Puxico, Missouri - The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has installed a new accessible hunting blind at Duck Creek Conservation Area (CA) for waterfowl hunters with disabilities. The blind, which is ready for use in the upcoming waterfowl seasons, is a final piece of renovations to the area.

“We want to help all people discover nature and this accessible duck blind is part of making that happen,” said Keith Cordell, manager of Duck Creek CA.

The ADA blind is in the south central corner of position 16 in Unit A. A paved walkway starts at a parking pad and descends toward the blind, which reaches out into the pool. The structure took an MDC construction crew about six weeks to build.

To make a reservation to use the blind, hunters may call the Southeast Regional Office at (573)290-5730 on or after Oct. 1.  Once the season starts, the Duck Creek Office will manage availability of the blind and can be reached at (573)222-3337.

During the waterfowl season, if the blind isn't reserved by a hunter with disabilities, the position/blind will go into the morning draw and may be used by other hunters.

More information on accessible conservation and hunting areas can be found online at mdc.mo.gov or by calling the MDC’s Southeast Regional Office at (573)290-5730.

Advance, Missouri - On September 2, 2015 Dr. Brett Ward of Helping Hands Veterinary Clinic received a letter from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The letter states that an 8-week-old puppy from Bollinger County tested positive for RABIES on August 26, 2015.  Because rabies in a domestic animal represents a serious and imminent public health threat, the Missouri Dept. of Health and Senior Services placed Bollinger County under a RABIES ALERT!

The puppy belonged to a resident of Bollinger County and was one of a litter of four.  Around July 20^th of this year a skunk was observed under the front porch of the owner’s home where the puppies and their mother were located. 

Skunks are known carrier of Rabies in Missouri and it is presumed that’s how the puppy was infected.  The puppies were adopted to three families and on August 21^st the puppy in question became sick, was subsequently euthanized and submitted to the Missouri State Public Health laboratory for rabies testing.

A positive rabies test resulted on August 26^th whereby 12 people who had contact with the puppy were notified and are receiving anti-rabies series of shots.

The remaining puppies were euthanized and tested negative.  As you know, these results do not mean that the puppies were not infected with the rabies virus.  Instead, the results indicate that since there was no rabies virus in the brain, there was also no rabies virus in the saliva.  Therefore, these puppies could not have infected anyone who came in contact with them.

With that being said, the three puppies where not infectious when tests were performed, however they could have gone on to develop rabies over the next several months and become infectious at that time. 

No one wants to have puppies euthanized, but this option must be employed at times to protect the health of the public according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

According to the MDHSS, RABIES occurs naturally in Missouri wild animals and occasionally in domestic animals.  In 2014, a total of 27 rabid animals were detected. They included 9 skunks, 16 bats, and 2 cats.  Missouri has averaged about 50 rabid animals per year over the past ten years.  The main animals were bats and skunks.  Statewide to date in 2015, a total of 21 rabid animals have been detected, including 13 bats, 6 skunks, and 2 dogs. 

Please be responsible and vaccinate your dogs and cats against rabies.  It serves as a buffer between the wildlife reservoir and the human population.  Two individuals have died in recent years from rabies in Missouri.    

See your local Veterinarian for RABIES vaccinations immediately.  Most cities and counties have ordinances that require the vaccination annually. 

If you need to get your pet vaccinated please contact your local Veterinarian.  Dr. Brett Ward with Helping Hands Veterinary Clinic will be glad to schedule you an appointment as soon as possible.  To contact them call (573) 321-2021.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri - There’s a new face of conservation in Cape Girardeau County. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports Ben Stratton is the new conservation agent for the county.

“Ben is a natural fit since he’s from the county and knows it well,” said Russell Duckworth, MDC Protection District Supervisor. “He’s got a great reputation throughout our region and we continue to expect great things out of him.”

Stratton graduated from the Conservation Agent Training Academy in Jefferson City in 2009 before working as the Mississippi County conservation agent for six years. He is a Cape Girardeau native and an alumnus of both Cape Central High School and Southeast Missouri State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with an emphasis in wildlife management. His minor was criminal justice.

For Stratton, the complexities of being a conservation agent are a positive aspect of the job.

