Archive for November, 2014

TPW TV: Turtle Crossing

Friday, November 14th, 2014

Texas snapping turtle.

Texas snapping turtle.



This is Passport to Texas

When driving, have you ever spied something ahead of you in the road and thought was a shadow, but once you got closer you realized it was a turtle? I have seen the outcome of turtle car collisions. The turtle never wins.

03— So, what do you do if you find a turtle in the road?

That’s exactly my question to you, herpetologist, Andy Gluesenkamp. What do you do?

10—My advice is, if conditions allow and it’s safe to do so, move the turtle in the direction it was going. But, don’t do anything that would put you and the turtle at risk.

If it’s dark or rainy outside, or if you’re on a busy road where drivers may not see you until it’s too late, as much as it might pain you, leave the turtle. Don’t risk it. But why are turtles crossing the road?

11— You may find female turtles crossing the road, either going to or coming from laying eggs. Or, later in the season, you may find hatchlings crossing the road, returning to water.

Andy Gluesenkamp demonstrates the safest way to move a turtle from the road during a segment on the TPW PBS TV series the week of November 16.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motorboat fuel.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Angling: Near Shore Reefing of the Kinta

Thursday, November 13th, 2014
Reefing the Kinta off the coast of Corpus Christi

Reefing the Kinta off the coast of Corpus Christi


This is Passport to Texas

The Gulf of Mexico bustles with marine life with no place to call home because the floor of the gulf is…

01—Mainly mud and sand.

Dale Shively, with the artificial reef program at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says using a variety of materials, the agency creates hard substrate, habitat, for these species.

10—By putting down concrete, or steel, or a ship – that gives these organisms a place to attach and to grow. And then from there, they create this reef environment…

The reef attracts fish, thus improving angling and diving opportunities. In Mid-September, Texas Parks and Wildlife sunk the freighter Kinta in 77 feet of water, 8 miles off the coast of Corpus Christi. Shively explains what makes a ship right for a location.

12—We want a ship that’s complex and that has a lot of interest to divers, and would be beneficial for marine life. [It needs to be] clean of environmental hazards, but of the right size to fit in particular reef sites.

The Kinta fit the bill, and has a new home on the gulf floor, where marine life has already discovered it.

20—Divers have gone down just a few hours after it was on the bottom and saw fish –so they found a home immediately. But as far as organisms actually growing and attaching to it, that will take a few months. But I would say in six months it will be pretty well covered, and within a year you have a pretty significant reef.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation: Dogs Sniff Out Invasive Weeds

Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
Dog finds invasive weed.

Dalit Guisco and Seamus finding Dyers woad (an invasive plant from Eurasia) in Montana.


This is Passport to Texas

Using their keen sense of smell (often to locate scat), trained conservation detection dogs assist with monitoring endangered wildlife, defining wildlife corridors and helping to eradicate invasive species.

06—Almost all of our work is in partnerships with non-profits, or agencies or sometimes universities.

Pete Coppolillo is Executive Director of Working Dogs for Conservation in Montana.

13—It’s really cost effective because you can find information about a lot of animals without having to fly a helicopter around and dart them and capture them and do things like that.

Lab analysis costs are decreasing, too, making it easier to obtain more information from scats. Yet, some successes have nothing to do with wildlife.

29—I’ll give you one example: there’s a weed here in Montana called dyers woad that has infested large parts of Utah, and then it appeared here. For a long time, the expectation was we’ll never get rid of it [because one plant can set 10,000 seeds]. Because dogs are so good at finding it, and because they can find it before it flowers or sets seed, we are close to eradicating that plant in a place called Mount Sentinel. You know, it’s a really powerful, scientifically rigorous tool, and it opens the door to doing things we hadn’t dreamed of.

You can learn more about conservation detection dogs, and see pictures of the dogs, Working Dogs for Conservation.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservastion: Dogs with the Right Stuff

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
A scout from the South Luangwa Conservation Society, Godfrey Mwanza, and Steven (the black lab). Both are in training to stop ivory smuggling out of the Luangwa Valley of Zambia.

A scout from the South Luangwa Conservation Society, Godfrey Mwanza, and Steven (the black lab). Both are in training to stop ivory smuggling out of the Luangwa Valley of Zambia.


This is Passport to Texas

Working Dogs for Conservation in Bozeman, Montana trains dogs to help researchers in the field.

05—One in fifteen hundred dogs that we screen has what it takes to be a conservation detection dog.

Some of the program animals are rescues. Pete Coppolillo, Executive Director, says they train the dogs to detect everything from scat, to live animals, to invertebrates, and even invasive weeds.

12—We select for high drive so that they’ll want to do it and work really hard at it. And we also select for dogs that are toy obsessed – that are really excited about a specific toy. And that’s their reward, and that’s also how we train them.

At the time we spoke, Working Dogs for Conservation had just deployed animals to Africa to help fight the illegal ivory trade. Pete told me how they used toys to train the dogs for that assignment.

22—The ivory dogs were trained by hiding ivory with their toy. So, they’ll come in and they’ll sniff around and they’ll begin to associate the scent of ivory with their toy. And as soon as they discover the toy is sitting right behind the ivory, and they get a big whiff of ivory and then they get their toy – and so they get their reward. And then, gradually we separate the toy from the ivory; they learn as soon as they find it they get their toy and their reward.

Tomorrow: some positive results of working the dogs. Learn more about these dogs at Working Dogs for Conservation.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation: Conservation Detection Dogs

Monday, November 10th, 2014
Alice Whitelaw and Tia, inspecting boats for zebra mussels in California

Alice Whitelaw and Tia, inspecting boats for zebra mussels in California


This is Passport to Texas

Most dogs like to work. And Pete Coppolillo is hiring. He is Executive Director of Working Dogs for Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. Since the mid-1990s, his organization’s trained dogs as a non-invasive alternative method for collecting data on hard to find wildlife.

05—By non-invasive, I mean we don’t have to capture them, we don’t have to handle them, we don’t even have to see them.

Then, just how are researchers using dogs?

06—So, the idea is we train a dog to find their scat, usually, which to non-biologists is a polite word for poop.

By detecting scat, the dogs help researchers determine the range, sex, and diet (among other things) of certain wildlife species. Pete said they first trained dogs to sniff out grizzly bear and wolf scat, but didn’t stop there.

28—Dogs can do everything from scat to live animal work to invasive weeds. Even invertebrates, like Emerald Ash Borer; they can find their larvae or their eggs. And, [we] even [use the dogs to detect] aquatic invasives like zebra and quagga mussels – to inspect boats. Because, the mussels can be in cracks, or inside, where a visual inspection can’t see them. Or the dogs can even detect the veligers, which are microscopic larvae that we can’t see.

Not all dogs are suited to this work. Learn more about these dogs at Working Dogs for Conservation.

More on that tomorrow. The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.