farm
for breeding stock and meat. The Kesler farm had been back in business for only two
years following a five-year quarantine for bovine tuberculosis, and the Oklahoma elk
shipment would prove to be yet another stroke of very bad luck. Twenty-two months
after the herd arrived at the ranch near Oklahoma City, one of the cow elk suffered an
ugly illness that began with sudden bouts of agitation and progressed to staggering,
slobbering, severe emaciation
and death." yea that came from bugle magazine and was writing by Hal Herring i believe that says GAME FARM IN MONTANA!!! that is the article that big antler got it from
CWD was first identified as a fatal wasting syndrome in captive mule deer in Colorado in the late 1960s and in the wild in 1981.
By the mid-1990s, CWD had been diagnosed among free-ranging deer and elk in a contiguous area in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, where the disease is now endemic. In recent years, CWD has been found in areas outside of this disease-endemic zone, including areas east of the Mississippi River in Illinois, New York, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
Surveillance studies of hunter-harvested animals indicate the overall prevalence of the disease in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming from 1996 to 1999 was estimated to be approximately 5% in mule deer, 2% in white-tailed deer, and <1% in elk.
It was 35 years ago and the biologists were baffled. Blood work showed nothing unusual, liver and kidney tests turned up negative for all known diseases, but the mule deer were still wasting away to skin and bones. It could have been straight out of an episode of “The X Files.”
A few of the captive deer at the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s research facilities in Fort Collins had begun to lose weight on a diet that sustained other deer. They drank incessantly and spent much of their time standing listlessly in their corrals. The biologists knew they had a unique syndrome on their hands, but it was like nothing they had ever seen before.
Captive deer at Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Sybille Research Unit were soon showing signs of the mystery disease. Because the Colorado and Wyoming facilities regularly traded deer and elk, the appearance of the disease in Wyoming came as no great surprise.
Over the next 10 years, researchers worked to understand the origin and causes of the affliction, but their studies led to more questions than answers.
One thing was certain, the disease was deadly. Between 1974 and 1979, 66 mule deer and one black-tailed deer were held captive in Colorado and Wyoming research corrals. Of those, 57 contracted the strange disease and not one survived.
The search went on for the cause of the disease. Viruses, bacteria and nutritional deficiencies were all ruled out. Biologists named it "chronic wasting disease” (CWD), identifying the disease’s most devastating outward symptom, irreversible weight loss.
The first break in the case came in 1978, when wildlife veterinarian Beth Williams began analyzing tissues of affected animals. She found microscopic holes in brain and nerve tissues of the deer. The disease was turning the brains of these deer into Swiss cheese.
This finding put Chronic Wasting Disease into a small category of diseases labeled transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). As pathologists looked into CWD further, they began to see similarities between it and scrapie, a TSE that affects sheep.
Sheep and goats have been affected by scrapie in Europe for centuries. In all those years, no other type of animal has ever come down with the disease, including generations of shepherds who work with their flocks daily and consumers who eat their meat and drink their milk.
Although they now knew CWD was related to scrapie and other TSEs, this helped little because at the time pathologists knew little about the cause of this disease either. The scientific camps began to stake their claim on the origins of these enigma diseases. Some thought it was a genetic illness, others assumed it was a virus too small to be detected by existing techniques. Several different scientists were pursuing proof of their favorite theories.
In the meantime, unsettling news was reported from the field. In March 1981, biologists in north Colorado brought in a sick elk that turned out to be suffering from chronic wasting disease. The disease had somehow spread from captive animals into free-ranging herds.
Cervids (animals such as white-tailed deer and elk ) seemed to be the target of CWD, no other animals including cattle, horses or humans have been affected by CWD. The disease spread incrementally through northcentral Colorado affecting mule deer, white-tailed deer and elk. In 1986, CWD claimed an elk in southeastern Wyoming, the first confirmed case of the disease in a wild animal outside of Colorado.
Although this was not exactly a raging disease outbreak, the spread of the disease had started and wildlife vets and biologists were concerned. They knew little about it, and knew nothing about how to stop it.
Today, 34 years since the disease was discovered, pathologists have learned more about the disease, but still have much to learn before they fully understand it. However slowly, CWD has continued to creep across the United States and Canada, currently impacting either captive or free-ranging deer in nine states and a pair of Canadian provinces. This includes a closely monitored captive elk herd in central Oklahoma.