“I like not knowing what I’ll be doing from one day to the next,” he said. “The job transitions with the seasons, so one day I’ll be working with dove hunters, another day we may do swift water rescue or teach hunter education.”

He also said the law enforcement role of a conservation agent is rewarding.

“I enjoy making a solid case against a perpetrator that’s stealing the wildlife resources from other Missouri citizens,” he said. “It’s my portion of protecting our resources for future generations.”

Stratton said being a conservation agent has given him exciting new opportunities that he never expected, including teaching people about conservation and sharing his love of the outdoors.

Stratton can be reached at (573)450-1763 or Ben.Stratton@mdc.mo.gov. For more information about conservation agents in Missouri, go online to mdc.mo.gov.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri - The Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center reports a resident female Yellow-bellied watersnake at the center is likely reproducing without contribution from a male. Intern Kyle Morton, who cares for the snakes at the center, didn’t know what he was looking at when he went to clean the snake cage one morning.

“I thought, ‘what joker put tomatoes in here for the snake’,” Morton said.

It wasn’t tomatoes, though; as Morton examined the round, soft, egg-like structures, he realized they were freshly laid membranes from the female snake.

“She had acted normal other than not eating for several weeks,” Morton said. “So it definitely took me by surprise.”

Morton reported his find to one of the naturalists at the center, who verified what it was. The snake did the same thing last summer, giving birth to two now healthy year-old watersnakes. Naturalist Jordi Brostoski found the membranes last summer, when it first happened.

“At first I thought the snake had regurgitated something until I looked at it closer,” Brostoski said. “That’s when I realized what had happened and then the hatchling snakes surprised me by slithering under the bedding in the cage.”

According to Jeff Briggler, MDC herpetologist, although it’s not heard of often, virgin births can be common in some species, through a process called parthenogenesis.

Parthenogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction in which offspring develops from unfertilized eggs. It occurs in many insect orders, most commonly with bees, wasps and stick insects and is also found in some species of fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles, but not in mammals.

“There are many types of parthenogenesis in which I will not go into great detail,” Briggler said. “In layman’s terms, parthenogenesis is a mode of asexual reproduction in which the offspring (babies) are produced by females without genetic contribution of a male.”

Briggler said parthenogenesis seems to occur in both captive and wild situations and it doesn’t seem to impact the health of the female snake. Additionally, this species of snake has not been documented as participants in parthenogenesis.

“For many years, it was believed that such birth in captivity was due to sperm storage,” Briggler explained. “However, genetics is proving a different story.”

This snake has been a resident at the nature center for nearly eight years, which is likely too long of a time for this to be a result of sperm storage.

Briggler said parthenogenesis is a common occurrence in many lizard species. Published accounts of this form of reproduction in snakes have included the Brahminy bind snake, Timber rattlesnake, Copperheads, Cottonmouths, Burmese python, Rainbow boa, Common boa, Green anaconda, several gartersnake species, Aruba island rattlesnake and Afarura filesnake.  As more genetic work is conducted, Briggler believes it may turn out that parthenogenesis is more widespread than scientists have thought in the past.

One interesting result of the process is that in the majority of the species that participate in parthenogenesis, the offspring produced are all male, Briggler said.

“There is always a high proportion of infertile eggs due to chromosome combination, but a few can be successful and hatch if the mother has a dissimilar sex chromosome (ZW) compared to the male with copies of the ZZ chromosome,” he said.

In this case, the female ZW chromosome will produce egg cell with ZZ and WW via meiosis.  The ZZ combination can form a male embryo cell that can begin to divide and produce a snake. The WW chromosome is not viable.

The Yellow-bellied watersnake’s offspring didn’t survive this year, possibly due to the combination of chromosomes. However, last year’s two young ones are thriving and serving as educational reptiles for the Cape Nature Center.

The Cape Nature Center is located inside Cape Girardeau's North County Park, just east of Interstate 55 (Exit 99) and Kingshighway (State Highway 61). More information about the center can be found at mdc.mo.gov/CapeNatureCenter.

Photo by Candice Davis.

