In last week’s column I mentioned the fact that in mid-October chronic wasting disease was discovered by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in captive deer in that state.

As a result of that discovery, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation issued an emergency rulemaking that revises the state’s CWD regulations to immediately prohibit the importation of certain parts of whitetail deer or American elk taken in the Keystone State. Any hunter who takes a deer or elk in Pennsylvania must now butcher the animal and remove the prohibited parts before entering NYS.”Prohibited parts” include the brain, eyes, spinal cord, tonsils, intestinal tract, speen and certain lymph nodes. However, most successful hunters already opt to butcher a deer and put it in a cooler before traveling back to NYS, or have the deer butchered for them. Any qualified meat cutter or wild game butcher will know exactly how to do it.

FOUND IN 2005

CWD was first confirmed in New York state in 2005, in the central part of the state, and no additional cases have been discovered since then. It’s not known exactly how CWD is transmitted, but the infectious agent, a prion, may be passed from animal to animal through a variety of means. The minimal incubation period between infection and development of the disease appears to be about 16 months.

If you’d care to learn a bit more about chronic wasting disease you can go to DEC’s website at www.dec.ny.gov/-animals. Just enter “CWD” in the subject box and you should go right to it.

BOBCAT PLAN

Here’s another DEC item you may find interesting, especially if you’re a trapper. After considering over 1,000 public comments the department has adopted a five-year bobcat management plan to maintain and enhance bobcat populations in the state. The final plan, which has been significantly revised from the original draft plan, is now available on the DEC website at www.dec.ny.gov/animals. Again, just enter “bobcats” in the subject box and you’ll be taken right to the appropriate page.

In announcing the revised plan, the agency noted that bobcat populations have increased throughout upstate New York over the past several decades. Estimates of their current population are about 5,000 animals and still growing, even in areas where regulated hunting and trapping have been in place since the 1970s.

In accordance with the management plan, the DEC will propose regulations simplifying hunting and trapping season dates that are consistent throughout much of the state, but hunting and trapping season changes will not take effect prior to the fall of 2013. The plan also establishes new hunting and trapping opportunities in several wildlife management units across the southern tier.

REVISIONS

The revised plan includes adding a clearer explanation of how DEC estimates population size, predicted harvest increases and impacts of additional harvest on populations’ growth; clarifies that there is no intent to reduce bobcat populations anywhere in the state; reduces the emphasis on negative human-bobcat interactions because they are not a major concern or motivation for activities proposed in the plan; and recognizes public interest in restoring bobcats to Long Island.

I saw my first bobcat many moons ago while on a deer hunt in Schoharie County and I haven’t seen many since. I’ve seen plenty of tracks, but no bobcats. I also saw a lynx one time, in northern Hamilton County. It had a short, “soda straw” type antenna on it so obviously it was one of the reintroduced ones.

That was back in the old days when 35 mm slide film was popular. I did get a number of photos of that lynx but I haven’t the slightest idea where they are. I’ll find them eventually. I know I sent a few of the slides off to DEC’s PR department, but those slides disappeared as soon as they arrived at the agency and no one has seen them since.

Incidentally, the take during the first annual Youth Deer Hunt has now been placed at almost 700. Not bad at all, and I congratulate all the youngsters who participated in this great opportunity.