It is now generally accepted that prions, naked proteins with the ability to duplicate and multiply, are the culprits to blame for CWD and other TSE’s. There remains no known cure or even a reliable method of disinfecting contaminated areas. Biologists in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the disease was first discovered, found out how resilient these prions can be. They set out in an intensive effort to rid the research facilities of CWD. All captive deer and elk were killed and buried. Personnel then plowed up the soil in the pens in an effort to bury possible disease organisms and structures and pastures were repeatedly treated with a powerful disinfectant. A year later, 12 elk calves from the wild were released in the sanitized holding areas. In the next five years, two of these elk died from chronic wasting disease.
Fortunately, Oklahoma’s free-ranging deer herd is not known to carry the disease. Over the past three years biologists and veterinarians have examined almost 400 deer and elk taken during Oklahoma's hunting seasons as part of the Department’s CWD monitoring program. All samples obtained from animals taken from the wild have tested negative and biologists will continue to closely monitor the deer and elk herd for signs of the disease.
Currently, detecting the disease is far from simple. The only acceptable test is a microscopic examination of an animal’s brain stem. There are no live animal tests and only a handful of laboratories and pathologists are qualified to administer the brain test.
If there is a bright side to chronic wasting disease it is that it reminds how valuable our deer are. It wasn’t that long ago that deer seemed headed down the same path as the buffalo and the passenger pigeon, over-exploited and pushed out by land-hungry settlers. Through the tireless work of biologists and sportsmen, deer have been restored to once unthinkable numbers in Oklahoma and across their native range.
A deer is a symbol of grace and it provides a succulent, nutritious meal. It is that and more, it is a wild animal that makes the woods a better place just for being there. It is as American as they come, inhabiting just about every ecotone on this continent.
To know that a disease as serious as CWD is spreading should pain everyone who has ever marveled at a deer slinking over a barbed wire fence. But it is no surprise that it was hunters who were the first to step up to the plate for the animals. In Oklahoma, a CWD monitoring program is in place thanks to funds provided through hunter’s licenses. In Wisconsin, it is hunters who have taken on the grim task of thinning out the deer herd to prevent the spread of CWD, and across the United States it is sportsmen who are carrying much of the financial burden to pay for biologists, veterinarians and pathologists to study the disease.
Q. What is Chronic Wasting Disease?
A. Chronic Wasting Disease is a fatal disease of the central nervous system of captive and free-ranging mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose, and Rocky Mountain elk. The disease belongs to a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalapathies (TSEs) that are not fully understood.
TOPQ. What causes these diseases?
A. CWD and other TSE's are caused by similar but little understood agents that produce tiny sponge-like holes in brain and upper spinal cord nerve tissue. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California's School of Medicine won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1997 for his more than twenty years of work investigating the pathogens responsible for TSEs. He deduced that abnormally shaped proteins that lack DNA called "protease resistant prions" transform other normal prions into their own image. The body is unable to break down and remove these prions so they accumulate in various tissue including the brain thus causing the disease. Scientists aren't sure how protease resistant prions are naturally transmitted in a particular species.
TOPQ. How long has Chronic Wasting Disease been known in free ranging herds?
A. The first case of Chronic Wasting disease in wild elk or deer populations was detected in Colorado in 1981, though it is unlikely this was the first actual case. Since that time the number of cases and locations where the disease has been found has increased. The reason for this increase in unclear but likely is the result of increased surveillance as well as increased distribution of the disease. CWD has been found in the wild in areas of 11 states and two Canadian province including Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Utah, Illinois, New York, West Virginia, Kansas and the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Federal and state agencies are working to control any spread of CWD in these areas.
TOPQ. Where has CWD been found in Montana?
A. CWD has not been found in Montana's wild deer and elk populations. However, in June 1998 and again in June 1999, elk shipped to Oklahoma from an alternative livestock facility near Philipsburg were confirmed to have CWD. In November and December 1999, all 83 elk at the Philipsburg facility were destroyed. Nine of the elk later tested positive for CWD.
TOPQ. What kind of testing and surveillance is in place in Montana on native deer and elk, and on alternative livestock farms and what are the results?
A. FWP has conducted statewide sampling of wild deer and elk for CWD since 1998, with approximately 9,300 animals taken by hunters showing no CWD infections. Since 2002, FWP has concentrated sampling efforts in northeastern and southeastern Montana along borders with states and provinces where CWD is known to occur. FWP also tests elk and deer that display clinical symptoms that suggest CWD and none of these animals have tested positive. Old age, other diseases and chronic malnutrition can result in symptoms similar to CWD.