Approved changes include shortening November and antlerless portions and expanding late youth portion. Potential changes include allowing crossbows during archery seasons and reducing antlered deer limit.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Conservation Commission set season dates and limits for the 2016-2017 fall deer season and gave initial approval to several deer-hunting regulation changes proposed by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) at the Commission’s Aug. 19 meeting in Jefferson City.

Approved changes to fall deer season structure for 2016-2017 include:

Maintain current timing of the November portion and reduce the length from 11 to 9 days.

Expand the late youth portion to three days beginning the first Friday after Thanksgiving.

Reduce the length of the antlerless portion from 12 to 3 days and begin on the first Friday in December.

Eliminate the urban zones portion.

Proposed regulation changes to fall deer season structure for 2016-2017 include:

Allow crossbows as a legal method during the archery deer and turkey seasons.

Allow the use of crossbows during the fall firearms turkey season.
Reduce the limit of antlered deer from 3 to 2 during the combined archery and firearms deer hunting season, with no more than one antlered deer taken during the firearms deer hunting season.

Remove the hunting method exemption requirement related to crossbows.

Missouri’s rule-making process includes a 30-day public comment period. Comments related to the proposed regulation changes can be submitted online to the Conservation Department from Oct. 2-31 at mdc.mo.gov/node/24141. Full verbiage of the proposed amendments will be posted on the webpage after Sept. 15.

The Commission will make its final decision on these proposed changes at its December meeting. With final approval, the regulation changes would become effective in March 2016 and implemented for the 2016-2017 deer hunting seasons.

The Department is also working to simplify conservation area deer-hunting regulations by limiting methods and use of firearms and archery antlerless permits. To see the list of conservation areas with proposed changes to hunting methods and to provide comments, visit the MDC website at mdc.mo.gov/node/18891 from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30. The webpage will not be available until Sept. 1.

The Department will also continue to gather input from citizens on a variety of deer hunting-related topics, including nonresident permits and prices, through public surveys and its website in early 2016.

When formulating recommendations for these regulation changes, the Conservation Department used deer hunter surveys, landowner surveys, archery-hunter observation surveys, deer population simulations, biological data, harvest summaries, and public input gathered from 22 public open houses held around the state and about 11,800 public comments received at the public meetings and online.

“The goal of the Conservation Department’s deer management program is to use science-based wildlife management combined with public input to maintain deer population levels throughout the state that provide quality recreational opportunities while minimizing human-deer conflicts,” said MDC Deer Biologist Jason Sumners. “As deer populations in Missouri have changed over the last 75 years, so have our management strategies. In modifying the hunting season structure, our aim is to achieve a deer population that is biologically and socially acceptable while also promoting hunter participation, recruitment, and retention.”

Missouri offers some of the best deer hunting in the country, and deer hunting is an important part of many Missourians' lives and family traditions. Deer hunting is also an important economic driver in Missouri and gives a $1 billion annual boost to the state and local economies.

2016-2017 DEER HUNTING SEASON DATES

Archery Season

Sept. 15 - Nov. 11, 2016, and
Nov. 21, 2016 - Jan. 15, 2017
Firearms Season

Early Youth Portion: Oct. 29 - 30, 2016
November Portion: Nov. 12 - 20, 2016
Late Youth Portion: Nov. 25 - 27, 2016
Antlerless Portion: Dec. 2 - 4, 2016
Alternative Methods Portion: Dec. 24, 2016 - Jan. 3, 2017

REASONS FOR REGULATION CHANGES

REDUCING NOVEMBER PORTION LENGTH
Regarding maintaining the current timing of the November portion and reducing the length to nine days, MDC Deer Biologist Jason Sumners explained that over the last two decades deer hunter numbers and deer harvest opportunities have increased substantially while the deer population has stabilized or been reduced in many parts of Missouri so additional harvest opportunities are no longer necessary to meet desired deer population goals.

“The final two days of the November portion of the firearms deer season have traditionally been the two days with the lowest hunter harvest and number of hunting trips,” said Sumners. “Reducing the November portion by two days will not result in a dramatic decrease in harvest or hunting opportunities. This one regulatory component, when combined with other changes, will help to stabilize and increase deer populations in some areas.”