Any elk or deer that dies on a licensed alternative livestock facility in Montana must be tested for CWD by law. Nearly 3,800 animals to date have tested negative for CWD. The only positive animals found were the nine that tested positive at the Philipsburg alternative livestock facility in 1999.
TOPQ. What do deer and elk with CWD look like?
A. Symptoms suggestive of CWD are: emaciation, listlessness, blank facial expressions, excessive salivation, lowered heads and, in some cases, hyper-excitability and nervousness. FWP encourages hunters and others who see animals with any of these symptoms to contact the nearest FWP office.
TOPQ. Should hunters be concerned, and if so what should they do?
A. CWD is not known to be transmissible to humans or to cause disease in humans. However, hunters should take common sense precautions: avoid shooting animals that look sick (report those animals to the nearest FWP office); wear rubber gloves when field dressing game; minimize contact with brain and spinal cord tissue; avoid eating brains, lymph nodes, or spinal cord tissues.
Hunters harvesting elk, deer or moose in states known to have CWD should be aware that only quarters, boned out meat, processed meat, cleaned skull plates, antlers or taxidermy mounts can be brought into Montana. The remaining carcass must be left or disposed of in the state where it was harvested. Hunters within Montana are encouraged to dispose of carcasses from processed animals in local land fills rather than discard them in the woods.
TOPQ. Is CWD transmissible to domestic livestock?
A. CWD is not known to be a disease that can be naturally transmitted to domestic livestock. Studies are underway now to understand more about the disease.
TOPQ. What should I do if I see a deer or elk that looks like it may have CWD?
A. Hunters or others who notice animals that seem to display symptoms of CWD should immediately contact the nearest FWP office and report the animal and location it was last seen.
TOPQ. What animal-related TSE's have been found in the United States?
A. TSE's that have been found in the U.S. are: scrapie in sheep and goats, transmissible mink encephalopathy, and chronic wasting disease of deer and elk. A small number of cases of bovine spongiform encephalapathy, or BSE, have been confirmed in the US.
TOPQ. What is the history of this relatively rare family of diseases?
A. Little is known about these Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. The following is a brief chronology:
Scrapie has been diagnosed in domestic sheep and goats since the mid-1700's, but the industry has been unsuccessful in eliminating the disease.
In the 1970's, CWD was diagnosed in captive deer in wildlife research facilities in Colorado and Wyoming.
In 1981 the first case of CWD in Colorado free-ranging wild elk was diagnosed and in 1986 the first case of CWD in free-ranging big game in Wyoming was diagnosed in an elk.
CWD has now been reported in free ranging deer and elk in 11 states and 2 Canadian province while it has been reported in captive deer and elk ("game farms") in 9 states and 2 Canadian provinces.
The first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in cows was identified in 1985-86 in Great Britain. A number of countries in Europe have now identified BSE in cows.
In May of 2003, Canada reported their first case of BSE in cattle. Since then, five additional cases have been reported. In December of 2003, a case of BSE was reported in a cow in Washington state. That cow was later found to have been imported from Canada. Since that time, two additional cases of BSE have been detected in the U.S.
TOPQ. What are the differences between BSE (bovine spongiform encephalapathy) in cows and CWD in deer and elk?
A. It is believed the outbreak of BSE in Europe resulted from the practice of using meat and bone meal from animals, including sheep byproducts that could have been contaminated with scrapie, in feed for cows. There is some evidence that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in cows in Europe can be passed to humans who eat beef products contaminated with the abnormal prions that cause the BSE, resulting in a fatal brain disease called "new variant" Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. There have been approximately 195 cases of "new variant" Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease identified in Europe, with the majority of those diagnosed in the UK.
Deer and elk in the wild browse on naturally occurring plants in their habitat. The use of recycled protein in the preparation of food products for ruminants is not allowed in the US. There has been one cases of "new variant" Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease diagnosed in the US, however that case was diagnosed in an individual that was born and raised in the U.K. and had recently moved to the U.S. There currently is no evidence that CWD can be transmitted to humans.
TOP
how did this topic go from "montana bans trail cams" to cwd, wolves, etc...
oh well, i dont care, as long as we dont get that personal :thumb