EXPANDING LATE YOUTH SEASON
Sumners explained that the current late December or early January timing of the late youth portion has resulted in low participation and low success. Expanding the length to three days and adjusting the timing to the weekend after Thanksgiving should increase participation and success as a result of better deer activity and weather conditions in late November compared to the current timing.

“Hunter recruitment and retention is an important component in maintaining Missouri’s hunting heritage and our ability to manage deer populations in the future,” Sumners said.

REDUCING LENGTH OF ANTLERLESS PORTION
Regarding reducing the length of the antlerless portion to three days and beginning on the first Friday in December, Sumners explained that the deer population in most of Missouri is currently at or below population goals so the additional antlerless-harvest opportunities are no longer necessary to meet desired deer population goals.

“Shortening the antlerless portion is a compromise to maintain some additional hunting opportunities and allow for additional antlerless harvest where necessary,” Sumners said. “The increase in the number of deer hunting days over the last two decades as a result of the creation of early and late youth portions, and the expansion of November, antlerless, and alternative methods portions has created conflicts between deer hunters and other outdoor users such as small game hunters. Therefore, the reduction is a compromise that is acceptable to most firearms deer hunters and will reduce conflicts that occur between deer hunters and other outdoor users due to the length of the current deer hunting seasons.”

ELIMINATING URBAN ZONES
Sumners explained that eliminating the urban zones portion will simplify the deer season structure and will not jeopardize progress towards effective urban deer management that has occurred in many communities across the state.

“The urban zones portion was implemented as one tool to address issues associated with overabundant urban deer populations,” Sumners said. “However, additional firearms hunting opportunities in urban zones do little to manage deer populations where the ability to use firearms is limited. The majority of harvest during the urban zones portion occurs in the most rural areas and does not ensure adequate deer harvest in the locations where urban deer conflicts occur.”

ALLOWING CROSSBOWS DURING ARCHERY SEASON
Sumners explained that allowing crossbows as a legal method during the archery deer and turkey season will provide additional opportunities for young hunters and prolong participation for older hunters while not significantly increasing the harvest.

“Physical limitations of young hunters delay their entry into archery hunting and physical limitations of older archery hunters result in their declining participation,” Sumners said. “Our challenge is to balance contrasting hunter opinions with the desire to provide maximum hunting opportunities while also responsibly managing Missouri’s deer population. We have received an increasing number of requests to expand the archery season to include crossbows. We expect that the inclusion of crossbows will increase the harvest during the archery season, but do not expect it to result in a significant increase in total deer harvest.”

ALLOWING CROSSBOWS DURING FALL TURKEY FIREARMS
Sumners explained that allowing the use of crossbows during the fall firearms turkey season would be consistent with method allowances for other firearms hunting seasons and spring turkey season.

“The Department has tended to allow all lesser hunting methods during firearms hunting seasons so it is natural to allow crossbows during the fall firearms turkey season,” Sumners said.

REDUCING ANTLERED DEER LIMIT
Sumners explained that reducing the antlered deer limit stems from an increasing desire of hunters to see more bucks in older age classes.

“We considered a number of regulation changes, including pushing back the opening of the November portion of the firearms season and limiting hunters to one buck during the combined archery and firearms hunting season,” Sumners said. “However, results from our archery and firearms hunter surveys showed little support for those changes. Therefore, reducing the limit for antlered deer from three to two during the combined archery and firearms deer hunting season, with no more than one antlered deer taken during the firearms deer hunting season, is supported by many hunters, and a step in the right direction.”

REMOVING HUNTING METHOD EXEMPTION RELATED TO CROSSBOWS
Sumners explained that allowing crossbows during archery seasons will make the crossbow medical exemption no longer necessary.

SIMPLIFYING AREA REGULATIONS
Sumners explained that simplifying various conservation area regulations by limiting methods and use of firearms and archery antlerless permits would both increase hunter satisfaction and give area managers the ability to adjust regulations to adapt to current deer population conditions.

“We continue to strive to manage deer numbers at desirable levels while providing diverse deer hunting opportunities for the public,” Sumners said. “The current set of deer hunting options on conservation areas can be confusing and do not allow managers to adapt regulations to changing deer populations. As a result, deer hunters on public land generally have lower success rates, perceive lower deer numbers, and tend to rate their hunting experiences lower than hunters on private land.”